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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1983)
Monday, December 12, 1983/The Battalion/Page 5 Is icing." the first 'ctedbji tent, but ; to bei iged by and Midj nhents,, f. distribi analyzed K studenis. whaitheii cm watii dablvat; this coidi t survey« at surveys entswevei ' betierii® ns.” oject. A&M’s Debate Classic attracts ‘better teams’ by Stephanie Marshall Battalion Reporter Last weekend’s Texas A&M Debate Classic attracted better debate teams than ever before — including an improved A&M squad, said Debate Soci ety President Brent Bross- mann. Brossman, ajunior English major from Bryan, said the tournament not only im proved its quality but also in creased the number of partici pants to 20 teams in the junior division and to 16 teams in the senior division. This year Baylor Universi ty took home first place in both the senior and junior di visions. “Baylor is one of our big gest competitors,” Jeff Rouse, a debate society member said. “They are one of the best in the country and the best in the coslaboi Southwest Conference ... but lent G«tti we’re coming up fast. “And we’ve done pretty well and hope to be in Nation als, Rouse said. “This year’s National Debate Tournament will be held at the University of Texas at Arlington.” Rouse said that Texas A&M’s Charles R. Rogun team (the traveling debate team), this year has traveled to Murfreesboro, Tenn., Wichi ta, Kan., North Texas State University, Houston, and San Jacinto Junior College. T here about 66 teams that go to the Nationals and they are chosen by bids, Bross- mann said. “First there is a first round bid in which the top sixteen teams in the U.S. are chosen,” Brossmann said. “Each team submits their record for the year and the teams are chosen by a panel of judges.” Brossmann said that the next 40 teams "haser f rom district qualifying meets. He said the highest scoring teams are the ones to go to Nationals. After the district tourna ments, if a team still wishes to compete in the Nationals, they then submit another yearly re cord to panel of judges. From these applicants the judges chose the next top ten teams according to their record. “The Rogun Squad is made of two teams this year,” Bross mann said. “Julia Sullivan and Jack Williams make up one team and Jeff Rouse and I make up the other team.” Brossmann said that he ex pected that he and Rouse will make the Nationals this year. Texas A&M sent a debate team to the Nationals in 1981 and 1982. The Rogun Squad plans to be attending tournaments in the spring at the University of Southern California, Univer sity of California nt 1 FV , !''*-*on. Baylor University, Northwest ern University, and the “Heart of America Tourna ment” at the University of Kansas. The Debate Society can train those interested in de bating, Brossmann said. “There were about 100 people who signed up for the society at the beginning of the semester, but now we have ab- out 10 active members,” Brossmann said. The Debate Society also sponsors the Debate Forum that has addressed such issues as the Lebanon and El Salva dor controversies. “There are usually about 200 people there and we can always use help in the society to work the forums,” Bross mann said. Any interested debater may contact Brossmann at 846- 9066. Department store plans to open travel agencies United Press International LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Dil lard Department Stores has bought 50 percent of the Little Rock-based Executive Travel and plans to put travel agency offices in most of its stores in the South and Southwest. The stores will conduct busi ness under the name Dillard’s Travel but will still be operated by Executive Travel, which has hired 40 new people in anticipa tion of increased business. Sev eral hundred more may be added. The in-store offices will have a manager and one to four other employees, said Bob Piggott, who will be in charge of the Dil lard’s operation for Executive Travel. Customers may charge the travel ex penses on their Dil lard’s card as well as bank and travel credit cards. The store offices will be link ed by computer to Executive Travel’s office in the First Com mercial Bank building so agents may check schedules, make re servations and process tickets quickly. Customers may charge the travel expenses on their Dil lard’s card as well as bank and travel credit cards. Dillard’s has 66 stores in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, New Mexico, Kansas and Missouri. The first five travel agencies will open this spring in North Little Rock, Ark.; Shreveport, La.; Oklahoma City, Fort Worth and San Antonio. U.S. sixth finish last I United Press International ■DALLAS — A test given to a i'ed in tki sampling of students in eight in dustrial nations ranked U.S. lone fin sixth-graders lowest in math rackenriitl sills and showed mediocre n leg sus^fcsp of science and geography, sidingfraiacoziding to a copyright report him. Siinday in the Dallas Times- [hterstrea Herald. )n. K Results of the tests, devised aid arranged during a six- Isegotomt month effort by the Times- icrson wtii Herald, provided the first inter- tspital, ' naiional comparisons in a de- lade, and prompted a former U.S. education commissioner to Hclare, “We have failed here.” I The one-hour test was de veloped by the Times-Herald in materialt C01isu hation with leading educa I ■bhc i •-« s-1 a w I < »-w«- - I XT 1 ** 1 nt organina toi's— including a Nobel laure ate — and administered to 600 students in the United States, ;nt goveml public 1 ’ ‘^stralia, Canada, England, -nment, $ jf ^e, Japan, Switzerland and tudenti . i e . den -. is a service® ^ mencan stu dents were rep- Jordansai a sampling from several wK slon Hoi ow Elementary, an roblem TO ft 1C s ^ h ° o1 affluent North ^Uas that ranks in the top 35 |rcent nationally on the wide- -°CT- Can Hi-year-olds taking * the test answered correctly only I ; 25.| percent of the questions on non wii graders on test the math test, only half as well as Japanese students, who ranked at the top in math with 50.2 per cent, the Times-Herald re ported. “This is embarrassing,” said New York University professor Stephen Willoughby, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. “It seems that we should do a great deal better than that.” In science, U.S. students scored 43.7 percent to rank third from the bottom, with Sweden topping the rankings at 55.4 percent. “We have failed here,” said for mer U.S. Education Commis sioner Ernest Boyer, currently president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advance ment of Teaching. “One can only be disappointed.” Informed of the test results of the first such test administered in a decade, U.S. Education Sec retary T.H. Bell said, “Oh, my word.” Bell, who recently called American standards “unilateral educational disarmament,” said “tells us we are not requiring our students to study enough math and science.” PROBLEM PREGNANCY Are you considering Abortion? Confidential Free Pregnancy Testing & Referrals Cali (713) 524-0548 Houston, Texas [T^gieBOOKS^l Sell Books & Get Bonus Money!! ONLY AT THE Texas Aggie Bookstore Northqate 846-4518 Padre Cafe NATIONALLY ACCLAIMED SINCE 1959 so be sent I-: ling on a(tl ^ or the Summer of Your Life Join Our Top Quality it Texas ^ escorted co-ed FUN GROUPS FROM $1295 PLUS AIR MAIL FOR FREE 1W n«-r -■ BROCHURET i uched off | ft. re which$5name. 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