Opinion
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, February 7, 1984
Ticket prices: just
like everyone else
The distinguishing feature of Texas
A&M is not an obsession with tradition,
a history as a military school or a devo
tion to academic excellence. The thing
that sets Aggies apart is pride. Stub
born, chin up, nose in the air, chip on
the shoulder, “our school is better than
anybody’s” — that kind of pride.
Aggies seem to have a compulsive
drive to be the best — or at least to be
better than the University of Texas.
That drive takes two forms.
The first is the resistance to change.
If we continually insist that we already
are the best, that the way we’ve always
done things is the only way it can be
done and that no one else can possibly
understand our fine traditions, then
we can convince ourselves that nothing
needs improvement.
But conflicting with this idea is the
second form. If we are going to be the
best, then we need to look at the uni
versities that are on top right now and
pattern ourselves after them.
This approach is a bit more sensible
than the first. It involves admitting our
shortcomings and improving on them
by looking for successful models.
The problem with this comes when
enthusiastic administrators take the
idea of patterning ourselves after oth
ers to extremes.
Texas A&M is unique in many ways,
but the things that set it apart from
other universities can’t be classified as
all good or all bad. There has to be
some way to separate the two, improve
on the bad, and leave the good the
same.
The recent increase in football ticket
prices is a perfect example.
Prices for sideline bench seats at
home games in 1984 will increase from
$12 to $15. Student tickets will go from
$6 to $7.50.
Now $7.50 is not a steep price to pay
for seeing a football game. And it
would be easy for the Athletic Depart
ment to justify the jump in prices if it
was needed to keep up with rising
costs.
But the reason Athletic Director
Jackie Sherrill gave for the price in
creases was “in order to be competitive
with what other schools in the South
west Conference and around the coun
try are doing or have already done.”
Are we competing on the football
field, or at the cash registers?
The Battalion Editorial Board
Students of Biology
defend evolution
We graduate students of the Biology
department feel an ethical responsibility
to respond to the recent letters on cre
ationism.
Creationist dogma is an attempt to
reconcile fundamentalist Christian be
liefs founded on a literal interpretation
of the Bible with the ever-encroaching
principles of natural science.
Creationists do not research their the
ories scientifically. Instead, they rum
mage through the arguments of legiti
mate biologists, geologists and
anthropologists for scraps of unresolved
questions that can be distorted to resem
ble evidence for special creation.
One example is the claim that the
sudden appearance of invertabrate fos
sils at the base of the Cambrian some
how confounds evolutionists and sup
ports creationism. On the contrary,
were special creation over a period of
six days actually true, we would expect
to find birds, reptiles, and mammals in
the same stratum, which of course we do
the better paleontologically docu
mented lines. Furthermore, the ana
tomical and physlogical similarity be
tween chimpanzee and man is so
striking that some scientists have sug
gested that both species could logically
be placed in the same genus. As Stephen
Jay Gould says, if evolution is false, why
do we use chimpanzees for drug stud
ies?
reader’s
forum
not.
There is, of course, a great deal of ev
idence from the geologic record to sup
port the the contention that life did so
evolve. There is no consistent evidence
to contradict this theory. Many people
apparently do not realize that Darwin’s
theory of evolution has survived 100
years of rapid scientific progress,includ
ing the advent of genetics and molecu
lar biology.
What really bothers creationists, and
what provides impetus for their
movement, is the concept that man and
ape are closely related and share a com
mon ancestor.Unfortunately for cre
ationists, the evolution of man is one of
Scientists, of which Darwin was one,
attempt to explain phenomena in natu
ralistic terms and conceed the explana
tions only as much validity as the avail
able evidence warrants. Creationism
constitutes religion, and, inasmuch as
scientific findings should be taught in
science classrooms, creation has no
place.
The recent action of the Texas Board
of Education to leave textbook pub
lishers vulnerable to fundamentalist
pressure is a serious academic lapse. To
omit Darwin and the theory of evolution
is to reinforce an already formidable ig
norance in our public school children.
As some of the recent letters show, this
ignorance is spreading to our under
graduate ranks. The strong science and
technological tradition of Texas A &M
is one we need to preserve.
Mark Hulsey
Mitch Magee
Stewart Culbrows
John Scott
Graduate Students of Biology
Slouch
by Jim Earle
“Do you know what might be causing a loud grinding noise
downstairs under your room?”
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Koldus s
Business battles media
By ART BUCHWALD
Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Sydicate
More and more companies are now
holding seminars on how executives
should deal with the media. In the past,
businesses (big business in particular)
handed out press releases through their
public affairs vice presidents and that
was that. But as the press keeps bad
gering our nation’s businessmen, they
are finding themselves in front of cam
eras, blinking into bright lights and run
ning the risk of losing control of their
story.
There are hundreds of experts mak
ing large fortunes showing corporation
big shots how to deal with the media.
“All right, gentlemen. I’m going to
give you your first hypothetical case for
this war game. Word gets out your com
pany has produced a headache powder
that causes convulsions, and also fillings
to fall out. Mr. Chairman, what is the
first thing yo ( u do?” , .,
“I telephone my insurahce company
and find out if the product is adequately
covered by my liability policy. If it is,
then I call a press conference and an
nounce we will continue manufacturing
the powder.”
“Fair enough. Now I’ll make it harder
on you. Mike Wallace shows up with a
crew from ‘60 Minutes’ to find out what
is going on. Do you let him in or not?”
“I let him in, but I don’t talk to him. I
turn him over to my research director,
Dr. Rich.”
“Right. OK, Dr. Rich. You are now on
camera. Mike Wallace is holding a dead
white hamster in his hand and says,
‘Would it surprise you, Doctor, that this
rat used your headache powder?’ What’s
your answer?”
“I tell Mike we have no evidence to
substantiate that the product, when used
with caution, would damage anyone’s
health.”
“Weak, Doctor, very weak. Mike Wal
lace pulls a report out of his briefcase
which he reads from: ‘This FDA study,
which I know you received eight years
ago, indicates that almost everyone ex
posed to your powder was subject to cat
atonic convulsions. Why didn’t you
make this report available to your supe-
riprs?’ How do you deal with Mike on
that one, Doc?”
“I reply that I did turn the report over
to management.”
“No you don’t, Dr. Rich.”
“What do I do?”
“You get the hell off camera. Once
Wallace confronts you with the FDA re
port, you can’t fake it anymore, and you
refer him to the company la«WThe R'
Where are the lawyers? All righl, Brett, en
lace is knocking down the (loot Baltimore
smells blood. Who’s the headletalfflf n S e '' sn
g le? ” fllhl nea
“I am, sir. Timothy WadlippIV | j i j eU rt
“Okay, Wadlipp, Wallace sho»: desnibing
:ater W
the report and wants to knowwh) down fror
company is still making the stuff gold trim
do you respond?” l ' 1( won
“I say we will have no comment ^ !
we have a chance to study thedatf R
“Not good enough. Wallace re j
you’ve had the report for eight newspape
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Letters:
You have to give him someredmeat
“I appear shocked, andsaywe'n
ing Dr. Rich for keeping the report:
management, and we’ll cooperate'R
the Justice Department if crimi
established.”
“Hey, wail a minute. rmnot u
take the rap because management Method!
me stuff the FDA reports: 'U
” B 16 Car
(ii aw ei. ,,
Dr. Rich, we re just playing a n|Pf Anc i w
game. This is a hypothetical case people si
has nothing to do with ourcomparjtiuaiterba
“Oh yeah? If it’s so hypothetidft^^T
am I going to prison?" .tk script
“Because people always feel so at a speci
better toward a company whensotjeilic auf
on ‘60 Minutes’ goes to jail.” ■ own , a
law,’said
He mai
books by
Lef s have more jazz
Editor:
Hurray! I would like to gratefully thank
those responsible for bringing the Pat
Metheney Group to Texas A&M. After
suffering for what seems an eternity
and passing up musical (?) events such
as Cheap Trick and Anne Murray, I was
about to give up hope of ever seeing a
group like Pat Metheny’s at Texas
A&M.
points off the four-foot long series of
graphs in order to make the necessary
calculations for the lab report. Due to a
lack of funds in the department he
could not make copies of the graphs for
the students to take home and study.
dents expect them to allocate moiif
benefit us when they have to pay
coach’s salary, buy new cars for tM
ball players, and build a mansionfoi
Chancellor of the University System
If the officials that sit on the Board of
Regents are really interested in the stu
dents, they would at the very least allo
cate enough money for a department to
make xerox copies of necessary course
materials.
It’s a little too obvious that tht
color the Board of Regents sees is gK
If it doesn’t turn a buck orfillther
ready bulging pockets with more'
lions, the members of the r
Someone obviously realized that
there is a significant number of people
that would enjoy this progressive music.
I don’t deny that there is also a sizable
audience for Cheap Trick and Anne
Murray, but come on, let’s have some
variety. Perhaps a good showing at this
week’s concert will open more eyes and
possibly put names such as Jean-Luc
Ponty, A1 DiMeola, Stanley Clarke,
Todd Rundgren, Heart, Renaissance,
and Santana on the list of possible fu
ture preformers. All of these groups
would sell their fair share of tickets and
none demand the money that Cheap
Trick asks. Only two would need the
space of G. Rollie White Coliseum.
No, I guess that is asking too much of
the Board. After all, how can we stu-
Wind Bags do not want to have-
thing to do with it.
I’m sure I speak for a good percent
age of people here (many of whom lis
ten to the jazz show on Sunday nights)
when I say let’s get more progressive
and jazz-oriented groups and musicians
to perform here.
Tony Cerami
Regents' major
priority money
Editor:
Something happened to me last Thurs
day which I found almost unbelievable.
After one of my chemical engi
neering labs had finished using an In
stron testing machine used to test the
tensile strengths of certain materials,
our teaching assistant informed the class
that we would all have to stay and copy
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
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Editor Rebeca Zimmermann
Managing Editor John Wagner
City Editor Patrice Koranek
Assistant City Editors Kathleen Hart,
Stephanie Ross
News Editor Tracey Taylor
Assistant News Editor Susan Talbot
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory ne»&
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Editorial Page Editor Kathy
Wiesepape
Sports Editor Donn Friedman
Assistant Sports Editor Bill Robinson
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Stokes
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Karen Wallace
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Cartoonists Paul Dirmeyer,
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