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Page 2/H'he Battalion/Tuesday, June 5, 1984
Registration
needs help
Registration at Texas A&M has been
a trying, tedious experience in the past.
Lines are long and graduating seniors
worry that they won’t get classes they
must have in order to graduate.
Some seniors who were in the T to Z
line for summer school Monday ex
pressed concern about classes they
needed for graduation in August or De
cember.
Administrators took a step toward
eliminating the lines and helping se
niors get classes during pre-registration
for Fall 1984. Students registered in or
der of classification, further broken
down alphabetically.
That system seemed to work well, al
though results won’t be in until students
receive fall schedules. But the new sys
tem did alleviate the long lines and may
have aided seniors in their class sce-
dules.
An attempt was made to cut down on
the lines at summer registration this
year. Registration was divided into six
time slots and more time was alloted for
picking up card packets.
Lines were long but not unduly so. A
little patience was required but it wasn’t
too unbearable. The biggest problems
appeared to crop up if a student was
blocked. And if yop are a senior with a
name beginning with T through Z, you
may not have gotten some classes you
needed.
That’s why the University should con
sider using the classification system for
summer registration: graduate students
in the first time slot, then seniors, ju
niors, sophomores and freshmen. If
more divisions are needed, sophomores
and freshmen could be divided alpha
betically.
It’s something to consider as seniors
panic for lack of needed classes.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
Minority assistance program
discriminatory to top students
Editor:
I recently read in The Bryan-College Station
Eagle that Texas A&M plans on providing five
minority students with $2,000 stipends, free
dormitory accommodations and a one-on-one
working relationship with a faculty member in
the College of Geosciences for 10 weeks this
summer.
Sounds like one hell of a good deal to me. But
why is this sort of opportunity restricted to mi
nority students? I know of no one in my depart
ment (geophysics) who has ever received such
an opportunity. Why not reward those students
who show great promise as future geoscientists
this opportunity, regardless of race?
Learning about this program also disturbs me
because my department has no money to sup
port the students it already has over the summer
months. This money could be used to help those
of us involved in research and course work to
survive during this period.
Why should this program be offered to five
people based strictly on their race? The students
in my department, as well as others, have
worked long and hard — and sacrificed a great
deal — to be excluded from such a program. I
realize that Texas A&M is trying to right past
wrongs, but why should this be done at the ex
pense of those who aren’t members of a mi
nority? I feel like we have been abandoned and
gnored by the powerful here at Texas A&M.
I’m all for eliminating all forms of discrimina
tion, but this policy of offering special programs
for members of minority groups is in blatant
disregard for the rights and needs of the rest of
us.
Douglas V. Roberts
Graduate student
Geophysics
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Rel>eca Zirnmermann. Editor
Bill Robinson. Editorial Page/Assistam City Editor
Shelley Hockstra, City Editor
Kathleen Hart. News Editor
Dave Scott, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant News Editor : Dena Brown
Staff Writers , Robin Black,
* Kari Fluegel. Sarah Oates,
Travis Tingle
Copy Editor Tracie Holub
Photographers Peter Rocha,
Dean Saito
« ” ■* > • i ♦
Editorial Policy Letters Policy
The B.HLihnn is i mm-untlit. Letters to the Editor shnuki not exceed
porting nes>spupern/tenitetlas a community : u)0 words in length. The etlitori.il stuff re-
*er\ice to Texas AXrM und 11 ry:ut-College serves the right to edit letters for stvle und-
Slut ion. length hut »«ill ntitke every elTort to maintain
^ the uutlror's intent. Each letter must be
Opinions exprvssvtl in The ll.ilt.dion are signevl and must include the address and
those nt the Edtton.d lltt.ml or the author. telephone nutnlter of the writer,
and do not neicss.uii\ lepreseni the opin- The Battalion is publishetl Monday
ions ol Texas AX-M aihninistiattns. Inculii through Friday tluring Texas AA-M regular
or the Bttard ol Regents. semesters, except for ludidav and exatnitiu-
The Battalion also senes as a lalMnalorv tion periotls. anti Tuestlav through Thurs-
nessspafter for students in repotting, ethting dav during summer sessions. Mail subxcrif*-
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ing rates furnishetl on request.
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protlm non of all other maun herein re- Strxoml class ftostage paid at Cadtege Sta-
serxetL don. TX 77R-1X
TRIBUNE
Qnd the
temple OF OEMS
Prof defends
calculator us
u
Lin
M1LT«
lid Mor
ized ancr:
It
By PATRICIA McCORMACK
Columnist tor United Press International
Here’s whdt the
critics sm about
THE NATURAL
tears tha_
trapped
j at the bot.
_u.s.
Agree or disagree with the following? Isearched
“A child should not be forced to do by handf for possi
thing that can be done better and more easily® 001 - ?
a pocket calculator.” •'•••aUShi ^ •
If you agree, you're in step with Edwin E.lit® £jgj u
retired Harvard University professor of icj Americar
ematics and a contributor to the 1984 Yearl
the National Council of Teachers of Mathemai
Moise, who made the statement in a repon
the Yearbook, defends use of calculators by san
“It seems likely that children need to kno\t
pinch how to do the algorithms by handjustn
owner of a Rolls Royce needs to know howto
but this is a practical question, not a questiotl
principle.
“It may be objected that the use of a pocket
culator teaches the child nothing about thecoit:
of number, or about the meanings of theofe
tions performed on numbers, or about thereat
mencair
ennudex
isa Cza x
why the little machines give the right answe , ew flare
■•a
★Mip O'Neill
★★a* 1 ’ - Defense Contractors
A SHOO-IN FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
f ,N a- Salvador.- Resident Duarte
unbeatable: Georpe Callup, Lou Harris
A HIT!// DEEP INTO RIGHT FIELD P'
* Vm Sculfy, Joe Gara^roia
Urmi
ABU r
ales— I
ranian b
asl of B;
tors bega j
But, he concludes, “the algorithms (the arithi
cal calculations) are also worthless in all three
spects.”
Calculators aside, Moise is pessimistic al
mathematics education.
“In the next decade, excellence will notpn
in the teaching of school mathematics,” he
the Yearbook.
“For years to come, it may be impossible tom
duce new mathematical material in demen'
schools, since the teachers are barely trained
deal with what they are teaching now. For this
son, we had better go slowly, because when
try to teach mathematics they do not undersl
the consequences are terrible
The trouble with underqualified teachers,as
sees it:
—They cannot tell the difference betwet:
right and a wrong idea.
—They can tell only the difference between
familiar and the unfamiliar.
“When unfamiliar insights are ignored ...or,
tually rejected as wrong, the effect is to discoun 111
students or corrupt their mentality, or bod
Moise said.
The at
:ial Iraqi
lear an z
assing t
new Ira
gainst I r.
The re]
Hilary c<
nk an
Sn<
Jackson gearing for battle
Delegate rules face challenge
u
It’s snz
me to
exas A&
lialist Dr.
“Chanc
joisonoi
when it I
Texas A&
life and
at’s no e
The fat,
xtremely
:entof the
rom 2,01
orted nat
“If you
ralk away
nakes are
nan/snake
yman. Ii
on can ou
By DICK WEST
Columnist for United Press International
WASHINGTON — If, as some analysts are say
ing, we have presidential candidates this year who
do not exactly take a macho stand on all the issues,
I remind you that the race is capable of generating
a wimp backlash.
Historians tell us something of the sort hap
pened during the 1964 campaign. When opposi
tion forces tried to make fun of the size of Lyndon
Johnson’s home town (Johnson City, Tex., pop.
767), a small town backlash developed.
likely will find a middle name that someone would
just as soon not publically flaunt. Middle names, in
fact, provide about the only option a birth certifi
cate leaves us. We can always camouflage embar
rassing monikers by using only the first letters in
our signatures, and it all looks perfectly natural.
By the same token, many of us voters either live
in, or come from, small towns. So it is risky to sin
gle out for ridicule the home town segment of a
candidate’s biography.
Then, four years later, rival politicians became
fond of pointing out that the center H in Hubert
H. Humphrey’s name stood for Horatio. HHH lost
anyhow, but it was established that many of the
votes he did get were the result of a middle name
backlash.
Scratch deeply enough under any initial and you
Because the sympathy vote can be so strong,
presidential candidates at this stage of the cam
paign might do well to curb any impulse to scoff at
a shortage of virile warnings in the other camps.
As one pundit in an analysis of the Persian Gulf
crisis recently wrote, “Macho talk is cheap until
American lives ... are at stake.”
In a close race, a wimp backlash could be deci
sive. So why run the risk of alienating a large, and
potentially active, bloc of voters just because s«!
candidate doesn’t come on like a caveman w
spect to the Middle East or Central America?
That the wimp vote is worth going after mai
seen in the large number of males who eat quid
If Ronald Reagan, or whoever is the Democn
nominee, could get solid backing from
quiche-eaters, that probably would be voi
enough for victory in November.
At the moment, however, the wimp vote appi
ently is somewhat divided. One reason perhaps:
tendency to slice quiche into several pieces.
Whatever the wimp factor is, it is dangerous
try to exploit it politically. What a candidate mas
stirring up instead is an identifying element d
will turn the wimp vote against him.
Inside all of us, there is a little wimp struggl
to get out. The task of politicians is to discovert!
triggering mechanism — the wimp threshold,as
were.
<
•C
Presidential candidates
fighting the wimp factor
Slouch by Jim Earle
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
Columnist for United Press International
WASHINGTON — When Gov. James Hunt of
North Carolina finished work on the Democratic
National Convention delegate rules last year, party
officials proudly declared that the selection process
had been perfected at last.
As 1984 delegate selection ends today, it looks
like the declarations were premature and that the
Democrats, like political Ancient Mariners, are
doomed to sail forever on a sea of ever-changing
rules.
The obvious first order of business for the next
Democratic rules revision commission will be the
so-called “thresholds” that determine the level of
support a candidate for the presidential nomi
nation must have to win delegates in primaries and
at caucuses.
This issue involves basic questions of fairness
and political pragmatism, and the party simply has
been unable since the early 1970s to reconcile the
two.
The Democrats decided long ago to outlaw what
were called “winner take all” contests — the candi
date that gets the most votes gets all the delegates
— in the nomination process. (They succeeded in
banning this practice in statewide contests, but it
still exists on a congressional district level, as in to
day’s California primary.)
Carrying the idea of “proportional representa
tion” further, the Democrats tried to write rules
that gave candidates the same percentage of dele
gates as they got votes in the primaries or caucuses.
But it became clear that a pure form of propor
tional representation was impractical.
First, a large field of candidates competing for a
small number of delegates might produce a result
that required chopping delegates, or at least their
votes, into fractions. The Democrats don’t like
doing that.
Second, the rules writers thought there should
be some minimum support a candidate needed to
show so that major contenders could be separated
from what are politely called “fringe” or “splinter”
candidates.
So a series of percentages were worked out to act
as thresholds. Those whose vote fell below the cut
off got no delegates in that contest. Over the years,
the cutoffs have ranged from 10 percent to 20 per
cent, which was the threshold this year.
Jesse Jackson started complaining about the 20
percent early and has kept up his running objec
tion to it. At first, little attention was paid to his
complaints, but now he has won enough delegates
and enough political respect to make an issue of
the threshold question at the San Francisco con
vention next month.
It is a good bet that the convention will take
some action to instruct those who write the 1988
rules to lower the threshold for the next election.
Even Democrats who back the 20 percent cutoff
hope that giving Jackson a victory on this issue will
help keep him in the party and behind the presi
dential candidate.
It also is a good bet that nothing will be done
about the 1984 threshold to give Jackson more del
egates in the states where he got less than 20 per
cent of the vote.
“Regardless of what your
schedule says, this can’t be your
classroom. But on the other
hand, you could...”