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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 1984)
Opinion Page 2/The BattalionTuesday, July 31, 1984 Spirit of the Games The spirit of the Olympic Games is alive and well in Los Angeles. From opening ceremonies to the awarding of medals, all the the glitter and glory and sweat that make up the Olympics began Saturday, and the dire predic tions of how meaningless the competi tion would be without the Soviets ring empty. Scenes already are etched in mem ories from the opening ceremonies and the first events. Rafer Johnson, 1960 gold medal winner in the decath lon, running up the stairway to light the torch. The standing ovation for the Romanian team, which refused to join in the Soviet boycott. Two Ameri can women tying for a gold medal — in a swimming event of all things. And it’s gratifying to see the success of the American athletes who stuck it out four more years, after missing the 1980 Olympics because of President Jimmy Carter’s boycott. In the coming days, we will have Olympics coming out of our ears. ABC’s Jim McKay and the other cheerleader-broadcasters will pall. But somehow the events are never boring. The athletes’ heroics fill us with pride and, sometimes, reduce us to tears. They also provide hope. No matter how mushy it seems, the sporting event that happens once every four years always manages to inspire hope in those who watch. And that’s the beauty of the Olym pics. — The Battalion Editorial Board ■WHICH BOOK IS MORE OBSCENE p Check policy hurts Life is about to get a little more dif ficult for Texas A&M students, faculty and staff — no more check cashing in the Coke Building after Aug. 17. That includes university payroll checks. The new policy will cause problems for students who don’t use local banks and many others will have to pay serv ice charges for using Pulse or MPACT cards. By instituting this policy, the fiscal department is imposing an undue hardship on the people it is supposed to serve. — The Battalion Editorial Board New check policy a disservice to students, faculty With the excep tion of paying my fees, I used to en joy my trans actions with the Texas A&M fiscal office. Whenever I went into the Coke Building it was usually to get money. Whether I wrote a personal check or cashed my payroll check, money. No more. Kari Fluegel came out with Effective Aug. 20, students, faculty and staff will no longer be able to cash payroll checks or personal checks in the Coke building. Effective Aug. 20, the only way a person can get money on campus is to either cash a check at the Memorial Student Center or use the MPACT and Pulse machines outside the MSC. Last time I cashed a payroll check, I was handed a notice stating that the purpose for switching procedures is to cut down on lines in the Coke build ing. I’m all for cutting lines, but I don’t believe the fiscal office has really in vestigated the problems which will arise from the policy change. Last fall, I had three places to cash a check — the MSC, the fiscal office an nex in Rudder Tower (which has since been closed) and the Coke Building. On Friday afternoons with all three lo cations open, when most students get their cash for the weekend, I had to wait at least a half an hour at any loca tion. Now all those students will be packed into the MSC creating even longer lines. Also, the maximum amount a stu dent can cash a check for is $25. Now adays, $25 isn’t enough to get you through a weekend. I’m not a spendthrift. But on any weekend, I can spend a lot more than $25. Any guy with a half-way decent love-life can usually expect to spend twice that amount on a weekend. Yes, I could run to the Pulse ma chine and get a few dollars, but a funny thing happened on the way to the bank. Pulse and MPACT machines only give you money, when you have money in the bank. I have this nifty, little trick that many other students also use. When emergencies come up, I write a check to get the money and then call my par ents and have them put money in my account at home to cover the check. If I don’t have enough money in the bank to cover the amount I need, the only thing the machine will give me is a piece of paper that says insufficient funds. One more interesting little twist about automated tellers. You can only use them if your bank is on the system. There are many small town banks that don’t have Pulse or MPACT comput ers. Students who bank at such banks are really restricted with the $25 limit at the MSC. Also, everytime I use my Pulse card, my bank charges me 50 cents. If I have to use my Pulse card at least once a week because the fiscal office won’t give me more than $25 the new policy will end up costing me $15 a school year. I’m not going to say that the fiscal office should have consulted the stu dents before making a decision. If the University administrators had to con sult the students about every decision, Texas A&M would have dried up and blown away a long time ago. Faculty and staff members also have a stake in this interest. Payroll checks will no longer be cashed on campus ei ther. Those on payroll will have to get a bank to cash their checks or deposit their checks which also would leave them without money. Student workers will be further re stricted. Many do not get off work un til after banks close which leaves them with the option of depositing the check or waiting until Monday to cash it. Also, some students do not have cars to get to the bank to cash their checks. Those with accounts outsideofs Bryan-College Station areaareoii confronted with the same prdA that I have. To get my payroll cl« deposited, I have to mail it torn)’in in Amarillo — it will not becreditei! my account for another week. It seems really strange whenani stitution won’t honor its own check There are solutions to the proble which will arise from the poi change. The maximum check li could be raised to $50. Payroll cht and only payroll checks, could cashed every payday at the fiscal of annex in Rudder Power. Fiscal office administrators she have thought out the results of it actions more thoroughly. The prC i lems can be solved, but this timedt should consider more than linesinii Coke building. (Kari Fluegel is a senior jourmlt' major and a staff writer for The talion.) Emotions; Everybod/s looking for a "quality cool" I always envied Spock, the science officer on Star Trek. Nothing ever bothered him. He had ice cube emotions; never worried, never nervous, never scared. He also had pointed ears, so I didn’t envy him that much. Steve Thomas The point is that in real life nobody is an ice cube. We all have those feel ings of trepidation, anxiety and as sorted other nail-biting nerve prob lems. And that’s OK; that’s the way we’re made, though we often try to act differently. A good measure of what is impor tant to a person is what he or she gets upset about. If a little boy’s doggie dies, he’ll probably be heartbroken; much more so than if he breaks mom my’s favorite vase. As people grow older they work hard at controlling their emotions, structuring walls for proctection and concealment, which is also OK because nothing is good without control. (Imagine a society of oversensitive, highly-emotional people. Now add nu clear bombs.) Full-scale emotional wall-building starts in high school, where it’s uncool to be uncool. Popular teenagers, with a few exceptions, seem to be the ones who are most adept at apathy. The cli ques form and design unwritten rules of membership, usually based on looks, conversational abilities and cool. The “don’t care” attitude strikes every one from neophyte freshman to stu dent body president. In college, people graduate to non chalance. They tolerate other people’s emotions more, but real vehemence is still viewed askance, as is heart-on- sleeve self-pity. But one important lesson we learn in college is that emotions aren’t taboo. On the contrary, they give us charac ter. They schematically describe us by pinpointing our unapathetic areas, like a black and white snapshot shows where the light is and where it isn’t. University life is supposed to foster freedom of thought, speech and dis cussion, theoretically providing an at mosphere of individual development. A professor of mine once told me stu dents learn two things from college: how to learn and how to screw up. Sometimes I think I’m learning the latter too well. But I think the profs point was that college is a training ground where we are provided obstacles and given the opportunity of fighting our way through them. Those obstacles create emotional stress, and if you don’t en counter and deal with emotional stress, you sit still, going nowhere, like a dirt clod. method of expressing deep-felt el tion while retaining a semblance® dignity. I think it’s an honor worth striving for. But gett may be a steep climb up mountain. In the words of the advertisement: no pain, no gain. That’s not a reason to quit. It’sarei son to try harder. Facing emotioii thinking about them, trying to undttl stand them, discovering the truth« reveal: all these lead to deeper self-mi derstanding, more self-respect aT inevitably, a better self. The highly successful people I’ve known have all had the unique ability of calmly expressing their most ad amant feelings, but they didn’t acquire the skill overnight, I’m sure. Possibly what we are all looking for is this kind of “quality cool,” some After all, Spock couldn’t be either. (Steve Thomas is a senior join lism major and a columnist for Battalion.) Letter: Prairie View articles praised by reader Editor: I would like to applaud Ms. Zim- mermann for her series of articles (which ran July 18-20) concerning Prairie View A&M. This series was both interesting and informative. I must agreee that “a bell tower is an incredibly petty thing to have when the bricks could be used to fill holes in the walls at Prairie View.” John Montgomery graduate student agricultural economics The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Rebeca Zimmermann, Editor Bill Robinson, Editorial Page Editor Shelley Hoekstra, City Editor Brigid Brockman, News Editor Kathleen Hart, News Editor Travis Tingle, Sports Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editor Robin Black Assistant News Editors Dena Brown, Bonnie Langford Staff Writers Ed Alanis, Kari Fluegel,Bob McGlohon, Sarah Oates Copy Writers Karen Bloch, Cyndy Davis Copy Editor Tracie Holub Photographers Peter Rocha, Eric Evan Lee Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting nm]»n operated as a community service to Texas AScM and T' College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessarilr rf f resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrawn, M or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory netvsM students in reporting, editing and photography within the Department of Communications. United Press International is entitled exclusively use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited ® Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein resend Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 nvnh * j length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edilWfB for style and length but will make every effort to rr.ee* the author's intent. Each letter must be signed and mint 1 ' 1 elude the address and telephone number of the writer, i The Battalion is published Monday through Frida) ^: ing Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holidij ^ i examination periods. Mail subscriptions are f 16.75 pet*. 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