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*. I
mester, $33.25 per school year and per fullyear M''',
lising rates furnished on reouest.
Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald0 t
ing, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77M
Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 7W‘ s|