Monday, February 25, 1985/The Battalion/Page 5
Warped
by Scott McCullar
Prairie ViewA&M University
Low grades a problem
By DAINAH BULLARD
Staff Writer
Almost 20 percent of the students
enrolled at Prairie View A&M Uni
versity in December 1984 were
placed on scholastic probation. But
President Pearcy Pierre says the
school is battling the problem with
counseling on the university level
and tutoring within the colleges.
“This is not a new problem at
Prairie View,” Pierre saia. 4 Tt’s been
going on a while.”
Of the 3,700 students enrolled in
the undergraduate school, 766 stu
dents are on scholastic probation be
cause they have a grade point aver
age lower than 2.0, and 219
students, about 6 percent, are on the
university’s honor roll with an aver
age GPA of 3.5 or higher.
“Some of our students have prob
lems, and some of them don’t,”
Pierre said. “I don’t like to general
ize. We have some students who are
well prepared (for college), who
achieve a lot. And we have some who
have problems.”
The best way to solve those prob
lems is by helping the student, Pierre
said, so the university provides coun
seling for students having problems
with grades, and individual colleges
provide tutoring programs.
Wayne Perry, dean of the College
of Engineering, said his college has
three tutoring programs: individual
counseling, evening problems classes
and an engineering concept pro
gram.
Individual counseling involves im
proving communication between
students and faculty. In this pro
gram, students meet with depart
ment chairmen and faculty and dis
cuss their problems, Perry said.
Evening problem solving classes
are for classes identified as problem
areas for a number of students,
Perry said. Instructors for those
classes explain what they expect in
terms of deadlines and quality of
work to the students, he said.
The third program, an engi
neering concept program, is held
during the summer. The main pur
pose of this pre-engineering course
is to prepare high school graduates
for classes in engineering, Perry
said.
Though problems can arise at any
time during a student’s education,
certain periods are considered more
dangerous than others, Perry said.
“The main thing we’re concerned
about is the first two years,” he said.
“That’s why we have the pre-engi
neering program, and we even have
a grade school program.”
Once they’re enrolled at Prairie
View, students must maintain a 2.0
average. If they are placed on schol
astic probation, students have one
semester to raise their grades, or
they face suspension.
Pierre said the university has
higher standards than some Texas
colleges.
“Our requirement is that fresh
men get a 2.0,” he said. “That’s
higher than the requirements at
many campuses. We are not sur
prised (by the number of students
on probation). It just means we need
to work harder.”
Aggie college bowl team
gets 2nd at regional meet
By KATIE DICKIE
Reporter
Don’t you hate to play Trivial Pur
suit with someone who knows all of
the answers? If so, there are five
Texas A&M students you should
avoid.
Alan Fryar, Doug Spence, David
Jansen, Todd Brown, and Jay Sch-
roeder are members of the Texas
A&M college bowl team.
They capitalized on their knowl
edge of trivia to place second at the
regional competition at Rice Univer
sity on Feb. 17.
Seventeen teams from Arkansas,
Louisiana and Texas competed. The
team from Tulane University won
the competition.
Gregg Steele, chairman of the Me
morial Student Center committee
that sponsors the A&M team, said
that college bowl is “the official var
sity sport of the mind.”
Technically the college bowl is a
contest between two four-member
teams in a head-to-head competi
tion.
Like the television game show
from which it evolved, a moderator
asks a toss-up question for either
team. Correct answers are worth ten
points.
Answering a toss-up correctly
means the team becomes eligible to
answer a bonus question worth up to
30 points. The team with the most
points at the end is declared the win
ner.
College bowl began as a television
show in the 1950s and continued un
til 1970.
The competition was designed to
test college students’ knowledge of
history, current events, arts, litera
ture, sports, music and just about
any other subject.
Questions for the official contests
are compiled by Time magazine.
Fryar, the captain of the A&M
team, says the contest is more fun
and slightly more serious than Triv
ial Pursuit.
Spence says he does not own a
Trivial Pursuit game, but has played
a few times.
“However, my friends make me
go around twice to win,” he said.
Spence describes college bowl as
an “active accumulation of useless
knowledge.”
A&M has the largest following in
this region. Last fan at the campus
College Bowl tournament, 32 teams
participated. From the 32 teams the
members of the official team were
chosen to represent A&M at the re
gional tournament.
Steele said the team practices a
few hours each week. Trivial Pursuit
questions are asked as well as ques
tions from previous competitions, he
said.
Brown said playing Trivial Pur
suit helps him practice, but extensive
reading helps him the most.
The team will be invited to the
National Invitational Tournament at
Emery University in Georgia, possi
bly as a wild card team. Fryar said
due to a lack of funding, however,
the contest may cancelled.
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