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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 1985)
Election commission not enforcing rules Running a fair and honest election was why the Student Government Election Commission was formed. Again it appears the commission has chosen to be a pliable pawn in the electoral process it was formed to control. The Battalion has learned there is evidence a number of the candidates for student body president have spent more than the $300 campaign limit allowed in Student Government rules. It appears this is a fairly widespread practice, one of which all candidates seem to be aware. There have been allegations that past student body president candidates have exceeded the spending limit. Unfortunately, the regulating body, in this case the election commission, seems happy to ignore this serious breach of ethics by the candidates. But the regulation of candidate spending is so lax that com pliance with the rule seems to be a moot question. Incredibly, the election commission cannot force any candi date to be removed from the election race. The only time the commission — which was set up to monitor spending — can look at the candidates’ receipts is after the election is over. So realistically any candidate could do what he pleased and still be elected. What a simple way to run an election. The election commis sion makes rules. The candidates ignore them. Nothing is done to stop them. Everything runs smoothly. What a laughable way to run an election. The Battalion Editorial Board Society also to blame for problems in prison We clung together in the cool morning air outside the gates of the Ferguson Unit near Madisonville, Texas. Brian Pearson “Your escort will be here in just a sec ond,” chirped the crusty old guard at the front gate. We were a sleepy batch of journalism students crazy enough to wake up early and follow our teacher on a tour of a men’s maximum security prison. Coming down the road through acres and acres of sprawling farmland, at a distance the unit almost looked like a university. But soon enough, the men acing guard towers with their multiple spotlight appendages could be seen among the rows of barbed wire and the high chain link fences. The complex was a maze of red brick buildings with barred windows. Several inmates with stiff white uniforms were gardening the well-kept grounds inside The Battalion USPS045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwestjournalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Brigid Brockman, Editor Shelley Hoekstra, Managing Editor Ed Cassavoy, City Editor Kellie Dworaczyk, News Editor Michelle Powe, Editorial Page Editor Travis Tingle, Sports Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editors Kari Fluegel, Rhonda Snider Assistant News Editors Cami Brown, John Hallett, Kay Mallett Assistant Sports Editor Charean Williams Entertainment Editors Shawn Behlen, Leigh-Ellen Clark Staff Writers Cathie Anderson, Marcy Basile, Brandon Berry, Dainah Bullard, Ann Cervenka, Michael Crawford, Mary Cox, Kirsten Dietz, Cindy Gay, Paul Herndon, Trent Leopold, Sarah Oates, Jerry Oslin, Tricia Parker, Cathy Riely, Marybeth Rohsner, Walter Smith Copy Editors Jan Perry, Kelley Smith Make-up Editors , Karen Bloch, Karla Martin Columnists Ed Cassavoy, Kevin Inda, Loren Steffy Editorial Cartoonist Mike Lane Sports Cartoonist Dale Smith Copy Writer Cathy Bennett Photo Editor Katherine Hurt Photographers Anthony Casper, Wayne Grabein, Bill Hughes, Frank Irwin, John Makely, Peter Rocha, Dean Saito Editorial Policy I he Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan'College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Communications. Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for stylo and length but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone number of the writer. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except tor holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are S 10.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Editorial staff phone number: (409) 845 2630. Ad vertising: (409) 845-2611. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address cl tanges to The Battal ion, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843 and outside the fence. One of the • guards told us these people had earned a certain amount of trust and were al lowed to work around outside the build ings. Others, he said, were usually con fined to their cells, which was just fine with me. After being identified and cleared, we were led through the gates and taken to a small room inside the main building where we were briefed before the tour began. “We’re going to have some fun this morning,” said Bill Doyle, education di rector and our tour guide for the morn- ing. “Fun? Sure, it’s going to be a real par ty,” I thought to myself. Doyle told us the prisoners of the unit had been in trouble many times before and had “tried very hard to get into pri son.” “These people have some very se rious problems,” he said. We were met with cold stares, the smell of ammonia and cigarette smoke as we were led through several corridors and into a main hall where inmates were scattered along the walls. A pot-bellied guard kept a close eye on an inmate mopping near our group. We were a fresh breeze from the out side with our colors and our freedom. This place was a dead end of life where time was lost inside the maze of concrete walls. I caught many of the inmates gawk ing at the women in our group as we were taken down the clean-slick hallway and into a cell area. Most of the tiny cells were decorated with kinky centerfold pictures. Occasionally, I accidentally locked eyes with an inmate and engaged in a stare-down battle which I always lost. Seeing the uniformed prisoners standing in lines it was hard to remem ber each one had a story. Doyle was asking us to be understanding, but it was hard to be sympathetic while imagi ning the violence and crime these young men had caused in our society. The prisoners all around us were strangely quiet. There were no obscene remarks, no whistles and no attempts to harass the outsiders. I imagined Billy- bob Badass the Guard speaking to the inmates shortly before our arrival. “Step out a line boys and I’ll stick yer head in the toilet and flush ya to the Gulf,” he said. Maybe they were told they would receive an extra helping of banana-slop pudding at dinner for good behavior. In any case, something was said to subdue these wild men and our tour was completed without an incident. Why the prisons are packed to the brim is puzzling and is an indication of some fault within our society. The in mates in Ferguson with their petrified lifestyles will probably never be changed or “cured,” as Doyle put it. The only so lution is to design a system that keeps these vicious criminals out of our hair and prevents them from killing each other. Good luck. 20 512K N By Jeff Staff A 20-terminal student use is noA mons. 1 For the first tin complete com pi vided by Texas t king to the library A Colorado i :( tin, working thr ' Student Affairs, 1 5] 2K Macintosh Macs, in a study i the snack bar. The lab held Wednesday for si MX argument similar to geome ByJUN Staff WASHING- TON — Some thing that is an in teresting concept in geometry is a depressing com- monplace in Washington. In geometry, a line can have length without breadth. In Washington, George Will the argument about the MX missile is like that. with an MX that others wanted for rea sons related to arms control. Arms con trollers are not actually hostile to strate gic rationality, if rationality is compatible with arms agreements. But first things — agreements — first. Arms controllers know that the way to get agreements is to agree to limit things that are easy to count. So SALT I lim ited the number of launchers. Result? Bigger launchers packed with more warheads—more eggs in more vulnera ble baskets, like MX. Most MX opponents are ardent for the arms-control “process,” one sour fruit of which is . . . the MX. In 1972 the misbegotten ABM treaty banned de fense of ICBMs, thereby making a ne cessity of what many analysts, then as now, considered a virtue: deterrence based on mutual vulnerability. SALT I, signed simultaneously, was permissive and porous. (For example, it limited but neglected to define “heavy” missiles.) So the Soviet buildup, unconstrained by SALT I but legitimized by it, soon made U.S. land-based ICBMs vulnerable to a disarming first strike. MX will survive in Congress this year and by next year will have become a jobs program and probably will be invulne rable (to Congress, not Soviet missiles). It will survive this year thanks to only one thing — the arms control “process,” in which MX is, the administration says, a “bargaining chip.” Actually, it is a bar gaining chip between the administration and Congress, which supports it lest U.S. negotiators be weakened. The MX was supposed to cure the vulnerability of Minutemen ICBMs in fixed silos. But after a decade spent con sidering 34 basing modes, the Pentagon now proposes to put MX in “improved” silos. The Reagan administration could candidly admit that this might create a “ use-’em-or-lose-’ em” hair-trigger situa tion in crisis, and could plausibly argue that his might deter Soviets from pro voking a crisis. Instead, the administra tion lamely argues that improved “har dening” makes silos invulnerable after all. The President says the MX vote is “a vote on Geneva.” By “Geneva” he means the arms-control “process,” during which, since SALT I, the number of nu clear warheads has quadrupled and the Soviets have deployed 21 new nuclear weapons systems. So, although it is fit ting that Congress supports a new mis sile in order to sustain the arms-control “process,” it is dismal that, to sell this misbegotten missile, Reagan has become a zealous worshipper at the barren altar of arms control. Texas A&M sti chance to visit m< , . ... . ftriesaround the v Nicaragua s, or its rifles to overthroiG air f are> no SU] that regime, or even its dollars adequtjttary. j us t go to tely to support Nicaraguan freedoj dent Center, fighters, cannot show relevant “resolvt'i The “visit” is I by buying high-tech hardwart. Mat lexas A&M at West is losing the Third World Wan*jural displays, a f small wars, not bis missile corapaii«i‘™ d s ^ n ^ Perhaps the President means iMtional Students A Moscow considers the MX vote a testt:|gin Monday. U.S. “resolve” to spend for defense.Bj Moscow would be distraught wereCoci, ntv-six coui gress to spend the MX dollars on rfq J re(| for the s cul and ships we might actually use, andojgL^ anc j j t j s esI aid for freedom fighters in Nicarapaj 1,000 costumes w Cambodia, Vietnam and Afghanisiai fashion show. Th Congress could use the small change dude foods from . buy better radio transmitters tooverriiH ^ ^ ^ . Soviet jamming that violates the H®co Ura ge%he sinki accords which, speakingot local community the administration lacks the resolvetMith foreign stud repudiate as dead letters. pez. the president But there is the rub, and the reasoiB why it is sensible to hold your nose,piF your teeth and support MX. IfCongresI kills MX, it will use the dollars to solvef different vulnerability crisis — the vull nerability of Congress to constituent! angered by domestic spendingcuts. I The current round of arms controrj ling in Geneva may last a generation.ft perhaps now that the kills have seizet control of the Kremlin, the paced quicken, in which case the two sides® reach a deadlock quickly. Theonlyce tainty is that the “process” will havepro duced MX, a missile conceived as art The Reagan administration is stuck He says Moscow cot\s\devs \he MX vote a test of U.S. “resolve.” But a nation driven from Lebanon by a truck bomb cannot restore its reputation by buying a missile for which three administrations have failed to find an adequate basing mode. A nation that lacks the resolve to use its ships to quarantine a regime like sub of SAVA \, ^esvaied dutm^km VI aud bom u\ v\\e \\o\se of Actually, the MX argument resenM not geometry, which is reasonable, tal modern art — say, abstract expressij nism, which is the work of the confused I sold to the earnest. George Will is a Washington Post. columnist LETTERS: SG not only group that deserves credit EDITOR: In the Tuesday, March 5 edition of I he Battalion, headlines read, “S.G. to review A&M blood collection policy.” Throughout Trent Leopold’s article on the upcoming evaluation of which blood collection agency should be allowed on campus, there was implication that Stu dent Government and only Student Government had anything to do with the Aggie Blood Drive. consistently neglected to recognize APO and OPA for their work on the Aggie Blood Drive while giving an overabun dant amount of attention to Student Government for work which, was done by others. I do not know if this lack of recognition is intentional or merely ig norance on the part of The Battalion staff, but it is high time that it stop. Each semester APO has in excess of 100 of its members working alongside the Wadley staff. This is compared to the 3 to 5 Stu dent Government workers. In reality, the Aggie Blood Drive is organized and ran by a Blood Drive committee consisting of members from two other organizations as well. These organizations are: Alpha Phi Omega (APO) and Omega Phi Alpha (OPA), a National Service Fraternity and Na tional Service Sorority respectively. These same committee members make up the Blood Drive Review Board. These Review Board members decide which blood collecting agency will be al lowed on campus. Not Student Govern ment, as Leopold’s article would imply. This letter is not written to discredit any group for work they have done. Ev eryone has done the part in which they were assigned. This letter is only written so that due credit may be given to those who have worked so hard to make the Aggie Blood Drive what it is today. APO and OPA, you definitely are due that credit. paign signs for junior and senior p I leaders. We realize that there are so# | people who feel that certain peoplfl should not be yell leader, but to revef to pranks such as vandalism is notonM childish, but also immature. OneoftM most important things to remembt 1 when we vote for yell leader is tM whether he wears a uniform or blm jeans is not the issue. The issue shouH be the person in the clothes and howlq represents the University. Yes, congrai ulations for your maturity and forbeiif such a “good Ag.” Mary Rucker, ’86 Scott Palmer, ’86 Com Fraternity’s help, time appreciated EDITOR: C, Cripple i James Fairfield, ’85 Blood Drive Review Board Defacing signs childish vandalism The Boys Club of Brazos CouD? staff, Board of Directors and member would like to thank Sigma Nu fraten# for their help during our 1985 Bask 1 ball season. EDITOR: Brian Pearson is a senior journalism major. This is not the first time The Battal ion has listed Student Government as the sole sponsor of the Aggie Blood Drive. Over the years The Battalion has We would really like to congratulate the person or group of people who thought it necessary to deface the cam- Sigma Nu fraternity members ca#| to the Boys Club four evenings e week and volunteered their time to 1 referee and supervise our basketball program. Thanks for helping makeou 1 program a success! Boys Club of Brazos County 9 <Hlj n iversi