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Facie 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, June 4, 1985
OPINION
The New Thing
not the Real thing
The new formula of Coca-Cola no sooner hit the market
than people began criticizing it.
Coke’s primary competitor, Pepsi, even managed to put
their combatant commercials on the air before Coke’s new prod
uct was distributed. The majority opinion seems to be that Coke
should have stuck to its old recipe. Pepsi claims Coke is running
scared. Paul Harvey says Coke has betrayed America’s trust.
Coca-Cola faces a no-win situation — either it must admit
the new Coke is a mistake or sacrifice a chunk of the soft drink
market.
Pepsi’s accusations that Coke was trying to cash in on a more
Pepsi-like taste seem absurd. The two companies probably split
the market more evenly than they care to admit. In fact, Paul
Harvey also said recent “taste tests” show most people don’t have
a single brand they stick to consistently.
Coke can’t be blamed for wanting to change its formula. Af
ter all, most companies frequently introduce “new and im-
C roved” versions of their products. Coke’s formula may be
ut most people don’t think it’s improved.
If Coca-Cola had made a quiet formula transition, even the
most loyal Coke drinkers probably wouldn’t have noticed the
shift. Then, if sales began to drop, Coke could have returned to
its old recipe and regained its prominent position in the world of
soft drinks.
But Coke made a big deal out of its switch and now it must
face the criticism.
Apparently, Coke misjudged the appeal of its original prod
uct. Now, it must either admit that the New Thing isn’t as good
as the Real Thing and revert to its old formula, or it must face
the consequences of tampering with American tradition.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Battalion forum
for all opinions
Card packets, long lines and humidity can only mean one
thing in Aggieland — summer school has started once again.
1 he Battalion Editorial Board would like to welcome everyone
back to school for a productive, albeit hot, summer session.
The Battalion will be printed every Tuesday through Friday
ths.
during the summer montl
Page 2, the Opinion Page, is just that — a page for opinions.
Our opinions, columnists’ opinions, and your opinions through
letters to the editor. We encourage all Aggies who have some
thing to say to drop us a line. Obviously, we can’t print every let
ter, but we ll do our best to present all sides of an issue. Please
keep our letters policy in mind when writing to the editor.
Good luck Ags.
The Battalion Editorial Board
June registration
not a fairy tale
Once upon a time
there lived a young
man named Fred J.
Alpheratz.
Fred was a senior
business major at
Texas A&M. He had
Karl
Pallmeyer
an outstanding academic record, had
served on Student Government and had
a lovely girlfriend whom he was about to
marry. Most importantly Fred had
landed a position with the Very Big Cor
poration of' America and was to start
earning an embarassingly huge salary
the first week in September, just as soon
as he finished college.
Yes, the future looked very bright for
Fred. All he had to do was take Business
418, the course on what to do when the
60 Minutes news team shows up at your
office, and he would graduate in Au-
gust.
But there was a problem. Fred’s last
name began with an A and those with
names A through C, regardless of classi
fication, couldn’t register for classes un
til 1 p.m. on Monday. By the time Fred
could register Business 418 was filled
and he couldn’t get into the class. The
class would not be offered again until
the fall semester. Fred could not grad
uate on time. Fred lost his job. Fred’s cat
died. Fred’s girlfriend left him for a
rock musician she meet in California.
Yes, the future looked very dim for
Fred. So one morning he picked up
some guns, an UZI 9mm, an M-16 with
a telescopic sight and a Texas A&M
University Commemorative Colt Mark
IV Series 80 Government Model Auto
matic, and climbed the Albritton bell
tower. In a seige that lasted four hours
Fred gunned down 25 students, 17 fac-
ultly, 2 1 campus cops, nine administra
tors, two regents and one school mascot.
The killing stopped at high noon. Fred
quit shooting while the bells chimed
twelve. Fred jumped to his death when
the bells began to play “The Spirit of
Aggieland.”
The preceding is a fairy tale. Fred J.
Alpheratz is just a figment of my twisted
imagination. Like all good fairy tales it
begins with “Once upon a time.” Like all
good fairy tales it contains a moral.
Fred could have found away around
this red tape. He could have had himself
forced into the class he needed, most
departments will make room in their
classes for graduating seniors. Fred
could have been devious and made up
an excuse to register early. But he
shouldn’t have had to.
As a person becomes an upperclass
man his class schedule becomes very
rigid. A person must have certain classes
to graduate. Upperclassmen should
have a better chance to take the classes
they need to get out. In the regular se
mesters upperclassmen do have first
pick of classes. But they don’t in the
summer.
Summer school is very different from
the fall and spring semesters. Although
only about a third of the student body
attends, nearly all of them are here for a
specific reason. Many people attend
summer school because they need a
class that they can’t Fit into their sched
ules during the regular semesters. Many
people attend summer school because
they need that one last class to’graduate.
So the moral of the story is this: You
should respect your elders and let them
go First.
Kml Pallmeyer is a senior journalism
major and a columnist for The Banal-
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LETTERS:
Letters Policy length hut will nuke every eliort to muini.iii) the Million
Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. tent. Each letter must Ik- signet! and must include thenUt
The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and and telephone number of the writer.
Elimination decision
unfounded, hasty
EDITOR:
Unfortunately,
the MSC Outdoor
Recreation Committee has been elimi
nated from the MSC Students Pro
grams. We believe that this decision was
taken hastily and was based on un
founded reasons.
A deficit was recoixled for ORC in the
1983-84 Fiscal year. This deficit is not a
true representation of last year’s fi
nances. Profit generated through {
our equipment rental cash account was
was not included in overall budget.If
get.If one takes this into consideration,'
ORC was in the black last Fiscal year. |
This incorrect Financial information was |
a significant factor in the decision to j
exclude ORC from next year’s budget. I
The other deciding factor was our
“weak leadership.” Our leadership in
the past has always accomplished its
goals and has included some of the fin
est leaders we could have hoped to have.
Through the student leaders, the com
mittee nas successfully sponsored trips
to Colorado, New Mexico, Mexico,
Wyoming, Georgia, Arizona and a num
ber of trips to the Texas hill country.
Common adventure trips have included
trips to Alaska and Africa.We have also
organized a number of Outdoor Hori
zons Conferences which have brought
valuable information to this community.
Our equipment rental has provided out
door gear to students and faculty at very
reasonable rates.
We urge the MSC Council and direc
tors to help students who are interested
in maintaining a student outdoor recre
ation program at Texas A&M Univer
sity by reconsidering the committee and
hopefully including it in next year’s
budget.
Nicholas Antonio
accompanied by 14 signatures
programming through the Student Pro
grams Office will no longer have access
to these rooms, and have been denied
any input to the decision to convert
these rooms to offices.
The location of these rooms made
them very useful for certain types of
programming that no other meeting
rooms on campus are suited for. These
rooms have been used heavily in the
past by many student groups, including
almost every weekend by MSC NOVA
for legitimate programming. Now, with
the conversion to offices, these rooms
are going to become unavailable and
due to the present shortage of meeting
rooms will be very hard, if not impossi
ble to replace.
In short, we feel that this use of
rooms 137 and 140 is very wasteful, is
improper, and the person(s) responsible
should keep rooms 137 and 140 as
meeting rooms and should acquire their
offices elsewhere and through proper
channels.
Peter Christian
accompanied by 21 signatures
•I found no mention of the upsi(|
down circus that “Hollywood” Peclil
company refer to as Chem. lab llll
Chem. 1 12.
•My fellow students should beari
mind that there are some goodteacll
in Heldenfels, for example Dr. Will
Moore. The faults of the FreshJ
Chemistry program lie squarely oni
shoulders of the alleged leddershim
that department.
John Sewell
Cubans infiltrate
Editorial Board
Use of rooms wasteful
EDITOR:
Last week, meeting rooms 137 and
140 of the Memorial Student Center
were taken away from the scheduling
service and are earmarked for conver
sion to offices.This acquisition did not
come through proper channels and no
one seems to be able to identify who is
responsible for this.What this means is
that students carrying out legitimate
EDITOR:
Your article on Radio Marti shows
that the Cuban Government has gained
something by taking political prisoners
and sending criminals to the United
States. Specifically, they have gained
enough leverage to convince the Battal
ion Editorial Board that Radio Marti is a
bad idea.
Your article says that the administra
tion is “aggravating” the Cubans by op
erating Radio Marti and that this will
“result in a negative Cuban reaction.”
Clearlv, however, the real situation is
that tne Cuban government has been
taking the aggressive actions and,
clearly they have gained something...at
least on this campus.
Leo J. Kachnik
Senior
Nuclear Engineering
Comments on chem
EDITOR:
I would like to thank you for the ex
cellent articles exploring the numerous
faults of the Fresnman Chemistry Pro
gram. In short, it’s about time.
The only comments I would like to
offer are these:
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Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Kellie Dworaczyk, Editor
Kay Mallett, John Hallett, News Editors
Loren Steffy, Editorial Page Editor
Sarah Oates, City Editor
Trav is Tingle, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editor..
Assistant News Editor.
Katherine Hurl
Cathie Anderson i
Entertainment Editors |
Cathy Riely, WalterSrailhj
Staff Writers ...Karen Blodl i
Ed C iassavoy, Jerry OslinJ
Brian Pearson I
Copy Editor Trent Leopold f
Make-up Editors ; Ed Cassavovij
Karla Marlin,
Columnists Cheryl Clark. |
Karl Pallmeyer [
Photographers Greg Bailey. 1
Anthony Casper j
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