I
Triplets have less
market appeal
T he Frustaci septuplets became stars overnight.
Reporters congregated near the hospital, and book and
movie offers began to pour in. Gerber Products, Inc., the fa
mous baby food makers, offered the Frustacis free goods. A
news conference was called to announce the names of the ba
bies.
The health of the six surviving babies was monitered daily by
the news services. Sadly, the media reported the deaths of four
of the infants. We saw television pictures of undersized new
borns struggling for their breaths. We read in newspapers of
medical complications and fertility drugs. The Frustacis were
probed by reporters after each death.
The parents allowed People Magazine to be on hand the first
time Mrs. Frustaci saw her children, which probably brought in
some money for them, but their medical bills are enormous and
still growing.
Now that only three babies remain alive, the offers are disap-
pearing as fast as they came in. A trust fund the Frustacis set up
for their children has only $2,000 in it.
f he country’s facination with a seven-in-one birth has worn
of f. And so has the market value for the “septuplet commodity.”
Fhe Frustacis were used by the media, then abandoned.
Gerber now claims its gift offer only applies to births of quin-
tuplets or more. Now that the Frustaci children are merely trip
lets, ( Ti ber says it will give only a small assortment of gifts. This
down-scaled offer seems more like a door prize than a gift of
sincerity.
Naturally, not every unusual birth should be financially sup
ported by the media, private companies, or even personal dona
tions. But the Frustacis were exploited by the media and other
businesses to boost sales. Now that the sensationalism of the
event has all but worn off, they no longer have a use for the
Frustacis.
The Frustacis are real people and are facing real problems,
both f inancial and emotional. They have suffered enough with
out being discarded by those who originally of fered to help.
' The Battalion Editorial Board
Moderation acceptable
Prohibition is
hard to swallow
I ley. want to try a
new drink at your
favorite watering
hole?
How about a
strawberry crush,
a banana boat or a
w a t e r in e I o n
cooler? Or if you
arc- really daring, a
C i l - J e t o r a n
Evian.
tion. In Reagantown, we have become a
country of health-crazed non-drinkers.
Yet, we still go to bars to socialize.
The bars still encourage us to come.
They just don’t use the happy hour
hook to get us in. Now it’s music and
salad bars and a general “good times”
theme lure.
Cheryl Clark
1 he newest
names in non-alcoholic drinks. The
newest laws in the courts. The newest
trend in America. A trend towards so
briety.
Are we cutting off our noses in spite
of our faces?
Drinking laws have been stiffened —
considerably. All 50 states are raising
the drinking age almost in unison. The
government is applying some not-so-
subtle pressure on the states.
Local lawmakers are taking their own
intiative by raising and strengthing the
drinking laws.
I’ve always had a rule at my apart-
During the New Year’s Eve holiday
revelry in Dallas, the police were stop
ping cars at 9 a.m. checking for
drunken drivers. The hotels offered not
ment; if 1 say one of my guests can’t just all you could eat and drink for a
drive home because they have had too
much too drink, then the guest doesn’t
drive. Someone who hasn’t had too
much too ch ink does the driving, or the
guest crashes on the sofa.
New Year’s Eve special, but also a hotel
room thrown in for good measure.
I would hate-too think of one of my
friends involved in a car accident be
cause’ of too much booze, especially af
ter I let them out on the road in that
condit ion.
The media, all forms, saturate read
ers with the non-drinking idea. Candy
Lightner, original mother of MADD,
should be commended.
The nose cutting comes in when the
word Prohibition enters the scene.
I had a roommate who had too much
to drink one night. So did the friend she
was driving with. They both wound up
in a ditc h with the car upside-down. No
one was hurt, but she still laughs about
it.
I know how a person looks and acts
and thinks when they have had too
muc h to chink. I’ve been that way my
self more than once.
Americans often perform a terrific
360-degree turn when slightly pushed. I
think we would find out we like to drink
better than we realize if suddenly we
couldn’t drink anymore.
Prohibition proved only one thing —
you can’t govern morality. People have
to decide what is excess and what is not
in some areas of their life.
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UNIT H3CE. - TAffiS
Understanding a University
Tranquility often hides Up
some potential conflicts
To the outsider, a
university appears to
be an “island of tran
quility in a sea of
chaos.” Even to many
of its inhabitants it
Clinton A
Phillips
Guest Columnist
Sometimes I believe nothing is more
frightening than a drunk, because you
really can’t control a person who has too'
much too drink, or reason with them or
plead.with them.
Too many people died from drinking
bootleg liquor. The president still served
alcohol in the White House to guests.
The law was repealed.
fhe national mood is shifting in that
direction, too. The country is becoming
the proverbial “brother's keeper.”
Moderation is fine. I think people do
have a better time at a social gathering if
they don’t get smashed. I know they
have a better time the next morning.
Bars are being held responsible for
the actions of its patrons. Party hosts no
l<Miger lei their guests stagger from
tbchi part\ lor feat of legal reprisal.
J bree-mat titii lunches have become a
c inosaur.
However, moderation is one thing
and abstinence another. Let’s not go
overboard on eliminating alcohol com
pletely from our lives. Many people are
responsible, considerate drinkers who
use alcohol in a sensible manner.
Non-alcoholic drinks have become
the trademark of the Yuppie genera-
Don’t bring the axe down on alcohol
yet, just keep the drunks off the street.
Cheryl Clark is a senior journalism ma
jor and a columnist for The Battalion.
may appear tranquil. But the- analog)
may be inaccurate, for within the uni
versity there exists high potential for
conflict. Indeed, a strong case can be
made that the potential is at least as
powerf ul in universities as in other or
ganizations where conflict is more visi
ble — i.e. in business or politics. Be
neath the surface are numerous sources
of conflict that must be examined if we
are to understand the university.
Let us look at some conflict genera
tors. One that frequently arises for the
faculty is the contention between loyalty
to discipline and loyalty to the institu
tion. Over 2,000 faculty members teach
at and are paid by Texas A&M Univer
sity.
Accordingly, they owe allegiance to
the University. But their allegiance is di
vided. Faculty members also “belong” to
a discipline. Typically they belong to
one or more associations in their disci
pline whose meetings they attend and
whose journals they peruse.
Membership in such associations also
serves to reinforce their allegiance to
their discipline. At meetings of these as
sociations and through the association’s
journals, faculty present their research
findings thereby advancing knowledge
in their disciplines. Such activities have
the further effect of helping enhance
the image of the University and the aca
demic stature of the faculty members
who have done the research.
In turn, the latter, by making “na
mes” for themselves, become more at
tractive to other institutions which
might wish to hire them away. The ef
fect of this discipline-institution tension
is that academicians serve two masters
— they have divided loyalties.
The potential for conflict of interest
is real. If a university experiences finan
cial or morale difficulties, the travail is
telegraphed nationally and even inter
nationally as the “stars” are more easily
lured to other academic firmaments.
This leads to the potential conflict of
teaching and research. In theory, and
usually in practice, teaching and re
search are symbiotic, not competitive.
.People who pursue an academic career
typically do so because they love to learn
and also love to impart their learning in
both spoken and written words.
One enhances the other; at the grad
uate level, they are one and the same.
There is no conflict there, hut the po
tential for conflict does exist.
The professor who publishes prolifi-
cally does, as I indicated earlier, attain
high professional visibility and there
fore becomes more attractive to other
institutions. Because a great university’s
reputation is based on the research of its
outstanding scholars, the administrators
of such institutions are loath to lose
these “stars.” Thus, everv effort is made
to keep the salaries of outstanding
scholars competitive with those of fac
ulty members of comparable reputation
elsewhere. The effect mav he that the
person who publishes frequent Iv mav
enjoy a higher salary than the pet son
who is a less visible but equally good tea
cher.
There is a tendency, if administrators
are not careful, to allow a two-class fac
ulty to develop — especiall) in research-
oriented institutions like A&M.
A third potential cause of conflict
may occur when there is a change in the
mission of a university. A&rM is an excel
lent example of an institution that has
dramatically changed and enlarged its
mission so as to focus more on research
and on graduate education. Some of
out older faculty members have been
caught in this change.
They joined the faculty with per
ceived expectations that their primary
role would he to teach undergraduates,
only to find in subsequent years that
what is expected of them as faculty
members now is also to do research and
teach graduate and undergraduate edu
cation. Again administrators must take
care to avoid the possibility of creating a
two-class faculty.
Inherent in this expanded mission at
A&M has been a change in emphasis to
ward graduate education. As we seek to
expand graduate enrollments to 25 per
cent of the total enrollment from the
present 17 percent level, we must he
ever-mindful that this objective must
not he achieved at the expense of quality
undergraduate education, and this em
phasis must be continued.
A fourth cause of potential conflict
arises in part because of concern over
the quality of undergraduate education
and in part because of disagreement
over how much of the curriculum to de
vote to professional education.
Throughout the nation, universities
are re-examining their undergraduate
curricula in an effort to define some
minimum requirements that will pro
vide all students with a set of general ed
ucation experiences. At A&M, the Fac
ulty Senate is currently wrestling with
this problem.
It is contended with considerable
logic that for a person be a professional
engineer, accountant or whatever, he or
she must have training in various as
pects of t hat discipline.
Accrediting agencies have been estab
lished to try to ensure that the person
who graduates in one of these disci
plines does so with full complement of
discipline-oriented skills and concepts.
But these professional programs tend to
absorb much of the student’s available
time; opportunities to take experience-
broadening courses in the liberal arts
and sciences are limited, fhe danger is
that the student will he too narrowly ed
ucated in a professional program. He or
she will be trained for a job but not edu
cated for citizenship.
Somewhere, a middle ground must
he determined.
Inherent in the process of forging a
curriculum tl il provide breadth is
the potential for setting the faculty in
the professional schools against their
colleagues in the arts and sciences. Con
flict over academic turf can arouse pro
fessorial passions to a fury.
Finally, there is a fifth set of tensions
arising out of complex relationships
among various constituencies of a uni
versity. The’ relationship between fac
ulty and administration may not always
he harmonious. At some institutions,
contention over the sharing of univer
sity governance has led to faculty union
ization. At most institutions, however,
some kind of faculty senate has pro
vided a mechanism for sharing govern
ance, airing conflicts and alleviating ten
sions.
Student senates have played a similar
role for students vis-a-vis administration
or faculty. Graduates of a univesitv.B A Col
ganized into alumni associations,mav*en self
another source of potential conflictiP] eo P* t : nt
pecially in athletic matters.
rfcise $2^
.. ..... sfcsoo ti
for state-assisted institutions, tewE
latures and state coordinating agent® Debbie
sometimes create more npportunioHin to
for conflict. Fhe accrediting agetq Winch is ;
which often claim to know what isw 1,011 dmt
pjj. the unive- 1 "**' ’*a .»e the
uversitv and are not hesitar " , in '
try to impose their views, a, ' e member
potential source of conflict. gmu
Finally, the governing board ofi said,
institution may generate conflict. T'H Robert
ically board members are vvell-ini|j- , |) With
tioned persons who are successful ta s J ie ls ^. a
ness or professional persons
actual experience as academicians, fli
tend to view the university moreffll
corporation, perhaps, and this atui'J
too can create tension.
All in all, the modern reseat®
oriented university is a wondrous!
complex place. For those who seeli
guide its destiny, it is not sufficient!
provide, as one college presidents#
“sex for the students, football lorlj
alumni and parking lor the faculty,’
Fhe academic administrator n
harness the myriad tensions inherent^
a university to achieve a creativebalanl
among them. To do it successful!)i
quires great skill in communicationaf
a willingness to trust affected part/ftj
faculty, students and others —tos«
advice and to share authority ai
sponsibility for the academic operatiotj
of the university.
Dr. Clinton A. Phillips is the dennofm
ulties and associate provost of TesT
A&M
The Battalion
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Member of
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Southwest Journalism Confcromc
The Battalion Editorial Board
Kellie Pworaczyk, Editor
Kay Mallett, John Hallelt, News Editor
Loren Steily, Editorial Page Editor
Sarah Oates, City Editor
Travis Tingle. Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editor
Katherine Him
Assistant News Editor
Cathie Anderson
Entertainment Editors- J
(lathy Riely, WallerSmitli
Copy Editor...i Trent l.co|x>l(l
Make-up Editors Ed Cassarm.
. Karla Marlin
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