The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, August 09, 1985, Image 2

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, August 09, 1985, Image 2

Newspaper Page TextPage 2/The Battalion/Friday August 9, 1985 OPINION Editorials from around the state: 'Exit tesf needed The new mandatory high school graduation test is a good idea, but a tragic commentary on our educational system. . . . There is no argument that the “exit tests” will ensure Texas graduates have competency in certain areas. But is this really enough? The test is a sad reminder that the school system cannot guarantee the skills of a student who has been promoted through the system without a final check. And there is the possibility that passing the test will become the single focus of all the education that precedes it. Ideally, each grade level should be a challenge for students, and their promotion from one to the other should rest on their ability to meet this challenge. . . . But this is the real world and graduation tests are a con cession to reality. In real life, students don’t advance through grades because they are ready to do so. In real life, a graduation test is necessary. And that’s a saddening fact. The Odessa American Good from bod The tragic news that movie star Rock Hudson has contracted the usually fatal disease AIDS has stunned the world. But sometimes bad news can bring some good. Once considered a disease of gay men, hemophiliacs and Haitian refugees, AIDS has rapidly spread into the mainstream population. At least 11,871 Americans have been diagnosed as having AIDS, and half of them are now dead. Now a famous, popular movie and television star has been diagnosed as having the virus that incapacitates the body’s im mune system, leaving it vulnerable to other diseases. AIDS is suddenly considered a real threat because someone everyone knows has it. The Galveston Daily News Mail Call Sniff the java, Karl EDITOR: Throughout this summer I have read various columns of Karl Pallmeyer’s, some were good, some were not so good. Your article Living In The Shadow Of A Mushroom Cloud dealing with the subject living with nuclear weapons caused me to reply. Your heart seems to be in the right place, but Karl, you really need to wake up and smell the coffee! Nuclear weapons are a real ity, we cannot simply wish them away. Nuclear weapons will only disappear when new and more advanced weapons are developed to protect American core and middle range domestic and foreign policy goals. Karl you keep harping on the fact that nuclear weapons will be the de struction of mankind, maybe they will, but did you ever consider the fact that nuclear deterrence value might be our only hope to peaceful coexistence. Cur rently the United States uses the deter rence strategy of mutual assured de struction (MAD) (balance of terror). MAD is the theory that, the United Mews VITNV. APPROVES A iQSfc BUD6ET AS IT (DOES ON VACaTiOM. Must students pay price for new computer woes? Once u pon a time there was a young man named Fred J. Alpheratz. Fred was a student at Texas A&M about to begin his senior year. Fred had preregistered for the Fall semes ter but he didn’t get all the classes he needed. Fred through drop-add. Karl Pallmeyer would have to g° thunderstruck. Hundreds of his fellow students were lined up to get into the place. He had thought, like many other students, that he would beat the crowd by coming early. Unfortunately, the registrar’s office had the same idea. They didn’t think that many students would come to open registration on the first day. They were not prepared for the crowds that came on Monday. The fact that the new computer system they had just started using for registration kept breaking down didn’t ftelp matters much. \ Exe< Univet nan Je Ad van Progra ing Me ta: state f for res going to summer school and wanis take advantage of this early regiffi period. Some of these students! driven a long way so that theycouit advantage of this early registration riod. Some of these students wouli be able to drop-add later. Whatf their reasons, there were hundred students wanting to go throughregis tion Monday. n Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style 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. States could absorb a 1st strike and re taliate with a 2nd strike that will yield unacceptable levels of damage upon the aggressor. Since the USA and the USSR both possess viable 1st and 2nd strike ca pability, neither country will have any rational incentive for a pre-emptive 1st strike since it would only lead to their own destruction. I particularly don’t like the people of the United States and the world being held as nuclear hostages and I really don’t consider the policy of MAD to be all that sane but it is a very rational and effective policy. Karl, I am not proclaiming nuclear weapons are the only solution, but that they are a viable component in the pro tection of Americas homeland and her vital interest. In conclusion we feel that you should try to broaden your knowledge base as to the pruposes of nuclear weapons and their impact on American and world se curity before you again start espousing your somewhat limited views on nuclear weapons. Lance Fragomeli ’85 Michael Wreaver ’85 Fred had gone through drop-add be fore, it was not the most fun thing in the world. All Fred had to do was add the one class he needed, but he was worried. Fred was going to leave for his vacation in Japan on August 6 and he wouldn’t be back until school started on Septem ber 2. Usually the drop-add period didn’t open until a week before school started. When Fred got his fall fee slip he was pleased to discover that there would be an open registration period starting Monday. His problems were over. He felt that he would be able to drop-add on August 5 then catch his plane to Hi roshima the next day. For Fred, Monday was a disaster. There were hundreds of students wait ing to drop-add or register. Fred waited in line until noon when the registration people put up a sign that said: “Regis tration is closed until 8:00 a.m. tomor row.” Fred was upset: Fred was con fused and angry. Fred was mad as hell. He had driven 300 miles, spent six hours on the road and stood in a long line in 90 degree heat for almost two hours. What for? Nothing. He had to go back home tonight so he could go leave for his vacation, so he couldn’t wait overnight even if he could find a place to stay in College Station. Had Fred waited just a little bit he probably would have been ab add his class. The registration took down their “closed” sign and their best to take care of everyone came to drop-add Monday. OnTui the registration people set up computer terminals to help make tration easier. Dr. said tl W AUS sued b the no- — advi and w; the «: eased. “No be eas) some k “All teache give tl chance The key el< enacte Fred woke up bright and early Mon day morning; he had a long drive ahead of him. He had been on the road for six hours when he arrived in College Sta tion at 10 a.m. He parked his car and went to see his adviser. Fred went home. He didn’t get to add his class and his plans for graduation had to be changed. Fred was a de pressed man. When he got to Hiro shima Tuesday he went to the first bar he could find and got bombed. The problems Fred and others dents faced Monday were uncalled 1| The registrar’s office should have!) prepared for uny number of The new computer system thatwass posed to save time actually wasted I Maybe the new system will be benelij when all the bugs are worked out.!! why did we have to be the guineapid Karl Pallmeyer is a senior journalii major and a columnist for The ilasj ion 01 At his adviser’s office he picked up the printout to see if there was any space left in the class he wanted to take. He was in luck, there was room for 15 more students. Fred had his adviser fill out his drop-add card and headed over to the Pavilion. Fred is not a real person. He is just a character I use from time to time to make a point. But the situation Fred faced was not uncommon. When Fred got to the Pavilion he was Many students wanted to go through free registration Monday. Some of these students needed to register for the fall. Some of these students wanted to get a jump on adding the classes they needed for the fall. Some of these students were Pronies' make an art out of accidents I read somewhere there are no acci dent-prone people. This is simply not true. I know this be cause I am a “pro- nie.” Rhonda Rubin Guest Columnist machine. She was making neat zig-zag patterns on some material. I decided to experiment after she left. Unfortu nately, my feet found the switch and soon there were neat zig-zag patterns on my thumb. the first person injured in a game of four-square. In junior high I was kicked in the head during gym class when someone tried to jump over me. In high school I was voted “Most Likely to be Run Over By Stampeding Llamas.” Anybody can have an accident, but a pronie is creative. Pronies find new and innovative ways to hurt themselves. I began to have “little” accidents as a small child. My mother has told me about the time I wanted to play with her keys and mistook an electrical outlet for a keyhole. This may explain why every one in my family has straight hair and mine is curly. Things didn’t get much better as I got older. When people ask me how I got the scar on my chin, I say, “Which time?” Pronies also have a bad habit of not learning from their mistakes. When I was three years old, I saw Mommy “playing” with her new sewing Then there was the time some friends and I were sliding down a hill on flat tened cardboard boxes. My box sud denly stopped. I kept going and found a piece of glass sticking out of the ground. It was nearly a week before I was able to sit down again. Right after high school, 1 managed to keep the emergency room staff of a Houston hospital laughing for two hours after I showed up with their first musical injury. As I was stringing my guitar, a string broke and wound up in my thumb. I told the desk nurse it was a wire to avoid embarrassment. She wanted to know what kind of wire it was, and when I told her, she laughed for five minutes. When I came to A&M, I thought that by being around mature responsible people, I could overcome my proniness. I was wrong. In the last three years I have managed to twist both my foot and my ankle during a flag football game, get hit with a golf ball, fall out of a shut tle-bus, split my pants, fall UP a slide, run into a brick wall, bang my head in the shower and trip over a squirrel. However, I do know I’m not the only pronie on this campus. We’re easy to spot. Usually, we’re seen looking cau tiously both ways before crossing a one way street and then getting mowed down by a bicyclist upon reaching the other side. In elementary school I managed to be When the doctor showed up giggled and said, “Oh, an E-string.” he Rhonda Rubin is a junior journalism major. Iff vent rents only from Drivi The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Kellie Dworaczyk, Editor Kay Mallett,John Hallett, News Editors Loren StefTy, Opinion Page Editor Sarah Oates, City Editor Travis Tingle, Sports Editor B< and Poli. char flow with built The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editor Katherine Hu: Assistant News Editors Cathie Anderson, Trent Leoplill Entertainment Editors Cathy Riely, WalterSmiiJ Staff Writers Karen 1 Ed C ;assavoy, Jerry Osliil Brian Pearsorj Copy Editor Trent LeopoHJ Make-up Editor Ed Cassavou Columnists Cheryl ClarU Karl Pallmcydl Photographers Greg Bailed Anthony Caspej CHIN Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-f>r<>til. scfAsiip/xirtm# ncmfup* I operated as a comnitinitv service to Texas/U-JIa»| Bryan-College Station. 701 Opinions expressed in The Battalion urc those of tit l Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessuriljitf I resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrator, fimit | or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory neusj students in reporting, editing and phoiotfnlpl within the Department ofConununications. i spaixrft I pin chut 1 1 The Battalion is published Tuesday through M/anfuf I ing Texas A&M regular semesters, except lor holiday^ I examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $ Hi. 75 per st’ I mester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. At I vertising rates f urnished on t eeniest. Our address: The Battalion, 2Hi Recti MdAinrf I Building. Texas A& M University, College Station, ft I 77843. Editorial staff phone number: (409) 845-MI6.,\t I vertising: (409) 845-2611. Second class postage paid at College Station, I X 7/fitt TOS'I MAS l T.R: Send address changes to The BmiJ- I ion. Texas A&M University, College Station, Text I 77843

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, August 09, 1985, Image 2

Are you interested in including a title to our archive?

Follow us!