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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, February 7, 1986 Opinion A little liberal arts benefits all Mail Call I cannot stress more strongly the value of a broad education. I am a liberal arts major, specifically politi cal science. Most students outside of the College of Liberal Arts are generally ignorant as to what a major in the College of Liberal Arts entails. Unlike, for example, business or en gineering, which require more than half of the total degree hours in the major, no department in the College of Liberal Arts can require more than 33 hours in any major field of study. A major in political science, for exam ple, is somewhat misleading. I am not taking all of my upper division classes in political science. Last semester I had one, this semester two. The remainder of my hours fall within other liberal arts disciplines, science, math and a large number of free electives. For this rea son, I consider myself more of a liberal arts major than a political science major. Dedication to a broad, liberal arts ed ucation is sadly lacking at this Univer sity. No university can be great without a stong commitment to the liberal arts. Presently, Texas A&M offers only 5 doctorate degrees in liberal arts Fields — American history, economics, English, psychology and sociology — miniscule in comparison to the University of Texas. We offer no degrees in music or art, pitiful for a university of this size. 1 he tide is turning. The college re cently added doctorate programs in psy chology and anthropology and is con sidering expansion for the departments of philosophy and political science. The College of Liberal Arts is now the fourth largest college at Texas A&M accounting for nearly 10 percent of total enrollment. What’s so great about a liberal arts ed ucation? A broad education provides the backbone for a strong and progres sive . society by providing individuals with insight into human nature through courses in history, literature, philoso phy, math, science, etc. If an individual is aware of how our culture reached its present state and why the people within jthe society act in the manner in which they do, the individual can more readily deal with the problems faced by the so ciety and the people within the society. You may understand why a person acts a certain way in a certain situation, but liberal arts helps you understand how history and-culture have molded this person to respond in the manner in which he does. One reason why I am so sympathetic to the causes of minorities and the op pressed results from what I have learned in various political science classes. For example, in a democracy, majority rule can often overlook the in terests and needs of minorities. When ever someone condemns another who is different, someone who doesn’t con form with the actions of the majority, I immediately think of the brilliance of our founding fathers who recognized this tendency and instigated measures in our Constitution to protect minorities from what Alexis de Tocqueville dubbed the “tyranny of the majority.” Humans tend to fear things which are different. People who are different of ten make us feel insecure. We react with condemnation. We claim that the differ ent people are strange or weird and wish that they would conform with the rest of us. We’ve seen it time and time again — blacks, Jews, gays and the handicapped. We often overlook the fact that people are people with human emotion and feelings which can be hurt. So many of the great classics have taught valuable lessons in human na ture. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter we see how society casts out those who don’t conform with the rest. In Camus’ The Stranger we see how a man is con demned to death not for the crime he committed but for his emotionless re sponse to the death of his mother. In Shakespeare’s King Lear we see the mis take Lear made by giving his estate to his children before his death. We see how great works character ized the culture of their time and pro foundly affected our own — J°hn Locke’s influence on Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, Darwin’s evolutionary theory and its ef fect on Christianity, Marx’s attempt to deal with the Industrial Revolution. By learning from the past, we can prepare for the future. Liberal arts majors are not hot job prospects. We are living in a world of growing specialization. Industry wants people with specific skills. But don’t let initial job prospects mislead you. Initially, you are probably better off Financially with a degree in business or engineering. But degrees in these ma jors tend to lose their value. If you’re looking for that job at the top of the cor porate ladder, a liberal education can help. A great many corporate chiefs have majors within the liberal arts. Spe cialized skills can only go so far. A top position in a corporation requires knowledge of people and areas of which a liberal education can give the edge. I’m not suggesting that everyone should be a liberal arts major. Ob viously, we need scientists, engineers and business people. What we do need is an expanded core curricula in the lib eral arts for all students. A few more courses in literature, philosophy, the so cial sciences, etc. will hurt no one and will benefit everyone. The problem with a liberal education is that its incredible value cannot be ap preciated until you receive one. Glenn Murtha is a senior political sci ence major and a columnist for The Battalion. Glenn MUrtha Laughing at OPEC oil barons Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff resem. right to edit letters for style and length but will make every effort to maintain them, intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone numbero:: writer. |y Impressed and dismayed EDITOR: lirl' We, as freshmen, attended our first Silver Taps ceremony ofthii lth * l on Feb. 4. We are quite impressed by this unique tradition and theA ; spirit of honoring those who have died. Bn/ After the first Silver l aps of the f all semester, several letters were ?i n 0 r ten to The Battalion concerning those who were not quiet on theirnifclms and from the ceremony. This is understandable for those who haven Is 1 ’ 1 tended a ceremony before. H ll( ' However, we were dismayed to find one junioi in the Corps of speaking loudly and laughing on his way back from the ceremony. The Corps of Cadets pi ides itself on upholding the traditioi ®is. so Texas A&M, so we find it especially disturbing that this one junior doeiidpab himself feel this same pride. B 0 ! Annelise Weiner ’89 Rica Bowman ’89 Don’t let it happen again EDITOR: I’m very upset with the MSC Council. Wednesday I attended Dr Piccolo’s presentation on Love and Sex in the’80s l ntm innately, m'J By ents w'ere not around to keep me from going. Nor was I personally wel veloped enough to realize that su< h a presentation would be so mforn. ; .Bpr< and eye-opening before I went. Bties In the future, I hope that the MSC Council will do a betterjiiP 011 ^ shielding me from such presentations, lest I become a well-adjusted ^ fortable and open-minded person. Please don’t let this happen. Kevin Klein Mu ha Class ring found EDITOR: I found somebody’s class ring in Deware Field House on a racqtKti court. It’s a 10k gold, Class of’83 from Clear Creek ring. The nameRej is on it, with the initials RMR on the inside. It has a red stone and seeie be a girl’s size. If the ring is your’s or you know whose it is, call meatii! 7903. Tom Krauss A no-no by the book EDITOR: Karl, Karl, Karl, it seems you have succeeded again. Mike andDefc Foarde were a little bit angry, wouldn’t you say? It seems you hittheiri your soft spot (the one so near and dear to their hearts). We hopeti were not placing judgement on you, because last we heard. thatwasaJ no in their book. I Patrick J. Posey ’88 Dwayne B. King ’88 For issue of importance EDITOR: For three years now I have had to put up with the idiotic editoria/fl | plaints from self-righteous, radical fuddy-duddies that The Battalioniii | liberal for this campus. The Mail Call section of the paper should be a place were student!- [, dress issues of importance, not to put down other people’s views in# I illogical dialogue saying nothing more than “I am right and youaitj (Communist, Atheist, etc.).” A good example of this was the letter “And God said to Karl.. Mike and Debbie Foarde. Here are people who have lived in a woM | their own, where everyone is conservative. God-fearing and right # these people are exposed to people of other views, they get all defeii : and mad and start writing ridiculous letters about how these non-con#* I live, non-God-fearing, and blatantly wrong people should go to hell, j What irks me the most is that these people defend everything the# [; way — “God likes it this way” or “God thinks this is good”, not with s'- h intellectual stance like “it is necessary to do such-in-such for thebeneitj (mankind, etc.).” Now don’t get me wrong on this point, one can still be a Christian 1 | lem, Buddist, etc.) and believe as they do, but if you can’t argue yourofT ions in an intellectual way, you have no reason to argue in the first plate I I respect Karl Pallmeyer’s column. I do not agree with everything'| writes, but I do not go saying that he should go to hell for it. Sometiitf [ wonder if he writes certain things in this column just to get the typed/1 sponse he gets from people like the Foardes. Robert Martin ’87 There are some people who are laughing because the oil barons have to sell spare oil at $ 1 7 a barrel. I don’t happen to be one of them. It’s true that OPEC had every intention of stick ing it to the non oil-producing countries, but that doesn’t mean we should all be acting like Chi cago Bear fans. Just the other day the oil prince, El Glamie, a polo-playing friend of mine, stopped me on Fourteenth Street and asked me if I wanted to buy a “genuine” Rolex watch. When he recognized me he seemed embarrassed. “Your Highness,” I said, “what are you doing selling Rolex watches on Fourteenth Street?” “Where would you sell them if crude was dropping to $16 a barrel?” “But surely you’ll still make more money selling oil than watches.” “I might, except everybody has a lien on my crude. I can’t ship a barrel of it without some credit union seizing it in a foreign port. Fortunately they don’t know about my watch business.” “Why watches?” I asked him. “When oil was $36 a barrel I bought 10,000 watches to hand out as tips to the hotel help when I traveled abroad. Now it turns out the watches are worth more than my oil. Don’t you need a timepiece that will tell you the phase of the moon?” I said, “I can’t believe you’re that broke. What about the military equip ment you bought? That’s got to be worth something.” “Master Charge took it all back when I missed two payments.” “I neverthought I’d see a Middle East prince down on his luck.” “Neither did I,” El Glamie said. “The last time I was in Washington I slept at the White House. Now I’m sleeping across the street.” “In a hotel?” “No, in Lafayette Park. Do you know what is driving the price of oil down? It’s greed.” “I thought that’s what drove the price of oil up. As I recall it was OPEC’s greed that almost bankrupted the world.” “That wasn’t greed. That was supply and demand.There wasn’t enough oil to go around so we had to raise prices.” “But doesn’t the reason they tumbled also have to do with supply and de mand?” “No, that was lust. Everybody who was pledged - to drill so much crude cheated and caused a glut. Then be cause of the glut they had to produce more crude which produced more crude and then it was just glut, glut, glut.” I asked the prince, “How can you ex pect OPEC to honor their quotas when they are in hock up to their ears for so many of the good things in life? I would think you would keep drilling even if you got $5 a barrel.” “I would,” the prince said, “only I don’t own the oil. The insurance compa nies do.” “How come the insurance companies own your oil?” “I borrowed $100 million to build a new airport and air-conditioned polo Field.” “Why would you do that?” “To attract tourists so my country no longer has to depend on oil.” Art Buchwald is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Correction The address in Thursday’s letter concerning the fund to rebuM i space shuttle ‘Challenger’ was incorrect. Contributions should be sent® Space Shuttle Fund P.O. Box 51-L Colorado Springs CO 80901 The Battalion regrets the error. The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Editor Managing Editor Opinion Page Editor City Editor Nbws Editor Sports Editor .Michell'-'l ..M Loren-'; .Jem® 1 .Cathie Aw# Travis # Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M and lege Sta tion. V’fej I Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author and do not necessarilyrtp^' ' 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^' Department of Communications. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday | nation periods. Mail subscriptions arc $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Adren^f { furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77813 [ Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. |