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. |