W/YIVll*: overcoming an image problem
By Tamara Bell
Staff Writer
SwAMP is returning to
the A&>M campus.
After a one-year hiatus dur
ing which “Students Working
Against Many Problems” un
derwent a major overhaul, the
group is back, working to re
duce poverty in the Bryan/Col
lege Station area.
When SWAMP started four
years ago, the founding friends
had no real goals, says Dave El
lis, president of the organiza
tion. If they saw an issue on
campus they liked, they’d work
to solve it, or at least bring it to
the attention of the student
body. Ellis says their main ob
jective was to get people to
laugh.
ack when we
started, A<SpM was narrow
minded and conservative,” he
says. “Any male caught wear
ing WillieWear on campus was
considered a homosexual. We
wanted to establish a new
group of people. We weren’t
satisfied with the school’s good
ole’ boy image, and I’m not be
ing derogatory. Everyone fitted
into a mold four years ago.
“Not only did we want to
break the mold, but we wanted
to get people to laugh on cam
pus be cause everyone always
takes school and themselves too
seriously.”
In order to hear the sound of
laughter, SWAMP sponsored a
car. show one semester, Ellis
says. It was an unusual show
because only banged up cars
could enter. The group also es
tablished the Jerry Falwell Fed
eration of Religious Youth (FRY)
with the goal of burning books.
t was a satirical look
at a serious problem,” Ellis
says. “The police threatened to
arrest us if we burned a book
on campus. That was encour
aging. We also conducted a pro-
nuclear war day when missiles
were moved into Europe.
“These activities were de
signed to get students to under
stand they shouldn’t feel threat
ened by opposing view points.
Why does a student believe this
particular belief? And the best
way to get people to listen is
through laughter.”
pilUI^b ClllU UUICDUUIVO me
ceiling, and recently, in re-
—-
When members of Students
Working Against Many Prob
lems (SWAMP) announced
their intention of walking of
the MSC grass in November of
1984, about 1,000 students
showed up to prevent the
group from carrying out its
plan.
As the club’s membership ex
panded, the group drew up a
platform. One of their first tar
get areas was making students
aware of the need to question
traditions.
The grass incident in Novem
ber 1984 caused quite a stir on
the campus, Ellis says. Mem
bers of SWAMP held an open
forum in front of Rudder Tower
in which they publicly pro
tested against the tradition of
not walking on the grass.
Ellis says they picked this
particular action to point out
student apathy on campus and
get people thinking, not just
blindly following the leader. So,
they .were surprised when
about 1,000 students showed
up to form a to prevent SWAMP
from sitting on the grass.
“Now, about 1,000 people
can claim they kept people
from walking on the grass,” he
says. “Wow.”
ven though Ellis sees
the activity as a success, he says
it’s not the most significant un
dertaking the organization has
been involved in. The group
sponsored Free Speech Week a
month before the grass inci
dent. One of the groups sched
uled to speak was the Gay Stu
dent Organization. During the
week, Ellis says he received
threatening phone calls and
some members’ homes were
broken into.
any ciaacia iju ljwu.hi iuhwu, wuu
turned down because his grade
“You just can’t criticize free
speech,” he says, “yet some peo
ple would tell us we were tiying
to stir up trouble on campus.
Now, how can free expression
stir up trouble? If free speech
can’t be tolerated on a univer-
sity campus, then there’s defi
nitely something wrong.”
Although the free ex
pression week was not opposed
by the club members, some did
oppose sitting on the grass, Ellis
says.
“Hugh Stearns, a prominent
club member at the time,
wanted to go on the grass be
cause he wanted to make a pro
test that A&M was too militaiy
and that traditions were dam
aging to progress,” Ellis says.
“It was my belief that this
might have been detrimental to
the good relations we’d had so
far with many students. There
was no need to threaten a me
morial to many people. We
agreed not to go on the grass.
Ellis says the group dis
banded after that.
“There was just too much
bitching,” he says. “We decided
SWAMP would be the means to
an end. And we help people get
to that end.”
Ed Brown II, a sophomore
English major, says SWAMP
used to be a scapegoat for
rowdy students who had some
thing to prove to themselves.
Although he wasn’t a member
at the time of the grass inci
dent, he says SWAMP may have
made some students feel
threatened, and they retaliated
in the only way they knew how,
through macho talk.
“I personally didn’t see
SWAMP as doing anything neg
ative last spring,” he says.
“What they did wasn’t wrong
but some students felt it was.
SWAMP just gave them some
thing to yell about.”
Brown says he knew the “bad
boy” reputation the group had
before he joined this year. But,
he says, even if SWAMP wasn’t
here, people would hear what
he has to say.
JF’m not radical,” he
says, “I still love my mother. I
hate categories because they
stick you in a slot and you have
no chance to grow. I’ve learned
that much in my history clas
ses.”
David Tatege, a senior mar
keting major, says he joined
SWAMP two vears ago because
a friend of his decided to join.
He says not everyone who joins
SWAMP is a political activist.
“I don't necessarily have to
make a statement through
SWAMP,” he says. “I didn’t
want to accomplish anything. I
guess I joined for the hell of
it.”
JiJIowever, some mem
bers do want to accomplish
something within SWAMP’s
format. Yvonne DeGraw, a se
nior journalism major, says she
joined SWAMP because she was
concerned about the conservati-
vism at A&M.
“I'm from California and I
was shocked at the conservati-
vism here,” she says. “SWAMP
had a booth at the MSC open
house and because all the other
organizations were passing out
flyers, SWAMP decided to pass
out their own type of flyers,
census data from Chicago.”
Ellis says the 30 members of
the re-organized SWAMP will
have to overcome the stigma of
being a radical group. He says
students gave them this label
without knowing the club helps
the community through special
projects.
One community project the
club is working on is the pov
erty problem in College Station.
Ellis says there are people who
live in houses with dirt floors.
“My dream goal would be to
have the myriad groups on
campus like Student Govern
ment, religious organizations,
Black Awareness and the nutri
tion club get involved in this
one big project,” he says. “We
have the resources here.
Wood drives at school
are good but they don’t solve
the problem. We’re looking for
a long term solution.”
Ellis says he realizes this
would be a major production if
he could pull it off. Two years
ago the club helped establish an
arts society on campus which is
responsible for the free art
which can be shown outside the
Memorial Student Center. So,
Ellis thinks this goal is just as
attainable.
Meridian,
-* V " t7 CT-
says.