Page ZAThe Battalion/Friday, December 12, 1986
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Loren Steffy, Editor
Marybeth Rohsner, Managing Editor
Mike Sullivan, Opinion Page Editor
Jens Koepke, City Editor
Jeanne Isenberg, Sue Krenek, News Editors
Homer Jacobs, Sports Editor
Editorial Policy
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tion.
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A taxing ordeal
College students face some of the most sweeping changes of fed
eral tax reform — but students have less information on reform than
almost anyone else.
Two days after President Reagan signed the reform measures
into law, brokers at E.F. Hutton had copies of the law and a compre
hensive summary of the changes. Two months later, students and fi
nancial aid officers are still in the dark about the changes the law en
tails.
The difference is bureaucracy. E.F. Hutton documented the
changes as they were proposed, making it simple to send out summa
ries as soon as the law passed. But while some reform measures took
effect immediately, the law still had to pass through the U.S. Depart
ment of Education’s formidable regulation machine.
Laws dealing with education don’t go directly to universities. In
stead, the department rewrites the laws into official regulations,
which are then passed on to schools.
The problem, A&M director of student financial aid Taft Ben
son says, is that the Department of Education takes from two to six
months to write its regulations. In the meantime, students and their
schools can only guess at what reform will do to them.
And guessing is no good when the stakes are this high. University
of Southern California Treasurer Dennis F. Doughtery told News
week that the new rules “just about triple the tax liability of students”
and Benson estimates that 2,000 of A&M’s 7,000 Guaranteed Stu
dent Loan recipients may no longer qualify for the program.
The changes also limit the deductibility of charitable donations to
universities and eliminate the deductions for loan interest, schol
arships and grants. A related change makes the federal GSL pro
gram need-based for the first time.
Texas A&M’s Office of Student Financial Aid has received word
on only the change in the GSL program — and that notification
came weeks after the changes took effect.
High school students are faring no better. Bryan High School se
nior counselor Peggy White says she’s requested information on tax
reform but has received none. Worse, she says, her students — and
their parents —seem uninformed about legislation that may affect
their college careers drastically.
“I’ve had maybe one student ask out of 600 seniors,” she says.
“That’s not too good.”
But what’s bad for the students may be good for the financial
planners. While university aid officers read magazine accounts of re
form changes, financial analysts and consultants examine copies of
the law or detailed summary statements. With only profit to gain,
they have access to the information desperately needed by college
students.
The Department of Education must speed up its ponderous reg
ulation process. Students rarely have the financial resources to wait
six months for word on aid program changes, and lack of informa
tion could leave some students without any way to pay for school.
Dealing with the department’s dawdling may prove an education
in itself— but the school of hard knocks is a poor substitute for a di
ploma.
Health center won’t
sleep over untimely
lose an
illnesses
It was the first
home football
game of the sea
son, and one of
the guys I went to
the game with got
sick.
He got food
poisoning from a
fast-food ham
burger and spent
the entire first half
barfing in a bath-
room. We left at halftime
and carried
our friend to the University health cen
ter, also known as the quack shack.
Apparently Paul got sick at an incon
venient time.
The clinic was closed. I rang the
buzzer located next to the locked door
and spoke into the intercom.
“Uh, hello. My friend’s sick.”
An unconcerned voice questioned
back.
“Is this an emergency.”
“Uh, I guess it depends on whether
or not you consider someone throwing
up all over your door an emergency.”
Unfortunately, my response didn’t
move the voice to let us in. Obviously
the person behind the voice didn’t have
to clean the door.
“I’m sorry, the clinic’s closed. Can you
wait til Monday?”
The voice must have heard my
thoughts.
“If it’s an emergency, call an ambu
lance on the red phone located next to
the intercom.”
‘And say what,” I thought. “Hi, I’m
Lie detector tells about Iran
A modest pro
posal, Jonathan
Swift style: Why
not have all the
top members of
the Reagan ad
ministration, in
cluding the presi
dent, take lie-
detector tests to
determine who is
telling the truth
about arms to
Richard
Cohen
Iran, cash to the contras and a foreign
policy that would make Rambo look
prudent? Surely, nobody but Secretary
of State George Shultz could object.
Once, Schultz adamantly refused to
be polygraphed. That was a year ago
when the president, obsessed about
leaks to the press, ordered the wiring of
government officials to lie-detector ma
chines. Shultz balked, threatened to re
sign and the president backed down.
Reagan took the occasion, though, to
endorse such tests, calling them “a lim
ited, though sometimes useful tool.”
Well, isn’t it time to use the “useful
tool”?
The first to be wired up should be At
torney General Edwin Meese III. Meese
did not object when the president sug
gested the wholesale polygraphing of
the government. Then, the issue was
leaked to the press, a so-called national
security concern. Whatever it was, it was
trivial compared to what has happened
recently. Now, the Reagan administra
tion’s credibility is in tatters, laws may
have been broken and the nation’s for
eign policy is, we are told, adrift. Take a
seat, Ed.
Next on the machine should go White
House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, the
man in charge of all things wonderful
and nothing awful. If you follow the
Meese rule that all suspects are guilty —
“If a person is innocent of a crime, then
he is not a suspect,” he told U.S. News &
World Report — Regan’s guilt is a fore
gone conclusion. Nevertheless, for the
sake of formality, he ought to be wired
and asked if he knew what Lt. Col. Oli
ver North was up to. Did he know that
money for American arms was going
from Iran to Nicaraguan contras? Re
gan says no, but the machine just might
say otherwise. Sit down, Don.
As soon as Regan gets up, former Na
tional Security Adviser John Poindexter
should sit down. He was said by Meese
to have known of North’s activities in a
“general way,” but the machine, I am
sure, will demand precision. As long as
you’re into polygraphing, you might as
well be into hearsay testimony.
CIA Director William Casey would be
next. Here is a man who says one thing
one day and another the next. Casey
might just send the needle across the
room. He said the CIA was not involved
in the transfer of funds from Iran to Is
rael to the contras, and now he says,
well, it just might have been. He also
says that the CIA basically was unaware
of the entire operation. The polygraph
ing of Casey will require an industrial-
strength machine.
Ollie North? Any man who takes the
Fifth Amendment a reported 40 times
before the Senate Intelligence Commit
tee is crying out to be polygraphed. If
he were a member of a leftist Hollywood
union in the 1940s, the president would
have condemned him for taking the
Fifth; as it was, Reagan praised North as
“a national hero.” This hero needs to be
wired.
Of course, I write this tongue-in-
cheek. The polygraph does not detect
lies; it detects stress. A really good liar
can fool it. A nervous but truthful per
son can appear to be a liar. For this rea
son, the results of lie-detector tests can
not be admitted as evidence in some
state and all federal courts. In one
study, the machine was wrong 49 per
cent of the time; in another, the ma
chine was off 55 percent the time.
But the administration adores the
little machines and has used them with
abandon. It wired pentagon employees
to determine who leaked information to
a Washington Post reporter. And on
March 11 of last year, the president or
dered widespread testing of many fed
eral employees on pain of dismissal. It
took Schultz to back the president
down. Reagan said his order was misin
terpreted, and it was modified — but
not his belief in the device.
So now we come to the president. If I
can make my proposal a bit less modest,
I suggest that polygraphing of Ronald
Reagan be done on prime-time tele
vision. With Reagan on most of the
screen and the needle in the right-hand
corner, members of the Senate could
ask him questions: Did North tell him he
was using Iranian money to fund the
contras? Did Don Regan say anything
about it? Did Poindexter ever mention
it? How about Casey and Meese? Mr.
President, what did you know? When
did you know it? And if you didn’t know
anything, how come?
It’s just a modest proposal.
standing here with my sick friend and
the doors are locked. Do you have the
keys?”
Once again the voice heard me and
responded with more helpful advice.
“Why don’t you go to an AM/PM cli
nic.”
I finally realized taking my friend to
an after-hours clinic was the only feasi
ble solution outside an expensive hospi
tal emergency room.
“Good idea. Where is one?"
“Uh, hold on.”
The voice finally came back with di
rections, which turned out to be wrong,
and our self-appointed ambulance
raced off in search of medical attention
for Paul.
This exchange made me realize that
weekends and nights are not a good
time to get sick. My friend’s illness was
inconvenient.
'The University used to
pay local doctors $75 each
week night to remain on
call. Unfortunately, many
of the physicians wouldn’t
come in when needed.
These longstanding prob
lems between the health
center and the physicians
led to the decision to elimi
nate night and weekend
outpatient services.
Formerly, the health center’s staff
physicians were on call over the week
ends on a rotating basis but were not
paid anything in addition to their regu
lar salaries. Staff physicians now have
guaranteed weekends off without a pay
cut.
This attitude of “it’s my day off, so
you can’t be sick” suggests that treat
ment can only be given when the doc
tor’s schedule permits. The University
doctors must be reminded that their job
is to serve their patients when they need
medical attention.
Students at the University pay for
health care through fees and should be
guaranteed that someone will treat
them, day or night, if they’re sick. If the
present fees don’t cover the costs, then
increase them.
This incident also mademefl
that nobody at the health centers
Paul was really sick or not. Aniss
should have been given primanc]
ei ation came in a distant second
I know many students whor
the health center because the iia B* * le
to convince them that theiriUnel! 1011 ' ),f (
nor or doesn t require treatraet: G )r
Another friend of mine hadafofspri
ther drive three hours to brintB» a
script ion from their family php pStan h
cause when she went to tilt
centei, they said there wasnotfc
Hpmei
Mtvost
could do. I hey told her she’d
to get over it. Th< i
1 he compassion she received^ etl! hr
tears to my eyes. Of course.tk
this special attention only bee
was considerate enough to get t
ing t he center’s office hours.
But what about people likeij
get sick duringiij
hours? Surely, itij
penalize someone I
ting sick at night. J
exactly what happf j
wasted valuable til
ting with the voij
Paid suffered.
B
And the clinical
found was no beffl
greeting we receive I
made me think back to the sw I
at the health center.
The obsession in our societvt l
ing everything convenientcan: |
plied to medicine. The doctfl
ability and concern for patient I
part of the treatment. Maybeil
Mom’s chicken noodle soup*
made me feel better. Shedidni*
illness as an inconvenience.
Unfortunately, 1 don’t seeatjB
diate change in the Universit' B
care policy.
1 just hope the bacteria ir"f
play by the same rules and n p
my body is only open forillnest H
the hours of 8 a.m. andlpni H
through Friday.
Jo Streit is a senior joumdrf
and a columnist for The Battd l
Copyright 1986, Washington Post Writers Group
Mail Call
An unbiased opinion?
EDITOR:
In response to a letter accusing /Vie Battalion of bias, you made a ^
revealing remark: “Opinions are supposed to be biased, that’s why the'
opinions.”
I don’t believe that opinions are “supposed to be” biased. Totheci)" 1
I would hope that a writer’s published opinions constitute his best,
constructive, most thoughtful and well-informed assessment of thei#
hand, and that he makes his views known with due regard lot reader
sensitivity and the power of the written word.
Bias is commonly understood (and usually defined) to mean prejii | ' i j
an attitude which inhibits impartial judgment. Therefore, although op 115
are subjective, they need not be biased. It may even happen thattwoo]
are opposite, yet both are unbiased because both examine the issuefai
The Battalion Editorial Board does us no favors when it seeks to ^
what it perceives as bias in the community with biases of its own. ButlM
paper can perform a great service as informant and commentator#
makes a genuine effort to avoid bias within its own ranks beforeexaiit'q
reporting an issue.
Paul Koch
Graduate Student
4
ort to /#'
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The e
the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effi
author’s intent. Each tetter must be signed and must include the classified
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