Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, November 5,1987
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwestjournalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Sondra Pickard, Editor
John Jarvis, Managing Editor
Sue Krenek, Opinion Page Editor
Rodney Rather, City Editor
Robbyn Lister, News Editor
Loyd Brumfield, Sports Editor
Tracy Staton, Photo Editor
Editorial Policy
The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper oper
ated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Sta
tion.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial
board or the author, and do not necessarily represent the 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 within the Depart
ment of Journalism.
The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during
Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination
periods.
Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school
year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on re
quest.
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University , C '' je S' ".ion, TX 77843-4111.
Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, 216
Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station TX
77843-4111.
Pay up — later
University officials made the right choice when they decided
to let students pay residence hall and meal plan fees on an instal
lment plan.
The current installment plan, which allows students to
spread out payments for tuition and required fees, was a step in
the right direction toward helping financially troubled students
stay in school. But its usefulness was limited because optional
fees — including room and board — still had to be paid up
front.
Under the new plan, use fees and other optional fees (such
as those for sports ticket books) still must be paid in advance.
But students who live or eat on campus will find payment more
convenient. In a time of rising tuition costs, it’s good to see the
University try to ease the financial burden on its students.
Wanna bet
Texans moved toward economic diversification by voting
Tuesday to legalize pari-mutuel betting, but state officials
should consider the vote as much a warning as a blessing.
Legalized gambling was opposed by religious groups and by
those who said it would bring organized crime to Texas. Despite
that opposition, voters turned out in higher-than-expected
numbers and approved the referendum by a wide margin. They
were no doubt swayed by the state’s dismal economic picture
and the situation in Louisiana, where racing is the state’s fourth
biggest industry and brought in $500 million in wagers last year.
State officials should take note: Texans evident!) are so disil
lusioned with the state’s economy that many of them overcame
moral misgivings to vote for a plan that won’t generate revenue
for several years. That level of dissatisfaction will make itself felt
again, probably when it comes time to elect public officials. You
— and the officials whose jobs are on the line — can bet on it.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
Texas prison inmate
has profitable idea
Some convicts
spend their time
counting the long
days. But not Eric
Echols. He’s trying
to start a mail-or
der business — or
a scam of sorts —
while he’s locked
up in the Texas
prison system. Mike
He’s sending RoykO
spicy love letters to
women. And he says that if they enjoy
his letters, he will keep them coming da
ily— for a fee.
One such letter was recently received
by a Chicagoan, Jan Kodner.
“I don’t know how he got my name,”
Jan said. “Probably out of a phone book.
But I was surprised, especially by the
tone of the letter.”
Although the letter was handwritten,
it’s obviously one of many that have
been run off on a copying machine.
It says: “Hi! Do you like to receive let
ters from guys? If you’re a mature, sin
gle woman like I heard, I’m sure you do.
“What kind of letters? Romantic? In
teresting? Spicy? Stimulating? Friendly?
Chatty?
“How about all of the above?
“Wouldn’t it be great if every time
you went to your mailbox you’d find a
letter from a guy waiting for you? And
not just ordinary letters, but very special
and thrilling letters.”
He goes on to explain that he is 23,
single, an ex-Marine and is in prison
due to “a most tragic confrontation with
the law.”
Then he gushes on: “For a long time,
I’ve wished I had a woman I could write
to every night just before I go to bed. I’d
like this woman to be not just my friend
but also my ‘dream lover.’
“I think you’re the kind of woman I
could really learn to like a lot. It would
be good for me to have a woman like
you to write to — and I know it would be
good for you, too!
“I’d like to get out of here someday
and make my dream come true. (I’ll tell
you more about my dream when I know
you better.)”
Said Jan, who received the letter, “I
found that dream lover stuff a bit for
ward.”
Then Eric’s prose becomes even more
titillating. “I’ll try extra hard to make all
my letters the kind you’ll love to read. I
have a great imagination — that’s why I
daydream and fantasize so much.
“And sometimes I’d like to describe
things you and I would be doing TO
GETHER — special things in special
places.
“I’ll always try to cheer you up and
I’ll always try to make you feel loved,
wanted, needed — and stimulated!
“I’m very macho and definitely not a
wimp. I’m all man! And I’d like to have
a special kind of relationship with you.
So this may be the start of something
wonderful for both of us.
“I’m willing to take a chance on you,
if you’re willing to take a chance on me.
So how about it? Won’t you at least give
me a chance to tell you a little more
about myself and try to make you hap-
py”
Then came the pitch:
“Let’s try it, shall we? Let me write to
you every weekday for two weeks.
You’ll receive 10 letters.
“All I ask you to do is send me $ 10 to
take care of the postage, stationery and
so on. That’s not asking too much, is it?
“I’ve sent you an inmate trust fund
deposit slip. Follow the directions, then
write me a letter telling me that you’ve
sent it.
“You just wouldn’t believe how eager
I am to hear from you — and to begin
our thrilling adventure together.
“Love, Eric.”
And there was a form enclosed that
permits people to send money to Eric,
by way of the inmate trust fund, which
handles prisoners’ money.
Will Jan send $10 to get Eric’s dreams
and fantasies of things they would be
doing together — “special things in spe
cial places.”
“To be honest,” Jan said, “I am cu
rious about what fantasies he has about
the two of us.
“And I do enjoy getting mail as much
as the next person, although I am a hap
pily married man — my first child being
due next month.
“So I have sent him my picture,” said
Jan, an attorney.
“Maybe when Mr. Echols sees my
bald head and bushy beard, I can have
his ‘postage and handling’ fee reduced.”
Copyright 1987, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
Opinion
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Helpful hints for picking classes
It’s the time of
the year again to
open up those il
lustrious course
catalogs and try to
make an in-
formed decision
about which
classes to take
next semester.
The choices are
never easy, which
is unfortunate
DA
Jensen
since they may affect the rest of your
life, or at least your graduation.
You’re bombarded with strange for
eign names, inadequate course titles,
ever-changing course numbers and
nasty morning classes. Where do you
begin now that you aren’t forced to take
the unsolicited advice of an adviser?
Here’s where to start:
• You’re off to a bad start if you set
up a schedule that requires you to be in
class by 8 a.m. every morning. There
are very few people who can success
fully resist the urge to party on a least
one weekday. Think of the agony you’ll
feel the morning after when the alarm
rings at 98 decibels at 6 a.m. If you do
get up and stagger to class, you probably
won’t get much out of it.
Instead of the five-day-a-week re
gime, go the two-day route. By schedul
ing those 8 a.m. mornings on only Tues
day and Thursday, you increase your
attendance rate and retention rate ex
ponentially. You still get out of classes at
a reasonable time, so you have sufficient
party time or soap time — but not at the
expense of your education.
• If you must take the 8 a.m. class,
avoid the professor with the name you
cannot pronounce, read or recognize. If
the name looks like a mutated form of
alphabet soup, chances are you won’t
understand a word said during lecture.
Beware of this section even if it is taught
at a more civilized time of the day. The
time may not help your comprehension.
There are rules governing the lan
guage proficiency of foreign graduate
students, but they are essentially useless
since the consumers of the class aren’t
given the opportunity to influence
them. They don’t apply to professors at
all.
This class can be safe if you have a
working knowledge of the material be
fore entering the class. It’s easier to un
derstand what’s happening if you al
ready know the basics.
• Avoid classes that are listed as
STAFF in the catalogue. This is a possi
ble indication that you may get stuck
with a graduate student who didn’t find
out he was teaching the class until the
day before it started. This is a real dan
ger. You know who suffers.
The class can end up unorganized
and useless, taught by an unprepared,
hostile graduate student. Express your
concern to the graduate student. Most
try to accommodate you. If you don’t
obtain satisfaction at this level, a trip to
the department head is required. Save
this as the last resort.
• Now there are team-taught classes.
These have the potential to offer stu
dents a multi-faceted view of a single
subject. It sounds like a good idea, but
for the students it often spells disaster.
Just imagine. You get over the hump
of the first exam and have actually
started to enjoy the class. You’re accus
tomed to the lecture style of the profes
sor and have become an efficient note-
taker. BOOM.
Friday’s professor is gone on Monda
There is a stranger in front of theroon
telling you how the new section of tin
class is designed. You’ve lost the com
fortable, familiar learning atmosphert
It’s time to explore new lands and expt
rience new test formats. Instead ofc<®
centrating on learning, you are forcedti
concentrate on learning the new profs
sor’s style.
• Don’t automatically take the class
that is supposed to be a blow-off. Inett
tably you will be the one person who gets
the yahoo who wants to finally make the
class a challenge. You end up struggling
in the class you thought was going to
make your life a breeze.
• The last class of classes to avoid arc
those that have a Notes-n-Quotes grad
uate student doing your note-taking
work for you. This is ultimately detri
mental to your course grade. You willtx
tempted to skip class. If you do go to
class you will be tempted to daydream
The $21 spent on Note-n-Quotes wi
take you through the class. Or so you
think. Try again.
Notes taken by another person,
matter how comprehensive, cannot bf
substituted for the learning that takes
place as you listen to a lecture and write
it down. These people are doing you a
service only if the prepackaged notes are
used as a supplement to your own hand
iwork. Don’t be fooled.
• My last bit of advice is to totally ig
nore all the advice I’ve given so far. It’s
nonsense. I’ve never based my decision
about a class on any of the above
guidelines, and I’ve gotten a high qualit]
education so far. Sometimes it’s a chad
lenge, but that’s why we’re here.
D.A. Jensen is a senior journalism ffl
jor and a columnist for The Battalion
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Since when is morality passe?
EDITOR:
For a whole semester, I have been subjected to reading
the romp on Brian Frederick letters in The Battalion, and
I’m trying to understand what all the fuss is about.
Why is someone who believes in a standard of ethics
and sticks to them called a “fascist” or a “neo-Nazi”? I think
Frederick’s columns are good because he seems to stick to
his guns in what he says. That’s rare.
Since when is morality and patriotism passe? It would
be interesting to see what the left-wing members of
campus would think of me. “Fascist Nazi” they would
shout if they knew I saluted the flag or honored the fact
that many Americans (including Aggies) fought to keep
this country free, and that I would give my life to do the
same.
These people sicken me with their lack of guts. They
wave flowers and say “peace” while our enemies prepare to
destroy us. To Iran we are “the great Satan which must be
destroyed.” It is us or them. I don’t like it at all, but so goes
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life. We should offer the best intentions, certainly. But we
must be ready for the worst.
So if these views are fascism, then indeed Frederick is a
fascist. And so am I. And so are the founding fathers, and
so is God. Because his standard is higher than all ours, and
he sticks to it, even if I don’t.
James Sexton ’89
Who's the Czar?
EDITOR:
Pardon me, but would someone please tell me who’s
the Czar who decided to convert the tower dining room
into a faculty lounge? Also, is this the same person who
changed the senior ring requirements? I need to know so I
can take him or her off my Christmas card list.
Paul J. Russell ’89
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
classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
by BerKe Breathed
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