Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, November 20,1987
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism 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&rM 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.
Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX 77843-4 111.
Second classjpostage 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.
Too many drivers
The committee report on the Iran-Contra affair has been re
leased, and it finds no trace of the long-sought “smoking gun”
that would indicate President Reagan approved the transfer of
funds to the Nicaraguan rebels.
But Reagan does not escape unscathed. The report paints a
picture of a foreign policy gone out of control, one where “too
many drivers — and never the right ones — steering in too
many directions took the Iran initiative down the road to failu
re.” And again: “If the president did not know what his national
security advisers were doing, he should have.”
Indeed he should have. At the least, Reagan demonstrated
negligence and incompetence by allowing advisers to run his
foreign policy for him. At his worst, he fostered an atmosphere
in which laws apparently were made to be broken.
But the report clearly is written by a committee that wants to
bolster Congress’ role in foreign policy. To that end, it proposes
several solutions, such as requiring the president to notify Con
gress of any covert operations within 48 hours. Given Congress’
notorious inability to keep information from leaking, these rec
ommendations would only serve to hamstring any U.S. covert
actions.
The problem, as the committee realized, is a lack of lead
ership in the White House. But the solution is better leadership,
not inflexible regulations. Such regulations won’t fix the mess
we have in the White House now; they will only punish future
presidents for Reagan’s follies.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
‘Cheating awareness’
won’t end cheating
Doug
Driskell
Guest Columnist
This week was
Cheating Aware
ness Week — at
least that’s what an
ad in The Battal-
ion told me. This
week was generously sponsored by the
Student Government Academic Affairs
Committee. And, as far as I can under
stand, the purpose was to make students
comfortable with the idea of reporting
cheaters.
How, you may ask, are they going to
do that? By running ads in the school
newspaper, of course. The first slogan I
read pertaining to cheating was, “You
can’t cheat in the real world . . .” Hog-
wash! The United States is full of cheat
ers, and this is why we have cheating at
A&M. Cheating is not something that
can be resolved in one week. It is going
to take a restructuring of morals. Just
this year we were exposed to some very
famous cheaters. Sen. Joe “I plagarized”
Biden was forced to withdraw from the
presidential campaign because of his
methods of learning in law school. I
wonder how he got that far without get
ting caught? Apparently, he cheated,
and I do think he is living in the real
world.
Another example is the chief law en
forcement officer of our great nation,
Attorney General Edwin “Wedtech”
Meese. This man has carefully cheated
the average citizen by using his position
to gain a profit.
Let me define cheating. Cheating is
seeking to gain what one could not gain
or is unwilling to gain by his ability
alone. Or, as Webster put it, “to deprive
or influence something valuable by the
use of deceit or fraud.” Spelled back
wards, Ed Meese. The punishment for
cheating? Well, that depends on who
you are. If you are an influential person
and you get caught cheating on your in
come taxes, (which by the way goes on a
lot in the United States — only 80 per
cent of the citizens pay all of their taxes)
you get fined and maybe, just maybe,
you go to jail.
And for those of you who think Ag
gies don’t cheat, a management profes
sor recently asked his class how many of
them would act on insider information.
The response was that 95 percent of
these Aggies would not hesitate to use it.
Hey, they are just making a buck, right?
Wrong. That is cheating, but I won’t
tell. Just remember the moral given by
everyone: You can cheat; just don’t get
caught.
But we’re still talking about the real
world here. Now let’s enter the world of
sports. Many baseball players have been
caught cheating recently. For all of you
Astros fans, do you remember out
fielder Billy Hatcher? He was caught us
ing a corked bat. His punishment? Sus
pension from playing for 15 days.
I recall sitting in an interview with
Jim Palmer. He said cheating has always
been with us in baseball — these guys
just got caught.
The question now is, why do people
cheat? In the case of baseball, it is to win,
and winning means money. So, maybe
people cheat for money. So, an obvious
solution is to get rid of money. Wrong! I
mean, students come to college to estab
lish a career which will make them
money. I always hear people talking
about the jobs they want and how much
they pay (some people major in subjects
that do not mean big bucks, i.e. philo
sophers. I am sure there are many other
majors like this). So, if college is just a
means to gain money, doesn’t college it
self breed cheating? I don’t know; you
tell me.
Back to sports, but this time here at
A&M. I have had professors tell me de
tailed stories of how they gave certain
sports figures failing grades. Mys
teriously, these grades have been
changed to passing — or sometimes bet
ter — grades. Now, these guys are big
sports fans, and I do not think they are
making up these stories. Who is really
cheating here? The student obviously
didn’t cheat because he failed. So some
one did something along the lines of
cheating for him. Is this a problem? Yes.
Will it be solved? Not publicly, that’s for
sure. Enough with sports.
Thursday’s quote provided by Stu
dent Government was, “The Russians
advocate cheating, should we?” Who are
they quoting? They did not say the
Communists or even the Soviets, but
Russians. I hope exchange students
don’t go over to the Soviet Union and
think everyone is a cheater. And I don’t
recall the Russians advocating cheating.
I can picture it now: a big parade in Red
Square, thousands of troops marching
and, in the background, pictures of all
of their leaders wearing buttons that
read “Cheat or you will be hanged.”
Examples of cheating are all around
us, but I am not trying to advocate
cheating. Maybe breeding suspicion
among students will breed better stu
dents. I don’t think so. I think profes
sors should lay down the law at the be
ginning of the semester by making the
consequences of cheating clear. Money
spent by Student Government for ad
vertisements can be used for a more
worthy cause.
As a philosophy professor just told
me, making people aware of cheating is
like putting a deadbolt lock on your
door to discourage the amateur thief.
Doug Driskell is a senior journalism ma
jor and a staff writer for The Battalion.
Opinion
Life: What a stressful situation
Sondra
Pickar
4
7th
Stress — it’s
real.
I’ve heard a lot
of talk about it the
last couple of
weeks. The pres
sure builds up and
attacks. Seniors
and undergrad
uates alike become
victims — no one
is spared. It’s lurk
ing on campus,
and at this point in the semester,
simply no way out.
I can’t see it, but I feel it. It’s here.
Even before I opened my eyes Thurs
day morning, it was there. Waiting.
Lurking. Pounding.
“Get out of bed,” it said. “Your his
tory take-home test that you’ve had for
two weeks is due tomorrow and you
haven’t started reading yet! Your statis
tics project should be finished before
Thanksgiving — that gives you four
days! You’ve got three novels and at
least ten short stories on your next En
glish test, not to mention the five-page
paper that’s due Monday! And don’t
forget, you’re supposed to graduate in
three weeks! Do you have a job yet?
And, oh, by the way, you’re still editor
of that paper. You’ve only got eight
hours to write your column, and you
haven’t even thought of a subject yet!
Get going!”
“No,” I shouted back. “It’s freezing in
here, I can’t afford to run the heater,
my favorite pair of jeans that I wanted
to wear today are dirty, I’m tired, I’m
hungry, there’s nothing in the fridge, I
was up all night trying to finish that his
tory test, I haven’t finished two of the
novels or any of the short stories, I
haven’t started the paper. Statistics pro
ject? Graduation? Job? Column? Leave
me alone!”
Stress — it’s real.
The sad fact hit me this morning
while reading the newspaper.
“Stress cause of hospitalization for 49
students,” the headline read. Appar
ently 49 junior and senior high school
students in Massachusetts have been
hospitalized in the last three years for
the same ailment — stress and stress-re
lated conditions.
I knew it was bad, but I never thought
I was in danger of being hospitalized,
and I never considered it a form of
mental illness. I guess after a while the
paranoia builds up and surrounds you.
Then, when you absolutely can’t take it
any more, stress monsters come out of
the walls and drag you off to the nearest
mental ward.
Stress — it’s real.
The Battalion newsroom is no excep
tion. Stress is everywhere. On every
face, at every computer terminal, on ev
ery phone.
There’s the queen of stress — Photo
Editor Tracy “Ya’ll, why am I so stres
sed?” Staton. I’m convinced that Tracy
was born stressed, but the last few weeks
she’s had a permanently dazed look
about her. Yesterday at lunch, during
one of her less-successful stress fits,
Tracy attacked the refried beans on her
plate with a fork, saying she wanted “to
destroy something.” I think it’s getting
to her.
To my right is John Jarvis, managing
editor.
“I’m flagging a class. I can’t find a
job. I’ve got to send out resumes. When
will I live next semster? What will 1 dor
John is stressed.
Then there’s Rodney “I’m never
stressed” Rather, city editor. But it was
definitely stress that came over his face
Thursday morning as he prepared him
self to explain to yet another stressed
someone why we couldn’t run a panic
ular article in the paper. It was a sad
sight, seeing Rodney stressed. Just for
kicks, l reminded him that he hasn’t
started his take-home history test that's
due today either, and that he’s also
graduating in three weeks but doesnt
have a job.
Stress — it’s real. But it’s so mucheas
ier when you’re not alone.
Stress has caught up with Opinion
Page Editor Sue Krenek, too. She was
getting by just fine until the 3.5 billion
letters to the editor about bonfire came
in the mail. We tried to calm her, butto
no avail. In an uncontrollable frenzy,
Sue haphazardly published all of the let
ters in one day, taking up two whole
pages in the paper. She’s calmed downa
bit since then, but she also has the same
take-home history test due today that
Rodney and I do. She hasn’t started ei
ther.
Sue’s stressed.
But at least now she doesn’t have to
worry about my column not comingin.
Sondra Pickard is a senior journalism
major and editor o/The Battalion.
Mail Call
Save the elephants
EDITOR:
On Nov. 24, the seniors will once again gather around
the statue of Sully at noon to begin Elephant Walk. This
year we have a few favors to ask of Aggies.
Elephant Walk is intended to be the seniors’ day. It is a
time of reflection for the seniors, an opportunity to gather
with good friends, and a way to show their support for a
victory over t.u. Over the past 10 years, this tradition has
been jeopardized. Junior-senior interaction — has caused
several problems, including major injuries and the
trashing of our campus.
In a concerted effort to preserve the Elephant Walk
tradition, a group of student leaders and students, juniors
and seniors alike, have made the decision to highly
discouragejunior involvement in Elephant Walk this year.
Not only will this keep unnecessary injuries from
occurring, but it will also preserve the tradition for future
classes who may not get to enjoy it if the problems
continue.
We would like to call upon our fellow juniors and
seniors to help out. If you are a senior and you are
approached during Elephant Walk by another student,
please try to discourage the interaction and continue
walking. Juniors are encouraged to participate in activities
that have been planned for them on the day of Elephant
Walk. There will be a pull-out yell practice headed by the
junior yell leaders at 1:00 p.m. at the statue of Sully.
Immediately following yell practice, the Glass of’89 will
have pictures taken with the live elephants out at bonfire
site.
With all this in mind, let us all help to get Elephant
Walk back to a senior activity and preserve the tradition.
Your support and cooperation will be greatly appreciated.
Beat the hell outta t.u.!!!
Andrea R. Beshara
president, Class of’88
Denise Arledge
president, Class of ’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.
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