Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, December 4, 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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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, 216
Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station TX
77843-4111.
Fiscal foolishness
Student Senate Speaker Jay Hays called Wednesday’s meet
ing — in which the Senate recommended how 1988-89 student
service fees should be allocated — one of the most productive in
three years. It’s unfortunate that much of the movement seems
to be not progress but regression.
The budget says fee recommendations were made on the ba
sis of which services are vital to students. If so, the Senate cer
tainly has a skewed view of what is vital. The proposal would
force the A.P. Beutal Health Center, the most “vital” service the
University provides for its students, to cut its midnight to 8 a.m.
services — months after emergency after-hours service was re
stored. Using an estimate that only two or three students per day
seek care during those hours, the Senate labeled the service “not
cost efficient.” But in doing so it overlooked what most universi
ties have recognized: the overriding need to provide quality
health care for all students, especially those who can’t afford
outside care.
Meanwhile, the MSC received a whopping 27 percent of al
located fees, second only to the health center. MSC programs
are of high quality and merit the funding they receive, but they
are essentially a fringe benefit of higher education. Designating
them as more “vital” than health care is ludicrous.
The newly created Multicultural Services Center fared even
worse than the health center, with the Senate requesting that all
its funding from student service fees be cut. But the reasons
given for the cut don’t hold water.
The center lists goals concerning minority students, and the
Senate provides a breakdown of those goals into administrative
and student prerogatives. Senators argued that all the student
prerogatives already were addressed by student programs. In
effect, the Senate argued that because only the administration’s
goals are unfulfilled, the administration should fund the entire
program. But student organizations should be more involved in
minority issues, and foisting the issues onto the administration
only creates the impression that the Senate doesn’t realize mi
nority concerns are indeed “vital” in the development of all
A&M students. U r
Senators also were displeased with the Multicultural Services
Center because they said it catered mainly to black students and
because only 65 students sought help there in September. Be
cause of the low number of students vs. the six full-time staff
members, the budget recommends that the staff be reduced to
three people. But the Senate chose to base its decision only on
the center’s first month of operation, hardly a good indicator of
the number and type of students the center will serve once it has
a chance to develop.
These arguments, however, were a smokescreen for the real
objection, that the administration created the center this sum
mer, using student service fee reserves to fund it without seek
ing Senate approval.
In its introduction to the budget, the Senate said students
have the “right and obligation” to decide how student service
fees should be spent. That’s just plain wrong. The Student Sen
ate’s recommendations are just that — recommendations. It’s
important to have student input into how student fees are spent,
but the Senate should not dictate funding, nor should it let
worthwhile programs be the victim of its political battles. The
Senate judged the Multicultural Services Center not on its mer
its but on its potential as a weapon in a political power game. In
so doing, it has used its authority poorly.
The proposal now goes to tne Stuaent Services office, which
in the past has rubber-stamped it. This year, it shouldn’t. And it
can only be hoped that in the future the Student Senate replaces
its political stupidity with some fiscal sense.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
Mail Call
Sorry
EDITOR:
I’m writing in reponse to Ben McGraw’s very eloquent letter concerning
the signs of intelligent life at the R.E.M. concert.
I don’t presume to speak for everyone as does Mr. McGraw, but I
personally don’t feel that I have to fight for my right to speak, nor do I expect
or desire anyone else to do so for me. Far be it for me to speak for R.E.M. or
their lead singer, Michael Stipe, but somehow I don’t think they would want
Ben McGraw or anyone else to protect their rights or attempt to solve the
world’s problems by raising arms to other human beings, not to mention
murdering them. As McGraw so thoughtfully pointed out, there was much
approval, cheer and applause in response to Stipe’s comment, “If you’re in
the military, quit.” This just might tend to imply that there is a reasonably
large group of people at this fine University who agree (thank the Lord for
small mercies.) Maybe the crowd’s response to such a statement might mean
that there are people on campus who know that countries cannot continue to
battle one another and expect the world to survive.
McGraw had the choice to attend the concert or miss a great show. If
McGraw does for some reason really enjoy R.E.M.’s music while ignoring the
fact that the band consists of human beings who happen to be Americans and
have as many rights as he does, than all I can say in reponse to his leaving
early and missing out on a wonderful performance of the song “So. Central
Rain” is, I’m sorry.
Mara K. Moore ’88
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.
Opinion
Playing the Intemew Game
aw
They did it.
They put me in
the game and I
don’t even know
the rules.
Rodney
Rather
Hmm? What
game am I talking
about, you ask?
Guest Columnist
happened to strike up a conversation
with the person behind you in the “12
items or less” line at the grocery store,
you won’t get the job because the inter
viewer wants an answer completely dif
ferent from the real answer.
Why, the interview game, of course. It’s
funny how, when you graduate, society
expects you to get a job and produce
some sort of tangible evidence that you
deserve to earn enough money to at
least buy Table Scraps brand frozen
dinners.
Let me illustrate this point. One of
the more popular questions interviewers
ask is, “Careerwise, where do you expect
to be 10 years from now?” The answer
they expect is something like, “Sir, I ex
pect to be your boss 10 years from now.”
holies, I have absolutely no problems
parating work from play. If I did
enroll myself in a mental institution
correct the problem.
Direct questions like these areoutlai
dish enough, but perhaps the mosttml
terrifying sentence uttered fromtheli)
of an interviewer is “Tell meaboutyom
self.”
:or
)M
icing
ipr.fr
yo out
But I’m straying from the subject.
Whenever I go into an interview, with
my sweating palms leaving small tributa
ries on the carpet of the office and with
a throat as dry as cotton on the stalk on a
blistering August day after a dust storm,
the interviewer always asks questions.
For some inexplicable reason, poten
tial employers like this response. In real
ity, normal folks have no idea what
they’ll be doing in 10 years, nor should
they be expected to know.
remem I),
,ani
Another question that can’t be an
swered honestly — if you want the job
— is, “What’s your weakest point?”
Now that, in itself, makes sense. After
all, an interview is suppossed to give the
interviewer relevant insight to the qual
ifications and character of the intervie
wee that relate to the position the inter
viewee is interviewing to get. But that’s
not what an interview really is.
This time, there are two possible an
swers you can give if you want them to
take you seriously. The first is, “I expect
as much from others as I do from my
self.” The other is, “I can’t separate
work from play.”
The entire interviewing process really
is a farce. Oh sure, the questions asked
sound like legitimate questions, but if
you answer them the way you would un
der any other circumstances, like if you
What a flood of drivel. Sure, you
might expect as much from others as
yourself, but what if all you expect to do
this week is roll out of bed before 1 p.m.
and eat a box of Captain Crunch all by
yourself?
And, although I can’t be positive
about the rest of you professed worka-
What does he want to know? An)
thing pertaining to what qualifies
for the job is either on the applicatioi
lying on his desk or has already
asked. Should you start with
brances of your childhood, telling hit
about the days you spent in your
admiring the cracks in the ceiling,
work your way up from there, or
you tell him how violently you vomi
when you have to stuff wet bread dow Ri
the garbage disposal?
And when should you stop
him about yourself, when he starts
yawn and make audible gutteral noisi
Somehow, I just don’t think I’llev
get the hang of this game.For some
son, I keep wanting to say what I real
think, which, although it isn’t much,
lows me to keep some dignity in myi
employment and homelessness and nu
nutrition and dandruff. And maybe I'
get the rulebook for graduation.
Rodney Rather is a senior journalist
major and lame duck city editor
The Battalion.
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on how not to fight a newspaper
Use th
oblem
Most Americans
bear grudges
against the media.
And many of the
customers’ gripes
are valid. But mhh
when civilians try
to muscle a newspaper
Jim
Wright
Guest Columnist
they need to
know that they are playing around with
something that is just as explosive as ni
troglycerine and a whole lot trickier:
pure-de idealism. Militant, basic belief.
Newspaper people tend to think that
telling the world what is going on is ex
tremely important and that doing that is
not just their individual job but their sa
cred mission.
Apparently, the Amarillo combatants
are businessmen unhappy with the
newspaper folks’ efforts to cover the
news. It’s a free country, and they are
certainly free to think that and act upon
it.
But when any group tries to gag or
muscle a newspaper anywhere, there is
usually a rallying around the flag by
news people everywhere. They are vir
tually unanimous in seeing attempts to
gag any newspaper as a threat to free
dom as well as their own interests.
There is, of course, another course of
action that critics of a newspaper can
take: starting up their own newspaper.
Last I heard, presses, ink, computer ter
minals, reporters, photographers and
editors were available on the market.
Gathering up a supply of these and
going into the business is a situation that
has not been common. Here’s why:
When local press critics decide to buck
the local Bugle, they often fail to recog
nize some of the basics of the newspaper
business.
For one thing, a newspaper needs to
attract readers. To do this, a paper has
to be something more than just not the
Bugle. A newspaper that cannot attract
any readers other than the press critics
who started it is going to be a very ex
pensive hobby.
What it is not going to be, under
those conditions, is a real newspaper.
If the people see the old Bugle still
trying to tell what’s going on and the
other paper working to promote the
sponsors’ program, they are likely to
stay with the existing newspaper.
A newspaper tries to tell its readers
list
about the bad things as well as the go® *r
things that are happening. Many foesi e dnesi
the press charge that we get much ffiO'
enthusiastic about the negatives tin I
the positives. But when you getane*
paper that gives only “good news,"ti
result is invariably not a newspaper ti
a chamber of commerce publicity haU
out, a community propaganda dofl
ment.
Before any group of angry cria
starts one of these all-positive publit
tions, the folks ought to consid f
whether the proposed publication 0
pass The Frosty Morning Test. N
of Americans will run through thesld
of dawn to pick up a newspaper, but®
one in recorded history has everdol
this for a publicity handout.
The groups that mobilize in thena®
of demanding “a good newspaper” te®
to forget that the life-or-death test o®
newspaper, of whatever qualitfi
whether it does a newspaper’s job w 1
enough to earn both the readership a®
the quarters of the general public.
Jim Wright is senior columnist of ft
Dallas Morning News.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathe®
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