♦
The Battalion
OPINION
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2
Thursday, July 20,1989
Save the whales
MSC expansion to
students
Construction is prevalent at Texas
A&M. as anyone who spends any time
on this campus knows. Expansion has
begun and construction will soon begin
on the University Center, including the
Memorial Student Center and Rudder
Complex. The plans call for thirteen
trees to be moved and thirteen to be
killed.
Many students and alumni have ex
pressed their concern and disapproval
about the planned removal of the trees
due to the construction.
But what we need to keep in mind is
that the expansion of the University
Center is for the students, present and
past. The Mefnorial Student Center is
just what the name implies — a memo
rial for those former students who have
died in battle, and a student center that
is designed for us. the students of Texas
A&M
Many students are unaware that
A&M’s Memorial Student Center is the
largest college union in the United
States and probablv the best college
union in the world. The MSC contains a
hotel, post office, lounge, bookstore, art
galleries — just about everything one
could expect from a student center and
much more. Students at other universi
ties are envious of A&M because of our
student center. When visitors come to
our campus, the MSC is shown to them
with pride.
Unfortunately, what the MSC has to
offer to our 40,000 students as well as
faculty, staff and alumni is being overta
ken by the physical space restraints of
the MSC'. The MSC. is presentlv too
small for the overwhelming needs of
our campus, and it has been for several
years.
Timm
Doolen
Opinion
Pap* Editor
Any of you who eat in the MSC Cafe
teria during lunch hour know this is
true, as well as anyone involved in the
Student Programs Office. Our Student
Programs is one of the best run large-
scale student organizations of any uni
versity in the nation, but its growth has
exceeded its means. There are roughly
40 organizations in the Student Pro
grams Office, a space the size of an aver
age-sized classroom.
And cramped on the second fioor of
the Pavilion is Student Activities, which
includes the offices for the Residence
Hall Association, Off Campus Aggies,
Student Government. Interfraternity
Council. Fish ('.amp, RANM Student
Radio and a host of other organizations.
When the new additions are completed.
Student Activities will move over to of
fices in University Center, thus helping
to bring Student Activities and Student
Programs closer together in mam wavs.
The space that Student Activities va
cates will be filled by other departments
within the Pavilion that are sorely in
need of the space, and the Pavilion will
then become the focal point of the ad
ministrative departments.
These are just a few of the examples
of the manv departments on campus
that will be gaining much needed space
at University Center and elsewhere.
Yes. trees will die because of the ex
pansion. But anytime a building is ex
panded. or a new building is built, some
trees or foliage have to go. I sincerely
hope that all those involved in the plan
ning try to formulate a creative wav to
avoid destroying as many trees as possi
ble. But short of calliryg off the expan
sion. it is virtually inevitable that most of
the 26 trees will not be spared.
Some people, including our own edi
tor, have brought up the point that our
campus is becoming ugly because of the
nse of new buildings and the fall of old
trees. I sav to them, go to one of the
higher floors of Rudder l ower, a build
ing that surely caused the demise of
some trees when it was built, and look
out across our campus. One can barelv
see the buildings for all the trees. The
point is that there are hundreds, mavbe
thousands, of trees here on our main
campus. So although we will lose a few
trees during the expansion, we are far
from losing the beauty of our campus.
It's ironic, yet sad. that the same oak
tree that General Rudder fought to pre
serve when the Memorial Student Cen
ter was onginallv built will have to be
moved. Yet, men like F.arl Rudder and
Wayne Stark, the man who originated
the idea for the MSC. were men who
wanted what was best for A&M and its
students. In the long run, the benefits of
the expansion of the University Center
will greatly outweigh the cost of losing
the trees.
Timm Doolen is a junior computer
science major and assisUmt opinion
page editor for The Battalion.
Tomatoes, true love go together
I have a thing for tomatoes. Not the
kind you ordinarily find at your grocery
store that have been grown in some con
trived environment and shipped in
from mile aways.
I am speaking of the kind of tomato
somebody grows in a garden, the
“home-grown” tomato, hallowed be its
name.
Home-grown tomatoes are so deli
cious they once inspired a songwriter to
pen this line: “Ain't but two things in the
world worth havin’ and that's true love
and home-grow n tomatoes.”
1 think the absence of home-grown
tomatoes in people's lives has been re
sponsible for a number of the world's
problems.
If somebody had regularly come
around with home-grown tomatoes for
Hitler, he probably wouldn't have at
tempted to take over the world. It's sim
ply difficult to think anything but pleas
ant thoughts while eating a home-grwn
tomato
The last time I did anything remotely
connected with agriculuture was when 1
was 12. and I concluded anything in
volving dirt was not for me.
But as the years passed, and my feel
ing for home-grown tomatoes in
creased. I began to have second
thoughts about my pledge to avoid any
personal involvement with agriculture.
Lord willing. I soon will have my own
personal home-grown tomatoes.
As a bov, I dreamed of Kathy Sue
Loudermilk, the eighth-grade sex ob
ject. As a middle-aged man. I dream of
home-grown tomatoes.
To tell you the truth, mellowing
hasn't been that bad an experience after
air
Copyright 1989, Cowl** Syndicate
Populations of whale species
throughout the world are declining to
critically low levels, and commercial
whaling operations are primarily to
blame for the decline. At the an^ti^l
meeting of the International Whklmg
Committee (IWC) held June 12. the re
sults of eight vean of research on whale
populations in the southern hemisphere
were made public. The results of the re
port were very grim.
The statistics for the blue whale, the
Earth's largest animal, were the most
alarming. Before the advent of wide
spread commercial whaling, there were
an estimated 250,000 blue whales in
Antarctic waters. Recent estimates had
put their numbers at 6,000 to P.OOO.
The new study estimates the new figure
to be 453. but possibly as low as 200.
Roger Pavne. a research scientist for the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF). said ' W
here we are is far, far worse than any of
us had forseen. I now think that the
question of whether the blue whales will
actually survive . • has suddenly
come open again."
Statistics like this should cause any
one to be repulsed by the notion of
slaughtering these and otfier depleted
whale species for economic gain. Unbe
lievably, Iceland. Japan and Norway are
doing just that Iceland is hunting fin
back whales as vou read this. The fin
whale population was estimated at
500,000 before widespread whaling bv
the WWF. and in recent years had been
thought to number about tOO.CKK). The
new report estimates that there are
2.096 to 4,000 fin whales left. Iceland
plans to “take” 68 whales during their
current hunt. The IWC has repeatedly
asked Iceland to call off their whale
hunts. Icelandic whalers have tried to
pass off their w haling as researc h, but in
reality the whale meat and byproducts
are sold to Japan for profit.
Japan has been killing smaller mmkc
whales under the guise of research, and
there is now fear that this species may
flttf survive. The larger minke whales
are now off-limits even for research be
cause their populations have been so de
pleted. This has been the pattern for
whaling nations. Whalers have progres
sively gone from larger to smaller spe
cies. depleting each species along the
way. Japan has also begun to kill por
poises as a substitute. In the last two
years, the Japanese have caught about
50,000 of a species of porpoise that
numbers 105,000. Roger Pavne says “it’s
plain and simply a disgrace.”
Norway kills a small number of minke
whales under its "research” whaling
program. Recently the WWF has been
successful in encouraging Norwegian
whalers to use their vessels for whale
watching tours, rather than for whaling.
The IWC has no enforcement powers
to stop the whaling. The United States
could do something to stop this sense
less annihilation of these beautiful and
graceful creatures, but has thus far
failed to take any action. According to
the Pelly Amendment to the Fisher
man’s Protective Act, the United States
can ban the fish imports of any country
that acts to diminish the effectiveness of
an international fisheries agreement.
The United States has failed to ban fish
Michael
Worsham
WhaMng Campaign Coordinator
The Battalion
(USPS 045 500)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Ellen Hobbs.
Editor
Juliette Rizzo.
Opinion Page Editor
Fiona Soltes.
City Editor
Drew Leder, Chuck Squatriglia.
News Editors
Steven Merritt.
Snorts Editor
Kathy Haveman,
Art Director
Hal Hammons.
Makeup Editor
PPoct.n*
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UniversMv. Ctd-
imports from anv of the whaling na
tions. and in the case of Iceland, the rea
son is very clear. Ilie United States has
an airbase in Keflavik. Iceland, and the
Icelandic government has exerted pres
sure on the United States not to impose
sanctions. The decision by the U.S. State
and Commerce Departments not to inv
pose sanctions may have violated U.S.
laws, w hie h prohibits foreign poliev con
siderations to lie taken into account in
an ecological issue. The United States
did use the Packwood-Magnuson
Amendment in 1988 to denv Japan's re
quest to catch 3.000 metric tons of sea
snails and 5.000 metric tons of Pacific
whiting in U.S. waters. However, the
Japanese had already decided to limit
fishing in U.S. waters, and due to the
enormous profits from the whaling in
dustry. the sanctions had little impact,
evidenced by Japan's continued whal-
mg
Frustrated bv U.S. government inac
tion. the environmental organizatKin
Greenpeace decided that grass roots
economic pressure would lie an effec
tive way of reac lung the Ic elandic whal
ing mdustrv. Iceland makes at least $7
million annually for ex|>orting whale
meat to Japan, but the c ountry's fish ex
ports to the United States are worth
about $4(M) million annually. Green
peace has organized a “People’s Pellv
Amendment” campaign, asking con
sumers to pressure schools and restau
rant chains into ceasing purchases of
Icelandic seafood until Iceland stops
whaling. As a result of cancelled con
tracts to U.S. and West (>erman mar
kets. Icelandic companies have so far
lost about $50 million. The campaign
has been successful in convincing Ice
land to call off its planned hunt this
summer for sei whales, another endan
gered species, but not the finback
whales. Iceland's current finback whale
hunt is a last attempt to squeeze eco
nomic gain from poor defenseless
whales before the boycotts and
cancelled contracts become too large to
ignore any fun her.
People can help hall the whaling by
w riting the U S Secretary of Commerce
and asking him to immediately cerufv
Iceland undei U.S. laws until Iceland
stops whaling. Also. Greenpeace can
furnish a list of U.S. companies that
purchase seafood from Iceland. People
can also write to President Bush and a^k -
that he invoke the Pellv Amendment
and ban a large portion of Japan's fish
expons to the United States until Japan
stops its whaling. Japan has already
been certified by the Secretary of Com
merce under the Pellv Amendment.
Manv environmental groups across the
country include whaling issues in their
work, and concerned people should
contact their local group to become in
volved.
As with all columns, opinions ex
pressed by Guest Columnists are not
necessarily thoae of The Battalion. Per
sons interested in submitting guest col
umns should contact the Opinion Page
Editor at 845-3314.
MM&VU&S
- MCDRTCN POfT