rhe Battalion
LIFESTYLES
Thursday, October 12,1989
6
Lifestyles Editor Dean Sueltenfuss 845-33
Life is tough when your
roommate worships the
ground you walk on
Editor’s note: Dean Suelten
fuss is vacationing in Panama.
This is a repeat of one of his col
umns that resulted in the least
amount of death threats, hate
mail and calls for his resignation.
Another editor’s note: Actu
ally, we think that Dean may have
joined the press staff of Gen.
Manuel Noriega. We’re not sure
that he will return to The Battal
ion, but we are certain that ive
don’t care.
Well, this week I was going to
write a column about a sports is
sue, so I went to The Battalion
sports editor, thinking my col
umn could run in the sports
pages. Our sports editor, who
we’ll call Hector (he doesn’t want
his real name to appear in print),
said that he didn’t have any extra
room in the sports pages this
week and that he would not be
able to run my sports column,
“The Joy of Badminton.”
“Hey Hector,” I had asked,
“you gonna have room for that
badminton thing this week?”
He responded sheepishly, with
an apologetic tone to nis voice. It
was obvious that he was embar
rassed about the lack of space in
the sports section.
“Yeah, we’ve got plenty of
room,” he said. “But we’re not
running any of your garbage.
Now get the hell away from my
desk.”
So I understood. No space — it
happens all the time. After all,
sports is big at A&M.
Anyway, since a sports topic
wouldn’t be appropriate for this
section. I’ll have to write about
something else. So this week I’m
going to write about my room
mate — more specifically, about a
problem he encountered this
week.
He came to me a few days ago
looking very worried, very
stressed. I could tell by the look
on his face that he needed some
advice from me. He always asks
me for advice. You see. I’m older
than he is, so he looks upon me as
a father figure, always asking me
for my opinion, looking to me for
answers. My God, the guy just
worships me.
Oh sure, if you confront him
about it he’ll deny it all; he’ll call
me a geek who’s not worthy to be
spit upon. He’ll say that I still owe
him $107 and that I’m an S.O.B.
and that I should be shot. But
that’s all just a ruse.
He loves me like a brother.
“OK Luther, what’s wrong?” I
asked in my usual sympathetic
tone. Luther, by the way, is not
his real name. It’s just a cleverly
conceived nickname intended to
hide his identity and protect his
innocence.
Luther responded as he always
does, with a look of hope in his
eye, knowing that I would have
the right answers.
“Even if there was something
wrong, what the hell makes you
think I’d tell you about it?” he re
torted as he spit in my face.
I couldn’t believe it. He was
ashamed to admit his vulnerabili
ties to me. He held me in such
high regard that he couldn’t
bring himself to bother me with
his trivial problems.
I stood up and approached
him, wiping the spit off my face
as I prepared to offer him my
words of wisdom. .
“There, there,” I said. “We can
talk about this later after you’ve
had more time to think about it.”
“Yeah, right,” he said. “Now
bug off, jerk.”
Clearly he was in a great deal
of emotional distress, so I decided
I’d leave him alone for a while. A
few hours later, though, he came
back to me, ready to spill his guts.
“Go ahead, spill your guts,” I
said.
“OK, but do you promise to
shut up about this and quit both
ering me?”
“Of course,” I responded. “I
wouldn’t dream of bothering you
about a subject you don’t want to
talk about. Go ahead.”
“Well, it’s about school.”
Ah, good, my forte — aca
demic affairs. (I have a 4.37 GPR,
but of course I didn’t remind him
of it then. To do so would have
been uncouth.)
“You see, I missed this exam,”
he continued. “I didn’t know I
had an exam and I missed the
class.”
He looked up at me with big,
innocent eyes, knowing that I
would have the answer, that I
would make everything all right.
Realizing that he was looking
to me for the solution to his prob
lems, I adopted an authoritative,
fatherly tone as I addressed the
issue.
“Geez, what the hell are ya
gonna do?” I advised, realizing
the wisdom of my words even as
they were spoken.
“I don’t know, Einstein. Don’t
you have any ideas?”
Wow. Einstein. I knew my
roommate looked up to me, but I
guess I’d underestimated just
how great a person he thinks I
am. I was flattered.
“Toe cancer,” I suggested.
“Yep, that’s the ticket.”
“Toe cancer? What?”
“Yeah, toe cancer,” I repeated.
“You go to your profs office, tell
her you were diagnosed as having
toe cancer last week and that on
the day of the test the cancer took
a turn for the worse. ‘They had to
amputate,’ you’ll say. Then offer
to show her what a great job
your
See roommate/Page 8
TEAC seeks to involve Ags in
environmental conservation
By Don Kopf
Illustration by Doug Met
Of The Battalion Staff
Toxic waste dump contaminates
lake; Rainforests gone by year 2032;
Protective ozone layer being de
stroyed; Huge oil spill in Alaska; Sy
ringes found washed up on beach
. . . and so the headlines of newspa
pers across America read.
Many people think there is noth
ing that can be done to save both the
planet and human beings from our
own destructiveness. The Texas En
vironmental Action Coalition dis
agrees.
TEAC is a Texas A&M student
organization that provides a way for
id <
both students and others to get in
volved directly with environmental
programs. TEAC members believe
that global changes start with local
action and that Texas A&M can be a
world leader in environmental con
servation.
The group works for environ
mental change by working toward
three goals: starting environmental
programs in the community, in
creasing public awareness and work
ing with businesses and student
groups in their conservation efforts.
The members of TEAC believe
that A&M has the potential to take a
leading role in the rapidly growing
global environmental movement.
Charley Albert, a graduate student
in physics and a member of TEAC,
said Texas A&M has world-re
nowned environmental experts, the
facilities to carry out the necessary
research and an active student body
of 40,000. In short, A&M has every
thing needed to become a world
leader in environmental conserva
tion, he said.
Scott Coles, co-president of
TEAC, agreed with Albert.
“The time has come for a school
the caliber of A&M to take the lead,”
Coles said.
TEAC was started in February
1989 by a small group of students
who felt that there was a need for a
professional, objective, action-
oriented environmental group at
A&M.
“In the past, A&M was devoid of
an environmental group,” Elizabeth
Edwards, co-president of TEAC,
said. Concern for the Earth is grow
ing all around the world, she said.
“We want environmental actions to
become accessible for everyone,” she
said.
Following in the footsteps of now-
defunct groups such as the Green
Earth Society and the Bryan College
Station Resource Group, TEAC
members realize they started with a
tarnished image. However, the
members feel that TEAC will survive
because it takes a different approach
towards environmental action.
“If we’re going to survive, we have
to convince ‘Joe Ag’ that this is one
of their traditions,” Albert said.
Members say that TEAC is differ
ent from previous clubs in many
ways. For one thing, the group orga
nizes projects, such as stream clean
ups and recycling drives, in which
members can get involved.
“The Green Earth Society was not
action-oriented and didn’t give their
members anything to do after the
meetings,” Alex Jordan, TEAC trea
surer, explained. When they did de
cide that something needed to be
done, it was at the last minute, he
said. He added that they usually
threw something together that was
too drastic and, as a result, the group
got a bad image and nobody wanted
to be involved.
Albert said TEAC members real
ize that Texas A&M is a conservative
community where a group must
work with, rather than against, the
system.
“We are a very careful group,” he
emphasized. “You have to be to sur
vive in this community.”
TEAC isn’t a radical left-wing
group, Albert said. It is a broad-
based group that wants to work with
the community.
“We’re realists and know that you
must work with people to get
changes done,” Jordan added.
So far, TEAC has gotten a positive
reception from the A&M commu
nity. Coalition members include stu
dents, faculty and citizens from both
Bryan and College Station. TEAC
also boasts members of the Corps of
Cadets among their numbers.
“If we can appeal to Corps mem
bers, we can appeal to anyone,” Al
bert said.
The club currently is working
with both on-campus student groups
and businesses in the local commu
nity to provide a means for people to
get involved in environmental issues.
Recently, several officers of TEAC
spoke to the Rotary Club about how
they can get involved with local recy
cling and conservation efforts in a
program called the Texas Emm
mental Alliance of Merchants.
TEAC is also planning anotb
program called Project Learnt;
T ree that will work with Bryan4
lege Station schools. Project Lean
ing Tree will help teachers in it
school systems integrate envire:
mental awareness into their teac
ings. Other projects include planii:
trees, promoting campus-wide ree
cling efforts and expanding edne
tion progranis.
vissjit
As part of their ongoing car
paign to increase recycling on cat
pus, coalition members are trying
get local businesses to donate K
receptacles for aluminum cat:
T hey plan to place these ineachre
dence hall so that the residents
have a place to put recyclable ale
num cans. The hall would kt
sponsible for trading in the cans
money and would get to keep
money.
TEAC is also planning to hoM
the 20th anniversary of Earth Ik
on April 22, 1990, with a largecdf
bration. Because the original Ear
Day was a major catalyst in initiate
conservation efforts during i
1970s, coalition members hope
make Earth Day ’90 a big event,jd
dan said.
“The time is ripe for that to b
she added.
Eric
dus
tos
pen again,
The public is invited ti
TEAC meetings, which take
7 p.m. every Wednesday
118 of the Civil Engineerir
mg.
Provost McDonald juggles duties,
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
Donald McDonald
By Katsy Pittman
Of The Battalion Staff
Dr. Donald McDonald, provost and vice presi
dent for Academic Affairs at Texas A&M, had
never even heard of A&M when he graduated
from Auburn University in 1952.
Later that same year he learned about Aggie
spirit firsthand when he served as a Air Force
lieutenant during the Korean war.
While on leave with a friend in Tokyo, Mc
Donald met a number of other lieutenants from
A&M who left him with quite an impression
about a small school in College Station. Although
these soldiers were a little on the wild side, Mc
Donald said they were some of the most capable
fighters he had ever met.
McDonald runs into his old war buddies from
time to time, but the last time he saw one of his
old pals, the reunion wasn’t exactly monumental.
“I don’t think he remembered me,” McDonald
smiled, “so I didn’t say anything.”
Not that McDonald is usually a reticent man.
He served as the head of Texas A&M’s Civil En
gineering Department for four years. In 1986,
he was named provost and vice president for
Academic Affairs,
In the past three years as the chief academic
officer of Texas A&M, McDonald has been re
sponsible for finding solutions to some of the
toughest problems around.
So what does the provost and vice president
for Academic Affairs do?
For one thing, he recommends professors for
tenure and promotion.
“I can’t know everything about them,” McDon
ald said. “It’s ajudgment call in a lot of cases.”
McDonald also deals with the Study Abroad
office, the Honors Program, and approves the
selection of editors of The Battalion, “The Ag-
gieland,” and AggieVision.
One of his toughest jobs is resource allocation.
wears many hats at A&M
■
This means when all of the academic colleges beg
the system for more money, McDonald must de
cide who gets the money and how much they ac
tually get.
“It’s hard,” McDonald admitted. “It would be
easier if it was a matter of deciding who needed
the money and who didn’t. Unfortunately, they
all need it.”
The problem is compounded by certain col
leges that grow at much more rapid rates than
egg
It’s hard. It would be easier if it
was a matter of deciding who
needed the money and who didn’t.
Unfortunately, they all need it.”
— Donald McDonald
Provost and Vice President for
Academic Affairs
others, For instance, several beginning liberal
arts and science classes were filled at the begin
ning of the fall semester before many freshman
had a chance to enroll. McDonald said that when
a beginning-of-the-semester boom like this hap
pens, the University must funnel out funds as
fast as it can to hire additonal instructors.
Luckily for A&M, the enrollment struggle was
much easier to overcome here than it was at some
other schools. McDonald said this is due to the
enrollment management plan instituted last year.
“We’ve had microprobfems compared to other
schools,” McDonald said. “In fact, we had about
800 less freshmen enroll this fall semester than
we did in the fall of’87.”
Now McDonald is trying to get five or six hun
dred more students — but not in thiscountn I
Koriyama, a Japanese city located 140 m
north of Tokyo, will be home to several huncbl
students in the future. In fact, McDonald,afcl
with President Mobley and a few other A&Mel
ecutives, will leave Sunday for a trip to Tok'l
and a week later travel to Koriyama.
The original concept for the school was
oped by a group of Japanese educators who
ognized a need to teach young Japanese studfl
more about American culture, and were cl
cerned about competitiveness in Japanese hi^i
education.
U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt and forrl
North Carolina Governor James Hunt are
involved with getting the Koriyma projectoffdf
ground.
Japanese high school students will start f
program on the Koriyama campus for two yf-'i
McDonald said. They are also expected to slj
intensive English language courses. Thenextfl
years will be spent on the A&M campus.
A&M students who go to Koriyama are!*
pected to take courses in Japanese language>|
Asian history and culture.
Meanwhile, McDonald is immersed in impt 1
ing education on the home front.
“The main thing we need to remember a 1 *
expand the graduate and research program i
that we have a strong undergraduate pro^J
and we need to keep it that way,” he said ■
undergraduates deserve a high quality educ-1
and we have to give it to them.”
McDonald has future education plans as 1
He said the “Commitment to Education' • 1
gram, which President Mobley instigated 1
strengthen education, especially in science ■
mathematics.
“This is what commitment to education
about,” McDonald said. “We’re going to dc «
share and maybe more.”