The Battalion
OPINION
Thursday, November 9,1989
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Report on DHS no revelation
The headlines said “Auditors Find
DHS Offices Badly Managed,” and the
story gave us a litany of atrocious prac
tices at the Department of Human
Services — a bureaucracy top-heavy
with overpaid, underworked supervi
sors, duplication of services every
where, 15 layers of management in the
central office, inadequate standards for
programs and employees, lack of goals
in critical social programs — all in all
your basic motherlode of horror stories
from the bowels of bureaucracy.
For all I know, the management con
sulting firm Touche, Ross Inc., inter
national accountants, is right about all
of this — we can only hope so, since
they’re charging us $450,000 for the
bad news. But may I suggest that some
skepticism is called for. Not necessarily
in this particular case — Touche Ross is
an OK outfit and it’s common knowl
edge in Austin that the Department of
Human Services needs to clean up its
act. But as a general rule, when some
management consulting outfit charges
a half million to tell us the obvious, to
wit,that a government agency is rather
badly run, it is not necessary to react as
though Moses has just come down
from a mountain with some really
heavy stuff written on his tablet. I point
this out because there are folks who
push management studies as though
they were an actual solution to what
may be a part of the human condition.
In case you haven’t noticed, almost
all large institutions are rather badly
run. Public, private — makes no differ
ence. The common assumption that
business is somehow more efficient
than government doesn’t bear close
scrutiny. Is the savings and loan indus
try well run? Automobiles? Steel? Wall
Street? (There’s a hilarious new book
called “Liars’ Poker” by Michael Lewis
about the inner workings of Solomon
Molly
Ivins
Syndicated Columnist
Brothers.) (And speaking of business
books, “Other People’s Money” by Paul
Pilzer and Robert Deitz of this newspa
per, an account of the S&L follies, just
got a fine review in The New York
Times Book Review: This is a plug.)
One of the Republican gubernato
rial candidates has been going around
announcing rather menacingly that if
he’s elected, the state will, by God, get
to know the meaning of the words “in
dependent management audit.” As
though no one in government had
thought to hire a consultant before
now. I am unimpressed with the notion
that what we need to do is apply sound
bidness management to government
functions. In bidness, the bottom line
makes things relatively simple — lower
costs, increase production, up go the
profits. But how do you apply those
principles to a government agency
whose function is to work with people
whose lives are often a tangled horror
of overlapping problems in an effort to
keep them from slipping onto the
street, into prison or a mental hospital?
Can you really measure the success of
DHS by how quickly and accurately
they process welfare and food stamp
applications? If that’s all we want from
social workers, there’s a lot of training
going to waste. 1
The management audit notes that
“quick completion of child abuse is in
creasing in the society as a whole, and is
aggravated by economic conditions. In
case you hadn’t noticed, the poor are
getting poorer in America. If DHS is
swamped, it’s not the agency’s fault.
I love management jargon. Accord
ing to Touche Ross, “The department
lacks clearly defined and commonlya-
greed upon goals and objectives. With
out clear performance objectives, man
agement lacks focus.” How about
“saving lives?” The variety of human
misery at the lowest end of the eco
nomic scale in this state is staggering,
and very seldom do really poor people
have just on problem, like unemploy
ment. You can usually add one or more
from a list that includes health prob
lems, mental health problems (espe
cially depression), lack of education, di
vorce, an abusive family member, an
alcoholic family member, no housing,
no transportation, no child care and so
on and so on. Somehow, I can’t imag
ine that clearly defining performance
objectives at DHS is going to help
much.
One frequent problem with manage
ment studies is that they tend to re
inforce the prejudices of whoever com
missioned them in the first place. Not
too surprising, eh? A larger question is
whether there is anything more to
good management than common sense
tricked out in jargon. I used to work
for a paper that hired new manage
ment consultants almost annually. We
tried the Z theory, time management,
you name it, we tried it. None of it ever
improved the place a lot. And not one
of the consultants ever noticed a fun
damental fact about the nature of the
enterprise — the difference between
news and widgets is that news is not
predictable commodity — you can’t
plan for it. As a result, the place was al
ways reduced to a state opf panic when
news occured. “Oh my God, newsF
They would cry in horror. “It’s not in
the budget, what shall we do?”
Opinion Page Editor Juliette Rizzo 845i
Mail Call
Misdirected ideas
EDITOR:
The people going by the name “Aggies Against Bonfire” may be very we.
intentioned, but unfortunately some of their ideas are misdirected. Firstanc
foremost the idea of using the wood to heat the homes of the poor is adangt:
fallacy! The idea of giving wood to people for heating comes from minds tit
idealistic and not yet grounded in fact. Here in Texas very /ewhomes have
fireplaces. Lower income housing almost never has wood burning fadlitiesj
those that do are usually poorly constructed. Many a person (including
firefighters) have lost their lives to this kind of use.
As to the waste of effort... This may be true for some people, but forquiil
of us learned a lot by working extremely hard, suffering and then relyi
others, the effort was very worhtwhile. That this is not true, I will readily at
Could the effort be better directed? I don’t know. As soon as someone prow,
with an alternative that will get that many people to work together with thair
effort I will yield the argument.
That it wastes trees is questionable. The four years that I worked bonfire,
never cut a tree that wasn’t already scheduled to be destroyed. When wecuu
TMPA, the trees were to be bulldozed for future mining activity. In factwev
run out of some cutting areas by D-10 bulldozers knocking down trees. If
anything, we helped keep the cost of energy production low (rninusculey)t
aiding the poor. We also cut on land that was to be cleared for farmingandc
ranching. We saved the owner a lot of time and money.
I admit there are many negative aspects, but the positive aspects thatsoir,:
people gain from bonfire are worth it. Please don’t write me off as someuiK;
industrialist, my job involves working with the poor, protecting peopleslivesij
protecting the environment. I don’t just espouse it, I do it every day!
David Jefferson ’79
Bonfire makes A&M special
EDITOR:
I was shocked when I read about the new group "Aggies Against Bonfirq
the Nov. 2 Battalion. It seems they advocate stopping bonfire because itis^
and dangerous.
First of all, “Aggies Against Bonfire” appears to be a contradiction in ten
don’t condone blindly following tradition for tradition’s sake, but gettingrid
bonfire? 1'hat’s just overdoing it a bit!
Phis group apparently wants to advance the University, but I don't seek
assimilating our school to all the rest is advancing it.
T exas A&M has certain traditions that set it apart from any other instiwy
the world. If we take these things away, we might as well be attending Techoi
Accordingly, maybe getting rid of bonfire should be accompanied by thecesv
of Silver Taps (what a waste of ammunition) and the removal of our mascot
(money spent on dog food could serve a much better purpose).
Ask any Ag who has been to cut or stack how wasteful and shameful bonfis
Did they work hard all day for nothing? No.
Texas Aggie bonfire is students working together for a common goal the'
think is damn worthwhile. Bonfire is meeting people and making friends.lit;
promotion of this school and the tradition it stands for. When that stackoflow
lit, it wrenches an emotion out of tens of thousands of people that is matched
nothing else; bonfire is the ultimate exhibition of school spirit.
Using bonfire’s wood and labor for other purposes is a valiant proposition■
given by a few students who probably have valid concerns and convictions,bu|
shouldn’t come about at the demise of bonfire. Rather, I say help thecommur,
independently, and try to have a little pride in your school, too.
Chuck Sangerhausen ’92
Thanks to a real Aggie
EDITOR:
For some odd reason, a person can never find a cop when he needs one
day, I really needed one, and they proved to me they really have no purpos;
cept to give out parking tickets.)
I was running late that morning, and I locked my keys in my car. Atntl
was searching for them and realized where they were. I flagged down a van 1
had four, yes four, cops inside it. I asked one of them to help me unlock r
and he rudely told me he could not help me, and if I wanted to be “brave"!
ask someone from the dorms to help me. Well, excuse me! My car was park?
Old Main Drive and the only two dorms close enough were Law and Pun|
walked over to the dorms and a student who is a resident of Law Hall wentpi ;
asked him for a hanger. Not only did he get the hanger, but he unlockedr
and got my keys for me! First, I want to tell you “thanks” and next say it'sn
know there are still people who are willing to go out of their way to help other
pie. That’s what you call an Aggie. And if that’s what an Aggie is, obvious!'
are not Aggies, especially since they wouldn’t go out of their way to help soil'
in need.
M. Hernandez
Department of Modern Language
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit ktU
and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed arulmistn.
classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
Fseudocontracardiovascularscholasticaryitis a.k.a. senioriti
My name is Damon Arhos and
I have a problem. It is kincfof like a dis
ease, but not really. It’s not something
that you can catch from being prom
iscuous, or from some strange germ or
even from your roommate. But boy is it
contagious.
And I finally admit it. I’ve got it.
Those scientific types call it pseudo-
contracardiovascularscholasticaryitis.
But you and I know it as “I am a senior
and I am sick of all of this work and I
really want to graduate” disease.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of'
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Scot O.Walker, Editor
Wade See, Managing Editor
Juliette Rizzo, Opinion Page Editor
Fiona Soltes, City Editor
Ellen Hobbs, Chuck Squatriglia,
News Editors
Tom Kehoe, Sports Editor
Jay Janner, Art Director
Dean Sueltenfuss, Lifestyles Editor
It all started last week. After three
tests and two presentations in one
week, I thought I was home free until
finals. And then it would just be one
more semester, I would graduate in
May and then I would go on to grad
uate school. (That is if someone was
kind enough to let me in...)
So, I pranced over to the Journalism
Department to have the old degree
check done, just to make sure every
thing was O.K. And after a few min
utes I had my unofficial transcript in
my hot little hands. And the verdict?
(Drumroll please...)
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. .
Damon
Arhos
Columnist
22 HOURS LEFT. 22 HOURS? I
just stared in amazement.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE
22 HOURS LEFT? I COULDN'T
HAVE 22 HOURS LEFT! DIDN’T
THAT BASKET-WEAVING CLASS I
TOOK WHEN I WAS A SOPHO
MORE COUNT FOR A HUMANI
TIES ELECTIVE? AFTER ALL,
DON'T HUMANS WEAVE BAS
KETS? 22 HOURS? 22 HOURS? BUT
I ONLY HAVE TO HAVE 128
HOURS TO GRADUATE! I WANT
TO SEE THE HEAD OF THE DE
PARTMENT! NO, I WANT TO SEE
DR. MOBLEY OR PRESIDENT
BUSH OR...”
Things went on like this for a while
until I finally realized I had mis
counted some general elective or some
thing like that, and I will have to stay
here a little bit longer than I thought I
would. And Mom and Dad are turning
cartwheels.
It was around this time the symp
toms started setting in. I started hang
ing around with the wrong crowd. I
ran with the bag monster and Mr. Pro
crastination. I had dreams about ma
roon elephants dancing around my
bed, all wearing black graduation
gowns and bashing me over the head
with diplomas. And they kept scream
ing the same thing: “22 HOURS, 22
HOURS!” I can still hear their taunting
snorts...
And one of the most traumatic
things I had to do was tell everyone. It
is not easy to admit to your friends you
are incapable of counting to 128 by
threes. Especially when most of them
are going to be out of here in May. And
to make matters worse, I had to sit
through one of those “I tromped back
and forth through the snow (uphill
both ways) when I went to college and I
took 25 hours a semester and ate a
grape a day” lectures from my parents.
I was about due for one of those any
way.
Editorial Policy
The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa
per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and
Bryan-College Station.
Slowly but surely I am starting 1
alize there are other seniors at
like me — those college student)
never watched “Sesame Street
enough to learn how to count
are others at this University wit*
not graduate when they plannt
cause they are lacking three M
general elective credits. And thc Ii
those seniors who are about topf
of their hair out if they haveon( ;
test or presentation or paper ^
like I am.
I am thinking about startingm 1
support group, “Aggies Against
docontracardiovascularscholasO 1
tis.” So if you are a senior 11
burned-out and fed-up, who ^
about maroon elephants and dip
and is sick of all of those tests, p^
tations, projects and papers"
YOU can’t graduate EITHER.^
together. Maybe we could go
drop the “diploma fee” optionf
fu n.
Damon Arhos is a senior f
lism major and a columnist fo 1
Battalion.