The Battalion
OPINION
Wednesday, November 29,1989
Opinion Page Editor Juliette Rizzo 845-331
Mail Call
Students should seek advising
EDITOR:
In response to Mr. Doolen’s editorial of November 28 on
academic advising, I agree that no academic adviser should
be allowed to counsel over 100 students (I believe the
optimum number is around 30), but many of the problems
with academic advising lies with the students. I urged a friend
of mine to see an adviser about career planning only to find
out she did not even know who her adviser was. Many
students do not take time to seek advice, and they should.
My department [agricultural engineering] eliminated
most problems with advising apathetic or lazy students by
blocking them from registration until they see an adviser.
This semester I noticed the Department of Civil Engineering
developed a similar policy. Maybe this should be a University
policy.
James Darrell McCauley ’90
Help from below
EDITOR:
WHOOP! to the workers of the Underground eating
facility. I say this because of the incident that happened to me
on Nov. 8 when 1 took off my Aggie senior ring and
accidently left it on my food tray and it was disposed of as
trash. After I realized what I had done—approximately
three hours later — I called to inquire if one had been turned
in or found. I spoke to a very sympathetic lady who informed
me that no ring was found and that I should check back the
following day.
After I hung up the phone, I decided to go over to
campus to check myself. Upon arrival, I spoke with a
supervisor who informed me that many of the staff was
already searching for my ring, and if needed, they would be
willing to get a metal detector. After an hour of digging
through trash and trays, my Aggie ring was found on the last
tray inspected. My thanks goes out to all those workers who
helped me and Were willing to put forth that extra effort and
time to find my ring. It makes me proud to be an Aggie! Gig
‘Em!
Chris Davis ’90
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
arid telephone number of the writer. .
Future idea: close campus to traffic
We have an excellent setting in
which to attend classes. The walk to
and from classes is generally pleasant,
and the classes themselves are held in
fine facilities.
Occasionally, though, certain cam
pus intersections become congested
with the combined traffic of cars, shut
tles, buses, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Many of you may recall trying to get to
class by working your way through the
jam.
It can be a mess. Car drivers try to get through and be
yond it. Shuttle buses and shuttle drivers try to make the
tight turn without hitting anyone, bicyclists try to weave
around and between all the people and vehicles and pedes
trians try to walk safely through. To complicate matters, al
most everybody is in a hurry. It happens day in and day out.
Uniform scheduling intensifies the congestion even
more. Everybody is trying to get somewhere at the same
time. Things can lull from 9:00 until 9:55 on a Monday
morning. Then, suddenly, whole buildings empty almost
completely, and this flood of students is met by just as many
going to replace them. Cars and shuttles pass through as
well.
Two intersections in particular stand out. The biggie is
located right in front of the Bus Stop Snack Bar. Large
groups of people walking and biking to and from Blocker
cross that intersection in thick masses several times daily.
Meanwhile, cars, on-campus shuttles and shuttle buses move
through the intersection. The other, less-congested intersec
tion is located right in front of the Commons area. And
other intersections around campus present similar prob
lems.
Now, I do not want to make too much of this; it really
amounts to no more than a minor inconvenience. Still, the
problem is significant. It presents a small safety hazard to ev
eryone concerned. The fumes can be choking. And the daily
congestion adds just a little extra stress and strain to thou
sands of already-stressed lives.
Granted, traffic congestion presents no emergency; we
coulcf continue just like now. The problem has a partial solu
tion, though, which deserves consideration. Traffic conges
tion could be reduced by discouraging
thruway traffic during class hours.
The campus makes a convenient
thruway. It interconnects Texas, Uni
versity, Wellborn and Jersey/George
Bush Drive. As A&M and College Sta
tion continue growing progressively
larger, the on-campus traffic conges
tion seems likely to grow progressively
worse.
Improving the situation would not
require armed guards or even one-armed gates. Just placing
signs requesting that motorists avoid using congested areas
of the A&M campus as thruways during primary class hours
(say, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) could reduce congestion considerably.
Certainly, such repression could not be absolute. It
would have to allow staff members to pass to and from staff
lots, shuttle buses and on-campus shuttles to complete their
routes, maintenance vehicltes to travel around campus and
other vehicles having urgent purposes to accomplish those
purposes. Yet, it still could reduce campus traffic enough to
make a difference.
Several benefits might result. Inhaling auto exhaust
fumes would be less of a pedestrian problem than now. Ev
erybody passing through the congested intersections would
be a little safer. The trip to and from class would be a little
more peaceful for everyone concerned.
The costs would fall upon those who currently pass
through these congested areas while using the campus as a
thruway; they would be requested to drive elsewhere during
class hours.
Steps already have been taken to reduce thruway use of
the campus. Most significantly, the mall located adjacent to
the Chemistry Building occupies the space where Spence
Street once ran. Construction around campus also has had
the effect of slowing and diverting auto traffic.
Yet traffic congestion remains a problem in certain
places at certain times. Taking steps to discourage thruway
use of these congested areas could make the campus atmo
sphere more pleasant for students during the trip to and
from class.
Jim Hayes is a senior economics major and a columnist
for The Battalion.
Food for more than thought
My body and I had a long talk the
other morning.
First, my heart asked, “What’s that
you’re drinking?”
“Coffee,” I said, adding, with some
degree of pride, “but it’s decaffeinated.
Caffeine is bad for me, so I’ve cut it
out.”
“Uh-oh,” said my heart.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You haven’t heard,” replied my
heart. “A new study has indicated de
caffeinated coffee is made from beans
that can cause bad cholesterol.”
1 already had cut down on eggs to
help reduce my cholesterol count. Now
I’m told decaffeinated coffee, which I
thought was good for me, picks up
where the eggs leave off.
“One other thing,” said my heart,
“you know how you often get up in the
middle of the night and go downstairs
and eat some raw zucchini?”
“Raw vegetables are good for me,” I
said.
Lewis
Grizzard
Syndicated Columnist
“That may very well be,” said my
heart, “but another new study says get
ting up suddenly in the middle of the
night can cause a heart attack.”
My blood joined in.
“You’re not actually going to eat that
cinnamon roll, are you?”
“I love cinnamon rolls,” I answered.
“What’s wrong with a cinnamon roll?”
“Sugar,” said my blood. “Eat too
much sugar and we’ll have to deal with
hypoglycemia.”
“Dang right,” said my pancreas.
“B^t I drink diet soft drinks, to cut
down on my sugar intake,” I said.
“Yeah,” my blood said. “You and all
those dead laboratory rats.”
After that, I made a few decisions.
I decided I wouldn’t drink any sort
of coffee anymore. I’d eat cereals made
only of oat bran, I’d cut out all sugars
— both real and artificial — and I
would never, under any circumstances,
get up at midnight, which could cause
me to have a heart attack.
(If my house catches on fire, at mid
night, I’ll cross that bridge when I
come to it.)
I went to the refrigerator, pulled out
a non-alcoholic beer and had myself a
good cry.
Copyright 1989, Cowles Syndicate, Inc.
Former governors
foreign government
We have this former governor prob
lem and the floor is open for sugges
tions on what we should do about it.
They’ve been an embarrassment for
some time (not as embarrassing as
when they were in office, of course) but
now they’re getting to be a real hazard.
The worst case, obviously, is the for
mer governor who is now governor,
and right there you see the problem —
they keep running for things and
sometimes we forget how bad they
were and actually re-elect them. What I
say is, why make a mistake we’ve made
before when we have an opportunity to
make a brand new mistake?
Two formers now gearing up to run
again, Dolph Briscoe, the pet rock of
governors, the man who wasn’t there,
and Mark White, the state weather
vane, the man who kept his ear to the
ground and his finger in the wind
while bending with the flow. Hell of a
posture.
White, perhaps the most assiduous
follower of popular opinion politics has
ever produced, is running on grounds
that he’s a proven “leader.” No fudge.
Briscoe is supposedly considering run
ning for Senate, apparently on the
grounds that most people know his
name. The other two formers, John
Connally and Preston Smith, are both
in bankruptcy or they’d probably be
running for something too. It’s almost
enough to make you grateful for the oil
crash.
Well, what to do? Pass a law? One
that says once we’ve gotten up the en
ergy to kick you out once, you can't
come back to haunt us anymore? Make
prior service as governor a bar to cit
izenship, like conviction of a felony?
Looking on the bright side, Dolph
Briscoe was a restful governor. Aside
from his tendency to appoint dead
people to boards and commissions
where they did little harm, he did noth
ing because he was never there. Cone
and forgotten, that was Briscoe.
For those who think the best govern
ment is the least government, Brisco’s
your man — can’t get less government
than he gave. (In fact, I suspect history
will judge Briscoe’s governorship quite
harshly. He was in office for six years
when the state had money rolling in
without even raising taxes. That’s when
we could have taken the California
route, built a great university system,
first-rate public education, improved
social services, diversified the economy
— and all without an income tax. In
stead, Briscoe provided no leadership,
the state did even less than usual ex
cept for what it says it does, which is
build more roads, and now we’re Mis
sissippi with good highways.)
At least White had enough sense to
follow Ross Perot on education. He did
help to reform public schools — just
not far enough. The poor man was ac
tually beaten by the teachers, who
didn’t have enough sense to know he
was on their side — that and no-pass,
no-play and the oil crash. What an
irony for a complete politician, to be
beaten for the best things he ever did
and something he had nothing to do
with. Well, no one ever said it was an
easy game.
The high point for amusement in
White’s term was the time a primary
opponent accused him of being a nerd,
on account of his picture in his high
school annual has nothing under it.
Just “Mark White.” Not even on the
AN1> “THOU SH/tiT NOT Bl/ltp BONFIRE,
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Scot O.Walker, Editor
Wade See, Managing Editor
Juliette Rizzo, Opinion Page Editor
Fiona Soltes, City Editor
Ellen Hobbs, Chuck Squatriglia,
News Editors
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Jay Janner, Art Director
Dean Sueltenfuss, Lifestyles Editor
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prom poster committee. Or in il
French Club. Nada. Zip. The Ore
Nerditude Crisis enlivened an
wise dull week.
Well, we could continue in ili
happy pursuit of rememberinggove
nors we are better off without, buttk
we wouldn’t have time for ForeignPo
icy Horrors. It’s still in short storiesc
the back pages (“Khmer fake Tow'
but the Khmer Rouge, the insane,set
ocidal communists who killed i
of their own people when they ruls
Cambodia earlier this decade, arew
ning again — with American suppor,
Did you see the film “The Killin
Fields?” Yeah, the same guys. With
backing them. Our tax dollars. Og
diplomatic policy. Our State Depac
ment. W’e have backed some truly dt
plorable dictators from SomozatoDi
valier to Marcos to the Shah ofk
but this is the first time we’ve eve
backed Maoist-Stalinist killer-con®
nists who slaughter their own peo
believe we are looking at a new lov
Some people think America waste
sponsible for bringing the Khirl
Rouge to power the first time- ]
certainly undermined the Cambodtj
government by Nixon’s secret bonfcl
(isn’t that insane — “secret bonibir;|
— it was not a secret from theCarakl
dians). If we bear any responsibilityrf
their coming to power once, itisnij
than we should have on our recordati
nation. But to let it happen again-
encourage it to happen again. Thatl
beyond any hope of forgiveness. Eve:|
The Kissengeresque rationale k|
hind this insanity is that Americaistl
posed to anything the North Vietnar.
ese do, whether it’s right or noil
they’re for it, we’re against it. Atn
intelligent policy, eh? Makes us tk
pawns.
The Khmer Rouge were so badji
Vietnamese invaded Cambodia tof
rid of them (you thought North Vie;
namese communists were bad? Ikj
Khmer Rouge are so bad even J
North Vietnamese can’t take thes
The Vietnamese are regarded aslik
ators in Cambodia. They finally Id
earlier this year after a couple yearsd
occupation, leaving a puppet regime |
place. So of course we’re opposed
the puppet regime because the Non|
Vietnamese set it up. So we supportikj
opposition to the puppet regime.
Guess who? Tire Khmer Rouge
part of an opposition coalition thati(j
eludes Prince Sihanouk, who has bee
on everybody’s side over the years,aij
some small democratic elements—b-|
the Khmer Rouge is the only part?
the coalition that has weapons and;
army. It’s the Khmer Rouge nowfigti]
ing the government left by the Nortf
Vietnamese and winning. Andit’stk
Khmer Rouge that will take over,
our backing. Why should the Camboc
ans, a lovely people who have nevt
done us any harm, have to endu:
mass killings a second timejustbecaif
we got beat by the Vietnamese in awi
we had no business fighting and#
real sore losers.
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