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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1990)
The Battalion OPINION 2 Monday, March 5,1990 Opinion Page Editor Ellen Hobbs 845-33H Keep campus lights on during Silver Taps Silver Taps may be one of A&M’s most honored traditions, but part of that tradition should be changed for the sake of cam pus safety. According to tradition, all of the lights on campus should be turned off while people are en route to and from the Silver Taps site and during the ceremony. While most campus lights are left on now, many lights are still turned off, leaving the areas such as those near the Sterling C. Evans Library and the Chemistry Building dark. Darkening isolated areas on campus puts the security of A&M students, staff and faculty in jeopardy. People in the unlit areas could trip or fall because of decreased visibilty, and people in dark areas are more likely to be targets for attacks. Turning off the lights in these areas for Silver Taps does not serve the tradition well. Only the lights that are actually at the site of Silver Taps should be turned off for the ceremony. The Battalion Editorial Board Mail Call RA class unites against racism EDITOR: We, the members of the Human and Community Development EPSY 489, Section 513, (RA Class), condemn as deplorable the blatant act of racism recently perpetuated against two residents of Krueger Hall for proudly dis playing positive examples of their culture on their residence hall room door in support of Black History Month. Insensitivity of this nature should not be tol erated and those responsible, if apprehended, should be punished to the full est extent by the University. None of us are free until all of us are free. Cheri Ordener accompanied by 21 signatures Parking site a ‘grave’ error EDITOR: I recently stumbled upon a sight that upset me deeply. As I was passing Reveille’s grave and the Eternal Flame, I found that 24-hour staff parking places had been placed directlv in front of them. I don’t know about the rest of you Ags out there, but 1 think that this is an almost sac.rilegioi.is act of the University. I could not even conceive of the idea of parking my car in front of the grave of one of A&M’s most important figures. I plea to the staff the spaces are for not to park there. Instead, why not park in the fish lot? The wafk may take an extra five minutes, but at-least you won’t be defaming the memorial we love so dearly. Matthew Bradshaw ’93 / Have an opinion? Express it! Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial slap -reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the authors intent. There is no guarantee that letters submitted will be printed. Each letter must be signed and must include the classification, address and telephone number of the writer. All letters may be brought to 216 Reed McDonald, or sent to Campus Mail Stop 1111. Two-percenter tradition lives on I’m not a two-percenter. Tm no two-percenter. I’m maybe a one-percenter, or more like a .87-percenter. I haven't always been so apathetic about traditions. My freshman and sophomore years 1 was a traditions queen. 1 went to yell practice evert home game and a lot of away games, too. I said “Howdy” to everyone as 1 walked across campus. I sold tobacco and gum at bonfire cut site and dough nuts and cookies at stack. I never missed Silver T aps. I wept at Muster. So how did I change? What went wrong? I got bored. Yeah the traditions just got a little old. Ft was uum wouk iUaii it was worth to make it to ever\ Silver Taps or get up early in the morning to go to cut site. Sometimes I’d rather, well, go to Duddley’s than go to yell practice. It makes me sort of sick to stand through an entire football game in the heat of September, and l just don’t care enough about Aggie football to pass out for it anymore. I’m not alone. Lots of good Ags have gone astray. Not out of malice or cori- Ellen Hobbs Opinion Page Editor tempt for the school, but because their lives begin to center more on themselves as individuals than on the collective school group. As most Aggies progress through A&M ihc\ lose a bit of the spirit and ex citement they had about A Sc M as fresh men. Roughly two-thirds of the letters we receive at 1 he Bait supporting tradi lions are from f reshmen. Not all upperclassmen become two percenters, but very few stay as excited and dedicated to A&M school spirit as they were when they were freshmen. 1 he dedication seems to, cle* reuse m de grees. And so mv dedication has decreased But I don t care. My apathy is helpin othei Ags to maintain an A&M td tion. Without people like me, wli would the good Ags call two-percenten People can veil at me and call me two-percenter if they want. I resile A&M’s t laditions. 1 was a part of tf™ for some time, and I realize thatonet the tiaditions is the tradition of thetwi pen i ntei So it doesn’t bother me. And it doesn't have to bother yu othei two oi-less-peicenters out then eithei. You don't have to be ashamedt not being a big traditions fan. Evenva wen a “traditional' Aggie in the pas You fol m a big i bunk of vour persona! it\ while vou’re in college. Your aiu tudes apd uleaix.uias change totally fit tween the time you entei college aiidtit tune you leave it. And that s not entirely bad. |ust remember: You, apathy and a! are a part ol \&M’s most pervasive am longest-lasting ti adition — the traditioi ot the t wo-pen enter Ellen Hobbs is a junior journul'm major. Reader explodes myths about A&M’s minorities No institution of higher learning has on its agenda to patronize and give special treatment to minority students. This is not helpful, nor cio minorities want it, What institutions do have on their agendas is to assure the success of historically oppressed groups in higher education, namely women and minorities. MYTH: Ethnic groups are admitted to Texas A&M under lower admission standards. FACT: The same standards are used for all students applying for admission. SAT scores and class ranking are the two main factors used to determine admission. According to 1989 statistics from the A&M Measurement and Research Office, 82 percent of Anglos were in the top one-fourth of their high school class, while 81 percent of the Blacks and 80 percent of Hispanics were shown to be in the top one-fourth. Conversely, 29 percent of Anglos w'ere admitted with SAT scores between 1,000 and 1,099 while 22 percent of Blacks and 23 percent of Hispanics admitted received scores in this range. A SAT score of 1,000 is required if the student is not in the top one-fourth of his or her class. Shawn T. Mulligan Reader’s Opinion This data shows that minorities are not granted extra privileges in the A&M admission process. MYTH: Minorities are preferred over Anglos in receiving financial aid awards. FACT: According to the A&M Student Financial Aid Office, Black and Hispanic students, who make up 10 percent of the student body, receive 12 percent of all aid awarded to Aggies. This aid includes University-awarded grants, loans, scholarships and employment. Seventy-nine percent of all aid awarded goes to Anglos who make up 82 percent of the student body. It has been suggested that minority scholarships are discriminatory. If this is true, the discrimination must also exist in scholarships for athletes, business majors from Tyler, Texas, and honor students. MYTH: Most of the Black students on campus are on One of the athletic The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Scot Walker, Editor Monique Threadgill, Managing Editor Ellen Hobbs, Opinion Page Editor Melissa Naumann, City Editor Cindy McMillian, Lisa Robertson. News Editors Richard Tijerina. Sports Editor Fredrick D. Joe. Art Director Mary-Lynne Rice, Tifestyles Editor Editorial Policy The- Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. 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 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 request. Our address: The Battalion, 230 Reed Mc Donald, Texas A&M University, College Sta tion. IX 77843-11 11. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843- 4111. teams. FACT: There are 1,165 Black students currently enrolled at A&M. Less than 150 are athletes. A word that has been used inadvertently in several Battalion Mail Call letters is “reverse discrimination.” To eliminate the redundancy that exists in this phrase, one should refer to perceived or real prejudice as just “discrimination.” ’Fagging on “reverse” is not only unnecessary but also places an unfair expectation on one group to be the original source of all discrimination. The minority populations will exceed in numbers over the majority population by the year 2000. How is it that we can refer to a person as a minority when he or she will be the majority? What does this demographic shift mean to the majority? It means that the “w hite w ay” of conducting business will no longer work in all employment, educational, personal and social situations. A Mail Call letter 1 read i ecently asked people of all races to shilt their focus from their own race to “the most important race of all, the human lace. If the letter-writer expects people to abandon their cultural identity, 1 hope he or she is willing to abandon his or hers, including bis or her beliefs, attitudes, values, likes and dislikes, religion and the kind of music you like to listen to. Asking people to devalue their identity is equivalent to asking them to become generic nobodies I am proud of my Irish/German, Euro- american roots and I’m not about to disregard them. Thanks for the invitation, but no thanks. The human race is not a melting pot. With this theory the distinction of the ingredients have a tendency to get lost. As an alternative, the tossed salad theory allows more expression of the individual. Each ingredient of the salad maintains its flavoi and character,even when tossed togethei. We all like tube different from the norm. Let's give the freedom to allow these differences to exist Current infot mation on diversity and multicult in al issues is abundant at this University At (lie Departments of Multii ultural Servti es and Student Affairs you can learn of organizations and leadership classes or obtain research material. In this rapidly- changing multicultural society, youcani afford to let yourself get caught being ignorant. Foi more information, contact the Department of Multicultural Services, 148 MSG, 845-4551; or the Department of Student Affairs, Coordinator of Student Development and MulticulM Programs, A-2 Lounge, Hughes Hall 845-9804. Shawn l. Mulligan is the program consultant lor the Department of MulticultuTal Services. Adventures In Cartooning by Don Atkinson Jr,