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
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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,