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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1993)
> Opinion Monday, March 8,1993 The Battalion Page 5 Taking sides: Should Texas raise tuition rates for students with more than 158 hours? The Texas leg islature is consid ering a bill which would raise tu ition costs for stu dents who accu mulate more than 158 credit hours without earning a degree. The bill is designed to en courage students to graduate in a timely manner and to prevent the waste of pre cious tax money which subsidizes the cost of higher education at state supported schools. Thousands of students are rejected each year from attending universities like A&M simply because there isn't room for them. Texas just doesn't have the facilities to accommodate more stu dents. Those;.who perpetually post pone graduation rpo others of more than tuition subsidies. Professors' time, advisors' time, parking space and even dorm space often remain unavail able, simply because they continue to be used by students who wander from department to department — postpon ing the inevitable return to life in the real world, where people wear ties and wait until after lunch to drink beer. The new bill is not designed to pump students out like a well-oiled machine. It will allow for the indeci sion and experimentation common to new students. Most colleges require between 132 and 135 hours for gradua tion. The 158 hour rule will allow stu dents nearly 30 hours, or one year, to explore the possibilities while nudging career students into finding another job making room for other students. Some people are slow learners, granted. But the proposed new rule doesn't punish poor students for at tempting to earn credits toward a cer tain degree. It's designed to prompt the smart people who accumulate end less credit hours in various fields to move on. In real life, it's three strikes and you're out. Four years — eight, if you're good — and, "You've had your chance; the nation votes another presi dent into office." These are the rules. They're not intended to cut anyone out. They're not made to rob people of then- chances at success. These rules are made to allow everyone the same op portunities that were available to the people before them. Why shouldn't students be allowed to change their minds and sample from the department du jour? Who's to tell them that they can't switch majors at the drop of a GPR? The government, that's who. The state of Texas is picking up the tab for much of the cost of higher edu cation. Public universities like Texas A&M are subsidized by public funds and are created to serve the public's needs. The students who are accepted to attend these universities must make the most of the opportunity and earn their degrees. And then they must move on, making room for more to do the same. A proposed Texas House bill that would re quire undergrad uate students who have amassed 158 or more college credit hours to pay out-of-state tuition rate at Texas schools will become an intru sive and poten tially disastrous burdfen on many citizens of this state. ' Though 158 hours might seem to be extreme, the load is easily obtainable, and the tuition hike would hit as many as 1,000 Aggies in the current senior class. The only thing that the bill would ac complish would be to drive students from the rolls of state universities. The earning power of an individual with a college education far outstrips that of someone with no degree and that trans lates directly into college graduates making better taxpayers. The small earnings that could come from higher tuition rates would be false profit as the state forfeits the right to tax people with much higher future incomes. One has to doubt whether state legis lators have the temperament to act on the 158 hour limit at the same time that government seems to be infringing on the rights and liberties of its citizens more than anytime in the last decade. A dangerous precedent will be set if the state is allowed to intrude on the private choices that an individual makes in pursuing an education. While getting rid of some students may fall under someone's interpreta tion of the "public good," how long will it be before excluding larger blocs of students falls under the same politi cal catchword? The state would be better served if legislators would come up with a solu tion to the higher education budget de bacle instead of engaging in political grandstanding against a small and un organized faction of young Texans. A friend of mine went over the 158 hour limit when he decided that he did not want to be an engineer for the rest of his life. After completing over 175 hours, he graduated and is today a doc toral candidate in social psychology at Northwestern University. Supposedly he would have fallen under an exemption of the 158 hour limit because he had changed colleges, and many such exemptions would ap ply, but do any of us want to leave our financial fates up to a bureaucrat in an office tower? And do any of us need the pursuit of a college degree to be any more confusing or time consuming than it already is? As for assertions that "career" stu dents are taking up space that could be used by someone else, well, that dog won't hunt, as a certain governor likes to say. No citizen of the state of Texas can be excluded from attending a state university as long as he or she meets the entrance requirements of that insti tution. ROBERT VASQUEZ Columnist K. LEE DAVIS Guest Columnist Vasquez is a senior journalism major. Davis is a senior journalism major, who is not currently enrolled. Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the editorial board only. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns, and Mail Call items express the opinions of the authors only The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and will print os many as space allows in the Moil Call section, letters must be 300 words Or less and include the author's name, dass, and phone number. Due to space restrictions, guest columns will not be accepted unless the author contacts the opinion page for prior approval before submitting columns. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, Style, and accuracy, letters should be addressed tot The Battalion • Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald /Moil stop 1111 Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 Touch that parking spot and DIE Students risk life and limb for paltry parking privilege I 'll try to be brief and get straight to the point. There are three un avoidable evils in life: death, tax es and parking. Now, death doesn't seem so bad when compared to oth er things, like finals week and trips to t.u. And taxes don't scare me be cause Clinton is going to tax only the rich, which leaves me way, way, WAY out of the picture. Yeah, I wish. But parking. . . Well, parking on this campus is like all three rolled into one. It taxes your nerves until you're either ready to die, or you at least want to kill someone. Don't get me wrong. I am grate ful that parking has been supplied for students who don't mind rising at three each morning and rushing to school in time to fight thousands of other drivers who think they're Mario Andretti. Of course, these Mario An dretti wannabes have more lead in their feet and more of a mission to kill as many people as possible without actually looking at their victims. But it's the fact that those sprawling parking lots — which cover more acreage than most northeastern states — are so far from our classrooms. This means that students must not only pack a lunch, but they must also bring rain gear, matches, and a bottle for sending messages, should they get lost and end up on the shore of some uncharted desert isle. It can happen. Just wait for the rain. Have you seen the size of the puddles that form in those parking lots? They don't call 'em "fish lot" and "mud lot" for nothing. You may not know this, but many of those puddles are maintained and protected by the National Parks and Wildlife Agency. We should be honored. Not many schools are located in the middle of a rainforest. Given our unique meteorological and oceanographic circumstances, the engineers who designed the parking lots have prepared for such inclement whether — fear fully known as "monsoon season'' on less hardy conti nents. Yes, rain is welcome on our parking lots, which are strategically engineered to form the shape of a bowl in order to catch as much water as possible without actu ally letting it escape until summer — when the sun burns all surface water into a steam which rises slowly and then hovers at just below armpit level. There's really no reason to be afraid of these puddles. They're actually quite safe when the tide is out, and most are manned by experienced lifeguards who have certifi cates validating entire minutes of training in life-saving techniques. You can avoid most puddles simply by watching for the proper signs, which are big and yellow and say something like "Pedestrian" or "Crosswalk." In case you can't read — having transferred from that little school in Austin — just watch the road for broad, white lines painted across the pavement. These lines are placed there for your safety and usually indicate the more dangerous flood zones in your area. Parking in the rain, however, is nowhere near as frus trating as encountering the demons that lie in wait for a space at the other end of the parking lot. What I'm about to describe to you is heinous. All chil dren should leave the room. I'm convinced that the per petrators of this crime must be longhorns because I know that no true Aggie would do this. On more than one occasion, after sitting patiently for countless hours in the BLARING, HOT SUN, waiting for a space, someone has actually — close your eyes if you have a weak stom ach - STOLEN MY PARKING SPACE. OK, Jeffrey Dahmer deserves to die. And, yes, Charles Manson deserves to die. But these people who dart into my space — no, my name isn't on it, YOU ID IOT, but I have waited, since before sunrise, for that parking space — deserve a fate far worse than death; say, maybe like being forced to watch twelve straight hours of Beverly Hills 90210, or being forced to look at my pic ture twice in one day. How these people feel safe to leave their cars — with such nice paint jobs — in a space which, by divine order, does not belong to them, I will never know. No, I don't scratch their eyes out. No, I don't even scratch their paint. I just sit there gnashing my teeth wondering how Aggies can do this to each other. Which brings me to my point. Don't steal parking spaces. It's just not right. Vasquez is a senior journalism major. ROBERT VASQUEZ Columnist ...and now, tlxe Republican response to President Clinton’s economic message... Ecosystem approach is best for our health International Week, national rivalries Originally I had the intention of writ ing an upbeat, hospitable article about the recent International Week at MSC. Unfortunately, the current political fiasco that is occurring between the Palestinians and Israelis also appears to exist at A&M. The Israelis have the keen ability to manipulate and distort every legitimate and worthy cause as they have manipu lated and distorted the Palestinian home land with their bulldozers. They seem to believe that their right of passage given to them in 1948 also applies to every situ ation they deem necessary to apply it to in this country. As they have made a mockery out of the peace conference, they have reduced the International Week to a political fo rum where they can shovel their propa ganda. It all started with the radical and ter rorizing attitude that they exhibited by initiating a complaint about the Palestin ian map being identical to the map of "The Occupied Land of Palestine," now known as Israel. However, with A&M students becoming more aware of the Is raelis intentions, they whole heartily sup port the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to represent their country during the International Week. Failing to get their complaint noticed, the Israeli students tried to provoke us by attempting to force us out of the Interna tional Week theater —similar to the way they forced out the Palestinian people of their homeland. As a Palestinian hoping always for peace and freedom through justice, I feel very sad to know that this self-serving behavior is the nature of the Israeli club at A&M. However, the Palestinians' for giving nature and sportsmanship, for which we were complimented by visitors, participating countries and above all the International Student Services, fueled our minds to continue our participation the next day. Esam T. Kharbat Graduate Student I am a little concerned with how unin formed people are about our environ ment. A lot of people do not think where it all goes. When you throw something away, do you wonder where it will end up? Chances are it is going to end up in some one's water or food. Trash has a way of showing up in our oceans and in our air when it's incinerat ed. When people like Bruce Babbitt stand up to protect our natural resources, we should applaud him and not say that we are pleased with status quo. Side effects of protecting the ecosys tem will be tremendous, but not in a neg ative way as the Feb. 25 editorial suggest ed ("Broader act could make big trou ble"). Indeed there are always two sides to every coin, but not in this case. Everyone needs to wake up and understand that our health relies on a clean and safe ecosystem. One doesn't have to live in Tennessee like A1 Gore to know that there are health hazards in the air. We can't silence peo ple who care about our environment be cause that would be ignorant and unedu cated. Sandra Beck Class of'94