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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.
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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