The Battalion
Page 11
Wednesday, March 10,1993
Name change upsets
A&I alumni, students
On Friday at 3pm the Texas A&M
System regents met in a specially called
session to discuss the idea of changing
the names of all the A&M system
schools to Texas A&M at wherever.
You would think that the system had
become a fried chicken franchise like
TU.
Why was such a decision in the off
ing? State Sen. Carlos Truan of Corpus
Qiristi had threatened to slash the bud
get of the College Station campus if the
regents did not succumb to his de
mand. I hoped that the regents would
give Truan the Jackie Sherrill "motiva
tion treatment" for trying to pull a
hardball tactic such as this. The Aggies
[knew wouldn't stand for such a cheap
trick.
First of all, Truan didn't have the in
fluence to make good on such a threat.
Second, it was a violation of state law
for a legislator to make such a threat.
Third, the Aggies did not support the
concept and neither did the alumni of
the other schools in the system. I know
for certain that the students and the
alumni of Texas A&l in Kingsville did-
not support a name change. The alum
ni have traditionally opposed the mea
sure. The A&I Student Senate was on
record against it and over 850 student
signatures were on the petition in op
position.
Sen. Truan has wanted to shove this
idea down the throats of the A&M re
gents ever since the system merger oc
curred. The regents have resisted until
now. Giving in to the demands of an
inflated ego with an inferiority complex
like Truan is like paying protection
money to the Mafia. The regents would
have done more good by offering to
pay for psychiatric counseling for Tru
an rather than accommodating him.
Now Truan will definitely be back
for future installments. Redistribution
of the PUF money is a regular topic of
conversation for him.
On Friday we found out whether the
A&M regents had the mettle to deal
with a person like Truan and whether it
was easier to abandon principle and
tradition to the whims of politics and
compromise.
Winston Churchill once said, "On
matters of principle, great or small,
large or petty, never, never, never, give
in." Sounds to me like Churchill would
have made a good Aggie.
Doug Vannoy
Class of'73 & '75
Texas A&I
Good Ag apologizes
for bad bull heckling
This letter is in response to Xavier
Cervantes and Chris Valladares who
wrote letters to the editor on Friday.
I was at the baseball game you spoke
of, and I want to apologize for myself
and the other Aggies you spoke about.
I did yell "Speedy" at the other play
er whose name was Gonzalez. Howev
er, I did not do it with any intent of
racism. I, like most of the other Aggies,
wanted to break his concentration and
get a strikeout.
By changing his name a cartoon
character we can all relate to, and then
yelling it, we hoped to make him ner
vous. The word "Speedy" came from
the relationship between his last name
and that of the cartoon character; it was
not meant to be racist.
Nevertheless, you were offended,
and I will be more careful in the future
when heckling.
As for the person who said "go back
to Mexico," I do not know who did it. I
did not hear it either. I am offended
also by this. He/She is definitely not a
"good Ag" in my eyes either.
Thanks for bringing this to my atten
tion. I hope you can see that my inten
tions were not meant to be racist.
Please come to another game and try
agfcin.
Joshua Marquart
Class of '95
IHOP encourages
good study habits
Because of professional commit
ments, four evenings each week, I eat
supper with a friend around 11 o'clock
in the evening. Therefore, we dropped
by the International House of Pancakes
(IHOP) on University Drive a couple of
times last month.
We were unable to get a table be
cause the restaurant was full. Every
where, there were serious students
hard at work; concentrating, calculat
ing, cogitating, with an occasional
pause for a sip of coffee or soda.
Nourishing snacks were evident here
and there. At some of the larger booths
two were sharing the table, though this
appeared to limit each's available open
reference space. We inquired, and were
told by the night manager that this en
couragement of academic zeal had been
approved by the grand manager.
I commend IHOP and its managers
for their generous support and promo
tion of educational diligence. Too of
ten, quiet and selfless service of this
type goes unrecognized, unacknowl
edged, unacclaimed.
Aggies, next time you need a friend
ly place to spread out the books, think
of your friendly neighbors at IHOP.
The lighting is good, the benches com
fortable, and the coffee service excel
lent.
Just don't forget to thank the nice
manager and please leave your wait-
person a tip.
W.D. Bailey, Jr., M.D.
A.P. Beutel Student Health Center
Evans elevates freight
above all students
So! The Sterling C. Evans Library has
decided to prevent usage of the third el
evator. It's about time. I was getting
tired of immediate service.
The crowds that now await herd
around two elevators instead of three.
This provides adequate time for Ags to
converse and get close to one another.
Also, the two elevators challenge
students to budget their time more
carefully. A test of patience is another
benefactor which comes into play as
students watch the "freightavator"
open and close on their floor.
The underlying point of this message
is to make the library staff realize that a
freight-only elevator subtracts from the
good of the students. I would be more
than happy to share an elevator with
freight or become freight myself.
Charles Reed
Class of '94
Thatcher visit not
related to Spike Lee
* ' •, -'ta • •
With regards to Kelvin Yip's letter
from March 1, Margaret Thatcher's vis
it to Texas A&M on March 26 is spon
sored by the MSC Wiley Lecture Series.
Aggie Cinema, sponsoring Spike Lee's
visit, is not associated with the Lady
Thatcher program.
David Goldberg
Director-Public Relations
MSC Wiley Lecture Series
International Week is
cultural, not political
How sad to see that, once again, the
Palestinians just don't get it. The cul
tural displays of International Week
were supposed to be just that, cultural,
not political.
I personally set up the Israeli booth,
and I carefully screened all of the mate
rial that we handed out and displayed
to be sure that there was no political
content. What we did have was infor
mation on nature preservation in Israel,
and on daily life, on agriculture, educa
tion and technology, on tourism and on
mosques, churches, temples and syna
gogues in Israel. We had Jewish ritual
objects, Bedoin Arab embroidery, Is
raeli music, a tourism video, a Hebrew
Bible, and a chance for people to plant
trees in Israel or have their name writ
ten in Hebrew.
I think it is ironic that people "hop
ing for peace and freedom through jus
tice" have run amok stabbing Israeli
civilians as every phase of the peace
talks has begun, but that is neither here
nor there. The point is that the Interna
tional Students Association (ISA) estab
lished rules concerning proper dis
plays; the Israeli students followed
those rules, and the Palestinians broke
them. Perhaps if they had attended a
single one of the cultural display meet
ings in the month preceding Interna
tional Week, they could have better fol
lowed our example.
It is to the ISA administration's cred
it that they took the difficult and regret
table step of removing the Palestinians
when it became known that they were
distributing anti-Israel propaganda;
among other infractions. Certainly!
there are political differences among;
nations, but we hope that next year we,
will see only displays that adhere to the:
rules — displays that are full of music,
native dress, handicrafts, and other ex
amples of a country's culture -- because
we'd much rather spend our time meet
ing new friends than defending our
selves from people who have no respect
for the great experience that Interna
tional Week at Texas A&M is supposed
to be.
Sharon Semik
Graduate Student
Cultural displays
miss a few groups
In observing the tables that were set
up in the MSC for "International;
Week," I noticed a few were missing.
My ancestors were French Huguenots
and English. I did not see either of
these cultures represented. I also did
not see representation for Ireland, Ger
many, Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden,
Norway or Finland. Is some kind of re
verse discrimination at work here?
Tracy Sartwell
Class of'90
Edilonots appearing tn The Battq&on reflecl the view* of
the editorial board only They do not necessarSy reflect
the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the Texas
A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or
staff.
Columns, guest columns, and Mail CaR items express the
opinions of the authors only.
The Battaton encourages fetters to the editor and w8 print
as merry as space cflows in the Mail Coll section. Letters
must be 300 words or less and include the author's name,
dass, and phone number.
Due to space restrictions, guest columns wl 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 to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
013 Reed McDonald /Mai stop 1111
Texas A&M University
CoSege Station, TX 77843
BEER DISSOLVES
GOLD...
BEER DISSOLVES
AGGIE GOLD...
BEER DISSOLVES
AGGIE GOLDEN
DREAMS!!
PUBLIC SERVICE ATiriOUCEMEOT BROUGHT TO
YOU BY C.D.P.E.-THE RAINBOW CENTER
f'f.'i'i r l Uv i
GOOD AT THESE KFC® LOCATIONS:
3321 S. Texas Ave. 6
Bryan
2501 Texas Ave. S.
College Station
iiiium
KFC*