Opinion une 29 linale Tuesday, June 29,1993 Stroud Rosas The Battalion 100 years at Texas A&M SsBj raft in 19/: lunteer fore rd ended tk :he Soviet nian hostagi needed tok ated the ref ie serviced ere are aboii file now. ed all majO' >ut said th igreement. Cedras ap >n discussie- transfer unt* ee about ^ a future Cedras waaK laiti's secud' ide return 10 tical leader ng held oij it the tip River, eling unda [ actions. Las* louncil in 1 embargo 65 the Haiti 311 de until th 6 ess restoring ■public is g thousand 5 m into Hait 1 >argo. The Battalion Editorial Board Jason Loughman, editor in chief Mark Evans, managing editor Stephanie Pattillo, city editor Kyle Burnett, sports editor Dave Thomas, night news editor Anas Ben-Musa, Aggielife editor Mack Harrison, morning news editor Billy Moran, photo editor Editorial Future investment SSC will net long-term payoff ay/ pote to kill funding for the Super- on said conducting Super Collider shows a 29 m iiii on ‘ lack of foresight and understanding out the sam °f the magnitude of the project. The overwhelming number against the ce headquai collider in the House sends the mment, sat wrong message to the Senate where 1 pending 1* th e fate of the program now rests. Research projects such as the collider are investments in the future. First the equipment and labs must be set up for the scientists to use. The 54-mile oval atom smasher will al low physicists to probe the basic struc ture of matter on a new level. New ad vances in physics and medicine are likely to come from re search done with the super collider. Even in its development stage, benefits of the collider can be seen. Research on the high-powered mag nets needed by the collider has pro vided information that will lower rracy ded restructm and guaran democracy. Aristide oa the costs of magnetic resonance ven hours ot imaging (MRI), a procedure used to Sunday. & detect cancer and other ailments The discoveries could lower the costs of a MRI scan from over $1,000 to about $200. If the collider is canceled, over $8 billion in future government con tracts and 7,000 potential jobs will be lost. Cancellation will result in 3,000 immediate layoffs and huge penalties for breakoffs in over $1 billion invested in over 50,000 con tracts already award- ed in 48 states. At the 16,000-acre site in Waxahachie, cancellation would necessitate the seal ing of three magnet delivery shafts, each 240 feet deep with an elliptical mouth 60 feet long and 30 feet wide. Ten miles of tunnel would have to be shored up and sealed. The Senate needs to make a com mitment to the future and continue through with a project that is al ready showing results in its infant stage. With layoffs, shutdown costs and most importantly the loss of possible discoveries, the cost of a decision to cancel the collider could end up being higher than the cost of constructing it.. on service ■vents and What's Up 1 no latef re the de' plication ;s are not i in What's itions, call >13. Dickerson mistaken in cult reference The June 16 Batt contained another distorted reference to A&M Christian Fellowship and Great Commission Stu dents by sophomore columnist Matt Dickerson. I have been the faculty ad visor to the Texas A&M Student Orga nization since 1980 and offer your read ers some more accurate information. Great Commission Students is not now, nor has it ever been, "widely rec ognized" as a cult — at least not in the Usual sense of the word cult. The re search and comments by the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), the orga nization that Dickerson and other anti- evangelical-Christian writers love to (Juote, is highly suspect. It makes sweeping generalizations based on isolated incidents. At various times CAN has also listed prominent Christian denominational churches and Highly respected Christian movements 5s "cults." Another author actually commend ed Great Commission for steps taken to 'nvestigate and correct all reported leadership weaknesses, most of which occurred more than 15 years ago. The Texas A&M Student Organiza tion name has changed for the sake of clarity — not subterfuge as Dickerson and his Touchstone associates imply. The original name of OASIS was changed to A&M Christian Fellowship because OASIS didn't convey the pur pose or nature of the group. Many Aggies had no idea what the term "Great Commission" meant and after a couple of years of having to ex plain the name the A&M group re turned to the easily understood name A&M Christian Fellowship (AMCF). Dickerson may consider his own ac tions "gay bashing," and that label is indeed being put on virtually anyone who disagrees with the homosexual agenda at Texas A&M or elsewhere. We did strongly support the Univer sity position that recognizing the Gay Students Services Organization would officially condone immoral, and at the time illegal, activity among students. But AMCF, like most other Christian organizations, has had no intent to harm individuals as the term "gay bashing" suggests. The Battalion Page 5 iParlez vous espanol... ? Learn a new language — without getting graded J ' suis tres — Estoy muy confusa- do .... Let me try this again. Fm very confused. After years of speaking one lan guage, I'm suddenly becoming trilin gual. Or, at least I'm trying. I'm tak ing Spanish classes during the day and French classes at night. And, be tween classes, I speak English — I think. To avoid further confusion. I've decided, "Ix-nay on the Pig Latin." Now, there are only two possible reasons why people would take two language classes at once: A. Because they're on drugs and were suffering a really bad trip when registering for classes. 2. Because they have no choice. Because their backs are to the wall and graduation day is approaching ever nearer and the only way to get it all done is to do it all at once. Now, the last time I checked, I was drug free (except for Cokes, candies and the occasional shot of Pepsi). Yessiree, this body's as clean as the President's. I don't inhale, either. But I am forced to the wall. I've got a full load in the fall and this summer is the only time I have to get my language requirement out of the way. Many of my friends assume that I already know Spanish. They take one look at me and, before I say one word, they already know that: I speak Spanish 1 was born and raised a good Catholic boy, and then I joined a gang and roamed the streets at night searching for trouble but would gladly settle for a nice, shiny hub-cap. It's amazing. The people who make these assumptions have such a strong sense of perception, such an uncanny ability to penetrate to the core of a person's soul without even talking to him. Of course, they're wrong, but I don't tell them that. It might confuse them. I'm trying to learn French because I'll be studying in France this fall. From what I hear, the French are not par ticularly friendly to those who come to their land with that lost look in their eyes, clueless on how to ask, "Which way to the men's room?" I, for one, have no intention of wan dering around the Louvre, eyes crossed and legs weak, hoping to find the door that says, "Le wee-wee." I will ask for directions, like a civilized person. And then I'll run like a banshee directly to my appointed destination. Now, with all the vowels and consonants and grammati cal rules-which-don't-apply crowding in my head, one would think that my stress level would be as high as, say, a kite. Or as high as Hillary the day she was inaugurated. But I'm not stressed. Not about French, anyway. The French class I'm taking has no tests, no homework, and no bad grades. What a deal! It's the kind of class I've dreamed about since I was in first grade, when I used to stare out the window at all the kids at recess playing, while Ms. Mayhew rambled on about zebras and xylophones. Finally, I've found the perfect set up, classes with some thing to learn and no responsibility. I'm taking my French course through the MSC University PLUS program. Though I had seen the flyers and heard of the program, I never understood what University PLUS had to offer. Now I know. The program is set up as a leisure activi ties program (that means you might actually enjoy it) for anyone interested in learning without paying thousands of dollars in tuition fees or staying up late cramming for ex ams. University PLUS offers instruction on anything from martial arts to skydiving, wine tasting to hand quilting. And yes, they even teach different languages: from French to German to Russian to sign language. (No Pig Latin classes, though, due to the extreme difficulty and general lack of interest. Isk-tay, isk-tay.) But, there are more than 120 classes offered each semester for anyone who wants to learn something different without overload ing an already-full study schedule. Studying two languages at once would scare most peo ple. But not me. I love it. Now, when a Frenchman asks if I know French, I can proudly say, "Si, senor." Vascjuez is a senior journalism major ROBERT VASQUEZ Columnist We cannot apologize for speaking out against practices that the Bible clearly declares to be unrighteous, wicked and degrading to individuals and human society (Romans 1). But at the same time AMCF has con sistently proclaimed the biblical mes sage that all men — not just homosexu als — have sinned in some way and need to be restored to God through Christ. AMCF would probably also oppose official recognition of an Aggie mari juana smokers club or a streakers club for the same reasons that we opposed GSSO. AMCF and Great Commission Min istries are both large, widely respected evangelical Christian organizations. We hope to continue our tradition of providing biblically based training and fellowship for Aggies as we have for thousands of others since 1977. Rodger Lewis Class of ‘76 Faculty Advisor to A&M Christian Fellowship KAMI!-TV Program Director Tenure qualifications must include research The recent article on the tenure sys tem can be a good springboard for dis cussion. First, at a land grant universi ty, research is supposed to be more im portant than at other schools. Second, traditionally in our society, the person who pays the piper calls the tune. Since outside research is paying the bulk of A&M's budget, research is go ing to take priority. If you feel that education of students is important, for crying out loud put the squeeze on those schmucks in the state legislature to provide adequate funding so faculty are not required to cover their own salaries with outside research funding. As for the specific case mentioned in the article, a faculty in which one of every four members and most of the graduate students are female can hard ly be called androcentric, and the fact that the vote against Dr. Stock's tenure was 12-0 speaks for itself. I suspect she had some important deficiencies that the article failed to mention. Daniel K. Miller Department of Vet Pathobiology Stock's attitude led to tenure denial I can't say that I am an authority on A&M's tenure system, but I can say that there must be much more to Dr. Wendy Stock's objections. I can't believe that she is complain ing. She can't really think that this had much to do with the number of publi cations that she had. She had to know that her ultra-liberal attitude would lead to this. To give her due credit, she is knowl edgeable, and for that matter may be one of the up and coming experts in her field, but it seems to me that she lacks something in her style of teach ing. I took Human Sexuality from Dr. Stock last spring. Only one word comes to mind if you ask me to de scribe her: Femi-Nazi. Though I was taking Human Sexuality, I felt as if I were taking Male Bashing 101. I'm not sure how much the depart ment weighs student evaluations, but I would like to think that they are at least considered. Her peers voted her out 12-0. Hello!, that's unanimous! Dr. Stock needs to realize, she treats people with conservative ideals with the same closed mind she accuses us of having. The psychology department, on the whole, has a great faculty. Hail the tenure system at Texas A&M! Christopher Calhoun Class of'93 Editorials afjpeowig in The Battalion reflect iHe views of tfie editorial board. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion staff members, me Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns, and Mail Call Hems express the opinions of the authors. 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