Opinion
une 29
linale
Tuesday, June 29,1993
Stroud
Rosas
The Battalion
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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
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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
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