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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1994)
Opinion 'dubbino snd, was an d claim finished ' 's sweet, rphan, series o| I i battered f be final, clayedk ; d national i; ‘aiul get. just going ne. ubted the ucherson | are true, y she said, f evesecre- on their | ass presi ded him. ;cretaries y had full g said. ? blame yone. because I do it on Schreiber vas a per- y made, are going office, he : Act that ntaincom- f the gov- ■es. ty, do not to decide Turner lining In al over in- t, ourciti- open and , it." Igation in • was sent oral high- ie Rangers 'estigation Monday, February 28,1994 .i ■■ v The Battalion Editorial Board i i i JULI PHILLIPS, Editor in chief | / % I MICHAEL PLUMER, Managing editor KYLE BURNETT, Aggielife editor \ | BELINDA BLANCARTE, Night news editor DENA DIZDAR, Aggielife editor HEATHER WINCH, Night News editor SEAN FRERKING, Sports editor TONI GARRARD CLAY, Opinion editor WILLIAM HARRISON, Photo editor JENNIFER SMITH, City editor \ EDITORIAL Tip of the iceberg Investigation should continue With the recent indictments of two Board of Regents secre taries, authorities have begun exposing alleged wrongdoing involving falsified University records. The Texas Rangers and other authorities should investi gate this situation until the par ties involved in any misconduct are held responsible for their actions. A Brazos County grand jury indicted Board secretary Vickie Running and administrative as sistant Sasha Walters for eight counts of falsifying documents. They are accused of giving a lo cal reporter falsified copies of state vouchers which misrepre sented alcohol purchases by itemizing food and soft drinks on the receipts. - Since The use of ^tate funds to buy afetfhol is illegal, the fal sified documents may be only part of the problem. Board of Regents Chairman Ross Mar graves came to the defense of the two secretaries, saying that they may not have known they were breaking the law and there was no conspiracy. “They were only handling things the way they had been handled prior to them," he said. This defense does not make A&M look any better or change the fact that the law may have been been violated. We deserve to know if anyone established a policy that orders secretaries to falsify state documents or hide alcohol purchases. The investi gation should not end until any wrongdoing has been exposed completely. The fact that System em ployees have been indicted damages A&M's reputation se verely. But a bigger injustice would be to allow these women to bear total responsibility for any illegal actions in which oth ers may have participated or al lowed to go on. We should expect our school to openly acknowledge its mis takes. The fact that these laws may have been broken does not cause nearly as much damage to our reputation as does the possible attempt to cover the facts. Although we should take these initial legal actions seri ously, we must not let the in dictment of Running and Wal ters limit further official in quiries. This investigation must not end until taxpayers know exactly where their money has gone and who spent it. The Battalion Page 7 Don't buy Generation X generalizations Media image of young adults more hype than reality A s college stu dents in our early 20s, most A&M students are part of what is known as Generation X. We are the generation that can't find itself, the one having an identity crisis. Instead of being part of the baby boomer generation, we are included in the baby bust. According to Stan ley Bing, a contribut ing editor at Esquire, we are the generation that “spends several years waking at noon, having a piece of cold pizza for breakfast, taking the dog for a walk, going over to see [our boyfriends or girlfriends], maybe seeing a late-afternoon movie, and, afterward, walking home together staring in the win dows of restaurants we can't afford, dream ing of what we just might do when we grow up, sell out, and start making money. A cynical and wise-beyond-our-years gen eration, we grew up quickly and missed both our childhoods and our dreams. Many of us were scarred when our parents divorced and our mothers went back to work. We are afraid of social security, our national debt and the health care issue. We are glued to MTV. We don't do drugs — at least not as openly as the flower chil dren. We don't protest, as we know it would n't do us any good. For fear of AIDS, we limit casual sex. We can't even yearn for a a condo and a BMW. That would be far too '80s, and yuppies are the root of all evil. We are Generation X, or so the media, ad vertisers and social commentators tell us. To facilitate product advertising, each genera tion is grouped, classified and analyzed. We are the slackers: the lazy, disenchanted gener ation that will pay for the excesses of our par ents and grandparents. This theory has been easy to sell. Most ca ble companies offer at least 30 different chan nels that allow us to watch an endless supply of sitcom reruns. Electronic companies have sold more Nintendo packages than they ever could have dreamed. In order to show how much we don't care about fashion, the fash ion magazines feature vintage-type clothing that — here's a big surprise — costs just as much as clothes that actually look new. We're being sold an image of the '90s, and we're buying. We relate well to the hard luck story we're sold. As part of Generation X, we are above the mindless (yet income-producing) jobs that generations before us accepted with pride. We don't want our minds to waste away while we work on assembly lines, drive de livery trucks or wait tables. In the informa tion age, it is no longer prestigious to pro duce something; it's better to recognize one's intellect, even while sitting dormant on the couch. The movie "Reality Bites" romanticizes our generation. The main character, Lelaina Pierce, a recent college graduate, is trying to begin a career in film journalism. When she gets fired from her internship with an overly cheerful and artistically void morning televi sion show, Lelaina can't seem to find a job of any kind. No matter that she graduated vale dictorian of her university class. Instead of working beneath her obvious talent, Lelaina resorts to spending her days on the telephone with a call-in psychic and runs up a $400 phone bill. To pay off the bill, she ingeniously convinces customers at the neighborhood gas station to pay her cash for their gasoline, and then charges each bill to her father's gas credit card. Not exactly the fi nancial solution you would expect from an intelligent person. Lelaina's boyfriend, Troy, has been fired from 12 jobs, although he has an IQ of 180. As students, we at A&M don't believe we are above hard work, at least not academic work. We do homework, study for tests and write papers. We aren't able to sleep in until noon. We can't keep dogs in the dorms, and we probably don't see many afternoon movies. While stil. in the safe and secure uni versity environment, we feel unconnected to our generational personality. We have accept ed only the superficial elements of Generation X. We read more magazines than newspapers and now frequent local coffee houses. Still, we are discouraged by the controver sy that surrounds our campus, by the recent decline in job opportunities, and by the fear of not being as successful as our parents. We must be careful not to believe what we are told about our victim-hood, our poor work ethic and our lack of family values. If we let it, the media image of Generation X will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Melissa Megliola is a senior industrial engineering major MELISSA MEGLIOLA Columnist Kite b0Y6U wwe? ^ v> you 3 SALMI6cV\£Al< A LAY ? ^ You WsW AWb Floss t&GUvj&VX? bo You Lite YOU'* vAom-iM‘U\u? m ££* slgu smuY bim^y ° vito SikiW Qp foR 7URY MY CYL Tea ?fML. Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the editorial board. 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, cartoons and letters express the opinions of the authors. The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and will print as many as space allows. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class, and phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, style, and accuracy. Contact the opinion editor for information on submitting guest columns. Address letters to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Mail stop 1111 Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 Fax: (409) 845-2647 Make-believe training session turns up real-life problem y little brother used to trust me. Poor sap. Then my parents took us on that fate ful trip to Dairy Queen. My brother was sitting quietly, watching me (he adored me) when I started to sprinkle pepper onto the table. His smile disappeared as he Booked on, con- Kused. I crouched Blown until my eyes I Were visible just above the table. I "Wow," I said. "This pepper looks real- | ly neat when you look at it like this, Royce. It looks really cool when you put your isyes close to it, like this. Those little pep- aers look HUGE on the table." Intrigued, my brother consented. He touched down, put his eyes level with the table and tried to imagine why his big brother would be so amazed with this par ticular perspective of Dairy Queen pepper. Before he got a chance to ask, I blew a big gust of onion breath at the pepper, most of which landed in his eyes. I erupted into laughter. "Ouch!" the little booger yelled. "Mom!" Needless to say, I didn't get a DQ cone for dessert that day. Boys grow up, but that doesn't mean they stop doing stupid things. A couple of weeks ago, a group of students was cho sen to act as professionals in a mock execu tive training program. Top company offi cials from around the world are chosen to attend this thousand dollar conference each year. You might call them golden boys, though they're old enough to be men. The students did their stint, acting like professional interviewers with these exec utives. Everything proceeded at a quasi professional level. The nature of the inter views was somewhat light, and the mock setting allowed considerable leeway for joking and lapses in judgment that would, never be tolerated in real-life situations. But as the interviews ended and the students began to file out of the room, one of the men in the room chuckled and said to a rather attractive female student In the middle of the "training program," the at tention of the entire room had suddenly been thrown into Lisa's lap — because she was wearing a skirt. named Lisa, "You with the blond hair, in the green skirt. What are you doing this weekend?" The room erupted into laugh ter. The golden boys laughed. The students laughed. Even Lisa laughed. But later, as we walked to the meeting room where we would discuss the interviews, I thought about what had just happened. The room had been filled with forty- and fifty-year- old men. Except for one other female stu dent in the room, Lisa was the only woman there. And in the middle of this "training program," the attention of the entire room had suddenly been thrown into Lisa's lap. Not because she was inter viewing, but because she was wearing a skirt. I noticed that she had laughed it off, but I couldn't help wondering if she was the slightest bit uncomfortable. "Yes," she said, staring into the dis tance. "I didn't even know him, and he's asking me in front of all these men some stupid question to make them laugh. He was old enough to be my grandfather. He didn't see me as a professional. He saw me as some woman in a skirt. Is that how men are going to see me when I get a real job? As some bimbo?" I thought I understood what the prob lem was. Somewhat self-righteously, I con cluded that the man simply was from the old school. The politically correct, homog enized members of Generation X would would never commit such a travesty. In our discussion, the leader of the ses sion told the group of executives what everyone already knew: Such behavior would entice charges of sexual harassment and should be contained, if not purged. The consensus among the executives was one of agreement. And they ap plauded when the students were intro duced. But it was when they came to Lisa's name that I did a really stupid thing. As Lisa stood up to face the crowd of men who had thrust their attention upon her, I whistled. Not to make the golden boys laugh. But to make Lisa laugh. She and I are good friends. But she didn't find it funny. "Why did you do that?" she asked. I couldn't answer. Bad judgment. Warped sense of humor. Plain stupidity. The same reason many men — and some women — do such things. I felt stupid and searched for the words to explain my self. All I could think of was, "I'm sorry." "Boys will be boys," the proverbial de fense goes. It's a sorry excuse, but "Men will be boys" is pathetic. Robert Vasquez is a senior journalism major ROBERT VASQUEZ Columnist X^1994 Making headlines: • I am writing in response to the article “Four Kappa Alpha Members Accused of Assault Begin Trial" printed on Feb. 22. I am in no way condoning the actions of the four students. I am, however, appalled at the use of their fraternity affiliation as a headline. The men were not at a fraternity function; therefore, this seems to be high lighting a completely irrelevant issue. The fact that four students assaulted another student two years ago is the issue, as old as the news may be. Would the headline include the students as members of the chess club if the students had not been af filiated with the Greek system? The Greek organizations are trying to rise above their negative stereotype by contributing posi tive things to the Brazos Valley communi ty. Assault belongs in police beat. If you want to write about Greeks, try printing something that is positive. Elizabeth Elrod Class of'95 • I have seen many things written in the Batt aimed at casting A&M's fraterni ties in a less than desirable light. However, the article about the assault trial of four A&M students is the lowest blow yet. Despite the fact that the incident is al most two years past and did not occur at a Kappa Alpha fraternity-sponsored event. The Battalion thought this would be an ex cellent opportunity to make a correlation between wild, violent behavior and frater nity life. On the front page no doubt! It was strange that the headline of the story stands out greater than any other. The real story is the trial itself, not the fact that the individuals involved hap pened to be fraternity members. I seriously doubt this incident would have drawn your attention had the individuals in volved been Fish Camp counselors or ori entation leaders. Because this, of course, would make good oT A&M look bad. Congratulations on another fantastic arti cle aimed at fraternity bashing. I'm sure there will be more to come. Mac Brink Class of'94 • We are writing this letter in re sponse to the criticism of the coverage of the Walker trial. Ever since the initial ar ticle was published, there has been a lot of speculation about the defendants be ing identified as belonging to Kappa Al pha fraternity. Many people have been caught up in the fact that KA was used in the head line. Granted, the association of the fra ternity was not necessarily relevant to the article; however, we feel that the speculation on the headline has detract ed from the most important part, the facts of the trial. No one included the KAs in the headline to intentionally bash the fraternity. The fact is that the defen dants do belong to KA. Readers seem to be missing the point that the four defendants, regardless of what organization they belong to, beat up John Walker for absolutely no reason. They are on trial for assaulting a com pletely innocent person, and people seem to automatically be sympathizing with the defendants because of the press cov erage. Meanwhile, John Walker is trying to gather up his pride and walk away with at least a little dignity. The incident has made Walker become "weary of people" and more cautious about being alone. No one should have to live in fear of people, especially when they don't deserve it. We regret that some students are not able to overcome their superficial no tions of what life is about. Hopefully, people can look at this in hindsight and remember that peoples' lives are much more important than any organization's name. We were hesitant to testify, but we feel we owe it to John to help him in any way we can. We'd like to take this time to tell John how sorry we are for this unjustified event. You are one of the nicest guys we've ever met, and we hope that maybe someday you can forget about all this. Names withheld upon request