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Opinion
The Battalion Editorial Board
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JULI PHILLIPS, Editor in chief
MICHAEL PLUMER, Managing editor KYLE BURNETT, Aggielife editor A. ;
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 %
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EDITORIAL
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Coping with crime
Safety-consciousness the key
Violence has forced commu
nities all over the United States
to undertake more safety pre
cautions than ever before. The
flyers recently circulated by the
A&M Police Department are an
important move in the battle
against crime.
Similar actions have been
taken in the past, but in the
summer of 1992, University of
ficials removed sketches of a
rape suspect before future Ag
gies and their parents poured
into town for New Student
Conferences. Security and safe
ty should come first for stu
dents.
We should make ourselves
aware of the presence of crime,
here on campus and elsewhere.
! Although many students come
to A&M from large cities where
crime is more commonplace, a
smaller town is no longer a safe
place to let down your guard.
Area high schools are no
longer free from gang rivalry
and are faced with installing
metal detectors to serve as a de
terrent against violence in the
schools. St. Mary's Catholic
Church, right across the street
, from campus, has been forced
to lock its doors at night for the
first time in the church's history
because of increased theft and
concern about the safety of
parishioners who visited the
building late at night.
It also seems that there have
been more fights at local bars
and clubs. Criminal acts com
mitted on campus by area
youths is also on the rise. We
should not build a wall between
A&M and the city, but Aggies
must be made aware of the vio
lence.
Recent flyers inform students
of an incident in which a female
was abducted at knife-point
near the Northside Post Office.
The flyers urge everyone not to
walk alone on campus, especial
ly at night. These criminal acts
could involve anyone.
The attention given to this in
cident demonstrates that the po
lice are concerned about student
safety. But, of course, students
must be conscious of their own
security'.
The warning flyers should
stay up, and in fact more need
to be made in future cases of vi
olent crime. It is much better to
have a reputation for being a
safety-conscious school than to
bury our heads in the sand and
pretend that bad things don't
happen in our backyard.
The Battalion Page 7
Indictments may only be the beginning
Latest embarrassment stresses need to clean out temple
L ast Friday, a
grand jury indict
ed two staff
members assigned to
the Board of Regents
on felony charges for
tampering with official
documents for the pur
pose of covering up al
cohol purchases by the
Board with state mon
ey.
Vickie Running, the
Board's secretary, and
Sasha Walters, the
Board's administrative
assistant, are accused
of altering expense ac
counts in order to disguise the purchase of al
cohol under the headings of sort drinks, food,
cups and ice and altering records again when
information was sought concerning the pur
chases under the Texas Open Records Act.
The indictments are a result of ongoing
Texas Ranger investigations of the Board of
Regents' us$of state funds to buy alcohol and
other acts*of alleged misconduct by officials
throughout the Texas A&M System. Howev
er, the indictments could only be a side note
to future charges against school officials, says
Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner.
"Today's [Feb. 24] action should not be tak
en as a conclusion of the investigation by the
Texas Rangers and the FBI," Turner said.
"Both agencies anticipate that further presen
tations will be made to the grand jury."
But Ross Margraves, chairman of the Board
of Regents, denied that the two women did
anything wrong.
"They were only handling things the way
they had been handled prior to them," he said
during a press conference. "This is a matter
that has been around for years. Not that it
makes it right, but it was not a conspiracy to
evade the law."
Margraves' statement is very disturbing on
several counts. First, in the event that the alle
gations are correct, then the two women did
indeed knowingly evade the law by falsifying
government records and later, changing
records again to hide the purchases from the
citizens of this state. If they did indeed com
mit these crimes, then whether or not they
acted alone is a critical issue.
It seems unlikely that these two staff mem
bers would alter official records of their own
volition, if indeed they did. Margraves, him
self under investigation for misconduct, did
not deny the allegations. By acknowledging
to the press that "this is a matter that has been
around for years," it would seem that at least
the Board chairman was aware of these ac
tions and may even have allowed them to
continue.
Buying alcohol with state funds is a crime.
The Board is within its rights to buy alcohol
with gift money from institutional develop
ment funds, yet the Board allegedly chose to
pay for the alcohol with taxpayers money. If
funding for something like alcoholic bever
ages was consistently misappropriated by the
Board, then how hard would it be for them to
misappropriate funds on an even larger scale?
Would someone who misuses state funds
have any qualms about abusing the millions
that students pour into this university every
year?
The investigations on the part of the Texas
Rangers and the FBI give us reason to believe
that some regents and other officials at Texas
A&M may have been operating beyond any
reasonable restraint for some time.
But this doesn't throw a shadow across all
A&M officials. Individual regents have shown
a genuine concern for students and the image
of the University. A few regents like Allison
Leland Brisco, T. Michael O'Connor and M.
Guadalupe L. Rangel consistently voice their
concerns for the students when discussing
policies — not always a popular position. A
student attending a Board of Regents meeting
overheard a foul comment directed towards
Rangel by another official at the University
because of Rangel's students-first stance on a
certain issue.
These indictments may only be the tip of
the misconduct iceberg. The abuse of power
at Texas A&M appears to be wide-spread. It
is imperative for A&M to redefine the limita
tions of power for certain official positions
and set checks and balances on these offices.
Even if the allegations are not true and the in
vestigations turn up nothing more, this insti
tution can no longer be run in the same "good
old boy" manner of outdated southern poli
tics. The reputation of this school is directly
related to its integrity, which has suffered sev
eral heavy blows already.
It is important for students to be involved
in this redefinition. As lifetime members of
Texas A&M, students have an obligation to
protect this institution from dishonor and
voice their protest concerning any possible il
legal acts, even if the offenders come from
within. Don't allow others to engage in any
dubious activity which will ultimately reflect
on you and your education.
Roy L Clay is a senior history major
ROY L.
CLAY
Columnist
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
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contemplations on a ceremony of life and death
Silver Taps:
W e went to
honor the
dead. A
few hundred
strangers, in si
lence punctuated
by the tapping of
spurs on the gravel
pavement, walked
towards the square
engulfed in dark
ness. Darkness — a
symbol of the end
or a cohesive bond
to provide strength
to the ones pre
sent.
Stars shone
down on the silhouettes of figures stand
ing at ease with their chins down. A soli
tary sob, a few sniffles, a few coughs, the
night made cold by the occasion. I found
myself thinking about the whole affair:
life, death and whether I understood
what was happening. I wondered if the
.solitary weepers felt warmth in their
hearts from all the memories of the de
parted or if the physical manifestation of
the cold of the night was more overpow
ering.
The column walked towards the cen
ter with a heavy pounding of the ground,
with each step taken in unison. I could
not see their maneuvers with the rifles; I
could not hear the commands issued by
their leader. I was not too sure about
what was happening. I dare to speculate.
Was it a desire to honor the dead? Maybe
it was a desire to honor the completion of
a life. Was it death itself that we were ac
knowledging for its victory? Or maybe it
was the concept of eternal afterlife to
which we were saluting. I did not know
what we were doing there.
I also did not know what relevance
those maneuvers held. Speculating
again, I would venture to suggest that
maybe we humans have a need to asso
ciate the expression of emotions and
feelings with ceremony. An action is
easier to relate to, belong to, or share
with than a raw emotion with varying
degrees of truth.
Each individual there had an emotion
— some relevant, others totally irrelevant
to the occasion. But since we had a cere
mony, it bound us together into a repre
sentative emotion that made a statement.
Their elbows went up, and their fin-
ertips touched their brows. I saw the
ashes, and the thunder of the guns
shocked me. I waited expectantly for the
Even though we gather
here to mourn and honor
the deceased, it is really
life that we have gathered
here to acknowledge in
this ceremony.
next round and still managed to get star
tled each time. Between the silence and
the startling explosions, I heard the flap
ping of the birds' wings, and my mind
raced to figure out what was happening.
I wondered if the purpose of firing those
guns was to jolt us into the realization
that this was the end of life — it was
death, the end. Or perhaps it was to star
tle the birds so that we might hear their
wings take to flight from their perches,
just as if the eternally free soul were es
caping from its temporary perch — this
body.
Before I could dwell further on my
contemplations, the sound of the bu
glers' last song, the Silver Taps, the last
post wafted to my ears. A soothing,
mournful expression of sorrow. A con
cession for those left behind. A gentle
acknowledgment of the selfishness of
sorrow. A gentle, supportive persuasion
to move on.
From far away the jarring roar of an
automobile clashed with the buglers'
mournful serenade. I cringed inside and
felt a momentary reflex of anger. Then
the rational part of me remembered that
for all others, life goes on. It reminded
me that life is a passage, a movement.
Even though we gather here to mourn
and honor the deceased, it is really life,
the movement, the passing that we have
gathered here to acknowledge in this cer
emony.
As for each one of the hundreds gath
ered here, who knows what significance
this holds for them. Perhaps they came
here to revere life, or remember some
one, or remind themselves of what it is
all about; or celebrate a passage or
mourn it. Maybe they just came hebe to
be in a ceremony that they needed to be
a part of.
Silence befalls the place once again,
and we turn around to leave. I say a little
prayer in my heart for the ones I never
knew and think to myself how appropri
ate silence is. What words would really
measure up against life or death.
For Chai-Lai Wang, remembered by
her friends in Physics, and in the memo
ry of all those we never even knew.
Dilawar S. Grewal is a graduate mechanical
engineering student
DILAWAR S.
GREWAL
Guest columnist
MAIL CALL
Students weary of
negative headlines:
• Are we really supposed to believe
that two secretaries are responsible for
altering state records on their own?
This is just another example of a sacrifi
cial lamb at Texas A&M. Did these sec
retaries really think that highly of their
"upstanding" superiors to allegedly
break the law for them? Let's hope
these two secretaries talk and set the
record straight as to what is really go
ing on. We can only hope that the Texas
Rangers will not stop until they find all
who may be responsible.
Greg Porter
Class of'93
• First, it was the football scandal,
where players were paid by an athletic
booster for work not performed. Next,
it was rumored that Board of Regents
Chairman Ross Margraves personally
profited from the privatization of the
A&M Bookstore. The "reassignment" of
three Food Service workers has also
stirred up controversy around the state.
Shortly after, a professor at A&M was
investigated on the validity of his re
search on how to turn mercury into
gold. Next, the Board of Regents al
legedly bought alcohol with state
funds. Now, Vickie Running, Board of
Regents secretary, and Sasha Walters,
Board of Regents administrative assis
tant, have allegedly altered state vouch
ers disguising the alcohol purchases as
"food and soft drinks for the Board of
Regents."
How do you think that all this looks
to the outside world? Not too good. In
headlines from Dallas to Houston,
A&M has been embarrassed on several
occasions. I think that it is high time
that the faculty, staff, boosters and re
gents realize that they too represent
Texas A&M University. Questionable
situations such as those mentioned
above embarrass and degrade A&M
and must not be tolerated. Ags, it's
time for us to stand up and let these
people that run our university know
that we are not going to let them take
the reputation that so many people be
fore us have worked so hard to estab
lish and drag it through the headlines.
After all. Aggies do not lie, cheat or
steal — or tolerate those who do. Sound
familiar?
Brad Russell
Class of '97
Focus on Thailand
In response to the article "High and
Dry in a Foreign Land" (Feb. 18), I would
like to make the following clarification.
Thailand is not a police state. It has a
representative, democratically elected
government. The military organizations of
the Kingdom of Thailand are presently
subordinate to the Prime Minister of the
Thai government. It is separated from the
police who are in charge with law enforce
ment, just as in the United States.There are
laws in Thailand with respect to drug use
and sale, just as in the United States.
Tourists who intend to visit foreign
countries to escape the laws of their own
country, particularly concerning alcohol
and drug consumption, are well-advised
to see if the laws of their destination coun
tries are even harsher than the U. S. For
example, it is possible to receive capital
punishment in Singapore for possession
or use of drugs.
Perhaps casual drug users and alcohol
bashers should not travel beyond their
home country and take their chances, or
leave these bad habits at home when they
travel.
Phisit Likitsupin
Class of '92
Thai Student Association President