Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1994)
Opinion nd that) not the! °st hoJ ourseaj 1r e ight l 1 find; I ’ cable! ty.time| savl Friday, March 11,1994 e from because 1 I mat I off mv 1 'aw the | id's 97-1 ght, in I v, "Big | ■iled!!!' I ar "Big I chain-1 the big | ■ awav I ms Aul5 The Battalion Editorial Board t, JULI PHILLIPS, Editor in chief 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 a */**-/(A ItaJ-A*/ n**te. (MrtASodA-now') (oowr) / XM. l v) «• (mat ■) (p»«r »-»0 / ■>* //- , id. $ S/ft fit mum 2 Defending the system t the ams ] • at- I JIT. I wh’ l titk I i the I 1991, I ‘ th e I lap- K they 1 ikof I lack- I was I i" in I >e in I their I ifer- I tten- at of 1992 I the I back I and I nus- I aid. I ised s to dter I vail I icto- I Jni- I a.m. fen- I Tenure crucial to academic life O n March 3, the Houston Chronicle re ported that A&M Regent Billy Clayton "has not vot- ! ed to approve a tenure ap- ! plication since he has been on the | board because of 'a philosophical opposition to the concept/" Fur thermore, without even having discussed the files of upcoming tenure candidates, he plans to vote against all 73 of them. This compares to a professor flunking all of his students be cause he's "philosophically op posed to the grading system." Or a taxpayer refusing to pay taxes because she's "philosophically opposed to taxation." Or a state legislator (which Clayton once was) voting against all legislation because he's "philosophically op posed to government." In our system, of course, such irresponsibility would subject the offender to severe punishment. The professor would be denied tenure or have it revoked; the tax payer would go to jail; the legisla tor would be defeated or im peached. But Regent Clayton is immune from all such conse quences because of the power and secrecy that surrounds the appointed position he holds. Tenure is earned by seven years of hard work. It is granted only after a thorough scrutiny of accomplishments in teaching, re search and service. Faculty sub mit their work not only to peers and administrators at their home institutions, but to scholars at oth er universities. The review process takes nearly a year and involves every administrative lev el in the University. Only the most deserving candidates are successful. What many people, including some members of the Texas A&M Board of Regents, fail to under stand is that tenure simply guar antees due process to faculty members. It spells out the reasons for dismissal and the procedures to follow, and provides a well-de fined system of hearings and ap peals before the decision is final. If these guidelines are followed, tenure can be revoked for cause at any time in a professor's career. Rescinding tenure is analo gous to disbarring a lawyer or re voking a doctor's medical license. Such actions occur rarely because very few individuals go far in these professions without the ability and commitment to per form well throughout their ca reers. They are willing to face enormous academic and profes sional hurdles in order to achieve the security accreditation confers. For professors, many incen tives exist to ensure continued ex cellent performance. At Texas A&M, generous teaching and re search awards provided by alum ni encourage professors to do their best. Grants from national agencies are approved only after rigorous review. Promotion to higher ranks is competitive and usually requires an additional five or ten years of teaching. And salary increments — when they are available — are based on an nual performance reviews. If Clayton thinks that incom petent professors are abusing tenure, he should study these an nual reviews and specify his complaints. Instead, he has em ployed a thoughtless, scattershot approach that harms everyone and damages the reputation of Texas A&M. Ironically, tenure was designed to shield professors from precisely this kind of arbi trary and capricious behavior. Far from illustrating what's wrong with tenure, Clayton's ac tions reveal why we need it. If anything ought to be changed, it's the method of ap pointing regents. The current politicized system has given us some regents who enter the acad emic system without understand ing its rules or sharing its values. Former students who give so much to support Texas A&M and its faculty should feel embar rassed by Clayton's cavalier, irre sponsible attitude toward one of the most important decisions in the professor's career. Sadly, this is only the latest in a continuing series of revelations that have discredited the regents and caused faculty members of long standing like myself to ques tion their competence. In my 23 years at A&M, I cannot recall a Board that has displayed so many errors of judgment and, in the present case, an outright abuse of authority. In today's tight academic job market, only the very best profes sors, those who have achieved tenure at their institutions, can move to positions elsewhere. If Texas A&M abandons tenure, particularly in the climate of fear and intimidation that now exists, I assure you that's exactly what will happen. Dennis Berthold is a professor of English at Texas A&M DENNIS BERTHOLD Guest columnist mm li IS reflect the 1 views of the editorial the opinions of other Battalion staff y, regents, administration, faculty or llhddetters express tne opinions of the the editor and will print as many as or less and include the author's id guest columns for length, .style, and on submitting guest columns. The Battalion Page 5 Don't tell anyone - I don't hate Barney I love you, you love me, let's just let the dinosaur be I 've asked the FBI to hide me and change my identity. I've shaved my beard, and I'm considering a nose job and an earring. But they might still find me after what I'm about to admit — I don't hate Barney. Let me explain. I have two nieces who are in love with the huge purple dinosaur, and it makes me sick to watch his stupid tapes. I know my nieces are addicted to the goofy mass of sickening goodness, and for a long time I wanted Barney dead. Many others share that sentiment. But I've had a change of heart. I wasn't overcome by the warmth and love that is so present in the myriad of Barney videotapes. I still leave the room and bang my head into something permanent every time the 'T Love You" song starts. But I've realized that I don't hate him ... he just isn't for me. Hate is a word I reserve for Adolf Hitler, the IRS and guys who imitate Beavis and Butt-head. But what does Barney do that is so offensive? When my niece walks up to me singing the "I Love You" song and Barney is nowhere in sight, I realize he isn't so bad. It is one thing to be irritated by something. but why not take Barney for who he is and not get so vehement about our dislike for him? Older kids who have jumped on the "I hate Barney" bandwagon have attacked peo ple dressed up as the popular purple di nosaur. We should try to put up with Barney so that kids will listen to what he teaches them and take him seriously. We can learn to accept Barney, and I have proof. One Saturday at about 3 a.m., some friends and I took turns wearing a Barney suit while walking around campus posing with statues. (Please, keep your doubts about my sanity to yourself.) A few people threat ened to jump Barney, but most people we saw came up to us singing the "I Love You" song and asking to take their pictures with us. Without questioning the sobriety of these people, I think their reaction shows that peo ple are willing to # accept Barney. Growing up, we had "Sesame Street" and "Romper-Room," and now the kids have Bar ney. We can't expect them to realize how cheesy the show is, and we certainly don't want them growing up with Bart Simpson as their role model, so let's just accept Barney. We don't have to like him. After all, how many of our parents really liked Mr. Rogers and thought he was cool? Barney isn't the bad guy anyway. It's those kids whose facial expressions are more animated than Disney could make them. Those kids are just like the ones we all re member watching get beat up a lot on the play ground. Barney would probably be a cool guy if he wasn't surrounded by the leftover child ac tors on sugar highs. In fact he would be around forever and appeal to children of all ages if he could get rid of the kids. One of them will probably publish a book someday accusing Barney of sexual abuse and saying that he forced them to overdose on caffeine before each show. But there are ways to cope with the agony of watching a Barney show with a child with out showing any negative signs. If you ever find yourself in this unfortunate situation, you should: 1) Close your eyes and imagine Macau ley Culkin beating one of those kids with a blunt object. 2) Frequently sneak hard liquor shots — who knows, you might be singing along after a while. 3) Try to convince the child to turn Barney off, or at least dis tract them and turn it off when they aren't looking. 4) Leave the room . Most kids won't even stop gazing at the screen long enough to notice. The point is there are ways to deal with our dislike of .Barney without creating so much animosity. I should not be the one who has to hide for not hating him. If people want to think violent thoughts about the dinosaur, they should be the ones to keep quiet. Don't be afraid to admit you don't hate Barney, and keep it quiet around kids if you do. Michael Landauer is a freshman journalism major MICHAEL LANDAUER Columnist Don't believe Holocaust revisionists On March 4, The Battalion ran a classified ad placed by an organiza tion called "Revisionist Network." The ad, which appeared under the "Services" heading, appeared to offer alternative viewpoints on history. This organization is dedicated to spreading the lie that the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler's slaughter of the Jewish people, did not occur. So-called "revisionists" claim that while a few Jews may have died of disease in a few work camps, the widely-quoted figure of six million was a fantastic exaggeration by the American media. They claim that there were no death camps and no mass graves, that the gas chambers at Auschwitz were only used for disinfection and the ovens for dispos ing of diseased corpses, that no lamp shades were made of Jewish skin, ad nauseum. They say that there is no proof that so many died. These are absolute falsehoods, perpetuated by racist, anti-Semitic hate organizations. The unfortunate reality is that there were many con centration camps throughout Nazi territory and several camps de signed purely for killing. Treblinka, for example, was nothing more than a train station with a series of poorly-ventilated rooms connected to exhaust pipes of BMW engines. The only survivors of Treblinka were the workers who carried the bodies out to the pits. Proof of the Holocaust's existence lies not only in the gut-wrenching testimony of the survivors, but also in the Nazi's own records. Fully ex pecting to eliminate every Jew on the planet, the Nazis documented their systematic mass murder, so that they would one day be able to boast that they had succeeded in making the world "Jew-free." The Holocaust happened, and anybody who would deny this has no basis in reality. Read "Night," by Elie Wiesel, for a moving account of the author's experiences in Buchenwald and Auschwitz. See "Schindler's List" or read the book by Thomas Keneally. Consult with Dr. Arnold Krammer of the Department of History, our local Holocaust scholar. Please, don't patronize the "Revisionist Network." Seth Adelson Graduate student Clarifying issues in Hutchison trial Who is continuing their campaign of disinformation? Jerome Lynn Hall's letter of March 3 shows that it is clearly not the College Republi cans. The Battalion printed misinformation in their front page article on Feb. 15. Kay Bailey Hutchison's case was not dismissed because the judge ruled statements by the prosecution inadmissible (the legal tech nicality). When the judge refused to rule on the admissibility of evi dence before the trial (but was willing to do so as the trial proceeded), the prosecution (Ronnie Earle) refused to proceed. He threw a temper tantrum with the jury already seated. The judge didn't rule anything in admissible. He directed the jury to make their verdict based upon the refusal to proceed. With the prosecution supplying no evidence against her, Hutchinson was found innocent. Because the trial was completed, she cannot be tried again on the same charges (not so in a dismissal). Also note that all charges against the other treasury employees were subsequently dropped. Kudos to Judge Onion for his efforts to separate a jury trial from a media trial. Also, contrary to the quotes in the aforementioned Battalion article. Onion is not a Reagan judge. He has never been appointed to a federal court. As for his political affiliation. Onion is a long-time Demo crat. So much for disinformation. Dollie Criste Class of'92 Vice-President for Public Relations, TAMU College Republicans Fraternities not similar to gangs I write this in response to William Harrison's attempt to portray fraternities as Los Angeles street gangs. When I first began reading his column, I found myself in agreement with what he had to say. I am a journalism student, and I agreed with the Battalion's decision to run the name of a fraternity in a recent story. I believe the fraternity name made the story newsworthy. Otherwise, it would have been a typical assault. Yes, we all know the story I am talking about now. I believe the incident was unfortunate, and I sympathize with the members of the fraternity because I am also a member of a different fraternity. But I still felt it had to be printed because it is news. Then I kept on reading and starting growing angry at the compar isons and conclusions Harrison was drawing. He touched a nerve, but I always find myself laughing at people who stereotype and com pare groups with very little to back it up. I do not even understand how you can compare fraternities to the street gangs of Los Angeles after two isolated incidents. He talks of patterns and does not give enough information to even begin to see patterns. I know he was writing an opinion, but if I was going to have my name placed in print, I would want more substance to my claim. 1 learned that in journalism class. College students have been charged with assault, and they were not all fraternity members. Street gangs kill people. I hope you are beginning to see the pattern here. Harrison manipulated a few words to stereotype a group of peo ple. He was right to talk about fraternities accepting blame. But com parisons to gangs and primates are taking it too far. We are all Ag gies. In closing, I would just like to ask why a fraternity alumnus could compare fraternities to street gangs? Shane Luther Class of '94 Big Eight move good for Texas A&M I'm writing in response to a letter about the traditions we're dumping to join the Big Eight. I believe in traditions, too, but times change. We've played Texas 100 times, and the SWC has only been around for about 80 years, so traditions have to start somewhere. We'll take our traditions with Baylor, Texas Tech and u.t. and gain new ones. And on the other point, last year Kansas went to a bowl game, the Final Four and the College World Series. Who in college sports has done that recently? That football team won their bowl game, was in vited at the beginning of this season to play the now national champi on Florida State, and it took the national contender Nebraska down to the last play of the game before the Huskers won. The Big Eight is a competitive conference, even for the big Aggies. So don't overlook any team. Aggies, because future traditions may be there. Brett Lehr Class of'97 Cartoon poses threat to moral values I am writing in response to the continuing threat to basic moral val ues that has materialized itself in the form of Bartholomew. This small mucous-based, alien life form has been a constant visual harassment as I scan The Battalion's pages day to day. What form of citizen can remain unaffected as Bartholomew is mo lested by an obviously sexually-repressed youth by the name of Gertrude? Bartholomew responds by introducing a "pet" named Joy stick! I honestly hope that the responsible students of Texas A&M do not subscribe to this form of perverse humor. Kalvin, the artist, should in any case seek guidance. It is obvious that all of the artist's desires have manifested themselves in this twisted display of gross, misguided humor. Besides, it's really not that funny. Zachary Lara Class of'97 Accompanied by 10 signatures Rude raggie harasses fellow student If you have ever attended an Aggie Baseball game. I'm sure you will agree that you have never left Olsen Field disappointed in the talent of our team. However, I came away from the Pan-American double head er extremely disappointed — disappointed in one of the fans, that is. I'm sure everyone has, at one time or another, been amused by the comical antics of the "Raggies." The Raggies are the group of guys and gals that sit in the first few rows above the visitor's dug-out and poke fun at the other team while raising spirit for the Aggies. Well, I was anything but amused when one very supportive Aggie a little higher in the stands tried to join in on the fun and was met with the rudest com ments from one of the Raggies. The innocent fan was jokingly yelling "One twinkie, two twinkies ..." as Pan-Am's portly pitcher took his warm up swings at the plate. The Raggie turned and yelled, "Hey, good one! We did that one yester day. Where were you?" I just have three words for this rude individual — BAD BULL, AG! The object is to break the batter's concentration, rattle the pitcher and shake up the other team, not your own fans! Like you, this individual had come out to join in the fun of supporting Aggie Baseball. Let's keep in mind that camaraderie is one of the many cherished traditions here at Texas A&M and that when we attend athletic events, we are all members of the 12th Man, coming together to support our team. So, as the old saying goes, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Lezlie Hello Class of '93