Tuesday • January 24, 1995
Opinion
- is
The Battalion • Page 11
Regents Reform Bill may bring A&M hope, change
J ust when you thought this
school’s problems were
out of control, along comes
some hope.
n a piece of legislation in
troduced recently by State
Representative Steve Og
den of Bryan, large universi
ties in Texas, such as ours
and the University of Texas,
may face stricter rules.
The act, labeled “Regents Reform Bill”, sets
down a number of additions to the Texas Educa
tion Code regarding Boards of Regents of acade
mic institutions. These additions, no doubt, stem
from the recent troubles brought upon A&M be
cause of wrongdoings by a former regent and a
vice president.
To be specific, the bill, officially House Bill
420, limits the annual expenditures of a govern
ing board and denies the reimbursement of ex
penditures incurred by regents in performing
their own personal duties.
It denies the naming of buildings or facilities on a
campus after a current regent. A regent must have
ceased to be a member for more than four years be
fore a building can be named for him or her.
The “Regent Reform Bill” prohibits members
of the board or their immediate family or friends
from being employed by the university. Similar
ly, the university cannot contract busi
ness with family or friends of the
regents.
The bill also forbids the consumption
of alcoholic beverages during meetings
and in the offices of the governing
board. The only exception is during offi
cial social functions of the board; even
then the bill requires that any alcoholic
beverages other than beer and wine
must be sold at a cash bar or by a private li
censed operator.
Furthermore, persons appointed can only serve
one six-year term and only three years as chairman.
Finally, the reform allows for grounds for re
moval of regents by the governor.
One section that may especially affect students
calls for regents to hold a public hearing before in
creasing tuition rates and other fees. Now we will
not only be notified of the continually increasing
tuition and fees, but we may actually have the op
portunity to prevent those increases. I know I’ve
often wondered why fees increase every year yet I
never see any improvements.
In a related issue, the bill calls for boards to
study its academic system and submit a report to
the state legislature for reorganization or restruc
turing of the institutions so as to maximize the use
of state monies. This could include absorption or
consolidation of other public colleges that Eire not
part of the A&M system.
This may prove the most beneficial of all the re
forms. If the university can find ways to maxi
mize the state’s allocated money, then we may one
day see a decrease in tuition and fees.
It’s a shame that the state legislature has to
set down rules such as these to deter appointed
and elected officials of our university from steal
ing from taxpayers or otherwise breaking the
law, especially in an institution such as Texas
A&M whose high values teach us not to lie,
cheat or steal.
Or is it only students who are subject to this
Aggie Code of Honor? Don’t get me wrong, there
are many great faculty members, administrators
and regents of this university, but an ever-grow
ing number of bad apples are hurting this uni
versity, as the recent state audit will testify.
This misuse of power and mismanagement of
funds by administrative officials and faculty
may have already cost us. When the state legis
lature starts allocating funds for state colleges
beginning this month, we may see a signi
ficant decrease.
If nothing else, maybe H.B. 420 will prevent the
complacency and arrogance that often lead
people who have been in high positions for
an extended amount of time to abuse their
power or create small bureaucracies within
their departments.
As for those of us students, former stu
dents, faculty, administrators and regents
who do give a damn about Texas A&M and
its future, we can no longer tolerate those
who bring us down. I urge all of you to
support this bill. Call your state legislator
or Rep. Ogden himself. Furthermore, I
urge that we report any other wrongdoings we
may know of, on or off campus, that can adversely
affect our university.
We must send a message to the legislature and
others that Aggies will not allow their university
to be corrupted by two-percenters or those with
malicious personal interests.
Zach Hall is a sophomore mechanical
engineering major
As for those of us students, former stu
dents, faculty, administrators and regents
who do give a damn about Texas A&M
and its future, we can no longer tolerate
those who bring us down.
The Battalion
Established in 1893
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. Contact the opinion editor
for information on submitting guest columns.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Mark Smith
Editor in chief
Jay Robbins Heather Winch
Senior Managing Managing editor
editor far Business
Sterling Hayman
Opinion editor
Erin Hill
Asst, opinion editor
Computer Control
Texas A&hA University should not seek
to censor any information on the Internet.
Within the next five years, all
rooms in on-campus residence halls
may have quick access to the Inter
net, thanks to ethemet connections.
However, the November decision
of Carnegie Mellon University to
eliminate certain sex-related news-
groups from its computer system sets
a dangerous precedent.
If other schools follow this exam
ple, censorship of
other subjects, per
haps even in other
media, may not be
very far behind.
There are several
dangers that are ap
parent in Carnegie
Mellon’s decision.
As Assistant Gen
eral Counsel Melis
sa Ricard pointed
out, the Internet is
so new that there is
no precedent to fol
low in regards to
what consti tutes
censorship on that
electronic medi
um.
Second, if guidelines regarding
what can and cannot be posted on the
Internet are established, who will set
them up? Who truly has the right to
say what should and should not be
allowed on the Internet?
Finally, how would such guide
lines be enacted? To keep “forbidden
knowledge” from the Internet, the en
tire Internet would have to be
monitored.
Someone would have access to
everything that goes on across the
different discussion groups.
How long before private communi
cation that uses the Internet, such as
e-mail or conversations on the IRC,
would be monitored?
If these are monitored, where
would it stop?
Would fax messages
be monitored? Per
haps cellular phone
calls would be next.
Although schools
do have the right to
limit access to their
systems and certain
activities that
might take place
across the Internet,
they do not have
the right to deter
mine what materi
als should and
should not be made
available.
The Random
House Dictionary
defines a university as “an institu
tion of learning of the high est level.”
Learning can only take place in
an environment where one is free to
learn and question, where ideas can
be debated.
The function of this university is
to encourage learning and new ideas,
not stifle them.
Mail
System schools not
stealing A&M traditions
I would like to respond to the article
regarding sister schools bearing the
A&M name by Zachary Hall. I will con
cede that I too disagree with all the re
cent name changes at the smaller uni
versities and hold the Aggie traditions
very near to my heart.
However, as a recent transfer from
Texas A&M University — Kingsville and
a former resident of Corpus Christi, I
disagree with much of the content of
your article.
Our A&M traditions are not in dan
ger. As you already pointed out, Texas
A&I alumni opposed the name change
just as if not more vehemently as the
A&M Association of Former Students.
Thus, A&M — Kingsville sought to pre
serve many of their own traditions,
such as the blue and gold school colors
MSC Political Forum
caters to moderates
and the javelina mascot. In fact, the
only change I noticed in the “new” uni
versity was a steep increase in fees.
I have no knowledge of South Texans
referring to themselves as Aggies not do
I believe people have difficulty distin
guishing us from our sister schools.
Furthermore, the time-honored tradi
tion of the Aggie ring will prevail.
Although similar in design, the al
most religious significance of our Aggie
ring cannot be matched.
As a fellow Aggie, I mean you no
harm. I realize that you are only proud
to be a part of the Aggie spirit. Well,
friend, I’m proud too.
I’m proud to finally be attending
Texas A&M University, proud of who I
am ... proud of where I come from. In
the future, I ask that you use more of
the Aggie respect, that kindness that
seems to exude from all students here.
A&M — Kingsville is not trying to dis
honor this school.
They are simply making an effort to
improve themselves and easing the
transition by adding “Texas A&M” to
their name. Perhaps we both, should
take a little more pride in that rather
than criticism.
Amy Elizabeth Crockroft
Class of’97
In Friday’s column, “We moderates
don’t mind straddling fences,” Erin Hill
suggested that there should be a student
organization for Aggies who want to hear
both sides of political issues. Well, there '
is, and it has been an Aggie tradition
since 1966 — the Memorial Student Cen
ter Political Forum Committee, and for
28 years we have provided Texas A&M
University with non-partisan programs
designed to keep Aggies informed on cur- *
rent political issues.
In recent years. Political Forum has
brought Aggieland speakers like Presi
dent and Mrs. George Bush, Senate can
didate Richard Fisher, Governors George
W. Bush and Ann Richards, and State
Comptroller John Sharp. We’re com
pletely student-run, so our members get
hands-on experience in dealing with the
political world. We’re a pretty diverse
bunch, but we tend to get along very well
because we’re all in Political Forum for
the same reason: we believe that both
sides of the political spectrum deserve to
be heard and we believe that Aggies de
serve to hear both sides of the issues.
Chris Williams
Class of ’96
Regulation of Internet should not be allowed
Questionable material,
information not easily found
T here are many different
types of information on
the Internet, and be
cause of this, it has endless
uses. Users can find just
about anything on the Inter
net if they are resourceful.
Files containing pornography
and even ones detailing the
assembly of homemade
bombs and other terrorist
tools can be found on this popular lane
of the information super-highway.
It is the latter type of files that
have made politicians like A1 Gore
want to censor the Internet by regulat
ing its content.
Currently Texas A&M does not reg
ulate what stTudents can access on the
Internet. But according to Interim
Provost Charles Lee, A&M has ap
pointed a fact-finding team to research
whether or not it would be feasible to
regulate the Internet.
Recently, colleges such as Carnegie
Mellon have denied its students access
to newsgroups that contain sexual ma
terial through the
university’s com
puter network. It is
my hope that Texas
A&M would never
deal a similar fate
to its students, be
cause regulation of
the Internet — in
any form — is a re
gressive move.
Last semester the Internet took a
bad rap because it contained pictures
of a nude woman posing around the
Texas A&M campus. The pictures
were brought to the forefront when
The Battalion printed one of these
photographs. The photographs were
contained in a newsgroup on the Inter
net that A&M computing services
makes available to students.
Some students were concerned that
The Battalion printed the photo, and
some criticized the University for allow
ing these pictures and others like them to
be available through the school’s comput
ing network.
Much of the flak about censoring the
Internet revolves around the availability
of offensive pictures. The truth is that
one cannot stumble upon an offensive
picture without trying, but rather must
purposely perform many steps to view it.
Pictures are binary files — made up of
numbers and other characters that ap
pear as rubbish on the screen, when
opened incorrectly.
A person must save the picture to
their University account, download it
to their computer and then view it
with a special program that converts
the binary code to an image on their
computer screen.
The point is that pornographic pic
tures on the Internet usually do not of
fend its users because almost all users
who are viewing the pictures are
aware of their content and are pur
posely viewing them.
There are things on the Intemet
which may not seem to have any re
deeming value whatsoever. But who
should have the power to define what
is .allowed and what is not? Certainly
not the government, and definitely not
Texas A&M.
If such a restriction was imposed,
think of all the depth the Internet
would lose.
For example, if a restriction was im
posed allowing only educational uses
for the Internet, which some politi
cians have proposed, I would have
never been able to download that
Beastie Boys screen saver, or that
sound clip of “Stairway to Heaven”
playing backward, oh, or that picture
of Helen Hunt. These are a few of the
many uses I have had for the Internet
that would probably be lost.
While there are those who have the
power to censor what is available to
students on the Internet at Texas
A&M, such as the president of the
University and the CIS themselves,
they should realize these would be
very unpopular decisions, and would
most likely end up in lawsuits against
the University.
A much simpler solution to the prob
lem is not regulation of the Intemet, but
one on a more personal level.
Regarding offensive pictures — if you
know you may be offended, don’t go
downloading them.
And regarding the files containing
the assembly of homemade weapons
and such — theoretically, when stu
dents get their computer accounts they
must agree to not use their account in
any malicious way.
We must be careful to recognize the
privilege the Texas A&M Administra
tion and CIS department have be
stowed upon us.
They are treating us like adults capa
ble of making our own decisions. We
should respect that.
Two big events could change the way
the Intemet is operated. In the future.
Congress could pass laws dealing specifi
cally with the Intemet.
Recently, the government sold a large
part of the Intemet to the private sector.
This could mean more regulation.
We should recognize the Intemet as a
frontier, but one that needs little taming.
It would be unfortunate if in the fu
ture we had to look back on these days
as the glory days of the Intemet — back
when freedom of speech still applied.
Kyle Littlefield is a senior
journalism major