Tuesday • April 18, 1995
The Battalion • Pa : ge 13
PINION
. .
The Battalion
Estublished 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.
Mark Smith
Editor in chief
Jay Robbins Heather Winch
Senior Managing Managing editor
editor for Business
Sterling Hayman
Opinion editor
Erin Hill
Asst, opinion editor
EDITORIAL
PI Punishment
Local law enforcement officials should not
punish responsible drinking.
Last year, the number of public in
toxication citations issued by the Col
lege Station Police Department in
creased by over 60 percent.
While it is absolutely necessary to
punish those individuals who carelessly
drink and drive, those students who act
responsibly after drinking
too much should not be
punished. Many students
choose to walking home or
call a ride to pick them up.
These students are acting
correctly, but ironically, lo
cal police are reprimanding
them for it. by issuing Pis
to people sitting on a curb
or walking down the street.
Law enforcement offi
cials should realize that
just because students have been drink
ing, they are not necessarily going to be
irresponsible and reckless. Students can
drink and, at the same time, act in a
mature fashion, realizing the conse
quences of their actions.
Those students who are responsi
ble enough to not get behind the
wheel of a vehicle should be praised
instead punished.
The number of drinking and driving
accidents has become a serious problem
on all of our nation’s campuses. It is in
evitable that some students will drink,
but if they help curb the number alco
hol-related deaths by acting responsibly
and not driving, police should
consider their actions positive
instead of negative.
Anyone who is drunk, caus
ing harm and are disturbing
the peace should be punished.
Students who are under the in
fluence of alcohol and are pos
ing a threat to either them
selves or others certainly
should be punished by law en
forcement officers .They deserve
to be issued public intoxication
citations because they are not acting in
a mature, responsible manner. But pub
lic intoxication citations should be limit
ed only to these individuals.
The local police departments should
re-evaluate the purpose of public intoxi
cation citations and be sure that they
are issued in a responsible and effective
manner — to those who deserve them.
rv\ZLzvzT/wn
A-
Mail
{^ALT
New design of former
students sticker a dud
I have been at A&M for four years
now and am looking forward to gradu
ating this May.
With graduation comes the respon
sibility of all good Ags to go by the
Clayton Williams, Jr. Alumni Center
and pick up an Association of Former
Students sticker.
Well, I decided to go by and get my
sticker a little early. To my horror, I
found out that someone changed the
design of the sticker!
I am really disappointed with this
new design, as are most people that I
have talked to.
I have two questions. First, “Why?”
What was wrong with the old sticker?
I think that it was much more pro
fessional looking. The lettering of the
new sticker looks too much like some
thing you would find in a cartoon. Sec
ond, “When?” When is this new sticker
going to be axed and the old one
brought back? I am a proud Aggie and
want the world to know it. So,
whomever made the decision to
change the sticker doesn’t have to ad
mit who he is, just admit it was wrong
and do something about it!
Ross E. Sanders
Class of ’94
accompanied by 25 signatures
Equity 2000 dumbs
down A&M standards
It seems that the higher education
establishment cannot rid itself of the
erroneous idea that diversity and
equality should be principal ends of
ascending humanity, the idea formu
lated by the high priests of our day —
academicians (and their intellectual
admirers, regents). Apparently the
A&M Board of Regents has voted to
support the Access and Equity 2,000
plan, whereby equal access, opportu
nity, education and employment to
qualified people will be extended, be
ginning in September 1994. Some of
the classical Utopian ideas to be mate
rialized into policy include: faculty
ethnic balance and equalizing gradua
tion rates for minorities. The latter
two goals seem suspiciously like an
outcome-based system, where the very
good ends of equal opportunity and
perhaps even equal access are
grouped together with the unjust and
unworkable outcome equalization,
such as would be a faculty ethnic quo
ta system. Though the concept of jus
tice is lost on today’s secular world, it
must be shown that a system can be
fair, even “diverse,” but unjust. In the
process of increasing minority faculty,
qualified non-minority candidates
may be rejected and thus loose their
equal opportunity for employment —
ethnic discrimination. Since there are
apparently fewer minority Ph.Ds per
capita than non-minorities, market
forces would dictate that you would ei
ther have to pay them more, and/or
otherwise choose them, without basis,
over equally or more highly qualified
non-minority candidates to dispropor-
tionally increase their numbers. At
tempting to equalize graduation rates
is even more preposterous for similar
reasons. Would the administration
have to lower standards for the partic
ular ethnic group — white, black,
whatever — that needs to have its
graduation rates raised? What other
possible program could the university
implement to achieve such a goal that
was workable, let alone just?
The Regents should spend their
time encouraging minority young
people to get advanced degrees, thus
increasing their presentation in acad
emia naturally, instead of instituting
a reverse discriminatory social engi
neering program to equalize faculty
representation and graduation rates
in the A&M system.
In addition, they may wish to allo
cate more money for remedial educa
tion, thus bringing the disadvan
taged of whatever color up to the
standards that have been chosen for
the whole, instead or “dumbing down
the standard selectively, which ben
efits neither the University not the
one for whom the standard is being
relaxed.
Steve Cunningham
Class of ’97
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College Station, TX 77843-1111
Write the hell, Ags
Many people have responded to the Vanity Fair article that
referred to Texas A&M University as “second-rate.” If anyone
would like to respond to the magazine by e-mail. Vanity Fair’s
address is listed below.
VFAIR@AOL.COM
Equity 2000 plan not needed
I n an age of political
correctness, affirma
tive action and the
fear of offending some
special interest group,
Texas A&M has once
again succumbed to the
agents of liberalism.
The A&M Board of Re
gent’s recent vote to sup
port the Access and Equity 2000 Plan
has paved the way for more affirmative
action and quota plans for this Univer
sity to follow.
According the plan, A&M — by the
year 2000, would increase the enrollment
of minority students in undergraduate
and graduate studies to equal that of
white students. The plan also seeks to
hire more minority faculty and staff.
I am assuming the plan means to in
crease enrollment and hiring, percentage
wise based on the percentages of minori
ties in Texas or the nation.
However, it wouldn’t be surprising if
their actual goal is to have an equal
amount of minorities as non-minorities
enrolled at A&M.
While this would be ludicrous from
the standpoint that the minority popula
tion in the nation is not equal that of
non-minorities, it nevertheless falls un
der what liberals call “equality”.
This plan is nothing more than a
means of continuing affirmative action
programs, which have been under fire by
Republicans in Congress and many citi
zens who are sick of the government
telling us that minority groups are se
verely discriminated against and need a
“step up” to even the playing field.
By supporting this plan, A&M has ef
fectively taken a step backward in its
mission of equality as well as quality.
Texas A&M prides itself on striving
for the utmost excellence, but in support
ing this plan and those similar we are
talking out of both sides of our mouths.
This University should enroll stu
dents and hire faculty
based on their qualifica
tions, their dedication to
A&M and their desire to
see themselves and A&M
grow.
In doing this A&M will
undoubtedly enroll and
hire a diverse and large
amount of minorities.
Granted the percentages may be
less— or even more— than the percent
ages of minorities nation-wide, but
A&M should strive for quality not
quantity.
To say there are not many qualified
minorities out there is asinine. If they
want to come to A&M, they will come,
but we don’t need to go searching for mi
norities just to have higher percentages
so we can fill someone’s quota system.
About a month ago I attended a meet
ing titled “White Men Need Not Apply.” '
The topic of the meeting was how affir
mative action benefits the workplace.
Of the three quest speakers, all said
that they hired or recruited people based
on their qualifications. All said that their
companies could not afford to hire under
qualified applicants.
I asked that if this was the case, then
what they were actually saying was that
there is really no need for affirmative ac
tion. None would touch the question, in
stead they all sat there dumbstruck—
too scared to admit that affirmative ac
tion has outlived its usefulness.
It appears that the Regents, in actual
ity, have created another bureaucracy
within the University which will spend
millions of dollars doing unneeded re
search and paperwork.
They have created new positions for
people to run around, crunch numbers
and juggle statistics with the goal of pro
gressing their outdated, unwanted, liber
al political agendas.
Another aspect of the plan that I take
opposition to is the idea that A&M must
graduate minorities for the benefit of
Texas. A&M is under no obligation to grad
uate anyone minority or non-minority. Stu
dents graduate because they have achieved
the requirements for graduation; they have
attained the amount of knowledge that
their college has deemed sufficient to grad
uate.
If the University is going into the busi
ness of “graduating” students to fill quotas,
then the University needs to re-evaluate
its mission; and I need to re-evaluate my
choice of University.
Before you slam down the paper
and make your way to The Battalion
to demand my resignation, realize that
I am not writing this article because I
have some personal dislike or vendetta
against minorities.
The Access and Equity 2000
plan is an insult to minorities :
and non-minorities. It breeds
discrimination, lower quality
and sacrificed standards
I, however, believe in the old— and
quickly fading— philosophy of working
and striving for the highest quality and
standards of achievement, whether it be
a university or a person.
The Access and Equity 2000 Plan does
not promote this. It instead is an insult to
minorities and non-minorities as well. In
its push for “equality” it breeds continued
discrimination, lower quality, and sacri
ficed standards.
It is time that we quit ignoring what
those in charge are trying to push on us,
and stand up against ludicrous plans
such as the Access and Equity 2000 Plan.
Zach Hall is,a sophomore
mechanical engineering major
MAR^tWK
The Other c Other Aggie Education
I can remember his words
plainly. One, I don’t ever
want to see you again after
you leave this room.
Two, don’t fall in love during
college.
Yes, the dean of the College
of Liberal Arts did have a way
with words — but I understood
what he meant.
His first bit of wisdom referred to maintaining your grades
— if you did, you would never have a reason to see him again.
Thankfully, I have not seen him since.
His second piece of advice, however, troubled me.
Three years later, I see the light. What a wise, wise man. It
makes sense now.
But then, we were only a roomful of transfer students, hear
ing what we didn’t want to hear. After all, it wasn’t classes we
were anxious about; it was that fabled college romance linger
ing in the distance that was on our minds.
It is a common perception that we will meet the person we
eventually marry while in college. Maybe this is because the
perception that we would meet that person in high school was
shattered. Since college was the next step, hey, why not adapt
the perception?
Our performance in college will either reward or haunt us for
years after we graduate. But no matter how much we are fore
warned, human nature just can’t be sacrificed for our grades.
Ideally, it makes sense to lock ourselves in our rooms with
our text books. But that’s not much of a life. In reality, we
hardly ever find ourselves in the same room as our books. If
you have a significant other, then you know how hard it is to
balance school with your relationship.
In my case, the only reading I was doing was of the letters
from my girlfriend.
I found out that I had a problem while working on a story for
a journalism class about people who play games on the Internet
in the RCC, well into the night. The funny thing was that I too
was in the RCC well into the night, writing email to my girl
friend who lived out of state — yes, the dreaded Long Distance
Relationship, or simply LDR, for those of us in the know .
I realized that the things that I would be writing about in
my story, that those who played games on the internet late at
night were sleeping in the day, skipping their classes, also ap
plied to me.
If it wasn’t email, it was the phone. And if none of these,
then it was daydreaming, not paying attention during class.
Adding up the minutes that appeared on the sincere note
that my friends at GTE had sent to me, I came to the con
clusion that I spent more time working on my relationship
than I did working in my classes.
What should I do, add a section on to my resume titled
“Relationships?”
This is where you would see entries looking something
like, “Relationship with Susie Smith, Summer of 1992—
Fall of 1993.” ’V
At job interviews I could qualify my grades by explaining
that when I got that ‘C,’ I was having problems in a rela
tionship, much like how we told the college admissions ad
viser that we were sick when we took the SAT.
Well, it’s the truth.
I think A&M is on the right track to emphasize partici
pation in the “Other Education.” But why stop at organiza
tions and other extracurricular activities?
Why should we downplay our relationships? Time is the
factor that makes both school and relationships successful.
A&M is on the right track to emphasize par- »
ticipationg in the 'Other Education/ but
why stop at extracurricular activities? Why •
should we downplay our relationships?
It may not be that large of a leap of faith to say that the
same person who has a successful relationship relies on
characteristics that are also used to succeed in school and
later on in the job market.
For one, you have to be dedicated. If you aren’t willing to i-
spend time with your school work or your significant other, A
then you might as well not even try.
Two, you must be interested. A lack of interest might
cause you to put your classes or your job on the back bum-
er, and could just as easily break up a relationship.
But then we arrive at a contradiction.
You must have your priorities straight. If you happen to v
be blessed or cursed — depending on where your priorities
are — with a relationship where you cringe at the thought
of being away from your source of happiness for even a mo- /
ment, then you have to choose.
Do you strive for a 4.0, or do you struggle to maintain
your relationship with the perfect 10?
Kyle Littlefield is a senior journalism major'