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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 1995)
The Battalion • Page 5 Tuesday • July 25, 1995 lion FJ! 1 lionfiF the K ; thei ■ to re: ach Jf PITSTIQIN The Debate Surrounding Multiculturalism We must first study our own culture to understand others. O f all the trends and new ideas within the sphere of higher education, the one that seems to evoke the most heated debate is multiculturalism. The argument has become so complex and so laden with rhetoric that any serious discus sion of its merits, or lack thereof, frequently degenerates into a shouting match between support ers and opponents. When a proposal to add a mul ticultural requirement to the core curriculum at Texas A&M was suggested, near hysteria ensued. Debating the substantive as pects of the proposal was jetti soned in favor of rumors and in nuendo. Any empirical evidence to either support or reject the val ue of multicultural studies was put on the back burner. If the issue of multicultural ism is ever going to be honestly examined, then cool heads must prevail. Good arguments exist that both support and reject its inclusion in the educational cur riculum. Hurling acrimonious charges back and forth will ac complish nothing. Discussing the issue in a ma ture and rational manner, howev er, might alleviate many of the misconceptions. Despite the con troversial nature of multicultural ism, it can be implemented if done so with common sense. It would be even more benefi cial if the politicians, activists, shrill ideologues and the self- anointed “experts” would steer clear of the whole process. Involv ing them is a sure path to failure. Their only motivation is the imple mentation of a personal agenda. The educators and parents, those closest to the matter should be intimately involved with multi cultural implementation. They have the most to gain or lose. Supporters and opponents will not be around to pick up the pieces if the enterprise is a total disaster. Lynn Cheney, former chair woman of the National Endow ment for the Humanities, out lined three ways to effectively im plement multiculturalism into the schools and universities. In a speech that was printed in Change magazine, she suggested that multiculturalism could be ef fective if the truth is told, if more culture rather than less is studied and if there is a strong emphasis on what we all have in common as Americans. Telling the truth simply means providing a complete picture of the history of particular cultures and peoples. That means the actual truth, not some revisionist distortion of the facts. The good, the bad and the ugly must all be included. All cultures have certain events in their past that are both inspiring and shameful. Neglecting either will not change anything. Studying more culture rather than less means starting out with one’s own culture. For people in the United States, that means American culture. If we do not know what makes us unique from others, how can we possibly ap preciate the uniqueness of differ ent cultures? A rigorous study of our own culture will provide a firm foun dation for the debate and ex change of ideas necessary in the educational process. Being resent ful of your own culture and sur roundings will not make you any less American. Hyphenate yourself all you want. If you were born and raised here, you are an American. Call ing yourself Mexican-American, African-American, Irish-Ameri- can, etc. may sound romantic, but the people of those countries could spot you without any difficulty. Americans have a peculiar habit of standing out. Most important in multicultur al education is to emphasize what we share as a nation, as well as what sets us apart. Men and women from many and varied backgrounds have shaped this nation. We encompass peoples from all parts of the globe. We never have been monocultural. Regardless of past sins, the behef in equality and freedom is what should bind us together. Multiculturalism can be a posi tive aspect of the educational ex perience if these simple sugges tions would be considered. Using it for political purposes to stir controversy and paranoia is self-defeating for both sides. Multiculturalism will not solve the problems plaguing this coun try. The focus of educa tion should not be geared to ward solv ing the I s multicultural education a good idea gone bad? Probably. Perhaps if politicians kept their mouths shut concerning the subject, universities and colleges could devise multicul tural programs that are bene ficial to the students. My favorite argument against multicultural educa tion is that it will de tract from about world’s prob lems. Provid ing students with the intel lectual skills nec essary to evaluate and devise possible solu tions for problems should be the primary goal of higher education. Multiculturalism can be bene ficial if used in this context. The chic trends of the present will be gone by the time all prob lems are solved. ■Justin Barnett is a senior English major Ameri can cul ture. That should hap pen any day now. We are taught American history from the moment we begin school. We learn American eating norms in home economics in junior high school. We take American govern ment classes in high school. In other words, we always are learning American cul ture. The anger that resulted from the proposed multicul- An increased campus diversity provides many opportunities. tural requirement at Texas A&M is a hilarious example of misinformation. Those who opposed the re quirement were so busy listen ing to the “problems” caused by multiculturalism at other universities, they failed to re alize the benefits. Let’s think about that. Studying aspects of other cultures can make students more interested in their own culture and often can produce a greater appreciation of one’s own culture. Heaven forbid. Individuals can’improve their own lives by incorporat ing what they have learned from other cultures and soci eties. Can you imagine American society without Chinese restaurants? Also, let’s not forget the simple desire to gain knowl edge. Many students may ac tually enjoy learning about different cultures. Enjoyment and learning should be syn onymous. There are practical reasons in favor of multicultural edu cation. One is the composition of the classroom. Today’s colleges and univer sities are much different than they were 30 years ago. In the 1980s alone there was heavy Vietnamese and Mexican immigration, which eventually led to more minori ty students. There has been a large overall increase in the number of minority college students. The increased diversity cre ates a climate for a variety of educational opportunities. Of course opponents to mul ticulturalism may argue that e4pcatiop is not about fairness to students. It has more to do with com mon sense. Perhaps the problem lies with the word “multicultural ism” itself. It sounds like a new concept, so naturally there is opposition. It is common to resist change. However, colleges and uni versities have been emphasiz ing multicultural studies for many years. Foreign language require ments have always been a form of multiculturalism, just under a different name. History and political sci ence departments have al ways offered multicultural courses. Literature studied in English departments is often written by authors other than Americans. Imagine that. Many opponents to multi cultural education use the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” phi losophy. If this was true in acade mia, we would still be limited to reading, writing and arith metic. No one suggested that adding a multicultural re quirement at Texas A&M would de-emphasize American cultural courses. Instead, the change should be a welcome addition. Perhaps the University could expand its degree pro grams instead of the number of statues on campus. Then what wduld the guides talk about on the cam pus tours? We must not forget that American culture is just an offspring of European culture. Thus, we have always wel comed outside influence. With an increased immigra tion rate, we have a chance to further this influence. Our generation has a phe nomenal opportunity to help guide this nation toward be coming the cultural “melting pot” the founding fathers pro fessed. For once, let’s not blow it. Mark Zane is a sociology graduate student v wha! 3. Von ay e« can't: 2 with sigh :t la. (Af d, ah: by« 36 col near: eton. se niO' food, ‘ ir's 1ft ’gif orida.' tantt: iter. been !X pectf Alcohol habit at A&M hard to swallow rri Elizabeth Preston Columnist •t^i |he thrills, the chills, the throw-up, the loss of memory, the sexual part ners never met before and nev er to be seen again ... this is truly the life — at least at Texas A&M. Drunkenness is a huge part of student life at Texas A&M, according to a recent Harvard study. In the survey, which compared alcohol and drug statistics at A&M to those of other colleges and universities, Texas A&M dominated the charts and creamed a comparison of 140 colleges in categories ranging from “binged three or more times in the past two weeks” to “drove after drinking alcohol.” One surprise was that A&M was lower than other schools in the “requiring med ical treatment” category — an ironic twist to the expected. It seems that students here drink so much that drunk driving is old hat. Yet the more people try to explain why they i get wasted weekend after weekend, the less sense it makes. It just doesn’t compute that omeone — or over 87 percent of all students in ood ol’ Aggieland — would want to spend very weekend in a drunken stupor. For a moment, let’s put aside the fact that almost any drink tastes better than alcohol, or the fact that soda pop is a whole lot cheaper than either beer or wine. Also, we should ignore the fact that high-calorie alcoholic drinks give usually health-conscious people the beer-bellies nd double-chins with which drinking is of- en associated. And finally, pretend for a moment that drinking doesn’t cause people to act awful ly dumb in front of friends and strangers alike. Instead of dwelling on all of these tiny details, focus on the posi tives of drinking. One that must be men tioned is the thrill of forget ting anything done on the night in question. This must help when students are at a dull party or have had a bad day. There couldn’t possibly be a better way to forget an F on a test than by drinking hard liquor and getting sick. In addition, this cancels out the negative “acting dumb” factor, because the drunk in question won’t be able to remember acting like an idiot in the first place. Another positive aspect of binge drink ing is the indescribable joy of sleeping with a stranger. The Harvard study reported that 29.5 percent of the Aggies drinking al cohol participated in unplanned sexual ac tivity. These people must be immune to those little STDs that are such a bane to the rest of humanity. Drinking for the specific pur pose of getting drunk is a waste of time, energy and money. And finally, the ultimate experience that keeps all Aggies running back for more, the grand finale of binge drinking: the toilet- hugging, or bowing to the porcelain god, spewing your guts or whatever you like to call it. It’s a charming way to spend any evening. Hmm. Then again, none of these sound like reasons to breathe or continue living, much less reasons to continue getting drunk week after week. Seriously, drinking is not only overrated and dangerous, it is downright stupid. Col lege students are supposed to learn, to ex pand their horizons, to make friends and learn how to influence people. All of this is hard enough to do without adding binge drinking and drunk driving into the equation. In addition, many people argue that they do not experience these effects be cause their bodies are used to drinking. While this is indeed exciting news for them, the sad fact is that just because they think their bodies are used to drinking does not change the physical and psycho logical reactions all human bodies have when they have alcohol in their system, re gardless of how often this happens. Alcohol is a depressant, and therefore even one beer or glass of wine — even in the body of a very experienced drinker — slows reaction time considerably and leaves both the drinker and those around vulnerable. This does not only mean vulnerable to car accidents, but also walking into things or falling and hurting themselves. White crosses representing drunk dri ving victims can be seen all over the state of Texas, and all of those drivers felt “sure” that they were alright to drive. No one gets in a car planning to kill someone else or to end their own life. Drinking is not the scourge of existence, and everyone who participates in it is not evil. However, binge drinking without a designated driver is not only stupid, it is murderous. In addition, drinking for the specific purpose of getting drunk is a waste of time, energy and money. Maybe someday A&M will be at the top of polls for “hours each student spends studying” or “most community service” in stead of beating almost every other school in the country in aspects of drunkenness. Elizabeth Preston is a senior English major Stidvent mistaken about politics Chris Stidvent got it all wrong in his column on Monday. Conservatives are in office or run for office because of one sim ple reason, it is the most effec tive way to create change. How else can we slash the size of government? The liberals who controlled Congress for 40 years never lis tened to the people. They only listened to their campaign advis ers to get re-elected. Liberals think that the average American is so stupid and inca pable of taking care of themselves. And what is Stidvent’s source for his claims that the size of government is increasing? As for his theory about envi ronmental stimulus, how would he explain the “depression gen eration” as some would call it? Wouldn’t he say they had it very bad? Why didn’t they turn into drug dealers and murderers? Also, Head Start was not cut. Why does a reduction in growth become a cut in the mind of lib erals? Do liberals storm into their employer’s office screaming about a cut in their salaries Mail // when their boss does not give them a raise? Hwa Ho Class of ’96 PTTS wasteful in recycling" efforts The Parking Transit and Traf fic Services has received numerous complaints about closed lots, park ing tag price increases and so on. I have another complaint to make. In the Koldus building, where its office is located, it has discard ed 16 cases of parking maps. You remember, the little enve lope in which everyone receives their hang tags. This is gross negligence on the PTTS’s paid. Surely it knows how many parking tags it will sell to the nearest thousand or so, but 16 cases? There must have been a few hundred in each case. That’s about 5,000 wasted maps and color envelopes. If one copy at the library costs 10 cents, how much did we pay through the PTTS for each color map and hang tag envelope? Adrian Sanderlin Class of ’94 TTme Editorial Staff Jay ROBBINS, Editor in Chief Rob Clark, managing Editor STERLING Hayman, Opinion Editor Gretchen Perrenot, City Editor Jody Holley, Night news editor Stacy Stanton, night News editor MICHAEL Landauer, Aggielife Editor Nick Georgandis, Sports Editor Stew Milne, Photo Editor Staff Members City Desk — Assistant Editor: Eleanor Colvin; Re porters: Katherine Arnold, Javier Hinojosa, Jill Saunders, Michael Simmons, Wes Swift & Tara Wilkinson Aggielife Desk - Assistant Editor: Amy Collier Fea ture Writers: Elizabeth Garrett, Amy Collier & Libe Goad; Columnist: Amy Uptmor Sportswriters - David Winder and Jimmy Williams Opinion Desk - Assistant Editor: Kyle Littlefield; Columnists: Elizabeth Preston, Frank Stan ford & David Taylor; Contributing Colum nists: Justin Barnett, Margaret Cordon, Alex Miller, Chris Stidvent & Mark Zane; Editori al Writers: Jason Brown & Alex Walters; Editorial Cartoonists: Brad Graeber & George Nasr Photographers — Mike Friend, Roger Hsieh, Nick Rodnicki & Eddy Wylie Page Designers - News: Kristin DeLuca; Sports: Robin Greathouse; Aggielife: Stew Milne Copy Editors - Rob Clark & Sterling Hayman Graphic Artists — Toon Boonyavanich & Melissa Oldham Strip Cartoonists — Valerie Myers & Quatro Oakley Office Staff — Office Manager: Julie Thomas; Clerks: Wendy Crockett & Heather Harris News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in the Divi sion of Student Publications, a unit of the De partment of Journalism. 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