Monday
October 2, 1995
^The Battalion
Opinion
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I have what it takes to be a Regent
A simple solution to the Board of Regents' increasing unpopularity
Chris
Stidvent
Columnist
D ear Board of Regents,
I may have found a
solution to some of
the problems that have .
been plaguing you recently.
Some of our students
have been crying and
moaning lately because,
for the hundredth year in a
row, you killed a motion
that would have allowed a student liaison to
your Board.
I know, you’re wishing all of the students
would just shut up and go away. But, hey, I
figure you’ve had about all of the negative
publicity you can handle over the past couple
of years. That’s why I’m coming to you with
this radical new solution.
Simply enough, I think I should be the
student liaison to the Board of Regents.
Now, I know what you’re going to say.
Our little club is about a lot of things, but
students aren’t one of them. How are we go
ing to raise tuition and fees so quickly and
quietly with all of you students nosing
around our business? And I must tell you
that I agree wholeheartedly.
You won’t get any lip out of me if you de
cide you want to hike up the general use fee
after the semester has already started.
That’s what happened a month ago, when
you leveled an additional $8 per semester
hour charge on us. Hey, even though the stu
dents had already paid what was supposed
to be their entire fee amount for the school
term, I say let’s just hit them again.
Anytime you want to raise residence hall
rents, parking fees, health center fees and
the late registration fee again, I’m your man.
When you raised these fees last spring, you
could have counted on me to sit back and not
say a word.
To be fair, I know that the Texas Legisla
ture doesn’t consider public education to be
that big of a priority. They cut our budget by
$6.7 million at their last legislative session,
and we students eventually were
stuck with the bill.
Fortunately, you guys have the
power to jack up our fees whenev
er and wherever you choose, with
a minimum amount of debate. We
students are completely power
less, we can just whip out our
checkbooks and ask how much we
owe this time. I like your way of
doing business, and I want in.
I’m also proud to say that I know a little
something about sweet
heart business deals.
If Barnes and Noble,
the company managing
the A&M bookstore,
wants to fly me or my
girlfriend to New York
for free, set me up in
fancy hotels and give
me tickets to Broadway
shows before “persuad
ing” me to sign by the
“X,” I’m all for it.
The Tenneco Power
Generation Company be
gan a power plant here in
September 1993 under
some similarly shady condi
tions. According to a state
management audit of the pro
ject, former Regent Ross Margraves “effec
tively circumvented established lines of au
thority” when dealing with the project. Hey,
I guarantee I’ll be looking the other way the
entire time.
I know, you guys are thinking that I
sound almost too perfect to be true. “This is
all good and well,” you might say, “but the
really important thing is - can he drink?”
I’m sure many people remember the stink
made last year, when two Regent secretaries
were indicted on felony record tampering
charges. They were attempting to cover up
the longstanding Regent practice of creative-
ly describing alcohol purchases as “food, soft
drinks, ice and cups.” At that time, purchas
ing alcohol with state funds was illegal.
My tolerance for alcohol may not be up to
Board of Regent levels just yet, but I swear
it’s only because I have to stay sober in order
to go to my classes.
I know how to “party down” just as well
as the next guy, and I can always stay lim
ber enough to itemize my purchase as “food
and beverages (wink,wink)” when somebody
asks me to head over to the grocery store
and pick up another keg of beer.
As you can tell, my philosophy ap
pears to be strictly in line with your
own. Why worry about the students, or
consult with them before drastic
changes are made in policy or what it is
going to cost them to go to school?
Hold some token “public” forums
over the fee increases during
the summer, when seven
students are living here,
and then consider the oth
er 42,000 of us to be fairly
warned and informed.
Like you, I am under
the sad and ridiculous
impression that the ad
ministration and its
bloated bureaucracy is
more important than the
students of Texas A&M.
Anybody who tries to tell me that acade
mics are tbe sole reason for the existence of
this University system is talking into a deaf
ear as far as I’m concerned.
So, I ask you not to be afraid of letting a
student into your club.
Look no further, I am your student liaison.
You’ll say “screw the students”, I’ll say
“how much?”
Oh yeah, and can I have another beer?
Chris Stidvent is a English
and philosophy major
Jesus Christ taught liberal ideologies
Shannon
Halbrook
Guest
Columnist
C hristianity and conser
vatism have become in
extricably linked. Most
Republican politicians are
Christian, and most Chris
tians are conservative.
And for these conserva
tives and Christians, “liber
al” has become a shorthand
term for everything that is
bad about society — an increasingly profane
word in political rhetoric.
So now that conservatives are enjoying a
stint of power, they have allied with Chris
tians and begun a war against liberalism.
But in the beginning, Christianity and lib
eralism were much closer than they are today.
After all, Jesus was a liberal.
It’s hard to believe that, in a short 2,000
years, Jesus’ liberal teachings of compassion,
kindness, and sacrifice for others have some
how been laid as the foundation of contempo
rary Republicans’ anti-liberal rhetoric.
Today conservatives tell us that the trouble
with Jesus’ ideas — compassion, kindness,
and sacrifice for others — is that they’re just
not economically feasible. The debt is too
large, the taxpayers’ burdens too heavy.
Government’s attempt to help the un
derprivileged has backfired. And now, such
good-intentioned social programs as wel
fare and Medicare have been stigmatized
as blights on government: abused and cor
rupt, bloated and bureaucratic.
These programs do, of course, have serious
problems. But rather than try to correct those
Problems, rather than try to revamp and re
pair the existing process of federal aid to the
Poor, conservative congressional leaders ques-
tion the necessity of any aid to the poor.
They observe that the poor don’t help the
rich, so why should the rich help
the poor? Why should wealthy
and middle-class Americans let
themselves be taken advantage of
by the crafty, welfare-dependent
underprivileged?
Liberals just want to rape
the people in society who have
the intelligence and toughness
and virtue it takes to be finan
cially successful.
How would Jesus have responded to this
argument? Perhaps the same way he respond
ed in Matthew 19:21 — “Go and sell that thou
hast and give to the poor.”
Strangely, nowhere in the New Testa
ment does Jesus mention a sacred virtue of
the wealthy.
In fact, if we assume the Bible to be an
accurate record of Jesus’ ideas, it seems
that he was radically opposed to personal
wealth. To Jesus, money didn’t show virtue
until it was given away.
In this sense, zealous fiscal conservatism is
inherently unchristian. Which means there is
something decidedly hypocritical about a
member of Congress cutting welfare and fed
eral aid programs, then claiming to worship
the same Jesus who called for unprecedented
charity, compassion and giving.
A man who was more liberal than any De
mocrat on Capitol Hill. A man who saw the
importance of helping others.
The leaders of this revolution call them
selves Christian, but must not be familiar
with Jesus’ teachings.
Because contemporary conservatism — and
especially the vigor with which these con
gressmen practice it — lies in direct opposi
tion to them.
It seems that if my Republican congression
al representatives were truly Christian, they
would have at least tried to find other ways to
help the poor, rather than happily slashing
funds and ignoring the human suffering that
lay in their wake.
Even more contradictory is the way Chris
tians in the public support these politicians.
To them, a commitment to end abortion
and television violence is what makes a
Christian. They have ignored their Con
gressional leaders’ — and their own — ero
sion of compassion in the interests of more
timely and political causes.
But compassion is not an outdated
thing. It is not a political thing. And it
must never be sacrificed.
The conservative revolution calls
itself Christian, but must not be
familiar with Jesus' teachings.
Of course, it can be argued that Jesus was
neither an economist nor a legislator.
He lived long before capitalism and long be
fore American democracy.
Perhaps Jesus’ teachings were meant to be
interpreted merely on a personal level, rather
than on a governmental or social one.
Besides, the compassion that Jesus called
for is impractical for our modern capitalistic
society. It would bankrupt the federal govern
ment and might actually fulfill the doomsday
warnings of the Republicans.
But these arguments certainly do not justi
fy totally abandoning the underprivileged. Do
ing so is merciless and cruel.
And, of course, very unchristian.
Shannon Halbrook is a sophomon
English majo\
The Battalion
Editorials Board
Established in 1893
Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views
of the editorials 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.
Rob Clark
Editor in Chief
Sterling Hayman
Managing Editor
Kyle Littlefield
Opinion Editor
Elizabeth Preston
Assistant Opinion Editor
Caring Choice
Texas A&M is in great need of a
campus child-care center.
If you build it, they will
come.
Last Friday, when several
Texas A&M architecture stu
dents boasted their proposals
for a campus child-care cen
ter, University administra
tors took notice.
Although the display was
only part of a class project,
the idea of a campus child
care center has been around
for years.
The Faculty Senate passed a
resolution last December that
called for such a center, but its
future still remains in limbo.
For many graduate and
undergraduate students at
A&M, finding affordable day
care for their young children
can be a problem.
According to Dr. Ray
Bowen, A&M president, the
University supports the idea,
but finding the money to build
and maintain the child-care
center is a question that has
yet to be answered.
Still, it is nice to see that
administrators are taking
the idea of a child-care facili
ty seriously, as evidenced by
the positive response from
the plans submitted by the
architecture students.
In addition, by using low-
cost resources, such as archi
tecture students, the Universi
ty will better be able to finance
the construction of the center.
As an added benefit, the ar
chitecture students are gettirv
hands-on experience in their
class by designing the plans.
Now it is time for the ad
ministration to build on the
Faculty Senate’s resolution
and the work of the architec
ture students.
The child-care center should
become a serious focus for the
administration, even if it
means cutting other construc
tion or improvement projects to
finance it.
Being a full-time student is
hard enough for students with
out children, but for parents, it
is especially difficult.
The child-care center would
be of enormous benefit to these
parents, and send a message to
them that the University cares
about their needs.
The child-care center should
no longer be a field of dreams,
but a building of reality.
Mail
Cali
Adams offers A&M
lessons in peace
It would be sad to think that
the views Lydia Percival ex
pressed Sept. 26 column are
representative of the majority
of the students at Texas A&M.
If they are, then they will miss
a unique opportunity.
The Wiley Lecture Series is
presenting a forum discussion on
the problems in Northern Ire
land, and will have two speakers
presenting opposing views on
the situation. To have the head
of the political wing of the provi
sional Irish Republican Army
here to represent their side is a
valuable opportunity to learn
their view of the conflict.
Gerry Adams is hardly the
sadistic homicidal mastermind
that Percival portrayed. He is
not involved in the direction of
terrorist activities, nor has it
been proven that he personally
conducted acts of terrorism.
His involvement in a group
such as the IRA may be repre
hensible, but to hold him person
ally accountable for all of the
IRA’s actions is ludicrous.
As for what he could teach us
now, how about the value of turn
ing to peace? I’ve never believed
that violence is an acceptable
method for achieving political
goals, which is why I applaud the
end of the IRA’s campaign of or
ganized terrorism and their will
ingness to join negotiations on the
future of Northern Ireland.
We have a lot to learn from a
man who agreed to stop fight
ing and turned to discussion in
order to resolve the disputes of
his region.
Mark Klobas
Graduate Student
Dial-A-Ride leaves
student stranded
I rode my bike to West Cam
pus thinking that it would still
be light by the tirpe my meeting
was over, but it ran long. I called
Dial-A-Ride to take me to the
Commons. They assured me that
there would be a place for my
bike on the bus.
I had to meet her at the Fish
Camp Route stop on Agronomy.
This place is unlit, unpopulated
and unsafe. We are told to use
such programs as the Guard
Room and Dial-A-Ride for safety.
Nevertheless, with mace in
one hand, I rode out to wait for
her. When she arrived she told
me that she could not allow me
to ride because of my bike.
I was told that even though
the bus was empty I would take
up too much room. She said they
do occasionally allow bikes, but
not this night because she had
several people to pick up.
I asked her what I should do.
She flatly stated, “Well, I guess
you should ride your bike.” I was
locked out of my building, alone
in the dark, faced with the long
trek from west campus to the
Commons. These programs are
for the safety of the students. I
am angered they forgot that.
Misty Mitchell
Class of ’99