he Battalion
Wednesday
ebruary 1, 1996
Opinion
Page 9
/s an increased general use fee justified?
[|
!ontinued quality will cost us
Continued fees will break us
■urn shrugs
ruiting omei
on his should!
per lists ofblii
layers where
itted to A&l
n the biggest false alarm since
Chicken Little announced the
sky was falling, A&M students
ire expressing terror and outrage
iver Texas A&M President Ray
lowen’s request of an $8 per
redit hour increase in the gener-
use fee.
It’s time for a reality check.
Phis latest increase will neither
Jason
Brown
Asst. Opinion
Editor
i as a warm
lend Aggies to the poor house, nor is it going to pay
or a Caribbean cruise for the Board of Regents.
So, let’s examine the myths about the state of
vo weeks dotlA&M finances and the effects of the proposed gen-
M head footlsjeral use fee increase.
Myth #1: A&M is so expensive already, another
whispers tlii|fee increase will force me to sell a kidney.
Fact: A&M is less expensive than most other
quality public universities.
In 1994-95, estimated resident tuition and fees
for the University of Michigan were $4879; for the
rop of recmii
■ to last yean
the fourthly
ire unfounded
aim when tall University of Virginia they were $4350; and for
-t mri!
•ecruiting wan
a hurricanes
is are the mi
Aggies,
eased,” SIocie
the people tk
d to us are
lot.”
pular outlet!
so well.
Chronicle hil
p 100 recruis
t&M. Nations
lat A&M will
e country’s ttf
Slocum says
ugh.
lot of kids os
. won’t end a:
UCLA, they were $3549. At A&M, they were only
$1526 — much less than half the amount of the
others. To find another good university for the
money, it’s a long, hard search — which brings me
to my second point.
Myth #2: A&M wastes all my money now, so I
shouldn’t have to cough up any more.
Fact: U.S. News and World Report named A&M
the fifth best buy in the country, comparing tuition,
fees and room and board for all colleges and univer
sities. If A&M seems wasteful, take a look at SMU.
Myth #3: Based on all the recent fee increases
for the Student Recreation Center and the Reed
Arena, the general use fee increase won’t be going
to needy areas.
Fact: $6 million is slated to go for faculty and
staff salary increases, $2 million to graduate teach
ing assistant salary increases and $2 million for
classroom maintenance and improvements. By the
way, the Flee Center was approved through a stu
dent referendum, not an administration mandate.
Myth #4: Faculty, staff and graduate students
don’t need salary increases.
Fact: A&M faculty members earn less than the
national average. If the University wants to keep
quality teachers and researchers, it has to put up
the money. As for A&M graduate students, a quick
look at their plight shows they merit a
60 Minutes report on “The Malnour
ished Intelligentsia in America.”
Myth #5: The University is always
raising my fees. It is out of control. .
Fact: OK, so maybe this isn’t a
myth — the University really is al
ways raising your fees. But, it seems
worse than it is because the fee in
creases do not happen automatical
ly. To raise fees, the administration must pro
pose it, student leaders make a big stink, The
Battalion writes a couple of articles
about how everyone is furi- __________
ous and the Board of Re
gents approves it. This
happens even for the
smallest fee increases.
The latest fee increase,
which is comparatively
large, would make a stu
dent taking 30 hours in
one year pay an extra
$240. Since the annual
cost of going to school
here is over $7000 for
most students, this
represents a measly 3
percent increase from
last year. True, there
are likely to be other
fee increases next
year, but none of this
magnitude.
Honestly, no one
said college was
cheap. Unfortunate
ly, many students go
into debt trying to
get a degree. But the
choice is clear; pay
the bucks to go to a
good school, or don’t go
to a good school.
A&M is a good school.
Let’s keep it that way.
Jason Brown is a
senior economics major
I t certainly didn’t come as much
of a surprise.
Texas A&M President Flay Bowen
proposed yet another increase in the
general use fee last week, this time
with another $8 per semester credit
hour tacked on.
This comes on the heels of an $8
increase in the fall and a $4 in
crease this semester, which collec
tively have raised the fee from $12 to $24 per se
mester credit hour.
The increase is representative of the second-
biggest problem on campus (the first being
the lovely race relations we have here).
Knowledge is far from the highest priority
at this University. Nope, good oT fashioned
learning takes a back seat to the massive
gallons of money f v ing in and out of A&M’s
cups of ice.
Now, Bowen wants more of our money to
give faculty and staff members a raise.
No one is disputing the fact that these
people are valuable, and they should be
paid accordingly. To suggest otherwise
would be ridiculous.
What is ridiculous is the method in
which this raise would be implemented. It’s
interesting how, despite the fact that the
University is a huge moneymaker, the
students are the ones that always have
to come up with the extra cash. Consid
ering the Capturing The Spirit Cam
paign reached its goal of $500 million,
something tells me there has to be a few
extra bucks to boost salaries.
Meanwhile, students pay out the
wazoo for the Student Recreational
Center, whether they use it or not.
And funds for the sure-to-be-lovely
Reed Arena come primarily from the
general use fee, despite the fact that
^ the men’s basketball team hasn’t
made the NCAA Tournament since
the Crusades. And G. Rollie White sell
outs occur about as often as the Houston
Oilers make the Super Bowl.
The administration’s solution to
every financial wrinkle is simple —
j ack up the fees on the students
under the cleverly vague title,
“general use fee.”
A&M’s priorities are severely
skewed. Although decent pay for
faculty is a worthy investment,
Reed Arena is not. Not to mention
the whole Evans Library mess. If
there is one element of A&M that
desperately heeds help, it’s our piti
ful library. It doesn’t matter if we have a gorgeous
Rec Center or a state-of-the-art basketball arena if
students still can’t get the books and journals they
need to learn.
Learning is, after all, why we are here.
But while Bowen calls for more extravagant
spending for things we don’t need, faculty members
need a raise.
No problem, says Bowen. See, there’s this Texas
law that allows state universities to increase general
use fees to equal the amount of tuition.
It says “allows,” not “demands.”
But the quick fix is on, and if Bowen has his way,
students will have to pay $32 per semester credit
hour, the same as tuition.
Parents have enough trouble putting children
through school. And students putting themselves
through school certainly don’t need extra charges
that could be avoided.
If Bowen really wants money to help pay for
teachers, how about a pay cut for all administrators
who make more than $50,000 a year? They could
probably handle it better than the students could.
Somehow, I don’t think Bowen would be too hip
to that idea.
Instead, he wants to squeeze every last cent
from students, knowing that as long as it is com
petitive to get into A&M, someone will be willing
to put up the money.
There is no question that raises in pay are neces
sary to ensure retaining strong faculty members. It’s
not the raises that are objectionable, it’s the finan
cial source.
With students still reeling from the last increase,
Bowen should realize that another increase will do
irreparable damage to our wallets, and even worse
damage to his reputation.
Rob Clark is a senior journalism major
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Corps and fraternities
offer similar benefits
Chris
Stidvent
Columnist
P resented for our ap
proval, an eager
young Aggie. We’ll
call him Elmo.
Elmo Aggie has made a
momentous decision. He
feels it’s time for him to
get involved in student life
at Texas A&M.
He’s either going to
pledge a fraternity or become a mem
ber of the Corps of Cadets.
As Elmo starts to make up his mind
which organization would be better for
him, he only has to deal with one real
setback. Elmo’s friends are trying to dis
suade him from getting involved in any
thing. They tell him that the Corps is
fascist and fraternities are elitist, and
they mock him for even considering be
longing to either one.
Elmo can sort of see their point, but
he doesn’t think it will do any harm to
check the various organizations out. He
figures he’ll start with what he knows.
Elmo sees members of the Corps
everywhere. The freshmen, known as
“fish,” greet the upperclassmen in an ar
cane and exciting ritual known as
“whipping out.” TTie Cadets’ talk is full
of such intriguing words as “push” and
“quad.” Elmo likes this vocabulary; it
makes him feel like a spy.
He also likes their uniforms and the
way they get to do so much neat stuff .
around campus. Whether it’s marching
in before football games, raising and low
ering flags or playing in the band, mem
bers of the Corps seem to live a life full of
extravagant and mysterious tradition.
They also get to drink a lot of beer,
and their girlfriends are usually better
looking than the average Aggie female.
Elmo also sees members of fraterni
ties all around campus. They generally
greet each other with complicated
handshakes, and they have a tendency
to throw around such unusual words
as “mixer” and “brother.” Their
“pledges” seem similar to the Corps’
"fish,” yet they don’t have to “whip
out” in precisely the same manner.
Elmo also likes the uniforms, and he
has spent long hours puzzling over the
strange combinations of foreign letters
situated so prominently on their jerseys.
Whether they are giving a big concert
to raise money for charity, hanging out
with their fellow members at their fra
ternity houses or going to parties full of
beautiful girls, these guys seem to live a
life full of thrills and rich variety.
Oh yeah, and the same thing holds
true for the fraternities about lots of
beer and good-looking girls. They
drink it and they date them, and Elmo
really likes that.
On the down side, Elmo has to admit
that both of these groups have been
known to get into trouble from time to
time. He remembers
that quirky group of fra
ternity pledges that
broke into the wrong
apartment to kidnap
somebody and ended up
getting arrested. He
also recalls that odd oc
casion when pictures
were developed by a
professional photo lab showing a bound
and gagged Cadet being hazed.
But hey, Elmo realizes that these
actions do not reflect so much on the
groups as they do on the individuals
who were dumb enough to perpetrate
them and then get caught. He refuses
to blame the organization for the idio
cy of the individual. His enlightened
standpoint strikes him as the personi
fication of wisdom.
Elmo’s friends shake their heads sad
ly when they are confronted with his
shocking ignorance. They remind him of
all of the bad things associated with fra
ternities and the Corps, things such as
institutionalized hazing and the dan
gers of a mob mentality. They tell Elmo
that these two groups don’t even like
each other, much less anybody else.
Elmo is puzzled. He recalls the time
when all of the fraternities respectfully
stopped their Bid House activities for a
few minutes while Cadets were taking
down the flags in front of the Systems
building. He also figures it is a well-
known fact that numerous members of
the Corps belong to fraternities.
Elmo tells his friends that these
signs of respect between the two groups
appear to signify a growing cooperation
between representatives of both impor
tant old traditions and exciting new
trends on campus.
Elmo’s friends don’t listen, and they
urge him to join them instead. They tell
him he doesn’t need some big group to
help him have a good time. His friends
call him “frat daddy wannabee” and
“Corps turd.”
Confronted with this brilliant logic,
Elmo eventually gives in. He gets a
short haircut, but he doesn’t join the
Corps. And he buys a “NO FRATS”
shirt even though he still doesn’t know
that much about fraternities.
It never occurs to Elmo to question
the wisdom of his friends. He doesn’t
wonder where they received their infor
mation, since they wouldn’t last two
days in the Corps and no fraternity on
campus would think twice about mak
ing them members.
Oh well, he still gets to drink a lot of
beer. And he figures he can always wait
until after he graduates to start dating
the good-looking girls.
Chris Stidvent is a senior English
and political science major
Mail
If smokers and drunks
should get privileges ...
Oh, sure. Laugh it up and wallow
in your self pity. You nicotine and al
cohol dependent freaks out there real
ly think you all have it bad, huh?
Well what about me and others like
me? We are the coke/crack baby/hero
in addicts that can’t seem to flow back
into reality. Do you understand what
it’s like to go through a three hour lab
and not get to shoot up? You begin
feeling you’re the experiment because
your withdrawal gets so bad.
Suddenly, uncontrollably, white,
milky foam bubbles out of your mouth.
Eventually, your friends have o drag
you out of the room and melt down
your smack for you to shoot again.
Once, my math teacher denied my
right to snort during class, so I went
crazy, banged my head on the wall,
and passed out. He didn’t want to get
into trouble, so he hid me inside of a
closet where 1 awoke three days later
in a pool of my blood. This was the
worst form of discrimination I have
ever faced. I never said anything to
him about his morning coffee every
day of class.
In another instance, my friend
asked the teacher for a pencil and
the request was granted. Seeing that
all requests seemed given, I asked
for a spoon and butane lighter. I was
denied this simple request and
stormed out the door yelling discrim
inatory remarks.
To me, my roommate, and the oth
er cloud-jumping heroin and coke de
pendent students out there, we
would like seen: mirrors placed on
the corner of each desktop; Bunsen
burners placed under each seat; nee
dle disposers in each room (and re
stroom); along with the multicultural
class, a drug awareness class be im
plemented and taught in a positive
manner; non-discriminatory teachers
on drugs be hired; the Quack Shack
begin to sell coke and heroin.
Jan Tijmes
Class of ’99
Pay cuts should come
with faculty demotions
We students are getting tired of pay
ing higher fees every semester. It is even
worse for graduate students, as our tu
ition is double that of undergrads. While
our fees keep increasing, there is one
area that A&M constantly overlooks
when talking of saving money.
There are many faculty members
that take a position of Assistant Dean,
Associate Dean, Department Head, or
what ever, and get a pay raise to go
along with their new responsibilities.
I don’t have a problem with this.
However, many of these appoint
ments are temporary, and you know
what? When they give up the title,
and go back to teaching, they keep
the same salary. It is next to impossi
ble for someone to get a decrease in
pay at A&M.
How much money would be saved
if all faculty members that are draw
ing pay for a position they no longer
serve were paid according to their
current title? If nothing else, this
would free up some money to share
among all faculty members, since
faculty raises seem to be such a rare
thing these days.
Tim Kalafut
Graduate Student
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