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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1996)
The Battalion n — the Milwat 6 NBA free age:: to Howard ant Ithat money? Ye. 5 and yachts, berg. Twenty-tr with an avera?: year. (this. Maybetb rning what the; ave raked in et e of years, ear for contrat: ooi of big-nam; these big name: still the talk oil 1 le is still tryir.; money Alonzt ami Heat, dman. The mar. ist over SlOmil go. The sad par uys were saving game, rs are in thee; the athletes re hurt the game! from these con- is that suffer it s there are ria iy pretty bad it anymore with 0 a ticket, anc g, pay-per-vie« ure soon, lend with bar i still getting: open when yo: adiuma, prof:: American par: icover from the r David Sterr, ge the rule! of ure chaos, em MONDAY July 22, 1996 OPINION Page 5 5-8. Only two'" emain fromt: medalists. OLLEYBALL ter polo teamr >1 Sunday with.; ■ Greece. A di l 7 in the opeif EBALL house needing a lOtl : to beat Japs ielan hit a 521 ROMAN LING d to its medr idth Greco-K mis Hall taki: shooting teat :r and a brom :ition. :>o tor Walidi in missed hi 1 showing up# Sunday dural ecame the set ualified inai missing tht pen tan, who ra er losinghis Asia, South nere else he -ophy makes takes all the 3 he held up — his play- 9ad-to-head played two y pro-Faldo > along with nd constant ;k." a little rud- listic cheer- ons act worth Fth player wund. The ng to sign 3 of Penn ck in the ssed a full p, was ex- nday. ‘Other education* supplants real one w Columnist hen I first came to Texas A&M, I was thrilled at the start of each se mester with the anticipa tion of buy ing my books. Al though that was usually the only time I se riously looked at them, I con soled myself with the thought that what I lacked in study habits was compensated by the “other education.” The “other education,” as it is known, walks outside of classrooms and into learning skills that will help us where material information cannot, such as leadership develop ment, teamwork and time man agement. To get this education, we usually become involved in various activities and get the proper experience that will show future employers we can indeed be “leaders.” However, if the focus of ed ucation remains solely on im proving prospects for a future job, we will miss much of what we need to learn. As a fifth-year senior, I’ve come to realize that while de veloping my leadership skills will get me a long way in my ca reer, I should have paid a little more attention to what was go ing on in class and also to what was going on in the world. True leaders are desperate ly needed in today’s society. However, what America also needs is a better-educated public. By this, I mean a pub- li^that is more aware of the issuer our country is facing, and of the significance of events that are taking place around us every day. With so much emphasis on being busy, it seems America has run out of time to learn. You don’t have to look far to find a student too busy to know what is going on in the world these days. Some stu dents are too busy studying, but there are als.o many stu dents who are too busy partic ipating in extracurricular ac tivities to devote a decent amount of time to learn the material in their classes or to keep up with current events. Many students may say they are able to balance the load suc cessfully, pointing to good grades, but with the abundance of multiple choice and partial credit tests these days, one wonders about whether stu dents really need to master the material to make the grade. The most striking example of America’s need to learn more is its lack of knowledge of current affairs. Take, for exam ple, the 1992 National Election Study conducted by the Uni versity of Michigan. In this study, Americans were asked to identify the political offices held by Dan Quayle, Boris Yeltsin, Tom Foley and William Rehnquist. Only 5 per cent of the population could identify all four individuals. It’s impossible to be knowl edgeable about every issue that we will encounter, but we should take it as a personal responsibility to educate our selves as much as possible. As students, we will never have more time to learn with a wealth of resources than right now. What will change when we graduate is that earning — not learning — will be our main goal. While it is understandable to prefer staying busy with ex tracurricular activities, igno rance should not be a satisfac tory trade-off for “leadership development.” Leadership skills may carry us up the corporate ladder, but they will be no good if they leave us with leaders who were too busy to learn about the problems they have to solve. Jenni Howard is a Class of’96 economics and international studies major JVIail ; 1 Tenure proposal will hurt everyone I am writing this letter to help shed some light on the is sue of allowing students opin ions to carry weight when con sidering a professor for tenure. I believe there would be several negative effects of such a policy. First, professors would have incentive to give out higher grades even if students did not put out the needed effort forth in a course. Since these evalua tions would carry weight and have an effect on the professors livelihood, why should he or she not just make the course as easy as possible for the stu dents and get the best possible review from his or her stu dents? If you followed this line of thinking in the work force, then an executive would give raises and promotions even to substandard employees just to get the best evaluations. Does such a policy make sense to you as a potential executive? Second, Texas state univer sities would lose the best new professors. The reason is quite simple. If I have just received my Ph.D. and I wanted to find a university to work for, will I chose a university that puts more pressure on me than any other institution in the country for the same money or less? Probably not. Furthermore, you should know that A&M’s rankings are determined by, among other fac tors, quality of research. That’s right — research, not teaching. So 10 years after such a law or policy becomes a reality you will see a drop in your University ranking, i.e. your degree will be worth less. I did my undergrad uate work at a university that once had a top-tier law school, second only to t.u. in the state of Texas. Now it is a second-tier school just like SMU and U of H. I knew some lawyers who had gotten their degrees when St. Mary’s was a great law school, and when they talk about their degrees they are quick to point out that they got their degree before St. Mary’s went downhill. Do you want to have to do that five or 10 years down the road? My advice, just live with the difficulties for a few years and reap the rewards of high rank ings in the future. Besides, it seems to me that those under graduates who have the 2.5 av erage and lower are always the ones complaining. Those stu dents who have 3.0’s and better rarely complain. This is not to say that they never have had a bad professor, but that the oc casion is the exception not the rule at A&M. Robert Ramirez Graduate student The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and will print as many as space al lows. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class, and phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDon ald. A valid student ID is required. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: BattOtamvml .tamu.edu Mexican police still horsing around A mnesty Interna tional, where are you now? For too long, the Mexican government has ravished its country with corrup tion and bar barism. Presi dent Ernesto Zedillo promised change. He promised to get the bad guys and bring ’em to justice. Well, Zr bTlo L been in of fice for 2C >nths now, and he did get som ^d guys. He just can’t bring himself around to the justice part. The Michoacan state police found its scapegoat bad guy in a most unusual taxi cab vandal — a horse. The unfortunate animal has been imprisoned for over one year without trial. At least there is some evi dence of justice in Mexico. Even the politically protected group of policemen who rather unwilling ly massacred 17 peasants in June about 60 miles north of Acapulco (accidentally shooting some of the wounded point- blank in the head) received at tention from Zedillo and a spe cial investigation of the Mexican Supreme Court. They aren’t being held with out trial for an indefinite period of time. They aren’t being treat ed like animals. Obviously, our equine friend is an animal and does not have the high-ranking connections of Mexican policemen. He (identi fied as a male after his arrest) has never officially been given a reason for his detainment. One month before the police massacre in Aguas Blancas, the suspect allegedly darted into traf fic and vandalized a 1977 Nissan taxi with his head and buttocks. The driver of the cab was in furiated by the more than $200 damage to his car’s trunk and a sizable dent in the front passen ger side. Ruthlessly, the man pressed charges against his Nis san’s assailant and the animal was arrested. The Michoacan police must have been inspired to quick ac tion by Zedillo’s tough-on-crime stance, but once they had the suspect in custody, an apathetic mist fell on the unnamed horse’s case. It was as if the police sim ply forgot about their prisoner. Perhaps the animal’s imprison ment is similar to that of the sus pected drug cartel leader Juan Garcia Abrego. This unfortunate businessman had been intimately connected with former President Salinas. As a drug lord and gener al bad guy, Abrego was a prime catch for a Zedillo-led administra tion trying to look like it is creat ing a “nation of law.” The cinnamon-colored horse might also have cormections in the old Salinas administration. He probably remembers those decadent days of galloping with the traffic under the protective hand of his high-ranking friends. Those days are over, though. The power of Salinas, just like that of Catherine the Great, was destined to be crushed — and with it those poor souls who had trusted the former president for protection. Zedillo is the new boss in town. His boys get speedy trials and hu mane treatment. His boys are al lowed to alter video footage of 17 murders so that poor leftist peas ants look like raving guerrillas. Not so for Abrego and our horse friend. At least Abrego has been sent to the United States for justice. The unnamed horse con tinues to roam its compound — a field of impoionded cars in Mexico. The officers saddled with equine duty offer him the scant sustenance of grass and water. They sinisterly claim that “he lives there quite happily.” But he is restless in his cage, enraged that he has been de tained against justice for so long. The cinnamon-colored horse has expressed his “happiness” by de stroying the mirrors on the im pounded cars. He is probably just fantasiz ing that those mirrors are the silent, uncaring members of Amnesty International. Marcus Goodyear is a Class of ’97 English major IRC allows Net surfers to meet, keep friends M y best friend of seven years is moving from my hometown to New York City. Yet, I have a feeling I won’t miss her much. It’s not because I don’t love her or we’re mad at each other, but because I basically talk to her daily over the computer. Texas A&M allots each enrolled student $500 for computer access, which en titles a student to use the computer facilities and have various e-mail accounts and other goodies that come in the package. Thanks to this, I can talk to my friend as much as I want for virtually nothing. We both subscribe to an e-mailing list composed of friends we’ve met through yet another service provided by these accounts: IRC. The Internet Relay Chat is a fun way to chat with people. You can meet people from around the comer and from around the globe. Except for the occasional lag, it is a live inter active medium run by different IRC servers, which you can access through TAM2000 or ACS accounts. But it is a double-edged sword. It is more addictive than going to the Chicken every night; even worse, you will stop going to the Chicken to “get on” IRC, especially the first few months you try it. I’ve known people who have spent hours on end just trying to figure out all the commands. It is also risky. There are people on there whose intentions are not the best because the system is not regulated. A lot of people will ask you for “netsex,” and profanities abound. But these problems are minimal. In reality, the benefits override the losses — at least for some people. “IRC is addictive like a drug,” said Amy, a former A&M education student and an IRC regular. “It is very easy to let it overwhelm you and let it take control of your life, but you have to make the choice to turn off the com puter and go study. It is how I met the love of my life, and for that I am thankful for it.” Ann, another IRC regular, said, “Most peo ple laugh at you when you say it’s an addic tion. But try stopping for a while — a month or so. See how much you think about it, and almost crave it. You’d think you were smoking cigs or something, or an alcoholic trying to stop drinking.” Dean, another IRC addict, said, “IRC is def initely a double-edged sword. (But) IRC is probably the largest gathering of intellectuals in the world, as long as you can look past the dunderheads.” IRC has done everything from improve typ ing speed to create a new computer jargon. “Prolly,” “kewl,” and “np” (no problem) are some of these new vocabulary words, which can occa sionally trickle down into everyday writing. I occasionally write a few hehehe’s or :) on pen- and-paper letters to my friends and parents. It can also create a network of close friend ships. Channel #texas is home to mostly A&M and UT students (no, there isn’t much talk about the rivalry; and if there is, you might get kicked off the channel), former students, people from other Texas universities, and those who are out of state but still want to keep in touch. Kari, a former computer science student who currently lives out of state, said, “#texas is a very special channel because we all know one another. On most of the other channels people do not become addicted so easily. This is because #texas is to intelligent, otherwise shy people what fraternities can be to popular, outgoing people. It gives them a way to meet people and explore society at their own pace. Many of us value IRC, and the only way we can talk to friends in Texas cheaply is IRC.” Because of the few problems with the IRC, some people are afraid the A&M administra tion might want to limit students’ privileges. But IRC, it can be said, is a pure form of the First Amendment. It is a way to meet new peo ple with varying opinions in an environment where you can express yourself without limita tions or fear of repercussions. Therefore, tak ing it away would be limiting our freedom of expression. “It isn’t IRC which makes students fail, it is students who make students fail,” said Kari. Dave, an A&M graduate, agrees: “At A&M, if you aren’t going to make the grade, IRC isn’t going to be the cause.” Rosie Arcelay is a Class of ’98 history major