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MONDAY
July 22, 1996
OPINION
Page 5
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‘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
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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