September^
Opin
Page 17
Thursday • September 26, 1996
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Will work for tuition
>tudents spend time working, not learning
Construction crazed
uition increases cause agony for many
students, but let it be known that a study
has linked these fee increases to fewer
dents graduating on time and overall poor-
erformance.
Obviously college administrators see a
e in tuition as a way to cover additional
: costs. Possibly they are
Columnist not aware of the detri
mental effect it has on
employed students.
Colleges should en
courage students in
their efforts to get the
most out of classes, not
force them to struggle in
order to survive.
How many of your
parents talk about tak
ing 18 or more hours a
semester when they
were in school?
,
McAlister
en/or finance and
hccounting major
According to a September CNN study, 34
rcent of full-time college students held
is in 1970. In 1993 that number had in-
ased significantly to 46 percent. The in-
asing work loads have led to decreasing
[ademic hours and scores. The primary
ntributing factor, according to the survey,
[the increasing cost of tuition.
That’s right, nearly one-half of college stu
nts need a job to afford tuition.
College used to be a four-year endeavor re
aring only one-third of students to work.
11 normal activity. F' 1 * 1 rau ghly half of all students holding jobs
promised to 1*% exten ded stays at college have recently
come accepted as the norm.
Who cares, right? Well, you might care if you
m employed student. CNN’s study shows
at students with jobs have disadvantages over
lose who don’t. This just is not
and, moreover, it causes a
iparation of the student body.
Working students are sep-
ratedform non-working
Jtudents, yet they are judged
minister would talndass on the same criteria,
months and a* Students that work volun-
ff/j'i may not have a prob-
|mwith reducing their work
orquitting when times
ation is needed as
de excellent resii
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For some students, though,
led with rubberl Jrtdngis not an option, but a
'cessity. The saddest part is
at it is damaging their school-
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With roughly
half of all
students hold
ing jobs today,
extended stays
at college have
become accept-
as the norm.
Simultaneously holding down a job and
succeeding in school shows discipline.
That should make up for an extra semes
ter and lower grades. True, employers are
looking for discipline, but grades and activi
ties are more or less as impor
tant.
College is a competitive en
vironment. Students are com
pared to each other, especially
when it comes time for inter
views with companies and ap
plication to graduate, law, and
medical schools.
A student active in many orga
nizations on campus has an ad
vantage. Work cuts in on the time a
person can contribute to a student
organization, creating yet another
problem. Half of the students at
college may not have the time to explore the
eventful college life.
What can the system do about this in
equity? For starters, base tuition rates for a
full- time student on a reasonable amount of
hours of work at minimum wage.
After all, the University makes far more
from endowments than it does from tuition.
How about increasing the amount of
smaller denomination loans to students so
that if they still need to hold a job, they can
work fewer hours? Even reduced work loads
for students would help.
There are ways to put all students on an even
playing field. Even non-working students
should agree that it is unfair to have a built in
advantage over other hard working students.
If students want to distinguish them
selves, they should have to make good
grades and get involved in some of the orga
nizations on campus.
People are being limited from enjoying the
experiences and opportunities on campus —
by the school itself.
I magine winning the
lottery. Would it
change your
lifestyle? Would you
buy a new house, a new
car? When Texas A&M
gets money, it goes hog
wild, throwing money
around like it’s going
out of style.
Last year, the Fightin’
Texas Aggie Band per
formed an unusual half
time show in honor of
the alumni’s fund rais
ing. The University raised tons of
money - $500 million to be exact.
How did they commemorate this
monumental occasion? By march
ing in the formation of‘‘500 mil
lion.” For a world-class university,
that’s tacky.
Even more tacky is where this
money ended up. The Board of Re
gents, once again acting in the best
interest of everyone but the stu
dents, approved several major pro
jects. It allocated little or none of
this money to where it is needed
most: attracting new, talented pro
fessors to replace gaps left by those
whose retirements are drawing
near, improving the content of the
Sterling C. Evans Library (the desk
doesn’t count), or preserving and
renovating our aging campus.
Instead, it began with the Reed
Special Events Center, the skeleton
of which can be seen on West Cam
pus. The Special Events Center will
obviously house special events, but
seriously, how many special events
will need the extra capacity that G.
Rollie White does not provide?
The list begins with Muster
and ends with commencement,
with nothing in between.
The only way this Special
Events Center makes any eco
nomic sense is if the University
rents it out to a professional
franchise. Hey — the Arena
Football League is always look
ing to expand.
But the Board of Regents didn’t
stop with those two bank-breakers
- it decided to add on to our aging
library. But in their excitement,
the regents forgot to add books to
their wish list. Not that many of us
use those things anymore, but the
occasional literate freak shows up
every so often. These projects
Patrick Smiley
Sophomore
zoology major
have squandered
much of the money,
but there must be a lit
tle money left some
where in the coffers.
What to do with it must
weigh heavily on the
minds of the regents.
Well, in the spirit of
irresponsibility, here
are some insanely ex
pensive suggestions.
The regents should
shop around for a new
transportation system
to replace our archaic and oft-
malfunctioning buses. Take a cue
from Disney World and build a
cool monorail train. Or, try con
verting the old steam tunnels
into a subway system.
Some may ask why this money
doesn’t go to alleviate the real
problems of the University, those
concerning the students. Simple
tons — that money was never in
tended to help the students, not
after the regents got their hands
on it. With all the money coming
in, it is understandable why so lit
tle of it goes to repairing older
buildings or investing in the future
of our aging faculty by attracting
quality replacements. History and
quality are intangible, and cold
hard cash is hard to pass up.
So what do the regents do?
They take the money and build
more buildings, which impress
more alumni, who give more
money to A&M - notice a trend
developing? This philosophy of
“build it and they will donate”
excludes education because it is
not readily visible.
With all the new buildings
popping up, the campus will
look pretty in the future. How
ever, academic excellence better
defines a university than all the
enormous buildings in the
world. Unfortunately, the only
way the Board of Regents is will
ing to invest in academic excel
lence is through constantly in
creasing student fees.
Until the Board of Regents
spreads the wealth to academic
arenas of our University, instead
of not-so special events centers
and bookless libraries, our
“world class” status will be
merely physical.
TV ^ ATT Safety comes first
at A**£*ia Rnnfira
^Editorial Roundup
xe while theii
against om
youth, and
said outsid*
dquarters.
(AP)—A sampling of editorial
dnion from Texas newspapers:
:ed Arafat act 11 The Monitor (McAllen) on im-
I undermininj ^ration and public schools:
s - "They aresf Congress, at a stalemate over a
de-ranging immigration reform
could drop the provision that
fusing such a ruckus.
The issue of contention is a
pulation granting states the
wer to deny public schooling
children who can’t prove legal
idency. Most Democrats and
[me Republicans are against
!ch a measure, and the debate
eatens the entire bill.
School districts along the bor-
r are certainly aware of the chal-
Seniors, Jll^ 'S es associated with the educa-
S and Fresltf in °f students who are illegal
‘migrants, or who are the chil-
R of undocumented workers.
Every school year, school dis-
|cts in the Rio Grande Valley
isorb an undetermined num-
pof children who are illegal
^migrants, or whose parents
ay be here illegally.
[Texas, fortunately, has avoid-
. (these sort of divisive mea-
Pes. Texas Gov. George W. Bush
' chance to W
3 picture intlie
Jand yearbook
= will be taken
3n and 1-5 p.* 1
ay - Friday
holograph
- (next to Taco Cato
33 for more deta
and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchinson have expressed
great concerns about denying
schooling to the children of un
documented workers.
Bush and Hutchinson cor
rectly point out the obvious:
Denying these children an edu
cation would be a grave mistake
since they are likely to live in the
United States all of their lives,
and will be a greater drain on so
ciety without an education.
Today’s schools have a hard
enough time ensuring that our
children are getting the educa
tion they need to succeed in
their adult lives.
Let’s worry about that first,
and spend less time worrying
about whether they can produce
their citizenship papers.
Abilene Reporter-News on oil
imports:
As with Desert Shield and
Desert Storm in 1990-91, the most
recent round of military actions
against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein has
brought forth a wide range of high-
sounding justifications about re
sponding to aggression and pro
tecting our allies.
But let’s be honest. The main
threat Saddam’s swaggering poses
to our vital national interests is on
the flow and price of oil.
Without questioning whether
Saddam must be effectively con
tained, there is one issue that’s
been buried in the hubbub.
The noise from Saddam and
the oil market jitters should re
mind us how dependent we have
become on foreign oil and how
far away our government remains
from establishing policies to en
courage domestic production.
More than half the oil used in
the United States continues to
come from imports.
And stretching back into the
Bush and Reagan administrations,
our government has ignored the
need to balance import levels with
oil produced at home.
As long as the United States re
mains so dependent on foreign oil,
Saddam Hussein will be able to
keep pulling our strings, while
American oil producers are left
scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Liberal leftists run
amuck in The Batt
Am I the only one troubled by
the fact The Battalion has be
come an unbalanced mouthpiece
for the left?
I won’t name names, but one
writer thinks government should
regulate free speech like a drug
and believes that the product of
an abortion, rather than the act
itself, is “obscene.”
Another is convinced that Bob
Dole is nothing more than a reac
tionary bigot, despite that fact that
if it wasn’t for Dole, who owns an
illustrious pro-civil rights record,
the Civil Rights Act of 1965 may
never have become law.
One columnist goes on a left-
wing tirade about animal testing
that was so erroneous, it proved
to be more comical than informa
tive. If he believes nearly one in
ten children suffer a birth defect
caused by animal testing, then
he’s probably been sold real es
tate in Arkansas.
Another get his kicks by trash
ing a mandated exercise of
morality and thinks two men hav
ing sex is perfectly normal, calling
an affirmation of common Amer
ican values “a step backward.”
These are those same “natter
ing nabobs of negativism”
whose liberal propaganda un
dermines free and open
thought, by slamming America’s
conservative principles and
slandering such brilliant patriots
as Barry Goldwater and Spiro
Agnew, whose death was more
than the tragic loss of an honor
able statesman, but the passing
of a great American hero.
The Battalion needs that same
voice speaking for our “silent ma
jority” who supports free speech,
respects human life, wants equal
rights for all and special treatment
for none and values the sanctity of
God-ordained marriage.
We need a columnist who
stands up for and advocates the
common-sense conservatism so
many of us treasure.
The Battalion needs a colum
nist who freely speaks our opin
ion, instead of parroting the shrill
cries of the at ideological di
nosaur known as liberalism.
Donny Ferguson
Class of’99
Learn to respect
others’ differences
Regarding Thomas Meri
wether’s Sept. 24 Mail Call, “Ho
mosexuals don’t deserve equality:”
Once again, I was dismayed to
see another Aggie fighting diligent
ly to make A&M the most homoge
neous campus in the nation.
Every time someone expresses
an opinion that contrasts the
popular majority they are fed the
highly revered cliche, “Highway 6
runs both ways.”
Perhaps since Meriwether just
joined us at this fine University,
he doesn’t realize that some of
the best lessons he will learn will
be outside of the classroom.
College is a time to (yes, cringe
at the thought) expand your mind.
Meriwether and others like
him should open their eyes and
attempt to come away from A&M
with more than a diploma.
Tonya Lee
Class of’98
at Aggie Bonfire
Regarding Danny Holwerda’s
Sept. 24 Mail Call, “Costs of Bon
fire outweigh benefits:”
It appears that whenever a
tragic event occurs in our lives,
we have a need to know why it
happened. When that reason
does not justify our loss we point
fingers to satisfy ourselves. True,
this accident is a terrible loss and
one that should not be forgotten.
A member of our Aggie family
has passed away and we should
all be sorry. However, do not
blame Aggie Bonfire for this acci
dent. It could have just as easily
occurred after a game or yell
practice. Should we then end Ag
gie Football? Aggie Bonfire takes
an enormous amount of prepara
tion to provide for safety at cut
and stack. Maybe your friend
that received stitches wasn’t fol
lowing the rules properly. Acci
dents are a part of life, but do not
blame Aggie Bonfire.
If you believe Bonfire is unsafe,
maybe you should take a long
look at how much the redpots,
yellowpots, buttpots and crew
chiefs spend on the safety of oth
ers taking part in what is certainly
the greatest tradition at A&M.
Aaron Flautt
Class of’98
Accompanied with over
40 signatures
The Battalion encourages letters to the
editor. Letters must be 300 words or fewer
and include the author’s name, class, and
phone number.
The opinion editor reserves the right to
edit letters for length, style, and accuracy.
Letters may be submitted in person at 013
Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Let
ters may also be mailed to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
013 Reed McDonald
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
77843-1111
Campus Mail: 1111
Fax: (409) 845-2647
E-mail: Batt@tamvml.tamu.edu
For more details on letter policy, please call
845-3313 and direct your question to the
opinion editor.