Pag;
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The Battalion
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Page 11
Wednesday • November 13, 1996
The Battalion
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[Itorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the
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Editorials Board
Michael Landauer
Editor in Chief
Amy Collier
Executive Editor
Gretchen Perrenot
Executive Editor
Heather Pace
Opinion Editor
Sullivan Ross rededication sullies A&M
chat
OJEN't the
i-resT idea
KlS IS.
Moving Forward
fexas A&M should combat Hopwood
by increasing minority recruitment.
student body.
However, the most viable solu
tion offered yesterday would con
centrate on minority recruiting. Be
cause the University’s reputation for
welcoming minorities into its arms
isn’t exactly world-renowned, it is
necessary to take steps to combat
Texas A&M’s image to increase mi
nority enrollment.
For the long term, the Univer
sity should push the Texas Legis
lature to resolve to fix the real
problem — unequal primary
and secondary education.
Affirmative action began be
cause all students were not on an
even playing field. Affirmative ac
tion was simply an attempt to even
out the playing field after the fact.
It is now time for the state of
Texas to get to the root of its prob
lems. By providing the means for all
students to obtain an equal educa
tion, race, income and other factors
will be irrelevant in admissions.
Another suggested solution
would be to have the decision clar
ified by the court. As it stands,
though, further clarification would
require a university to violate the
Hopwood ruling to get an affirma
tive action case back into court.
Texas A&M and other state uni
versities must be truly dedicated
to ensuring that all students have
an equal opportunity to higher ed
ucation. Whatever solution is
eventually chosen, continual co
operation between Texas universi
ties, the Texas Legislature and the
Texas Higher Education Coordi
nating Board is essential.
Ilf the University has its way, it
CX. jffil find a way to circumvent the
I; mpact of the Hopwood decision.
■Higher-education officials from
round the state came to Texas
■M yesterday to discuss new so-
ilons to increase minority emoll
ient at Texas universities.
■The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
■ peals prohibited race as a
■tor in admission and finan-
ial-aid decisions for higher
■blic-education institutions
nil h in Texas, Louisiana and
Bssissippi March 18, 1996.
■The University should be com-
^ ^ nended for the many panels and
g 111 4-ililcussions it has held since the
U jCI If 0 / ,ir<> °ddecision.
lowever, it is essential that
hi University take immediate
tips to implement the ideas
h;it have been garnered from
lilcussions, especially yester-
la\’s conference.
ffflt was notable how quickly
Be University reacted to the ini-
ial decision, but almost eight
Ipnths later, the University has
et to develop a definitive plan
combatting the effects of the
wood decision,
everal alternatives were of-
^red at the conference that,
ending further development,
puld be viable options to replace
dBrmative action.
One possible solution by speak-
n h r\ A s suggested increasing minority
JdyOllUiWollment by focusing on factors
^ i the application such as geogra-
consolidate asselphy, income and parental educa-
)r an audit, said Ftion in order to ensure a diverse
Commission s*/
laron Snyder,
liquidating even "
and time,” said 1
ot staffer for theslil
and Wyoming.'
I own everything W
; over from scratch,
ucier, a former
We Stand-Ohio wl»|
lusioned with Perot
iwn will make the
t difficult,
hutting down Peroi
e process he’s shot
ling to the Reformf
give two hoots. M
n the whole time,
:rot. “The Republi
ocrats don’t shutd’
es after each electiot
Kline subscribers
unts by 4 p.m.
’ Relations ackno
not every membe
r and staff has act
ly this, the Aggie#
on campus, providit ■ ■ ■
^^r Students don t learn to write right
Aja Henderson
Senior political
science major
N ever have I been so disappointed by the student apathy
here at Texas A&M. I am downright hot at the fact that
more Aggies did not turn out to support the rededica
tion of Lawrence Sullivan Ross’ grave in Waco last Saturday.
There is simply no excuse.
He was a fine man who played an
Columnist integral part in making Texas A&M
what it is today. He served as the
University president, and he did
big things for Aggieland. On top
of all of this, he had time to
serve valiantly as a Confederate
brigadier general. It is incom
prehensible why some mis
guided people have problems
with the man.
So he was a slaveowner... big
deal. Lots of people owned slaves, in
cluding our founding fathers. And we
know that the founding fathers were
great people without flaws. I’m sure that ol’ Sully was a
good slaveowner — he probably didn’t even whip his
slaves much, except when they really deserved it (like
when they didn’t pick their cotton fast enough or had
the audacity to try to learn how to read).
Plus, the fact that he called black people niggers
isn’t a big deal, either. “Nigger” is actually a posi
tive word, but the damned liberals in this nation
have turned it around to be negative. Seriously:
“Nigger” is actually a term of endearment, kind of
like an affectionate nickname. It’s obvious that Ross
was just a well-meaning man who refused to suc
cumb to politically correct terminology, which deep
ens curiosity as to why he is not appreciated more.
And the sponsorship of the rededication by
the Sons of Confederate Veterans only added to
the appeal of the event. After all, everyone should
be grateful to the veterans who put their lives on
the line to preserve a way of life that included slav
ery. Do not believe those gory horror stories of
slaves being maltreated. They loved their situation.
The false portrayals in movies like Roots and Glory only
confuse the issue. They are almost as bad as that silly
Schindler’s List— as if the Holocaust really happened.
It’s about time African-American students get over it, anyway.
They should stop holding grudges and start polishing the statue
every day to show that there are no hard feelings. Even if slavery
had its kinks, that was a long time ago.
Well, the rededication is history, but I have a great idea
for all the students who missed the opportunity to pay tribute to the
Glorious Sullivan Ross. My proposal: a “Back to the 1890s” day. A Sully
look-alike could be hired and all the African-American students could
dress in gunnysacks, the women in fashionable headcloths. This would
definitely be good bull.
The outrage many Aggies are feeling about now is probably
close to how African-American students feel when we walk past
that statue. Sully represents the most embarrassing period in
American history. He fought to perpetuate an institution based on
the notion that African Americans were inferior to whites and de
served to be owned by whites. This makes him a racist, plain and
simple. He may be an Aggie, but that does not justify his bigotry.
Everyone should have problems with that figure sitting smack in
the middle of this campus, regardless of his or her race.
So should the Sully statue be removed? Why not? Erect a monu
ment that lets everyone feel like they are a part of this University,
similar to the Twelfth Man?
Just as it seems preposterous for African-American students to walk
around in headrags, it is equally preposterous that anyone expects
African Americans to smile as they walk past Sully.
I regret to say that I could not attend the event — I was busy re
reading the racist death threats I received last semester. Darn.
ELECTION RESULTS
HELD
ONTO
CONTROL
the
SENATE:
HELD
ONTO
CONTROL
of the
HOUSE:
MAP&W-lSS
‘ www,.ctwlrwycn^ef,
HELD ONTO CONTROL
of
Mail
son said the futurt.
:ations looks t
e going to be
ith the focused
s, he said,
king out quite
^ said.
he icy hand of
fear clutches his
throat. He’s been
ven stark raving
d. Petrified out of
mind, he cries him-
f to sleep at night. Is
apocalypse nigh?
, it’s just time for Joe
gie to write a paper.
Nothing strikes
jbre fear into the av
erage college stu-
lent’s heart than
biting a paper. Exams are bad,
jut they can be fooled. If one
mows how to play ball, tests
lon’t necessarily have to be rep-
e^entative of the amount of in-
ormation actually learned.
I Papers, on the other hand,
land as a declaration of one’s
ntelligence and knowledge to
he world. They’re like stripping
laked in a room full of critical
chool Progratfloctors and saying, “Here I am.
ghat’s wrong with me?”
■Papers are great opportuni-
ies for Joe Aggie to get tripped
ip. For one thing, his actual
anowledge of the material is
nobably less than comprehen-
Jve. Many students also lack
i^sic writing skills — there
iren’t too many people who run
Columnist
sss&mk, dam-
Bryan Goodwin
Junior English major
spell check without
being shocked at the
number of errors. And
forget about grammar
check. If Joe Aggie
needs a computer to
tell him what a sen
tence fragment is, it’s
time to check back
into grade school.
His two biggest allies
in writing this paper are
two word-processing
tools designed for the
lowest common denominator. For
tunately, he’s got a secret weapon:
He knows what the teacher wants.
Boom. Knowing what the
teacher wants to read is the key to
making a good grade in many
courses, because the teacher is often
as excited about reading the paper
as the student is about writing it.
The comparative paper is now
ready to begin. The thesis is all
worked out: He’s using the time-
honored, “While jelly doughnuts
and chocolate-covered dough
nuts are similar, they are also
very different” format, a sure-fire
crowd-pleaser so overused my
English teacher has declared it
the antithesis (no pun intended)
to a good thesis statement.
Armed with a shoddy idea, a
lack of knowledge and a sincere de
sire to be doing anything but writ
ing this paper, our hero sits down
and begins what we shall decline to
refer to as “the creative process.”
Simple sentences flow from the
keyboard onto the screen: Subject,
predicate. Subject, predicate. The
dance is enticing. He pours out the
pitifully inadequate contents of his
mind, but it’s still not enough. What
now? Learn more?
Hell, no. Increase the font to the
maximum size acceptable. Change
the line spacing from double to
two-and-a-half. Throw in a couple
of extra lines between the title and
the first sentence (suck it up if a ti
tle page is used). Increase the mar
gins. And don’t forget the unwrit
ten slacker law that on a five-page
paper, one line greater than half a
page counts as a full fifth page.
Voila. Finished. As he reads,
“Thus, the jelly doughnut and
chocolate-covered doughnuts are
as similar as they are different,”
his heart swells with pride — not
at the paper he’s written, but at
the facsimile he’s constructed.
He may get by. He certainly won’t
do well. But his conscience is clear,
with nary a nagging voice telling
him that maybe, just maybe, his
priorities are in the wrong place.
Class of ’97 Council
apologizes for shirt
We would like to respond to
the concerns raised about the Se
nior Elephant Walk shirt design.
We apologize for any offense
we might have caused. It was
not our intention to exclude
any member of the Fightin’
Texas Aggie Class of 1997.
We followed a process that
we hoped would yield the right
design for the shirt. However,
we obviously were not as sensi
tive to the issue of inclusive
ness as we should have been.
We sincerely apologize.
Because of the close proximi
ty of Elephant Walk and the vol
ume of shirts needed to serve
the class members, it is not fea
sible to design another shirt be
fore the event.
Again, we apologize. In the fu
ture, we will make sure this issue
is thoroughly addressed.
Melanie Bradshaw
Class of’97
Elephant Walk Chair
Accompanied by 33 signatures
Catholic Church errs
in discrimination
Regarding Heather Pace’s Oct. 24
column, “Catholic Church’s Policy
Evolves Slowly to Present Day”:
I was baptized a Catholic. I’ve
lived with the collective Catholic
narrow-mindedness and discrim
inatory ways all my life.
Quite frankly, I’m surprised at
the Church's influence on society,
particularly when it is such a gen
der-biased institution.
Where does it say in the Bible
that only a man can become a
priest? Is this the only criteria?
Does it matter how devout a
Christian you are? Does it matter
that you live by the teachings of
the Bible and never take the
name of the Lord in vain?
I wonder if people would
blindly follow the Church if the
pope decreed that no one of a
particular skin color could be
come a priest.
Let’s call it what it is — by not
admitting women to the priest
hood, the Church is practicing
sexual discrimination.
Discrimination, no matter
how it is rationalized or defend
ed, is wrong. Period.
Wendy Jones
Class of 98
Pro-hazing T-shirts
show poor taste
In recent days, T-shirts with
“Pro Hazing” imprinted on the
front and “I’m Not Just a Support
er, I Participate” printed on the
back have appeared on campus.
While we respect an individ
ual’s freedom of expression, we
find the message to be in ex
tremely poor taste.
The University cannot and
will not condone actions by
students that violate University
Student Rules and the laws of
Texas. Each of our departments
(Commandant's Office, Depart
ment of Residence Life and
Housing, Department of Stu
dent Activities and Department
of Student Life) has been in
volved in investigating hazing
incidents on this campus.
In such incidents, students of
ten felt compelled to participate
in some activity to be recognized
as part of a group or to become
an official member of a group.
No one ever intended to hu
miliate, injure or kill someone
through hazing. Yet it happens
every day both across the country
and right here at A&M.
Recently, a student suffered
a permanent injury from a haz
ing incident. Fortunately, it has
been several years since an
A&M student died from a haz
ing incident.
We ask the A&M community
to demonstrate its disdain for
hazing.
Refuse to purchase the “Pro
Hazing” T-shirt. Confront those
who may be wearing the T-shirt
about why they feel it is appro
priate to endanger the mental
or physical health or safety of
another student.
Refuse to participate in any
hazing activity and report any
hazing activity to one of our de
partments.
There are many honored tradi
tions at A&M. Hazing is not one
of these honored traditions. Help
us stop hazing at A&M.
Ted Hopgood, MG
Commandant
Ron Sasse
Director, Residence
Life and Housing
Carolyn Adair
Director, Student Activities
Brent Paterson
Director, Student Life
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