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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1996)
Pac • November 2(| oven Page 11 Wednesday • November 20, 1 996 < security bread •pared: The Battalion Established in 1893 * ^ torials appearing in The Battalion reflect the James Nicholsws of the editorials board members. They do necessarily reflect the opinions of other Bat on staff members, the Texas A&M student jy, regents, administration, faculty or staff, lumns, guest columns, cartoons and letters iress the opinions of the authors, ntact the opinion editor for information on emitting guest columns. CIA post t/iei station chief Arrested ovember lv% Allegedly over the identity Editorials Board NVtchael Landauer Editor in Chief Amy Collier Executive Editor Gretchen Perrenot Executive Editor Heather Pace Opinion Editor Bowen cooks up complacent column T Columnist Spending Money The Legislature should take n , lined during ik ild inft 'rnml'mcb: lath >n in Moscm The ti|mlT ic\tii 'liable anm- te-detector testkii responsibility for funding education. | ■ what has become a rerun that an’i die, Texas A&M students will ises by theG : D bably have to put up with anoth- counterinte -f|r nera l ^ se ^ ee i ncrease - IP HKM arrwi Although it may seem to be a Xmns Ihrr te( -jerk reflex, A&M students Ames, themf 0 uidn’t blame President Ray ■ 1 11 swen or the administration this ley asked oi. ^ problem is deeply rooted i informal! yj^gg government, and most of had no reas , e blame falls upon legislators and uld have be ieil shirking of responsibility, m," said (E The fee increase currently on the on the case ble has been presented before. In ity. But Nichi niiary, Bowen presented a similar suspicion in i&ease in an effort to raise the low h tests founc tlaries of faculty and staff. But after ut contacts wplaints from the student body, te Student Senate and the Board of irrnnnts r. e gents, the proposal was crossed lited States ar^T 6 Re g ents ’ a g enda March 22 - •d since (her l nf °rtunately, the issue won’t go mi n , NdL i A&M’s faculty and staff still ’ ' irector eed better pay to keep the Univer- Vlonday, bi ty competitive. And how, the fee ction in crease is practically a done deal, lited States, gut because of the shenanigans day, State Df the Texas Legislature, the Univer- jsman Glyn tyns raising the GUF .to take care ited States ff something — faculty salaries — ?xplanationl tat really aren’t under the jurisdic- srnment. of the GtJP at all. this as unaccf The GUF should only be used to rve the riehl ay (for Physical Plant additions and ns ” he said i 1111 !’ 118 improvements — Universi- viiii v/nmni''rules and regulations state this ex- , _ licitly. Faculty salaries have tradi- " ,,ie la e : onally been covered by tuition, ve the prates j s set t ] ie Legislature. But now tuition fails to raise nough to pay professors what a vorld-class” university should pay s professors, and no one’s sure here to get the money. So rather than come up with the inds to cover faculty paychecks, vo years ago the 74th Legislature luffled its feet and pulled a kind of /vdteharoo. They removed the $12 apitalists discover e fountain of death ow does the say ing go? The man’s not even cold in rave? Columnist nows, Tupac Shakur ied earlier this semester Eter being shot in Las egas. Everyone may not now, however, that the fficial mourning period now, apparently over, his applies only to lose who were mourn- ighim in the first place, of course. | Soon we will be seeing, to araphrase from a Mel Brooks lovie, “Tupac: The Merchandis- ig.” The time has arrived for all lose with any connection to the ain star to come forward and get aid. Arrived? Actually the T- nirts have been available since nortly after his death. [ They probably started printing lem while he was still on life sup- ort. Say what you will about “thug fe’ and just rewards; people don’t eed their lives trivialized into sou- aiirs. Following hard on the heels fa posthumously released album re the movie plans. HBO has iked a deal to make, of all the in- -ilting things, a TV movie about hakur. Is the title Requiem for Tu nc? No. The name of this fine pro- •Ct is Rebel for the Hell of It: The ife of Tupac Shakur. |Additionally Quincy Jones, atertainment industry giant, may e working with TriStar Pictures to lake a big-screen production, therwise known as a real movie, pin the interest of fairness, either lovie could be just as bad as the ther. My money is on the one he ft proposed by — get this — iakur’s mother. She also has a ft)k deal in the works. Does this ftke anyone as incredibly mor- >id? Perhaps there should have Kn giant checks mailed to 'hakur’s survivors as soon as his art stopped. That would have ared us the charade and several ers in the movie department. Not that anything with Bryan Goodwin Junior English major Shakur’s name on it is a losing proposition fi nancially of course. The disturbing part about all of this is the incredibly lucrative mar ketability of death. Headstones, caskets and ceremonies in general have left the original purpose of a memorial far behind. For instance, just how comfortable does the inside of a cof fin need to be, anyway? In the event that the deceased are only napping, they will be able to spend the re mainder of his life in cushioned comfort as he asphyxiates. Damn, that’s how I want to go. And whafs everyone’s favorite get-rich scheme? Life insurance fraud. Is anyone else a little uneasy about the idea of life insurance in the first place? After all, death is as sured. Let’s rename the stuff and make it part of the lottery Visualize it: BucketKick—You bet you’re gonna die! Oh, sign me up. Every time someone dies, peo ple rush to cash in. Even the well- deserved pseudo-death the seniors will experience next week during Elephant Walk brings with it sweatshirt sales (though both this year’s sweatshirts are terrible). When movie stars die, their last projects are hurried out the door toward assured box-office success. When rock stars die, MTV kicks their videos into high rotation and every unreleased sound bite of them sneezing is shrink-wrapped and sold ASAP People who didn’t even care much about them in life gather together for mass memorial services that feature a door charge. When I die, hopefully a few peo ple whose lives I touched will gath er together in solemn remem brance of who I was. Hopefully they will not be too sad, as they will have lives of their own to lead. Hopefully, they will make some small memorial for me. And maybe just one movie, tastefully done. Stephen Llano Senior history major cap on fees and raised it to equal the $32 tuition charge — effectively forcing universities to raise their fees to pay for things that tuition should cover. In doing so, the Legislature passed the buck to each individual university in Texas. It was an unprecedented and cowardly sidestepping of responsi bility Legislators knew public uni versities were experiencing funding crises statewide, but they merely shrugged their collective shoulders and said, “Why don’t you come up with your own money?” Obviously, the administration is not to blame; it has doing its best with what it has been given. The trouble is that it has not been given enough, and it has to make up for the deficiencies with another GUF increase. Now it’s up to the Texas Legislature to give more money to Texas universities. Although educa tion spending increased 7.3 percent from the previous session, it still was not enough to take care of the long-overdue salary increase. Where the Legislature should find the money is a bit of a quandary. It can redistribute the hinds it currently has, or it can raise taxes to raise for money for the state government in general. It was the legislators’ job to find a solution, however; simply deferring their job to universities was a cop-out. The administration should be commended for recognizing that its faculty is valuable enough to war rant salaries comparable to those at other public universities. But now that money is scarcer than it used to be, this recognition will have its cost. It’s a complicated problem — but it will give the 75th Legislature something to address when it con venes Jan. 14. And it ought to be one of its top priorities. his year has been disturbing for most Aggies. The football team has gone from Southwest Conference Champions to Big 12 contenders. Buildings previously taken for granted as physical symbols of tra dition on this campus, such as Law, Puryear, Downs Nata- torium and DeWare, were shattered in the name of “cam pus improvement.” The Corps shrinks and grows in num ber year after year, and the yell leaders’ stories at yell practice get less comprehensible and more violent. Change is the newest and strongest tradition in these times. But one thing has remained constant — the continual in crease in student fees. If only there was something that could be done to control ever increasing costs. Unbeknownst to many Aggies, who were disoriented by the bizarre weather phenomena surrounding the Texas Tech game (as well as that unfortunate cat), President Ray Bowen provided justification for these fees to the readers of The Dallas Morning News. His Oct. 27 column, “Colleges Grapple With Affordability Issue” seems to be an adequate defense of the recent fee hikes that effect Aggies and other students who attend public universities. Bowen states, “Tu ition and fees have increased mainly because state governments, faced with difficult budget constraints, have been steadily cutting their support for higher education, forcing public col leges and universities to rely more heavily on tuition and fees.” But what Bowen doesn’t define is what those fees are paying for. He cites with great alarm the fact that universities have taken “painful measures” such as “increasing class size, cutting course selections, in creasing instructional workload and downsizing administration” in or der to make ends meet. It would seem that raising tuition and fees would be the only way public uni versities could “provide wide access to quality education.” If that is the goal of Texas A&M, being a public university, why did we spend money on a beautiful grass football field instead of opening up more course selec tions? Since these costs don’t come out of students’ pockets, they don’t affect academic funds. But indirectly they do. Instead of opening up other sections of SCOM 203 or SPAN 102, we used that money to improve the playing surface at Kyle Field. Every dollar raised and spent on something other than education costs ebbs away at the goal of education. And what about those fees that directly impact students? Bowen must not be too concerned about the cost of access when he supports the charging of a mandatory $50 fee for a sports club. Even though many would pay it anyway, every little unneccesary fee mounts up against those students struggling to pay tuition. So, who is going to solve this problem? Bowen and many other uni versity presidents are currently serving on the Kellogg Commission, which will determine how to reform access to public universities. One thing that should disturb any university student is the fact that there is no student input into the decisions this committee will make. If access is the issue, question those who have had trouble getting it. More importantly, instead of defining “expense” to attend a univer sity, the Kellogg Commission should define “frugality.” Jeff Smith, of the PBS show “The Frugal Gourmet,” offers an excellent definition. He defines it as not wasting anything, or getting the maximum out of whatever high-quality product you buy. Are many colleges and universities currently frugal? If Texas A&M’s recent expenditures are a barometer of what other schools are doing, then Morrill’s dream will soon be lost. Bowen’s ideology in preserving the ideals of the Morrill Act — access to a university education for everyone — is a goal everyone should support. But are we really preserving Morrill’s original goals when the prima ry objective of fund-raising is to make the campus look pretty and pro vide the football team with a beautiful field to play on? Sure, these things are important, but they need to be balanced with the true reason people attend universities: To better themselves through education. Let’s hope the commission uses frugality in the decisions it makes regarding access to public universities. Mail Merit, not skin color, proves worthiness Regarding Aja Henderson’s Nov. 19 column, “Whites reap benefits from similar programs’’: I am an out-of-state, Hispanic member of the Class of ’00, and was proud when the Hopwood verdict was read, for I knew that I was ad mitted to Texas A&M on merit, not because of my country of origin. To answer Henderson’s previ ous concern about minorities not attending Texas A&M, I chose Texas A&M because of its reputa tion, and not because of the promise of minority scholarships. Henderson’s comments about “whitey” reaping all the benefits are as biased as they are ignorant. My mother, a Latino woman with a heavy accent, did not fill out the race box on her college application when she moved to the United States. She got a nursing degree several years later. This shows that perhaps instead of people auto matically assuming they will be discriminated against, maybe they should present a good attitude and personality, so that people will re member them as good people, and not by their race. One more thing to consider: If we instill affirmative action in all work places, then why not in pro fessional sports also? The NBA is comprised primarily of African- Americans. Affirmative action would increase the number of Hispanics and Asians in the league, although the game’s stan dards may be lowered. That would be fine by me, as long as the league was more “culturally diverse.” Perhaps through this ex ample, Henderson can under stand that we should disregard race, and simply judge a person on their qualifications. Julian Gunther Class of’00 Preacher violates common courtesy Recently, I was walking past the Academic Building, when Tom the “preacher man” drew my attention. I think he was lambasting ho mosexuals at the time and, being the open-minded person that I am, I had to hear his views. I asked him what he thought of other religions and was informed that, in the specific case of the Jews, “Hitler didn’t go far enough.” I agree that everyone has the right of freedom of speech and, if he had just shown up on the cam pus, I wouldn’t have a problem. However, I did some research and it turns out that Aggie Christ ian Fellowship invited him to come down. If the organization wants some one like that representing the Christian faith, by all means, it is welcome to him. But have him speak in Rudder Auditorium... I don’t want to be forced to hear him on campus. Furthermore, if he believes (and as a representative of the Christian faith, I must assume that all Christians believe this) that Hitler didn’t go far enough, I must challenge him: Have his family placed in the gas cham bers and make him remove the bodies. Then, he can tell me that Hitler didn’t go far enough. Lisa Foox Class of’00 Affirmative action provides equality Regarding Jon Apgar’s Nov. 19 column, “Equality hindered by race-based trea tmen t": Attacking affirmative action has become fashionable. People are entitled to their opinions on this divisive issue, but ignorance pervades the log ic of some of the most ardent opponents of these programs, such as Apgar. Apgar begins his argument by acknowledging the fact that mi norities “are at a disadvantage in terms of precollege educational op portunities.” Remember that affir mative action may help minorities get into college, but standards aren’t lowered for them to graduate. He then proceeds to say that the standards are lower for mi norities in college and that they have a poor chance of succeeding in the job market. This type of thinking is exactly why we need affirmative action. Apgar says that ‘.‘affirmative ac tion is not benefiting those who were discriminated against.” Imag ine life as one large monopoly game. If you told one player that he was not allowed to purchase prop erty and hotels and allowed the rest to do so, the first player would clearly be at a disadvantage. At a later point, allowing him to have the right to purchase property would not benefit him because everything would be controlled by the others. The first player would still be at a disadvantage, and ac tion would have to be taken to level the playing field. This analogy may be applied to the real world, and demonstrates how discrimination in the past affects the present. Finally, Apgar makes an ignorant comment about “all-black fraterni- ties.”As a member of a traditionally black Greek letter organization, I can tell you that our fraternity does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or religion. I should know, because I am not black. John J. Thoppil Class of’97 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: 11.11 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.