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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1996)
• November; Spi Bri The Battalion rnmm Mg^mtasai _ j ^# sS88s «^, SSfS ^^^. «W8Ba IN ■ : IN Page 7 Friday • November 22, 1996 [s openir against! A&M Womep : open its regui-— e against Sol m niveratyto#: THE BATTALION Aggies were iy and are a\; dct game oriBls appearing in The Battalion reflect the ' ’s pf the editorials board members. They do :ats are led necessarily reflect the opinions of other Bat- Sarah Wagon staff members, the Texas A&M student fame and 3‘y> regents, administration, faculty or staff. jmrs, guest columns, cartoons and letters n three-point ! , ess me opinions of the authors. ie the first n tact the opinion editor for information on nd A&M mining guest columns. Memories of Kennedy make impression Established in 1893 Editorials Board Michael Landauer Editor in Chief Amy Collier Executive Editor Gretchen Perrenot Executive Editor Heather Pace Opinion Editor Baske top reel Pay Raise fhe University should continue to raise faculty salaries As we grow older, we realize how much our parents have left to teach us. For me, today rep resents yet another example of what l can learn from my mom. She was in col lege in Washington, D.C., when John E Michael Landauer Kennedy was shot, 33 Senior journalism major years ago today. And this is her story: M Men's Ba h Tony Ban signing of TJ n., Thursday The proposed General Use Fee io is a 6-foo:.rease has been authorized sole- ged 17.2 pc for salary raises for Texas A&M 1.6 steals a r ulty. Rightfully so. A&M’s facul- leading his a pay is 8 percent below the na- ls. 3 Hi average, and if A&M’s pay is rilled toadd. ptjin the basement, the school’s is TJ. to ourTafd-winning professors may “We love his tdljobs elsewhere. To retain its he hastoert :ulty, A&M should remain com- ittpd to the pay raise. But the < Basket*? :rsity shouldn’t stop there. * _ This fee increase will go toward inoiS rer° peparate faculty raises next , _H— a 2 percent raise in March .d an additional 3 percent raise and / Se|)tember. Together, they will >amantha j se ( j le avera g e professor’s salary d from Joliet )m S 71,568 to just over $75,000. ' Joliet, "1.^ Tp students, this may seem ntentlhuN )0C | enou gh. But the average averagec ar jy p a y f or p ro f essors j s a C om- and seve ir ^ti ve iy whopping $76,393 at a junior. S: e University of Texas at Austin, state tour , en a f ter p le ra i se) a&M will still ■hort of its rival school, i is the t>. t,, remedy this, the adminis- be success jtjon should offer faculty a raise ey said. S y ear to a&M competi- le floorwe ve if the money magicians er -" 'Uld muster a 5 percent increase , r a few years, pushing A&M pro- 3nniS Sl^ sors ’ salaries above the nation- average, the situation would be Onal pl3)hproved. And if the average Men's Tenm iss annoi ffl den and J national day. senior pla) £ se A&M ovei ;ional citcoi! d No. 3 it T flat-out /ery agg'e-' a good backh at return.” e nations! s player . player over Cass er progra 111 /lexico. salary could be kept above the national average — compensat ing for inflation and cost of living increases — A&M would look that much more attractive to top- notch professors. The problem is money. The University does what it can with what it is given by the Texas Legis lature. The Legislature gets its money from the taxpayers, who are hardly a bottomless pit of cash. But there’s more coming. Last year, the Legislature passed a bill increasing tuition by $2 per year until the year 2000; by then, it will be $40 per hour. And the General Use Fee will most likely be raised to equal that amount. In addition, A&M, UT, the Uni versity of Houston and Texas Tech are petitioning the Legislature for over $900 million. Although the cash, if approved, would be split among the four schools, it would still bring a good-sized chunk of needed funds to A&M. This should give the administration some money to work with — money that should be directed to ward keeping A&M financially competitive. Education spending by the Legislature has gradually tapered off over the last decade; it’s time the trend was reversed. I ’remember one and only one class that I took in college, but to this day I can see the room . and exactly where I was sitting. Someone came in and said Kennedy had been shot, and we all sat there in total shock and, for the most part, silence, waiting to hear if it was really true. Our teacher left, and when she returned she was sobbing and said that she had heard he was shot in the head and that it didn’t look good. Everyone just started wandering out of class even though it wasn’t over, and we no ticed that students in other classes were doing the same. People were crying everywhere. Rumors were flying: “The Russians did it;’’ “There was a takeover;” All sorts of crazy things. We went back to the “smoker” in our dorm (where all the girls met to socialize). The TV was on and 20 or 30 girls were crowded around it. When it was announced Kennedy was dead, people just hung onto each other sobbing. After we calmed down, we de cided to head straight for the city. I don’t remember much, except that my best friend and I were standing at the fence in front of the White House and watching helicopters come and go all night. Like any city in a catastrophe, every person you met was a neighbor, and every one was talking to everyone. That night the city was one large, wild traffic jam. The next thing I remember was going to the funeral. We debated where the best place to see the caisson would be and finally decided to go to the church, but we soon realized that was a bad idea, since there were wall to wall bod ies for blocks and blocks around it. So we made our way back along the route that the caisson would take. It was slow going because we couldn’t get through the crush of humanity, ten or fifteen deep, on the sidewalks. At times I remember ducking down and climbing between legs because there was more room there than at eye level. Somehow, we finally wound up on a part of the route that wasn’t as packed and climbed through legs until we were in front. Then we flirted with a young police man who was trying to keep us back. I think he was overcome by my friend’s charm and let us stand just be hind him, which was about two arms’ length from the cars going by on the motorcade. At first, it seemed almost fun because it was such a challenge to get a good spot. Then we all heard something that changed everyone’s attitude: that sim ple drum sound. As soon as we heard it, a block or more away, there was a silence that was so eerie I will never forget it as long as I live. There were millions upon millions of people as far as the eye could see, but all you could hear was the drum. As it passed, I had one clear thought that I still believe today. Somehow we were burying a dream, an era of inno cence that could never be resurrected. I think something that today’s college-aged generation can’t even begin to imagine is the deep respect most people had for the office of president and the pride in our country we all shared. I think that’s what we put in the grave that day. Mail ensive opinion justly printed Columnist ) be a D # He’s young'| Jcwfctf fox* tHe n&vr x»ecrxut to experience or. He cash— eally strong more, Spit Tse push fo^’L the 500-p first time{ t t js interesting hievinghisp I that only partic- > every gan ,f u j ar et }-, n j c Ithough 0U p S r jot when ves meoti jjething occurs t j iat lave turn lyjisggj-ge w jth,” •' i „ jJted John Paul !\ c in . h | 0 right, a columnist for Lid 01 '^ ^ 86 Mason Univer- r trunning) T student paper, the ies behind r' oadside - “Perhaps it hose guysl# twiseofme to 'eoolemiss-'H ihese humans are <es saidhe Table of reason ... g gamewill :a y 1 ' )e they are ani Jenni Howard Senior economics and international studies major gameagaitffc that need to be taken care of Texas, whi’being chained down.” rushing d f Referring to the 1992 rioting iference. ter the police beating of Rodney ave been^ng and also after a black man the runningiisl shot by a white police officer alf,’’ Spi^ s iforida, Wright outraged many n come oni aders with his interpretation of tme againsi’e events in a column entitled, —''lan't they all just get along?”. HIISE anJ Regardless of how offensive the jpnuTIl™ ments ma y have been to UK1 0Se unspecified ethnic groups, PO iVgh, running the column may , ^ I 9 .(y, f Ve been the best decision 24th-900»f nawa y Haskins, opinion editor ^he Broadside, ever made. OS CEN1 le many argue it is wrong to T DR. INF)'! 11 columns that may offend cer- —"In groups or individuals, they ;ee over ® Bn fail to appreciate the fact & semit 1 hat there still exists a place TpciL people can voice their iformatH' pinions without worrying about Trade politically correct they are. 53 - OOO'i^ght’s comments may have p racist and inappropriate for his purpose of showing how violent opposition to injustices was wrong, but he had every right to say what he said, be cause it was his opinion. By running an opin ion column that may have been viewed as racist, the Broadside did not promote racist atti tudes by any means. In fact, several African- American student lead ers at George Mason were glad the column ran. Kirby Reed, Student Body President and an African-American, disagreed with Wright’s opinion, but felt that publishing the column exposed racial attitudes on campus that would otherwise have gone unno ticed. And Haskins, who is also African-American, agreed that re gardless of how personally offend ed he was by Wright’s column, it was an opinion that he felt did not directly attack any particular eth nic group, but rather raised issues and posed questions. What many may not realize is that by exposing Wright’s ignorance in printing the column, Haskins may have crushed any racial senti ment along the lines of what Wright conveyed in the column. By pro voking students and school admin istrators to anger, and consequently to write the Broadside to express their disagreement, a consensus may have been reached that enter taining racial thoughts like those ex pressed by Wright was wrong. Furthermore, whatever subtle misunderstandings may be con veyed in a piece of writing can sometimes be cleared up by print ing them. Many students are famil iar with the feeling of knowing ex actly what we want to say in a paper, but having to spend count less hours trying to put it into words. Even when they succeed, they still have to hope that the pro fessor reading it will understand what they are trying to say. After Wright’s column ran and numerous letters were written protesting it, he did write an apol ogy in the Nov. 11 issue of Broad side, stating that although he may not have expressed his ideas well, he stood by his main argument that violent responses to injustice were wrong. People should decide which sit uation they fear more: the right to express one’s views and sooner or later be offended by someone else’s, or the right to remain silent and not have to listen to obnoxious opinions. What they must consid er, however, is choosing the latter would do nothing to dissolve igno rant stances on issues, because they would never come to light. Choosing the former would not force us to embrace offensive viewpoints, but rather enable us to discuss them and walk away ei ther having enlightened someone else of the truth that we already knew or having learned some thing new ourselves. Texas Aggie Band thanks for support On behalf of the Texas Aggie Band, I would like to thank the stu dent body and Bryan/College Sta tion community for their outstand ing support given to the band in the ESPN contest. We received more than 3 times the number of votes any other school received in the “gang-free” first round and, though no longer in the contest, we still have several thousand more votes than any of the other 15 schools chosen to participate (that leaves t.u. and Tech at zero ... and the current score is A&M band 26,389 votes; Rice-4,729). But what is infinitely more meaningful to us than a hokey in ternet poll is the sound of everyone chanting “...the nationally famous, Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band” right along with Major Brewer. And the pride and chills we get when you whoop and holler so loud at Kyle Field that we can’t even hear our selves play — such as last Saturday. Or the standing ovations from the crowds at every away game. This allows us those indescribable feel ings that members of other bands will never know, and this support is what we care about. The contest was a testament to the way Aggies come together and pull for each other. It took a con spiracy of three schools to squeak by us. No other student body has the character that this one does — that’s what makes us unique, and that’s why most of us are here (de spite what any all-knowing student columnists might try and tell you). I’ll gladly keep my counter marches, silver bugle flourishes, four-way cross-throughs and pa triotic marches. We all know where the finest band on the planet Earth is located and we know where the finest student body is, too. Thanks again. Michael Macicek Class of‘97 Accompanied by 249 signatures Aston Hall intrudes on people’s rights It seems to me that in an era where popular sentiment is to re strict government intrusion into the lives of private citizens, the residents of Aston Hall are being counter-productive. It is not de bated that riding in the back of a pick-up truck is generally quite dangerous, but what gives us the right to deny someone of this? It is foolish to think we can make the world idiot-proof. Laws cannot save people from their own follies. The attempt will only serve to further erode our claim to our own properties. Someone would have to hold a gun to my head to get me to ride in the bed of a truck, but he or she would have to pull the trigger to make me give up the right. Benjamin Burden Class of’96 Skin color shouldn’t merit scholarships Referring to the Nov. 19 Pro/Con columns on affirmative action: During my senior year in high school, before coming to the obvi ous realization that Texas A&M would be the best choice to con tinue my education, I was inter ested in the University ofVirginia. Upon receiving information about scholarships, I was shocked to discover that, while I met the criteria for virtually every single one of them, be cause I was unlucky enough to be born white, I was ineligible to apply for any of them. Did Dr. King himself not say that he hoped his children would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin? I am in no way excusing whites for past discrimination against blacks, but it’s time to get rid of reverse discrimination policies such as affirmative action and judge people on merit alone. David C. McCaughrin Class of’99 False assumptions in Nunnery’s article Referring to Melissa Nunnery’s Nov. 19 article, “Report predicts de cline in education”: I find it insulting that The Bat talion would include a front page story based on the false assump tion that minority students will attend a certain college because it offers affirmative action opportu nities. The article implied that even the most competitive minor ity students are unable to com pete without affirmative action and therefore must rely on it for acceptance and scholarships. As someone who did not em phasize race on my college appli cations, I would like to make it known that not every minority stu dent uses affirmative action as a emteh to “get a foot in the door.” It is interesting how President Bowen now feels that he is at a “distinct disadvantage” without affirmative action, while last year at the affirmative action rally he offered no solutions or support to the students who foresaw the de cline in minority enrollment that he now fears. Perhaps the solution to reemit- ing minority students is to contin ue distributing the misleading “cul turally diverse A&M” pamphlets and appointing the type of “minor ity” recruiters that encouraged me to chose this fine University. Elsa Velazquez Class of’99 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.