• 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.