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Tuesday • April 1, 1997
By April Towery
The Battalion
Ihirty-four years ago, women were
permitted to attend Texas A&M
only if they met certain require-
nents. But women of the Class of 2000
Rot only attend the University — they are
■he majority.
I Mark Day, campus director for the
DW| Navigator ministry, enrolled at A&M in
[965. Since his days as a student, times
lave changed, he said.
J "I personally knew three girls, all daugh-
[ers of professors,” Day said. “I had a his-
lory class with a girl.”
■ At the time, male students were re
tired to be in the Corps of Cadets their
Ireshman and sophomore years. Day
laid the addition of women students
fthanged the look of Aggieland.
I “Campus became much more at-
M Iractive and appealing as women came
Because of diversity," he said. “I sus
pect it has made the classes much
more interesting and has caused the
^ ijuys to be more cautious of their be
havior. There were no women in my
engineering classes, but there was a
woman in my history class and there
was a totally different sense of con
sciousness in that class.”
Although women attending the Uni
versity was a change, Day said it was not
a problem.
“I don’t remember any overt resistance
to there being women there,” he said. “It
happened so gradually—I do not recall it
being a controversy. In our circle, it was a
plus. We bragged about the fact that we
had a class with a girl in it.
“For single men at A&M, it was a
pride factor — we were the Aggies, the
Aggies were we — a special breed of
college students. We defended our
country. A lot of that was woven to
gether with the fact that we were an all
male fraternity.”
Women’s studies classes at A&M orig
inated in 1984, when the University re
ceived a grant from the Ford Foundation
(the Western States Project for Curricu
lum Integration). In 1989, students were
given the opportunity to minor in
women’s studies.
Currently, between 15 and 20 stu
dents have officially declared a women’s
studies minor.
Dr. Pamela Matthews, director of
A&M’s Women’s Studies Program, ar
rived at A&M in the
Fall 1989. Matthews
said she is pleased
overall with the
progress women have
made at A&M.
“I think we have an ad
ministration that is really
'working hard,” she said.
“But I only see what I get to
see. I’m in Liberal Arts,
where there are more
women. In terms of num
bers, it has improved.”
Matthews said she no one at
A&M directly or overtly made her
feel “left out” because she was a
woman. However, Crissy Gonzalez,
vice-president of A&M’s chapter of
National Organization of Women,
said she has felt inferior because of
her gender.
“I’ve had a professor who said a lot
of things that were just wrong,” Gon
zalez said. "He said some things that
were derogatory toward women, and
some things that were just derogatory
toward people.”
Gonzalez, a senior sociology major
Women Aggies
continue to help
shape the future
of Texas A&M
and women’s studies
minor, said many
Aggies do not under
stand the women’s
studies program.
“I think it would be
better if it were named
gender studies,” she said.
“In all my women’s studies
classes, we talk about
men, too.”
Day believes the men
and women of A&M have
benefited from integrated classes.
“It’s created a much more inter
esting environment,” he said.
“A&M attracts students that give
evidence of a greater responsibility to
our country, valuing brotherhood,
honesty. There’s a sense of privilege to
work among that student body.”
Although Day attended A&M when it
was just beginning to shift from an all
male military school to a coeducational
university, he said the school spirit is still
based on tradition.
“A&M has always focused on tradi
tion, normality, standardization,” he
said. “There’s a growing element seek
ing to explore cultural extremes. I’m
glad to see the University developing in
the direction it’s going. I think we have
a gold mine at A&M in terms of oppor
tunity. It’s a well-kept secret from the
rest of the world.” ,
Forty years ago, it was no secret that
women were not allowed to attend A&M ;
And although much has changed, Gon
zalez would like to see more changes in
years to come.
“It just seems that some things are still
segregated, such as, we don’t have any
female yell leaders,” she said.
Matthews has a particular goal in minjd
for the future of the University.
“I’d like to see women taken more se
riously,” she said.
Matthews invites students to learn
more about the women’s studies pro
gram by using the program’s web site.
The address is http://http.tamu.edu.:
8000/~wmst.
After all, Gonzalez said, the aim this
week is to educate the students, faculty
and staff at A&M.
“One of the biggest goals ofWomen’s
Week is awareness,” she said. “A lot of
people just push these issues aside be
cause they seem like old news.”
Puzzle Gut missing pieces on traumatic album
e
By Brandon Truitt
The Battalion
R ecord companies in the ’90s must be based
on some solid philosophy that drives which
bands they sign and what types of albums
hose bands make.
Most of Sub-Pop’s bands try to be something
lew on the underbelly of “pop” and most of Death
tow Record’s artists are struggling to stay both
dive and out of jail, as if truly heading toward
ieath row.
So, in a way, it makes sense that Puzzle Gut’s lat-
st, self-titled release on Trauma Records is noth-
ng less than one of the most traumatic listening
xperiences ever produced.
The album begins with a deep insight into lead
inger Lance Bulen’s life as he reveals, “My nipples
;et harder when the wind is cold” (“Metamorpho-
is”) and ends with the equally traumatic state
ments of “Ya know my sister got married before
he was 12,” and “I’m as clean as 200 proof grain”
“The Bones”).
’lizzie
Puzzle Cut
Trauma Records
★★★(out of five)
.
There is trauma in the rest of the record as well.
Their song “Kiss the Mirror” is the story of a
milkman with purple skin who is told to smash his
face into a mirror. The song ends with Bulen plead
ing, “Somebody help me get the f--king milkman
off my case.”
Even the song titles reveal that listening to Puz
zle Gut is a traumatic experience.
The first song “Metamorphosis” alludes to the
masterpiece novel by Franz Kafka in which the
main character wakes up one morning and finds
himself changed into a giant dung beetle.
The fourth track called “The Cow” is devoted to
this highly unpublicized and over-killed creature
(“Take the knife and cut it well / The next meal
might be you”).
There is also a song titled “Orange,” which may
not seem like a traumatic name, but writing a
song about this fruit can be quite difficult consid
ering it is one of the few words in the English lan
guage that rhymes with absolutely nothing.
Other painful song titles include “9th Ward,”
“Hangin’ On” and “Psycho Pop” (which is an accu
rate description of the band’s style of music).
The best title and the best song on Puzzle Gut,
however, strays from the band’s normal semi
punk sound on the album and is more in the tra
dition of Tori Amos’ “Me and a Gun” or Alanis
Morisette’s a capella finale to Jagged Little Pill.
Even though “Another Mother F—ker on My
Porch” is not a capella, and the band does take
over the song toward the end, the song is based
entirely around Bulen’s voice and is the most
melodic and emotion-filled track on the album.
This one song may be the album’s saving grace.
::
■
- ^l|||gt Hg;
4ft
Puzzle Gut
Hopefully, it will teach Bulen that his band does
not have to be driven by his guitar playing alone
and that making a good record requires a lot more
than just anger and rage.
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