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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1997)
k>ml)er17 ' Vednesday • September 17, 1997 O The Battalion 'PINION an I graduate ??? Squired social service to earn a diploma benefits students, communities Mason Jackson columnist :k demere/theBt:. ay. id were removing' jrization. The to ng identification: ire issued crimirj I he worth of a culture is de termined by |e worth of its citi- pns. For far too long |e United States Jhool system has, jith the aid of some preless parents, ten turning out Jorthless citizens. It has focused on lading, writing and rithmetic, ignoring le other lessons necessary to create a jell-rounded person: lessons teaching [udents to appreciate beauty (art); to Tvelop self-reliance and nurture their jeativity; and to seek to improve them- llves by improving the environment lat surrounds them. But on this last point some progress is feing made. Beginning next year, high pool students in Chicago will have to Worm 60 hours of community service [Tore they can receive their diploma. This isn’t the first program of its kind, Ihas already been instituted in several Iher cities, and Maryland (official mot- }: "We’re a state, not a city.”) It has also been upheld by federal [clges in Pennsylvania and New York. What does this requirement mean for Jiierica? A great deal if it spreads na- mally, and if it’s done right. But the perils are obvious. Everything s a loophole, and this requirement rely will, too. Perhaps carpooling to school will be nsidered community service, because improves the air we breathe ... blah, ah, blah. Or maybe the requirement will be ai red by people who completely miss the tint, and credit will be awarded to those who stay out of trouble — “Isn’t it nice, the way Timmy didn’t maim or kill anyone this semester. Let’s give him 25 community service credits.” In order for this to achieve the desired goals, it will have to be administered by people who understand the spirit of the requirement. Credit fulfillment shouldn’t serve as a bribe to achieve other purposes. No other course would be compromised in that way. This community service requirement should serve two purposes. The most immediate and visible will be the better ment of the community. The less tangi ble, but perhaps more important, pur pose is the betterment of the student. It will instill respect, both for them selves and others, along with an im proved work ethic and discipline. And for some, it will do something that can be hard to come by in today’s world — it will make them feel good. Will all the students involved be af fected in such a positive manner? No. Will most? Maybe, but unlikely. Most students will tick off the hours like it was any other homework assignment. But there will be a good number of people who are affected, and changed, for the better. They will see in themselves an ability to help others, even when the benefit to themselves isn’t blatantly ap parent. And anyone who can help others can no doubt help themselves. And slowly, believe it or not, we may become a more competent, self-reliant people. Improving our worth as a cul ture, and cleaning the garbage off the highways at the same time — it just might work. Mason Jackson is a senior marketing major. r 11 t Texas A&M. An idividual who iperty to create id with Texas A&! eeman Arena. A idle and various tolen from anarf ty. cademic Building! ers were stolen! ;ing area 27. n parking area2 no the entire length •Student Senate must realize its job o represent every Aggie on campus ow that classes are well under way, books are sort of purchased and syllabi distributed, the fall semester is starting mmons DiningCfito get in gear. 'every of a lost si The first meeting of cess the victim's the St udent Senate, rization. which was last Wednes- ig area 48. A sin day night, should have been considered just as important as the first couple of days of school. srty Police Depart nates ements four Order 1U feb her 3 .edu Stephen Llano columnist But Student Senate, constantly brow beat en into the ground by just about every stu dent on campus, has a hard time catching at tention for even those two weeks in the spring, when wooden signs the size of small mobile homes make the campus look like some sort of paramilitary training camp for future politicians or Amway representatives. Students need to seriously take a look at Student Senate, as is often preached. This year should be different. Senators should look seriously at the student body, and at their po sition as (gasp) a real job. Not all student senators are irresponsible, nor do they all have a disdain for their con stituents. But students should not rest until they can say all Senators respect, listen to and act upon what student concerns are present ed to them. This is not so far fetched an idea; when the Tampa Bay Bugs are winning, any thing is possible. Student Senate should be treated as a class. A very important class, much like an in ternship, Senators learn all about the com plex interaction needed in a political system or bureaucracy to get things done. This is till accomplished with many smiles and hand shakes, and open ended questions to random constituents, on occasion. Students should not accept this as a “nec essary evil,” as many political tomes are fond of using. Readers should be able to name their senators and what they stand for, and if they can’t, it’s not really their fault. In four years, I have never seen any one of my Senators — Liberal Arts or Northside — stand up in a class and introduce themselves. This should be a requirement at the begin ning of each semester for every Senator. Pro fessors will not mind, just ask them before class, as they will not really follow Robert’s Rules of Order when they start lecturing. Another thing Student Senate could do is have constituency days more than once a year. Once a month is fairly reasonable, espe cially considering the size of some constituen cies, such as Engineering or Off-Campus. There is no way that two or three days a year will allow Senate to have a good idea of what the majority of constituents believe about the campus and policies that should be enacted. As with any class, there should be some re quired reading for every Senator. The Texas A&M Constitution and Student Rules and Regulations should be familiar to every Sena tor, just like basic formulas for an upper level engineer, or the steps of mitosis for a biology major. Furthermore, Senators should keep up with evety publication A&M produces. Not only The Battalion, but anything distributed by the administration to the students or com munity or the state. Vigilance is the only rule for Senators who want to be effective. One place Senators should all be familiar with is the Web page run by the mysterious “Specksynder” (http: / /www.geocities.com/Col- legePark/Union/6116). Whether or not you agree or disagree with his views, the benefits of a “loyal opposition” in politics are essential. Every Student Senator should read this page at least as frequendy as they pass notes to each other in meetings. Students can also inform themselves of Senate news and views in a very productive and mentally healthy way, instead of just relying on what others say about their friends who happen to be Senators. Instead of considering what e-mail re sponse will pacify a constituent who gets in touch with his or her Senator, perhaps really listening to their concerns might prove a better investment of both the Senator’s and student’s time. As in any class, there will be those who will ask specifics about how they are grad ed, or what is going to be on the final. For Senators, the only way to determine suc cess in years past was whether their bill got passed, whether fees went up or down or whether they got reelected. Senators should forget about that, and put at the forefront the one important thing: They were elected by people. Fellow students put trust in them to repre sent their views where they can make a differ ence. Like any class, if the specific rules and percentages of grading are pushed aside in fa vor of actually trying to learn and grow, suc cess will come naturally. Hopefully, Student Senate will be able to rise from the old mentality of representation — we do what we want, then “educate” the student body about what we did, to a new system of honest, frequent communication with constituents. It is high time for Student Senate to prove the Senate represents the an tithesis of a frequent advertising campaign: “It’s not just an adventure, it’s a job.” Stephen Llano is a senior history major. 19 7 IBlTCILlUimflllMI! imsinsiiM Call ’reventing accidents equires student help We are all saddened, whether tbe this campus or another, to lear of a student death, espe- ially when it has some relation- hip to alcohol and hazing. You, ithout a doubt, have read bout the death of a student at -SU at the beginning of the se mester with severe alcohol poi- 'Oning at .58 level (an individual is legally intoxicated at .10 level). There is almost always some connection between alcohol abuse and serious accidents on our campus. The majority of violations of Texas A&M rules such as hazing, vandalism, as sault and sexual assault in volve alcohol. Alcohol abuse also has a tremendous nega tive impact on academic per formance and preparation. Rarely does an individual in volved in a serious accident, be it hazing, alcohol abuse or other serious behavior, intend to harm someone else or his or herself. Tragedies, nonetheless, do occur. It is very important to learn and educate others through these experiences. More importantly, we are some times in a position to take posi tive steps to prevent an acci dent, injury or tragedy. After the fact, I am sure there are individ uals who wish they had stepped forward and had the ability to influence a situation that later turned sour or tragic. We must be willing to act in a leadership and proactive man ner on behalf of our friends and others. I am simply asking each of you to report any kind of cir cumstances where there is abuse of alcohol or abuse of in dividuals and/or any form of hazing activity. I ask that student leaders and individual students work with us to develop more proactive ways in which the University community can communicate our desire for the most healthy attitudes for our friends and fel low students. Toward this end, I am appointing a task force of students, staff and faculty to study alcohol abuse. The charge and membership of the task force will be announced shortly. Thank you for your attention to this information. I know we all want to enjoy the many posi tive aspects of Texas A&M and Aggie spirit without these tragic events that are avoidable. /. Malon Southerland vice president for student affairs The Battalion encourages letters to the ed itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and in clude 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 Mc Donald with a valid student ID. Letters 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. Lack of motivation hinders success of annual blood drive I t’s blood drive time again, and the bus es are back. You can hardly walk across cam pus without seeing one of them, but many A&M students don’t seem to know they’re there. One Friday afternoon last se mester, I went to the BloodCare bus on West Campus to give my semiannual blood donation and get my semiannual free T-shirt. I climbed out of the heat into the air-conditioned interior and sat down to fill out my paperwork. One of the people in scrubs typed my information into the computer and showed me to a private screening booth for my mini-physical. He introduced himself as Jay, took my tempera ture and blood pressure (both good), and asked me the re quired personal questions to de termine if I had engaged in any high-risk behaviors that would prevent me from being a good donation candidate. I hadn’t. Then he did a finger prick to test the iron count of my blood. Un fortunately, it was too low and I was deferred as a donor. I left, feeling both a little hurt at being rejected and upset that I had to endure a finger prick—the most painful part of the process — for nothing. As I walked away, I heard someone calling my name. I turned around, and saw one of the workers leaning out of the door of the bus with a T-shirt. I was mo mentarily confused, because I was under the assumption of “no blood, no shirt.” I was told, though, that “the most important thing is that you tried, most peo ple don’t even do that.” After asking a few questions, I learned that the average donation rate for the Brazos Valley is 3 per cent, while the national average is 5 percent. According to Jennifer Nixon, the field consultant for BloodCare, A&M blood drives are on a level with the other universi ties they service, including the University of North Texas and SMU. What was immediately ap parent to me, however, is that en rollment at these universities is nowhere near equal to ours, the largest undergraduate student body in the nation. I also was told that the campus donation rates for the past few years have been dropping. The five-day blood drive averages be tween 1100-1200 units of blood, down from 1500 units four to five years ago. “A&M used to be com petitive with UT,” Nixon said, “but since thq two schools have stopped actively competing, the donation rates have dropped.” Apparently, unless there is an active threat to our title as “a world class university,” A&M students have a hard time being motivated. I recommend that Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity that sponsors the blood drives on cam pus, start a literal “blood feud” with the t-sips in Austin to encour age greater turnouts. There seems to be no other way to create the needed initiative for most of the students in Aggieland. Other reasons, besides lack of motivation, for not giving blood are either inability to donate or fear of the process. Some people are unable to donate for medical reasons, such as being on certain medications or passing out every time they see blood. Such condi tions necessarily exempt them from donating, but simply being afraid is not much of an excuse. The donation process is com pletely sterile, with everything used only once and opened right before the donor, and friendly, trained “apheresis technicians” do the entire procedure. The actual donation is not painful —there is only a slight sting when they first start — and the entire process is over in about 10 minutes. After the donation, several dif ferent tests are run on the blood to check for infectious diseases such as HIV and syphilis. Then the blood is split into three different components: red blood cells, plas ma and platelets. One donation can save up to three lives. The entire blood donation process takes less than an hour, it makes the University look good and it helps save someone’s life. In addition to that, and just as im portant, the best reason to donate is obvious: a free T-shirt. Anna Foster is a junior journalism major. Anna Foster columnist