O The Battalion
PI NIONn
Wednesday • October 1, 1997
lition
cespersoi
traveling
iph in i
:n Fields
d pass on
»1. The
eject
iispatchi
ntified.
is too ei
s involvi
to BY
ctorValli
/ictorvilli
>t appe;
lineui
tamping out test stress
reparing for exams requires focusing on time management, setting priorities
James
Francis
opinion editor
cantrons and
pencils and
blue books, oh
yiifyou have not
ipped by Univer-
Bookstores to
:kup your text-
kfor Math 142,
listoo late now.
sweek repre-
erback ilnts tire first week
ver SMifiests for students.
) played il:om engineering
I ath classes to the
(ofwriting poetry, students are gearing
pfor their make-or-break first tests of
O 1 lefall semester.
m 1 The weather has rerouted from its few
lysof cool breezes back to the scorching
son unmer heat — yet another reason for
3ne or tw t0 feel the imminent gloom of
ing seven ^.(akmg. l lowever, this first week does
;-at-a-tira 5(^5 to b e so b ac j jf students follow
n^n^ 5 . me simple rules to insure that their first
id Loitom |Un( j 0 p tests w iu g 0 without a hitch. Al-
1 Llevelan man y students may have heard
' “V! „ iese suggestions before (and never fol-
y with N Jvec j it never hurts to give a little
^ Ivice to freshmen and new transfer stu-
put of hi ents
fullseasoi yheiyigjn Before
vas health j s t j ie t i nie w h en a student takes a
lostseasoi or c j ass syllabus for the sec-
ae very fin n[ | t j me since the beginning of the se-
a hu jui ies ter.This is also when the student real-
ime an the c i a ss’ first test, covering five
stretch itl ^pters, is tomorrow.
Although students should try to avoid
spnnted i( ^occurrence, there are ways to ease the
n right, slii ^ once a student discovers he or she
throw as fallen into this situation: Get the cof-
nes broujj jbreyvmg (if you’re a coffee drinker — if
aerflytola qi btea^ ou t the orange juice) —you are
the sect® t0 ne ed all the energy you can
’ ^ n P, , ^ luster to pull the mighty all-nighter (an
il would h (her aspect of last-minute studying stu-
ay, but ffl en t s should try to avoid, because it in-
ith Maddu
iallyinadj
h a 1.94 ES
g the seasoi
LS
creases the risk of falling asleep during the
exam the next day).
Now comes the studying part. Begin
reading each chapter with the chapter re
view or summary first; this way, you will
know the different subjects you are about
to read in that chapter.
Next, take a look at your notes and
begin to correlate the information you
took notes on (you have been attending
lecture, right?) with the respective topics
in the book. Usually lecture topics can
be further explored within a class’ text
book, so this might be the best way to
learn as much as possible about the
subjects in question.
When you start to get tired of reading
words, words and more words, take a
break and go outside. The air will revi
talize your studying skills and soon you
will want to get back to more chapters
of reading.
Continue this process until you get to
the point where the walk outside does not
work anymore. At this point, put the
books aside, set your alarm clock to ring
two hours before the test and go to sleep
(you cannot take a test without some form
of rest and relaxation).
• The Morning of the Exam
The alarm goes off. Remember not to
panic; you still have two hours before the
test becomes a reality. Get some more coffee
brewing (or get some more orange juice),
pick the books up off the floor and start re
freshing your memory. Make sure to study
in an upright position — if you get into the
bed to study (say hello to Mr. Sandman for
me), you can guess what will happen next.
After reviewing everything you studied the
night before, begin going over whatever ma
terials you have yet to examine.
During this time, remember to check
your clock; you do not want to study
through the beginning of the exam. Forty-
five minutes before the exam, take a show
er. This will invigorate the body, stimulate
the mind and eliminate the coffee smell
you attained during your cramming.
Get to class 10 minutes early in order to
find a seat, calm down and prepare any
pre-test materials, such as a Scantron, pen
cil or pen and bluebook. After the tests
have been handed out, the rest is up to you.
Do not let your mind wander. Keep all your
thoughts centered on biology, or calculus
or whatever subject your test covers.
With a little luck and these helpful
hints in mind, hopefully your first tests of
the semester will go well. Now if you all
will excuse me, I have approximately 350
pages to read before my first two tests of
the semester on Thursday.
James Francis is a junior English major.
JAMES FRANCIS/The Battalion
Coed dorm policy offends Orthodox students
Tfyou do not like liv-
Manicuft
I ing with women,
and
JLwhy don’t you go
Jr
Pedicure
and join a monastery?
ft m m m
Oh wait, wrong religion.
*25'"
Five Orthodox Jews
\ fC m
attending Yale are
% Ir
threatening to sue the
Hh
146-9924
WEE Village
4 StillmeadwH
s web 1
Mason
Jackson
columnist
idia news
met from
Press
iws report combiv
aplrics, sound and
ion as newsbreab.
amu.edu
school because of its
housing policy. The
policy, of which the
students were aware
before applying to
Yale, makes all freshmen and sophomores
live on campus, and all in coed dorms.
Yale feels, correctly, that it will be an
enriching experience for their students to
live in dorms where men and women will
learn to cope with one another.
The freshman year the sexes are on al
ternating floors, while sophomore dorms
are divided into single sex suites within
the same floor.
The whiners say that the everyday con
tact between men and women and the
"easy sex” are an affront to their faith. If
you talk to the residents of the few coed
dorms at A&M, they may say that the im
plication that sex is easy in a coed dorm is
an affront to reality.
This policy should be a non-issue. If
the environment that Yale provides is at-
odds with Jewish Orthodox beliefs, then
why would these students want to go
there? One student seeking to live an even
more sheltered life gave this response,
“Why should I have to go to another Ivy
League school? Presidents have gone
here, so why shouldn’t 1?”
The reason he should not go there is
because it does not suit him, and the col
lege has no responsibility to him to
change its practices — it is a private
school. Yale has already tried to accom
modate Jewish students on issues that
will not alter the Yale “experience.”
They provide Kosher meals and have
key-locked entrances on the dorms to al
low the Jewish students access on the
Sabbath, when the use of electronic de
vices is prohibited. This comes from the
11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not
harness the power of the lightning (for
merly Thor’s hammer) for the purpose of
access card identification.”
Yale has done everything within reason
to avoid discriminating against this
group.
One thing to be remembered in all of
this is that Orthodox Jews are a very small
percentage of all the practitioners of Ju
daism. And they can be likened to similar
ly extremist groups in other religions who
choose to live their lives by following ex
tremely literal interpretations of stories
and guidelines written by people (yes
people) thousands of years ago.
Change and progress are guiding forces
for our species, in fact the world we live in
today would be considered an alien cul
ture to people living just one hundred
years ago.
For someone to live their life according
to an ancient document that is so pro
foundly ignorant of the times we live in is
misguided. For them to expect special
treatment for having those beliefs in a for
ward moving society is unreasonable.
Mason Jackson is a senior
marketing major.
Drug ban outcry
shows American“fix
it with pills” attitude
Robby
Ray
columnist
SYSTEMS
od Airport.
Integrated
Mail Call
ystems, Inc.
I Airport
tion, TX
'-6322
ilm Society offers
m-campus movies
n response to Travis Irby’s "Let’s go
Mhe movies” Sept. 30 feature:
College Park Six is not the only
liscount theater in Bryan-College
tation.The MSG Film Society
hows low-cost movies in the Rud-
icrTheater Complex every semes-
tThis Fall’s Aggie Cinema calen
dar features summer blockbuster
jits such as Men in Black and Air
arce One, alternatives films like
basing Amy, and “modern clas-
ics” like the Indiana Jones movies
fid Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
The Film Society also provides a
fee video/lecture series twice.a
feek (Thursdays and Sundays),
fee sneak previews of new movies
ferry Maguire and Ransom were
streaked” by the Film Society),
^d the Texas Film Festival every
-1744 pbruary, where students can see
^dependent movies they will nev-
6t see anywhere else,
ledicaid ' Our ticket prices are half as
Welcome | as Hollywood 16 (even less if
bought in advance), and we accept
Aggiebucks. All of our movies are
chosen by A&M students, and this
semester anyone can vote for our
final movie of the semester by vis
iting our Website at
http:/ / films.tamu.edu.
We find it difficult to believe
that Mr. Irby could miss all the
programming and discount
movies that the MSG Film Society
provides, considering that we ad
vertise weekly in his newspaper.
Brent Troyan
Chair of the MSC Film Society
Class of’98
Accompanied by 20 signatures
Adding law school
not an A&M need
In response to Len Callaway’s "Ab
sence of A&M Law School ...’’Sept.
30 column:
Callaway has correctly pointed
out that the only major school
missing from A&M is a law school.
However, his case for one is rather
weak, based mostly on the desire
of students such as himself to at
tend law school here, rather than
elsewhere.
But universities, just like busi
nesses, must focus on meeting
their customers’ needs. For A&M,
the customers are primarily the
taxpayers of Texas.
Taxpayers support public uni
versities because there is a high
correlation between education lev
els and economic well-being. As
Chancellor Thompson has said,
one of Texas’ most important
strategic problems is its relatively
low worker education level, which
results in its relatively low per capi
ta income. Increasing the overall
education level, particularly
among minorities, will obviously
benefit Texas. I have never heard
anyone claim that more law
schools will benefit Texas. Thus,
the A&M system investment in
universities in south and east
Texas, rather than a law school.
Hank Walker
Dept, of Computer Science
Unfounded remarks
make for bad column
In response to Donny Ferguson’s
"The boob tube”Sept. 30 column:
You have to love it when you
can sit down and read all the edu
cational articles printed in The Bat
talion each day. It always follows
right in line with all the traditions
that made this school what it is.
You can go to the Mail Call sec
tion if you want to see where the
hearts of all the current students
reside. Hmm ... maybe not. Seems
to me that The Battalion is turn
ing into a gossip column, looking
for someone to poke fun at. I
don’t agree with some of the
dilemmas society has thrown this
university to deal with, but I try to
deal with them on a day-to-day
basis instead of whining about
them in an opinion column.
Why don’t you offer us one of
those educated political solutions
to bring some entertainment so
lutions between the agricultural
society and your obviously politi
cal society? Texas A&M was and
always will carry the name, if
nothing else, Texas Agricultural
and Mechanical.
In closing, have you ever been
to the Dixie Chicken, and have you
ever met some of the people that
visit, such as Robert Earl Keen, Pat
Green and several other artists.
I speak for myself in this. If
you want to slam me for being a
poultry science major and going
to the Chicken, why don’t you
meet me first?
Brian Schroeder
Class of’96
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: 11.13
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.
L ast
week
the
Food and
Drug Admin
istration
pulled from
the shelves
two products
and sent the
weight loss
community
into an up
roar.
These products are fenflu
ramine and dexfenfluramine,
marketed as Redux and
Pondimin, respectively, and com
prise one-half of the popular drug
combination fen-phen. The out
cry resulting from the govern
ment’s action illustrates the dis
tressing trend in American
society. Americans are decreas-
ingly able to deal with problems
without resorting to drug use.
Americans no longer seem ca
pable of doing anything, positive
or negative, without a pill to pop
or a drug to swallow. If kids are
misbehaving, the immediate diag
nosis is Attention Deficit Disorder,
and they are fed Ritalin like candy.
If people need to lose weight,
there are a wide range of drugs
and drug combinations which are
available for use.
If people feel depressed, there
are other drugs from which to.
choose. In addition, the attention
given to the massive series of to
bacco lawsuits has brought nico
tine and alcohol to the forefront of
public opinion, because of their
supposedly unconquerable effects
on people. There seems to be no
limit to the things drugs can do in
today’s culture.
In the past, Americans relied on
discipline and self-control to solve
their problems and shortcomings. It
was exemplified by the typical “pull-
yourselves-up-by-the-bootstraps”
mentality and epitomized by John
Wayne. But with the advent of mod
em psychology and sociology, it is
all too easy to find an excuse for un
desirable behavior.
Americans no longer have to
take responsibility for anything, it
is either caused by their brain
chemistry, their upbringing or oth
er environmental factors both be
yond their control and above the
reach of any amount of desire to
change or overcome.
The previous generation sang
“We Shall Overcome”, but today
people are told that they have no
hope and no chance of ever over
coming the sum of their back
ground and their chemical
make-up.
This problem is deeper than
just simple vanity or an unhealthy
obsession with physical bodies. It
is a weakening of society, not from
the top down, from the politicians
and leaders of society, but from
the bottom up.
It is not spread from institu
tions to individuals, but from indi
viduals to the institutions. This
happens as they grow up believing
in their own innate weakness and
infect the institutions with those
attitudes as adults.
The problem is bad now, but
stands to get far worse as the cur
rent generation of young people
who have grown up being told all
their lives that they are powerless
to change their behavior without
drugs grow up and take their posi
tions as leaders in society.
Recently, a class-action lawsuit
was filed by two Houston-area
women against the makers of
these drugs, alleging that they
were victims of false and mislead
ing advertising and should have
been warned of the possible side
effects and consequences of tak
ing the drugs.
But the fact remains that they
should not have been on the
drugs in the first place. Both were
described as being “moderately
overweight but otherwise healthy”
before starting the drug regimen.
The makers of the drugs have
from the beginning, stated that the
drugs could be helpful for “mor
bidly obese” people, but have nev
er approved of the use of the two-
drug cocktail. The FDA, as well, has
never approved of the use of the
two drugs together as a weight
control agent.
Once again, lazy people who are
not willing to work for something
are looking for the easy way out
and thought that they had found it
in these drugs. And once again,
they are realizing that there is no
such thing as an easy, free ride.
Only this time, as in the tobacco sit
uation, people expect that some
one else will pay the bill.
Robby Ray is a senior speech
communications major.