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under fire
ctions, reinstatement of Latrell Sprewell hints at crumbling character
David
Johnston
columnist
ome sports seem to be filled with up
standing athletes. Race-car driving, for
example, is filled with well-mannered
P o Sen who would never consider refusing a
iris request for an autograph.
lie Monday and lues: Other sports are overshadowed by celebri-
rook Golf Course ies whose lives are in shambles.
<e, Utah. College and professional football are both
e Aggies are cd^ ssociated with long lists of arrest warrants,
i-place finish at rug use and violence, though some officials
i/Longhom Classn retrying to remedy the terrible reputations
stin, where Becke ssociated with their sports. Some NFL
dividual title. caches are cracking down on players’ be-
;ker leads the A^ avior off the field,
scoring average, fc;i Basketball, on the other hand, is a differ-
■rg (76.52) arc nt story. From the "Bad as I wanna be” Rodmans to the “I am
lot a role model” Barkleys, basketball teams have few players
.berg won the GTE /ith upstanding character.
-4 in College Sta: ^ Celebrities are role models. From movie stars to politicians,
has posted three , U r notorious members of society set the example and create the
rends the rest of society follows. If America wants to teach the
os will be niakin^ j ex( g enerat j on q iat certa j n act j ons are unacce p ta bi e) c j, t j zens
ranee since cap hould not tolerate those actions from celebrities. Sports stars
in Womens re doing a disservice to the community when they demonstrate
ionship last mo 0 f discipline.
Bports are competitive events, and tempers run high. It’s not
gQ(f Surprising to see a player shove an opponent around or vent his
® 'Kltrations on a referee, but recently a more shocking account
S U.S. Cfowhenews.
. .BF ast December, Latrell Sprewell, a player for the Golden State
°' ■ ranKa ; Varriors, wrapped his fingers around his own coach’s neck in an
ittempt to choke him. Sprewell had to be forcibly pulled off the
\ : :oach, but the player returned later in the day to again threaten
er and Squire Coursl
Golf Village T
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iman Ryan Tull
ore Lee Reed (76
n Clay Fullick (77J :
A&M team.
lis coach’s life.
■The public’s sensibilities were not dulled enough to ignore
STUDENT LIFE
this heinous act. Sprewell was heavily criticized. The Warriors
ended Sprewell’s three-year contract and the NBA suspended
him for a year.
Unfortunately, arbitration ended the firm stance which au
thorities had taken against Sprewell.
Sprewell felt the penalties levied against him were too ex
treme for attempted premeditated murder, so he appealed the
rulings.
An arbitrator ruled the Golden State Warriors could not break
their contract with Sprewell, and decided the NBA’s one-year
suspension was too harsh, shortening it to five months.
Despite any opinions about Sprewell’s skills, a player who
cannot control his anger toward someone on his own team
should not be allowed on a basketball court.
The NBA must send a clear message that basketball is no
place for murderous tendencies.
Even if Sprewell was “stressed-out” or apologized profusely
(which he did not), someone needs to speak up on behalf of the
coaches.
The coach was threatened, attacked and physically harmed by
a player. Now the arbitrator says the Warriors have to keep
Sprewell on the team unless they find some place to trade him.
The arbitrator has failed to consider the coach. Hopefully no
teams will insult their coaches by suggesting they accept
Sprewell in a trade.
This event should not be forgotten too soon. Such miscar
riages of justice often come back to haunt the decision makers.
Last week in Paducah, Kentucky, an 18-year old high school
senior was charged with a misdemeanor for threatening the life
of his basketball coach. Where do kids get these ideas?
Children cannot be expected to perform better than the exam
ples they must follow. It’s time for citizens to show that certain be
havior is intolerable, only then can society expect improvements.
David Johnston is a senior mathematics major.
RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion
CAMPUS CONNECTION
ommittee offers students new option Title DC success questioned
B JL
by attention paid women
LATE SHOWINGS FRIDAY ANDH^I
FOR ALL SHOWS AFTER II W
Man is ha
Parekh
columnist
t looks like Texas A&M students will
fhave one less worry in the coming
ryear.
Bn an effort to continue looking into
tiers that no one really cares about,
as announced yesterday that a new
mittee is being formed, Students
ing Up Pointless Insane Delusions
UPID).
STUPID was formed in an effort to pro-
e a committee for students who are not
in a committee.
Toby M. Portant, the newly appointed
ector of STUPID, is very excited about
organization.
The lack of committees on campus has been a problem we
e ignored for far too long.
am very excited that we have finally decided to deal with
problem instead of turning it over to another committee to
dy,” Portant said.
Portant added that STUPID has more than one purpose.
“Being an outlet for high school overachievers and student
dy presidents isn’t going to be the only purpose of STUPID,”
rtant said. “STUPID is a necessary addition to the numerous
mmittees on campus because of the fear that the federal
government might create more cotton candy committees than
ixas A&M.”
The newly formed STUPID Directions Committee has al-
ady drawn up a mission statement for the organization.
STUPID will be very involved in trying to rival the MSG for
,e number of new councils created and the SGA for the num-
r of liaisons and committees concerned with studying other
mmittees.
“But our sole mission is not to compete with the MSC and
A, even though that will take a whole lot of energy in and of
elf,” Portant added. “We also plan to work hand and hand
th them on many important projects.”
f() I Some of these projects include trying to get committee
JUlUy IU members’ names published in The Battalion, passing out lots
;of flyers around Rudder Fountain about things which make lit
tle or no sense, making members feel important, and support
ing the Bryan-College Station T-shirt industry.
“It is a little known fact that the Bryan-CoUege Station area’s
T-shirt industry is primarily funded by Texas A&M councils
and committees. If we didn’t order T-sHrits for every single
group, the T-shirt business owners would not be the billion
aires they are today,” Portant said.
STUPID also plans to support higher learning and research.
“We will be very involved in helping researchers who are
studying the number of committee name acronyms that can
be formed using the English alphabet,” Portant said.
In an attempt to appear useful, Portant said STUPID
meetings will consist of debating about things that have no
impact upon the lives of A&M students. The organization will
also discuss events that will never take place, changes in
rules that will never go into effect, as well as the addition of
new committees.
“At our first meeting, I plan to propose the formation of a
committee to invent reasons to form other committees,” Por
tant said.
A&M students are divided between being enthusiastic
about the new committee and ignoring its existence.
Kelly Green, a sophomore Aggie traditions major, said she
thinks STUPID is a good idea.
“We need more committees for students to serve on so that
they can properly pad their resumes,” Green said.
“Plus so many new committees have been formed that I’m
sure it must be an Aggie tradition dating back to the Old
Army days.”
Revy Lee, a freshman general Howdy major, thinks STU
PID is something A&M truly needs.
“Bureaucracy is what has helped make America a world-
class leader and bureaucracy is what will help make Texas
A&M a world-class university,” Lee said.
For now, at least, STUPID appears to be taking its place
amongst most other committees on campus by saying little
and doing even less.
“n:
Jennifer
Jones
columnist
ig Danes!
a dreti
Check out
Manisha Parekh is a sophomore psychology and
journalism major.
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o per
son in
the U.S.
shall, on the basis
of sex, be excluded
from participation
in , or denied the
benefits of, or be
subjected to dis
crimination under
any education pro
gram or activity re
ceiving federal aid.”
(Title IX)
The road to equality has not been an
easy one for women. Gaining the right
to vote, to own property, to have choice
regarding our bodies have not been
small obstacles to overcome.
One of the most recent wins for
women’s rights was scored with the 1972
passage of Title IX, a law that made it il
legal to discriminate against women in
an educational setting.
This meant no more preferential treat
ment for males. One area most notably
affected by this ruling was high school
and collegiate athletic departments.
Suddenly it was no longer acceptable
to spend 100 percent of sport budgets
solely on males.
God forbid, some schools actually
had to start a women’s sports program.
Although many schools, particularly
high schools, still resist change, Texas
A&M has definitely done its part to com
ply with Title IX regulations.
In 1974, two years after the passage of
Title IX, A&M established the women’s
sports program.
In 1975-76, the Athletic Department
budgeted approximately $90,000 for five
women’s sports. In 1996-97, the depart
ment budgeted over $5 million to sup
port 10 women’s sports teams.
In addition to overall budgeting, re
cruiting for men’s and women’s teams
has become more equitable over the
years. In 1993-94 over 72 percent of the
recruiting budget was spent on men, 28
percent on women. In 1995-96, the per
centages narrowed to 58 percent for
men, 42 percent for women.
With all the advances the University
has made, with all of the attempts to
provide an equitable environment for
both genders, why is it that students
seem so reticent to support the female
athletes on campus?
How many people have been to a
football game?
Now, how many of those same people
have been to a softball game? A soccer
game? A volleyball game?
If numbers are a clear marker for en
thusiasm, it is apparent this campus
values its football over its volleyball.
Is that such a surprise?
Texas is known for its manic love of
football. Driving through the state, it is
obvious by giant shadows cast by high-
school stadiums that probably cost more
than the run-down schools themselves
that Texas adores watching football. It is
not unheard of for parents to hold chil
dren back in school so that they will be
bigger than the other kids and conse
quently more of a threat on the field.
Although it is nearly impossible to
justify this type of action on the part of
school boards or parents, it does not
mean that football is bad and should be
abolished. Football is fun, especially on
this campus. So many of A&M’s tradi- *
tions revolve around the sport.
From yell practice to yell leaders, stu-“
dents have the opportunity to yell their *
little hearts out in support of the Fightin!
Texas Aggies.
The problem comes when the student
body ignores all for the sake of one.
Football is great, but what about all of
the other sports, such as soccer? Do stu
dents even know where the soccer com
plex is? This year the soccer team was l
Big 12 champion.
Most students probably would not
have even realized this except for the
small blurb in The Battalion.
Students are apathetic. It can be
seen in everything from class atten
dance to game attendance, even in the
male sports.
But female sports seem to get the raw
end of the deal.
Perhaps it is due to a lack of publicity.
Although the Athletic Department pro
vides fairly equal coverage to all of the
varying sports, it simply does not appear
to be the case. During football season, it
is impossible not to be bombarded by
advertising. But somehow, during soft-
ball season, publicity seems to die down.
So is it that students don’t know or
that they don’t care?
The truth is that there are no ready
answers. Perhaps pre-Title IX mentality
still exists. Perhaps students simply don’t
see women’s sports as important or ex
citing.
But if A&M wants to continue to im
prove as a university, students must fol
low the University’s lead and support fe
male athletes. Otherwise, the intentions
and spirit of Title IX will be lost.
Jennifer Jones is a senior
psychology major.