jqfiday • April 27, 1998
The Battalion
INI Q ^ ^
AMPUS CONNECTION
nter an action code now...
iheduling classes through phone registration comes complete with many headaches
Caleb
McDaniel
columnist
Ihc y are the
best of times,
llhey are the
list pf times. They
jthe phone regis-
loil times. They
stht best of times
duse they signal
atthi semester is
■over and sum-
■ almost here,
id they give us the
^■unity to pick
feses ibr next se-
estffi, allowing us a momentary escape
subjects and stresses of our cur-
Ischedules.
But, as any Aggie knows, they are also
■brst of times. You know how it goes,
leyening for registration finally ar-
fes.knd you have your schedule all
|olit, code numbers neatly penciled
each of your dream courses. All
|trtinains is to get through to the
(jjntbank, tap a few digits, asterisks,
Ippund keys, and just like that, you
■be registered.
■ you also know it ain’t that easy.
|here is the wrestling with your
nate for dibs on the phone for the
tliiurof free-for-all redialing. Once
fifijpally get a hold of the receiver, you
Mur roomie one of those “you can
sthe phone when you pry' it from my
d.jftead fingers” looks. But the fun has
Jist begun.
b[i settle comfortably into your chair,
jed for the best but expecting the
(.Apprehensively, you punch 260-
|2lnd brace yourself for the inevitable.
Ring. Ring. Beep, beep, beep, beep. With
the ever-annoying, everlasting busy signal
still ringing in your head, you hang up
and punch redial. Ring. Ring. Beep, beep,
beep, beep. Gratuitous violence, loud
shouting and general condemnations of
university administration ensue. Beep,
beep, beep, beep.
An hour passes. A pot of coffee emp
ties. Nature is calling, but you cannot
abandon the phone to the clutches of
your roommate, who is sitting with blood
shot eyes and a kitchen knife in the cor
ner, secretly plotting to take over the
phone. An Aggie’s got to do what an Ag
gie’s got to do.
And then, after several hundred mil
lion redials, just when your eyes are start
ing to glaze over and your thumb is begin
ning to cramp from pushing phone
buttons, the heavens open and a ray of
hope recalls you from your catatonic
state. Suddenly, the phone is ringing and
you are not getting a busy signal. Hallelu
jah, you whisper to yourself, scrambling
to wake yourself up enough to read the
codes from your paper. Hallelujah, the
computer is answering. You are finally go
ing to get regis —
“All phone lines are presently busy.
Please hang up and try your call again in
one hour.”
Curses, foiled again. Depressed and
dejected, you get back to the hard work of
pushing the redial button, which will
probably fall off of the phone by the end
of the night.
You have the Bonfire registration sys
tem displayed on your computer screen,
and you watch in agony as the last avail
able spots for the only course you need
for graduation drop quietly into oblivion.
Your roommate has a can of hair spray
in one hand and a lighter in the other, and
he is starting to look like he means serious
business. It is every Aggie for himself dur
ing phone registration.
And you are starting to get the feeling
that if you hear a busy signal one more
time, whatever he has planned might not
be so bad.
Your hands are starting to twitch un
controllably, and you find yourself hum
ming along with the dial tone just to en
tertain yourself.
And then, at long last, you hear the
sound that is almost as dear to the Aggie’s
heart as the distant honking of a hulla
baloo in the night. “Welcome to the Texas
A&M Student Information System.”
Pinching yourself to make sure that
you are not dreaming, you waltz through
the system, entering in numbers with
childlike glee. And then, as you near the
end of your last course code and start to
celebrate, an evil voice interrupts your
reverie to inform you that the class that
you have entered is full.
Oy vay. It is back to the drawing board
for your schedule, and given the fact that
your roommate is starting to foam at the
mouth, it will probably be tomorrow night
before you set out on your next phone
registration adventure.
On second thought, maybe they are
not the best of times at all. Just the worst.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Caleb McDaniel is a freshman
history major.
% %
4
'/
e; I
ERSPECT1VES
Hie l
nm
T students’ Hopwood protest
ils thanks to bad planning
Mi
Joe
Schumacher
columnist
ast
week,
-Jsorne
liversity
llexas
Ldents
Ida
pion-
fation to
otest the
bpwood
Icision.
jiese stu-
fnts
arched down to Attorney
ineral Dan Morales office,
imanded to see him, and
mg around his lobby for a
tie less than an hour.
The behavior of these UT
adents showed little class and
unless intelligence. Appar-
itly these students are novices
any sort of public disorder.
Let me start this off by saying
at this is a column on the
opwood decision. This is a col-
tin about the protest, or
therthe lack there of. This was
it a demonstration but a tem-
irtantrum; a childish outburst
emotion that was quickly dis-
tUed once these students were
at given their way.
First of all, an apparent lack
fplanning went into this
mtest. Perhaps these kids
ere just sitting around the
lubhouse thinking of some-
flpngfun to do. when one of
L 'em suggests a protest (is
* 'at anyone else’s idea of a
tod time?) and so the field
pbegins...
These students marched
own to the Attorney General’s
ffice, and demanded to see
■m. There are probably not
'o many people that can j ust
aikinto an office of the Attor-
ey General unannounced,
ad see him. Least of all, a
"nch of angry students. What
as the secretary supposed to
“Mr. Morales, there is an
ti'mob of protesters here to
teyou, can I send them in?”
The point of most protests
not to be seen by, in this in-
ance, the Attorney General,
"tto be seen by other people,
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such as the voters. The idea is
not to change the mind of one
man, but bring attention to an
issue to as many other people
as possible. Any true politician
will listen to voters’ opinions,
not that of an angry mob.
Chances are these protesting
students did not have high vis
ibility by the public hanging
out in Morales lobby.
What would these students
have said if Dan Morales had
come out to address them,
anyway? Given the lack of
planning that seemed to go
into this demonstration, they
probably hadn’t even planned
that far head for this scenario,
and they would have looked
even more ridiculous if it had
occurred.
If Morales would have ad
dressed these studertts, it
would have set a horrible
precedent. Other groups
would give up the useless, civil
means (such as calling ahead
and setting an appointment)
of getting their concerns
voiced. If the Attorney General
had seen these students, no
doubt a mob of tobacco com
pany lobbyists would be there
protesting the very next day,
demanding to see Morales,
because if anyone feels
wronged by the state of Texas,
it's the cigarette industry.
So these students hung out
in the lobby for a little less than
an hour, “protesting,” if that is
what you would like to call it.
According to an AP report, these
students held dollar bills up to
imply that Morales was up for
sale. If die Attorney General was
up for sale, even if those stu
dents pooled all there money
they probably would not have
enough to meet the offers that
he probably receives on a regu
lar basis. Did it ever occur to
these students that maybe the
tobacco companies had already
tried that, and it obviously did
not get them very far.
While protesting, these stu
dents chanted something
along the lines of, “Dan
Morales you can’t hide/ we
have justice on our side.”
While catchy, this little limer
ick lacks one little grain of
truth: justice is NOT on their
side. It sided with Cheryl Hop-
wood in the case of Hopwood
v. The State of Texas.
After protesting for almost
an hour, the students then de
cided to leave. Obviously these
students felt very concerned
about this issue to take an
hour out of their busy sched
ule to protest. Apparently the
fervor of their cause was
quelled by some sort of time
constraints. Maybe these stu
dents had to go back to class,
maybe Jerry Springer was on
or maybe they were facing le
gal ramifications for their
protest: perhaps incarceration
for disturbing the peace. What
ever it was, these students left
after an hour. Again, the zeal
ousness of their cause was dis
played by not going to jail. Ob
viously they can do more good
for their cause, like maybe
planning another protest.
So here’s what can be
learned from this protest: first,
a protest takes some serious
planning. It is not just a spur
of the moment thing. It might
also help to make an appoint
ment. Timing is also really im
portant. So plan accordingly,
and be sure that everyone has
the day off to show up and
stick around. Finally be pre
pared to go to jail for your
cause. It makes you look really
dedicated to your cause. Stu
dents getting arrested also
grabs more headlines and at
tention than than “students
protest for an hour then leave
in time to go to class.” Besides
it makes a really cool story and
you can impress till your
friends by telling them about
the time you went to jail.
So while this protest was a
bust, if these UT students learn
from this experience, perhaps
they can have another one
some with a little more success.
Joe Schumacher is a junior
journalism major.
PERSPECTIVES
Marketing Diana dolls shows
tasteless money-making tactic
Chris
Huffines
columnist
I guess my opinion of hu
man decency is just too
high. For years, I have
thought that there were a few
lows that normal people, just
like you and me, would not
sink to. I was wrong.
Hasbro, Inc. is currently in
negotiations with the Princess
ofWales Memorial Fund to get
the rights to make dolls, jigsaw
puzzles, board games, and col
lectibles based on the now-de
ceased Diana, Princess of
Wales. This situation is a travesty that not only high
lights the slimy moral underbelly of humanity, but
demeans the reputation of a profound public figure.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a good capitalist. I
believe in violent strike-breaking, sweatshops — as
long as they are foreign, child labor, merchanting of
death, and in general exploiting the lesser classes.
That’s all good bull.
However, even with capitalism’s extremely tainted
image, it has better sense than to take a public figure
and exploit the death of that figure for their own profit.
The Lady Di dolls are not that bad; Hasbro has good in
tentions, but all roads from this point are paved with
good intentions. If this is allowed, what won’t be done
for a quick buck? Mother Teresa action figures with
kung-fu grip? JFK Cuban Missile Crisis play sets? The
Abe Lincoln teddy bear with realistic bleeding head
wound? Maybe bloody glove O.J? How about World
War II G.I. Joe’s with flamethrower bums. Or, even
more emotionally charged (and therefore, better sell
ing) Oklahoma City Bombing victim dolls. You could
run the gamut from the elderly to babies. Collect the
whole set. They will be collector’s items in a few years.
And before you get angry at me for thinking this
kind of thing up, look around. It has already begun.
In England, the general populace has already
begun responding to the wave of “Unauthorized”
Lady Di products. Most of it is directed to Flora
margarine, which bears Lady Di’s signature.
Princess of Wales Butter. Yes, a margarine company
exploiting the death of the Princess. Here in the
good old U. S. of A., there has been a beanie baby
made with he Princess’s white rose symbol. It is be
ing marketed as the Diana Beanie Baby. If this were
a movie, it would be a comedy. Instead, we are
faced with a real-life tragedy.
Princess Diana was a woman who embraced wor
thy causes a sought for solutions. Unlike many of to
day’s public figures, she found unnoticed tragedies
and brought them into the public spotlight. She used
her fame with wisdom and humility.
And now she has been reduced to a tub of butter
substitute. Or a bag of plastic beads. Or a figurine.
Why don’t we let dogs dig up her bones for chew
toys? That way, we can completely humiliate her im
age. No sense doing tilings halfway.
Unfortunately, it is, by and large, American busi
ness fueling this movement.
America is in need of soul searching. If this country
has the gall to exploit the image of a dead woman who
was cherished around the world, and then go home
and wonder why values in general are deteriorating in
the United States, we are begging an and all gods to
bring down punishment on a biblical scale, punish
ment that would make nuclear war look like just a slap
on the wrist. And America would deserve it.
There are a host of reasons to preserve the image
of Princess Diana, and later public figures from being
dragged through the muck of corporate exploitation
and only one reason to do it: money. Which is more
important to you?
Chris Huffines is a sophomore speech
communications major.
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