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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 1998)
idnesday • June 17,1998 The Battalion PINION ail: iment: laying by the rules |xas A&M students should have to sign a written Aggie Code of Honor J tl " - L A ' 1 ’ ’ amosaid. It seems odd that the Virginia, a ggi es not He, cheat, |ling. W/ \ steal, nor tolerate those yo. ilf/- A.who do." It is the phrase |do," ygies love to spout off as they ex- in the code of honor that binds all gie at Q Ht as the st: :atistics ■ m the office |said student ^^■ct Reso- I d ay “ion Services told Inter (SCRS) 1 witli :fv, talk is lied at:-?ap. While Put 1\ M's may |)von* tlH or steal, iyc efinitely I sh:[M students irivinga e orr let ouble living by the Aggie Code Bnor, maybe it is time to put IdtkHmuscle behind the phrase. The |an to m Code of Honor needs to be put writing for all A&M students to oording to SCRS, there were jhl eases of scholastic dishonesty ^Hded throughout the 1997-98 Ibl year — six in the fall and two ■ spring. Although these num- 1 , Hav no means constitute an epi- ■ |c of cheating, they do show eating is occurring on campus. '‘ 0 g i - emust also remember that these <\ Vi ' ||cases occurred when an instruc- Ifered^Btually caught a student cheating id then initiated the University's ds iiol.istic dishonesty process — hov peisno telling how many students ong ;J| U a .V w ' t: ^ scholastic dishonesty the last year. fitting the Aggie Code of Honor rtpa per, however, is not meant to . Hpeut all cheating, but to hold , sp Aggies accountable to the code. Having students sign the Aggie Code of Honor amounts to forming a written contract between students and the University. A written contract will always be stronger than a verbal agreement. Not every university is as lax as A&M in encouraging students to act honorably. The University of Virginia uses an honor system that is consid erably more muscular than the Aggie code of honor. A&M could learn a thing or two from Virginia's honor system. At Virginia, most instructors re quire their students to sign a state ment with the every test they take. The statement reads, "I, (student), do hereby certify on my honor that I have derived no assistance during the time of this examination from any source whatsoever." If an instructor or student charges that a student has violat ed Virginia's honor code by lying, cheating or stealing, the Universi ty's student-run honor system handles the case. Cases are inves tigated by students, arraigned by students and heard by student ju rors. If a student is found guilty of lying, cheating or stealing, the student receives the honor sys tem's single sanction — expulsion from the university. Nicole Eramo is the Assistant to the Honor Committee, the group that coordinates Virginia's honor system. Eramo said the Honor Committee processed about 50 cases per semes ter during the 1997-98 school year. Out of those cases between 20 and 30 students go to trial each semester. "About 75 to 80 percent [of cases] involved scholastic dishonesty," Er- school roughly half the size of A&M, has so many more scholastic dishon esty cases than A&M. Unless, that is. Aggies are getting away with cheat ing because A&M does not take the issue seriously enough. The first step to taking honor more seriously at A&M is quite sim ple — have students sign a statement agreeing to follow the Aggie Code of Honor. Students could sign this state ment in each of their classes at the be ginning of each semester or with every test they take, much like stu dents at Virginia. There are privileges that come witli the responsibility of a beefed up honor system. Students at Virginia frequently enjoy the option of take- home tests. Furthermore, trust flour ishes in an environment where honor is treasured. "I think it [the honor system] makes people more comfortable that their word is going to be trusted by a professor," Eramo said. Requiring students to sign the Aggie Code of Honor is about equivalent to a mother nagging her children. Yes, nagging is irri tating, but it works. Had their mothers not nagged them when they were children, many Aggies would not brush their teeth, eat their vegetables or make their beds today. Nagging can be a very good thing. And putting the Aggie Code of Honor in writing may just be the kind of nagging Aggies could use. John Lemons is a graduate student in electrical engineering. [lievt Taking a walk on the wild side J r i»* & v 121 Students hassle with buses, parking at Bush Library Len Callaway columnist - . s Photo By Jake Schrickling/The Battalion I got a little riddle for ya Ags. IFs 105 degrees with 90-plus percent humidity. IFs high noon, sweat is running down your back, you've been out side for 30 minutes and your sun- bum is about to lead to sponta neous human combustion. A Parking, Traffic and Trans portation Services officer is lean ing on a moped or sitting under a shade tree sucking down Gatorade and glaring at students like iFs Nazi era Germany and they want to see your "papers." OK — what are you doing? ThaFs right (you guys are so smart) you're waiting for a bus at the George Bush Presidential Library Complex. Over the course of the past couple of semesters, PTTS has begun to control the parking lots at the Bush Complex by assigning two full-time staffers to all-day duty writing tickets and turning people away from the Presidential Li brary and the Bush School. The transportation difficulties to and from the Bush School are only compounded by being forced to deal with the less than pleasant demeanors of the parking lot moni tors. One finds it difficult to hold these employees responsi ble for their negative and, at times, hateful approaches to customer service. They dislike being made to stand in the heat all day as much as the students do and at times their understandable frustration shows. The Bush School is an excellent resource for students but it must become easier to travel to and from. Although the application of parking mles and bus routes is the re sponsibility of PTTS, it is the administration's responsibili ty to give PTTS the resources it needs. As much as we would like to blame the problem on Tom Williams and his band of parking nay sayers, it is re ally not his fault. The real responsibility for the parking and transportation woes faced by students at the Bush School belongs with the high-level administrators that play key roles in bringing new additions like the Bush Complex to A&M. These administrators have big-time lives and take home even bigger salaries to keep A&M on the cutting edge of Texas higher education. These "power players" use A&M's amenity list as a resume and they flourish or flounder by their record of success. Their desire to bring the Bush Complex to A&M was an incredibly sound decision that will prove to be a long term benefit to the A&M community. The poor part of that decision, much like so many other decisions made by the administration, was made with no regard for the students of Texas A&M and the way the facility would be used. Sure, the Bush Complex has tremendous resources to offer students and this argument is valid;however, the resources cannot be utilized if students cannot get to them in a rela tively timely manner. Time and again the administration makes decisions in order to bring a new facility or service to A&M so that our collective calling card will be more impres sive. Then, the administration worries about the par ticulars — particulars like whether the students can ef fectively use the new service. All of that being said, it is time to leave the ranting be hind and look for positive alternatives to the current situa tion. There are so many different stories floating around out there in administration land as to who owns the land the Bush Complex occupies and the relevant parking lots that there is really no way to know who owns or leases what. Call some administrators and ask them what the deal is — they will all tell you some thing different. All sorts of alternatives have been discussed but the same answer always comes back from the administration — "not gonna do it." Now it appears as if PTTS is asking for a $30 per se mester raise in the student services fee so that it may refurbish the older buses and purchase new ones. They never say "not gonna do it" when it comes to taking our money. Parking lots may be out of the question but students at least have the right to timely and reliable transportation to and from their classes. In addition to specialized bus routes around highly vis ited areas of campus like the Wehner shuttle and the Bush School-Trigon shuttle, PTTS needs to conduct a realistic survey of what it will take to make a noticeable difference in on-campus transportation and then lobby students for the correct amount. There may not be an easy solution to the transportation problems on our 5,200 acre campus, but if we are willing to pay for it, the least the administration can do is put forth some effort to make it come to fruition. Len Callaway is a senior journalism major. Mail call ubmissive, not ferior old logic \lutn° nSe Towery's June 11, m a j 0r t ^ le Past couple of days I have f ib’ ' nterest: ing points on the | J ect of: a certain female pastor. I PPen to be a Unitarian Universal- ist, and the church that I was raised in specializes in freedom of thought and religious expression. Growing up we taught all the ma jor religions of the world so we could gain an understanding of our own spirituality. No one is persecuted for what they believe, so in keeping with this 1 can not pass any judgement against anyone else. However, there seems to be some flaws in the submis sion of women in the Christian faith. The first sects of Christianity, be fore Rome had adopted Christiani ty, did in fact have female priests along with male priests. Over time this practice had been denounced. Also, if a woman ac cording to the Bible needs to be lead by a man in matters of finance and household decisions, what does a good Christian woman living alone do? Does she need to consult her brother, or father on how to spend her income? Since a woman who does not defer to men is considered to be false in her teachings, why would any good Christian man want to marry such a heretic? Submissive, but not inferior seems to remind me of a certain time period of our history, when separate but equal was considered just and right. After all, is putting " tradition" be fore professional merit really going to improve the quality of your faith? Amy Taylor Class of '00 Columnist fails to support idea In response to April Towery's June 11, column: You'll forgive me if I'm a bit unclear on Toweiy's phrase "societal adapta tion" and what exactly constitutes one and what doesn't. In her column, she describes such an adaptation as men no longer kissing one another in church or Israelites choosing whether or not to eat rabbit. OK. But how can she argue that allow ing women to become pastors is not such an adaptation by society? I be lieve that at the time of this and the other epistles' writings, women were unequal in the eyes of the male-domi nated society. Any women who acted otherwise would obviously be a harlot, heretic, or another undesirable person. In today's society (a completely dif ferent time, country, etc.), most educat ed persons recognize that women should not be considered inferior to men and do have the ability to become whatever they desire. My main problem with her argu ment is that she states 'The issue is au thority. Women should not be in a po sition of authority in the church" and never gives any credible reasons why this should be the case. She says that every male on this campus can out bench-press her — well, thank God preaching and minis tering don't depend on physical strength. The quote from Brauch's book ap pears to undercut her claim, saying "The prohibition against their teaching is occasioned by their involvement in false teaching" Of course false teachers, men and women, should be reprimanded — but what about those thousands of women pastors who are not "false teachers," who actually preach the Word of God accurately and lovingly to thousands of parishioners? Should they be denied the oppor tunity to tell the story of Christ merely because they lack a Y chromosome? According to my interpretation, no. To do so would be placing the lamp un der the bowl (Luke 11:33-36). Mike Williams Class of '94 The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit tetters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Let ters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail 01.3 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1.1.11 Fax: (409) 845-2647