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Page 15 • Wednesday, August 26, 1998
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DAVE
JOHNSTON
or destroyed.
'repair the toai]
hty had been
ated 90 perce
WOO by te
ots continued';
of water attkl
ter to fill coni
and cooking
0.000 gallons
ped into Del
? state and
bout campus. Although
Is still little talk about selling
[Iroad tracks for scrap and
ipus-wide monorail seems
way, both Parking, Traffic
[ansportation Services and
erations have new plans for
semester.
changes at PTTS demon-
|the department’s focus on
t service. Many students
(alien victim to the long lines
ents waiting to pick up
ig passes. PTTS has worked
e these lines shorter, and re
students will notice the lev-
ccess.
TS administrators post-
1 mailing student permits
revented almost 5,000 Ag-
rom standing in line. The
tment’s semester plans are
tuated by several similar
lications aimed at increas-
ipport of the student body,
e fall changes in campus
g should give students more
ig options and should de
le the number of unused park-
aces.
Williams, director of PTTS,
e would like to see parking
come a non-issue. This semes-
r’sKhanges seem to progress to-
ard that goal.
■TS has increased campus
ting spaces. The new Reed
m lots will open up about
new parking spaces to
uter students. A new bus
near the arena at the corner
sen and Kimbrough Boule-
will make these new lots a
mvenient option for off-cam-
ispidents.
pe new Central Campus Park-
!Garage is now open. The
rage provides parking spaces
Istly to faculty and staff. In the
pngs, however, all but 50 of
spaces will be open to students
to need to visit campus, partic-
|rly the library or computer
is located nearby. In order to
ep these spaces open to staff
ring he day, however, there
inot be any overnight parking
|e Central Campus garage.
■his semester, resident and
Imuter students will have
We flexibility when parking in
west campus lots,
last semester, the slabs of
lierete affectionately referred
Is “Fish Lots” were divided
to a commuter student lot and
Resident student lot. Unfortu-
|ely, one of the lots was never
11 and the other seemed to nev-
jhave an empty spot.
iTo address the problem, this
mester PTTS has designated
th of these lots as open to both
and blue parking tags, giving
Idents more parking options,
p’he only potential problem
th the new plan is the fact one
[he lots is a 12th Man parking
[Parking areas designated as
th Man lots are not open to stu
nts during home football games.
This means resident students
will need to move their cars the
evenings before football games.
Six times a year, students will
be burdened to move their cars
from the 12th Man lots by 6:30
p.m. on Friday night before the Ag
gies take to Kyle Field. It may seem
a nuisance now, but as alumni, the
advantages will be apparent.
Of course enforcement is always
a significant part of the depart
ment’s responsibilities. In order to
encourage drivers to follow the
parking regulations more closely
and make parking easier for every
one, the fine for parking in the
wrong lot will increase from 10 dol
lars to 25. The suggestion to in
crease fines came from the PTTS
student advisory board.
By discouraging offenders, PTTS
officials hope to make parking easi
er and more convenient for all stu
dents. Although parking safety offi
cers may sometimes appear overly
strict, on a campus the size of Texas
A&M, strict enforcement is the only
way to maintain any order.
The changes in parking on cam
pus have impacted Bus Operations
as well. As the number of com
muter parking spaces increases and
commuting by car becomes more
convenient, students buy fewer bus
passes. This means fewer buses are
required and managers can focus
their energies on creating more effi
cient routes designed to save mon
ey and resources.
Off-campus routes will be
heavily altered, and on campus,
the bus routes will see minor
changes from the spring term.
The “bus hump” next to Fish
Pond will be closed, so busses
will run differently. There will
also be a focus on running more
busses during class change times,
when they are most needed.
An express route servicing the
Bush School will be added this se-
mester, and the street connecting
the Bush Library parking lot with
Kimbrough Blvd. will be closed.
Hopefully, this will continue to dis
courage students from parking in
the library’s parking lot to attend
classes. A contract between the na
tional archives and PTTS requires
the University to provide parking
to library visitors. The department
expends considerable effort to
maintain the agreement, but after
hours the Bush School parking ar
eas are open to all students with
parking passes.
New bus shelters are popping
up. Now, students waiting for a bus
will have some relief from the op
pressive sun and fierce rainstorms.
Aggies may run into other minor
changes on campus. PTTS is testing
new payment methods, including
the Pay-N-Display machine at the
Rec Center that officials described
as a “high-tech parking meter.”
Some modifications will be
quickly embraced, and others may
take some getting used to. Almost
every Aggie will be affected, so stu
dents need to make themselves
aware of the changes before the
first day of classes. They need to
find a bus map or hang on to the
parking map that came with their
parking permit. It will take work to
make parking a non-issue, but the
campus seems well on its way.
Dave Johnston is a senior,
mathematics major
New experiences, unexpected lessons
await this year’s incoming freshman class
University life has some pain, some joy and many opportunities
D ear Class of 2002,
Congratulations, you
have finally done it. Af
ter four years of high school,
you are in college; you are out
in the “real world.” And
whether coming to A&M has
been a life-long dream or a
major fluke, you are ready to
accept the challenges that col
lege has to throw you. You are
ready to experience all that the big,
bad world has to offer you.
Each of you has different ex
pectations and different
goals; some wish to be mem
bers of the Corps of Cadets,
while others want to be a
part of the Greek system. For
some, this is a brand new ex
perience, being away from
home. For others, it is nothing
new. But all of you share one
unifying characteristic: the de
sire to learn.
And you will.
You will learn that eight o’
clock classes are usually the
most boring and the hardest,
which makes sleeping through
them a catch-22 situation. You
will learn that the ability to write
a 10-page paper is directly pro
portional to the number of hours
until it is due.
You will learn that PTTS
does not, in fact, stand for
Parking, Traffic, and Trans
portation Service, but actu
ally stands for Parking,
Ticketing, and Towing
Service. And you will
learn why it earned
that name.
You will learn
how to wildcat on
the third deck of
Kyle Field. You
will learn how
to pullout. And
manisha
PAREKH
minutes later, you will learn how to do a
class set.
You will learn that it is not fun to do a class
set while drunk.
You will learn that, finally, you have the
chance to be yourself without worrying about
being branded a nerd, an airhead or a jock.
And you will learn that the people who
seemed so different in high school are really a
lot like yourself, if you give them a
chance.
Many of you
will learn that
whites and colors
should not be
washed togeth
er. Some of you
will not care.
You will
learn that
your real
friends are not always the ones you party with,
but they are always the ones who will help you
clean up. Especially after you have gotten sick.
During your years in college, you will
learn that even though you can make more
of your own rules, it gets harder to follow
those rules that are really important.
You will learn that common sense is not all
that common.
You will learn that you miss your mom
nagging you about cleaning up your room -
when you can not find the take-home test that
is worth half of your grade.
You will learn that love is not always for
ever, but that friendship can be. And you
will learn that friendship can often be the
greatest love.
You will learn that “goodbye” is not the end
of the world, and many times, it can be the be
ginning of something much more worthwhile.
You will learn how strong you really are,
and that you are not
simply a sur
vivor, you are
a fighter. You
will learn
that your
determina
tion and in
telligence
can make
a differ
ence.
The world
is waiting for
you. Go out
and make it
yours. And in
the immortal
words of Jerry
Springer,
“Take care of
yourself, and
each other.”
Gig’ em.
Manisha
a junior
psychology &
journalism major
Bright promises of college life dimmed
by reality of new roles, responsibilities
ANDREW
BAILEY
F or all of you veteran Aggies,
if you have not seen them
yet, those young, bright
shining faces that are actually
enjoying the first of their annual
August moves, you will. The
class of 2002, some 2003, and,
okay, throw in some 2004 grads
are here and they are happy
about it. Why shouldn’t they be?
The largest freshman class
in the history of this university is about to
experience the period of life known as col
lege. As everyone knows, students anxiously
look forward to college for many reasons. All
upperclassmen once felt the same way to
day’s freshmen do. They could not wait for
high school to end so they could experience
the freedoms of college. Freshmen see noth
ing but limitless possibilities as they enter
college and leave behind what they see as a
constricting and worn out high school life.
Commonly described as the “best years of
our lives,” college years include the end of cur
fews, countless new people to meet, a chance to
begin life on one’s own, a no ID’s-needed
clause, independence, and more. The positive
list could go on, but why repeat what everyone
always hears? What about the list that no one
ever mentions before a freshman arrives on
campus? In a nutshell, our predisposed idea of
college is a four to six year, seven for Tommy
Boy, time of fun that will lead to a job. But ideas
change when theory meets reality.
Someone must prepare the excited incoming
crop for the down sides of college. Not to crash
the party, but with freedom and independence
comes a very vulgar word to 18-year olds: re
sponsibility. Responsibility is the word that
marks the head of the trail to adulthood, a path
that must be traveled in order to grow up.
In high school, for a majority of young
people, there is no reason to act responsibly
in the sense that an adult does.
Mom wakes you up every morning to get
ready for a day of school that mainly consti
tutes of talking and taking naps rather than
studying. At the end of the day, you go back
to the home, food, utilities and bed that par
ents paid for. College is when students start
to appreciate the things that, for most peo
ple, had been given to them in the past.
Epiphany is a good word to describe the
emotion of freshmen when their parents final
ly leave them at their new home. They are fi
nally on their own, as they had wished, but
parts of their freedom are short lived.
Suddenly they have to take care of things
like waking up every morning, actually having
to study, doing laundry, paying bills that
hopefully get in on time, shopping for food
and cooking it, dealing with numerous room
mate conflicts and even cleaning a toilet for
probably the first time is no fun.
For many, it is shocking to realize that all of
those old words of wisdom from parents are
true. Welcome to the “best years of your lives”
in the “real world.”
Basically, the conundrum of college is the
freedom and responsibility that paradoxically
come together in a mixed message package. As
the song says, take the good, freedom and the
bad, responsibility and enjoy the facts of college.
Take heart though. As the years progress,
even upperclassmen still have problems co-exist-
ing with the good and the bad. So it is not neces
sarily a freshmen problem, it is one that we all
must solve to be successful college students.
Andrew Bailey is a junior political science
major
Mail Call
New bus stops are
nice improvement
I often hear gripes and com
plaints around campus. Rarely
do I have or give complaints.
Texas A&M has so much positive
to offer that if we were to say
thanks for it all, we would have
no time left to complain. Be
sides, I chose to attend A&M be
cause of all it has to offer, as I
am sure most students did.
Today, I noticed something
simple that I feel grateful for.
The new covered bus stops and
sidewalks at the Bush School. I
have heard many complaints
about the lack of bus stops and
sidewalks and it bothered me
that students routinely trampled
the grass instead of walking
down the drive. That is no
longer a problem. Thanks to
those of you responsible for that
small detail that made my day.
Beautiful work.
Kim Walsh
Class of ’98
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number.
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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
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Fax: (409) 845-2647
E-mail: batt@unix.tamu.edu