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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1998)
s ’ ■S) ^ fid ijw?' Battalion inion Page 7 • Monday, October 19, 1998 Crew ew census proposal violates Constitution is, topi on Jan® > led io pljt were not; Janies an( iera to | at i 6 Is 'e DAVE JOHNSTON £21 983-1 qtuiti throuel!: an intern t to cha: ’ said. 1 'ckingQeij at worn doing.’ also in ( as he CJ3 m jonior if a fake pj ; Crew t$ Nguy s, sopk 1 ay with iff Roylin! Jes, and n, 1 I three sfif |lhe capital is hot with accusations these days. Many lawmakers insist jpublican attempts at im- :hment will cause a con- tional crisis. Removing a ident from office, they tout, overturns the will le American people, t least the Constitution Lvs for impeachment. Jemocratic members of Congress : proposed a new method for national census. A method (rourts have already la- I unconstitutional. [he proposal sug- i counting some ke American pop- fon and using stical theories ktimate the re nder. [he proposed Jiges in cen- laking does Bte the Con- Ition. Even if not, it jild create too ly problems to [e it beneficial. [here are several Ions for recom- Jding the new plan, tnsus does not come Ip. It takes a significant Junt of manpower, |age and tabulation to count American populace. The process Ing and expensive. The census numbers are always subject [itense controversy. Some segments of aopulation are difficult to tally. The heJess, for example, provide a unique llenge to census takers. Under the pro- Pd system, the homeless population |dbe estimated. put this opens a whole new can of worms. New controversies will arise. Who figures the estimates? How? Which areas will be counted and which estimated? These are im portant decisions when funding and political representation hang in the balance. Statistical estimates are widely accepted in many fields. Political polls usually inter view about 1,000 likely voters and extrapo- ,,,, . jf8347S40834CI834131497S^^.-,. 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Of course, the problem is even 3 percent could radically affect the boundaries of a congressional district. Population estimates use models to project what the actual population most likely is. Un fortunately, there are no existing accurate models of the American population to use as a basis to estimate census data. The proponents of the new method point out the inaccuracies of recent census numbers — inaccuracies that would work to hinder estimation. Census estimators must either replicate these inaccuracies or take an educated guess at how to correct the miscounts. This educated guess is the unconstitu tional part. This guess would doubtlessly be come a partisan tool. The party in control of the census bureau will estimate in their favor. If any office in Washing ton needs objectivity, it is the census bureau. By the same token, the office needs to take every possible mea sure to guarantee ac curacy in their final report. Plus or minus 3 percent does not qualify as accuracy. The solution to the problem is a meticu lous, more accurate sur vey of the entire Ameri can population. Since members of Con gress on both sides of the aisle agree there are only a few segments of the population that may be miscounted, the census bu reau should devote more care and even greater resources to those areas. The Constitution calls for an enumeration of the population every 10 years. Instead of using estimates to get around the constitu tional imperative, census takers should fol low the requirements more closely — count ing everyone. Dave Johnston is a senior mathematics major. said. ■«: 1 lie of set® d real wdl J ot of I ore curriculum offers Aggies little flexibility texas A&M’s un- dergradu- ressure, Catalog states nd forCBthe Univer- ot on ro ?r guys 1 Oil OU! i le the pk ANDREW BALEY Free At •Act •CallW (core curncu- is estab- d to vide for dth of un- tanding.” he catalog goes on to say that core curriculum acts to en- and broaden the University’s ition of providing thorough oaration in each student’s aca- lic major.” his line of reasoning does not te sense. Engineering majors lot benefit from humanities ses such as theater arts. Histo- tajors do not benefit from sci- |es courses such as chemistry, ead of providing a thorough paration, the core curriculum soothing more than create Isles for students and waste ley and time. he 48 hours of the core cur- ilum — 59 if you missed foreign iuage and computer classes in i school — is too many. The benefits of spending the first two years of a college career in the core curriculum is that there is more time for a student to choose a major and the few classes that do pertain to one’s major help for fu ture classes. The hours students spend in core curriculum classes only cause grief and worry. Two years of col lege adds up to cost a good deal of money. If students had the choice, many of them would skip the core curriculum entirely and proceed into their major classes. The prob lem with this, and the reason it does not exist, is that employers probably would not want 20-year- olds in the workforce. Along with requiring too many hours, the core curriculum is point less in many aspects. Students who are enrolled in mandatory classes that do not pertain in any way to their major or interests do so in ag gravation. This aggravation is justi fied when a semester is spent studying for a course outside of a students major and interest. What good comes out of this? This attitude is evidenced in discussions of upcoming tests. Whenever a professor admits a certain section of material will not be on the test, students immedi ately discard it from their minds and notes. The only “breadth of under standing” applicable to situations like these is that administrators should grasp and understand the fact that many core classes only help in developing short-term memory capacities. Unfortunately, many core classes do not come close to “broadening the preparation” of one’s major. Will a philosopher be a better philosopher because he or she took a geology lab? There is little doubt that per son would be a better philosopher if he or she had had more philos ophy courses, instead of the geol ogy lab that is irrelevant to the students major course of study. Many students have no interest in the social sciences; other stu dents could not care less about mathematics or logical reasoning. If this is the case, why should they take them? Students pay their own tuition, and they should not be at the mercy of the University. Additionally, as long as students cover the basic classes of their ma jor, why should they be restricted in their choice of electives? There should be more flexibil ity in the current core curricu lum. Business calculus will not help a journalism major, so a journalism major should have more freedom to choose those classes that will enrich their ed ucation and skill level. A general, diverse education is hard to achieve as a whole be cause certain students will demonstrate a lack of effort in certain subjects. Students attend college so they can gain knowledge and skills in order to obtain a job in the future. There are not many useful jobs requiring workers to re member pieces of information and quickly discard them, never to be used again. It is said the purpose of college is to instill in students the ability to think. This is a noble goal, but aggravation, apathy, and a lack of choice breed discouragement, not analytical thinking. Andrew Baley is a junior political science major. SGA problems demand campus political parties “A! CHRIS HUFFINES t this mo- .ment, I am preternatural- ly calm about all this, having passed beyond anger earlier this evening into a kind of Zen state of consciousness, utterly unable to wrap my mind around the absolute stupidity of something like this for more than two minutes at a time. “By morning, this will have worn off. “I’m looking forward to it im mensely. ” There have been days when students here at Texas A&M have discovered something the Student Government Association has done, and have begun to identify with this quotation by J. Michael Straczynski. The Student Government As sociation, despite its multiple beneficial roles within the Univer sity, bewilders most Aggies with its seeming reality handicap and anti-student attitudes. For most average students, the Student Government Associ ation is a near-powerless figure head, and an ugly, unlucky one at that. There is, fortunately, an ele gant, inexpensive and blissfully administration-free solution to the problem that is the Student Gov ernment Association: the intro duction of political parties into student elections. This will not only keep the important aspects of the group, like its role as the student’s voice to the administration, but will also make it better and much more effective. This action would have the ad vantages of bringing competition to the Student Government Asso ciation, creating more account ability for elected candidates, eas ing the financial burden on students who run, as well as cre ating a coherent, long-term policy within the organization. Before discussion of the ad vantages really gets rolling, it is important to note political par ties in this sense does not mean the College Republicans or the Aggie Democrats. These two groups serve both their national parent organiza tions as well as the students. That kind of divided loyalty is what caused the current national parti san mess in the first place, and it would be foolish to advocate im porting that same brand of chaos to Aggieland. First, political parties would create some much-needed com petition. As Charles Darwin pointed out so many years ago, increased competition weeds out the worst and elevates the best. In the arena of student gov ernment, as parties came into being, social Darwinism would step in and the parties would be forced to constantly work to put out better programs. To do any thing else would risk losing stu dent support and hitting an evo lutionary dead-end. Political parties would also en sure competition for student sen ate positions. The number of unfilled seats in the Student Senate sometimes runs into the double digits. These seats could easily be filled if there were parties to put for ward candidates. Second, the parties would create more accountability. No body in Aggieland knows who is involved in the Student Govern ment Association, which makes accountability difficult. Today, aside from the Student Body President, the Aggie on the street would find it easier to sing the t.u. fight song at cut than dredge up the names of their student senators. It is much easier for a student to remember which party he or she agrees with than to remember the student government member he or she likely did not even vote for in the first place. In addition, accountability would be increased because par ties would increase the absolutely pathetic voter turnout A&M cur rently wallows in. The more students vote, the more students will call or write student government officials to keep their action in line with stu dent wishes. Third, political parties could very easily raise money from students, local businesses, ad vertising and other areas to help lower the hit to the pocket- book of those Aggies who do run for Student Government As sociation offices. This would widen the elec tion field to include the best can didates, not just those good can didates who can shell out enough cash. Finally, political parties would help create a coherent, long-term policy within student govern ment. Currently, no student sena tor holds office for more than a few years. Political parties could very easily hope to accomplish goals whose lifespan is longer than the academic career of those stu dents who are working to achieve it. The Student Senate could ad vance policies similar to (and hopefully better than) Vision 2020 and could examine student issues over a longer period of time than could any one student government official. Aggies have allowed them selves to be shortchanged by this organizational vacuum for long enough. This problem can easily be solved by the 2000 elections. It is time to make a change for the good of Aggies and Aggieland. Chris Huffines is a junior speech communication major. Student leaders support bloc seats In response to Andrew Beley's Oct. 14 column: We would like to thank the Class Councils for creating and marketing such a successful con cept with the Maroon Out shirts. We would also like to thank each organization that sat in a “bloc” at the football games and wore ma roon, including chapters from the three Greek councils, some resi dence halls, business fraternities and other non-Greek groups. Bailey’s column is right on target when congratulating Aggie fans on their contributions to the A&M victo ry over Nebraska. However, in the column, he implied the Corps of Cadets, Yell Leaders and Greek or ganizations were the only groups to stand as a group at the games. The truth is there are several other organizations already out there sitting as a group outside of the Corps of Cadets and the Greek system. Simply standing together does not stop Aggies from yelling to gether or wearing maroon. In the Greek Bloc, virtually every person was wearing ma roon, and most were wearing the official Maroon Out shirt. Chap ters went out and bought the MAIL CALL shirts in bulk, and those who did not make it in time wore the only other maroon shirts they had, even if they had letters on them. Gig ’em! Scott Lovejoy Class of '97 Interfraternity Council President Adrian Leday Class of '98 PanHellenic President Kristen Kirby Class of '99 Panhellenic President Tase Baily III Class of '99 Corps of Cadets Commander Laurie Nickel Class of '98 Student Body President Aggie appreciates student honesty Here is just another reason I’m glad I attend A&M. I am a freshman chemical engi neer, and like most other fresh men, I have tons of classes in Heldenfels Hall. Last Thursday, I lost my wallet in room 100, the largest room on the first floor. I did not just lose my wallet, but my cash, credit card, phone card, blank checks, driver’s license, student ID, Aggie Bucks, meal plan and other things. Within two hours of losing my wallet, I received a phone call from Professor Drosd because one of her students had turned it in to her. When I picked it up the next day, not a thing was missing. My experience just proves the honesty, integrity and thoughtful ness present in the average Ag gie. As an Aggie myself, I hope I can live up to this standard. Thanks for the student who re turned my life to me. Anthony Garza Class of '02 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: 111.1 Fax: (409) 845-2647