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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1998)
e Battalion inion Page 9 • Tuesday, November 17, 1998 tudent Senate laundromat proposal deserves student support Cl 4- or many Aggies, late applies onlr;^ hoarding quarters is Sdaysatnotep. like shouting additional insefr Tooombs” when the II Rtball team is on third |pwn — it is a reflex, a Min-stem function re- u FSTflir ' 1UI1 ing 110 real thou g ht caiftit to execute. However, that Nice, my house :s®y soon change, and foj the better. Nice, tiny house. mI The Student Senate is voting on a bill i j|«^^«Bdnesday that would put Aggiebucks )MMATES readers on washing machines and dryers irt in 4Mrm »' ■ Cam P US - ThiS iS 3 g 0 ° d proposal that CHRIS HUFFINES 2bdmv3bath housi 193-5633. maraox Beds to be supported by students. Bsarah Jackson, a student senator aind a junior political science and SP‘ ^ y sp ?ch communication major, said the jan 9- n. [jiji w jji fi rs t place Aggiebucks readers several centrally-located laundry ar- |s, then if the trial run is successful. free! M-r f1/2bills, utilities r«ders will be added throughout cam- pis as quickly as funds will allow. Students who prefer quarters (or ASAP; acw 60-4062. — „ tor spnng. 2Mrr,;: pio have hoarded change throughout Arr @255-325: their childhood years so they would tor spring. 2Mm I0 th' qpver run out in these delicate college Jars) will still be able to use change r^i^hout 3 problem. ■ There is a possibility campus comput- k will not be able to handle the extra de mand on the Aggiebucks system. In spring. TheK tl [ case; Jackson said the Student Sen ate will propose issuing debit cards, simi- DecJJan Shfri $300/mo. plus t 696-6259. as oniy. oram, , . , ii stacy @7794101; laido copy cards. 9. 2bdmvibathtel| There are two basic reasons this bill aid. meals,tir:. fieeds to be adopted and the student body needs to support it. First, the free- ^ m t0 use Aggiebucks in laundromats aaste- b^T Wll j 1 be extraordinarily convenient. Sec- $325/mo + ti» oi d, the student body wants this Spring'sumnr change badly. ath at HuntingtondH changing to Aggiebucks will be con- — venient for students. Between the : “ washing machine and the dryer, an av- edtorDecjjaiTtiit «age load of laundry on campus will s-8029 cost a student $1.25, or five quarters. 4bdrm® Uvo loads will cost 10 quarters. Stu dents will have to keep track of 10 pring. Pamela @764-78!! Im./2ba. duplex, 1/3-bills. Call 696 coins for however long it takes them to go through two loads worth of laundry in order to get clean clothes. Even if a student has some sort of container, it still takes at least four purchases’ worth of spare change or a trip to the bank to get those 10 quarters. A stu dent’s ID never really goes farther than his or her wallet or hand, making it easier to keep track of and therefore far more convenient. In addition, the Ag giebucks reader will not spit back your card as a possible counterfeit, which hap pens with alarming regu larity with the current wash ing ma chines. Sec ondly, students want this change to take place. Before initi ating the bill, Jackson said the Student Senate surveyed about 7.5 per cent of the on-campus resi dents. Eighty-three percent of -those students said they cur rently did their laundry on cam pus. Eighty-five percent of the stu dents surveyed said they prefer Aggiebucks over quarters. Additionally, of the 17 percent of stu dents who did their laundry off-campus, 78 percent said they would increase their use of on-campus laundry facilities if Ag giebucks were introduced. Not only do students want this change, but it would be a bad idea to send the message to the Student Government Association they do not need to bother getting student input. Jackson said the Department of Resi dence Life has wanted to initiate this change for several years, but were wait ing for technology improvement in the Aggiebucks system before they began an Aggiebucks-on-washers program. Jackson said this kind of wait-and-see attitude could drag on for years, so the Student Senate did something now, rather than wait. This is yet another habit the student body needs to encourage SGA to continue. Putting Aggiebucks readers on wash ing machines is a great idea that not only ROBERT HYNECEK/Thk Battalion showcases what SGA does on behalf of the student body, but should also have the full weight of the student body be hind it. Freshly washed, if possible. Chris Huffines is a junior speech communication major. e home available lei . +1 futilities. Biiljej ig '99. Ttxtrm®!' mo. plus bills. 69fri- EDITORIAL 0 Battalion Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect he views of the editorials board members. They o not necessarily reflect the opinions of other battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student ody, regents, administration, faculty or staff, 'olumns, guest columns, cartoons and letters ex- ress the opinions of the authors. Editorials Board Mandy Cater Grabber Editor in Chief Aaron Meier Managing Editor Jennifer Jones City Editor Dave Johnston Opinion Editor Flection results reveal Republican party’s complacency B: ANDREW BALEY Fire Alarm Inadequate, missing fire equipment ^^cmdangers residence hall students' safety —--dm Few things are more frighten- caiiRaigeiorif fg than being woken by a fire _^alarm — except perhaps not be- n/ibathwiiiuoom'nhg woken by one. gs j During the recent fire in Dorm IICES 9 there were problems with the ng USB [re-alarm system, and fire-fight- discount. tig equipment was unavailable. ja?ions-Bank (1 w^ | an y °f the same dangers may pi'ceaiiowedw* jxist in other campus buildings, i7. show-up30 r nc j they mus t pe addressed im- fiediately. The Dorm 9 fire iVEL hould serve as a warning, and 3rand casino c jampus fire systems should be ■son.Firstcomeff i{i S p e cted and upgraded before ggl Miey are needed again. ORS The first concern to address is , science, Biowire alarms. There are conflicting Spanish. Byapi liports of the operation of the _____Jlarm in Dorm 9 the morning of >r native language|Lj:j re . Many residents We re not iTused by the residence hall’s f LOSS llarm, but rather by fellow resi- ars also needed Merits knocking on doors. ^ i Due to the high number of false ,estaround.Lose’; larms in previous years, the eed. trial size | arm S y S t e m was programmed ^ ith a 3-minute delay between the ie market. Go* 1 me the sensors detect a fire and Endorsements!® le ti me the alarm begins to n epen en oun( ^ physical Plant officials aid a fire may burn for up to 10 —linutes before an audible alarm 9 ounds in the building. In the brim 9 incident, that alarm came o late nine students were 'apped on the fourth floor, unable ^ I o access the building’s stairwells. ■ jT Once the building’s fire alarm Jfinally activated, it only ■■■■ bunded for 30 seconds before he fire damaged the system, JRE FOR THE hutting it off. A fire-warning sys- D SITTING $ sm that can be disabled by a fire EAT ip useless. I Even if the residents of Dorm had been alerted to the fire as [oon as it started, they could not Pave fought the blaze. As in most ampus residence halls, fire ex- pnguishers were not available in D 5:00. Dorm 9. Fire extinguishers are not pub licly accessible in on-campus res idence halls. In Residence Life housing, fire extinguishers are lo cated in the rooms of each resi dent adviser and the hall office. This places at least one extin guisher on each floor, although it is located in a locked room. In Corps residence halls, how ever, fire extinguishers are kept with each commanding officer. These officers are randomly placed throughout the hall, mean ing some floors may not have any fire-fighting equipment. As with the 3-minute delay, the fire-extinguisher regulation is de signed to prevent pranks. Unfor tunately, in attempting to curb these inconveniences, University decision makers are risking stu dents’ lives. A fire extinguisher could save personal items, pre vent serious building damage or make the difference between es caping safely or being trapped on the fourth floor. . In addition to these concerns, University officials must be sure residence hall staff and residents have appropriate fire training. Pri or to the fire, most hall residents were not aware of the alarm sys tem’s 3-minute delay. Many resi dents still do not know where to locate a fire extinguisher. Residents must be aware of evacuation procedures, staff must understand how the alarm system works and everyone must have ac cess to a working fire extinguisher. The Dorm 9 students were for tunate. The only injuries were two cases of smoke inhalation. Next time the results could be far worse. The responsible behavior of the Dorm 9 residents has giv en the University has a second chance to improve campus fire systems. They must not waste that chance. ased on this fall’s elec tion, maybe, the two major parties of our po litical system should change their mascots. Republicans, in stead of the ele phant, would be well-suited as a rabbit. Democrats would be more accurately por trayed as a tortoise than a donkey. In elementary school, children are taught the tortoise beat the rabbit because the rabbit was not taking his race seriously. Slow and steady wins the race, right? In truth, the rabbit was not utilizing his skills and higher position correctly. If the rabbit had stuck to the task at hand, the tortoise would have been soundly defeated. This simple, elementary fable could easily be substituted for the 1998 election. Simply put, the Re publicans dropped the ball. This was supposed to be the election of the Republican’s dreams. With a huge scandal in the opposing party and an existing ma jority in both houses of Congress, nothing could separate the Repub licans from huge electoral victories. Leading up to Nov. 3, Repub licans — especially House speaker Newt Gingrich — could taste Democratic blood. Democ rats, on the other hand, were privately as scared as a whim pering dog. But when the dust settled, both parties’ expecta tions were totally wrong. The scandal-ridden Democrats did not only maintain their posi tion in the House, they gained five seats. The Democrats won another victory, losing no seats in the Senate. Some Republicans, under Gin grich’s rhetoric, realistically ex pected and hoped to pick up as many as 20 House seats. The contrast between expec tation and reality shows the De mocrats won big and the Repub licans lost bigger. The reason for Republican dis may is obvious to anyone who knows the inner workings of the party political structure. It is all about the votes, and Democrats are that much closer, not farther, from regaining a majority in the House. Since their 1994 takeover. Republicans — just as the rabbit — have not utilized their majori ty. In the last year. Republicans have done more mudslinging than policy work. This week, the Republican party may elect a new House majority leader, and they will put a new speaker in power after Newt Gingrich resigned in the face of party pressure. It is ironic the Republican speaker so far has suffered more from the Lewinsky scandal than the man who did the cheating. Gingrich was the chief proponent of a Re publican strategy that backfired. After Clinton was finally caught with his pants down by Starr, Gin grich proceeded with a mudsling ing, hell-bent rhetoric that was out to get Clinton and all Democrats. The problem the Republicans failed to see was you cannot judge a group by one man. Doing so is called an individualistic fal lacy. Meanwhile, the Democrats steadily denied the Lewinsky mat ter had any importance or rele- liKkpiich m,ms a*FirnmtK«m OPRAH, the '% election ms, UKE./ OH-MNY-GANND! PEOPLE WERE,Uk&, SlxYlNO/HEY, SET OVER your mm self'; message received, iiyv trying to BE THE best m. I cm BE!.. ■ vance in any election. They chose to concentrate on issues. Voters went to the polls and let Republi cans know they want optimism, not pessimism. Through the heavy attacks on the Democrats, Republicans also failed to achieve any policy at all. Voters wanted a big tax cut out of the budget surplus; they got an annual cut of $8 per per son. Also, Republicans caved in to Clinton’s request to shore up the Social Security system. Sav ing Social Security is smart in the long run, but it was not smart in the minds of many Re publican voters. As the new Republican party leaders are chosen this week, they must now begin sticking to policies, not politics. They are still the front-runners in Ameri-. can politics. They can win the race with the resources they have available. They better not stop and nap though, because the tortoise is slowly and steadi ly gaining ground. Andrew Baley is a junior political science major. MAIL CALL Needless question annoys student You are sitting at your desk with your Scantron, and your test in cludes a true/false portion. Some one asks, "Is ‘A’ true and ‘B’ false?” Of course it is. In my years of school, A has always been true and B has always been false. Once I would like the prof to an swer this question with “I’m feel ing a bit like a renegade today, so B will be true and A will be false.” Maybe then this question could be justified. So the next time someone takes up test time with this annoying, question, restrain yourself. You do not want to overreact or anything. Andrew Kresse Class of ’01 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 77843-1311 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647