lie Battalion
O
PINION
Page 5 • Wednesday, June 16, 1999
jThe fate of Northgate
orthgate’s social scene should diversify establishments instead of adding more trendy bars
orthgate used to be a vital
area near campus. Students
could grab a cup of coffee,
y a few cheap CDs from any one
■iree record stores and then
tb a few condoms from Condom-
Jon before heading back to the
onus.
Hlowadays, all students can do
> get really drunk and maybe grab
burrito if the line at Freebird’s is-
’t going out the door.
■v
AARON
MEIER
hat used to be the social mecca for the entire
am pus has turned into a place strictly for weekend
yers and Sunday church goers.
IVhile the slow death of Northgate began when
■City of College Station decided to turn it into a
ui ist destination, the pace has picked up consid-
rably in the past year.
M.ast summer, one of the few truly unique places
ollege Station closed its doors for the last time,
the Copasetic Cafe, which originally opened up
■loor as Dead Lazio’s, a vague, but innovative
omage to “Laverne and Shirley,” offered a late-
glii alternative to people who didn’t want to trade
ila shots on a weeknight.
t that time, the coffee bar/social romper room
Jt -veil sported a glass-covered coffin pulling duty as
i coffee table and a nice looking motorcycle that
"Vould have my Harley-riding dad grinning from ear
o lar.
HBlventually, the owners of Lazio’s, who also own
igiweet Eugene’s House of Java, ditched its morbid
Jmfege and turned into Copasetic, a place that still
pvas a lone standout in the rapidly dimming lights
>f Northgate.
hen, one day, everything wasn’t copasetic any-
ore. The owners decided to expand and with the
rastic drop in business during the summer and
r inter breaks, closed Copasetic Cafe.
iWhile this decision was reached economically, it
ym m
wir
1 is just another example in a long process of ho
mogenization in Northgate.
People not interested in getting blitzed were left
without an option along Northgate, unless they
want to hang out at the copy center and make Xe
rox copies of their faces, which management isn’t
likely to appreciate.
In place of Copasetic, a bar is scheduled to
open.
What an original idea.
Maybe it could have wooden tables that people
could carve their names or their fraternity letters in.
Maybe it could have two drunk girls who are
single-handedly keeping AquaNet in business danc
ing, even though there is no dance floor in sight.
Maybe they could wear Rocky Mountains that
are two sizes too small.
Now that would really be something College Sta
tion needs.
And for those of us who do occasionally partake
of alcohol, the options are limited. Places such as
Club Ozone and The Cue have been closed for —
you guessed it — another bar where shelling
peanuts is considered live entertainment.
The only remaining options are bars where
dominoes out-number the cumulative IQ of the
clientele or bars where your history professor is
likely to ask about your lecture attendance.
It’s a basic theory of economics that if the mar
ket is flooded with the same type of business, then
sooner or later some of these businesses are going
to fail. The community’s entrepreneurs need to
take note and attempt to diversify the existing so
cial scene in Bryan-College Station.
And while carving the name of a loved one will
always be a time-honored tradition, those two
drunk girls really need a break from running from
bar to bar.
Aaron Meier is a senior
political science major.
MAIL CALL
Nike defends its
in e»p:
" labor practices
In response to Caleb McDaniel's June
7 column.
I have read some cynical articles,
L out this column really did leave me
[1 ptpeechless.
[]\v I was disappointed that the col-
imn questioned the sincerity of a
mpany who has made some pretty
ig moves to improve working condi-
SanAit' ions for the more than 500,000
iople that make its products.
-?We were making moves before
h$ spotlight was on us and continue
olio so now.
■ can assure you that Nike shares
tudents’ commitments to protecting
he rights of workers overseas, and
"^fiere is nothing clandestine about
ur recent labor practice reforms or
,iors "' ur efforts to communicate these
;lyat olicies.
Califon® In fact, we welcome constructive
ialogue on this issue, as this will
ind nove us more quickly toward our
est tu' ommon goal.
San | Simply put, Nike has nothing to
he ide. That is why we’ve committed to
als bet j|| public disclosure of factory loca-
ons where licensed university prod-
jpovic!' cts are ma q e for universities who
ins Enquire this of all their licensees.
Kersey '/\ s f 0 r our improved air quality,
rt and: iat IS a direct result of Nike’s con-
aiightt erS j on to water-based adhesives in
i tearif 5 percent of footwear production
t oftbr nd raising the company’s indoor air
uality standards to OSHA permissi-
qars,fje exposure limits in all our
n and jotwear factories,
t move- ■
Nike is fully committed to provid
ing its workers a fair wage, which, in
some cases, includes extra benefits
such as food, housing, health care
and cash bonuses.
We understand that U.S. wages
and expenses are only the frame of
reference many of us know, but when
discussing compensation, we ex
press workers’ wage packages in
their local currency because that is
how they are paid — Vietnamese
workers earn Vietnamese Dong, not
dollars — and characterizing these
wage packages in U.S. dollars is
simply inappropriate.
Admittedly, we have not asked any
minimum wage workers in our In
donesian footwear factories if the 3
wage increases they have received in
the last 13 months are sneaky.
Maybe we should.
Simon Pestridge
Nike, Inc.
Population perils
must be considered
In response to Marc Grether's June
15 column.
Modern famines are indeed
caused by logistical inefficiencies in
food distribution. But the need for
food would not be so desperate in a
region if the local population growth
was in check.
Also, Grether asserts that global
poverty is declining despite the in
crease in population.
His evidence is the impressive
growth of the gross domestic prod
uct of 32 nations. But gross domes
tic product does not reflect the stan
dard of living or the level of poverty
in a region.
Most importantly, Grether com
pletely ignores all of the non-food re
lated evils which come with an
unchecked population growth.
Pollution is a major concern due
to increased population.
Resources other than food be
come scarce as the planet mobilizes
to provide housing, roads, oil, water
and jobs to more and more people.
Technology is a wonderful thing.
But every time a field delivers a
crop, it has lost a little more of its
fertility and used a few more re
sources.
We are all lucky to have resources
to sustain us.
But an unchecked population
growth means our descendants
won’t be so lucky.
Barry Teague
Class of 92
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E-mail: batt@tamvml.tamu.edu
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Banning pornography course
does not violate free speech
A nd you thought un
derwater basket
weaving was a silly
course.
Wesleyan University in
Connecticut is enduring
one of the most insane
firestorms in bistory over
one of the courses offered
there this past year.
The seminar, “Pornogra
phy: Writing of Prostitutes,’
variety of areas in the adult entertainment in
dustry. There was even a final project, of
which the course’s instructor. Professor Hope
Weissman said in the Hartford Conrant, “It’s
supposed to be: ‘Just create your own work of
pornography.’ ”
At least Wesleyan is not offering courses in
the “How-to’s of Terrorism” yet.
A final project in that class might wipe out
half of Connecticut.
After an article on the class ran on the front
page of a local newspaper on May 8, Universi
ty President Douglas Bennet wrote a memo in
which he stated he felt that the class probably
should not be in the school’s curriculum. Af
ter this memo was made public, students at
the school began to protest that the removal of
the class would be censorship.
There are two questions that should be
asked. No, one of them is not “How much for
bootleg copies of the final projects?”
First, what was this class doing in the cur
riculum to begin with?
And secondly, would removal of this class
actually constitute censorship?
The general reason for taking a college
course is to learn something. It may not be en
joyable, but it supposedly will help make the
students that take the class more marketable
to prospective employers.
Unless these students intend to change
their names to “Sensual Vanilla” or “Johnny
Long” and perform sex acts in front of a cam
era for a living, this course will be of minimal
help. Wall Street brokerages and consulting
firms do not put gold stars next to the names
of students who create projects such as short
films of a man masturbating or a woman per
forming oral sex on her ex-boyfriend.
On top of that, how difficult is it to figure
out how to do something for this class?
Outside of setting a camera on a tripod and
perhaps getting your significant other in the
mood, this is a task that does not take much
thought. If this class can be considered as
progress toward a degree, then someone ought
to inform Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson
that they are three credits closer to their Wes
leyan diploma.
This course is cross-listed in the areas of
women’s studies and the interdisciplinary col
lege of letters at Wesleyan, which means that
at least two departments were asleep at the
wheel when this course was originally pro
posed. A course syllabus which includes in-
depth discussion on the Marquis De Sade and
“academic takes on Hustler Magazine” should
have set off alarm bells.
Considering that pornography has long
been considered degrading to women, it is es
pecially interesting that the women’s studies
department did not object. Maybe it would
have if the class had met at a cathouse.
The fact that this course was even offered
shows that the administration at Wesleyan has
to be considered incompetent.
Almost as dense, it would seem, as the stu
dents claiming that the removal of this course
would be censorship. Wesleyan is a private
school, which people — or, more likely, their
parents — pay $30,000 a year to attend.
The key word in that last sentence was pri
vate, which means the administration has a
lot more leeway to do what they deem to be
prudent.
"4 course syllabus
which includes in-depth
discussion on the Marquis
De Sade and 'academic
takes on Hustler Magazine 7
should have set off
alarm bells. ”
One student who took the class said “porn
films are very chic right now.”
But it is unlikely that a class where 30 per
cent of a student’s grade comes from setting
up a camera and sexually gratifying oneself
while listening to an Ella Fitzgerald record —
which was actually done by a student this
past semester — will do wonders for Wes
leyan’s national reputation.
Censorship is a real issue in places like Chi
na, Iran and Serbia, where people can be shot
for speaking their mind.
The removal of this class from Wesleyan’s
curriculum by the administration is not only
their prerogative but would be a dose of long-
overdue common sense.
Students who think the removal of “Smut
101” is censorship should be sent to one of
those countries to see how their whining goes
over there. Suggestion: invest in bulletproof
vests or get a clue.
Some people have gone so far as to say Pro
fessor Weismann is “a very brave woman.” It
sounds more like she is interested in shaking
someone’s tree in order to get attention.
Hopefully, the powers that be at Wesleyan
University will cut off her branch and take this
absurd course away from her.
Mark Passwaters is an electrical
engineering graduate student.
MARK
PASSWATERS
covered a whole