le Battalion
Opinion
Page 13 • Monday, September 6, 1999
i 11 a.m.-2p.r
i, 229-7500
, 680-0710
irman, 680-0?''
Out of the fish bowl
"ish Camp can mislead freshmen with unrealistic views of Texas A&M
I
\lpha
espite the
fact that
approxi-
ately 4,700 in-
^nAng fresh
en attended
sh Camp this
Bner, there
H not many
fie Of Everting their
sh Camp T-shirts on the first
es 6-8fiy of classes.
>use Miis is probably because it is
5:30-87 trd enough being freshmen
I ithout wearing shirts that make
7-8f'em stand out even further.
Coming into Aggieland, fresh-
II DinneCA en not usua iiy have a fully
Jeived idea of what daily life
College Station is going to be
^e.
Hie University has programs
;e Fish Camp, New Student
^'inferences, Freshman Orienta-
dent, 695-82; )r i Week and so on.
% l&e purpose of each of these is
give the newcomers a glimpse
r' ENDEAR Af^'elaiid and the innumerable
' ' ‘tails of daily life.
However, as important and ef-
ctive as these programs may be,
■-ey are not perfect — including
sh Camp.
In helping the new freshmen
arn about Texas A&M, many
3>unselors at Fish Camp mislead
eir freshmen about the reality of
>llege life.
Fish Camp is a rushed process
here new students come in as
dividual high school graduates
ch Steak Hoi
TEA
an. call
man, 680
)meg
999
but leave a close-knit group of
Aggies full of Aggie spirit. And
while Aggie spirit is, without a
doubt, a good thing, there can al
ways be too much of a good
thing.
Being over-exposed to Aggie
spirit, all too often some fresh
men come out of Fish Camp
thinking every day at A&M is go
ing to be like the last four.
While Fish Camp is far from
some insidious brainwashing
trick, it is an intense four-day af
fair where freshmen are exposed
to the Aggie spirit pumped up to
the n-th degree.
Everything at Fish Camp,
whether explicitly stated or not, is
directed at introducing freshmen
to what living in Aggieland is like,
but the overzealous mentality and
gung-ho Aggieness fostered by
Fish Camp is simply not a true
representation.
Of course it is not likely to see
counselors tell their fish, “When
you get to A&M, not everybody is
going to be as enthusiastic as I
am.”
But Fish Camp counselors
should realize the impression
they are giving freshmen about
the rest of A&M students is not al
ways true to reality.
There are some 900 Fish Camp
counselors and each of them is
excited to be working with these
freshmen.
That is great, but there are
roughly 42,000 other students at
pus)
A&M the freshmen did not
spend four days in the
woods with and aren’t going
to be so overly enthusiastic
about all things Aggie.
In general, daily life at
this University is not much
different from anywhere else
in the world, but you would
not know it by watching
some Fish Camp counselors
at work.
The picture counselors
paint of Aggieland would
have everybody saying,
“howdy” and jumping on
freshmen for “pulling out.”
In reality, “howdy” is
tucked neatly into its ma
roon colored shoe box until
Howdy Week rolls around
when some people take it
out to feel good about keep
ing the tradition alive.
And as for “pulling out,”
unless a freshmen is in the
Corps of Cadets, chances are
nobody is going to say any
thing about “whooping”
when he or she gets an A on
a difficult test.
And despite what some
counselors might say, if
someone asked them at Fish
Camp, the distance between
the MSC and Sbisa is not
2003 steps.
Certainly the counselors
are not intentionally trying
to mislead their freshmen,
but if their job is to intro-
Jeff Smuh/Thk Battalion
duce the new students to life
at A&M, shouldn’t their own
actions be a fair representa
tions of just that?
The transition into college
life is a tough one and fresh
men do not need anymore
obstacles in their way.
Fish Camp should not
have to be a boring, factual,
sign-on-the-dotted-line type
of introduction to A&M —
that is for the New Student
Conferences.
However, the staff should
get a grip on what daily life in
Aggieland is really like and
tone down their overly inten
sified Aggie spirit during
camp. Despite what some
counselors might think,
building the Aggie sprit can
not be finished in just four
days.
It is something that grows
with Aggies as they learn
more and more about A&M
through their time spent on
campus and even after gradu
ation.
If counselors take a more
realistic approach to their
freshmen and lighten up on
the full-frontal Aggieness,
they can refrain from giving a
false impression to their
freshmen of what to expect
during their days at A&M.
Eric Dickens is a junior
English major.
7-9 p.'
ntry Club
7-9 p.i
i
8 p.m.
n, 695-1019
, 255-3305
Absentee advisers
Undergraduate faculty missing
n action at beginning of semester
v
Fheta
-all 199S
here must be
a room on
campus in
lich all academic
visers congre-
te, sip coffee and
itch soaps dur-
5 the first few
?eks of school.
-
ELIZABETH
KOHL
6-8 p"
:ks
k BBQ
TEA
TEA
It is as if they
ve extended their summer vaca-
n for a week or two.
5.7 ; 3[ Anyone who has ever tried knows
at getting in to see an adviser at
5-7:313 beginning of the school year is
arly impossible.
Speaker 6-8pfHying to go to the office will usu-
y get you little more than a heat
oke. Students or faculty members
irking at front desks are profes-
mals when it comes to sending
idents across campus to talk to
meone else.
in They seem to derive a certain
landers 680-09£ ?asure f rom especially anytime
enghaus 846-c. ? y can ^ stU( j ents to cross Well-
rn.Calling an adviser’s office dur-
5 the first few weeks is just as fu-
WTHERHO^. Once again the secretary
ones, “I’m sorry, none of the ad-
>ers are seeing anyone right now.
xild you like me to make an ap-
————■'intment for you in November?”
One seriously begins to wonder if
nu: visers are aware that add-drop
I rill ly lasts one week.
Students who have become well
1 quainted with these academic of-
. es have learned to expect a hassle
o.ju-o.j - leri scheduling problems occur.
6 where we live) Just because one has an adviser
es not mean he or she has ever
7-8:30 p.moken with him or her.
Granted, making an appointment
th an adviser guarantees that one
neSandXrsi 11 f e them ~ eventually.
6;3O-8:30 f After sitting around campus for a
;k s v hours and waiting in the office
iome stick) ' another 30 minutes, a student is
Chapter 6:30-9 : . a lly permitted a moment of talk
: House le. But a single moment seems to
... all it is.
BA Invitation* Advisers rus h students into their
n personal contact'jc^ s h them down, smile and in-
ZttSZ td uce themselves, but then a stu-
nt has seven minutes, so it better
3 83g7 unt. One reason for the hassle at
Byers 694-163^ beginning of the school year and
P House 696-i’ ; 'oughout is the advising system it-
orgs/pikapp f. According to the Undergraduate
talog, academic advising is coor-
rated by department within the
lieges.
JND BELIE Most departments have at least
o full-time “advising specialists,”
limiting the staff available to stu
dents. Early scheduling difficulties
are settled by a few questions any
one could ask and several key
strokes at the right computer.
By training students to work with
the advising computer systems this
problem could be temporarily allevi
ated during the beginning of the
school year.
Students are often better aware of
what they need than those entering
data in the first place.
In addition to full-time advisers,
faculty members are also available
to students for advising.
Since the only way to be forced
into many classes is directly through
the professor, this policy makes
sense.
However, few faculty members
make it clear that they have the ca
pacity to advise, leaving students to
refer to the two advisers allocated to
their department.
A simple note on a syllabus or a
posted list of available advisers in
the department office could make an
already congested system slightly
smoother.
Students talking to advisers real
ize that they have a lot of paper
work to offer.
Advisers listen attentively as
backwards schedules and upper-lev
el problems are explained.
Yet, advisers hands are often tied
when it comes to actually solving
these problems.
There should be a little piece of
paper taped to every advisers desk
which states exactly what everyone
should be taking and when.
Telling a student to take what he
or she wants or changing the order
in which the degree plan recom
mends, seems to be a cardinal no-
no.
An adviser who is going to read
the Undergraduate Catalog or class
schedule would save themselves
and who they are trying to help
much time by simply handing them
the original catalog.
For any student experiencing
scheduling difficulty there is always
an upperclassman or the Undergrad
uate Catalog to refer to.
Otherwise good luck finding the
little room with the coffee pot, televi
sion and huddled group of advisers.
Elizabeth Kohl is a junior
accounting major.
Access before improvement
From The GW Hatchet at George Washing
ton University
(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON — The College
Board recently released some encouraging
statistics concerning the number of minori
ties taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test
(SAT). A higher percentage of students who
took the SAT last year were minorities, al
though minority performance on the test re
mains well below national averages.
Minority student participation in the SAT
increased by a third over the past decade.
Showing improvement in the statistics were
African-Americans (seven-point increase,
856 average score in 1999), Puerto Ricans
(28/903) and American Indians and
Alaskan Natives (42/965). Mexican Amer
icans (12-point drop, 909) and
Hispanic/Latino (-5/927) test-takers fared
worse as a whole, although the influx of par
ticipants in these groups might account for
the decrease.
The College Board announced it will of
fer SAT courses on the Web, which should
help students who cannot afford expensive
test preparation courses.
Yet, online SAT preparation courses will
help only students who have Internet ac
cess. The problem with the online service
is that the students who lack Internet ac-
COLLEGIATE ROUNDUP
from U-Wire editorial reports
cess are often the same students who can
not afford expensive test preparation cours
es. In these cases, the online SAT prepa
ration material will not help.
The newest statistics from the College
Board show clear progress for minorities,
not in the form of increased scores, but in
increased access to the SAT and therefore
higher education. Before a strategy can be
devised to raise minority scores, the test
must first be accessible to minorities. The
College Board is going in the right direction
by offering free SAT preparation courses on
the Web, but the real answers concerning
disparities in scoring must start long before
senior year in high school.
Netting cheaper books
From The Diamondback at U. Maryland
(U-WIRE) COLLEGE PARK, Md. — E-com-
merce has finally begun to take a foothold
in the business of book retail. For students
and their bank accounts, that is a good
thing.
These Web-based companies are able to
tap into a database of available books and
can distribute them for up to 40 percent off
the list price, they claim, in less time than
it takes to register for classes. (We saw a
lower 10-20 percent difference in a random
sampling of texts.)
More Websites offering college texts ap
pear literally everyday. Varsitybooks.com
has made a serious effort to publicize on
this campus, as have theuzone.com and
textbooks.com. All three had ads in The Di
amondback yesterday, and textbooks.com
was handing out free cups. Instead of hav
ing two stores to buy books from in College
Park, there are at least seven available
through the Internet competing for student
dollars and inevitably knocking prices down.
Beware, however, of steals that seem too
good to be true for they probably are. Often,
delivery services can bring the price of a.
text back up to the list price, or over, if it is
an express delivery. And there aren’t many
selections discounted the advertised 40 or
50 percent on any of the sites.
The only cloud on the e-commerce hori
zon is the profit the companies aren’t see
ing. Amazon.com posted a negative $5.8
million net income in 1996 and in 1997,
listed a $27.6 million net income loss with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
If the premiere e-commerce company
cannot post net earnings, it may mean that
e-commerce’s future is dim. And if online
textbook companies do not start offering
genuine discounts and benefits instead of
their empty “save up to ...” promises, their
ends may be near as well. Then again, stu
dents trying to save 20 bucks on engineer
ing texts may just keep the market alive.
Venezuelan leader fails country's interests
MARIANO
CASTILLO
I n the last
few weeks,
citing that
corruption
must be
cleaned up.
President
Hugo Chavez
shut down
Venezuela’s
Supreme Court.
Not even a month later. Con
gress shut down, giving Chavez
what many political analysts
consider dictatorial powers.
President Chavez insists he and
his newly formed Constitutional
Assembly are working within
the law and that everything will
be back to normal as soon as
the new constitution is finished.
Still, many international ob
servers, especially in the United
States, are wary that Venezuela’s
40-year-old democracy is on the
brink of extinction.
As hegemon in the Americas,
the United States’ main interest
in keeping Venezuela a democ
racy is to ensure that it remains
in its sphere of influence.
The United States could care
less about poor people in
Venezuela as long as they are
willing to work for pitiful wages
to export oil to the United
States. If the government in
Venezuela were to drastically
change, the United States might
have to turn to the Middle East
as its primary source for oil.
It is the poverty stricken citi
zens of Venezuela, over 80 per
cent of the nation’s population,
who are left with no allies.
When they heard the battle
like cries from Chavez for revo
lution, they perked their ears
and got their hopes up, seem
ingly for nothing.
If the United States is gen
uinely dedicated to preserving
democracy and freedom, the na
tion’s attention to Venezuela
should be toward the mountains
in Venezuela, wriich are over
crowded with people, disease
and crime, and not toward the
political and economic games its
government plays.
Organizations such as the
United Nations are not involved
enough in situations like this.
If they would set their priori
ties as ideally stated in their
constitutions and placed human
lives before politics, the rest
would follow.
If the United States or United
Nations began incentives in
Venezuela to help the poor, why
would the people even consider
electing someone with a shady
past like Chavez in the first
place? An editorial in the New
York Times last week thoroughly
bashed Chavez and his attempts
to shake the country back into
shape. The same week two rep
resentatives, Cass Balleger, R-
N.C. and William Delahunt, D-
Mass., traveled to Venezuela on
a fact-finding mission and re
ported that everything was be
ing done constitutionally.
/"i
Venezuela's
40-year-old
democracy is on
the brink of
extinction."
While these opposing argu
ments are being swallowed up
by the media and debated by
journalists, political analysts
and economists, the heart of the
issue is being lost.
In short, the poor are losing
again. All of the international at
tention that Chavez’s politics
and his manipulation of power
has brought to Venezuela is
making investors wary.
Companies from around the
world now see Venezuela as a
very unstable market both eco
nomically and especially politi
cally. No one is willing to risk
investing in this nation, which
has so much potential and so
many resources.
Many companies that were in
Venezuela before the elections
have begun to pull their opera
tions out. This translates into a
loss of jobs and a lack of new
jobs. The economy in
Venezuela is frozen.
In the end, to the people that
need change the most, the poor,
it does not make a difference if
Chavez becomes the next Fidel
Castro or if he is assassinated to
morrow. It does not matter to
them if Venezuela becomes a
democracy, dictatorship or even
a communistic state.
All they want is a brighter fu
ture at whatever the cost.
It is unfortunate for them
that nations and organizations
with such wealth and power as
the United States and the United
Nations choose to ignore the
problem and worry about their
own selfish advancement.
It is truly sad to see that the .
United State’s main motives
for involvement are keeping
gas cheap and keeping
Venezuela as one of its politi
cal string-puppets.
»
Mariano Castillo is a sopho-;
more international studies major. •