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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1999)
forh he Battalion O PINION Page 11 • Wednesday, December 1, 1999 Do r J at were shakenbyl t without propeil le cold and sno«| ome. ot many that thet| turn into deatht .i after another quit key on Nov. 12, iJ eople and forcing] ike shelter ini ies pressured peojll n Bolu (province),! g bodies,” TahsiniiK a rain-soaked cam® the ’90s the easiest way to ac- 1 none of the281 fj®ss cash has become the Auto- are eligible for apitiBated Teller Machines (A'l'M). ■FMs offer 24-hour eonve Culec, whose tli®ce, instantaneous transactions ms seriously damagjBanother window for banks to to the town halltoBeze more profit out of the a lot to set upanerlblic's’ ever-growing desire for ig for his family. Hd and efficiency, hut after the Augu Biking advantage of individu- withstand thecoli Is whose schedules may necessitate the use of P Bs, most banks attach a fee to the usage of the non workers iverelMs they own and operate. According to CNN, the ay to finish all the tesent is a time of soaring bank profits, teller lay- omes — the 1,000 ffs and branch closures. The banks are not hurt- ked up toe ig, but their customers’ options for accessing their pounts are narrowing. /pically, transaction charges are limited to those j zt 'rvT.c IF NO, PRESS HERE ELIZABETH KOHL sink ium. ike to heart life? If you 'our life, come] ore website , ng ATMs who are not members of the bank’s e achine. In the last several years, the fee has be- me nearly universal, but not unnoticed by the herican public. In Santa Monica, Calif, a city ordinance was re- tntly passed banning the ATM fees. ordinance officially took action on Nov. 12, ^ a,, I banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America lein ra - eady responded by seeking litigation and re- ^Bting the use of the ATMs in Santa Monica to La h | n * < customers only. I |rQ lllie banks believe the fees associated with ATM 1 sage are necessary to install and maintain the bines. And like small children who refuse to lie a toy, the banks argue that not charging a fee like offering free service to individuals who are customers. fhat the banks fail to realize is that they could [k together, eliminate ATM fees and then draw in customers as well as appeasing the old. |y finding a way to change machines in order to hall not hunam r ^ ree serv i ce > ATMs could become a useful mar- v ietlng tool. Most individuals would gladly sit pi ugh a 30-second advertisement while their trans- ctton is being processed at no cost. Banks could leu sell the ad time to fund the machines. ! By adding more appealing features to the ATMs, teks could even use the machines to create a com- rish but have etw^ffive advantage over other banks, rist provides intellect |t is not as if banks lose money in the long run by night like to discuss stalling ATMs. There is no minimum wage for a e Crouse 5-3997, oi^hine, no benefits package and, in the event of Jchnical difficulties, every employee would be of- 1 vacation time anyway. he machines are just as convenient for the bank sfor those who use them. ;;The public is questioning the issue of whether I'M fees are necessary. ifi addition to California, Iowa and Connecticut |e also banned the transaction charges and New urk has recently begun to toy with the idea, s this trend inevitably spreads to other states. banks need to recognize people’s animosity toward the fees and seek out alternatives such as minimiz ing, eliminating or creatively financing the fees. Representing only a small fraction of any banks income, banks refusal to eliminate the fees is just an exhibition of stubborn business overzealousness. There is a term for capitalism run amuck: greed. This country is not an idealistic utopia and there are limits to the drive of business. In the case of ATMs, the additional fee is noth ing more than banks satisfying their profit motive, without taking the time to realize that not charg ing for the use of ATMs would end in greater po tential gains. Elizabeth Kohl is a junior accounting major. Banks should not burden customers with surcharges IF YES, PRESS HERE W hat would happen if a customer waltzed into a supermarket and de manded a free gallon of milk, de spite the fact that he had never patronized the store before and did not intend to in the future? Surely he would be asked to leave. His desire for lactose would make the manager intoler ant of such an unreasonable demand. A scenario similar to this one is playing itself out in California, but rather than milk, the contro versy surrounds automatic teller machines (ATMs) and bank surcharges. Everyone understands the inconvenience of the Fees not unfair, should be allowed at ATM machines avid Thompson ledical Pharmacology llchatl Davis ledical Physiology teven Oberhelman lodern & Classical Languages tephen L. Hand pthalmology/Optometry Ifred Amendola uclear Engineering Jdlth M. Ball athobiology oyce Davis athology & Lab Med-Emerilus idith M. Collins sychology ohn A. McIntyre hysics arlan Scully hysics atricia Griffin olltical Science ort Kothmann angeland Ecology & Mgml. ary W. Maler aal Estate Center ouis Hodges acieation & Parks arson E. Watt ecreation & Parks rian Colwell oral and Public Health aurlce Dennis afety Education ichael Greenwald aeech Comm & Theatre Arts artin Medhurst aeech Comm & Theatre Arts ick Rigsby aeech Comm & Theatre Arts anrik Schmlediche atistics oger Schultz tester Arts Program on Green tterinary Medicine >ren Skow tterinary Medicine ichael Willard tterinary Medicine >hn W. Huff tterinary Microbiology ate Bauer tterinary Pathobiology avis Small tterinary Pathobiology aren Snowden tterinary Pathiobiology imes E. Womack tterinary Pathology lines G. Anderson tterinary Physiology irry D. Claborn tterinary Physiology m Jensen tterinary Physiology D. McCrady tterinary Physiology YOU WILL BE ASSESSED A SURCHARGE OF $1.00 FOR THIS TRANSACTION DO YOU WANT TO CONTINUE? >. .. . ® €11© IQOQ iOi Cii© (I) a : : i li mmm - - m ■ Til ' w - .ml iJ convenience charges ATM customers are bur dened with, and many citizens would like to get rid of them. But legislation banning these fees is not the an swer because the banks have every right to charge non-customers for the service. ATM customers in California have pushed through a bill to ban bank-initiated surcharges on all ATM withdrawals. Banks charge these fees to overwrite the cost of providing a money-on-demand service for non customers. Making banks suspend these fees while still providing ATM service would be like passing a law to make Jennifer Lopez do the acting thing for pay and the music thing for free. Thi§ kind of monetary pro bono should not be expected, let alone required. On June 11, 1997, Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato pro posed the Fair ATM Fees for Consumers Act. The senator made this misguided proposal in the wake of a 320 percent increase in ATM fees from 1995 to 1996. D’Amato said double-charging at ATMs hurts working people who have nowhere to go during lunch if they need money. He cited the fees as a monopolistic practice that should be banned under federal law. However, some banks do not charge extra fees for money withdrawal for non-customers. In fact, many of these banks, which have Websites allow ing concerned consumers to comment on their ser vices, use their no-fee ATMs as a keen marketing tool. They provide an alternative to the bigger bank chains which charge for ATM service. Customers do not expect other banks to cash their checks. Nor can a non-customer go to. a bank and request a large amount of change. Drawing money from an ATM operates on the same principle. Since the passage of the California bill, banks have vowed to remove ATM service for customers who do not hold accounts with their bank. Vacationers will have to carry cash with them instead of having the convenience of withdrawing money when needed. Surely the few dollars paid for the privilege of the bank service is worth the convenience of mon ey on demand. ' Consumers should avoid supporting legisla tion banning something just because they do not like it. They should recognize that in a capitalist democracy like the United States, the most impor tant vote is with the dollar. If ATM fees are truly unfair, people will simply stop using them and the banks will have to adapt. Jeff Webb is a senior journalism major. EDITORIAL Editorial Board SALLIE TURNER Editor in Chief CALEB MCDANIEL Opinion Editor BEVERLY MIRELES Opinion Editor MARIUM MOHIUDDIN Managing Editor CARRIE BENNETT Community Editor EMILY SNOOKS Campus Editor Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the lews of the editorial board members. They do not lecessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion iff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns, cartoons and letters express the opinions )flhe authors. Evaluating Professors indents should be given access to course information iLast May, the Student Senate wisely passed recommendation to make course grade dis- ributions and professor evaluations available n the Internet. Giving students easy access 3 such information about faculty members is itirely reasonable and should be supported. gHowever, cynicism about students’ mo ves is causing some members of the Faculty enate to criticize the proposal. |A few professors fear students will browse ride distributions with the intent of cush- oning their grade-point ratios, registering only or those classes that appear relatively easy. ■n this growing controversy between pro- essors and their pupils, common sense sides vith the students. Although compromises ihould be explored to make professors com- bhable with the plan, student leaders should continue to represent their constituencies by Supporting the proposed Website. ■Students are ultimately consumers. The diversity offers its product — a good educa- ion — and enrollees elect to buy. But since students pay substantial amounts of money or the courses they take, they have a right to nspect their purchases. ■Students are not sneaky for wanting to ivoid blowing their dollars or the grades on tn unnecessarily impossible course. Besides, it is difficult to understand why professors would be reluctant to share their records with potential students. If professors work hard to help students learn, those efforts will be evident in their classes’ success. And if professors fail to give proper atten tion to their teaching, tests and grades, they should be held at least partially accountable when their students perform poorly. Granted, there will always be students who receive bad grades despite the best efforts of their instructors. But there should be no ex cuse for classes which consistently average a 2.0 or lower. When over half the class barely passes, students know.it is a tell-tale sign of a teacher who does not teach. These are the kinds of classes students have a right to avoid. The Website is a valuable idea because it will not judge a course merely by its grades. Evaluations of professors will also be avail able. Students deserve such information about the classes that will affect their acade mic careers. Rather than being suspicious of student at tempts to seek out this information, profes sors ought to commend those with the initia tive to make informed decisions. Students care about learning, not just grades. But if a professor posts a low grade distribution, it is often a symptom of a course in which learning is hard to do. FDA should not try to protect people from their bad habits T he Federal Food and Drug Ad ministration (FDA) wants to raise the public’s consciousness about the fats it consumes. Recently, spokespersons announced that the FDA wants to institute another rule about food labeling. This time they want everyone to be aware of a particular category of fats called trans-fatty acids, which are bad for people and raise the risk of heart disease. What a noble goal — warning people for their own good. Govern ment is supposed to protect the public, just like a more powerful version of a parent, right? Maybe. When the FDA required food processors to list ingredients in pro portion to their weights in foods, a funny thing happened. Foods that were mostly sugar, like children’s cereals and drinks, turned up with things in them such as “high fructose corn syrup.” It took unsuspecting parents a while to realize that a sugar by any other name tastes as sweet. The same thing is likely to hap pen with trans-fatty acids. The public will get information that leads them to believe that everything is fine, while they un knowingly continue to consume the offending substance. The FDA will be foiled again in its mission to save people from their own habits. Maybe the reason for this is that it just is not government’s job to pro tect people from their own stupidity. The FDA has its roots in the days of Upton Sinclair’s novel. The Jungle. A cross between investigative report ing and horror, the book talks about real events in the meat-packing in dustry at the turn of the century. Since no one wants the butcher’s fingers ground up in the sausage, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the FDA’s parent, was born. Government agencies have an insidious tendency to expand their spheres of influence to places no one ever intended. At the turn of the century, this was a good thing. But one of the most insidious things about government agencies, and about bureaucracies in general, is their tendency to expand their spheres of influence to places no one ever intended. Bureaucracies have a survival in stinct that surpasses any species on earth. The government slipped qui etly from protecting workers from their bosses to protecting people from themselves. It is very unlikely that there is a person of normal intelligence in this country who does not know that smoking is damaging, yet there still are millions of smokers. There are very few people who are morbidly obese who have not been told by someone that being fat is bad for their health, but there still are millions of fat people. There is a pattern here. People make choices. They want to make their own choices, and they will make their own choices. The government can put town criers on every street corner with the news that this or that is bad for them, and the public will still make their own choices. Many of those choices will be bad for their health. Having a government agency whose aim is to prevent people from making bad choices is pretty silly. Paying the salaries of nobody- knows-how-many government workers to tell people what they al ready know is worse than silly, it is burdensome. Frequently, one hears conversa tions that run to the effect of: “If this doesn’t get me, that will.” The statement is ic Butter was declared a “bad” fo j years ago. Now, margarine is coining under at tack, so the only al rnative is to eat dry toast. Yum. Pass the butter. Ann Hart is a senior English major. any academic department und who share the Christia"
