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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1999)
i Battalion Usings linese pport Opinion Page 15 • Friday, December 10, 1999 .IING (AP)-Bon out at President lay for criticizing Chechnya, blunii) * 1 nton that Russia® r power, seems Mr. Clim ten Russia isagra t possesses a nui ' Yeltsin saidata Chinese legislate i Peng. “Wearen af Clinton’s anti- m.” rant to tell Press it he alone canno e world should i; y. Itis us who w! sin’s outburst,at t of reporters, csj ired Chinesebadi s campaign tom ; in Chechnya, ton, meanwhile,! iff his criticism i offensive, whi ed large numfc i casualties and tan 240,000civil :hnya. on’t agree with an there, and I i obligation to s told reporters in He sought, ho he other education \ving rewards students in intangible ways ie young nan vould luute at the of the se- and nove on Asked ad a job, wered is still looking. What kind §k was he looking for? ything that will get me as.” gthe Peace Corps,” some- iggested. He laughed at ggestion. ey don’t pay enough. ” (c bottom line is the Peace (did not meet his financial ations. No argument could je him to think seriously what else he might get from Iperience. st people who attend college ith the hope of improving arning potential, and there is _ wrong with money, lat is wrong is making ythe motivating factor for cisions. iple often miss out on great ds because their self-interest ar of word;! hem giving is antithetical to saying, “1 me ?t too serious al it talk about wtu are saying and if criticism.” Chinese Presidem nd Li, No. 2 nist Party, d Beijing with beat ho studied carpi aw 44 years age n Russian, call® id." mg. v who have done serious teerwork would agree it is sible to receive while offer- ervice to the community, or world. [anted, the term “volunteer” one who works without remuneration. But money is not the only reward that exists, nor is it the only reward worth having. The Big Brother/Big Sister, a pro gram that assigns children with vol unteer adult mentors, has provided thousands of kids with adult role models to look up to. The adults involved gain the sat isfaction of knowing they have en couraged a child in need. Even though it is not a peer friendship, both child and adult gain the benefit of human contact. Money is not the only reward that exists. Literacy Volunteers of America helps adults learn to read through one-on-one tutoring. Volunteers may find their horizons widened by contact with the people they help or may gain a new appreciation for their advantages. Enrichment comes in many forms. My mother always used to tell me, “You get out of life what you put into it.” There does not seem to be much evidence to the contrary. The more energy one puts into an endeavor, the higher the payoff. The harder one studies, the better one’s grades. The more carefully one per forms an experiment, the more de pendable the results. The more gen erous one is with time and talent, the richer one’s life. The attitude of “I put in my four years, where’s the cash?” is not jus tified. There have been very few who have gotten through those four years without help from some one. Mom and Dad paid tuition or slipped them the occasional $20. Those who received financial aid owe a debt of gratitude to the gov ernment or the organization which supplied that assistance. Even those who will graduate with massive educational debts must concede their lives were made better by lenders’ willing ness to gamble on their future earning potentials. Even students who have paid the whole bill alone will admit a professor took a minute to help them sometime during the four years. Anyone who thinks they earned a bachelor’s degree without help is sorely deceived. Aggies in particular should rec ognize their educations are subsi dized by the state. Everybody gets some help some time, and every one can afford to give back. Buildings at most universities have names instead of numbers be cause alumni who do well in life give money to the school that pro vided their training. Few graduating seniors will have an extra million to give to a university, but all have time and talent. It seems ungrateful to say, “That doesn’t pay enough,” when asked to help. Ann Hart is a senior English major. MARK McPHERSON/The Batta»ioN iditor in chief reflects on Fall y 99 semester »» ,ii Aug. 25 I became the most hated person on this campus. Many of you have hated me this semester just be- lof my title — editor in chief of The Bat- i —but I am not the bleeding-heart lib- nost would assume. Ictually am quite conservative and pride [If on being an Aggie, glance at my resume would quickly re- ny love for Texas A&M — how else could i served as a class officer or been a Fish i counselor for two years? lis semester I have laughed with you and |ned with you, and TUesday night I stood [ly at Silver Taps and wept with you. My for this University did not disappear ' became editor in chief, jis semester I have tried to provide you (news of this campus., jis news may not always have been [you wanted to hear, but in the “real i,” outside this bubble, you will learn lews printed is not always the news you | to hear. lurnalists have the incredible responsibili- fproviding readers (or viewers or listen- vith the information they need to know, [information is not always positive, but it be told. I Bonfire site, about 30 minutes after stack (alien, I was assaulted by a group of stu- ; praying for those hurt in the accident, ^tood amidst the chaos, trying to under- 1 the reality of what my eyes were seeing, [tory I wanted to tell was not the bodies that lay on the ground but rather the reactions of students. But this was not understood by the students who beat me to the ground for simply taking a photograph. The A&M campus still has a lot of growing up to do when it comes to dealing with the news and journalists. The news of this year has been more than this campus could handle. y GUY ROGERS/ I'm Battalion Each of you still has the image in your head of the Northside Parking Garage after a fresh man leaped to his death. That image haunts us all, but it opened our eyes to the problem of MAIL CALL suicide — something no one wants to talk about. Looking beyond Aggieland, I see a world that is quickly deteriorating. School shootings, plane crashes and deadly earthquakes have become weekly occur rences. These stories are sensational before a reporter ever steps on the scene. The journalists (with the possible excep tion of broadcast journalists) who step onto the scene are not out to exploit, destroy or hurt those they are reporting about. They are simply trying to do their jobs to provide you, the reader, with the informa tion you need to know. My challenge to you is to look beyond the hatred and name-calling of journalists to focus on the fact they are providing you with the necessary truth. This truth can be harsh and painful at times, but in the long run, knowing the truth only serves to make you stronger. To those of you who still believe I am a heartless journalist with nothing better to do than destroy the lives of others, I beg you to remember that before I took the position of editor in chief I was the same as any other Ag gie on this campus. After today, I go back to being the life of a college student — sitting in classes and praying to God I actually will graduate someday. But 1 will never forget the lessons I learned while serving as the most hated person on this campus. Sallie Tamer is a senior journalism major. rents appreciate [ident response e find it difficult to find the s to express our apprecia- forthe incredible amount of and compassion that has i shown to us as we grieve oss of our son Jeremy, and iggie brothers and sisters, ixas A&M has been a spe- rlace for us since our oldest attended and graduated here 10 years ago. and our daughter-in-law as Bonfire buddies. Jeremy ed when he was 10 that s A&M was where he want- go to school. He loved it , and we are so grateful for our and one-half years he here. iach one of you has used God-given talents and gifts ipport us in such wonderful creative ways. 'e have loved every word en and spoken, every prayer every call. The many expres- s of love always come just nwe need them the most. Although we are not “Aggies” by true definition , we feel that we have been adopted into this most incredible family. We love all of you, and will be lifting you up in our prayers and we will be sustained by by the prayers you offer up for us. Family of Jeremy Frampton Spring sports need total Aggie support Although some of us would like to think otherwise, our Uni versity is coming up short in some respects when compared to schools such as the University of Kansas and Indiana University. Is it the fact they have pre miere men’s college basketball teams? That is part of it, but more importantly, they also have a healthy atmosphere of rabid basketball fans. Anyone who has visited a Texas A&M Men’s Basketball game in the past decade would probably agree that this same enthusiasm is lacking in College Station. Yes, there are loyal fans who come to the games and support the team on a regular basis. But for a University with over 40,000 students, there is no reason there should be empty seats at Aggie basketball games. A&M has a coach in Melvin Watkins who had legitimate suc cess at a school that had far fewer resources than A&M. According to numerous publica tions, A&M signed a top-20 re cruiting class last year and already has signed who one publication called the 18th-best prospect in the nation for next year. So why can’t we take a bit of the enthusiasm that manifests itself at Kyle Field each fall and move it across the street into Reed Arena? To add a little motivation, I should mention that we have a deadline to meet — Jan. 17, to be specific. On this date, A&M will play in front of a national television audience thanks to ESPN’s “Big Monday” telecast. ESPN has made it well known that it has no intention of com ing back if Reed Arena does not sell out, so the pressure is on us. Either we can get behind our team in a big way and have some fun, or we can have years of a half-full arena with no na tional exposure. My challenge to you is to find it inside yourself to catch some basketball fever. Stephen Metcalf Director of ARMY (Aggies Ready to Motivate You) Class of ’OO 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: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com VIEW POINTS NASA exhibits carelessness A fter half a week of silence, NASA scientists once again bowed their heads in shame as they acknowledged that the Mars Polar Lander was gone for good. President Clinton echoed the public’s opinion Wednesday by supporting the program, saying the loss of NASA’s two most ambitious Mars projects is just a minor setback which can be overcome. How can the loss of a $165 million Mars Polar Lander, with its $29.5 miliion probes, and the $125 Mars Climate Orbiter be considered a mi nor setback? These two failures are a clear and urgent indication NASA needs to rethink its strategy to explore the “Red Planet.” NASA administrator Dan Goldin’s space-exploration theory of “faster, better, cheaper” falls flat on its face, because it does not use common sense. The novelty of space travel has long wore off, which has led to less attention to detail. It seems scientists who work on multi-million dollar space pro jects have come to see their work as rudimentary. There can be no other explanation for the careless oversights, such as the mea surement systems that led to the Climate Orbiter’s demise. Clinton raised some sentiment for the program by comparing these most recent failures to the 1976 launchpad fire that killed three astronauts. The flaw in his comparison is that the fire was an acci dent, while the loss of the Climate Orbiter and possibly the Polar Lander was carelessness. NASA needs to have more focused goals instead of juggling Mars exploration, shuttle missions, space-station work and other projects. The solution is not to scale back funding but to define pro jects better and put more effort into checking details. If anything comes out of the loss of the nation’s investments, NASA should use it as a reminder that as they shoot for the stars they have to shoot for perfection. — Mariano Castillo Erroneous evaluations W ith the semester coming to a close, students are getting a chance to voice their thoughts about classes through course-evaluation forms. While University faculty rules note the importance of student feedback in evaluating the effec tiveness of teachers, these forms play virtually no role in decid ing professors’ fates. The emphasis for faculty members at Texas A&M is their re search and publication. Professors pride themselves on, and the University rewards them for their success at, getting their work published and earning new research grants. With this bias toward research, A&M has built a faculty widely recognized and respected as well as one that brings funding to the University. However, A&M also has stacked the deck against students. Some professors’ skills at conducting a class and giving a lec ture leave much to be desired. Many students have had professors who stumble through their class lectures, mixing up facts and confusing students. Fortunately, there are some alternative avenues for course evalu ation. Several student organizations post blank sheets of butcher paper in residence halls and elsewhere on campus as places where students can write their thoughts on professors for other students to see. While the comments tend to be short and decidedly one sided, they serve as effective means for students to warn other stu dents of professors they will have classes with next semester. Unlike the current Scantron evaluations, which are sealed be fore other students can see their classmates’ or Dions, these in formal message boards allow students to clear! see how their peers feel about teachers. This student-to-student feedback is even more valuable considering the University’s favoring of re search over teaching skills. — Eric Dickens