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Minority
enrollment
a problem, but
admitting top 25
percent is
no solution
T
MARIANO
CASTILLO
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his year, even the administration has been
in the Halloween spirit. At the last Texas
A&M System Board of Regents meeting.
University officials dressed up
an affirmative action proposal
and tried to present it as a
“Freshman Opportunity
Admissions Initiative.” This
shoddy costume is not fooling
A&M students, and hopefully,
the regents and the state will
unmask this unjust proposal
before any more time or money
is wasted on it.
The proposal would extend automatic admis
sion to the top 25 percent of students from eco-
nomically disadvantaged high schools. By con
sidering automatic admission for the top 25 per
cent of these schools, A&M is fighting a battle
for affirmative action that was decided by the
Hopwood ruling in 1996.
What makes the top 25 proposal particularly
flawed is that the University is confusing race
with economic situation. Targeting students
who may otherwise fall through the cracks
because of the economic shortfalls facing their
families and schools is an admirable goal. In
fact, having a more economically diverse stu
dent body may be a positive thing. It must be
clear, though, that diversity in economic situa
tion and race are not the same thing. This pro
posal implies that the most minorities are at
the poorest schools. In any case, accept
ing more students automatically is not
the solution to diversity of any type.
The top-10-percent rule has been
the subject of much criticism, most of
it deserved. The education system in
Texas is so varied that one cannot
compare the top 10 percent of graduates
from one school with the top 10 percent of
graduates from another. Advocates of the
top ten-percent rule point out that Texas
public universities are returning to pre-
Hopwood minority enrollment. The benefits of
diversity are obvious, but as admission
becomes more competitive, more people are
rightly questioning the current system.
More emphasis must be placed on
A&M’s true diversity problem: Why do
qualified minorities who are admitted choose
to attend college elsewhere?
Admission trends in Texas show that minori
ties are applying and being accepted. A&M offi
cials are not blind to these facts. Each year, the
University sends a letter to all minorities who
EDITORIAL
:as ASM
STUNG
EAM
i call:
696-7721
779-9907
Texas A&M University — Celebrating 125 Years
ASM COMMUNITY S»NCE 1893
EDITORIAL BOARD
Brady Creel
Mariano Castillo
Cayla Carr
Jonathan Jones
Rolando Garcia
Editor in Chief
Managing Editor
Opinion Editor
Opinion Editor
News Editor
A Call to Arms
Action must be taken or Bonfire will never be seen again
A/eekend Rate:
ng at $400
Events • Parties
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731-8155
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TA
RiC
With each passing day, it is
becoming more evident that
Aggie Bonfire will not burn in
2002. If Bonfire does not burn
next year, the burden will ulti
mately fall on Texas A&M
President Ray M. Bowen.
Bowen and other administra
tors, intentionally or not, are
allowing the Bonfire flame to
flicker and die amid the
morass of bureaucratic wran
gling and red tape.
Bowen recently said that the
$1.5-million price tag of Bonfire
2002 is too costly and may
force the University to reconsid
er plans for future Bonfires.
Now, the lack of a safety firm
threatens to permanently extin
guish Bonfire. Planners are
already behind schedule, and
each week that passes without
a final design selected is a nail
in the coffin of a 90-year-old tra
dition, providing administrators
with a new reasons to reconsid
er not having Bonfire next year.
If Bonfire does not burn next
year, it is unlikely to burn
again. Most students have
never seen a Bonfire burn, and
as each semester passes,
those with an intimate under
standing of what Bonfire is are
leaving Aggieland. Without a
Bonfire in 2002, there will be
no passion and enthusiasm for
having a Bonfire in 2003 or
after — the tradition will die.
Students supported Bowen’s
It has become clear
that, left to its
own devices, the
administration will
cancel Bonfire.
decision to postpone Bonfire
for two years to ensure that
when it did burn in 2002, it
would be “forever safe.” But life
is uncertain, and ensured safe
ty is futile. Bowen eliminated
cut, reduced the stack to a sin
gle tier and drastically reduced
student participation. Students
accepted these parameters as
conditions for continuing
Bonfire, and Bowen must keep
his end of the bargain. Rather
than fabricating excuses, now
is time the administration step
up to the plate and do whatever
it takes to save Bonfire.
Students, former students and
all in the Aggie community who
want to see Bonfire burn again
also have an obligation. For
almost two years, Aggies have
passively left the future of
Bonfire in the hands of adminis
trators. Apathy must end today.
Students and alumni must
speak and let their views be
known, and student leaders
must take up the cause of the
students they represent. Student
Body President Schuyler Houser
has been neither seen nor heard
during this ordeal. Her silence,
too, must end.
It has become clear that left
to its own devices, the admin
istration will cancel Bonfire.
The time for watching and
waiting is over. The time to
save Bonfire is now.
chose not enroll here asking them
to give some reasons why. A&M
policy toward racial diversification
should concentrate on
getting these stu
dents to enroll,
rather than
opening
admission up
to 25 percent at target
schools.
In a post-
Hopwood world,
the challenge A&M
should be concerned with is how to
get qualified minorities to enroll,
not how to sidestep the court’s
ruling. Granted, it is easier to
change admission standards
than to actively seek out the
nation’s best minority scholars,
but A&M deserves better than
that.
Finally, the administration
needs to rethink its paradigm
when it comes to diversity. The
most successfully diverse uni
versities and companies
have found answers in this
truth: diversity means
white students also.
While the top 10-percent
rule has increased diver
sity, it is producing an
unwarranted side effect: some students
feel that unqualified minorities are
being admitted over qualified white
applicants. In reality, the possibility
of this is very low, but it will likely
become a true problem if top 25-
percent becomes a reality.
The question at the center
of this debate is the poten
tial of students from eco
nomically disadvantaged
schools versus the expe
rience of students from
wealthy schools. In
many cases, the right
decision is to choose potential over experi
ence,' regardless of race.
What comes of this argument is that there can
not be a blanket policy regarding diversity policy.
Mariano Castillo is a senior international
studies and journalism major.
Cipro sensation
E ach day, the news is filled with who has
been affected by anthrax, and now, a
disease that was rarely heard of is
something that businessmen and grade school
ers are all talking about. Trailing in its foot
steps is Cipro, the newest
drug grabbing the attention
of Americans. Truthfully,
people may be better off
knowing less about the drug
itself and its availability to
anyone.
Unfortunately, not only
are more people learning of
Cipro’s existence, but
healthy people are taking the drug without
any regard for the harm that it could be
doing. According to Sharon Kirkley of The
Ottawa Citizen, “Doctors are warning that if
too many people start self-medicating with
Cipro, it could lead to bigger problems than
any germ attack.”
The Bayer Health
Village reports that Cipro,
technically called
ciprofloxacin, is “one of
the newer compounds”
and is the drug used for
the treatment of anthrax. It
is taken orally and is “rap
idly absorbed” into the
body with good results on
infections. Unfortunately,
the facts about the drug itself are of very lit
tle interest to most people. People are pay
ing such a lack of attention that this drug is
causing unnecessary problems.
The first major problem with people tak
ing it is that most of the people swallowing
Cipro are doing it only out of over-precau
tion and fears of coming into contact with
anthrax chemicals. While there are many
times when precautions are extremely smart
and positive moves — taking Cipro because
of fear of anthrax is not one of them.
Cipro has a history of causing an immuni
ty to itself. In other words, people who take it
(even for a short time) can become immune
to its effects. So, by taking the pills when
they are not needed, a person takes away the
potential of being able to use it as a treatment
if they later come in contact with anthrax.
Mutations and trades are two things that can
cause resistance to antibiotics in treating
infections. A mutation can occur when a bac-
Truthfully, people may
he better off knowing
less about the drug
itself and its
availability to anyone.
teria’s genes are changed, or when the
descendants of a bacteria are stronger than
the previous strands. Trades are when bacte
ria transfer genetic information for new
resistance to the original treatments.
While some of this may seem extremely
scientific, it is not rare at all. Officials in the
New Jersey area believe that certain immuni
ties may have already begun to occur in that
population because of a high demand for the
drug. Carol Baker, head of the Infectious
Disease Society of America, said that not
only could people lessen their own resistance,
hut taking antibiotics without need for them
can also mean‘“you’re likely to spread resist
ance to the people you live with.”
Another problem is that the people taking
Cipro unnecessarily are causing a shortage of
the drug for many people who truly need it.
While Bayer may describe Cipro as a
“newer compound,” it is not at all a new drug
in the medical world. It has been in use in
the United States for more
than 13 years and has treated
many other things before its
recent use in anthrax cases.
Cipro can be used to treat E-
coli infections and infections
of other areas, including the
urinary tract.
Just because anthrax is the
talk of the town does not
mean that other people do not
still need it for these other infections, but it is
now extremely difficult for them to get a hold
of. A huge contributor to this problem is doc
tors who are prescribing it to their patients out
of precaution. Family physician Lloyd
Rossman admits to writing five prescriptions
for patients in southeast Florida because of
their need for “psychological comfort.” This is
unacceptable.
In times of trouble and need, the physical
pain and illness of people must come before
the comforting of other’s minds. This is not a
time to run scared of anthrax, and doctors
are only making the problems much worse
by aiding people in taking the drugs. Baker,
said it best by explaining that “On the bio
logical battleground between man and
microbe, people taking unneeded antibiotics
means aiding the enemy.”
Melissa Bedsole is a senior
psychology major.