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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 2002)
: BATTAL Opinion THE BATTALION 5B Thursday, January 17, 2002 use a weapi. J i explosive bl ainst Amen,"! ing on coodii y be an al-QJ Ra’uff" ™ Qaida operJ i are listed § stan by a milarities ir the Middle :ct they ait ile in prisorj ped at the d rias Moussa sept. 11 tern 5 down nfiscated by ctK>n by U N i Aidid, anb d OS 90 >f Conwy the reaches:-: > vdth surf-: JL >tumn acond bul finds Non ■ EDITORIAL Destructive Construction The construction sites scattered across campus have left Texas &M unsightly and difficult to navigate. At present, construction |xists on Wellborn Road and West Campus, where an under ground passage and parking garage are being built, on Ross Street, and now renovations on Bizzell Loop. Although construc- lon inherently suggests the improvement of campus, better plan ing of construction projects, improved communication and Nmovative thinking are needed to solve these problems. ■ Aggies are prideful of many aspects of A&M, but with recent, lirge amounts of construction and increased parking difficulty, pride in the beauty of our campus has dwindled. In addition to increased construction, parking area 61 has recently changed from a blue and red commuter and resident parking lot to a com pletely red resident lot. This inevitably creates an increased bur den on the already limited blue commuter parking lots. To make le student commuting process easier, better communication Between the Department of Parking, Traffic and Transportation Services and the student body needs to exist in addition to bet ter construction planning. Completing one construction project before beginning another, holding more discussion forums and allowing students to vote for major parking and construction ^decisions would help solve some transportation problems. Bus Operations should consider creating alternate routes to avoid congestion on Bizzell Loop. ■ The new parking and construction developments affect all who set foot on the Texas A&M campus. Students, faculty and visitors Oh bikes, cars, buses or foot deserve the right to travel through campus with ease and safety. If A&M wishes to be viewed as a world-class University, it needs to remember the important impression that a world-class University campus should make. | THE BATTALION •■“*■»«»»«»«**■**■*■■****»*■*««*««**»■«*»»»»»■ SINCE IMS - EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in Chief Mariano Castillo i0uamr } M.nuigiuz ^itor Is** - - wOpinion Editor News Editor News Editor tatf College; Brian Ruff Cayla Carr Sommer Bunce Brandie Liffick Member Member Member Member Melissa Bedsole Jonathan Jones Jennifer Lozano Kelln Zimmer The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 200 words or less and include the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor ■erves the right to edit letters for length, style and accuracy. Letters may be submit ted m person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters also may be mailed to: 014 Reed McDonald, MS 1111, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX riti0nr 5 nn Fax: ^ 979 ^ 845 ' 2647 Emai,: mailcan@thebatt.com (1 RTOON OF THE DAY < MAIL CALL <TS lc to only 1 * drink e, >«ej fERS ill 6 96-6756 )r. Bowen speaks >ut about cartoon i response to Jan. 14 cartoon: Texas A&M is known for its lead- rship development and for the ght bonding that united us as an ggie family. We sing “true to each ther as Aggies should be,” and we ant to make those words a reali- '. It is disappointing, then, when i/ents happen that diminish our ladership role in the larger socie- 1 and divide the Aggie family. Racial stereotyping and racist ikes are examples of such vents. Behaviors of that kind limit le inclusiveness of the Aggie fam- y and perpetuate negative nages of the university, thus Jducing the opportunity for ggies to be leaders. That is why I 'as so disappointed to see the artoon published in Monday’s battalion, which clearly played on egative stereotypes of African jnericans. The attitudes expressed in the cartoon are directly contrary to my own values and ideals and to the values and ideals that I believe are held by most TAMU students, faculty, staff members and former students. The Battalion is an independent, student-run newspaper. It enjoys the full freedom of the press that we celebrate in this nation. I am not writing this letter to challenge the freedom of The Battalion. But I do wish to tell you how greatly I deplore the messages conveyed by this cartoon, which casts doubt on whether we are truly a welcoming place for all people. Monday, Jan. 21, is the birthday of a great American, Martin Luther King, Jr. In honor of this occasion, I hope we will all renew our commitment to a Texas A&M that welcomes all people, of all groups, in a spirit of equality, mutual respect and friendship. Dr. Ray M. Bowen University President COMING UP SHORT Football squad should improve NCAA graduation rates M ost students Director Wally Groff have State, Kentucky and Texas Christian for attend Texas 1? complained that the NCAA increased playing time. It is not that thes A A 4 i' .. f a * i / 1 i 'it « / \ l'1 ■ ■< Kkiiti- ii ' i ■ ti r> 1 t/v RICHARD BRAY M ost students attend Texas A&M for a degree at the end of their college careers. Apparently this is one more thing that separates the members of the football team from the rest of the student body. According to an NCAA report issued in September, Texas A&M's football graduation rate for the past four years is 33 percent. This ranks A&M last in the Big 12 and far below the national average of 49 percent. It is also well below A&M’s student body graduation rate of 70 percent in the past four years. A&M student athletes, in all sports, post a 55 percent graduation rate. Texas A&M football head coach R.C. Slocum and Athletic Director Wally Groff have complained that the NCAA graduation rates are not an accurate representation because they include athletes who have transferred to a dif ferent school, were dismissed from the team or leave early to play pro fessional football. Groff also said A&M’s football graduation rate is reduced because A&M has higher academic requirements than other schools in the Big 12. Slocum and Groff are correct. The NCAA method of determining gradua tion rates is faulty. Players often transfer from large, competitive schools like A&M to obtain more playing time. In recent years, A&M has lost players who have trans ferred to Abilene Christian, Louisiana State, Kentucky and Texas Christian for increased playing time. It is not that these students were unable to complete their degree requirements, nor that they did not take academics seriously. They left A&M for reasons unrelated to academics, and to count them as students who failed to graduate makes no sense. The NCAA should also not count stu dents who go on to play professional sports. After all, the purpose of college is to prepare students to make a living. If student athletes choose to pursue an affluent career in professional sports before they get their degree, then their university has done them a service. While Slocum and Groff’s arguments are entirely reasonable, these arguments do not explain why A&M ranks last in the Big 12 in graduating football players. Other schools in the Big 12 must contend with students transferring for more play ing time elsewhere. They also lose play ers who go on to the NFL. The reason A&M football’s gradua tion rate is the worst in the Big 12 is because there is something wrong with A&M’s football program. It is the responsibility of the coaching staff and the athletic department to improve the gradua tion rate, whether it is by teaching play ers the importance of obtaining their degree or by recruiting players who can with stand the rigors of A&M’s academic pro gram. It is not impos sible for teams to have success in both graduation rate and on the football field. Teams such as Northwestern, Stanford and Michigan have field ed highly ranked teams with high er academic standards than A&M. None of these teams had to set tle for the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl. It is one thing for the A&M football team to have sub par years; it is another thing entirely when poor seasons are coupled with poor academic performance. The players, the coaches and the athletic department should all be held accountable for A&M’s poor academic performance, and Hr changes are necessary, be it in personnel or policy. ANGEL1QUE FORD* THE BATTALION Richard Bray is a junior journalism major. Unnecessary screening New no call law in Texas threatens businesses A new state law gives consumers a way to stop unwanted sales pitches from reaching their telephones. More than 81,000 Texans have signed up on the “no call list,” which means that many tele marketers will likely lose their jobs. With the economy struggling after the Sept. 1 1 terrorist attacks, there are now even more job-seeking individuals trying to support themselves and feed their families. Businesses will be making huge adjust ments as employment industries are affected by this no-call law. Answering the calls of telemarketers would be less of a bother than helping individuals pay for their necessities after they have lost their jobs and turned to welfare. It is extremely difficult for a student just out of college to find a job. It must be twice as difficult after being a tele marketer for 10 years with little other experience. On Jan. 1, Texas joined 24 other states accepting the no call list law. As the law states, the service costs $2.25 for three years and bans calls from general mar keters. $2.55 stops calls from competing electricity providers and $4.80 for five years eliminates both. Telemarketers calling into Texas must buy the list every three months for $45 and must update their list within 60 days. CATHERINE RICHARDSON If telemarketers fail to obey the law, business could be fined up to $1,000 for each violation or up to $3,000 per violation if the call was made willfully or knowingly. Although the law seems to be having a positive response in Texas, individuals and businesses will be struggling through this change. According to the Research and Answering the calls of tele marketers would be less of a bother than helping indi viduals pay for their necessi ties after they have lost their jobs and turned to welfare. Statistics Office in Minnesota, 485,650 telemarketers were employed in the United States in 2001. As this number drops, the unemployment rate will rise. The newspaper business is one in par ticular that has proven to be negatively affected by the law. Newsday, a New York paper, which has had the law since April 2001, announced recently that it was forced to eliminate 92 jobs in its teleservices division. According to Newspaper Association of America’s 2001 Circulation Facts, Figures and Logic study, 43 percent of new businesses depend on telemarketing for advertising and profit. 58 percent of all solicited subscription sales are from telemarketing, making it the single largest source of new subscription orders. “The regulations are coming thick and fast and newspapers are the victims of the growing public resentment of all tele phone-linked commercial activity,” said Kip Cassino, director of research for Knight Bidder in San Jose, Calif. Cassino has found that newspapers are spending more money than before to complete research. He said more than 50 percent of the people called to answer research surveys will not cooperate. Therefore, not only does the law make research more costly, but also more time consuming. In a profession where time is of great importance, this law could be severely detrimental to a company’s cred ibility. In the communication industry, news papers and broadcasters compete to pro vide the best information to the public. Although expected by the viewers and readers to give accurate and plentiful information, the public continues to refuse to cooperate. Yes, the calls tend to come at bad times and too often, but taking away a company’s right to profit over the phone is like taking away a Girl Scout’s right to sell cookies. Catherine Richardson is a senior journalism major.