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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 2002)
battaii '"Ii rated; lyraaker," not disapf t selectedis| •ireamsofi) d but joint! exans. |'r| Gaffney e here tt| a ybe I caul wn pass; 1 compete ] Corey Brad -ewis fon Opinion Centerfold success 11 Monday, April 22, 2002 Women should not be discouraged to pose KELLN ZIMMER mem on c I players ii e of our p e done a m natch is p AC lost. 4 and 1 fc ly help tks Tennis Cent men'sBifl! s are thei:: p.m. ) last in c® ig, so that' don't coe anting we'tt uns. told them it >d defensd s to do iw e capab!: - rave to f; | i is de/tvK i win over the i lot with m) is a great at job." ledburg each 6-1 win : as it em lining to Roland said rave worked ter than if it j 12 tot Center r he football powerhouse known as the Big 12 Conference icon will be seen in a ^nuch softer, perhaps more revealing, light. In its 25th Anniversary Edition pictorial featur ing college age women. Playboy magazine will feature “Women of the Big 12.” This is exciting for the Big 12 Conference and its women who are ready to bear all. For women on this campus who might aspire to pose for Playboy, this is an interesting opportu nity and a possible entry into the entertainment industry. Posing for Playboy is every woman’s I right, and what has been seen as an exploitation I of women, still remains a right of those who [choose to be exposed. The Big 12 issue is billed [as a step toward becoming a Playboy Playmate, I and serves the dual purpose of allowing women to I show their bodies and represent their respective I universities. Make no mistake, this is by no means I an encouragement for women on this campus to | pose for Playboy. It is simply an example of a woman’s right to choose to express herself, even if that involves posing nude. Playboy and its readers have a fascination with college coeds, and while these students’ I willingness to pose may seem strange to some naive members of the female sex, the college Playmate is not at all a new concept. The maga zine features a coed of the month and regularly searches out the best college bars in the country. Aggieland’s own Dixie Chicken was a featured j ‘College Bar of the Month.’ There are often con tests and polls to determine which college cam puses have the hottest female populations. Many NCAA conferences have been featured in Playboy over the last 25 years. The trouble lies with the censorship and protest involved with posing nude as a represen tative of a university population. Playboy has met a lot of controversy in its search for coeds across the nation. In 1996, Baylor University officials threatened disciplinary action or expul sion for any female student who interviewed with Playboy when the magazine visited Waco. Administrators were outraged when two students posed for an issue, but the women graduated before any action was taken against them. In a similar incident, years before, two female editors of Baylor’s student newspaper were released after posing for a Playboy issue. Baylor’s strict code of conduct prohibits such action and uni versity officials were outraged by the students’ appearances in the magazine. The Playboy cam pus quest has faced organized protest on a visit to the University of Nebraska and opposition from many women’s organizations on other cam puses across the nation. Here at A&M, thankfully, there has been no pronounced opposition thus far from the University or campus organizations and hopefully the attitude will continue this week. The notion that women are free to make their own choice to pose nude should prevail. In the world of adult entertain ment, Playboy is more rep utable than most magazines, and this issue is an opportunity for those hoping to pursue a career in this line of enter tainment to win the favor of Big 12 fans. For those wary of this idea, resist the temptation to scoff at the thought of an Aggie on the pages of Playboy; to each her own, and the choices an individual makes are one’s own. Women who choose to pose, though, should be aware of the damage that can be done to reputations and lives through this kind of action. Playboy can ruin a life as easi ly as it can make it, and there are no guarantees the Playboy Mansion or star dom will be the final destination. So, be aware of the risks involved with this venture, but know that the decision lies with the individual. This opportunity, no matter how inappropriate it feels to sup port, is like any other decision college students are faced with. For anyone chosen to be featured on the pages of Playboy, do it in a tasteful man ner, as it is a representation of self, school and conference, and besides being known as “the girl who posed for Playboy,” the issue will be available to for all to see in the stacks at Sterling C. Evans Library. Kelln Zimmer is a junior English major. RUBEN DELUNA* THE BATTALION n use )/ A MAIL CALL Tom Delay’s words still heard In response to what Sen. Tom Delay said, I must agree. This University is too hung up on being politically correct and appeasing the minority. What happened to the University that was proud of its differ ences. I guess it got to many weird stares. So much for originality. Jason Hancock Class of 2004 Just because Tom Delay was kicked out of Baylor and never attended Texas A&M does not mean he has the knowledge to slander these two highly prestigious schools. That alone shows that the students in these two schools are more educated than he will ever be. His comment about Baylor a nd Texas A&M shows how educated he really is. Sex is at all schools, even at BVU ar >d the military academies. If his daughter's moral convic tions are so weak that to niaintain them, she has to stay isolated from any nega tive moral influence, she is destined for failure. Getting a college degree is about gaining life experience and learning to live in harmo ny with others' cultures and lifestyles. It sounds like she was not ready for that. Delay, what else have you prepared her for? Maybe he should spend more time worrying about that than about the moral status of Baylor and Texas A&M. Kyle Kruppa Class of 2002 Gosko refused, therefore suspect In response to Andi Baca's April 19 column: If Ms. Baca would have taken the time to further investigate the situation with Gosko, she would have found that he refused to identify the sub stance in the bottle when asked by security what it was. For all they knew, it could have been a flammable substance, and little Gosko could have been a little terrorist. Justin Williamson Class of 2005 Immigration has no simple solution S ince terrorism was established as a press ing concern in the American consciousness, pressures have been put on the government to better monitor immigration. The Justice Department is considering a quick- fix proposal that will allow local police to enforce immigration laws. This is policy at its clumsiest, a dubious solution certain to culminate in greater problems. To be fair, according to the Census Bureau, there may be more than 7 million illegal immigrants living within the United States. The Border Patrol is under staffed and the Immigration Naturalization Services (INS) employs a trifling 2,000 enforcement agents along the borders. With the reality of terrorist threats, certainly the system needs refine ment and increased resources to ensure national security. Despite these facts, the Justice Department needs to look elsewhere, not to the police departments. Using local police in such a haphazard fashion is as impractical as setting fire to crops just to kill locusts. There are numerous reasons why police should not monitor immigra tion and why the Justice Department has shied away from the idea in the past. The Border Patrol and INS may be understaffed, but it is sheer idiocy to throw their burden on the overworked backs of the police departments. Immigration laws are com plex, and it is not feasible to instruct police as to every important nuance and subtlety. Moreover, the jail systems are overburdened and would be hard pressed to cope with waves of immi grant law violators. In a time when it is desperately impor tant to tread carefully, such an awkward policy maneuver would almost guarantee significant increases in racial profiling and civil rights abuses. Mountains of liti gation would be sure to follow. Legal immigrants justifiably fear they may become targets in an overaggressive, unsophisticated system. Social problems also would ensue. Police rely on immigrant victims and wit nesses to communicate with them to pre serve the peace, but such lines would be instantly broken. Instead, they would delve further underground, avoiding hospitals and eschewing schools, constantly wary of the police. The inevitable result of such retreat and isolation is deterioration of community health and welfare. The last thing the United States needs is an increas ingly complex system of underground immigrants. This is not to say that the immigrant problem should be ignored, only that the system first must be tailored. Even now. Congress deliberates on the restructuring or dissolution of the INS in the interest of refinement. A House committee chaired by Rep. James Sensenbrenner has proposed a plan to dissolve the INS and replace it with two separate agencies. He said, “The agency (INS) is still in a deep quagmire. I don’t think any additional attempt at inter nal reorganizing can pull the INS out of this morass in which it finds itself.” The overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants are lower-class Latinos that individually and collectively pose no threat to United States national security. Rather than attack these huddled masses, immigration agencies need to more care fully target their efforts. Seven million immigrants is a virtual ocean of people, and it is frightening that among those undocumented numbers, and the next hijacker or bomber may be bid ing his time. Rather then let fears over whelm reason, government should act carefully and productively uncover seek threats to security. The police serve a cru cial role that already consumes their resources and efforts. Rather than append anything to their list of responsibilities, separate agencies should work to resolve the immigration problems and restore a sense of security to the public. Dharmaraj Indurthy is a junior physics major. DHARMARAJ INDURTHY
