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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2002)
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Yet there is one A&M tradition that has deviated from its origins with nary a protest. It is the University’s mascot tradition - Reveille. A 1940 issue of The Battalion described Reveille I as a “black and white non-pedi- greed dog.” But in 2001, in another Battalion article, collie breeders Dr. Cyndi Bossart, Jim Etron and Nancy McDonald were said to have engineered a “perfect” collie that would serve as the current Reveille VII. The Reveille mascot tradition has strayed too far from its modest beginnings. It has evolved from an injured stray nursed back to health by a group of cadets to a “perfection” that was literally made by scientists. It’s time to alter the mascot tradi tion so it better matches its roots. This is the best way to accomplish this task: whenever A&M needs a new Reveille, the University should consider dogs from a local animal shelter. A few homeless canines could be selected as finalists and the entire student body could vote on which animal it wants as its mascot. A&M students voting for a mascot may seem odd, but there is precedence for such an action. According to a 1951 issue of The Texas Aggie, A&M students “voted to acquire a german shepherd for the Aggies’ new mascot.” The Texas Aggie report ed that this was the first action to be taken on the A&M mascot issue after Reveille I died in 1944. According to The Eagle, members from the Mascot Company E-2 select which animal will be the new Reveille, but this decision should belong to all the students of A&M. Some members of the Aggie faithful may see no reason to replace the pure-bred collies they're used to seeing at football games with what they see as a mangy mutt from the pound. But critics should be reminded that Reveille I was an adopted mutt - described by George D. Comnas at the 1980 Muster as a “non-descript dog ... with some other mongrel blood.” In a letter to J. Wayne Stark dated July 2, 1980, Comnas, class of 1935, details how he found Reveille I and, despite a strict prohibition on cadets owning pets, brought her to Legett hall and nursed her to health with the help of other cadets. Reading the letter, the reader gets a sense of the love and loyal ty the cadets had for this “mongrel.” This is what the Reveille tradition should be about — not how many stuffed collies the University can sell. Of course, there are some issues with adopting an animal to become Reveille — such as health. For example, according to The Eagle, E-2 con sidered taking a dog from an animal shelter to become Reveille V, but instead chose “a dog whose history and parentage were known” due to health concerns. Craig Serold, who helped choose Reveille VII, told The Battalion, “Health is important because of the large amount of traveling that Reveille must do each year.” This is true, but the most important aspect of any new Reveille — one that should be considered above all others — is personality. For example, in a letter to B.W. Robertson, Charles R. Schultz, a University archivist, described the school’s official mascot in 1946 as “noise-shy, music- shy and Aggie-shy — certainly not the desired qualities in the Aggie official mascot.” Meanwhile, an unofficial mascot. Spot, who, accord ing to The Battalion, was a stray dog adopted by the Corps, showed much enthusiasm for Aggie football. In fact, according to The Battalion, during one football prac tice Spot “became so engrossed ... he fell out of the stands on Kyle Field.” Despite the fact that Rusty was an official mascot and Spot was just a stray adopted by the Corps, the latter was a better mascot. Indeed, Spot proves that person ality is more important than pedigree. Besides, with regard to the health issue, it’s not as if A&M hasn’t had health problems with the Reveilles that were collies. For example, according to The Battalion, Reveille VI suffered from epilepsy and had to be put on seizure medication. A&M’s former mascot once suffered from epileptic seizures so violent that she had to miss a Midnight Yell Practice. According to The Battalion, all Reveilles since Reveille III have been registered collies. Of these five mascots, only two have come from Texas. According to various reports in The Eagle and The Battalion, Reveille III came from Anchorage, Ala. Reveille VII was engineered in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. and Reveille IV was born in Kansas. A mascot representing A&M should come from Texas. Adopting a lonely pup from the local animal shelter would ensure this. It would also be the best way to rectify the misguided Reveille tradition and return it to its roots. Collins Ezeanyim is a senior computer engineering major. RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION Waiters deserve tips based on performance Study shows that tipping at restaurants has little to do with quality of service MICA LA PROESCH W aiting tables is one of the most physically demanding and emo tionally draining jobs an unskilled laborer can hold. Dealing with demanding customers, messy children, long hours and frustrated people can be harrowing, especially when these servers are usually being paid a paltry $2.13 an hour. Customers need to realize that these people work hard to serve them and deserve to be tipped well when giving good service. Michael Lynn, an associate professor of consumer behavior and marketing at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, conducted a comprehensive study on tipping in U.S. restaurants. In the article “Restaurant Tipping and Service Quality" from a 2001 edition of the Cornell Hotel and Administration Quarterly, he finds that the correlation between the size of the tip and the quality of service is very low. “This study confirmed that tips are positively related to service, as most people believe, but that the relationship is so weak as to he meaningless.” Often, customers don’t base the size of their tips on any thing. In his study, “Tipping: An Incentive/Reward for Service?” Lynn found that the size of a tip is influenced more by the size of the bill and the fear of disappointing the server than by the quality of the service. Lynn’s study showed that customer satisfaction or dissatis faction cannot accurately measure the size of the tip they leave. Similarly, a server’s performance cannot be assessed by their tip percentage, as some below-par waiters make more money than some of the best servers simply because they get lucky. While waiters are plagued by the occasional customer who leaves no tip, the 2001 Zagat Survey reports that the tipping standard has risen from 15 to 18 percent. However, this 18 per cent is not distributed equally among servers, and it is not fair for those who work hardest to give the best service and not be making the most money. Thomas Mason, the founder ofTip20.com, gives many rea sons for tipping on the introductory page of his Web site, which is dedicated to achieving better tipping practices and service industry standards. Many people do not realize that a server never actually takes home $2.13 an hour plus all the tips he receives in a shift. Most servers end up with void pay- checks, because they are taxed on both their hourly wage and their tips, which makes the deductions greater than the earn ings. Most restaurants require servers to tip out their support staff of hostesses, bartenders and busboys. So, if you leave a waiter no tip, he will actually be losing money, in essence pay ing out of his pocket for you to eat there, not to mention losing a table where tipping customers might have sat. One tipping problem that is centered in the heart of Aggieland occurs when students pay for their meals with Aggie Bucks. Lindsey Vyoral, who works at Rockfish and has been waiting tables for three years, says that dealing with Aggie Bucks is one of the most frustrating aspects of working in College Station. “When students pay with Aggie Bucks, they often don’t realize that they have to tell you to include the tip when you swipe their card because we cannot go back in and add a tip,” Vyoral said. “It can be awkward asking a customer if they want to include a tip in the total, and it would be much more con venient for them to just include it themselves.” Tipping etiquette is often murky, as there is much social pressure to tip well, but personal desire to tip differently. While customers do not feel obligated to tip a server if they have received poor service, they need to take into consideration that many elements of the dining experience are out of the server’s control. When food is prepared wrong or comes out late, it is often the fault of the cook, not the server. Customers tend to take out their frustrations with the food, the wait, the atmos phere, the price and everything on the server, who may have given excellent service, but just couldn’t please them due to circumstances beyond their control. Waiters and waitresses are human. They make mistakes, they cannot be in ten places at once and every once in a while they may spill some water on you. But unless you have a hor rific restaurant experience, remember how hard your server is working to please you. Micala Proesch is a junior journalism and economics major. MAIL CALL Gates requests sportsmanlike behavior while Tech fans visit Nothing fills an Aggie with greater pride than to open the newspaper following a home football game and to find a letter from an out-of-town fan praising the Texas A&M family for their hospitality during the preceding game weekend. Many write that, of the dozens of road games they have attended in support of their team, no experience has equaled or even approached that of their time in Aggieland. As the Aggies prepare to open Big 12 Conference play this weekend against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Kyle Field, we encourage all members of the cam pus community to make an extra effort to treat our guests as we ourselves wish to be treated - with courtesy and, most of all, respect. Together, let us set an example of sportsmanship and graciousness, and further contribute to Texas A&M's already sterling reputation as the nation's friendliest university. Coaches should pay attention to the game instead of 'uncovering' In response to an Oct. 2 mail call: There is no doubt that every game at Kyle Field is full of festivity and tradition. It is these traditions that make Kyle Field one of the top places in the nation to play football. As Aggies, we must remember that it is a football game we are attending, not a presen tation by Traditions Council. I find it disturbing that an Aggie fan is disgruntled about the fact that coach es do not "uncover" for the War Hymn in the middle of a football game that they are busy coaching. We all want our team to be successful, and that usually requires the attention of the coaches. As Aggies we should be less eager to be tradition legalists and use some common sense. I hope we all realize that it is perfectly acceptable to let our coaches keep their hats on between quarters as the War Hymn plays. Robert M. Gates Texas A&M President Taylor Shepard Class of 2003
