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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2002)
IE "Wtaik, Failing to make the grade <■* • the battalion Oak Mall. The ildrento trick- amer, Opinion The Battalion Page 9 • Friday, November 1, 2002 U.S. News and World Report’ ignorantly labels Texas A&M “second tier w CHRIS JACKSON hen U.S. News and World Report came out with its 2002 rankings the best universities in America, exasA&M was not included in the inch touted list of schools dubbed first tier.” It seemed like a smack in the face; even thouuh fforts by A&M to push towards a top 10 ranking by 2020 ave been progressing smoothly, the school was dropped om the list of the 50 best in America. The opinions held by U.S. News and World Report about niversities in this country carry plenty of weight in the eyes many who are searching for a good school to attend, and ,&M’s sudden drop in rank unfairly represents what is actu- lygoing on in College Station, Texas. Even though A&M ranked as second tier by some, researchers, scientists and nefactors find the school to be first rate and worth their Itention. Despite its fall in rankings, A&M continues to be high quality school and research center. To begin with, the U.S. News rankings criteria were mod- iedfor 2002. When they measured class size, the compilers f the rankings counted multiple sections within classes as me large class. In other words, a class with one mass lecture two lab sessions was count- as a single class, irp I Itudent/teacher ratios skyrock- jted because of A&M's large umber of classes of this type, drop in rank, then, can be eceiving if the facts are not joked at properly. However, lere are many other reasons )dcaDitallocatK!i hyA&M,S drop in rank ma y 1^.^:. be looked on with doubtful m. J One look at the news from the past few months brings nto question the accuracy of a ; at the gross uct. which measuj services ates, regardless: terly change ...A&M has much more to offer the world than ‘U.S. News and World Re port’s’ second tier designation implies. 2001 2® lent of Commerce separate rep Aved that the i# laid-off work mployment heje 10,000 last 16,000. kcond tier ranking for Texas A&M. As an Oct. 15 headline in The Battalion mentioned, a report by the University of 'Florida’s Lombardi Program on Measuring University gpriomwice ranked A&M among the top 25 research uni versities in the country. The school scored a top 25 ranking fr M o/nine measures, while also ranking number one in total endowment assets. As a research institute, A&M has |te confidence of the government and private individuals, |hoappropriate more money to us than any other school. A&M’s research ventures read like a who’s who of elite nations and activities. The school has recently joined in effort known as the Texas Institute for Intelligent Bio ano Materials and Structures for Aerospace Vehicles, a co- IP including Rice University, the University of Houston, rairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University nd NASA. The nstitute will focus on blending bio and nano technology for use in aircraft. Other notable under takings include an offer from the Qatar Foundation to establish an A&M branch in the Arab state of Qatar for oil and gas research. If accepted, this branch would great ly support A&M’s already top notch petroleum engineer ing department, as well as facilitate international experi ence for an increasing number of students. A&M has the support of such leading research figures as Stephen Hawking, who will be a guest lecturer in an upcoming physics workshop put on by the new George P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics. As Christopher Pope, holder of the Stephen Hawking Chair in Fundamental Physics said of the new research department, “This institute will be the place in the southern United States for string-theory and other research.” Though a drop in rankings may tarnish A&M’s image, a truly top tier physics insti tute along with the presence of the most prominent scientist alive today seem to imply oth erwise. Be it research for NASA’s bio/nano technol ogy program, international opportunities for growth in the Middle East, a top rank ing in endowments for research or the establishment of a cutting edge physics insti tute, A&M has much more to offer the world than U.S. News and World Report’s second tier designation implies. Chris Jackson is a junior information and operations management major. JOSH DARWIN • THE BATTALION Internet spam ■•■bad taste with iright and news conferee Washington® i linked the len Muhamma! iept. 21 si are. = Malvo, 17, M 11 er and attend h killed a s a co-woi o charged in aple. (U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES — In the beginning, everything was free. Web sites like °§le, Geocities and Webcrawler offered killer content without a single caveat. Then om P an ' es ranging from Yahoo to Sex.com remembered they were supposed to make «fl none y- Now it seems that everything on the Internet is either covered with 50 pop-up nK ISementS or rec l u ' res an expensive subscription. Obviously it's natural for companies to want to make money, but it seems no one ^ows how to make their site profitable without forcing ads down users’ throats or charg- § or content and services. Users who have been on the World Wide Web since 1994 will recall that back then, gibing on the Internet was free because it was basically still a government experi- lep leaves users lent. America Online was one of a small handful of major commercial internet service , Aiders which charged an hourly rate to get online. Once users covered that, they were to surf. Now everyone has unlimited access accounts, but the advertisements start the 0 C ?nd users open their browser. Many major providers attempt to set users' home page nfonn f d ' laden "P orta! P a ge" which consistently contains variations on the same useless °nce users have searched for the information they want, they're hit with a dozen lethal 3 ' U P ads from the first Web site they click on. It’s as flashy as Las Vegas - but lacks sex appeal. Unbelievably, many sites now use HTML layers or flash to cover their pages with ,1 V ‘ n § ads. Having clicked away the popups, users are forced to wait for these sticky r SUc ^ er s to retract back into the dark holes they spawned from, som Tv ads are less annoying - at least it’s possible to change the channel. With useT i Sites ’ lt see ms like the computer has been taken over by a hacker, not letting couV eaVe the site - Now if users' actually want content, they're in trouble. It's time to I 1 up some cash, or at least their e-mail address, name, credit card info and firstborn. w eb sites as varied as CNN.com, Anandtech.com and even Freeservers.com make Ji P , ay for anything but their most basic services. CNN charges for every video cned on their site, and Anandtech.com charges for forum access (unless users want to a crippled, slower version). th agazme Web sites like Maximmag.com have taken pop-up ads to the extreme. While outK 0ntent rema ins free, a user can hardly move from page to page within the site with- m , , ein § mundated with pop-up ads. This takes away from the user experience, and ulti- thet ^ tre nd means that finding quality content on the internet -- without the dis- t 0 , l0ns "has become a frustrating experience. It seems that we are increasingly forced Oose between questionable no-name sites or mega-sites that bombard us with ads. totally understandable that companies - especially content providers - need to money off their Web sites. I don’t blame CNN or Encyclopedia Bntanmca for Rnt^vi muney for access to some information. Pant Web sites that are more user-friendly might actually make a profit. Dot-com com ing t S are cons tantly complaining about their low revenues, but at the same time are try- barrl np Users off with every new "feature” they add to their services. Likewise, bom- $om7 § cust °mers with ads is not going to make them want to come back to a site. Until "'es vll COmes up with a revolutionary online business model, both users and compa- 1 continue to struggle with these issues. Illegitimate fraternities and sororities must get real O Its ■flake c han Derek Lazzaro is a columnist at the University of Califomia-Los Angeles. n Oct. 8 , an article ran in The Battalion that profiled self- proclaimed fake fraternities and sororities. The organizations listed were Phi Chi, Lambda Gamma, and Tri Zeta. The members of Phi Chi aim to build relationships with people, going beyond just being acquaintances, and plan social events for their members and guests. Lambda Gamma is a fake sorority that evolved from a weekly lunch group and Tri Zeta boasts it can create random shirts. Where is the satisfaction in forming an organization that purposely and proudly imitates another? Never has there been such a pointless term as fake fraternity. It should be evident to anyone, whether they are a proponent of the Greek system or not, the paradox cre ated by a fake Greek organization. It is puzzling that the founders of these organizations on the Texas A&M campus have chosen Greek letters to represent them selves, when they possess an obvious dislike for estab lished Greek letter organizations and what they believe them to represent. Rather than naming themselves using a clever acronym with letters from their last names, a favorite color, or common interest, they have chosen to repre sent themselves by the very letters they have set out to disgrace. Surprisingly, probably to most that oppose sorori ties and fraternities, there are 52 recognized Greek organizations at Texas A&M. These consist of more than white men and women joined in effort to throw a good party. These organizations are comprised of more than 4,000 Aggies and include four councils, each with a widely diverse membership. The Multicultural Greek Council’s mission is to unite, create and maintain high standards in the lives of fraternities and sororities by addressing, coordinat ing and developing strategic action plans; to unify organizations, promote higher education, provide community services, enhance leadership and serve as a liaison between the Multicultural Greek Council, the University’s undergraduate student body and adminis tration, thereby improving the campus climate, according to the A&M Greek Life Web site. The National Pan-Hellenic Council exists to pro vide a venue of cooperation and communication con cerning issues of mutual interest for historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities. KELLN ZIMMER When a fake Greek organization pro motes itself as such, the ideals and pur poses of established sororities and frater nities are exploited. The founders of these fake organizations contribute to the stereotypes of Greek organizations sim ply being social organizations and trivial ize the established goals of copyrighted Greek letter organizations. By visiting any one of the 52 Greek Web sites that exist on the A&M campus, one will find a commitment to service, brother or sisterhood, and scholarship, none of the things that fake Greek organizations claim. Their sole focus is not on making T-shirts and collect ing dues as fake fraternities and sororities seem to believe. People do have the right to establish groups under any name or purpose that they so desire, as seen from the more than 700 recognized organizations existing at A&M. But it is unfair for members to establish groups that are directly in opposition to another, or that mock ingly misrepresent the goals of another. Without a doubt, if a fake Corps of Cadets or fake SGA was established on this campus, there would be an uproar due to the disrespect given to the existing organization’s goals and purposes. The outrage should be no less in response to the establishments of fake Greeks. As the 30th Anniversary Greek Week is well under way this week, the student body should take note of the 52 real fraternities and sororities at A&M. This week those who run Greek Week are aiming to raise awareness and celebrate their service, their diversity, and their unity. The road to acceptance at A&M is not an easy one for the Greek system, and the establishment of fake Greek organizations can only be seen as a further hin drance to this process as stereotypes and negative images of Greeks are furthered by members of this campus. Perhaps members of fake sororities and frater nities should re-evaluate their own purposes this week and look to the existing Greek organizations at A&M and what they seek to achieve. Focusing themselves on this could help them to establish their own identity and, in effect, get real. Kelln Zimmer is a Etiglish major.