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Opinion
The Battalion
Page 9 ♦ Monday, November 11
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Student leaders must consider the impact their actions have on A&M’s reputation
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RICHARD BRAY
T exas A&M is losing its single
most important tradition, and
it isn’t Bonfire: it’s the
University’s development of top-
notch leadership to bring honor and
respect to A&M. In recent weeks,
several A&M organizations have struggled with leaders who
send public relations officers running for cover.
The instances of poor leadership are too numerous for com
fort. In last Monday’s Battalion, there were two front-page sto
ries about recent alleged transgressions by the Corps of Cadets.
The first story reported that the Parsons Mounted Cavalry has
been suspended following allegations that some of the cadets
beat other cavalry members, urinated on them and doused
them with water and horse feces.
The other story reported that a cadet was
charged with a Class C misdemeanor after
punching a University of Nebraska
fan as he ran onto Kyle Field after
the Cornhuskers beat A&M’s
football team. The disorderly
conduct charge is punishable by
up to a $500 fine.
The Corps was in the news this
summer after photographs were found
on the computer server of A&M’s year
book, The Aggieland, depicting a man being
stripped of his clothes, blindfolded and bound
with duct tape. On Oct. 10, The Battalion quoted
Assistant Director of Student Life Mike Collins as
saying 20 members of A-Battery were issued
University sanctions, which can range from
expulsion to deferred suspension to a warning.
The Corps is not the only organization on
campus facing behavioral difficulties. In
October, Chris Duke, the Memorial Student
Center (MSC) Council executive vice president for mar
keting, told police that he had fabricated allegations that
he had been carjacked and forced to drive to Corpus
Christi. Duke is currently under investigation by University
officials for a possible ethics violation and may be removed
from his position on the MSC Council.
Duke’s difficulties come one year after former MSC
President Josh Rowan resigned following allegations that Rowan
drank too much, used illegal drugs and made unwanted sexual
advances toward a female student while on a University-spon
sored trip to Italy.
Perhaps the most shocking story comes from Tuesday’s
Battalion, which reported that junior information major Brennan
Jasper Bice, a Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity member, was arrest
ed after he admitted to secretly videotaping sex with a sorority
member and then showing the tape to 15 other fraternity mem
bers. Bice was charged with improper photo or visual record
with the intent to arouse or gratify, a state jail felony punishable
by up to two years in a state jail facility.
The Corps, the MSC and the Greek system are supposed to
be producing this University’s leaders, but in the process they
have been providing A&M with a great deal of negative press.
Recent news reports have depicted Aggies as liars, thugs and
sexual deviants, and students should expect more from those
who represent them.
Members of organizations such as the Corps and the Greek
system place themselves in positions of leadership. The Corps
prides itself on developing young leaders and the Greek system
works to play a role in the community through service projects
and similar activities. Just because the members of these organi
zations have not stepped forward for individual leadership posi
tions does not make them any less responsible for the effects
their actions have on A&M’s reputation.
Although not all of A&M’s leadership has produced embar
rassing headlines, there have been too many recent incidents to
be ignored. These incidents reflect not only upon the individu
als, but the University as well. Regardless of whether such an
association is fair or not, it is the responsibility of A&M’s stu
dent leadership to present this University in the best manner
possible, and they simply haven’t been doing this recently.
A&M’s leadership must realize that their actions effect not
only themselves, but those they represent as well. No one else
can correct this problem. It is time for A&M’s student leaders to
take the responsibility their positions require, and improve
A&M’s reputation rather than damage it.
Richard Bray is a senior
journalism major.
INS needs to toughen up on immigration
Recent miscues involving Haitian immigrants and D.C. snipers display ineptitude
s's election
: or governo
receded
LINDSAY AIELLO
W hen more than 200
Haitian refugees arrived
off the coast of Miami
on Oct. 29, they brought with
them a renewed debate on the
treatment of Haitian refugees.
Moreover, the incident brought attention again to an incompe
tent Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that desper
ately needs reform. This is just the latest in a list of recent
events that show a lack of fairness and effectiveness that are
crucial to America’s security.
A recent New York Times article said “Haitians seeking
political asylum are held in detention centers pending the dis
position of their cases” while all others are deported. However,
h is the only nationality to which this policy applies. Cubans,
on the other hand, are allowed to stay in the United States as
long as they reach American shore.
This presents one of many discrepancies within the immi
gration system. To be fair, the United States must treat all peo
ple the same. However, that is not to say then all of the
Haitians should be allowed to stay. Instead, the policy they face
should be applied to all ethnicities.
Every immigrant to the United States should be scrutinized
and those who can prove the need for political asylum should be
permitted to stay. There are more than five million undocument
ed immigrants in America, according to New California Media
Online. This number will grow so long as the United States
allows anyone who arrives to stay, and the Coast Guard neglects
to stop hundreds from reaching the shore in broad daylight.
A bigger problem within the INS is its blatant disregard for
the law, as seen recently with sniper suspect John Lee Malvo.
According to a Washington Times article, Border Patrol was
called in December 2001, just two months after Sept. 11,
regarding a custody dispute between Malvo and his mother. At
that time, Malvo’s mother admitted they had been illegal alien
stowaways on a cargo ship, and Malvo was arrested. With no
documentation allowing them to reside legally in the United
States, both should have been deported under the law. The
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
of 1996 clearly states that “Illegal alien stowaways are to be
detained and deported without hearings.” However, Malvo was
let go by the Seattle INS district office.
An even more alarming example occurred in March, when
INS sent out Visa upgrades to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers,
ringleader Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehi. According to
the Miami-Herald, the upgrades were postmarked March 5, 2002
and sent to a Florida aviation school where the terrorists had
undergone training to prepare for their mission. Unbelievably,
not a single person at INS recognized the names on the files
before sending them out six months after the tragedy.
One would believe that in the continuing fight on terrorism,
the people who protect this nation’s borders were being stricter
than ever on who is allowed to live here. This, however, is not
true. Instead, in the past year, INS sent visas to dead terrorists
who committed the worst attack ever on American soil, permit
ted another alleged terrorist to live here illegally and most
recently displayed their incompetence with the Haitian inci
dent. To protect America, INS must be two things: fair and
effective. Recently, it has proven to be neither.
Lindsay Aiello is a sophomore
journalism major.
lournalist should not
approve of censorship
^ response to Mark Wood's Nov. 8
column:
. 1 find it strange that Mark Wood, a
Journalism major, would call for a
iaiu 8 arr| e to be banned from sale.
What's next? Maybe he would also like
h e government to control the content
°f movies, television, books and news
papers. Censorship is a very slippery
s ope. Freedom of speech applies to
a Americans and all forms of media.
James McKenzie
Class of 2002
Parents are responsible
for monitoring children
The Nov. 8 articles concerning
Mature content in video games such
as BMX XXX fail to address the real
Pmblem. The issue is not that com
panies are making these games for
children, it is that people, parents in
Particular, are buying these games
f °r children.
^hile it's a retailer's right to carry
What products it may, and stores that
S p s Pecifically to children probably
s hould not sell BMX XXX, it falls on
the
consumers themselves to make
final decisions about what
MAIL CALL
makes it into their homes.
To blame the companies who make
these games or the retailers that sell
them is irresponsible. Children are
expressly prohibited from buyng this
game. Therefore, it must be parents
who are in the end giving games with
this content to their children. Parents
need to take responsibility for them
selves and their children and do what
is required of parents by monitoring
what their children do instead of look
ing to the government or others to do
it for them.
The issue really isn’t about what
products are offered, it is about par
ents who don't want to take the time
to find out what they are buying their
children.
Some time ago, it became status
quo to blame everyone but yourself
for what happens. This is just another
example of people shifting blame
from themselves to the companies
who make BMX XXX for the game
affecting children.
Ryan Anderson
Class of 2003
Aggie Ring deadline
should be pushed back
When I finally get my Aggie Ring it is
going to be bittersweet. Sweet
because when I started my undergrad
here in 1986 I did not make it to grad
uation. Therefore, when I graduate this
December I will have waited 16 years
for my Aggie Ring.
However, it will also be bitter
because of what appears to be com
plete apathy on the part of the Ring
Office. As if it isn't bad enough that
graduate students have to wait until
the day of graduation to order, we
now miss the new ring order deadline
(Dec. 14) by one week.
I'm sorry if I am the only person who
cares that the new ring order deadline
is one week before graduation. After
all, this just means all graduate stu
dents who graduate in December as
well as all undergrads who will have
enough hours at the end of this
semester will have to wait approxi
mately an extra 11 weeks for the next
order delivery.
I won't even pretend to know what
goes on behind the scenes in the ring
office to take orders and make delivery
possible, so I'm sure there is some log
ical explanation as to why we can't
delay the deadline one week and save
everyone an extra 11+ weeks in wait
ing for their new ring. However, if at all
possible, I would plead on behalf of all
of the eligible graduate and under
graduate students to please extend
the Aggie Ring order deadline by one
week.
Kevin Munkres
Class of 2002