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ICS@CS.com
Opinion
The Battalion
Pfee 5 * Wednesday, M
Financial irresponsibility
With Africana Studies addition and fee increases y why not save other programs.
MATTHEW MADDOX
T hrough all the landmark
changes that have visited
Texas A&M this summer,
one cannot help but think that
something is wrong. It seems that
with every administrative decision,
A&M officials manage to make an
academically perverse or backwards choice. It would seem that
Barney Fife, the extremely incompetent but equally arrogant
deputy from the Andy Griffith Show, was at the helm of the
University.
Perhaps this season’s best example of arrogant backwardness
is the demolition of the popular journalism department. Charles
Johnson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, has blamed a lack
of funds for the need to close the department, saying that it
requires between $250,000 and $500,000. But how can there be
alack of funding for such an important depart-
ment in this information age?
The College of Liberal Arts has managed to
find funds to create a new minor in “Africana
Studies.” In this politically correct theme,
President Robert M. Gates has also created the
office of vice president for institutional diversity,
sure to be a six-figure position plus staff.
Additionally, moving ahead this fall will be the
misplaced effort to memorialize Matthew Gaines
with a statue last estimated at a cost of $200,000.
And don’t forget the cost of the cadre of lawyers
the administration will have to hire to defend its
renewed use of racial preferences. As usual.
Vision 2020 is the excuse for mediocrity.
According to Johnson, “The University of
Michigan, Cal-Berkeley, UCLA and Cal-San
Diego (Vision 2020 focus schools) do not have undergraduate
degrees in journalism, yet they have programs to serve the needs
of students who want to go into journalism.” Maybe someone
needs to tell the administration that it serves the citizens of
Texas, not California.
For another view of incompetence personified, look at the
Dairy Science Center. The dairy program, which serves the
needs of hundreds of veterinary and agriculture students, was
dismantled at the end of last year by administrators claiming a
lack of funds. The Dairy Center, famous with Aggies for its ice
cream, practically paid for itself.
The departmental budget shows that even in this year of
depressed milk prices, the dairy only ran at a net loss of $16,000.
This contrasts against the $200,000 in student fees alone squan-
Jdered on MSC Aggie Nights or the estimated tens of thousands of
dollars spent on the Bonfire-replacement known as the “Farmer’s
Fight Festival” last fall. It also contrasts with the money to be
wasted on the “new tradition” of Convocation this year.
It seems that with
every administrative
decision, A&M
officials manage to
make an
academically
perverse or
backwards choice.
The dairy program was one of the top in the nation. How can
it be said that eliminating a self-funded, nationally regarded pro
gram can be in keeping with Vision 2020? Then again, Berkeley
probably doesn’t have a Dairy Science Center.
The next example is the textbook definition of arro
gance. University leaders have ceaselessly extolled the
virtues of economic and racial diversity, and blame
students for not creating “a more welcoming envi
ronment.” Hypocritically, administrators are the
ones putting up the largest roadblock. According
to published financial data, since 1977, the
mandatory tuition and fees at A&M have
increased by 1,266 percent. In the past 10 years
alone, tuition and fees have increased by 6.6
times inflation. In addition, the University has
piled on thousands of dollars more in course-
specific fees.
Despite this spending
spree that no fiscally respon
sible person could justify, the
A&M administration was not
satisfied. During this summer,
with pressure from adminis
trators in the A&M and UT
systems, Texas legislators
passed “tuition deregulation,”
which eliminates caps placed
on tuition prices by the state
Legislature. Using this change
in the law, administrators are
now able to levy a new $9 per
credit hour charge on students for
the spring in addition to the $4 per
credit hour increase for the fall. Together, the
increases will cost students another $1,500 during
their undergraduate education.
These increases stand squarely in the way of middle
and lower-class students. A&M regent Susan Rudd Wynn
and Student Body President Matt Josefy were right to question
if students will be able to afford to attend A&M in the future.
Naturally, none of the millions in fee increases will go to jour
nalism or the dairy center. Maybe instead, students will get a
lavish tunnel under Wellborn or the Rec Center can get a $5
million budget surplus. Wait, too late.
Administrators and the Board of Regents should not take the
easy route and erase the Department of Journalism and the
Dairy Science Center. It may take a few late nights going over
the books, but that is the least that is owed the hardworking cur
rent and former students. Since the citizens of Texas no longer
have a say in tuition costs, the administration should offer a ges
ture of goodwill and allow students to vote on the tuition
increases. Also, the board must learn to be independent thinkers
and not simply yes-men for the administration. Most important
ly, the public, especially former students, must take their right
ful role as leaders of the University. A&M might employ a few
Barney Fifes, but this doesn’t have to be Mayberry.
Matthew Maddox is a senior
management major.
Graphic by Grade Arenas
MAIL CALL
Bush administration
intelligence forged
1 never considered George W.
Bush to be a flashlight in the
dark, but the same should not
be said for his cabinet or the rest
ofthe administration. False intel
ligence claims in the State of the
Union Address are not necessar
ily Bush's fault, at least not
directly.
The blame must lie somewhere
in the administration, the CIA or
some imaginary friend of
Department of Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz. The American cit
izens have a duty to protect the
U.S. way of life, and the govern
ment has the right to call the
nation to arms.
But this social contract is only
valid while there is mutual trust
and accountability between both
parties. Right now, the Bush
administration is falling out of the
sacred circle of trust.
Allegations made by Bush in
national and international broad
cast are now being said to have
been based on forged docu
ments. Our prophetic intelligence
report that said Iraq had stashes
of WMD have not come to
fruition and the brilliant CIA can't
seem to find out where Saddam
Hussein or Osama's dialysis
machine might be hiding out.
Maybe ex-CIA director Bobby
Cates should stop cutting A&M
faculty and go back to work for
Bush.
Clayton Everett
Class of 2003
Journalism's closure
bad for The Battalion
This is in response to all the
nonsense I have read in The
Battalion lately. First off, to clarify
to Mr. Ferguson and his letter to
the editor, not all journalism
majors work at The Battalion, and
not all writers for The Battalion
are journalism majors.
Why would you suggest, Mr.
Ferguson, that the entire major
should be eliminated because a
handful of people think and say
things that you don't agree with? I
hope as you finish your time here
at Texas A&M, you will become a
little more open minded.
Also, an Opinion page is full of
yes, you guessed it, different
opinions held by writers at the
school's paper. I am a journalism
major who does not work for The
Battalion, and I am not "pushing
agendas." All I hope for is that my
effort at A&M is worth something,
and that I will be able to graduate
this May and find a job.
At this point, I know that any
effort made by The Battalion
might not be understood by
small-minded people uneducat
ed about the situation who
would like to get rid of the jour
nalism department. But think
about how terrible The Battalion
will be in the future, with its staff
full of people who have not taken
any writing or journalism courses.
It actually does require skill.
(Believe it or not.)
All I can say is if you were in my
shoes, about to graduate with a
degree that our beloved
University has deemed unneces
sary and expendable, perhaps
you would be upset and want
things to change as well.
Amanda Stewart
Class of 2004
Lies in ads OK if they
discourage smoking
In response to George
Deutsch's July 24 column:
Mr. Deutsch, you're right. Lying
in advertisements is wrong, even
if it successfully makes people
who are somewhat responsible
for killing thousands of
Americans every year look bad.
But you know what? In the end,
if it makes just one teenager
decide to not start smoking when
his friends pressure him to, or
convinces just one person to quit,
it's worth it.
Meghan Getman
Class of 2006
Marital equality?
America must recognize gay marriage
O n July 15, the Human
Rights Campaign hosted
“Speaking on Equality,” a
presidential forum discussing
issues affecting the gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender commu
nity. While only seven of the
nine democratic candidates participated in the
forum, all nine responded to a questionnaire
put forth by the- HRC dealing with these issues.
Probably the biggest issue up for discussion
was whether people of the same sex should be
allowed by law to marry or form a civil union.
If America is to consider itself a country where
freedom and equality prevail, the same oppor
tunities and protections available to heterosex
ual couples should be available to same-sex
couples.
According to Marriage
Equality, an organization pro
moting equality regardless of
sexual orientation, civil unions
and marriages are different.
Civil unions do not offer all the
same legal protections that mar
riages do, and civil unions are
not portable to any other state.
This means that if a same-sex
couple were to enter a civil
union in a state that allowed
them and then moved to anoth
er state, their union would not
have to be recognized by that other state.
Civil unions are not enough to bring equality
to everyone in the United States. Even if every
state recognized these unions, which is far from
being true since Vermont is the only state that
does, same-sex couples still would not enjoy the
same rights and benefits that heterosexual cou
ples do. According to Marriage Equality these
rights include “visiting a loved one in the hospi
tal, applying for immigration and residency for
partners from another country, and having joint
parenting, adoption, foster care, custody and
visitation” rights. All of these rights and others
are enjoyed by married, heterosexual couples,
and are not available to same-sex couples.
According to Susan Page of USA Today,
“All nine Democratic presidential contenders
on Tuesday endorsed legal recognition and
partnership benefits for same-sex couples.”
However, all nine candidates do not support
same-sex marriages. This is not a major dis
crepancy because the necessary
change needs to come from the
government and the courts, not
from the eyes of religion.
Certain religions should be free
to recognize and perform same-
sex marriages as they please, but
religion should not be allowed to dominate the
public sector by telling some people they can
receive certain benefits that others cannot. A
civil marriage recognized by the government
should not be conditional according to a cou
ple’s sexual orientation.
By this unequal treatment, this country tells
same-sex couples that they are not worthy of the
same things heterosexual couples are. It seems
that this is just one more form of discrimination
against people who are not the overriding
majority in this country.
Furthermore, Daryl J. Bern
of Cornell University says that
while neither biological nor
social factors are the sole deter
minants of sexual orientation,
“Most men and women in our
culture have an exclusive and
enduring preference for either
male or female persons; gender
is, in fact, the overriding crite
rion for most people’s erotic
choices.” This means that
biology, a factor that no indi
vidual can control, is, at the
very least, a major factor in determining the
sexual orientation of an individual.
While the Supreme Court has said that con
senting adults can decide their own sexual ori
entations behind closed doors, the fight for
equality needs to be taken further. While every
Democratic presidential candidate seems to be
standing up for the equality of all Americans,
the self-proclaimed “compassionate conserva
tives” do not seem to be compassionate at all in
bringing about legal equality to everyone
regardless of sexual orientation.
There is no legitimate reason that, in a coun
try that prides itself on freedom and equality for
all people, certain groups of biologically differ
ent people should be discriminated against
based solely on these differences.
Timothy Gilbert is a junior
sociology major.
TIMOTHY GILBERT
u
... the same
opportunities and
protections available
to heterosexual
couples should be
available to
same-sex couples.