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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2004)
Forum The Battalion Page 4B • Thursday, February 5,20§j The price of the Texas A&M experience Fee increase will ensure Aggies continue to enjoy all University has to offer per T he Student Service Fee Advisory Board (SSFAB), a nine-mem ber student board that repre sents undergraduate and grad uate students in developing recommendations on the stu dent service fee each year, recently released its recom mendations to the University community. The SSFAB’s findings revealed that an increase from $11.86 to $12.5 semester credit hour was necessary to sustain the benefits that the fee pro vides to all A&M students. According to the SSFAB Operating Guidelines, the Student Senate and the Graduate Student Council can consider and provide their opinions on any proposed fee increase to the Texas A&M administration. Though these two governing bodies have now offered opinions, the results need to be made clear to students. Last week, a simple majority in the Student Senate voted in favor of the JOSH PESCHEL SSFAB recommendations. Due to Senate policy, howev er, a two-thirds vote is required to approve this type of legislation. Consequently, the recommendations were not approved, though no addi tional legislation was offered to solidify a precise opposing response. The speaker of the Student Senate alone is likely to submit a letter of dissent u that will undoubtedly indicate Senate opposition to the recommendations. This week, one vote short of a two- thirds majority in the Graduate Student Council voted in favor of the SSFAB recommendations. Unlike Senate policy though, only a majority vote is required for recommendation approval in the Graduate Student Council. Clearly, the representative voices of the student body are in con flict. The main question that students should ask is, “Why?” The key issue is the student serv ice fee cap, as defined by the Texas We talk quite a bit at this University about the importance of traditions. Is it really worth the price of two extra value meals at McDonald's to jeopardize affordable childcare services or the Aggie Band? State Legislature. The cap currently sits at $12.50 per semester credit hour. If the SSFAB recommendations push the fee over the cap, a student body referendum is required. If approved, the new cap would become $25 per semester credit hour, with a maximum possible growth rate with out student body approval of 10 per cent of the original cap, or $ 1.25 per student credit hour, annually. Increases lower than 10 percent would not require approval of the stu dent body. To answer the previously stated question: short-term gain is the driving force behind the debate over the SSFAB recommendations. We talk quite a bit at this University about the importance of traditions. We also talk about legacy. Is it really worth the price of two extra value meals at McDonald's to jeopardize affordable childcare servic es or the Aggie Band? Does the cost for a trip to the movies outweigh International Student Services, or the opportunity to study abroad? Should The Battalion or CARPOOL be passed over for the price of a Northgate crawl? The student service fee was last increased in the fall of 2001, so we are in our third academic year without an increase in the fee. What we do by rejecting the student service fee increase now is rob future Aggies of the services that students, past and present, have verifiably bene Fited from. The Student Senate has proposeda referendum to be held in April that will allow the entire student body to vote on the SSFAB recommendations. If approved, the fee increase will go forward. If the referendum fails, we step backwards at a time when we speak so passionately about growth and excellence. As a graduate stu dent who pays nearly three times higher than the cost of tuition and fees for an undergraduate student, I would likely be quite conservative with my vote. Yet it is with great conviction that I support the SSFAB recommendations. The inherent value in student services have benefit ed so many. Why deny those to come the same opportunities? Josh Peschel is graduate student in biological & agricultural engineerinf. MAIL CALL Military does support Bush In response to Collins Ezeanyim’s Feb. 4 column: I'm not sure who Collins Ezeanyim is, since his name does not appear on The Battalion masthead, but he does prove that Aggie tradi tions live on. More than 25 years after I left, The Battalion is still populated by the extreme left of Aggie opinion, and most people writing for The Battalion do not have a clue. Even The Washington Post knows the turkey centerpiece President Bush was holding was real, and a five-minute call to the Trigon would have informed Ezeanyim (and The Washington Post) that a "trophy turkey" is a military tradition. The bulk of the men and women are served from steam tables, and the unlucky few on duty during the meal get to eat the "trophy turkey" afterward. The turkey story is a minor point, but it shows Ezeanyim's laziness, disregard for the facts and preconceived opinions. It also makes it easy to ignore the rest of his ill-informed editorial, since I already knew it would sink to the same "standard" as the turkey story, and be just as easily refuted by five min utes of Internet research. Sorry, Ezeanyim, but the men and women of the military will continue to support their own best interests, and vote to re-elect President Bush. Perhaps this time (unlike 2000), their votes will even be counted in Florida. Dean Brown Class of 1977 Soldiers don't suffer indignity In response to Collins Ezeanyim’s Feb. 4 column: Mr. Ezeanyim, maybe you assume Bush should get no votes. That is perfectly fine, but under no circumstance should you again print that service members suffer “indignity” because their com mander in chief did not show up for their burial just because that is what you think. Judging by the service and time you donated to the U.S. Armei Forces and your country, it is very hard form understand how you can possibly knowwhatw think or what we feel about our duty. The on! thing that would cause me to “suffer indignity”ini death for my country would be knowing that baa home in Aggieland there is writer without respea for soldiers, social tact and a presumption thath: knows enough about the job we do to prints and how we feel about politics. The only slap in the face I have received as- serviceman is the one felt by the writer who «l spare no group of their dignity and the self-ingr f tiating, condescending tone that his articlesars fashioned with. Generalizations aren’t anyw for an adept student of rhetoric to prove a | Camp Day February 10 9:30 am — 3:30 pm MSC Flag Room and Hallway 50 Camps from California to New York and throughout Texas interviewing for summer counselors & staff Wanted: Counselors; wranglers; instructors in arts and crafts, sports, lifesaving/water safety, small craft; individuals with nature and outdoor education skills, people interested in working with youth in a variety of outdoor settings throughout Texas and the nation. All Majors Welcome Sponsored by the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, the Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences Club, and the TAMU Career Center 2 EVENTS... I REASON. 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