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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2004)
March 8 rice must la l possess loesn’tselt / for the 5 early. SALE F ANTED eyou mer sales srience neei Apply natf M-F. 50 Caiip 'lew Englart D: Tennis, occer, Base: ndsurfing, Jing, Ropes Ceramics, Nature, Nu for allstiilts: rsories in 9:00p.m i pay. Appi(a 000 Indepen) 1( around 'Appl Opinion The Battalion Page 9 • Wednesday, February 25, Dropping bad grades rude forgiveness concept should be incorporated into current Q-drop policy or at least a year now, the Texas A&M Student and Faculty Senates have been considering a new grade policy, new style Ft mt nothing has been passed. Last spring, rim vi/ca^J j, e proposed "Modified GPR Calculation resolution” was stopped just short of being ml into action, according to The Battalion. Although the Faculty Senate passed it, Jniversity President Robert M. Gates did lotsign it because there were complica- onsthat the implementation task force ran ito, along with some dissension from some tudent Senate members. The resolution would iave allowed a student to drop a class in which he ladreceived a ‘D’ or ‘F’ during the previous semes- er, as long as he acts within 15 lays of the following semester of he bad grade. // This topic, however, hasn’t died w «§el.Along with the resolution from asiyear that's still up in the air, j hree concepts have been discussed. }f these concepts, grade forgive- wfiess is the best fit for students. As noted before, the first idea for 0ulle! :onsideration is grade forgiveness, omin,i nhere a student can just drop a poor Outlet ^ F 16 from his transcript. This is coring, bp pt for getting rid of unwanted 979-7M mdes and getting multiple chances ™ght and^ Mart with a clean slate. This con- ■ ist 1)6 2, '| cept is partly embedded in last year’s proposed “Modified GPR Calculation Resolution.” The second is grade replace- Ifthe grade forgiveness concept was incorporated into the Q-drop policy, students could erase a few of those needless dasses along with their bad-grade baggage. Furs sns apply. luiWmgsatnjt r appt. .where the student could replace a bad grade »henhe retakes that class, instead of just averaging two grades. For example, say a student had toretake a physics or calculus class. The first time a ‘D,’ the second time a ‘B.’ Instead of aver aging the grades to get a ‘C’ for the class, he would support &|walk away with a ‘B.’ This is fair because the stu- se see rece# shown that he knows the material. The third idea is changing the current Q-drop policy so that a student may use a Q-drop at the ewloUhe semester. Pretend again that this stu- hiisin a chemistry class and is sitting uncom- iortably with an ‘F’ three weeks before the semes- ler’send. His instructor has set up the class where (htirT*^ 5 ^ ' s ^ P ercent of the course grade. So if student can ace the final, he can wind up with jrdays. nlnal recwif 300 Gwrge building sttw Is, at) uy-ii, vyopi by 5pm ot Collegs jurces, 1101 a decent grade. With this new Q-drop pol icy, he can sweat it out till the end of the semester to see if he passes. If he doesn’t, then he may Q-drop the class on the last day of the semester. The problem with all of these plans is that they can easily lead to abuse. Administrators and other critics say the pol icy changes will encourage laziness. But many students would say the University should encourage success, not punish them for a mess up during freshman year. Both sides have a point. Ideally, the grade forgiveness component should be incorporated into the current Q-drop policy. Pretend this time that a stu dent is trying to get into graduate school. As a freshman, he found himself making a few ‘D’s as a mechanical engineering major, so he switched to business. Since then, he has done well. He aspires to get an MBA, but his freshman past is coming back to haunt him. Those classes he made ‘D’s in are holding him down. They don’t count for anything toward his major, just extra hours that show up on his transcript. But they are lowering his GPA significantly enough to where he might not be able to fulfill his ambitions. If the grade forgiveness concept was incorporated into the Q-drop policy, students could erase a few of those needless classes along with their bad-grade baggage. This new policy would help students suc ceed, without encouraging students to be lazy because they know that they only have a limited number of Q-drops. If nothing else, at least the "Modified GPR Calculation Resolution” from last year should be pushed through and signed. With Student Senate elections coming up, voters should put pressure on senators to prove that they really do represent the students and support a logi cal new grade policy that helps students succeed. David Ege is a junior computer etigineermg major. Ivan Flores • THE BATTALION MAIL CALL ien 18yrs* lions are ral researcH! ne. forfuite Dr. Aim t Persecution is questionable . Musis ed 1999. i for isportaW Call to sen j drivers. at 113 Waif ddellveiy.* 1 Inquiries Oj [1^ 0979-779' !l m Cowgirls; through rork for orlh 300 Airpo" ■visit our »* tK 'tended Artier 15 a[1 ooo mi |eS ;iiSt0( 1 ' i-5140. >ic In response to a Feb. 24 mail call: Mr. Moore's recent mail call in which he % that Christians are persecuted just as much ^ is homosexuals somewhat unconvincing. First of question the accuracy of the statistics he quot- regarding the number of Christians killed in Although plenty of people mentioned it with l3| ying numbers, I couldn't find the actual study "'Where; no one bothered to reference the actual We (other than saying it was from "Regent wersity"). Perhaps Mr. Moore could send me a opy, because I'd like to see their methods. The owe is also questionable, considering Regent ® ersi ty is a Christian university run by Pat fPertson, one of the most fundamentalist 'ustians in America. I would be much more willing Wept a study by an independent group. Wnd, those numbers, if correct, would be wide, not in America. They also say nothing many other groups are killed for their reli cs beliefs. Regardless, the issue is persecution Nsrica, and I apologize if I'm not sympathetic w claims of persecution when almost every ''cal office is occupied by a Christian. If Wans are being persecuted here, then it is by r Christians, » s ^’^i e ^ff erence between "straight pride" and ; , pride ' is in connotation. "Gay pride" events are i/ent ^ t0 teaC ^ to,erance - while "straight pride" an p S T 6 a ^° Ut l3eing int °l eran t- A straight person hi 3 8ay pr ^ e event anc * k® accepted, while p inc 0 | S i ex J Ua ' ^^ding a straight pride event would and told to leave. a is why a "straight pride" day is bigoted. Adam Kemp Class of 2005 a Vs want to marry gays re sponse to a Feb. 23 mail call: »sompt Llment * S absolute| y ludicrous, and I won- >aii 2e h n ' rne k s P e °Ple who support your position homospy 9 1 utely hypocritical you are being. 'ey want tu don t want the right to marry. He;j7 lght t0 legal| y marr y the people iry° u to e> 'I ls Pointless and absolutely stupid lat aeav ay a les bian can marry a man, or lis isnott! 1 h an sbou ’ cl m arry a woman, because enter ° tlley ' ove: tbis is n °t who they wish committed relationship with. This is • ^ tll6 - —w. IW! |||^ Willi. IIIIW .w ‘A anann! 80Ve i rnmen t saying what homosexuals u cannot do. 1,(1 lesbian^' governm ent dictated what gays 0, " es 'Whatt C h OUld and cou ' d not d 0 in tbeir own id to s t nn l; . hey war, t now is the power of attorney ^yinethat" 18 Wfl ° tbey are because of bias. It's an African American cannot marry a white person. Nowhere is there a legal basis for this definition of marriage that you cling to and if you pull it out of scripture, realize that there is a lot in the law that Christians do not follow, and stop your hypocrisy before you show it to the world. Sarah Fremgen Class of 2004 Dot Snyder a good choice On March 9, Aggies should cast their vote for Dot Snyder for Congress. When it comes to District 17, we need a representative who will truly represent our conservative values in Washington. As former Waco ISD board president and member, she helped take W1SD from $3 million in the red to $14 million in the black. Dot Snyder's work towards ending the practice of social promotion in WISD served as the example that then-Gov. George W. Bush used throughout the state of Texas. She was also appointed, by Bush, to the Texas Healthy Kids Corporation Board of Directors where she helped return $9 million to the taxpayers. As a rancher, Dot Snyder is passionate about pro tecting Second Amendment rights, private property rights and permanently repealing the death tax. Dot Snyder has a proven record of action with results and is an unwavering pro-life conservative Republican. Dot Snyder has the experience and wis dom necessary to resolve the problems facing District 17. I encourage all Aggies to cast their vote for Dot Snyder. Charlie Leal Class of 2003 Some courtesy rules to follow As a TAMU bus operator, I have noticed a few things about campus that needed to be brought up. Look both ways before you cross a street. This sim ple rule should keep us from adding a name to the Silver Taps list. Now, we are all grownups and do not need to be walked across the street, but we did learn in kinder garten to look both ways before crossing and do not step out into traffic. Also, for you bike riding Ags: Remember that bicycles have to obey all pedestrian and traffic laws. For example, STOP SIGNS. If you are riding in the bicycle lane and a bus is unloading or loading, please slow down or stop as to not mull over a passenger, especially if the doors are open and the flashers are on. These are common courte sies you can convey to your fellow Ags. Simply put, do not walk into traffic, and pay attention to what your are doing. L. Reynard Class of 2005 Despite the criticism, ‘Passion’ is accurate Movie doesn't smear Jews or distort facts N ews of Mel Gibson’s much-antici pated movie “The Passion of the Christ” has been circulating for at least a year, and just about everyone has an opinion on it. A motion picture, some thing as regular in America as hamburgers and Coca-Cola, has taken on a fiercely controversial atmosphere because of the main character, Jesus Christ. The film is a graphic portrayal of the last 12 hours of Christ’s life, from his arrest to his trial and subsequent execution. Many think the movie will be one of the greatest cinematic epics of our day. Others oppose its release, saying it might ruffle the feathers of various religions. Many of the attacks on the movie come from the Jewish community. The Anti- Defamation League, a Jewish watch group, condemns the pro ject’s “poisonous accusations” saying that it is an inaccurate por trayal of the events and will cause animosity between the movie’s viewers and members of the Jewish faith. The contention is that the movie portrays Jewish people as largely responsible for the environment and public opin ion that led to Jesus’ execution, and they say it is wrong. This is an issue that the Christian church has addressed in the past. The Vatican, in an attempt to foster respect and understanding between the two faiths, issued an opinion as part of the second Vatican Council of the 1960s. The Vatican said, “What happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without dis tinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.” Clearly, its mandate, which everyone should embrace, is that not all Jews in the world were responsible then, and more importantly, the Jews of today should not be held personally responsible for events that occurred more than 2,000 years ago. This principle is almost common sense and is extended to many other groups in society today such as descendants of slave holders or tyrannical governments. Sadly, these arguments miss the point of the life and death of Jesus Christ. “The Jesus of the Bible came into the world to JOSHUA LANGSTON With the social acceptability and historical accuracy of Mel Gibson's movie verified, his film should be viewed and meditated on rather than attacked and feared. die,” said Matt Graham, Class of 2003. “He died for the sins of all of mankind, so in that light we are all equally responsible for his death. It doesn’t matter who was actually there that day.” Mel Gibson agrees, saying in an inter view with ABC news that he would be first in line of people responsible for Jesus’ death. In fact, the only place in the movie where Gibson appears is when his hand is shown in a close-up nailing Jesus’ hand to the cross, a deeply symbolic role. The next logical step for attack is to say the story that Mel Gibson followed in his development of the script is not historical fact. The story in question is the Biblical summary of Jesus’ life in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Unfortunately, this argument hits a dead end here. The validity of the gospels has been proven repeatedly by historians and archaeologists. In fact, there are more than 100 times the number of manuscripts of the Bible as there are of the writings of Aristotle, 99.5 percent of which say the exact same thing, word- for-word, according to www.carm.org. This information led Sir Frederic Kenyon in his book “The Bible and Archaeology” to summarize, “The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earli est extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible... Both the authenticity and general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.” With both the social acceptability and historical accuracy of Mel Gibson’s movie verified, his film should be viewed and meditated on rather than attacked and feared. Since the original crucifiction took place 2,000 years ago, Jesus has been the most controversial figure in recorded history. Aggies should see this movie for the rpose of deciding for themselves whether they believe Jesus is who he says he is. The real question is not who killed Jesus, but instead, why did he die? Joshua Langston is a senior biology major.
