| Opening doors To many Fort Worth high school students, particularly those attending schools with a predominant minority population, TCU couldn't be further away. Diamond-Hill Jarvis, Northside, O.D. Wyatt in Fort Worth and Sam Houston in Arlington are all within a 30-minute drive from the campus, but the obstacles preventing many of their college-bound students from making TCU their "home team" are more than roadblocks. The lack of financial means to attend a school with an average tuition of $18,000 a year, coupled with a reputation for being less-than inviting to minority students (one need only look at the front page of last Friday's Skiff for students reactions to celebrating Black History Month), has left TCU's administration searching for ways to extend a hand to those interested in becoming Horned Frogs. This latest effort looks to be the most promising. TCU officials announced Friday that students at those four Tarrant County high schools will be eligible for 15 scholarships, with the intention of increasing a minority enrollment that is little more than 12 percent. The scholarships are being funded by private donations set up in an endowment and will be awarded to students from the four schools who apply to TCU and meet admissions requirements. "Too often financial considerations prevent students from attending private universities," Chancellor Michael Ferrari said. "The scholarship program is designed to provide increased opportunities to students in these schools which are highly populated with students of color." And maybe the 30-minute drive won't seem so far away in the future.
Hope for community not lost There is a word, which represents more of a concept, on which I have been thinking about these last few weeks. Before revealing the word, I'd like to preface my argument with a hope. Hopes are not imaginary things, but rather lifelines to our most basic and good human ideals. I have a hope that these words are not heard in vain and are not simply given thought but decisive action. The word which I have been pondering is "community." Like hopes, a community is not imaginary. There are many communities on campus which go about their specific business week to week, semester to semester exercising their group hopes and aspirations. How many times, however, are these groups aiming to create community as a whole here at TCU? In a past article I used the expression, "singularity of discontent," to define the attitude of most students toward the school community in general. Now I would like to further elaborate on how to solve such a convention through action and definition. First, the TCU community is so fragmented into different factions of people, that my definition of it is also broken. We have the Greeks, who seem to hope for their own good and their specific community charity, but who never relate to the student body as a whole. We have religious groups on campus, who reach out in small amounts to the campus but generally stay confined to the business of their members. The list could go on, but I'll stay brief in my examples. The TCU community is in essence a dying animal. Being a Horned Frog is nothing to be proud of unless behind such a statement are programs and community events which reach out. It's disheartening to hear of freshmen who drop out or are in despair because they did not get into the fraternity or sorority they wanted. It's a terrible thing when hundreds of students think about transferring to larger state schools or going home because they have not found their niche here. We talk about diversity, but really nobody feels TCU is a diverse campus. These are the problems that we face. It's terrible to feel as if our campus is not one living breathing organism but rather a snapshot of sterility and divisiveness which affects every aspect of our accomplishments. There is hope, however. I saw an example of this last week pertaining to the incident with one of our students who was in desperate need of money in order to receive a swift organ transplant. Seeing students, Greek and non-Greek, involved and uninvolved, come together to fight for the life of one student was beautiful. This action showed how starving we are to get along, to care about something other than our fractured organizations and limited definitions of self. For a week this entire campus transcended itself and took decisive action to change somebody's life, but in return we saw a glimpse of the life possible here at TCU. This moment of action is the hope upon which I write this article. It is a hope that we can begin to form a community here that transcends our smaller organizations and petty self-serving actions. Is it possible to start cutting the lines of division which seem to keep this school in constant mediocrity? Professors, students and administrators all have a heavy task ahead of them. We must build a community which serves the soul of something higher. Our pursuits of the rational knowledge of history, language, math and art must be tempered by real experience of a human community which cannot be photographed and put on our Web site like pornography. It's something we came here to find, but now we face the challenge of creating it. Higher institutions are founded on values which rise above the everyday business of tests and papers, politics and money. These values we must cherish and ask each other, today, this hour, what we are going to do, and who we want to become. So I ask you, "What kind of community do you want to build, and how will you take action to build it?"
Matt Colglazier is a freshman news-editorial
journalism major from Fort Worth. Lack of third party on ballots leads to pseudo-democracy Americans must combat, with all available resources, every attempt to suppress absolute democracy. We must fight for democracy on every front, for if we refuse to fight then we in effect give up the little citizen power that remains in our current pseudo-democratic "Republocrat" system. Recall last week, the Skiff printed an editorial urging students to register to vote absentee for the upcoming Texas primaries. With all due respect, I am going to have to object to that editorial. You see, Texas is peculiar in that it is virtually impossible for a third party to be included on the November ballot. Every third party in Texas faces a formidable obstacle to having its slate of candidates listed on the ballot. It must petition for inclusion, and Texas boasts one of the most restrictive sets of requirements in the United States. Under Texas state law, a third party has 75 days following the primary election on March 15 to garner 40,000 valid signatures of registered voters WHO DID NOT VOTE in the primary. By casting your vote in the primary, you are suppressing true, unabridged democracy by eliminating your chance to support the efforts of a third party. A bi-partisan political system is nothing more than pseudo-democracy, with voters given only three choices: Vote for either of the two major party candidates (who may or may not address issues a voter deems important) or do not vote at all. Judging by the huge chunk of voters who have chosen to not vote in recent elections, it seems that many citizens have become alienated by the hopelessness of "Republocrat" politics, and have simply given up their power to have a say in their representation. It is obvious that Americans are prime for a new choice, a choice that reflects their values and opinions, a choice that is different. So why have we not seen the rise of a powerful third party to reflect the values of those Americans who are not voting? Well, in the case of the grand old state of Texas, the answer is obvious in its simplicity. The answer lies in the system itself. So what can we, as citizens, do? It seems as if the powers that be may have us up against a wall. I have a suggestion, take it or leave it. Ban the primaries. Following the primaries you will notice several petitions floating around Texas. These petitions will be in support of a new party, a viable alternative to the Republocrat Party. The Green Party of Texas is here. Established in March of 1999, the Green Party of Texas emphasizes ecological concerns, social justice, grassroots democracy, non-violence, decentralization, community-based economics, feminist values, respect for diversity, personal and global responsibility and a progressive focus on the future. The Green Party envisions a society where the concerns of the seventh generation to come are considered equal to the concerns of the present generation. Sound interesting? Well, there is much more. The Green Party is an international political body with established parties in 76 different countries. The Greens are also established in the United States, with 73 Greens holding elected office in 19 different states today. A Green vote is not a wasted vote! Ban the primaries and sign to have the Green Party included on the 2000 ballot. Vote Green and overgrow the government!
Zachary Norris is a senior biology major
and a member of the Texas Green Party. Have open minds with homosexuals; don't believe stereotypes I do not have "gay-dar." This is the purported ability to identify a gay or lesbian individual on sight. There appears to be no useful value in prejudging anyone, so I don't think I need this ability. Gay-dar (obviously a play on the word radar) was introduced into my vocabulary by a faculty member. She claimed most people can identify gays and lesbians just by looking at them. I would like to believe that most gays would like to blend into society, be treated equally and live a normal and happy life with someone they love. People of different sexual orientations deserve equal treatment. In most cases, unless one possesses this special gift of gay-dar, it would be difficult to stereotype or identify gays and lesbians by any outward trait. Gays look and act like everyone else in society. They shop, go to movies and enjoy the freedom we all enjoy. Both my wife and I have childhood friends who are gay. When we were young, there was no outward appearance that they had sexual orientations other than ours. My college roommate when I was an undergraduate at TCU was gay. I had no clue at the time. He is active in the movements to provide universal rights for all domestic partners and is active in an AIDS ministry. I was thinking about this topic recently when I read an article on hiring gays in the Wall Street Journal. The headline read "On Wall Street, A New Push to Recruit Gay Students." We should give kudos to BankAmerica Corporation , Merrill Lynch and other American companies who have non-discrimination policies on sexual orientation. These big corporations also provide benefits to domestic partners and have gone so far as to hold seminars guiding gays and lesbians in writing their résumés and preparing for job interviews. These corporations are making a proactive effort to moderate workplace hostility. In the Wall Street Journal article, a representative at J.P. Morgan, a large financial company, is quoted as saying "It makes good sense for us (to hire gays). We're trying to get talent wherever we can find it." I would like to believe the big corporations have these nondiscrimination policies because they are saying that they want talented people and being gay has no bearing on talent. My home is in Colorado, a place perceived to be an extremely hostile place for gays and lesbians. I witnessed a battle several years ago when preferential rights were denied to them. The anti-gay movement is led by strong practicing Christians who call themselves Coloradoans for Family Values. A few years ago they supported a ballot initiative that would have prohibited communities from passing local legislation allowing anti-discrimination statutes favoring gays. In several communities in Colorado, it is illegal to discriminate against gays. CFV sought to overturn those laws. The Colorado voters approved the ballot initiative. The United States Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. CFV did not give up the fight and has petitioned unsuccessfully for ballot initiatives in each of the last two elections. The most disturbing thing about the political campaign of Coloradoans for Family Values is that the members portrayed gays as misfits. They took pictures of some outlandish behavior in San Francisco parades and presented it as representative of gays. They were very negative stereotypes. Homosexuality is not a sign of deviance. I know I am treading on sacred ground even discussing these issues. My Bible tells me that I am called to love others. On the issue of homosexuality I am not condemning nor condoning. I simply accept and love others unconditionally.
David Becker is a graduate student from
Pueblo, Colorado. |
The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |