| Speak Up Students have voice in SGA
Today marks the beginning of another semester of activity in the House of Student Representatives. This group of elected officials will decide the fate of the $20 each of us pay as a student government fee. Combined, that's more than $140,000 Student Government Association will dole out to various organizations to support educational and co-curricular events. During a training seminar this past weekend, new SGA members learned the power to make a difference is in their hands, and they have the responsibility to make the changes students desire. They have the knowledge. What they need now are suggestions. With a stunning new Web site - which can be found at (www.sga.tcu.edu) - the House says it is ready to lead the TCU community into the next millennium. With this resource, it's easy for students to contact House representatives and SGA officers. Basically, it's accessibility made simple. This semester - like any other semester - it's important to make a special effort to speak your mind about issues that affect students at TCU. Attend the House meetings at 5 p.m. Tuesdays in Student Center, Room 222. Talk to your representative. Likewise, House members need to make great efforts to debate the important issues and to continually improve our collegiate experience. We urge representatives to listen to their constituents. Don't attend the meetings to eat free food or to add another bullet to your résumé. Officers: Make every effort to leave the House in better shape than it was found. By electing you, the student body has put faith in you to represent us effectively to administrators. Speak for us and work with us. Vote with our best interests in mind. You have given the student body the resources to be heard. Now we challenge you to listen.
Follow your heart, not the fold Life is about more than conforming, checking labels Every morning around 8, life at TCU begins. As most students do, you wake up and begin your day the usual way with the same routines. You shower, brush your teeth and shave. Then comes that pivotal moment when you decide what you are going to wear for the day. More often than not, you probably pick the same thing everyone else is picking to wear. How many times have you walked outside and seen a group of guys coming your way in their khaki shorts and knit polo shirts with the Abercrombie & Fitch logo prominently adorned on their chests? Then a group of girls strut by in their khaki shorts or skirts with their corresponding Abercrombie & Fitch blouses. It's enough to make you lose the Pop-Tarts you ate for breakfast. It's not really a big deal, but it does beg a larger and more important question. If we come to college to gain wisdom, knowledge and along the way to find out who we are, then why is everyone trying so hard to assimilate into the general population? Why does everyone want to be like someone else? Does everyone really want to be just a number? Unfortunately in our society, what we wear is supposed to reflect what kind of people we are. If the daily dress standard at TCU was used as a measuring stick to show what our student body is like, it would say loud and clear that we are nothing but a bunch of lost sheep trying really hard to be accepted by a bunch of people who don't really matter. What happened to individuality? It is here, but not in large quantities. There is a small group in the TCU population that doesn't dress quite like everyone else. They usually hang out at the mall-area outside The Main. They sit at the picnic tables, talk and smoke mountains of cigarettes. They have been unfairly labeled "the alternative crowd" because they have colored hair, tattoos and various piercings. The next time you walk through there take a quick glance at them. Try to look past the unusual clothing and take a look at their faces. If you can do this, you will see the face of someone who is considerably further along than you are at realizing who they are. They dress the way they do to challenge you to see more than what they are wearing. They want you to be interested in their minds. Sadly, no one looks deep enough, and life in the pasture goes on. Our minds are the only things we are allowed to take with us to the next life. Should it not be more important to explore - and broaden - your mind than to mindlessly train it to be like everyone else's? It is good to have role models, but it is better to want to be a role model yourself. You can't do that by being mean. Do yourself a favor. When you wake up in the morning and go through your daily routine, go ahead and do the things that keep you clean and healthy, but when you get to your closet just stick your hand in and grab whatever clothing you find. You're not going to get any further along in life until you stop caring about what brand you're wearing and start caring about what's going on in your own head. Don't let it stop at what you wear; test and question all your beliefs. It will make you wiser and mentally stronger.
Rick Perez is a junior psychology major from El Paso, Texas. He can be reached at (reperez@delta.is.tcu.edu). PC stance is 'too sensitive' Expressions cloud reality of issues, confuse people A comedian once remarked, "We went to sleep one night, woke up and were Negroes. We went back to sleep, woke up and were people of color. We went to sleep again, woke up and we were black. We went back to sleep, woke up and were African-Americans. It's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to go to sleep!" And it seems with the growing use and modification of politically correct language, we shouldn't even blink, much less sleep without fear of offensive terms changing. What was once seen as an approach aimed at increasing awareness and sensitivity has now become a litany of euphemisms, buzz words and doublespeak. In striving to be politically correct we have not only reduced social and cultural awareness to a dictated set of guidelines to follow, but we've simply confused the masses. With the chance of offending someone looming so closely overhead, people don't even know what to call each other anymore. In this day and age, being politically correct seems to mean being a mindless coward, and avoiding anything deemed offensive by just about anyone. We must walk on eggshells to be "PC." We must think very long and very hard about how we phrase certain things so as not to appear "insensitive," which as we all know is a sin. But while it may look as if we've reached a higher level of awareness with this mode of thinking, politically correct language has simply reduced cultural and social sensitivity down to a universal jargon. For instance, we know not to call the man in the wheelchair "handicapped," but "physically challenged." The use of the term "physically challenged," however, does not make us more sensitive to the man's situation. Instead it gives us a sense of distance and safety. Not only do we not have to address the man's handicap, but we are also free from the scrutiny and reproach of others were we to label him anything else. In effect, PC language shields us from thinking about troublesome issues, making us no more understanding or empathetic toward one another. Another troubling aspect of PC language is the immense confusion it presents in knowing what we should call one another. This puzzle, or name game, only exacerbates the widening gap between people of different genders, backgrounds and circumstances. Are they black or African-American? Is he blind or visually impaired? Is she Miss or Ms.? Are they the poor or the underclass? Is he her lover or significant other? Is she a prostitute or a personal pleasure provider? The list is inexhaustible and with so many options and so many different opinions about what is appropriate, many people find themselves at a loss. One could refer to an Asian man as "Oriental" one day without incident and the next be verbally brow beaten for being so "insensitive." This, in turn, severely restricts what we say to each other, possibly even making us less likely to address someone different than ourselves for fear of offending them. The PC trend poses yet another and even more alarming problem, however. It gives people with a chip on their shoulder the right to accuse and attack anyone who they feel has personally offended them. Many people are being crucified on a politically correct cross for someone else's hang-ups. For example, a white man referring to a dark-skinned man as "African-American" might be accused of trying to attribute an ancestry to the black man that he renounces as the white man's way to pacify him for past injustices done to his people. Such offense taken by the black man is clearly personal, for all black people do not feel that way. But political correctness asserts that the black man's gripe is just as valid as any other. According to this idea, calling a black man "African-American" can be, and in some cases is, just as disparaging as using an offensive ethnic or religious slur. But these two labels are clearly on two different ends of the spectrum. Thus, maybe politically correct should stand for "too sensitive." While social and cultural awareness is needed in the world, the mask of politically correct sensitivity is not. It is true that man should try not to offend or disparage his fellow man, but not because he wants to get a little higher in the polls or because he wants to impress the "sexy liberal chick" in his woman's studies class. Everyday we are bombarded with politically correct terms and know if we disagree, we will be labeled a racist, sexist, fascist, communist or some equally terrible "-ist." We don't know how to address our neighbors and co-workers. We're not even sure we didn't make a gender-biased remark yesterday by asking whether or not the mailman had come yet. However, such uneasiness is uncalled for and should not be tolerated. To be aware does not mean blurting out meaningless euphemisms, but taking into account a shared humanity among all people and maybe taking a step out of our comfort zones. When all is said and done, we should not have to say to a stranger, "Hello. Nice to meet you. And by the way, do you prefer to be called black?" Therefore, as far as being politically correct goes, just don't call me "nigger." But of course, that should be understood.
Shavahn Dorris is a junior English major from Joliet, Ill. She can be reached at (msvon19@aol.com). Letters to the editor Mentoring award founders thank many for making prize a reality The initial presentation of the Wassenich Award for Mentoring in the TCU Community at the Fall Convocation was a thrill to us. Not only does it officially recognize an attribute of TCU that is and has always been a part of the university, it also gives students and alumni a chance to recognize a faculty or staff member who has been significant in their education and maturing while at TCU. This open access by students to staff and faculty outside the classroom does not exist at many universities. A huge thank you goes to those who have worked over the past two years to evaluate the nominations and prepare the award. At the risk of leaving out some important names, we wish to specifically thank Barbara Herman, who chaired the committee and did much of the research and writing, committee members Ben Alexander, John Breyer, Jill Clark, Ellen Page Garrison, Mari Mooneyham, Rhonda Keen-Payne, Roger Pfaffenberger, Mike Russel, Alonso Sanchez, John Shelton, Priscilla Tate, Cornell Thomas and student development staffer Victoria Witt. Thanks also to Ann Louden whose coordination of the idea and the gift was crucial, to Don Mills (in spite of his corny jokes along the way), to the Skiff for its thorough coverage and a particular thanks to Chancellor Ferrari who embraced the concept of this award and placed it at Convocation. To the many students and alumni who nominated 120 faculty and staff members for the Mentoring Award, you are commended for caring and taking the time to do so. Isn't it great that so many took this opportunity to recognize their mentors at TCU? Congratulations to those who were nominated, the eight finalists and to Director of Minority Affairs and Commuter Student Programs Darron Turner, the first recipient of the Mentoring Award. You live to a high standard consistent with what we all love at TCU. Mark Wassenich, Class of 1964 Linda Pilcher Wassenich, Class of 1965
Keeping religion to oneself was Thomas Jefferson's philosophy I should like to add my two cents to your fine editorial on the Southern Baptist Convention's wish that Christians pray for Jews to convert to Christianity. I saved this story from an American history course I took at college. In 1816, an irate women wrote to Thomas Jefferson and asked why he rarely went to church and why he was never vocal at all about his religion and his practice. He replied, "I have never told my religion nor scrutinized that of another. I have never attempted to make a convert, not wished to change another's creed. I am satisfied that yours must be an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be judged."
Burton W. Schwartz, Brown-Lupton Health Center |
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