Debates heard
Canceling accomplishes nothing

Mel Carnahan campaigned with Al Gore whenever the vice president was in Missouri and had planned to accompany him aboard Air Force II to a rally today in Kansas City.

But Carnahan, the governor of Missouri who was running for the Senate, died in a plane crash near St. Louis Monday night.

After considering cancellation or postponement of Tuesday night’s presidential debate in honor of the governor, both campaigns and the debate commission agreed to go forward with the final debate.

“We’re all waking up, honestly, to the tragedy and the pain of it and the shock of it,” Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman said on CNN.

While the brief moments of silence before the debate and the opening comments by the candidates could never have encapsulated what the loss means to Carnahan’s family, canceling the debate would have accomplished even less.

Janet Brown, commission executive director, saw the importance of the final debate, which comes just three weeks before Election Day. In a statement, Brown said the debate comes at “a critical time in an extremely important election.”

“We believe that conducting a debate in the governor’s home state, featuring citizens of Missouri, is what the governor would have wanted,” she said.

The death of the governor is a tragedy, but it would not have halted the final debate if it had been hosted in another state. The importance of the debate would have taken precedence.

The Gallup Poll currently shows that George W. Bush leads Gore by only 3 percent of the vote.

Many political analysts said the final debate will be the deciding factor in who would be the next president. The impact of the debate on the election should have been reason enough to go on with the debate.

Carnahan would have wanted it that way.

Hats off to the Student Government Association and administration for taking the time to listen to the students’ concerns about TCU. I think everyone will admit immediately that TCU provides an excellent education, but no school is perfect. Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Don Mills and other faculty and staff members have gone out of their way to meet with students and student leaders to get their opinions on ways to improve TCU and enhance the overall “TCU experience.”

Each year, Mills goes to the Minority Leadership Retreat at the Marriott Solana in Westlake. He stays after if necessary and talks with students about issues or questions they may have. That’s excellent. That is his job, but he doesn’t have to take it as seriously as he does. And for that we are appreciative.

But for four years, it seems the administration has been dancing around the same issues: parking and food services.

While in the House of Student Representatives, I participated in a dinner presented by Marriott Food Service where we discussed the food issues. Of course, Marriott served their best dishes for the evening, plus dessert, and it was all free. After we had finished eating, who could complain?

Even during Monday at TCU, Family Weekend and Homecoming, Marriott rolls out the purple carpet for families, friends, potential students and alumni. They eat in our cafeteria and wonder what we’re complaining about. But they don’t see the days when the lesser of two evils is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Marriott seems to think students want to eat the same thing every day. Not so, as if quality and variety can’t go hand in hand.

Prices in The Main aren’t any better this year than in past years. Last semester, The Main charged $.99 for one shrimp. So what most students did was get a lot of shrimp and fries, put the fries over all but about three shrimp and went to the counter and paid for the shrimp and fries. This semester, The Main charges about $3 for veal, but if you’re smart, you’ll either cover it up with fries or become good friends with the cashiers.

The yearlong question of parking was an issue before I got a car and it’s still an issue now. Every year, students ask for a parking garage of some sort. This year, it appears they made a few changes, but the changes didn’t benefit the students. They took the 75 or so parking spaces we had in the middle of campus and gave them all to faculty. Now students are forced to park off campus if they’re not fortunate enough to quickly find a space around 7 a.m. in one of the residential parking lots. But I guess the administration feels there’s no need to worry. Chancellor Ferrari still has his 24 hours/7 days a week reserved parking space right in front of Sadler Hall.

Now my question is, why won’t the administration give the students what they want? It’s our money. Administration is quick to give us what they think we want, such as a bus that hardly anyone rides. We’re adults now. We know what we like and we know what we want. I thought that’s what the constituency party was all about.

Maybe this year they’ll listen to us and we won’t have to keep having these parties and we can go study — or something.

Yonina Robinson is a senior broadcast journalism major from Mobile, Ala.
She can be reached at (y.l.robinson@student.tcu.edu).

One of the biggest concerns of our nation today is the apparent apathy of America’s youth. Adults criticize students for being malcontent and not caring about politics, world news and our futures in general.

Well, I can’t speak for all of our nation’s youth, but I feel I represent all college students across the United States when I place the blame squarely on the supposed student-nurturing universities we are attending. Yes Chancellor Ferrari, this includes our beloved TCU.

You see, the source of our laziness and bad attitudes lies solely in the cheap toilet tissue we are forced to use everyday. Sure, this sounds ridiculous. Please, feel free to get all the laughter you’re directing at me out of your system. However, please consider the following points.

Every morning we all go to the residence hall bathroom to do our thing after we drag ourselves out of bed. Upon doing so, we are tyrannically forced to comply with the single-ply sandpaper that sadistically teases us as we take our rightful place on our porcelain thrones. Now, it’s one thing to have to use this cheap tissue only at restaurants and movie theaters, but when we are forced to live in discomfort every day of our student lives, it begins to take a toll on our mindsets.

Assuming this daily discomfort doesn’t keep us from crawling back into bed in surrender, we have to walk all the way to class as if we have saddle burn and tell people we’re walking that way because we were busy doing “other stuff” all night long. If we weren’t so distracted during our classes we would take part in much more class discussion and be more eager and diligent in general.

This soreness we are forced to live with affects our personalities and makes us vindictive towards others. As a result, most college students inevitably develop a cynical outlook on life, which creates the general apathy we often have toward the world. It isn’t the education system that is to blame; it’s the cheapness of educational institutions themselves.

All of these problems could easily be rectified if TCU was to invest in some Charmin or Quilted Northern, brands we know. The cute little Charmin bear isn’t trying to yank us around. He knows what he’s talking about when he snuggles up to his tissue.

Besides, when you buy wholesale, the price difference between the generic and quality brands isn’t that great. I’m pretty sure we can make do on this campus if we have one less of those sprinklers that are always turning on as I walk over them (but that’s for another pointless column yet to come).

Just imagine a student population with nearly 100 percent student turnout for elections. Sure, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura would be running neck and neck with George W. Bush, but it’s the principle of the issue that really matters. In this more comfortable world, no one would skip classes and everyone would be involved in at least three organizations on campus. Laziness would become a thing of the past and people would care about the environment, the economy and, heaven forbid, international news that doesn’t even directly affect our lives.

So please, Chancellor Ferrari, and whoever else is in charge of budgetary matters (I’d look it up if it wasn’t too uncomfortable to get out of my chair), consider my humble proposition. It won’t set the university back financially and it will help TCU profit in the long run. Since quality tissue paper will help the students be more successful, we will feel more obligated to donate large sums of money to TCU when we’re all wealthy.

asically, it’s a win-win situation, so you don’t have any excuses. I’ll expect the necessary changes to have been implemented by the end of the semester.

Thank you.

Jordan Blum is a sophomore broadcast journalism major from New Orleans, La.
He can be reached at (j.d.blum@student.tcu.edu).