thebattalion asks
Q:
What are your thoughts on the Student Senate signing bills on behalf of the student body?
thebattalion ● tuesday,
april 26, 2011
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2011 student media
issues
Beyond tutoring
National clinic finances sustained
It’s not a very wide representation of what is happening here on campus if only 25 percent are represented.
Planned Parenthood to keep receiving federal money
Meredith Landry, junior allied health major
Naila Dhanani The Battalion Below: Miles Dunklin, senior university studies major, works with Sigma Chi to help tutor kids at Churchill Baptist Church. Left: Members of the Sigma Chi fraternity tutor children in the BryanCollege Station Community.
If you’re gonna pass something you need an opinion from a bigger percentage. Prezel Hardy, freshman kinesiology major
I think it’s absolutely awful, awful, awful. I think their political ideologies are being transferred onto us. Aga Holston, freshman political science major
Photos by Tiffany Cornelius — THE BATTALION
It’s acceptable. If the student body doesn’t participate in elections, they are essentially saying that whatever issue is discussed is not important to them. Samuel Keys, sophomore general studies major
Sigma Chi fraternity starts tutoring program for children in B-CS community Rosalee Getterman
Special to The Battalion As 7 p.m. nears on Wednesday evening, mostly elementary and middle school students and tutors begin to arrive at Churchill Baptist Church with smiles on their faces that indicates their excitement to be there. The tutors, students from Texas A&M, are mostly members of the Sigma Chi fraternity who have found a rewarding way to academically and emotionally
invest in the Bryan-College Station community. “Two years ago, in the spring of 2009, Carl Gerkin and Detrick Eaton had the idea to do this, so Paul came to our fraternity and said let’s do this. At first it was just one night a week, on Wednesdays, for an hour. Since I’ve taken over, we’ve expanded to two nights a week, Mondays and Wednesdays, at two different locations,” said Miles Dunklin, a senior business major.
Dunklin is responsible for the current participation of the members of Sigma Chi in conjunction with 99 Tutors in order to reach to students in the communities of Bryan and College Station and offer free tutoring. “The students have grown attached to the fraternity members,” said Detrick Eaton, the president of 99Tutors. “They not only help them academically but also by mentoring them. The See Sigma Chi on page 4
Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization which provides reproductive health services to women, men and teens, faced legislation that would strip away all of its federal funding. This legislation, passed in the House and defeated in the Senate, is the work of Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana. Although it is illegal to use federal funds for an abortion, Pence said he’s ready for “legislation that will prevent abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving a single dime from the federal government.” “If passed, the Pence Amendment will come at a high cost of basic preventative health care for the women of Texas who have relied on Planned Parenthood for nearly 75 years,” said Laura Leon, Planned Parenthood representative. Given the Democrat-led Senate, this amendment was never expected to pass. However, it came extremely close. The near shutdown of the government revealed just how divided this country is when it comes to where taxpayer dollars should be headed. Since the Pence amendment has now failed, the real threat facing Planned Parenthood no longer has to do with losing its federal funding, but rather with the onslaught of attacks made by those disparaging the merits of this organization. By singling out Planned Parenthood from other health care providers for their abortion services, supporters of the Pence Amendment are dismissing the strides Planned Parenthood has made in increasing women’s health status. “The efforts by Representative Pence are one of the most misguided and dangerous legislative assaults on women’s health in Planned Parenthood’s 95-year history. These efforts are being disguised as deficit reduction but they are completely driven by an anti-choice and anti-family planning point of view,” Leon said. “The Bryan Health Center provided more than 5,900 health care visits [in the past year]. Nationwide, 3 percent of our services are related to abortion care and 97 percent are related to preventive care.” Those in opposition to the Pence Amendment question the extent of the repercussions of closing the clinics. “At this point, the supporters of See Parenthood on page 4
MAILCALL
Taylor Wolken: Bill flies in the face of conservatism
From Colleen Fisher, class of 2010
I
n recent years, one of the greatest laments from small government types has been the unappealing political choice between big government and big government-lite. With the passage of SB 63-106, which endorses “conservative” Rep. Wayne Christian’s HB 1, it is abundantly clear that the real false choice is between big government and big government-right. SB 63-106 defines itself as “A bill supporting an amendment before the Texas Legislature to require GLBT resource centers to provide matching funds to traditional sexual education, and asking that such funding not be acquired through increased student fees.” Don’t be conned by the term “traditional sexual education.” Though many supporters of this bill might fancy themselves conservative, this is communism at the core. A real small government type would never prescribe to a policy designed to mandate equality through government coercion forcing “GLBT resource centers to provide matching funds to traditional sexual education.” In a sick way, this bill is actually
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redistributing redistributed wealth to an outcome preferred by the big government-right. Sadly, this command-and-control style of resource allocation never leads to efficient results. Rep. Christian plays the role of all-knowing government bureaucrat in this play deciding that the services of the resource center will be best utilized in equal parts GLBT and traditional values. This assumption is absurd. While GLBT might be a smaller portion of the Aggie family, for that very reason these students are more likely to need the services the resource center can offer. Traditional values types, however they are defined, are assumed to be the majority and thus have less need for the specialized
services the resource center offers. They also share a lifestyle with tens of thousands of students and have adequate substitutes for the resource center in hundreds of churches and student organizations throughout Bryan-College Station. Mandating equal resources for the sake of government-sanctioned equality flies in
Today I read two articles in The Battalion, both very well written and generally on the same side of an issue. But attacking an amendment that attempts to give as much support to a “traditional” view as an “alternative” seems mildly extreme. It is true that those of GLBT are persecuted and in the minority, that some people will find their lives more difficult because of this; and yes, they should have help with these things. My personal hopes for this would be for the study of heterosexual relationships and sexual identity become as much of a focus as GLBT. The word choice of using “traditional” is unfair, but the idea of a joint resource center to help all students deal with sexuality and matters of relationships can be helpful to everyone. No funding needs to be pulled, and I know of counselors on campus who want to help students no matter what the student considers himself or herself to be. This shouldn’t become about making Texas A&M more or less GLBT friendly, it should be about finding the best way to have all inclusive resource center. This situation is akin to the lack of scholarships for white 18- to 24-year-old males; just because a person is a member of the majority does not mean that they do not deserve specialized help.
See GLBT on page 9
4/25/11 8:01 PM