April 25, 2008...1:57 am
Why I’m Not Giving One Red Cent To Texas A&M
I was studying for class (I think) a few nights ago when the phone rang. It was Texas A&M calling. Well, technically it was a girl named Meredith calling from the Former Student Association (the Alumni equivalent for Texas A&M), and basically she was asking (very politely) for money. And with all the good-will I could muster, I said:
“Ma’am, at the moment I don’t see myself ever donating anything to this university. Would you be kind enough to remove my name from the call list?”
But, believe it or not, it hurt to say that. I mean, I love Texas A&M. Or perhaps I should say, I love things about Texas A&M. During my time there, I was about as crazy about Texas A&M as the next guy. I lived on Northside for 3 years, ate at Sbisa dining hall more times than I can count, made as many midnight yell practices (with painted overalls and all) as was humanly possible, worked on the student bonfire, took the expected road trips for away football games, BTHO t.u. with great glee and many Whoops!, and still to this day hardly ever take my Aggie ring off my hand.
But all is not well in Aggieland.
And let me tell you something about why this is the case, and why I’m stewarding the money God has (and may) give me, and not making A&M any richer off my back:
– I’ve already given them $40,000+ in tuition and fees, plus 4 years of the most productive time of my life (okay, maybe not most productive, but you know what I mean…)
– I know first hand how much they are raising tuition, and the quality of education is not any where near keeping pace with the financial aspect.
– They do not reflect my values - at all. The conservative facade that the public sees (although even that is falling by the wayside) is overpowered by a secular humanistic bent that is intent on making A&M as godless and therefore “respected” by the rest of academia as possible. They want to be the “Harvard of the South” and they will sell their soul to highest bidder to do it. Furthermore, the faculty as a whole (there are a few shining exceptions) have bought wholesale into evolution, postmodernism, and the liberal social ethic in regards to homosexuality and the woman’s right to choose.
I remember the way the administration treats the students, the way they are seen primarily in utilitarian terms, as numbers by and large and not names. I remember the way their free speech is stifled if it challenges the liberal stronghold. I remember the way the administration rules the student government with an iron fist, and an intoxicating air of power seasoned with a lack of accountability.
I love a great many things about Texas A&M, but I do not love what it is becoming, and unless something changes, they can kiss my pocketbook goodbye.
Howdya like that?
‘BH
6 Comments
April 25, 2008 at 3:11 am
Ditto.
The school has changed so much in the past decade or so. The force-feeding of the liberal social agenda was on the rise when I was there and it’s only increased in steam.
I haven’t given anything in years, though I reserve the right to give some love to the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Cadet Corps, even though Ol’ Army is dead.
I still love the Aggies, but “the man” gets no love from me.
April 25, 2008 at 7:54 am
Good post.
But I think every University is this way. Wholly and completely bought into the liberal mindset. They call themselves “open-minded” yet they counter every opinion different from their own as stupidity or racist or misogynistic.
Forgive me, but I kind of laughed when you mentioned a “woman’s right to choose”. What these organizations don’t realize is that everyone supports a “woman’s right to choose” to NOT have sex if she doesn’t want to stand a chance at pregnancy.
I would prefer liberals call it for what it is “a woman’s right to choose abortion” or a “woman’s right to end a pregnancy”. The usage of the “woman’s right to choose” term implies that any conservative (or liberal that disagrees on that issue, for that matter) wants to restrict the basic rights of women (i.e. choices) and subject them once again to having no voice in the public forum (ie pre-1920), when this is hardly the case.
The truth is that most abortion opponents don’t care what a woman does with HER own body. The fact is that there is another, wholly separate individual inside her body that, while attached, is not part of her body. The “my body, my choice” argument doesn’t really work here because it’s not just about the woman’s body anymore.
Anyways, that term just made me cringe. I think it’s a liberal propoganda term used to make the anti-abortion crowd appear misogynistic.
April 26, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Gunny-
My thoughts exactly. I would love to fund a fellow Ag in completing their education, but the buck stops there as far as giving blindly to the big wigs.
MW -
Unfortunately I think you’re right. And you’re right on as far as the liberal rhetoric of a “woman’s right to choose”. I should probably know better than to use that kind of language… Thanks for the rebuke.
April 27, 2008 at 4:36 am
BH,
I didn’t mean to rebuke you. I actually thought that your use of that term was kind of a stab at that liberal term anyways because it is so misleading. I thought you used it intentionally because that is what the pro-aborts called abortion to make it sound “pretty”.
April 27, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Hank, what’s with the constant template changes? I loved the first style. It was one of the best I’d seen.
Anyway, I agree with your post. In general, education is overpriced. The problem is with the students. We have failed to hold the faculty and administration accountable. The students pay for the education, and just as we demand quality service anywhere else, we should demand a quality education from our academic institutions. If you hired a cleaning service for $50 an hour to clean your church on Sunday afternoons, and you came in on Monday morning and found that bulletins were left in the pews and the trash barrels were not empty, you’d raise a stink and make sure you got either a refund or the service you demanded. But why is it when we are paying $100, $500, or even $1000 per hour for tuition (the latter is graduation tuition at BC) do we not demand the same quality of service?
After two years of graduate work at Boston College (”The Harvard South of the Charles”, “The Catholic Harvard,” “The New Ivy League” or something like that) I have $60,000 worth of loans. While I received a quality education here, it was not worth that much money.
As for wanting to be “Harvard of the South” let me tell you that Harvard is best known in Boston as bringing tourism to the City of Cambridge. It’s an arrogant elitist club, and the reason it’s so well thought of is because everyone wants to be in the club. And if you can’t be in the club, start a club of your own, hence, “Harvard of the South.” Did you know that, out of all the major institutions in the Boston area, it is the only one that does not let members of other schools even set one foot in its library?
I knew some students in the religion program at Harvard. They definitely had mixed feelings about it. One was an Episcopalian, another a Presbyterian. Both were in a class on the Trinity, which they said should have been called “Heresy 101.” The course was supposed to teach them the historical development of the Trinity, but instead they sat around discussing other ways to describe the Trinity, like “Mother, Daughter, and Womb” and “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier” etc. I wouldn’t pay the expensive tuition for what I can get for $1 in the bargain bin at Borders.
April 27, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Cody -
Yeah, sorry about that. I was trying to find a template that would go well with my header pic. If I knew more about design stuff, I would just make my own template, but as it is, I’m at the mercy of cookie cutter templates from wordpress….
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