The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 44, Ed. 1, Tuesday, February 26, 1985 Page: 2 of 8
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'Optimisttuesday feb. 26 1985
Opinion
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Free mail idea has its pr
lems
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Although the proposal by the
Students' Association concerning free
on-camptts mall may be appealing to
students if passed it would cause in
numerable problems for the ACU Post
Office and probably wouldn't benefit
students as much as they might think.
The SA decided at its Feb. 19
meeting to present a proposal to the ad-
ministration asking that students be
allowed to send mail to anyone on cam-
pus without paying postage.
This proposal would be financially
advantageous to students and possibly
more convenient for them; however
the disadvantages for the post office
and the eventual costs to students make
the proposal undesirable.
We'll just let the facts as given to us
by Post Office Manager Leao
McDaniel speak for themselves:
Sampling
editorials
ly The Associated Press
Here is a sampling of editorial opinion
from around Texas:
'War on poverty'
merits second look
When Lyndon Johnson launched his
"war on poverty" 21 years ago he an-
nounced "We have the power to strike
away the barriers to full participation in
our society. Having the power we have
the duty."
President Johnson's social programs
didn't live up to their grandiose aims
they didn't eliminate poverty but
they continue to perform a useful func-
tion as a recently released analysis of
American family income indicates.
The analysis by Joseph A. Pechman
of the Brookings Institution concludes
.rithat distribution of income in this
country has not changed at all in the
past 20 years...
With lawmakers beginning to grapple
with the dilemma of what gets cut and
why we hope they take time to con-
sider the benefits both of progressive
taxation and social programs that ward
off the danger of two Americas one
rich and the other poor. San Antonio
Light
Our reactions
The recent announcements by Presi-
dent Reagan and Secretary of Educa-
tion Bennett in which they proposed a
$2.3 billion cut in federal student aid
programs brought us thoughts of reac-
tion that cut both ways both toward
the government officials who will in-
fluence whether such proposals come to
pass and toward the students even
here at ACU who are currently on
the receiving end of such aid programs
(See the related story page A-l).
Km of ill in concurrence with
probably a majority of those in the na-
tional higher education community
we think the kind of cuts and the at-
titude toward such cuts as proposed by
the president and the secretary are too
simplistic and too hastily spoken and
we believe that in their present form
they are too generalized to ever be
seriously considered by Congress. We
hope so.
We think that if the government
wants to lower its deficit and cut back
on programs and regulations then it
should start by trying to repair the
crazy-quilt of student loans grants and
work-study programs it already has in
effect rather than by adding a whole
new layer of rules while slashing
students' aid packages indiscriminately.
We believe that lowering the nation's
deficit is an important priority and we
believe that some students in the nation
are ripping off the government over-
borrowing spending their aid on lux-
uries and defaulting on their loan
payments but we don't believe these
The ACU Post Office receives an.
average of 18.4 bags of mail per day
compared to the approximately 3.5
bags of mail per day received at Texas
A&Ts post office. McDaniel has made
inquiries at several universities of com-
parable size to ACU and discovered
that ACU receives at least as mucin and
usually much more mail than these
other schools.
And because ACU Is a private school
the post office Is not only responsible
for more incoming mail but also for
more outgoing moil from the university
to its constituency.
Over the past 15 years the volume of
mail both incoming and outgoing from
the ACU Post Office has increased 350
percent or about 25 percent per year.
These percentage figures arc based on
readouts from the postage meter on the
leaks in the dam will be effectively
plugged by Reagan and Bennett's
income-ceiling measures.
We believe that Congress should
rewrite the laws to discourage rip-offs
should question a system that taxes
middle-income families to help upper-
income families attend costly private
colleges and should target student aid
to help adsreduce the deficit but not
as part of an indiscriminate hatchet-job.
Rather reducing aid by more careful
targeting should be part of an across-the-board
governmental spending
freeze.
We think there is merit to the idea
that the government should stop sub-
sidizing student loans to keep their in-
terest rates low on the basis that
students in institutions of higher educa-
tion are potentially thq "future rich"
as stated by Texas A&M economist
John R Lott Jr. in a recent issue of
USA Today.
He says that "While students
especially those from relatively poor
families do not have a high standard of
living during college they enjoy above-
average earnings soon after receiving
their degrees." And "since the loans are
slowly paid off after graduation during
a period of high earnings subsidized in-
terest rates seem unjustified." He says
the primary effect of abolishing such
subsidies will be to end the "unjustified
taxing of people to subsidize the future
wealthy of this country" Good point
we believe.
But also in reaction to these proposed
rW9SIE!
routine postal reports completed by the
staff and on the volume of daily incom-
ing mail.
However McDaniel Actually 'has
three fewer part-time student workers
than he had 15 years ago because he
traded off those positions in order to ac-
quire one full-time worker. The post of-
fice lost 10 hours of work per week in
the trade.
Ten student workers and four full-
time employees work six days per week
in the post office. If the free mail pro-
posal passes the post office would
definitely have to hire more workers
which could feasibly force a rise in tui-
tion costs for students McDaniel said.
The increased amount of mail would
also overload the mail storage space of
the post office area itself which
McDaniel said is filled to capacity
l"1. ft t n f y " nll II
i b nui sui'uch
wft uMihh m.
cut both
cuts and the anxiety and concern that
such thoughts may create in students'
minds we'd like to ask our student
readers here: Arc we taking seriously
enough the great blessing we have in
receiving higher education of any kind
much less higher education at a high-
quality private religious institution
with slightly higher-than-average tui-
tion costs? Are we aware enough of the
awesome privilege we have been given
to receive such an education at any
cost and of the great responsibility we
have automatically received by being
allowed to come to such an institution?
The nation of Kenya East Africa
has a land area approximately equal to
that of Texas and a population also ap-
proximately equivalent to Texas' 18
million according to Gaston Tarbet
missionary-in-residence. Yet in that na-
tion which is among the more stable
and more rapidly developing nations of
northeast Africa there is only one
university and its enrollment is lower
than ACU's approximately 3500.
Can you imagine ACU being the only
university available to serve the entire
state of Texas?
The majority of the Kenyan people
only complete the seventh grade
because the nation's limited number of
secondary school faculties and facilities
can only handle 10 percent of the
population. And less than one percent
of the people ever get to go to that
single university Tarbet said.
Among other Third World countries
the percentage of persons ages 5 to 19
every day.
Interdepartmental mail can already
be sent free on campus as well as can
any official mail for club or class ac-
tivities. The post office currently
handles every day approximately
10000 pieces of such interdepartmen-
tal mail McDaniel said
In addition a courier service per-
formed by student workers runs three
different mail routes twice a day to 37
different campus offices.
McDaniel said some of the schools
who allow free mailing through their
campusipost offices need the business.
However he said "We don't need the
business this would provide."
Because official school mail is already
free the proposal would only be con-
cealing personal mail from one person
on campus to another. And we think
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who are in school generally ranges from
25 percent down to five percent with
many nations having a population
literacy level lower than 15 percent.
In comparison most of us here had
the high privilege of graduating from
high school. And many of us probably
began assuming well before we com-
pleted high school that we would pro-
ceed smoothly and without interrup-
tion on to the college of our choice.
Yet what a rare almost unimaginable
assumption this would be for so many
millions of the world's Kenyans Ethio-
pians Guatemalans Laotians
Liberians etc. Among these there are
many just as intelligent as us many just
as capable many perhaps even more
eager to learn because education is such
a rare prize yet many who have little or
no chance of leaning even the most
basic rudiments of reading writing and
'rithmctic simply because of where
they were born.
We know that many current ACU
students are working hard to pay for
their educations and we commend
them but we commend even more
those who arc working as though their
educational opportunity is a steward-
ship given them by God to be used for
His glory and for the service of the
millions who have not been given such
opportunity. And for such students the
Scriptures have these words of
assurance concerning funds for student
aid: "Seekiwr God's kingdom and His
righteousness and all these things will
be given to you as well."
that if students are going to insist on
"reaching out" for free they could just
as easily satisfy that desire by delivering
their mail to other students throughout
the day in classes in Chapel at lunch
and at other places around campus.
Also the priority of allowing free
mail service should really be questioned
when it's considered that the post office
staff is working extra hours to put oujfe
payroll checks to put out campus mair
during post office holidays and to pro-
vide many other time-consuming mail
services for students.
Though students may feel they
would possibly gain from the proposal
the post office would lose all the way
around. And unnecessarily raising
either emotional tensions or tuition
costs would keep "free mail" from real-
ly being free at all.
Correcting
impressions
We would like to clarify andor cor-
rect these items of information from tlw
Feb. 22 issue of the Optimist.
A headline on page A4 stated "Low
turnout: Lectureship attendance
decreases." Actually the story Mated
that the number of people who
registered at Lectureship was lower o
Tuesday night than.it was on Tuesdp
night last year ana that the actual at'
tendance according to Lectureship
Director Dr. Carl Brecheen was higher
than last year's.
However because no one has to
register in order to get into Lectureship
sessions the attendance can differ wide
ly from the registration numbers
which are the most concrete way of
estimating the attendance at Lec-
tureship said Roberta Brown Lee
turcship secretary. The registration
numbers are never near the actual affe
tendance numbers she said but thJ
based on other more informal means of
Corrections
counting the numbers attending wesjfc
significantly higher than last year w
On rwk A-5. a storv was headlined
"Missionaries: Dr. Blazer says ACU
should pre-screen" implying perhaps
that ACU docs not pre-screen the mis-
sionary apprentices missions graduates
and mission teams that it sends out.
Actually among Church of Christ-
related schools ACU is a leader in this
requiring that all prospective mis-
sionaries take at least one and usually
two batteries of psychological and emo-
tional tests to certify the candidates
stability and readiness to go on the miP
slon field. The candidates are also re-
quired to go through private counseling
interviews with missions faculty and
trained psychologists and missionary
apprentices are required to participate
in a week-long structured stress pro-
gram under faculty supervision.
Gaston Tarbet missionary-in-residence
and director of tlic MARK
program said that pre-screcning of mis-
sionary candidates is not token much
into consideration by many Church
oi nnst or Uhurch-ol-Christ school
but that ACU has been lenditu? nthe
icT
such schools in this in the last five
years.
Optimist
Key Payton-edltoMn-chtef
Kathie Heniy-tuesday news editor
Mark Cuium-tuesday features editor
Laura Smkh-asst features editor
Kan SmaHing-sports editor W
GaryPattrton-asst sports editor
CraJg ASen-tuesday chief photographer
Kerry Cole tuesday copy editor
Kelly Tumer-tuesday design editor
Max Mawhirter-stat services director
Rob Faubion-ad sales manager
Carmen Scwbrough-ad creative director
Dena Edwards-ad production manager
Mark Hatley-production asst
BWEnftend-ad director
Dr. CHarEe Marier-advlser
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The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 44, Ed. 1, Tuesday, February 26, 1985, newspaper, February 26, 1985; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth96162/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.