. . . where will they sleep come ta
By GERALD OLIVIER
Staff Writer
New residents in College Station
this fall may have trouble finding
housing in the city.
City Planner Bill Koehler said
:urrent housing is about 95 per cent
>ccupied, an assessment corrobo-
ated by the local apartment
jwner’s association.
Koehler said a population in-
:reaseof3,000in the city following a
projected university enrollment in
crease of 2,000 students is antici
pated for this September.
“The availability of capital for
building has been low,” Koehler
said. “This has reduced new hous
ing starts from 1,100 in 1973 to only
414 new units in 1974.”
These figures are based on the
number of building permits applied
for. Koehler said the city estimates
2.7 people will be served by each
new unit. According to this ratio,
1,000 people will be able to find
housing in the new units. These
should be ready for the fall, Koehler
said.
The other major source of hous
ing in College Station is the univer
sity. Construction on the new dorm
behind Krueger-Dunn is scheduled
for completion this fall. University
officials have said there will be no
new dorms after this one.
“I do not perceive at this point
that I would recommend the build
ing of any new dormitories,” Dr.
John Koldus, vice president for stu
dent services, said in a recent inter
view.
The new dorm will house an addi
tional 950 students. This leaves the
estimated 1,000 new students, plus
the additional 1,000 new city resi
dents needing housing in the pri
vate sector off-campus.
One thousand of those are pro
vided for by the 414 new units in
construction. The other 1,000 will
have to seek housing elsewhere.
Koehler had some ideas on where
they might end up.
“A lot of the excess could be taken
up by building in Bryan,” he said.
Housing in Bryan is available, but
not as convenient to the campus.
“Apartment owners could start
putting more people in one unit that
presently,” Koehler suggested.
“The university could start sleep
ing three people in a dorm room —
they’ve done it before,” he added.
Local officials agree the problem
of obtaining convenient housing
may result in a decrease in the
growth rate of A&M.
“One of the main factors limiting
growth at A&M is the availability of
housing,” Koehler said. “If people
can’t find a place to live they won’t
want to move here.”
Koldus agreed that housing is one
factor to be considered in predicting
enrollment increases in the future.
The university is expecting an en
rollment of 27,566 by 1979. Koldus
and Koehler said they feel it will be
up to the private housing industry to
build places for these additional
students and the people they bring
with them to live.
Weather
Mostly cloudy today, to
night and tomorrow.
Chances of showers tonight
and Wednesday. Cooler
tomorrow. Winds from the
south 10-18 mph. High
today near 80°. Low tonight
61°; high Wednesday 74°.
Che Battalion
Inside
Corps move
Book Mart
Scheduling
p.3
P-4
p.5
Vol. 68 No. 63
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, January 28, 1975
Texas House bogs
on salary increase
I AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) — Legisla
tive action on a Senate-passed pay
raise bill for state employes became
I mired in a swamp of technicalities
Monday.
The House Appropriations Com
mittee adjourned until Tuesday
morning without a final vote on a
rewritten version of the bill.
Speed is necessary because the
raises cannot go on the employes’
Feb. 1 pay checks unless the bill is
passed and signed by the governor
Friday.
The Senate’s $93 million pay raise
bill was rewritten over the weekend
by agroup that included its sponsor,
Sen. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, to
eliminate “inequities. The price
tag now is $110 million over the
seven-month period covered by the
raises.
House committee action stalled
over reimbursement of the general
revenue fond for raises paid to emp
loyes whose salaries come from the
numerous special or earmarked
funds. These include regulatory
agencies financed entirely by spe
cial fees or taxes on the industries
and occupations they regulate.
When an amendment seeking to
clarify' the situation failed, 6-10, the
committee abruptly adjourned.
Several members said they wanted
to work on new language overnight
with the Legislative Budget Board
staff.
In the version before the commit
tee, the bill would:
-Give rank and file, or “clas
sified,” employes in salary groups 2
through 12 — that is, up to $12,000
— a 14.2 per cent across-the-board
pay raise. Classified workers in
groups 13-21, who now have a top
salary of $23,220, a 10.5 per cent
increase.
-Provide a 14.2 per cent increase
for those outside the position clas
sification plan making less than $876
a month.
-Raise the pay of those outside the
plan who now make between $876
and $1,181 a month by $124 per
month.
-Provide non-classified workers
making between $1,181 and $1,935
monthly with a raise of 10.5 per
cent, across the board.
-Increase the salaries of non-
classified employes making more
than $1,935 monthly by $203 per
month.
The Senate’s bill, which passed
31-0 last Monday, gave those mak
ing under $10,500 a 14.2 per cent
raise, those between $10,500 and
$20,500 a 10.5 per cent increase and
employes earning over $20,500 a
5.5 per cent raise.
The Senate bill was criticized
after its passage because it set up
situations where an employe’s pay
could jump above that of his super
visor.
“It does not make good sense to
mandate salary increases that would
raise an employe to a salary level
above that of his boss,” said Rep.
Bill Presnal, D-Bryan, House Ap
propriations Committee chairman.
House Speaker Bill Clayton said
that if the committee changed the
bill drastically from the form in
which the Senate passed it, there
might be an attempt to speed up
House action by suspending rules
and debating the measure Tuesday
— assuming it comes out of commit
tee that day.
Concert refused by Town Hall
Or at least that’s part of a very long story
By ALAN KILLINGSWORTH
Staff Writer
Suppose they gave a concert and
nobody came.
Town Hall would lose money.
Student Government would lose
money, Student Government Radio
would get the publicity it wanted.
Suppose they didn t give a con
cert.
Town Hall wouldn’t lose money.
Student Government wouldn’t lose
Watch for a story on request
for more money for Town
Hall in tomorrow’s paper.
money. SG Radio wouldn’t get the
publicity. And people would ask a
lot of questions.
In November ofl974, Jim James,
manager of SG Radio, confronted
Student Government with the idea
ofhaving a M ichael M urphy concert
in G. Rollie White on Feb. 14 to
promote SG Radio. Curt Marsh,
student vice president of finance,
agreed to help James push the pro
ject. “We agreed that the best idea
was to have the concert in conjunc
tion with Town Hall,” James said.
“If the concert took a loss they could
help us handle it.”
The other reason was that MSC
advice would be beneficial since
they have organized student pro
grams, James said.
Marsh then contacted Doug
Thorpe, chairman of Town Hall,
about the idea.
“Doug thought it was a good
idea,” Marsh remarked. “He just
wanted to make sure we had the
money to back a loss. ”
An agreement between Student
Government and Town Hall was
drawn up and signed by Marsh for
Student Government and by
Thorpe for Town Hall. The agree
ment stated that Student Govern
ment would absorb 60 percent of
the profits or 60 percent of the losses
with Town Hall taking the other 40
percent. Town Hall also agreed to
handle the booking, production and
Photo by Jack Holm
Jim James, station manager of Student Govt, radio.
personnel for the Murphy concert.
All seemed legal and ready to go.
M SC President Bill Davis had dif
ferent ideas.
“I consulted Doug on the matter
and we agreed that the risk of the
concert was too high,” Davis said.
“Thorpe didn’t rule the concert out
though and hoped that there was
still a way to have it. ”
Unaware of Davis’ opinion,
Marsh took a resolution to the Se
nate to get its backing for the con
cert. The resolution passed unani
mously in a voice vote. It then went
to Dr. John J. Koldus, vice presi
dent of student services, for his ap
proval.
“When I went home for the
Christmas, I thought that every
thing was still on,” James said.
By this time, the agreement to
have a concert had been shown to
Col. Hal Gaines, associate director
of the MSC.
“Gaines didn’t like the idea about
the concert,” Thorpe said. “He
wanted to know where the money
was that Student Government was
going to use to back the concert.
Gaines told me to sit on it (the con
cert). ”
When Gaines was asked if he told
Thorpe to sit on it Gaines replied,
“It’s possible. I don’t remember.”
Why didn’t Thorpe tell Student
Government that the concert was
still under consideration?
“Signing the agreement wasn’t
necessarily the go ahead with the
concert,” Thorpe said. “It was up to
Student Government to get the ap
proval of Koldus.”
Why hadn’t Koldus approved the
resolution?
“Steve Eberhard had told me
that Koldus had stopped the con
cert,” James said. “I went to Koldus
and he told me that it wasn’t a good
idea but it was all right with him.
Then to top all the confusion,
Gaines told me that it was all right
with him if it was all right with Kol
dus.”
When the Christmas vacation
came, Student Government went
home with the idea that come Feb.
14 there would be a concert. Town
Hall had the idea that there was no
set agreement.
No one knows all the hows and
whys which explain why the concert
turned into such a problem. Davis
summed it up this way: “Who’s
fault is it? Legally, we screwed up.
Thorpe and I had agreed that the
concert was not a good idea because
of the finance and the time. We
thought the resolution had little
chance of passing in the Senate and
if I had known that it was going to be
brought up at the Senate meeting I
would have been there to tell them
that I didn’t think it was going to get
anywhere.
“All this time, Thorpe believed
that he was only under a
gentleman’s agreement when he
signed the contract. Thorpe also had
made a mistake by signing the ag
reement when it hadn’t been passed
by the MSC Council. Town Hall
also knew it couldn’t handle a loss on
the concert. Right now, we re draw
ing up a policy on how Town Hall
can schedule concerts. We are also
looking into ways that we can prom
ote SG Radio without concerts, al
though concerts are not completely
out. I don’t mind admitting it, but
we made a mistake.”
Dancing beauty
Photo by Douglas Wlnship
Fifteen-year-old Kameswari
dances in her native style.
Pattisapu Night” performance was presented in the
The “India Rudder Theater Saturday Night.
. , a *
i V ■" /
*% -
Douglas Thorpe
Curt Marsh
Answer, answer,
who’s got the answer?
Dr. John J. Koldus
Steve Eberhard
Election revision
in CS suggested
By STEVE GRAY
Staff Writer
The College Station City Council
voted Monday night to consider an
ordinance creating a city charter re
vision commission at a special meet
ing to be held Feb. 4.
Councilman Jim Gardner pre
sented the motion to create the or
dinance after suggesting that the
council consider changing the city’s
at-large election system to one
electing councilmen from wards. A
See editorial p. 2.
similar commission was formed to
study the change last year but no
change was made in the city charter.
The city council was elected
through the ward system just a few
years ago before changing to an at-
large system.
Councilman Homer Adams
pointed out that a recent U.S. Sup
reme Court decision held that the
city of Dallas’ at-large election sys
tem was unconstitutional. Under
the new ruling Dallas must realign
its ward boundaries in time for tbe
April elections.
Councilman Jim Dozier said the
council will discuss the appoint
ment of such a commission next
Tuesday and outline its duties.
“Actually, I don’t really like se
eing a commission appointed every
year to consider charter revisions. It
costs money because we ll have to
call for a special election to let the
people vote on the proposed
changes, if any. It won’t be possible
to include them on the election bal
lot in April,” Dozier said.
“It’s the same thing that comes up
every year,” Dozier said, referring
to the possibility of converting to
the ward system.
In other business the council de
cided not to change the city’s voting
precinct boundaries. Dozier
pointed out that the county has al
ready realigned them for this year.
Only one alteration was made in the
city’s lines when the county made
its change. Voting precinct No. 10
was split into two smaller precincts
which are bordered by Texas Av
enue and the east by-pass of High
way 6.
Councilman Don Dale suggested
that the two precincts be recom
bined. Dozier disagreed, pointing
out that it would be better to leave
them alone to avoid confusion for
voters. The city presently has six
voting precincts.
In other action the council ap
proved rezoning of 171 feet of Lot 26
in the D. A. Smith subdivision. The
land is behind the Saber Inn Motor
Hotel, 701 Texas Ave. The rezoning
action will allow the hotel to expand
its facilities. The land was previ
ously zoned for apartment building
The council will also hear a pre
sentation next Tuesday from Dr.
Charles Pinnell, of Pinnell, Ander
son, Wilshire & Associates, Inc., on
the Comprehensive Development
Guide for the city. Pinnell repres
ents the planning consultants firm of
Dallas, which is helping the city out
line plans for future land use and
community facilities.
The council also will hold hear
ings on three rezoning motions at its
next regular meeting Feb. 24.