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Che Battalion
Inside
Injunction
City council
Vol. 68 No. 92
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, March 25, 1975
Directors okay gifts,
approve construction
By JIM CRAWLEY
Staff Writer
The TAMU Board of Directors
unanimously passed all parts of an
agenda which one administrator cal
led, “the shortest of the past few
years.”
In a morning session, the board
approved the use of approximately
$491,000 for construction. The
For construction details, see
story below
board also accepted gifts and grants
totaling nearly $1.5 million. Addi
tionally, the directors agreed to a
$495,000 lease agreement in south
Texas.
With an unusually short agenda,
the board wasn’t confronted with
any controversial issues.
The board approved the assign
ment of three oil, gas and sulfur
leases, in Erath County. The leases
cover 2,355 acres. All three leases
will be assigned to Coke L. Gage.
The eight man, one woman group
approved the appointment of 30
new faculty and staff members
within the TAMU system. The gov
erning body also approved the
promotion of three system staff
members.
The gifts accepted by the Board
★★★
included a $1.2 million donation
from the Association of Former Stu
dents. A total of slightly more than
$39,000 was received from 47 cor
porate donors.
The Texas College and University
Coordinating Board will be asked to
approve the establishment of a Mas
ter of Science program in Building
Construction, according to a resolu
tion passed by the Board in the
Tuesday morning session.
The board approved the leasing of
a 10,443 acre tract for 10 years for
the Agricultural Experiment Sta
tion. The leased ranch will be used
in research projects concerning the
★★★
management of range lands for cat
tle production.
Dr. Jack Williams, TAMU Sys
tem president, was named by the
Board to become executive ad
ministrator for The Mattie Briscoe
Little and Ben T. Little Scholarship
Fund.
A revolving fund account was es
tablished by the Board to cover the
cost of a copying machine for three
administrative offices in the Teague
building.
In business concerning the other
schools within the TAMU System,
the Board okayed a vending con
tract for Tarleton State University.
★★★
Makeshift sign marks detour
Students expecting to eat breakfast in the board students will be allowed to use the
Sbisa Hall annex Monday morning, were Penniston Cafe while Sbisa is being remodel-
met by closed doors. Actually, they didn’t ed. Construction has caused the annex and
go away with the munchies though because part of Sbisa to be closed.
Arabian assassinated
‘Inaccurate’
Directors discuss Batt, Observer
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — King
Faisal of Saudi Arabia, a staunch
friend of the United States and at
the same time a bankroller of Arab
wars against Israel, was assassinated
today by a “mentally deranged”
nephew, the official Saudi radio an
nounced.
His 62-year-old brother, Crown
Prince Khaled Ibn Abdul Aziz, was
proclaimed king of the oil-rich na
tion a few hours later.
Carroll charges
ended by Army
The Army dropped charges
against 1st Lt. Matthew R. Carroll,
27, of El Paso after he offered to
leave the service on an honorable
discharge.
Carroll, a 1970 graduate in ar
chitecture of Texas A&M and
former commander of the Corps of
Cadets, was charged with refusing
to obey an order to cut his hair last
April.
He contended that the hair-
length regulations were a form of
sexual discrimination because they
did not apply to Army women. He
said the regulations “infringed on an
individual’s constitutional rights
and has no relevance to job perfor
mance. ”
The Army also agreed to give
Carroll $3,600 severance pay and let
him continue to wear his hair long
during the three weeks he is being
processed out of uniform.
“It’s a very great personal vic
tory,” Carroll told newsmen. “The
haircut question has not been ans
wered, but I’ve done everything I
can do except to go to jail. ”
Assigned to the 3rd Armored Di
vision in Hanau, Germany, near
Frankfurt with his wife and two
small children, Carroll said he re
quested discharge because “I have a
family and certain responsibilities I
cannot ignore.
“I am sure soldiers won’t leave
the hair issue alone,” he added. “In
fact, I’d like to throw out the ball for
them to carry on with it.”
Pretrial proceedings for Carroll
started in December, but his case
had not yet come to trial before a
general court-martial.
The gunshot slaying further
clouded the future of the Middle
East, following shortly after the col
lapse of an U. S. effort to find a peace
settlement in the area.
The official radio in Riyadh, the
Saudi capital, said Faisal’s nephew,
Prince Faisal Ibn Musaed Ibn
Abdul Aziz, pulled a gun and shot
the king several times after ap
proaching him to offer salutations on
the occasion of Prophet
Mohammed’s birthday, being
celebrated throughout the Moslem
world today.
The broadcast added that Faisal
died later in a hospital. It did not
mention the fate of the nephew.
Pre-meeting discussion centered
around The Battalion and Texas Ob
server at the Building Studies
Committee of the TAMU Board of
Directors meeting, Monday after
noon.
Before the meeting, Board
member H. C. Bell passed around a
copy of this week’s Texas Observer.
The tabloid contained a story on the
$28 million University Center.
Bell said the article, criticizing
the high cost, was not truthful and
highly opinionated. Bell and other
members expressed their dislike for
the style in which the advocate
journal presented the story.
The discussion progressed to The
Battalion when it was noted that
The Battalion had supplied pictures
of the Center interior to the Ob
server. Bell complained to mem
bers and administrators present that
The Battalion had printed several
“inaccurate” stories, this year.
A suggestion, by Bell, to Dr. Jack
Williams, TAMU president, was to
force The Battalion to print retrac
tions for those articles.
“Shivers does it at Texas,” said
Bell, referring to the head of the
University of Texas Regents and
The Daily Texan.
Williams told the Board that dur
ing his recent appearance before a
legislature committee he was asked
about the Observer story and the
cost of the University Center.
In actual committee business, the
four present members discussed
various construction projects total
ing $492,000 in future expendi
tures.
The largest expenditure brought
before the committee was a prop
osed appropriation for Phase IV of
the street renovation program. The
project will include construction on
Coke and Houston streets. The
Board resolution approves the let
ting of bids for the project.
An additional $75,000 was ap
propriated to supplement the de
tailed design costs of the Phase II
renovation at Sbisa Hall.
The committee received a report
describing the bids received for
carpeting of tbe second floor of the
Administration Building. The ex
ecutive office suite is located on that
floor. A.R. Luedecke, executive
vice president, told the members
that the low bid of $11,930 was ap
proximately $6,000 less than the
architect’s estimate.
The board approved the future
letting of bids for the relocation or
construction of three greenhouses.
The present greenhouses are lo
cated on the site of the future
Classroom/Laboratory Building.
The new site will be located north of
the Agronomy Field Laboratory.
The board was told by Luedecke
that bids were received for air con
ditioning of the A&M Press Bldg.
The committee heard a one-half
hour presentaHon on the design of a
new auditorium-classroom-
research center at the TAMU Ex
tension Center, north of Dallas.
A preliminary design for the in
dustrial education and technology
expansion at Tarleton State Univer
sity, was also discussed by the
committee and approved by the en
tire board.
The committee revised an earlier
resolution agreeing to swap sewage
services with College Station on a 50
acre tract land, west of campus. Col
lege Station would then provide
sewage service for an identical area
of east part of the main campus.
The last item before the commit
tee was the discussion of an applica
tion for government funds to help
build an additional sewage treat
ment plant for the campus.
Williams told the committee
members the university would have
to begin planning for a new library,
to double the size of the present
library'.
Preliminary requests defended
Williams takes TAMU budget to Austin
Matthew Carroll in 1970
By WILL ANDERSON
Assistant editor
Texas A&M University’s requests
for state money for the school year
1975-76 were explained and de
fended in Austin Wednesday by Dr.
Jack K. Williams, president of the
TAMU system. His presentation
was an initial report and no im
mediate action was taken.
The president was accompanied
by several university officials, in
cluding Robert G. Cherry, assistant
to the president; William Clyde
Freeman, executive vice president
for administration and Clyde H.
Wells, president of the Board of Di
rectors.
The Appropriations Committee
of the Texas House of Representa-
★★★
tives is reviewing the requests of all
the state organizations and schools.
The committee is headed by Rep.
Bill Presnal of Bryan and has 21
members.
Williams began by asking an in
creased budget for the administra
tive and general offices. That area
expended a total of $581,398 last
year and has been budgeted for
$617,289 this year.
A total of $1,054,327 for 1976 and
$1,147,765 for 1977 is requested.
The legislative budget recommen
dation is $712,783 and $778,357, re
spectively.
Williams said the increases are
necessary because of the
university’s growth and increased
demands by regulating bodies.
The administrative offices had 40
full-time employes 20 years ago, he
said. The offices now employ 46
people full-time while the size of the
university has increased several
times.
The Board of Control is “showing
some muscle” they haven’t shown
before, the president said. “We’re
having to re-do procedures that
were once simple.”
“We must now compile informa
tion on every employe in the system
but that’s not budgeted in any way. ”
“I’m not questioning the ideas for
change recommended by the LBB
(Legislative Budget Board); I’m just
saying that to do them, it will re
quire more money.”
Williams also presented the re
quested budget for the main univer
sity campus at College Station. The
other parts of the system include
Agricultural Extension Service, Ag
ricultural Experiment Station, En
gineering Extension Service, En
gineering Experiment Station,
Texas Forest Service, Tarleton
State College, Prairie View A&M
University, Moody College of
Marine Sciences and Maritime Re
sources and the Texas Veterinary
Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.
The total expended by the uni
versity last year was $29,013,666
and the amount budgeted for this
year is $33,328,395. Williams said
the amount requested is
$60,337,967 for 1976 and
$65,700,714 for 1977.
The legislative budget recom
mendation is $46,716,664 and
$49,997,763 respectively.
Williams listed TAMU’s strong
points and said its best single attri
bute is its phenominal rate of
growth, from 14,500 in 1971 to
21,000 this year.
(See REQUEST, p. 6)
Texas Observer slapped
at A&M budget hearing
The Texas Observer was con
demned by the concensus of the
Texas House of Representatives
Appropriations Committee when
TAMU President Jack Williams
spoke to them Wednesday.
The March 28 Observer ran a re
port of the Memorial Student
Center’s appearance and costs as its
lead story and got most of its infor
mation from the Battalion. The
story relied mostly on facts, listing
items and expenses, but the tone of
the story was described by its head
line, “The biggest Aggie joke of all. ”
The story specifies the animal
heads (now removed), the cowhide
benches, the $19,000 worth of
etched glass around the dining area,
the $1.4 million Board of Directors
annex and other controversial
items.
The furnishings of the Annex are
an additional $765,000, the story
says, but the wing stands vacant
most of the year since the Board (for
whom it was exclusively built)
meets only six times a year. The
story adds that special permission
from the administration is required
to tour the area.
A lack of planning for recreational
facilities (bowling lanes, pool tables,
table tennis) and rooms for student
activities (the Singing Cadets and
the Basement coffeehouse) is also
noted in the story.
When Williams was asked by a
representative to comment on the
story (all the committee members
were given copies when they re
ceived their other papers), he did
not give a direct answer.
Williams said the lounge was a
matter of taste and discounted the
Observer as a reliable newspaper
because of an incident a few years
ago concerning the TAMU student
ship, the Texas Clipper.
The Observer said the Clipper
was not seaworthy and the univer
sity went to great expense to
drydock her and prove she was.
Rep. Dick Slack ’38, speaker pro
tern of the House, was then recog
nized by the chairman. “This is a
blatant example of yellow jour
nalism,” he said, “and I don’t think
it is worthy of an explanation.” His
remark received a voice of approval
from the other representatives.
The Battalion called Williams
Monday afternoon and again asked
for his opinion of the story. He said
he did not wish to comment. The
Batt asked if he found any inac
curacies in the story and he again
said he preferred not to comment.
Williams said he had mentioned
the story the Texas Observer did on
the Texas Clipper to “set the stage
for what kind of publication it is.”
Bill Presnal, chairman of the
committee, was asked for his opin
ion of the Observer’s story.
“The Texas Observer is nothing
but trash,” Presnal said. “They use
very vile language. I’m not saying
the story’s that way because I
haven’t read it I don’t know.”
State Senator Bill Moore ’40 said
he had not read the story either but
that the Observer was radical and
always trying to destroy something.
Speaker of the House Bill Clayton
’50 said he had seen only the front
page of the story. “I wouldn’t pay
any attention to what the Observer
has to say about Texas A&M,” he
said.
Photo by Will Anderson
At the appropriations committee meeting are (L to R) Clyde H. Wells, Jack Williams, Wm. Clyde Freeman, and Robert Cherry.