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Battalion
Vol. 70 No. 91
8 Pages
Wednesday, March 16, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Regents may increase
dorm, apartment rent
0
Call Fot
Times
Cherry Blossoms at A&M?
No, the white trees surrounding the Academic
Building mall have not turned white. With the use
of infrared film, the photographer captured a dif-
. Paul Getty had more money
ferent spirit of A&M on a bright sunny day like
yesterday.
Battalion photo by Steve Reis
By LEE ROY LESCHPER JR.
Texas A&M University students will
pay more to live on-campus this fall if the
Board of Regents approves recom
mendations to raise dormitory and Uni
versity apartment fees.
The board will consider the recom
mendations, which would raise dormitory
fees 7.2 to 8.8 per cent, in their 8:30 meet
ing Tuesday morning. According to their
agenda, that would mean an increase of
from $12 for the most inexpensive dorm
room ($135 to $147) to $28 for the most
expensive dorm rooms ($390 to $418).
Married students would pay $5 to $13
more per month in rent for University
married student apartments.
Also to be considered will be a $5 per
semester increase in the price of shuttle
bus tickets.
Citing increased enrollment, a need for
more buses and an anticipated increase in
operating costs, Howard Vestal, Univer
sity assistant vice president for business
affairs, has asked the board to raise indi
vidual student tickets to $20 per semester,
student husband-wife tickets to $30 and
faculty-staff tickets to $25.
The Regents will also decide whether to
issue $9 million in permanent University
fund bonds this summer. The bond sale, if
approved, would be made in conjunction
with a similar University of Texas System
bond sale.
The A&M and UT Systems have made
joint bond sales since 1958 to keep one
system from receiving a better bond rate
than the other.
Patent rights for three inventions de
veloped by A&M researchers may be
awarded during the Regents’ meeting to
the scientists responsible.
Under the University s patent agree
ment, if approved, the researchers receive
the right to obtain a patent for their inven
tion. In exchange, he must recognize the
Agricultural Extension Service’s role in
developing the invention, allow the Uni
versity free use of the invention, and share
any money he receives for the invention
with the extension service.
Construction contracts the Regents may
award Tuesday include: $730,000 for im
provements in Duncan Dining Hall;
$251,000 for construction of sidewalks on
campus, and $126,000 for construction of
greenhouses at the Texas Forest Service
research center in Lubbock.
The board will also review construction
earlier approved by W.C. Freeman, sys
tem executive officer, including $6,400
spent to move the sign in front of the Col
lege of Veterinary Medicine. The sign had
blocked the view of traffic on Hwy. 60
from vehicles leaving the vet school park
ing lot. The Regents will also consider a
bid for $29,720 which Freeman awarded
in January for construction of two shelters
at shuttle bus stops on campus.
Students will be able to purchase next
year’s A&M campus directory when pre
registering for fall classes if the regents
approve a recommendation to make the
directory an optional item on student fee
slips. The directory would cost $3 if
bought then, $3.50 if bought over the
counter later.
The first summer school sessions ever at
A&M’s Moody Campus in Galveston will
begin this summer if the Regents approve
such action.
Most board decisions will have been
made the preceding Monday during one of
the board’s several committee meetings.
Of these, the planning and building com
mittee will meet at 8:30 Monday morning,
the committee for academic campuses is at
10:30 a.m. and the executive committee at
1:30 p.m. The official meeting Tuesday in
the Board of Regents’ room adjoining the
Memorial Student Center is open to the
public. The committee meetings Monday
are not.
Most board decisions will be made
Monday during one of the board’s several
committee meetings. Of these, the plan
ning and building committee will meet at
8:30 Monday morning, the committee for
academic campuses is at 10:30 a.m. and
the executive committee at 1:30 p.m. Both
the committee meetings and the official
meeting Tuesday in the Board of Regents’
room adjoining the Memorial Student
Center are open to the public.
Hughes not a billionaire,
public accounting shows
United Press International
LASVEGAS— Howard Hughes was not
billionaire or even close, according to a
Durt-ordered tally of his wealth that is
lied with puzzling entries reducing the
ze of his fortune.
It pictures Hughes as a run-of-the mil-
onaire eccentric who had only $168.8 mil-
[ion,less than 10 per cent of the $2 .Sbillion
more he was reputed to be worth.
By comparison, the estate of Jean Paul
petty, a contemporary often mentioned
lith him as among the world’s richest men,
uns to more than $3 billion, 20 times the
eputed size of Hughes’ fortune.
The day Hughes died, April 5, the cash
nhand, $1,799, would not have bought a
Volkswagen, but he did have more than
$671,000 in bank accounts.
The first public accounting of the
Hughes fortune, filed yesterday with the
Clark County Clerk’s Office for use in set
tling his estate, was made by the invest
ment banking division of the prominent
brokerage, Merrill, Lynch,Pierce, Fenner
& Smith.
A final report is expected in three or four
weeks, but the total is not expected to
change much, said attorney William
Morse, who filed the appraisal on behalf of
the administrators of the estate — its
caretakers until a Probate Court decides
who inherits it.
The complicated appraisal does not re
veal what happened to the $546 million
Hughes received for his interest in Trans
World Airline in the mid 1960s and $142
million for the oil tool division of Hughes
Tool Co., which alone would be more than
four times the total given.
It values his personal 22 per cent of
Hughes Air West airline at $850,000 ap
praising the whole airline as worth $3.8
million — a fraction of the $41 million
Hughes paid for it.
The Silver Slipper Casino in Las Vegas,
for which Hughes paid $5.5 million, was
listed as worth one dollar.
The value of the Summa Corp. — the
corporate umbrella which held much of his
ownings — was lumped with the Hughes
Television Network at $110.7 million.
Summa lawyers have told Nevada courts
within the past year that corporation alone
was worth more than $450 million.
Summa and the television firm between
them control six Nevada hotel-casinos, the
Hughes Helicopter Co., the other 78 per
cent of Hughes Airwest and vast land hold
ings including most of the undeveloped
land on the prosperous Las Vegas hotel
“strip” and 40 square miles west of the city.
The Hughes Aircraft Corp., estimated to
be worth $800 million, was not included.
The accounting said it is owned by the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute of
Miami, a nonprofit institution.
Burning the Baseline
Members of the Aggie baseball team helped dry
the infield last Friday before the game with SMU.
Under the watchful eye of coach Tom Chandler,
they dried the playing field and then proceeded to
beat SMU during the first in a three-game series.
Battalion photo by Steve Reis
President tries to keep promise
Carter begins ‘close to people’ trip
Different View
Battalion photo by Steve Reis
Not all the eyes were on the baseball players last Friday. Some people
were watching other sights during the pleasant afternoon game. This is
one of the Diamond Darlings who attempted to add a little more interest
to the game.
Math professor emeritus died
last week after Houston surgery
Dr. John T. Hurt, professor emeritus of
[mathematics at Texas A&M University,
died Thursday evening in a Houston hos-
[pital following surgery.
Funeral services were conducted
Saturday, with burial in Cedar Crest
[Cemetery in Baytown.
Hurt, 68, retired from A&M in 1974
[after 38 years on the faculty. Most of his
[career was devoted to mathematics in-
jstruction, but he taught for three years in
[the electrical engineering department.
■ He joined the University faculty in
11936, one year after receiving his Ph.D.
Ifrom Rice University where he had earned
a B.A. in 1931 and an M.A. in 1932. He
was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and held
membership in numerous professional or
ganizations, including the American
Mathematics Society and the American
Association for the Advancement of Sci-
Hurt, who was born in Waco, resided at
804 Lazy Lane in Bryan with his wife,
Mrs. Ches Lee Hurt.
Other survivors include a daughter,
Mrs. Maxine Fisher of Baytown; a
brother, W J. Hurt of Houston; two
grandchildren and three great
grandchildren .
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter,
continuing his effort to fill a campaign
promise to stay close to the people,
headed for a New England town meeting
tonight on the first major trip of his presi
dency.
Before leaving. Carter scheduled meet
ings with Japanese Ambassador Fumihiko
Togo and Irish Foriegn Minister Garrett
Fitzgerald.
Carter will ride Air Force One for the
first time as President on the overnight
trip taking him to a private home in Clin
ton , Mass., the coal country of Charleston,
W. Va., and New York City. His wife,
Rosalynn, will remain in Washington.
His previous out-of-town trips were by
helicopter to Pittsburgh during the winter
cold, and by an Air Force command plane
for his only trip home to Georgia. He has
ridden Air Force One once — in Georgia
soon after the election as a courtesy from
Gerald Ford.
Carter’s appearance at a town meeting
was one of the suggestions made during
the transition period when Carter sought
ideas on how he could stay close to the
American people.
He goes first to Clinton, an old textile
mill town of 13,000 near Boston, to spend
90 minutes at a town meeting. As he did
frequently during the presidential
primaries, he will spend the night in a pri
vate home.
He will stay with Edward and Katherine
Thompson, parents of eight whose big
house was chosen because it was close to
the town hall.
Carter is likely to use an energy-
environment round table tomorrow in
Charleston W. Va., deep in coal country,
to boost conversion from natural gas to
coal, which will be an important part of his
comprehensive energy plan to be revealed
April 20.
Carter will speak in the United Nations
later Thursday — an appearance, said
Press Secretary Jody Powell, dating back
to transition planning.
Powell said it was thought “at this point
into the administration it would be wise to
present to the American people and the
world at large a general view of this admin
istration’s priorities and attitudes in
foriegn policy.’’
Powell said yesterday the “broad brush
variety” speech would not be an attempt
to announce new initiatives or departures
from present policy. He said the speech
would contain at least some discussion of
human rights, the dominant theme so far
of the Carter administration.
Earlier yesterday, Powell told reporters
Carter personally approved shipping
emergency supplies to Zaire in response
to that country’s appeal for aid, but is giv
ing “no thought or consideration to send
ing ground troops there.”
He said there were no weapons in the
$1 million shipment of supplies Zaire re
quested to meet a reported invasion from
Angola.
Senate committee passes bill to give
the terminally ill euthanasia choice
United Press International
AU STIN — A Senate committee has
voted to give terminally ill persons the
right to decide if their lives should be con
tinued by artificial means.
The Senate Jurisprudence Committee
passed The bill yesterday and sent it to the
full Senate after emotional arguments in
which opponents said it was nothing more
than “passive euthanasia.”
This bill opens the door to massive abuse
of the unwanted elderly,” said Lewis Berry
Jr. of Houston. “It’s aimed at facilitating
relatives who would like to encourage un
wanted elderly to made a death decision.
“We’re not talking about Dr.
Frankenstein-like devices or Rube
Goldberg-type machinery. This would
allow the withholding of any medical
treatment.”
Bill Buckner, a Georgetown attorney
and minister, said proponents were not
being candid about the bill.
“Let’s call it what it is — voluntary, pas
sive euthanasia,” Buckner said. “One could
withdraw food — intraveneous feedings —
from a comatose patient and let them starve
to death under this bill.”
Among those speaking in favor of the bill
was Sally Tullos of Austin, a 31-year-old
victim of acute leukemia. She urged ap
proval of the bill so she could be sure her
life would not be prolonged indefinitely
while she is dying.
T believe in the quality of my life versus
the quantity,” Ms. Tullos said. “I just don’t
want to be prolonged by machines.”
Dr. Harold Skaggs Jr., an Austin
neurologist, said many patients express
concern at the prospect of being trapped in
machines which would prevent them from
dying in peace and exhaust their financial
resources in futile medical treatment.
“The fear of dying is much greater than
the fear of death,” Skaggs said.
Zorena Bolton of Austin, a social worker
and teacher, said the bill would permit the
natural process of dying to take place with
out intervention. She said it will not permit
mercy killing.
“For most of us more fearful than death is
the period of time when we are neither
dead nor alive but lingering,” she said.
Weather
Surmy and windy loday and tomor
row. Clear and cool tonight. High
today in the low 80s, low tonight in
the mid-50s. Winds out of the
northeast 10-15 mph shifting to the
southeast tonight, 5-10 mph. No
precipitation predicted.
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