71
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
BACK-TO-$CHOOL COITION
The Battalion
Vol. 70 No. 144
64 Pages in 5 Sections
Monday, August 29, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Weather
Mostly cloudy and warm with 40 per
cent chance of showers and thun
dershowers this afternoon and
evening. Increasing cloudiness and
increasing chance of showers and
thundershowers tomorrow. High
both days low 90s; low tonight
mid-70s.
79*
65*
|?
I9
ck-To-School Edition
Welcome to Texas A&M University. If you are a new student at A&M,
iu have joined almost 30,000 fellow students who are presently enrolled at
ixas A&M. You have also joined a larger group that is world-wide and
bans over 100 years. The Fightjjj . Texan .
If you are a returning stu
uch as who is our presf
wtball coach.
For both new and old
he community, this
ssue consists of 64 p
The sections of this
General News
Campus Life
Campus
Sports ,
Entertainment % Section E
ome things have changed,
e same, like who is our
\staff and members of
the Battalion. This
vertisemerit insert.
ie Battalion are:
.. . .Section A
.. . .Section B
.Section C
Regents approve budget
appoint vice-presidents
1 • i ii * ir ^•
Section D
An index for the advertisers in Section A is on page 4A, indexes of
advertisers for the sections are on the first page of the respective section.
Up, up and away!
This was a scene repeated many times this last weekend as
students were moving in and settling down for fall semester
classes beginning today. This unidentified student is moving in
at the Sundance Apts, at 811 Harvey Rd. Some prospective
tenants at the same complex weren’t as lucky (see related
photo, this page). Battalion Photo by Patrick O'Malloy.
Texas A&M University’s administration
is back to full strength this week. The Uni
versity board of regents has appointed two
new vice-presidents and an associate
vice-president to fill vacancies in the Uni
versity’s administration.
The board named Dr. John Mack Pres
cott, dean of the College of Science, to
succeed Dr. John C. Calhoun as Univer
sity vice-president for academic affairs.
Calhoun is vacating that position to be
come University system vice-chancellor
for programs.
The board promoted Howard Vestal,
University assistant vice-president for
business affairs, to vice-president for busi
ness affairs. That position had been vacant
since Vice-President Tom Cheny retired
Aug. 31, 1976.
The regents Friday also appointed Dean
of Faculties Haskell Monroe Jr. associate
vice-president for academic affairs. Dr.
Richard E. Wainerdi, now associate vice-
president for academic affairs, announced
last week he is resigning that post Sept. 1
to take a vice-presidential position with a
Houston engineering firm.
All three appointments are effective
Sept. 1.
The board of regents meeting Friday on
the Tarleton State University campus in
Stephenville, also approved a record
budget for the University system for the
coming year.
The budget for the 1977-78 fiscal year
totals $310,284,705, which is an 18 per
cent increase over last year s budget. The
budget includes funding increases for all
members of the University system, with
Texas A&M receiving a 14 per cent in
crease of $23,822,448.
Prescott received his masters degree
from Texas A&M in 1949 after a three year
tour in the Army Air Corps during World
War II. After receiving his doctorate in
biochemistry from the University of Wis
consin and spending one year as a research
assistant at the University of Texas, he re
turned to Texas A&M in 1952 as an assis
tant professor of biochemistry and nutri
tion.
“It’s my goal to continue our pursuit of
quality education, research and service to
the State,” Prescott said. “Dr. Calhoun
has left me with a very fine organization
and I hope to continue our progress along
the lines we’ve been working for the last
several years.”
niversity’s new administration:
big change or 'musical chairs ?
By LEE ROY LESCHPER JR.
I Battalion Editor
Some call it “executive musical
chairs.” Others say it’s the biggest
change ever to hit Texas A&M Uni-
, versity.
[ But whatever the name, the
changes and adjustments in Texas
A&M’s top administration over the
past three months may be the
biggest executive change, if only in
numbers, since the University’s first
faculty was fired en masse in the
1880’s.
Texas A&M ’s board of regents has
set up a two-level administration,
with separate executive offices and
r administrators for the Texas A&M
system and for Texas A&M Univer
sity.
This is a return to the chancellor
system of administration which
Texas A&M has used twice before,
from 1948 to 1957 with Chancellors
Gibb Gilchrist and M. T. Har
rington, and again from 1959 to 1965
under Harrington. Since 1965,
when Gen. Earl Rudder became
University and System President,
Texas A&M and the University Sys
tem had had one president directing
both.
The Texas A&M University Sys
tem contains 10 separate units.
These include Texas A&M, Tarleton
State and Prairie View A&M Uni
versities, Moody Maritime College,
the Texas Agricultural and Engi
neering Extension Services and Ex
periment Stations, the Texas Forest
Service and the Texas Rodent and
Predatory Animal Control Service.
Under the chancellor system, a
University system chancellor over
sees and directs all system-wide
programs, projects and operations.
He is the top executive within the
system and the directors and presi
dents of each system unit must re
port and answer to him.
The board of regents took the first
step in re-establishing that chancel
lor system May 25 by appointing
then-President Jack K. Williams
chancellor.
Williams had been president of
both Texas A&M and the system
since his appointment Nov. 1, 1970.
But after a series of heart attacks
during the summer of 1976 which
had limited Williams’ activities for
10 months, the regents decided the
University and the system had be
come too large for one man to
handle.
The extremely fast growth which
the University has enjoyed over the
last few years hasn’t been limited to
Texas A&M. Every unit within the
University system has experienced
Analysis
rapid growth, both in size and in
worth. The system budget for
1977-78 is over $310 million with in
creases in all units.
But naming Williams chancellor
was only the beginning. Every ad
ministrator has his own method of
operating and his own organization
within his office. Dr. Williams is no
exception.
The “Williams theory of organiza
tion” divides operations into three
areas — business, academics and
student services — with a subordi
nate under Williams for each area.
This was the organization
Williams brought to Texas A&M.
He organized the university admin
istration into those three areas, with
vice-presidents to handle each. Tom
Cherry, who retired Aug. 31, 1976,
became vice-president for business
affairs. Dr. John C. Calhoun was
vice-president for academic affairs
and Dr. John Koldus became vice-
president for student services.
Because the system obviously
needed someone working full-time
on system-wide concerns, Williams
enlisted W. Clyde Freeman as
executive vice-president for admin
istration to handle system problems.
So when Williams became
ehencellor in May, he took his sys
tem of organization with him. And
there began the administrative
reorganization that has continued
until today.
Because Clyde Freeman had al
ready handled the system’s business
affairs for many years, Williams im
mediately changed his title to vice-
chancellor for administration to
oversee system business concerns.
Soon after being named chancellor,
Williams said he was considering a
second vice-chancellor position for
programs. These programs were
primarily for academics.
Williams clearly planned to estab
lish the same style of organization in
the chancellor’s office which he had
used as president. This set the stage
for the July 29 board of regents
meeting.
That board meeting will probably
go down in Texas A&M history as
the top title-changing meeting of all
time.
The board of regents named Dr.
Jarvis E. Miller, the director of the
Texas Agricultural Extension Serv
ice, to succeed Williams as Univer
sity president. Then the board ap
pointed four university adminis
trators to fill posts in Chancellor
Williams’ office.
Vice-president Calhoun became
vice-chancellor for programs. So
Williams retained his top subordi
nate for academics in his office.
System attorney James Bond be
came vice-chancellor for legal af
fairs. Robert Walker, director of the
(See Regents, page 5)
Prescott was dean of the College of Sci
ence for eight years and says it won’t be
easy to leave that post now.
“I’ll still be interested in the programs
of that college, but now I’ll broaden my
interest to include the programs of all the
other colleges as well,” he said.
“I’ve known President Miller for a long
time and I think with he and Mr. Vestal
and Dr. Koldus, we ll have an administra
tive team that will function well.”
Prescott became an associate professor
at Texas A&M in 1956 and a full professor
in 1959. He took over as head of the de
partment of biochemistry and biophysics
in 1969 and became dean of the College of
Science the next year.
Howard Vestal joined Texas A&M in
196.5 as director of University manage
ment services, after retiring from the U.S.
Air Force as a colonel.
He was promoted to assistant vice-
president for business affairs in 1973. A
native of Jackson, Tenn., he holds a mas
ters degree in industrial management
from the University of Pittsburgh.
“I really haven’t had a chance to think
about it, ” Vestal said when asked about his
promotion. “We’ve been so busy.
Dr. Haskell Monroe Jr., 46, became an
instructor at Texas A&M in 1946, after re
ceiving his masters in history from Airs tin
College and his doctorate in history from
Rice University. He served in U.S. Naval
Reserve from 1951-59, on active duty in
1954-56.
He became an assistant professor at
Texas A&M in 1962, an associate professor
in 1966, and a full professor in 1971. He
served as assistant dean of the graduate
college from 1965-68. He served as assis
tant vice-president for academic affairs
from 1972 until he became dean of facul
ties.
See related story on page 11B
Can't you wait another week?
Students were moving into these newly-completed
apartments at the Sundance Apts., even though
most are without air conditioning or telephones.
Construction on the apartments ran a little too
close to fall classes. Some students who came to
move in found that their apartments were not close
enough to completion for them to move in.
Battalion Photo by Patrick O'Mallt
City Council gives homestead
tax break to elderly landowners
By DARRELL LANFORD
Battalion Staff
The College Station City Council
Thursday night voted to raise the city
homestead tax exemption for people 65
and older.
Glenn Schroeder, city tax assessor, said
said the increase will take effect on the
1978 taxes. The tax exemption was $5,000,
now it is $10,000.
Utility savings recently gained gave the
council the opportunity to give the elderly
a tax break. Mayor Larry Bravenec
suggested giving the elderly an increased
exemption because they they might not
live long enough to enjoy the extended
benefits of less costly utility bills.
Schroeder said 413 persons presently
qualify for the homestead tax exemption.
Although the savings will be small, all
savings are helpful, a senior citizen in the
audience said.
Should the city reevaluate the land,
thus causing an increase in taxes that will
do away with the savings by the elderly,
the council members will consider the
exemption again, they said.
Council members tabled a proposed in
crease in the hotel-motel tax after several
hotel-motel owners and managers argued
that more taxes might drive away tourists.
The three per cent hotel-motel tax,
money to be spent for promoting tourism
and aiding community developments, has
brought in about $150,000 since 1975. The
council proposed a one per cent increase.
Added on to the city tax is a three per
cent state tax. The proposed increase
would make the total seven per cent.
The hotel-motel people argued Hous
ton, Dallas and San Antonio all had a five
per cent total tax.
In other action, council members told
City Manager North Bardell to investigate
ways to support the Bryan Libraiy.
Councilman Gaiy Halter said that since
College Station is cutting off electricity
purchases from Bryan, the city shpuld
Carter happy with
official recognition
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter is
said to be encouraged by new U.S. con
tacts with the new generation of Chinese
leaders, but he says full recognition of the
mainland remains “well into the future.
According to a top White House source.
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance’s trip to
China last week reinforced the adminis
tration’s belief that this is “a very propi
tious time for contact at the highest level. ”
Vance found China’s leadership to be
competent, projecting a feeling of secu
rity, and showing a more relaxed attitude
than other visitors have seen in some time,
the source said.
At the same time Vance’s visit left the
Chinese leaders with “an increased degree
of assurance” of the U.S. capacity and will
to act decisively around the world, the
source said. But he was unwilling to dis
cuss one of the biggest stumbling blocks to
U.S.Chinese relations — the future of
Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Carter scheduled a regular
weekly Cabinet meeting today after a
3-week vacation break.
Carter spent 3Ms hours yesterday with
Vance, Vice President Walter Mondale,
Defense Secretary Harold Brown, White
House Press Secretary Jody Powell and
National Security Adviser Zbigniew
Brzezinski.
Powell reported that the first 75 min
utes were spent on China, and the re
support the library because many College
Station residents use it.
Bravenec suggested investigating the.
possibility of opening a branch library in
College Station.
China prospects,
‘well into future’
mainder on southern Africa, the Middle
East, the Panama Canal, the strategic
arms limitation talks with the Soviet Union
and a nuclear test ban.
Vance’s visit provided the highest level
U.S.-Chinese talks for either the new Car
ter administration or Premier Hun Kuo-
feng. The contact between the two giants
has been latent since the Nixon adminis
tration s 1971 Shanghai Communique:
That communique was issued at the end
of Richard Nixon’s first visit to China iit
1972. It indicated agreement on the need
for increased contracts between the two
countries leading to eventual withdrawal
of U.S. troops from Taiwan.
The President told a group of editors
over the weekend that the United States
was one of only a few nations that does not
recognize China.
“But we do not intend to act hastily, he
said. “When we do make a decision about
China, if we make one of recognition it is
undoubtedly going to be well into the fu
ture and it will be based on what I con
sider to be in the best interests of our
country.”
Carter said he and Vance discussed at
length “the terms under which we could
normalize relationships with the People's
Republic of China on the mainland and
also honor our long-standing commitment
that the people in Taiwan could live in
freedom.