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Vol. 71 No. 44
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Tuesday, November 1, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Today:
Poastal carriers handle your mail,
on one condition, p. 2.
Roderick Reed handles pressure,
p. 11.
Students panhandling for ski trip
money? p. 9.
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opinions vary about housing costs
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By KIM TYSON
Apartment construction is increasing, creating new units to he occupied
in the Bryan-College Station area. However, the effect of this new building
on rent prices is anybody’s guess.
Although Bryan-College Station is one of the fastest growing areas in
Texas, people who have studied the housing situation come up with differ
ent answers. Some say students can expect cheaper rates; others say this
won t happen.
Karen Switzer, student development coordinator at Texas A&M Univer
sity, says she sees a surplus developing.
“It goes back a couple of years when we could see enrollment mushroom
ing and housing mushrooming,’’ Switzer says. “You could just see that the
rate of housing was increasing over the enrollment rate.
Switzer has analyzed the housing situation for students for fall 1977,
spring 1978 and fall 1978.
For spring 1977 Switzer says she knows of 412 units currently under
construction that should he completed.
“Those 412 units will hold approximately 1,200 people,” Switzer says.
"Couple that with usual drop in enrollment of the student population in
the spring and it will be even more competitive.”
She says reasons for decreased enrollment in the spring include students
graduating and drop outs.
Switzer has surveyed apartment complexes and building permits for the
last three years. Her most recent study was to find vacancies in existing
housing, units under construction and the trend in building permits issued.
The study was made during September and finished Oct. 12.
“For students the situation is very good because they have options,”
Switzer says. “The community has developed to the point that there is
competitive housing. VVe already are seeing different kinds of facilities
catering to different clientele. What students will have to look forward to is
price variation as well.
For next fall, Switzer estimates space for an additional 3,800 students.
She says she determined this figure by adding together vacancies already
known in apartments surveyed, units under construction and permits for
two major complexes with 158 and 208 units. These two complexes are
scheduled for completion by next fall.
Dr. Charles McCandless, director of academic planning and services for
Texas A&M, says enrollment will he approximately 29,928 by fall 1978, up
from 29,414 students this fall.
Dr. Arthur Wright, associate research economist at the Texas Real Estate
Research Center, says he also believes more vacancies will be opening up in
the next year, resulting in a more competitive market.
“My understanding is that there is ten percent vacancy right now and this
may be up to 20 percent by the spring,” Wright says.
He estimates these figures from talking with realtors and builders.
“Whether the situation improves next fall or not depends on student
enrollment and building,” Wright says. He says he knows of some apart
ment complexes with 25 percent vacancy right now.
Wright says he thinks a surplus is developing because there had been a
shortage of housing for many years and now demand can’t keep up with the
new building activity. This can be seen in the increasing numbers of units
completed each year: 545 (1975), 1215 (1976), and 1266 (August 1977).
More apartments are still being built because access to money is easier
now, Wright says. He says housing was hard to find and building down in
1974 and 1975 because construction money was hard to obtain.
Although Switzer and Wright seem to agree on the possibility for many
apartment complexes lowering rent. Bill Sisson, president of the Bryan-
College Station Apartment Association, says students shouldn’t expect
cheaper rates.
The apartment association is composed of apartment complex owners,
managers, management companies, an Off Campus Students Association
representative and associate members, who include related merchants such
as carpet, plumbing and insurance companies.
Sisson said the market now is veiy “soft,” or competitive, but he added
that prices probably will not go down to any great extent. He says prices will
depend on the number of units built and the number of students who come
to A6cM.
The university controls the number of customers. He says, however,
increasing construction costs preclude price decreases.
Realtor George Green also says he expects no price decrease even though
there are more units on the market. He says building costs, expenses and
mortgage prices will keep rates up. One of his apartment complexes. Sham
rock I, has had rent raised 18 per cent since it was built in 1973, he says.
Dale Watson, a graduate student in Urban and Regional Planning, said
the problem is difficult to define. “There is a lot of guess work. You have to
assume a lot of things and estimate. Nobody knows what the market will
be. ”
Flowever, more apartments don t mean more housing availability and
better selection. Vacancies in apartments may be affected by areas other
than Texas A&M. Industrial development creating new jobs and personnel
would increase the number of buyers.
The attractiveness of apartments can also affect the number of units stu
dents would consider for housing. A ten-year-old apartment may not be
acceptable to a large number of students, and thus he actually not consid
ered available.
Square-footage of apartments also vary dramatically. A one-bedroom
apartment now may be much smaller than a “one-bedroom” apartment ten
years ago, or even in another apartment complex.
Hence housing may be increasing in Bryan-College Station, but how it
will affect the student’s pocketbook depends on who you ask.
STUDENT HOUSING
M A PR T ED STUDENT ROUSING
~—=-» " -f ^ •
1973 1974 1975 1976
Graph complied through 1975 by Karen Switzer, Texas A&M.
Updated 1977 by Kim Tyson. 1978 projection by Dr. Charles
McCandless, Texas A&M.
Great Pumpkin
makes annual run
Battalion photo hy Ken Herrera
By ROBIN LINN
The Great Pumpkin lives at Texas A&M!
While spooks, goblins, devils, and
monsters were returning home from trick-
or-treating and performing fiendish acts,
they stopped to see the pumpkin make his
annual Halloween run around the Corps
dorm area.
The event has been carried on by com
pany C-2 for about 12 years. And rumor has
it that the first Great Pumpkin is now a
professor of Engineering and Design
Graphics 105 at A&M.
Theories as to how it all got started are
vague. “It started out as some kind of war
between C-2 and the Aggie Band, said Bill
Shelby, commanding officer of C-2. “Back
in 1965 a senior who was a fan of Charles
Schulz got it started, he said. A&M’s
Great Pumpkin has been a way to harass
band members on Halloween. Junior
cadets are the only participants.
Preparation for the run of the Great
Pumpkin actually begins a week before
Halloween, when two pumpkins, one small
and one large are put in the hall of C-2’s
dorm.
The larger pumpkin is eventually des
tined to rest on the head of the cadet
selected as the Great Pumpkin.
The small one is known as Mr. B.Q., and
sits in the corner of one hall. Mr. Pumpkin
is praised all week while Mr. B.Q. is
scorned. “B.Q. is a cadet term for Aggie
Band members.
Halloween night arrives and the juniors
get the “priviledge of competing to see
who will be the Great Pumpkin for that
year — by bobbing for apples.
T ve been thinking about this all week,
said Jim Sabersula, ^ C-2 junior. Two
cadets go after the same apple — and the
cadet who loses is challenged again until
one person remains apple-less.
Last night, the competition ended with
juniors Les Chipman and Mark Mosley.
“And may the great pumpkin be with you,”
are the words that begin the final round.
With their heads locked against one
another, the two battled it out for about
three minutes. The Chipman raised his
head with the apple between his teeth.
Mosley became the Great Pumpkin.
Outside the dorm a crowd of around 400
spectators has gathered to see the event.
The group included students dressed as
rabbits, devils, lions. Confederate soldiers,
and Raggedy Ann dolls.
Other C-2 juniors surrounded Mosley
and lit their broomstick torches. Their goal:
to march through the band dorm with
Mosley s pumpkin head intact. This year,
they didn t quite make it. The band was
prepared. They had set up a barricade of
people armed with water-filled trash cans.
Price controls unfair to Texas says Walzel
By KEVIN VENNER
If President Carter has his way, the natural gas prices
for the Bryan-College Station area will be going down.
Sound good? It doesn’t to many Texans who are as
sociated with the oil and gas companies and to others
who are interested in what will be best (in their opinion)
for Texas and the nation regarding energy supply and
economics.
Consumers of natural gas in the Bryan-College Station
area are currently paying about $2 per MCE (1,000 cubic
feet) while persons out of state can but the same Texas-
produced gas at rates as low as 50 cents per MCE and not
more than $1.47 per MCE.
Why the inequity? Because the federal government
has price controls on interstate gas (shipped out of Texas)
and the intrastate gas (shipped to areas within Texas) are
not controlled. This is unfair to Texas consumers and gas
producers, says Jim Walzel, senior vice president of
Houston Pipeline Co.
Walzel says that persons out of the state are buying gas
for less than the cost of its production, which is about $2
per MCE. He says this contributed to the gas shortage
last winter because gas companies were not using all
producing wells. Walzel says it is not good business to
produce gas for more money than it sells for, so gas
companies slacked off and the nation had a shortage.
Walzel says there is a good chance of future gas
shortages if federal regulations are not lifted. Too many
out of state people who use the artificially cheap gas
would not if the gas were on the free market system as it
is here in Texas, Walzel says. He adds that his company
favors a phased deregulation, so that the price decrease
will be less dramatic.
Texas has a bona fide free market where the gas has
been selling for what people are willing to pay for it. He
adds that the price is pretty high, but everybody has gas.
The price of gas is cheaper (because of control) on the
East Coast, but supplies remain scarce.
This does not have to be the case, according to Dr.
Richard Davison, professor of chemical engineering at
Texas A&M University.
jgals.
FDA investigates protein diet
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The government has started an
investigation into reports of several deaths among per
sons using the popular predigested liquid protein diets,
it was learned today.
The deaths, which may number as many as 11, have
not been confirmed as being directly linked to the diet
fad. But, the Food and Drug Administration said it is
working with the Center for Disease Control to check
medical records and autopsy reports, if any, to see if
there is a link between the diets and deaths.
In some cases, an FDA spokesman said, the agency
has been informed directly of suspected problems from
the diet.
One case was reported by a doctor who had a relative
whose death was supposedly linked to the diet, the
agency said.
In recent weeks the FDA has announced two recalls of
predigested liquid protein products because they were
packaged in bottles that were defective and could have
caused bacterial growth.
At the same time the agency has been saying it ques
tions the validity of the diet to do anything more than a
simple restriction of caloric intake would accomplish. It
also said it is concerned about persons using the diet
without medical supervision.
“We do not have an energy shortage,” says Davison,
“we have an energy crisis.”
Davison says decontrol is absolutely necessary or
Texas as well as Eastern states will have shortages. He
also says that decontrol works two ways to benefit the
nation. First, he says deregulation will make prices go
up.
“But that is good. That will limit consumption and
therefore help conserve our energy resources,” Davison
says.
Second, deregulation will yeild profits for the gas
companies, which will give them capital and incentive to
reinvest in the energy business. “And this is what the
nation needs — more energy, Davison says.
Davison adds that these two points relate to all forms
of energy, not just gas resources.
“People don’t seem to realize that the price of oil has
not gone up overall, any more than a lot of other things, ”
he says. “When I was a boy, a gallon of gasoline cost 16
cents and a hamburger cost a dime. Today a hamburger
has gone from a dine to about 85 cents while oil has gone
from 16 cents to about 50 cents. So what shall we do?
Price control McDonald’s? Shoot the farmer?”
Davison says his point is that price controls don’t solve
problems and that the cost of gas should be allowed to
seek its own leve.
“If controls are continued on gas today, then tomorrow
the government will be controlling another energy
source and the next day there is no telling what it may
want to control,” says Dr. Joseph S. Osoba, associate
professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M Uni
versity.
The marketplace has always guided the prices of all
commodities and that is what is needed with gas Osoba
says.
There are vast quantities of known gas deposits in
Texas and off its shore, says Osoba, but the cost to obtain
these sources will cost the oil and gas companies much
more because it is deeper and harder to get. He says the
only way the government is going to get the oil and gas
companies to seek new energy sources is to allow them
to make some money so that can increase exploration and
drilling.
Will the increase in exploration and drilling lead to an
increase in gas prices for area residents? A. L. Bartley,
manager of Lone Star Gas Co. in Bryan, says that in
itially, prices may show a slight increase until the market
determines the level at which it will stabilize. He added,
though, that the main impact of deregulation will be for
those out of state.
“I think all the people in Texas would like to see the
people in the East paying the same amount for gas that
they do,” Bartley says.
“People don’t seem to realize that the price of
oil has not gone up overall, any more than a lot
of other things... Today a hamburger has
gone from a dime to about 85 cents while oil
has gone from 16 cents to about 50 cents.”
— Richard Davison
Professor of Chemical Engineering
Dr. Wendy Gramm, associate professor of economics
at Texas A&M University, says that she too favors the
deregulation of natural gas.
“It’s a matter of supply and demand. If prices are set
too low, the demand will not be met and if prices are
allowed to rise, then the supplies will become
adequate,” she says.
Davison points out that the situation is a matter of
dollars and sense.
Natural gas is the premium of all fuels and that is why
it is in such great demand, he says. It is cheaper than the
fuel oil which many people used in other parts of the
United States before natural gas was made available to
them at an artificially low cost. Natural gas also burns
cleaner, Davison says. “That’s like selling premium
gasoline for less than regular. We re selling the premium
fuel for less than not-so-good fuel.”