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Vol. 72 No. 48 Tuesday, November 7, 1978 News Dept. 845-2611
12 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
Texas imported
A little bit of the Lone Star
state was distributed through
the British Isles this week in the
Architectural Review, an
English technical journal, see
page 5.
Battalion photo by Tricia Forbes
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,64
United Press International
Texas politicians spent an unprece-
ented$18 million this year seeking votes
an election that experts predicted would
raw only 2.3 million voters today.
Voters remained apathetic despite ex-
ravagant media campaigns by Republi-
ans in the GOP’s most formidable bid in
istory for top state posts in this tra-
itionally Democratic state and open races
irmore than one-third of the state’s con
fessional seats.
The Republican Party, intent upon mak-
igTexas a two-party state, spent furiously
an attempt to maintain John Tower in
le U.S. Senate and install Bill Clements
se y s the state’s first GOP governor since Re
siling instruction,
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Vomit
Curie;
raused
Autumn oughta run em in
With winter upon us, students like sophomore
Karen Volkel won’t be able to find a warm, com
fortable place to study outdoors. Today’s high will
be about 68 with a low tonight of 47, so drag out
those longjohns. It will be windy and cooler through
Wednesday.
§18 million spent
i top 3 state races
Democratic and Republican nominees
nthe top three statewide races acknowl-
idged spending nearly $18 million in their
Inal pre-election campaign finance reports
indthe total is expected to go even higher
‘jJ, rhen outlays for last chance media adver
ting are included.
Clements, a Dallas oil drilling contrac-
orand former deputy secretary of defense
aider Presidents Nixon and Ford, spent
npron a excess of $6.3 million — more than
him. I wice the outlay of Democrat John Hill,
he state attorney general. The Republican
once* aid his expensive campaign will prove the
didnil lifference that has thwarted less well-
financed GOP bids for the Texas gover
nor’s mansion.
“We are going to win by 53 to 47 per
cent,” Clements said Monday on the eve
of the election. He said he expects to carry
such long-time Democratic strongholds as
Bexar County, Houston and virtually all of
the Panhandle where he said voters “do
not want a liberal, career politician tied in
with machine politic's.”
Hill, formerly a Houston trial lawyer,
upset incumbent Gov. Dolph Briscoe and
won the Democratic nomination without a
runoff in May.
Both candidates are multimillionaires —
Clements reported his worth at $30 mil
lion, Hill $4 million — but emphasized
down-home folksiness and a Texas drawl in
their media ads.
The Senate race in contrast pitted To
wer, a former college government instruc
tor, against a former Duke University
dean and Shakespearean scholar, Rep.
Bob Krueger, D-Texas.
Tower contrasted his modest personal
wealth with the financial holdings of his
challenger, but the incumbent Republican
spent $3.5 million to the Democratic
nominee’s $2 million campaign outlay.
Both candidates accused the other of in
effective leadership and each predicts
victory.
Tower became the only Republican in
92 years to win a statewide election with
his successful bid to replace Lyndon
Johnson in the Senate 17 years ago.
In the race for attorney general. Repub
lican Jim Baker spent an unheard of $1.2
million in the GOP’s first serious bid for an
office that has often launched a number of
Texas Democrats into higher office.
Baker, who managed Gerald Ford’s un
successful 1976 presidential campaign,
faced Democrat Mark White.
White, also a Houston lawyer, began
talking Monday as if victory were already
his. Baker has accused White of ducking
issues in the campaign and reierated ear
lier charges that White violated campaign
finance reporting laws.
The retirement of Texas’ four longest
tenured representatives sparked some
heated congressional races — particularly
in West Texas where George W. Bush of
Midland sought to win the seat now held
by Rep. George Mahon, D-Texas.
Bush, son of the one-time United Na
tions ambassador and ex-CIA director,
faced State Sen. Kent Hance, D-Lubbock.
In addition to Mahon, veteran Reps.
Omar Burleson, Olin Teague and W.R.
Poage, and the only black elected to rep
resent Texas in Congress during this cen
tury, Sen. Barbara Jordan, are retiring.
Two incumbents, longtime Rep. John
Young and Rep. Dale Milford were de
feated in primary races.
SProtestors’ violence prompts
n cup!
jrtk v* • • • . . •
"Iranian prime minister to resign
United Press International
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Prime Minis
ter Jaafar Sharif-Emami resigned Monday
in response to the worst explosion of anti
shah violence in nearly 15 years and the
military sent tanks into the street, signal
ing a harsh new stand against demon
strators.
iega
4
./■■I
Radio Iran said Sharif Emami, ap-
lointed only two months ago to assemble a
J lational reconciliation government, had
esigned. It made no mention of a possible
iccessor.
Sunday’s outbreak was the most de-
fructive and fearsome single-day rampage
incejune 1963 when violent disturbances
» *ocked Tehran following the expulsion of
^Moslem leader Ayatollah Khomeini —
low the Paris-based leader of the shah’s
iposition.
Anti-shah demonstrators set fire to the
iritish Embassy, four international hotels,
irline offices and banks but failed to get
it an Iranian army cordon around the
■S. Embassy. Foreign guests fleeing the
liiming hotels faced jeering crowds but
'ere not harmed.
Demonstrators pulled down and de-
oyed portraits of the shah and his father,
leza Shah, set fire to the Ministry of In
formation and beat up Minister
ohammad Reza Ameli-Tehrani, ran-
icked and destroyed liquor shops and
liimed many vehicles, including at least
5 public buses.
The violence erupted in retaliation for
ie army’s reported slaying of student
femonstrators Saturday as they tried to
ill down a statue of the shah at Tehran
diversity. At least five people were
iwn dead but unofficial reports were
luch higher.
Widespread strikes nearly shut down
ie capital and a crippling strike that has
shut down the nation’s $20 billion-a-year
)il industry in the southern production
reas continued.
The shah held extensive talks with
Oveisi Sunday, fueling speculation that a
military government might be in the of
fing. It would be the last resort to halt
apparently determined opposition efforts
to topple the shah’s 37-year regime.
Tanks rolled into the streets Sunday
night and took positions at strategic points,
indicating a drastic switch in the army’s
attitude towards demonstrators — from
one of uneasy tolerance Sunday to a
willingness for a showdown.
The army issued its harshest warnings
against further violence, banning any kind
of demonstration during the dusk-to-dawn
curfew and telling the city’s 4.5 million
residents that “violators will be shot after
being warned to disperse.”
The warning was repeated over Radio
Iran with ominous persistence throughout
the night, raising fears that any attempts to
resist the ban could easily result in killings
similar to those on Sept. 8, when martial
law was imposed on Tehran and 11 other
towns. At least 250 people died in Tehran
that day.
The city was near total shutdown as
gasoline shortage struck deep through
virtually all operations. A continuing air
line strike forced other airlines also to can
cel flights for fear of accidents in the ab
sence of ground support staff.
Taxi companies were shut down, food
distrubution cut off, meat supplies dis
rupted and bakeries closed partially.
Strikes by telecommunications staff shut
down satellite ground station and mi
crowave centers, disrupting telephone and
telex communications between Iran and
the rest of the world.
Randall County unusual
most of its residents vote
United Press International
Just a little more than one-third of
Texas’ estimated 6 million registered vot
ers are expected to go to the polls Tues
day, but Randall County Clerk LeRoy
Hutton, with past experience to guide
him, is primed for up to an 80 percent
turnout in his Panhandle district.
Hutton’s county comprises Canyon, a
college town of some 8,200, and a popul
ous one-third of Amarillo, a divided city
which supplies 75 percent of Randall
County’s registered voters.
In the past four presidential elections
(1964-1976), Randall County voters have
turned out at an average rate of 85.3 per
cent. In 1964, 94 percent of the nearly
14,700 registered voters turned out for the
Lyndon Johnson-Barry Goldwater presi
dential election, Hutton says.
Hutton says an official in the Secretary
of State’s Office told him his county led the
state in 1976 with an 81.1 percent voter
turnout during a presidential election.
That may have led the state, Hutton
says, but it amounted to the lowest presi
dential year turnout in Randall County
since 1964.
Even in an off-year election in 1974 the
voters turned out at a nearly 44 percent
rate, Hutton says.
Asked to estimate just how many voters
will turn out in Randall County Tuesday,
Hutton turns a bit coy.
“I prefer not to say.”
Pressed, he admits he’s warehoused
27,000 ballots this year, sufficient for 80
percent of the voters. “I am prepared for a
large turnout.”
Hutton didn’t give a definite reason for
the large voter turnout, except to say that
the people vote for the man, not the party.
A&M strengthens
hot check penalties
By DILLARD STONE
Battalion Staff
The continuing increase in both the
number and the amount of insufficient
checks cashed at Texas A&M University
has caused the fiscal department to stiffen
penalties against hot check writers.
“Effective with hot checks returned to
this office as of Nov. 30, the charge for
insufficient checks will be $15,” said J.
Robert Smith, assistant controller of ac
counts.
The $15 charge is a 200 percent increase
over the old charge of $5.
Additionally, Smith said, if the returned
check is not claimed and paid by its author
within the 15-day grace period, the pen
alty fee will be $25, instead of the current
$10 charge.
“Along with the increase in the penalty,
we re now allowing only two returned
checks before your name is placed on the
bad check list,” Smith said.
The list, distributed to all on-campus
check cashing locations, is an index of
those persons permanently ineligible to
cash checks at Texas A&M.
Fiscal department figures show that
5,440 checks totaling about $300,000 were
returned to Texas A&M last year. The year
before, the value of the 4,329 returned
checks was about $235,000.
The figures translate into a 26 percent
rise in the number of checks and a 27 per
cent increase in their value.
Data for the first two months of this year
show a more dramatic increase. The
$85,000 in returned checks this Sep
tember is 81 percent higher that the total
for September 1977. Figures for October
indicate a 45 percent increase.
All this adds up to a significant loss to
the University, both in time and in money.
“This year, we’ve had to assign one per
son full time to deal with hot checks,
whereas in the past it used to be a part-
time effort,” Smith said.
Smith also said that at any given time.
the fiscal department may have between
$25,000 and $50,000 in insufficient checks
awaiting collection.
“It costs us $4 per check to process
them,” he said. “We spend $5,000 a year
just on computer work keeping up with
hot checks.”
In spite of the costs to the University,
Smith said that his department’s check
cashing service is a vital one.
“We feel like we’ve got to offer the serv
ice for students who bank out of town, be
cause no one else will cash a check for
them,” he said.
One remote possibility Smith men
tioned was the termination of the service,
although he said that was still far in the
future.
The majority of the returned checks are
written for cash. Smith said. Some are for
tuition, and a few are for minor fines such
as traffic citations.
Smith said that a few students who knew
the rules of the fiscal department’s game
have used the University as an interim
financing agent. For example, after receiv
ing a bad $600 check for tuition. Smith
said, the fiscal department would try all
the routine collection procedures. After
exhausting these routes, the University
would eventually drop the student from its
rolls.
Upon being dropped, many students
would make good their debts, and, accord
ing to University police, would be
readmitted to the University.
“What it amounted to was that they had
gotten a $600 dollar loan from Texas
A&M,” Smith said.
This situation was remedied several
semesters ago when the fiscal department
adopted a policy of charging a $50 fee for
readmission.
The fiscal department publishes two
computer lists of hot check writers each
day. One is an index listing the writer’s
name, bank, amount of check and other
related information, and is used should
any questions arise about the University’s
attempts to collect on its claim.
The other list is distributed to all check
cashing locations on campus each day. It
lists names and student indentification
numbers of hot check authors, and it alerts
cashiers to people who have violated the
University’s hot check policy. The cashiers
are not allowed to accept checks from
people on the list.
Smith isn’t sure that the new policy will
substantially reduce the number of hot
checks. However, he does say the Univer
sity owes it to itself and to students to pre
vent hot checks from being passed.
“Students will find that off this campus,
such actions are riot dealt with so le
niently,” Smith said.
Teague to be
released soon
Congressman Olin E. “Tiger” Teague,
“in great spirits” after surgery last week,
should be released Wednesday from
Bethesda Naval Hospital, a member of his
office staff in Washington, D.C., said
Monday.
Teague was admitted to the Bethesda,
Md., hospital Oct. 20 to undergo prostatic
surgery.
The doctors are pleased with his im
provement, the staff member said. If
Teague continues to improve, he will be
released Wednesday. The staff member
added that Teague would be in his office
Friday.
This is the third time Teague has been
hospitalized since September, when he
suffered a mild stroke.
Teague, who represented the 6th Con
gressional District in the House of Repre
sentatives for over 30 years, will retire at
the end of this year.
Property ‘overassessment’
appealed by Consol board
By DOUG GRAHAM
Battalion Staff
The A&M Consolidated Independent
School Board is awaiting word from the
State School Tax Assessment Practices
Board (STAPB) on what it claims is an
overassessment of College Station prop
erty.
The school board’s attorney. Jack
Woods, reported on the school district’s
appeal to STAPB during a Monday night
school board meeting.
Woods said the hearing was held Oct.
31, but that the board won’t make a deci
sion for at least three weeks.
The Austin-based panel will meet one
week, take off one week, then return to
work the third week, Woods said. They
will then begin to make their decision, he
added.
The appeal is over an STAPB assess
ment of taxable property in College Sta
tion and the rest of the school district. The
STAPB estimate was slightly more than
$600 million dollars.
Peggy Crittenden, public realtions offi
cer for the district, said the school board
wants a figure closer to the assessment
made by the Governor’s Office of Educa
tion Resources, (GOER) which valued
taxable property at approximately $264
million.
The school board is upset with the
evaluation because the state helps cover
public education costs according to a dis
trict’s ability to pay. If College Station
were viewed by the state as not using
enough of its resources, Crittenden said, it
could lose some state money.
The overassessment, she said, was be
cause STAPB included items not normally
taxed. The biggest difference between the
two estimates is in intangible personal as
sets. The GOER report did not include
intangibles, such as stocks and bonds,
while the STAPB estimate includes $180
million in intangibles.
The board did not specify what action it
would take in the event their appeal is un
successful.
The board also considered changing
school names. The district’s new school for
fifth and sixth graders was named the Oak-
wood Middle School, and a motion was
tabled for later discussion on renaming the
A&M Consolidated Middle School the
A&M Consolidated Junior High.
Also mentioned but not acted on was
changing the district’s name from A&M
Consolidated to something similar to the
College Station Consolidated Independent
School District.
Hill optimistic on eve of election day
By SCOTT PENDLETON
Battalion Staff
A clearly optimistic John Hill told
supporters in College Station
Monday night that the polls and the
people favor his becoming the next
governor of Texas.
The Democratic candidate told
some 200 Brazos County followers
that a recent poll shows the move
ment of public opinion in his favor.
The poll was conducted by Dr.
Richard Murray of the University of
Houston. Hill said he considers
Murray’s poll particularly accurate
since Murray was the only pollster
to predict Hill’s win in the primary
without a runoff.
Hill stopped short of claiming an
early victory, however. He declined
to autograph one supporter’s cam
paign placard as “Governor Hill,”
instead inviting his backer to Austin
if he is elected. “Then I’ll be proud
to sign as Governor Hill,” he said.
Hill said Republicans are count
ing on a low voter turnout in this
election. However, the number of
voters won’t affect the outcome of
the gubernatorial race, he said. A
large turnout would just give Hill a
larger margin of victory, he said, but
the outcome would be the same.
In spite of the record amount of
money (some $6.3 million) Cle
ments has spent on his campaign.
Hill felt he would win because the
people are on his side.
“People will overcome money
every time,” he said.
Hill, who never mentioned Cle
ments by name Monday, said he has
run on his own merits rather than
criticizing anyone.
Hill skimmed a variety of issues
and campaign promises. He stated a
desire to cooperate with local offi
cials and instituions, such as Texas
A&M University. He promised to
give all citizens access to a govern
ment that is effective, efficient, pro
ductive and that is run on a tight
budget.
He renewed his pledge to veto
any tax bills and to work on property
tax relief. He called education his
top priority.
Hill said he wants Texas to be
first in energy. And he said he wants
to see that law enforcement officers
get more training.
“We re ready to go to work,” he
said. “We want to stop talking and
go to work.”
College Station was Hill’s last
stop before returning to Austin to
wait for the returns.