The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 23, 1979, Image 1

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    he Battalion
Friday, March 23, 1979
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
How valid was critical column?
— A Texas A&M official re
sponds to Jack Anderson’s col
umn criticizing the treatment of
women in the Corps of Cadets
— and he doesn’t give Anderson
much credibility. See page 3.
Also see page 2 for comment on
the story.
— People injure and kill 40 per
cent of the young birds of prey
that die each year, and a Texan
spends his own time and money
to heal as many birds as he can.
See page 10.
— Is it just coincidence, or are
you PSYCHIC? See page 6.
Barron threatens move
of Davis case to Bryan
‘Aaaaayyyyeee! ’
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
The position of yell leader at Texas A&M took a
new shape Thursday night. Freshman Kim Man
uel. an Army ROTC cadet in the W-l unit, was the
first woman ever to be a Texas A&M yell leader.
She was one of five freshmen “yell-leaders” at
Thursday’s Elephant Bowl game.
"jpuble with a capital T? — maybe
ouse group hears A&M
l H
By LIZ NEWLIN
Battalion Staff
AUSTIN — Texas A&M University ex
ited trouble in the House Appropria-
ms Committee hearing Thursday. Trou-
e about its use of the Permanent Univer-
ty Fund.
Rep Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston,
is long charged that the campus at Col-
ge Station is not sharing fairly with the
impus at Prairie View the System’s part
the proceeds from the endowment.
Three weeks ago, at a hearing of a sub-
•mmittee of the House Higher Education
ommittee, Texas A&M officials were se-
;rely questioned about the fund s distri-
ation and possible neglect of Prairie
iew.
Thursday the “results” of that hearing
- what the Higher Ed Committee rec-
mmended to the Appropriations Com-
littee — were available. The most signifi-
mt change the committee made was add-
ig about $6.5 million for new construc-
on and renovation for Prairie View.
These committees cannot significantly
feet distribution of Permanent Univer-
ty Fund (PUF) income, but Thompson
as introduced legislation that would force
ie System to give Prairie View the money
r abolish the endowment altogether.
The University of Texas and Texas A&M
sterns split income from the PUF, which
i a Constitutionally established endow-
lent based on land holdings in West
exas.
The chief clerk of the Higher Ed Com-
littee, George Torres, said Thursday that
hoiipson has declined to schedule hear-
agsln the bills. He also noted that legis-
ators sometimes introduce legislation
'ever intending it should be passed. The
dls^re statements of where they stand,
«said.
One of Thompson’s administrative aides
explained Thursday in the Capitol that she
is also waiting for the HEW to release its
report on higher education in Texas.
Thompson has suggested she knows the
conclusion of the report, which was re
searched last year, and that it may alter
PUF distribution.
But no one at Texas A&M knows for
sure.
Thompson, a member of the committee,
directed most of her questions Thursday
toward the PUF, but it is hard to predict
the effect on other committee members.
Her impact — or lack of it — will be one
factor when the committee draws up the
general appropriations bill for the House.
Sometime in April that bill and a similar
bill in the Senate will be debated, com
promised and sent to the governor, proba
bly in May.
Thursday was the last official chance for
the 11-part Texas A&M System to justify
its requests for money.
Clyde H. Well, chairman of the Board
of Regents and acting chancellor, directed
the presentation. Much of the four-hour
session was dull but mostly important reci
tation of figures and justification.
Several legislators and spectators nap
ped.
The hearing was delayed from 10 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m. by a speech by the Rev. Jesse
Jackson, who emphasized the need for
education spending.
Wells and most other System represen
tatives said more of that spending should
be on low salaries. Inflation has been dev
astating, he said, and has eroded profes
sors’ buying power.
Dr. Jarvis Miller, president of Texas
A&M, said the growth of the school has
penalized it because the scheme used to
figure 80-85 percent of the budget has not
kept up with increasing enrollments. He
also said more funds should be allocated
for organized research, which was cut
drastically last time the Legislature appro
priated funds.
Moody College President Bill Clayton
said growth at the Galveston campus
necessitates more facilities. If given the
needed dorms and classrooms, he pre
dicted, the college’s enrollment of about
700 would double in two years.
Dr. Alvin I. Thomas, president of
Prairie View A&M, said this is the time for
a “bold leap forward” at the predominantly
black campus. The $6.5 million recom
mended by the Higher Ed Committee in
cludes a $3.7 million facility for nursing
students and major repairs at the campus.
United Press International
A district judge — angry about an intru
sion by the Tarrant County district attor
ney’s office into his courtroom affairs —
Thursday said he might move the divorce
case of Texas millionaire T. Cullen Davis
and his socialite wife, Priscilla, from Fort
Worth to Bryan, his central Texas
hometown.
Meeting with Davis’ battery of attorneys
and reporters in the front room of his
Bryan home. District Judge John M. Bar
ron also said he would not tolerate any
more “interference” from either a special
Tarrant County grand jury investigating
Davis’ financial dealings or members of
the district attorney’s office.
Barron then signed a restraining order
barring the district attorney’s office “or
anyone else from interfering with this
trial” and indicated he would move the
bitter, longrunning case to Bryan if both
parties agreed to the change and if an
available courtroom could be found in the
Brazos County courthouse.
But Mrs. Davis’ attorney, contacted in
Fort Worth, said there was “no way” he
would agree to the trial move. And even
Barron admitted there was little possibility
of finding an available courtroom.
After signing the injunction, Barron told
reporters: “Goodbye, I’m going rabbit
hunting.”
The divorce trial was thrown into an
immediate recess Thursday when the re
tired judge, appointed as presiding judge
after Fort Worth Judge Joe Eidson with
drew from the bitter 6-year case, failed to
appear in court.
“I’m not going to put up with this,” the
normally goodhumored judge told re
porters after Assistant District Attorney
Jack Strickland subpoenaed thousands of
pages of records of the divorce trial Wed
nesday.
“I’ll go back to Bryan and hunt rabbits. ”
A court spokesman said that’s appar
ently what the judge did. He disappeared
from his Fort Worth hotel room and re
mained unavailable by telephone in
Bryan.
At one point, Barron said he was going
to declare a mistrial, but that threat sub
sided with his failure to appear court.
Barron’s courtroom humor had been
one of the few bright spots in the five
weeks of tedious proceedings in the case
reportedly involving millions of dollars in
community property. But the witticism
turned to criticism when Strickland ap
peared in court saying he needed the fi
nancial records for a Wednesday afternoon
meeting of a special grand jury.
The subpoena said the information was
sought in connection with the murder-
for-hire charge against Davis.
Davis, who was acquitted of murder two
years ago, was tried earlier this year for
soliciting the death of his previous divorce
court judge, Joe Eidson, but that trial
ended with a deadlocked jury.
Barron, who said he would have gladly
turned over the divorce trial records once
the trial was over, apparently was offended
by the intrusion and later called Strickland
iggieland. Battalion
seeking next editors
Applications are now being accepted for
J mnier and fall editorships of The Battal-
B ancl for 1979-80 editorship of the Ag-
ielanT
Applications forms are available from
M must be returned to Bob G. Rogers,
•'aihnan of the Student Publications
bard Room 301 Reed McDonald Build-
H .
Be Battalion summer editor will serve
®rci|May 14 through August 22, 1979.
"eBattalion fall semester editor will
-fvi from April 23, 1979, through De
aler 1979 (with the exception of the
J ®lier term).
He Aggieland editor will serve for the
^dknic year 1979-80.
jpalifications for editor of The Battalion
ff e:E.O overall and major GPR at the time
Paling office and during the term of of
fice; at least one year of experience in a
responsible editorial position on The Bat
talion or comparable student newspaper,
or at least one year of editorial experience
on a commerical newspaper, or at least 12
hours of journalism including Journalism
203, 204 or equivalent.
The 12 hours of journalism must include
completion of journalism law or enroll
ment in the course during the semester
served.
Qualifications for editor of the Aggie
land are: 2.0 overall and major GPR at the
time of taking office and during the term of
office; at least one year in a responsible
staff position on the Aggieland or compar
able yearbook experience elsewhere.
The Student Publications Board will
interview candidates and select the editors
on April 5 at 5:15 p.m. in Reed McDonald
301.
“that little squirt” and “a wet-eared fool
prosecutor having no respect for anyone.”
Strickland was unavailable for comment
Thursday.
“He could have worked it out with me
very well that after I’d made a decision in
the case I’d have give him the whole rec
ord,” Barron told a reporter Wednesday.
“But he comes up there and just kicks us
around like we were a bunch of dogs.”
The reaction in the Priscilla and Cullen
Davis camps was one of surprise.
“I did not know it was going to happen,”
said Ronald Aultman, Mrs. Davis’ attor
ney. Aultman said “as a matter of ethics”
he preferred to withhold further comment
until “I know what the judge is going to
do.”
But one of Davis’ attorneys, Cecil
Munn, presented motions to Administra
tive Judge Charles Murray Thursday after
Barron failed to show in court, asking that
the divorce trial be moved to Bryan —
Barron’s hometown — and that the district
attorney “and everyone else” be enjoined
from interrupting the case “for whatever
Munn and two other attorneys then
drove to Barron’s house and local re-
porters were called to witness Barron’s
signing of the injunction.
“I don’t know what his (Strickland) mot
ive was, but it was extremely abusive to
the judicial process,” Munn said. “This
stunt that Jack Strickland pulled was about
the most stupid thing I’ve ever seen a
socalled responsible lawyer do.”
Munn also claimed the district attor
ney’s office was trying to sabotage the di
vorce case.
Strickland told reporters Wednesday he
asked for the records because he felt there
was a “significant” chance not all the in
formation would be available if he waited
until after the trial ended.
“I was very respectful to that judge, as I
would be to any judge,” he said. “I don’t
have anything against the judge, person
ally.”
Judge Murray said he had contacted
Barron and that the Bryan judge indicated
he was willing to resume the case Monday
morning.
$5 health fee
increase likely
By DILLARD STONE
Battalion Staff
Maintaining competitiveness in the
local health care job market, and thus the
qualty of services provided, is the
rationale behind a student government
request for the creation of a new health
center fee, according to Dr. John Koldus,
Texas A&M University’s vice president for
student services.
The new $5 compulsory medical service
fee is needed “to maintain the current
level of services,” Koldus said.
The proposal for the new fee is currently
in the form of a senate recommendation to
Koldus, but he is expected to approve it in
time for next year’s fee assessment.
The University’s A.P. Beutel Health
Center has been operating at a deficit
since 1973, he added. However, funds in
reserve enabled the center to operate with
the deficit.
Also helpful was the fact that the health
center has in the past had problems in fill
ing its budgeted staff positions.
However, Koldus said, the University
recently lost $60,000 to $80,000 per year
because the center no longer receives the
money to provide mandatory University
Workmen’s Compensation physicals. The
physicals are no longer mandatory, and
the University has thus cut off their funds.
More money was needed, Koldus said,
to attract good quality people into the
Texas A&M health center. The former sal
ary of $29,000 “wasn’t too competitive for
physicians,” he said. President Jarvis Mil
ler recently approved a $38,000 ceiling on
physicians’ salaries designed to attract
more doctors to Texas A&M.
“However, it is not mandatory to em
ploy someone at a base salary of $38,000. A
physician with less experience would be
employed at less than $38,000,” he added.
Nurses’ salaries have also been in
creased to provide more competition,
Koldus said.
Many students had believed the current
$15 compulsory group hospital fee charged
at Texas A&M was the ceiling, set by state
law. Koldus said this was true, but that
another section of the Texas Education
Code allows the University to charge
another fee, the compulsory medical serv
ice fee. The ceiling for that fee dlso is $15,
Koldus said.
“The fees are not by law going into the
same place, but they are tied,” he said. “In
terms of operations, I don’t see how they
can separate the two, which is what they
are doing legislatively.”
Koldus said the comptroller of the Uni
versity System had wanted a $10 increase.
“But I thought that would be too
much,” he said.
The current fee charged by the Univer
sity brings in about $850,000 per year,
Koldus said. The projected increase when
the new fee is implemented will be one-
third of that, or about $280,000, he added.
“I hope the fee will meet the needs for
the next three years. I hope we don’t have
to raise it again for a good long time,” Kol
dus said. “The problem is keeping pace
with inflation.”
Jackson preaches hope,
not dope in joint session
The Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared before the Texas Legislature Thurs
day. Battalion photo by Liz Newlin
United Press International
AUSTIN — The Rev. Jesse
Jackson, leading a cheer of “down
with dope, up with hope,” com
manded legislators at a joint
House-Senate session Thursday to
regain their moral authority and
search for a higher vision.
“It’s not so much the strength of
our eyes, but where we stand and
what we see,” Jackson told the legis
lators, the state’s governor and a
packed gallery, who came to hear
his speech supporting education and
morality.
The civil rights leader led the
legislators in a recitation of a former
black power chant that said in part
“I am somebody, I am God’s child.
Down with dope, up with hope, no
one can protect us from ourselves. I
can learn anything, I am God’s
child.”
Jackson, 37, is leader of Opera
tion Push. He described the pro
gram as “a human rights organiza
tion that tends to be the voice of the
underpriviliged and unrepre
sented.” Another program led by
Jackson, EXCEL, is the educational
arm of Operation Push and is aimed
to encourage youths to stay in school
and improve their lives.
“Education costs — it does cost,”
Jackson said. “But ignorance costs
even more.”
He compared the cost of a four-
year public college education at
$20,000 to the cost of imprisonment
for four years at $50,000 to
$126,000.
“Education and employment
costs less than ignorance and incarc
eration. Schools at their worst are
better than prisons at their best.”
Jackson urged the lawmakers to
guard against the backlash of tax re
lief amendments — which he
labeled neo-conservative — that
might damage educational pro
grams.
“This is fundamentally based
upon a sense of economic panic,”
the gray-suited leader said. “These
people say: ‘We’re going to lead a
tax rebellion,’ while the fact is we
need a tax reform.” He added that
giant corporations are paying less
taxes than before, while citizens are
paying more.
Jackson was introduced to the
joint session by Rep. Al Edwards,
D-Houston, who told reporters he
invited the minister to address the
Legislature because crucial educa
tion bills will be discussed this ses
sion and he is concerned over their
success. Edwards said legislation
has been introduced to get state
funding for Operation Push and
EXCEL in Texas.
He said 60 percent of the nation’s
students are bused and only 6 per
cent for racial reasons. He said
stopping busing would greatly harm
students, especially rural children.
“He was one of the great
visionaries of the 20th century,
perhaps of our nation,” Jackson said
of the former president. “He could
rise above the trees and see the
forest of human rights.”
Jackson was not as approving of
other presidents, particularly Presi
dent Carter, accusing him of ignor
ing the mandate to be a visionary of
human rights and claiming “It ap
pears cataracts have set in.”
The educator recommended
voter registration certificates be dis
tributed with high school diplomas
to encourage young citizen in
volvement in government.