THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1979
Page 3
Better Business Bureau
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By FLOYD WILTZ
Battalion Reporter
The Better Business Bureau of
razos Valley has been in operation
for 10 years helping consumers who
feel they’ve been ripped off by
businesses and, if the past is any in
dication, its work is just beginning.
The BBB is a non-profit organiza
tion supported entirely through
dues from member businesses.
Leroy Balmain, director of the BBB
office located in downtown Bryan,
said the bureau was formed in Brazos
County in 1970 after a group of peo
ple had been swindled by a
lusiness. The Bryan office is one of
15 Better Business Bureaus in Texas,
out of 146 nationwide.
Balmain says his job is “to keep the
marketplace as honest as possible.”
His office has already processed 793
complaints this year. The bureau
keeps a record of every complaint
lodged by a consumer and issues re
ports on how businesses handle their
operations with customers. These
reports, which are available to the
ublic, also contain information on
usinesses across the state and na
tion.
the Dr
tr-
i Post Com(i
Balmain said all complaints must
be in writing before his office can act.
The BBB will then ask the business
for their side of the situation and act
as a mediator between the paties.
If an agreement still can’t be
reached, the BBB tries to get the
matter settled by arbitration. An im
partial third party, agreed upon by
both parties, listens to both sides and
makes a decision based on the merits
of the case. That decision is to be
followed by both sides.
The types of complaints are num
erous, Balmain said. Recently an
elderly woman was cheated out of
about $400 by three men claiming to
be roofers. Balmain said they
sprayed some type of film on the
woman’s roof and then drove the
woman to her bank where she with
drew all the money she had in her
account. They gave her a receipt for
the work. The receipt contained no
address and the signatures of the
roofers were illegible.
“And the only thing we know is
that they are three white men in a
red pick-up truck,” Balmain said.
In addition to fly-by-night oper
ators, Balmain said the number of
mail-order complaints has increased
by 49 percent over last year. Howev
er, Balmain said the number of com
plaints to his office about peddlers
has decreased over the last eight
years.
“We work very closely with law
enforement agencies,” Balmain said.
BBB files on a business, he added,
may be used in investigations by law
agencies and have been subpoenaed
as evidence in court.
“We have no legal clout,” Balmain
said, “but we have a big mouth. A
business won’t stay in business long
here if it is doing something wrong. ”
Balmain said he gets complaints
from students mostly about apart
ment security deposits. The BBB has
helped some students get their de
posits back, but in other cases apart
ment managers have been right in
withholding or returning only a por
tion of the deposit, he said.
Balmain has a few words for the
doubtful consumer: “Read before
you sign and investigate before you
invest.”
4&M regent concerned
More education aid urged
Gramm energy panel today
U.S. Rep. Phil Gramm is to be in the Bryan-College Station area
today for an energy symposium conducted by Texas A&M University.
Gramm is to outline federal energy policy during a panel discussion
beginning at 10:45 a.m. in Rudder Theater. Gramm, a member of the
House Energy and Power subcommittee, is to discuss congressional
legislation and federal policy dealing with the energy crisis.
While in the area, Gramm is to tour St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan and
address students and faculty at Hearne High School.
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AUSTIN — Texas’ public colleges and universities
will stagnate or revert to their inferior position of two
decades ago if not adequately supported, the chair
man of the Texas A&M University System Board of
Regents warned Wednesday.
Clyde H. Wells, who has headed the governing
board for Texas A&M ’s statewide teaching, research
and public service network since 1969, expressed his
concern at a hearing of the Higher Education
Financing Committe.
“We seem to be on a plateau in higher education,”
Wells said in tracing recent progress and quality
enhancement by various colleges and universities.
“Stagnation or retrogression of education must not
happen. ”
Wells said when he joined the Texas A&M board
in 1961 public higher education in Texas was in a
generally unenviable position.
He recalled that it was as recently as 1963 that
Texas A&M was able to hire its first internationally
known scholar away from an American university
with a better reputation than A&M’s.
“Hiring and keeping those top scholars has been
the best investment we have made for the citizens of
this state, he added.
Wells also cited the need for continued construc
tion and acquisition of sophisticated equipment.
“Most of the advances of tomorrow will be made
with giant nuclear installations, huge computers,
electron microscopes, and perhaps deep in space and
in the depths of the earth and the oceans,” he
pointed out, citing work done at Texas A&M’s cyclot
ron as an example.
Wells said an adequate physical plant is “absolute
ly essential to a university of the first class” and
quoted the old verse that says “It’ll be a wonderful
world if we ever get it finished. ”
“We will never get our campuses finished — not if
we are making scientific progress,” he said.
In underscoring the need for the state’s colleges
and universities to keep pace through adequate
funding, Wells pointed to the growth of the Dallas-
Fort Worth area.
“That economy is built on btain power,” he said.
“There can be no doubt that thfe unive'lrsities in that
area — and others in the state — have provided the
base for this phenomenal economic development.”
Survey compares student costs
A&M prices are still a bargain
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Texas A&M University ranks
favorably in a student expenses sur
vey conducted among the 142 mem
ber institutions of the National Asso
ciation of State Universities and
Land-Grant Colleges.
“In the almost expected yearly in
creases in student charges, A&M has
minimized its increases for 1979-
80,” said Howard Vestal, vice presi
dent for student affairs.
“On a comparative basis, A&M
ranks below national figures and be
low the figures for numerous
schools, and even below the in
creases in th cost of living,” he said.
NASULGC findings indicate that
median total charges for tuition,
fees, room and board rose 5 percent
nationwide. A&M’s total charges are
in line with this figure, Vestal said,
and are well below the Consumer
Price Index of 9.3 percent. The uni
versity’s total charges for non
residents rose 3.3 percent, while the
national increase was 6.3 percent.
Of the institutions responding to
the survey, 70.1 percent have higher
total charges than A&M for resi
dents, and 66.7 percent charge more
for non-residents.
“From the information contained
in NASULGC’S report, it is clear
that A&M continues to be a bargain
in education,” Vestal said.
Gulf awards $2,000 to A&M
Texas A&M University’s pet
roleum engineering department has
been awarded a $2,000 assistance
grant by the Gulf Oil Foundation.
S. R. McHaney, Gulfs production
personnel director in Houston, pre
sented the check to Dr. W. D. Von
Gonten, department head.
Von Gonten said the grant will be
used to help purchase computer
equipment for the department.
McHaney said Gulf assistance grants
are designed to help advance special
projects proposed by specific depart
ments in colleges and universities.
Other phases of Gulfs aid-to-
education program include under
graduate and graduate fellowships,
employee gift matching, capital
grants and special grants.
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