Friday, December 7, 1979
College Station, Texas
Battalion
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Athlete stable after
being shot in head
By MIKE BURRICHTER
Battalion Reporter
Ed Patterson, 19, from Portland, a soph
omore reserve offensive guard on the Texas
A&M football team who was shot in the
head during a scuffle about midnight
Wednesday, is listed in stable condition in
St. Joseph Hospital, Bryan.
At press time doctors were unavailable
for comment.
Brazos County police arrested William
Jennings Brannan, 21, and charged him
with aggravated assault. Brannan, of 1501
North Sims in Bryan, posted $1,000 bail
and was released Thursday morning.
Brazos County Sheriff Bobby Yeager
said details of the incident which took
place in the parking lot of the Texas Hall of
Fame on FM 2818 are still sketchy and
under investigation. Yeagar said he was
pretty sure that Patterson was “shot from a
car at fairly close range with a .38-caliber
pistol.” He said Brannan was arrested at
the scene.
Texas A&M head football coach Tom
Wilson was on a recruiting trip when the
incident occurred, but returned to College
Station Thursday morning after hearing the
news.
“We re just happy he’s alive,” Wilson
said.
Wilson also said there is a bullet still
lodged in Patterson’s head and it will be
surgically removed sometime next week.
“He’s supposed to have an operation in
the next three or four days,” Wilson said.
“They have to wait for the swelling to go
down. He’ll probably lose his right eye.
A bartender at the Hall of Fame said he
saw the police apprehend a man with the
gun.
“The trouble may have started inside,
but most of them take their fights outside so
they won’t get arrested,” he said. “There
was a big crowd out there right after clos
ing.” The bartender said a man in the park
ing lot who is supposed to stop fights “came
running in after the shot was fired and told
the manager. He and a couple of other guys
went outside and started tackling heads.”
Kelly Raper, 18, Patterson’s roommate
at Wofford Cain Hall, said Patterson was
trying to break up an argument when
someone in the back seat of a car shot him.
“I talked to him today,” Raper said
Thursday. “He’s going to lose his right eye
but he’s just happy he’s alive.”
Small hospitals need
to compete, Gramm says
T
0)
‘Merry’ Christmas?
Two Moore Hall residents found a unique way of
getting into the holiday spirit. Their stockings take
note of an early Christmas present and express hope
for a later one.
Battalion photo by Sam Stroder
By DEBBIE NELSON
Battalion .Staff
U.S. Rep. Phil Gramm visited St. Joseph
Hospital Thursday morning to discuss
health legislation and to tour the facilities of
the hospital.
At an informal reception afterward,
Gramm told hospital doctors and adminis
trators he is concerned with problems fac
ing small hospitals, rising costs and the
need to provide low-price health care.
Gramm referred to a defeated HEW bill
that would have put a lid on hospital re
venue and eliminated one-third of the na
tion’s hospital beds. Gramm said this bill
was dumped in the House in favor of a bill
Gramm co-sponsored to define factors pro
ducing rises in medical costs and encourage
price competition.
Because small hospitals need all avail
able bed space, a bed-cut is impractical,
Gramm said. Although he foresees no easy
solution, Gramm proposes price competi
tion and voluntary hospital cost contain
ment as two solutions.
Pre-paid medical plans are another prop
osal, Gramm said. In such a practice, peo
ple would pay a doctor a specified amount
every year in return for a guarantee that the
doctor will give them the best possible
medical care when necessary.
Pre-paid plans may increase price com
petition and raise profits, however, 95 per
cent of all medical care is purchased by a
third-partv payer such as Medicaxe,
Gramm said. Because the buyer is not
paying for his own care, he is not cost-
conscious.
Gramm is also concerned with the load of
paperwork on hospital administrators,
leaving them less time to administer medi
cine. Gramm has sponsored bills to de
crease the paper work, but said more could
still be done.
Sister Reginald of St. Joseph Hospital
said her staff is cooperating with voluntary
cost-containment. In this program, the
hospital budget is submitted to the govern
ment and the hospital works within it.
Repair work on the hospital boilers in
creased the 1978-79 budget. Sister Re
ginald said.
However, the hospital cut heating and
electricity costs one-third from last year as
a result of the renovations.
Small hospitals don’t have a deep reser
voir of funds to rely on, Gramm said. If they
are to survive being transferred to big
cities, small hospitals must find ways to
contain costs without strict revenue con
trols.
oDissident Iranian mob seizes provincial capital
United Press International
EHRAN, Iran — Tens of thousands of
wan demonstrators seized the north-
tern city of Tabriz Thursday, posing a
or domestic challenge to Ayatollah
ollah Khomeini in a move that could
ardize the early release of 50 American
itages held in Tehran,
issident supporters of moderate reli-
lus leader Ayatollah Kazem Shariatma-
iri first captured the radio and television
stations in Tabriz, then fanned through the
city of 2 million near the Turkish border.
In radio broadcasts, the demonstrators
said they had fired the province governor,
Nur-eddin Gharavi, urged other towns to
mobilize for revolution and claimed the
backing of local police and army units.
The demonstrators were demanding
changes in an Islamic constitution that
would give Khomeini absolute power in
Iran for life.
But they carefully pledged their con
tinued support for Khomeini personally as
well as for Shariatmadari, a champion of the
minorities in Iran and the chief challenger
to Khomeini over the constitution that vo
ters overwhelmingly endorsed this week.
Several revolutionary guards who tried
to stop the demonstrations were disarmed.
Political observers said the takeover of
Tabriz represented a major domestic chal
lenge to Khomeini and could complicate
2!
3Iranian newspaper agrees
Owith Kennedy’s comments
fresh and seemingly hopeful moves to se
cure the release of the Americans held for
the 33rd day.
The major outbreak of domestic unrest
came as Iran cautiously welcomed a U.N.
Security Council resolution calling for the
release of 50 American hostages, now in
their 34th day of captivity, as a “step for
ward” toward a peceful solution.
But Khomeini, breaking several days of
silence, denounced Washington as a
“bloodthirsty regime” and Iran’s Revolu
tionary Council approved plans for mobi
lizing 20 million youth for military training
in support of Khomeini’s appeal to the
country’s youth to prepare for armed com
bat with the United States.
Khomeini appealed for calm and national
unity in statement broadcast over Tehran
Radio and indirectly accused the United
States of fomenting domestic problems.
The protest followed a ballot by Iranians
at the start of the week on a referendum
turning Iran into an Islamic Republic and
giving Khomeini absolute secular and reli
gious powers.
Shariatmadari opposed the constitution
because he believed it gave Khomeini too
much power. On Wednesday night his
home in the holy city of Qom was stormed
by a gang of gunmen. One guard was killed
and nine others wounded. Shariatmadri
himself escaped harm.
0
>
2
g
(D
V)
United Press International
TEHRAN — A leading Iranian newspap
er said Thursday Sen. Edward Kennedy,
P-Mass., reflected the opinion of the
merican majority when he attacked U.S.
pport for the deposed shah of Iran.
“This is not the time for Kennedy to say
ything contrary to American public opin-
n,” the newspaper Bamdad said in a front
page comment, referring to the U.S. pres
idential election.
Therefore, what he said was based on
the pinion of the American majority,” the
aper said.
Bamdad said Kennedy’s strong criticism
of President Carter’s support of the shah “is
our victory and a sign that the atmosphere
is clearing up for the Iranian logic to be
heard.”
The comment followed several days of
sporadic support to Kennedy, shouted by
groups of demonstrators who have been
gathering outside the occupied U.S.
Embassy.
The state radio and televisions gave vast
coverage to Kennedy’s statements. But the
Bamdad comment was the first Iranian
reaction directly referring to the senator’s
remarks as a “victory” for Iran.
It said Iranians “must now be prepared
for a propaganda war on a wider scale”
which, it said, the United States was to
launch to counter Kennedy’s statements.
Around the U.S. embassy, still housing
50 captives and controlled by hundreds of
militants, occasional demonstrators carry
placards such as “Kennedy tells the truth”
and “Right on, Kennedy.”
Kennedy, not a well-known name among
rank-and-file Iranians, shot to prominen-
ceearlier in the week when he said the shah
had run “one of the most violent regimes in
the history of mankind” and had stolen
“umpteen billions of dollars from his
country. ”
Voluntary gas allocations set
United Press International
g WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary
* ’harles Duncan Thursday assigned volun-
ary 1980 gasoline reduction figures for
ach state and warned that if that doesn’t
W)rk, harsh mandatory federal measures
may result.
The voluntary cutbacks range from a
high of 15 percent in Kansas to zero in
Colorado and Alaska.
Among the key consuming states, Mas
sachusetts was assigned an 11 percent re-
Williams to head medical center
0
Dr. Jack K. Williams, a former chancel
lor and president of Texas A&M Universi
ty, was nominated Thursday to head the
Texas Medical Center, Inc.
Williams, 59, was chosen by a search
Mmmittee to succeed Dr. Richard T. East-
wood as executive vice president and dire
ctor of the medical center, the Houston
Post reported this morning.
His wife confirmed the story this morn
ing and said Dr. Williams was unavailable
for comment.
The committee will formally nominate
Williams at the center’s board of directors
meeting Dec. 18. Board president Herman
P. Pressler said Williams would probably
be chosen unanimously.
There are 23 institutional complexes in
cluded in the medical centers complex,
whose combined capital investment for
buildings without land is nearly $650 mil
lion, with operating budgets of $535 mil
lion.
duction goal. New York and Ohio were
assigned 10 percent reductions each, Cali
fornia and Pennsylvania 7 percent and
Texas 5 percent.
Duncan said the overall effect of the
voluntary cutbacks would be to reduce
1980 gas consumption by 5 percent com
pared to 1978. That would keep overall
consumption about the same level as this
year — 7 million barrels a day.
The state targets are based on their first-
quarter 1979 consumption figires. “These
(conservation) targets are voluntary,” Dun
can said Thursday. “But they could become
mandatory under the Energy Emergency
Conservation Act if the president deter
mines a severe supply shortage is immi
nent or exists.”
The national target for 1980 would limit
consumption of gasoline to the 1979 level of
7 million barrels a day — a 5 percent reduc
tion from 1978 levels.
Duncan said the voluntary conservation
targets were being issued “to preclude gas
lines or severe disruptions.”
Clayton calls for revision
College funding criticized
By NANCY ANDERSEN
Battalion Staff
Texas House Speaker Bill Clayton took
time out from a full day in College Station
to discuss higher education and the 1980
presidential election with the press Thurs
day afternoon.
Clayton said a critical problem facing the
Legislature in 1981 will be developing a
funding pattern for state universities. After
listening to testimony from university
administrators Wednesday in Austin,
Clayton said the best way to accomplish
this is still through formula funding. But,
he said the current formula needs revision.
With the exception of Texas A&M Uni
versity and the University of Texas — the
only members of the Permanent Universi
ty Fund — construction funds to state uni
versities have been cut offby the passing of
Senate Bill 621, Clayton said.
This bill abolished state ad valorem
taxes, the source of university construction
funds, he said.
Another university-related problem is
dealing with leveling and declining enroll
ments, he said. However, neither Texas
A&M nor UT have this problem, Clayton
added.
As for the upcoming election, Clayton
said he will support President Carter
although he disagrees with Carter’s energy
program.
“Carter has made a valiant effort to
accomplish things that no other president
has tried,” Clayton said. Among these, he.
added, are deregulating the airlines, re
vitalizing the Civil Service Act and trying
to bring the budget in line.
As for the other Democratic presidential
candidates Clayton said, “I certainly don’t
like the candidacy of Teddy Kennedy or
Jerry Brown, either.”
He added that John Connally would re
ceive strong backing from Texas if his cam
paign is still viable in May.
Texas House Speaker Bill Clayton (left) and Representative Bill Presnal
discuss the House Appropriations Committee and the 1980 presidential
campaign at a press conference at Texas A&M University’s Memorial
Student Center Thursday. Battalion photo by Cindy Colvin