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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1981)
I ' or wed the &, e and survi, die secondi 'ce record, iark to \U\ 7-13. Veils won t seek chairmanship again By JANE G. BRUST Battalion Staff urprise met Clyde Wells’ announcement Wednesday "d tame de; t he will not seek another term as chairman of the Texas int perfon avenged a against g* n g 25 point luring the» ht straight ij 19 points d vned a 46-| IU reduced I arlyinthe 17 Points forS the Mustanj i added 24.' mes as (6-3), Ri t rcu(«),i S (4-6), Si :M (2-7). UNT No guesses made as to identity ofpossible successor r® \i University System Board of Regents, gs ave h public, at least two other regents and University cials had no indication that Wells’ current two-year m as chairman might be his last. In a telephone interview Wednesday the regent from (anbury said he will remain on the board — his current licheauxadii year term ends in 1985 — but will no longer serve as luding 11 j It’s time for that assignment to be given to someone !,”he said. Wells gave no indication who his successor ght be: “I don’t have anyone in mind. ” just heard about this earlier today,” Dr. Charles nson, Texas A&M’s acting president, said Wednesday, ve enjoyed the opportunities I’ve had to work with in his capacity as chairman of the board,” Samson Clements’ press secretary, said he did not know if Wells had had any recent conversations with the governor about the position. However, he said such conversations were “entirely possible.” Clements was reportedly very upset when Wells and the other regents fired University President Jarvis Miller, a close friend of the governor, in July. Two regents said the first they heard of Wells’ stepping down was when they were called for their comments. “I’m flabbergasted and amazed,” said H.C. Bell Jr. of Austin. “I had no idea. Wells, 54, has served 20 years on the board and has en chairman the last 12 years. His current two-year m as chairman ends this month. The board will elect a new chairman during today’s icting; he will take office when the regents meet again March. Amid rumors that Gov. Bill Clements strongly discour- ed Wells from seeking the chairmanship, Jon Ford, “I’m sorry to see him take this action — he’s furnished tremendous leadership for the board.” Regent Royce E. Wisenbaker of Tyler said he did not know of Wells’ plans to step down but did remark that Wells has been chairman for a long time. Wisenbaker would not speculate on whom the next chairman might be. “Any one of us could perform that function,” he said. Wisenbaker said he would not care to serve as chairman himself, however, because of the time involved. “He (Wells) spent half his time at A&M,” Wisenbaker said. Bell shared Wisenbaker’s feeling, saying he does not want to serve as chairman. “I don’t have that amount of time,” he said. Speculation is that the three regents appointed by Cle ments in January are prime candidates for the chairman’s position. Those regents — William A. McKenzie and Harvey R. Bright, both of Dallas, and Joe C. Richardson Jr. of Amar illo —were in Austin Tuesday where a senate subcommit tee approved their appointments. They begin their six- year terms at today’s board meeting. Bell said “it might be possible” that one of the three new board members would become the new chairman. Bell made some unsolicited comments about Bright, pointing out that the two served together on the presiden tial search committee. Bell said Bright is a “giant” in the state’s private enterprise sector. Bright is a senior partner of East Texas Motor Freight. He also has banking and ranching interests. Other regents who may be considered for the chair manship are John Blocker and Dr. John Coleman of Hous ton and Norman Moser of DeKalb. Wells, a graduate of both Texas A&M University and Tarleton State University, was appointed by Gov. Price Daniel in 1961. He was reappointed by Gov. John Con- nally in 1967, and by Gov. Preston Smith in 1973. He began his first term as chairman in 1969. During Wells’ time on the Board, Texas A&M has experienced an enrollment increase from 7,700 to 33,500. He has been involved with such controversial board decisions as the admittance of women to the University in 1963 and the vote to fire Miller in 1980. Photo by Bob Sebree Clyde Wells, chairman of the Texas A&M System Board of Regents in) The Battalion Serving the Texas A&M University community Vol. 74 No. 91 32 Pages in 2 Sections Thursday, February 5, 1981 College Station, Texas USPS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 The Weather Yesterday Today High 51 High 50 Low 44 Low 34 Rain .. 0.55 inch Chance of rain . . . . . . 80% Regen ts ’ committees meet here today : By JANE C. BRUST Battalion Staff The Texas A&M University Sys tem Board of Regents will elect a new chairman and consider $45,000 in appropriations for the preliminary design of the Animal Science Pavi lion at today’s committee meetings. Committee meetings were sche duled to begin at the following times: — Planning and Building Com mittee — 8:30 a.m. — Committee for Service Units —11 a.m. —Committee for Academic Cam puses — 1:30 p.m. The executive committee will meet in closed session at 3 p.m. All meetings will be held in the Board Annex across from Cain Hall. The committees will review agen da items and make recommenda tions to the full Board for action at Friday’s 8:30 a.m. meeting. The nine Board members will elect a new chairman who will take office when they meet in March. This month ends the current two- year term of the chairman of the Board. Chairman Clyde Wells of Granbury announced Wednesday that he will not seek another term in that position. Wells has served as chairman for the last 12 years of his 20-year period on the Board. His current six-year term on the Board ends in 1985. In other Board business the Facili ties Planning and Construction Committee will Pebommend the appropriation of $45,000 from the University Available Fund for the preliminary design of the Animal Science Pavilion. This amount would supplement a previous appropria tion of $5,000. The pavilion will be bpilt to replace the old pavilion, which is being converted into a per manent registration facility and stu dent activity center. Another recommended approp riation, in the amount of $15,000, would finance a feasibility study for dormitory construction and rennova- tion at Prairie View A&M Univer sity. Board members will also consider a proposal to increase dormitory fees at Texas A&M University at Galves- tion by 35 percent, effective with the fall semester. The fee increase is to cover increased utility costs, em ployee salary increases and inde btedness incurred when bonds were sold to finance new dormitory con struction. Delay asked on housing plan By TERRY DURAN Battalion Staff A rambling discussion that resulted in a moratorium request on a proposed Hous ing Office policy highlighted a four-hour- long student senate meeting Wednesday night. After unanimously approving a bill for a registration drive for potential body part donors to run in tandem with the Aggie Blood Drive, the senate turned to con sideration of a series of bills opposing the Fall 1981 implementation of a housing poli cy that would increase the number of fresh men living on campus by keeping graduate and fifth-year students off-campus. The proposed policy reads: “Effective with the Fall, 1981 semester, on-campus residence hall housing will not be guaran teed for graduate and fifth-year students. This policy will remain in effect thereafter until the shortage for on-campus housing Student Affairs Director Ron Blatchley told the senate two weeks ago nothing could be done to stop eventual implemen tation of the policy. He said then the only points to be resolved were how and when the policy was to be implemented. A series of four bills titled “Discrimina tion Against Old Folks,” originally pre sented to the senate two weeks ago, was condensed to a three-bill version that appeared before the full senate Wednesday night. The first bill, which requests the student affairs department to consult those affected before making final decisions in the future, passed by a large margin. The second bill, which asks for a one- year moratorium on excluding graduate and fifth-year students from on-campus housing, was passed after lively discussion from all parts of the senate. The third bill, condensing two of the original bills in the series, would have cen sured the student affairs department (a “strong verbal slap on the hand,” said the bill’s author) for adopting the exclusion policy and asked Acting President Charles Samson to review the decision, originally made in June 1980 by then-President Jarvis Miller. Debate produced a hard-fought amend ment to remove the “censure” clause, but after discussion that ranged from the prop er relationship of the student senate with the school administration to the philosophy of the housing policy, the bill was defeated. The bills’ author, off-campus graduate representative Fred Seals, charged the stu dent affairs department with “mismanage ment,” citing the overbooking of dorm rooms in Fall 1980 and rooms currently empty in campuj^esidence halls. “We need to alert the various depart ments of this University,” Seals said, “to the fact that they are not here for their own gratification, but for the student body of Texas A&M.” by the senate. — A summer job-location service for Texas A&M students was funded by trans ferring $1,000 from a Student Government counseling development project. — Thirteen new senators were approved to fill vacancies until regular elections at the end of March. Another measure, making its first appearance before the senate, suggested some alternatives to the freshmen vs. up perclassmen on-campus controversy, but no action will be taken until it has been studied in committee and presented again to a full meeting. In other action: — Senators were brought up to date on preparations for the Conference On Stu dent Government Affairs (COSGA) work shops to be held at Texas A&M Feb. 15-17. The senate approved requested Univer sity regulations changes that would: — Decrease documentation problems for students missing classes because of health center treatment; — Require instructors to record numer ical grades throughout the semester to in crease accuracy; — The “Is There a Doctor in the House?” bill was amended to request three new doctors for the A. P. Beutel Health Center for 1981-82 instead of five, and left the source of funds up to facility director Dr. Claude Goswick, subject to approval — A rewording of traffic accident regula tions. The rule change recommendations will be forwarded to the University Rules and Regulations Committee for review, and then presented to the administration. Will deliver "Economics Y speech Reagan to outline nations problems United Press International WASHINGTON — President Reagan, having consulted special interests. Con gress and his Cabinet, will deliver a basic “Economics I” lecture to the nation tonight seeking to build a consensus for the tough battle ahead against inflation. Aides said the president plans nothing specific in his remarks, preferring to set particulars aside until a Feb. 18 address to a joint session of Congress. Instead, they said Reagan wants first to “spell out” the prob lem in unmistakable terms in his 9 p.m. EST address. White House press secretary Jim Brady quoted the president as telling his assis tants, “This is complex.” “The first part of this is understanding. I want to be able to do it in ‘Economics I’ terms so that everyone understands the gravity, the magnitude and the alternative. “I want it to be so clear that I don’t want to take anything for granted,” Brady quoted the president as saying. “He found in getting into it that there wasn’t a full understanding of the things he wanted to get across,” Brady said. On Wednesday, Reagan journeyed to Capitol Hill to talk with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders. “I told them,” Reagan said as he left the nearly hour-long meeting, “I’d come up on the Hill and meet with them from time to time. What is clear, however, from Reagan’s campaign rhetoric and recent news leaks and comments by administration officials is that he remains committed to the Kemp- Roth three-year, 30 percent tax cut and he believes federal spending must be cut to balance the budget and military spending must be increased. Consultation has played a large role in shaping Reagan’s address. Brady indicated the more Reagan has talked to such groups as mayors or members of Congress, the more he has rewritten his speech. Speaker Thomas O’Neill, D-Mass., attended the session and later said he had hoped for more specifics from Reagan, but the president apparently was keeping most of his ideas to himself. While assuring such groups as the Con- . gressional Black Caucus that the truly ' needy will not be ignored, it is certain the r growth of social programs such as the Com- prehensive Employment and Training Act { will be curtailed. j. d Dwyer verdict expected Monday 11 Staff photo by Chuck Chapman Texas A&M engineering These onlookers aren’t amazed with the plastic bag over the seat, they’re intrigued with the ingenuity of this ‘‘Aggie moped” discovered in front of the library. Henry Kuok and Romano Richetta discuss the possibilities of mass production of this engineering breakthrough. United Press International Self-styled American freelance writer Cynthia Dwyer, the “53rd hostage” de scribed by her Iranian captors as an “adul- tress” and a CIA Mata Hari, was unex pectedly put on trial for espionage then sent back to an infamous prison of the late shah to await the verdict, expected Mon day. “It’s an awfully long time until Monday,” said Dwyer’s mother, Mildred Brown, of Horatio, Ark. In Amherst, N.Y., Dwyer’s husband, John, labeled as “absurd” the spy charge, which carries a maximum penalty of death by firing squad. Although execution is the maximum penalty, a Swiss diplomat in Tehran hinted in a phone call to a Sioux Falls, S.D., radio station the mother of three could be re leased after the court rules — an indication Iran wants to save face while ending any thing remotely connected with the hostage crisis. “What the sentence will be and if she could leave the country in some days or if she must serve a prison sentence, I really couldn’t tell you,” Swiss diplomat Flavio Meroni said. In Washington, President Reagan said, “I feel we have an obligation to bring her home and the others we have there. ” The sudden appearance of the 49-year- old New York woman in a Tehran revolu tionary court came on the same day Iranian authorities cleared Mohi Sobhani, 44, an Iranian-born U.S. citizen of unknown charges, then released him on $1 million bail. “He sounded great,” Sobhani’s brother, Morris, said in Santa Barbara, Calif., after receiving a phone call from Tehran announcing his brother’s ordeal was over. Sobhani’s sister said about ”$1 million” in bail was raised by her brother’s wife’s fami ly in Iran. The need for bail following aquittal and the exact nature of the two trials were two of the more murky developments in the cases of the three Americans who were kept after the release of the 52 hostages from Tehran 15 days ago. The third American prisoner still in Iran is Zia Nisri, who was born in Afghanistan and is believed to be a leader of Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion. The Swiss Foreign Ministry had no word about him Wednesday. The State Department said Swiss diplo mats, who represent American interests in Iran, had been unable to visit the two men, despite repeated requests. Swiss diplomats acompanied Mrs. Dwyer at Wednesday’s fiVk-hour hearing and said afterward the Islamic revolution ary court would announce its verdict Mon day. The Swiss Foreign Ministry reported Dwyer, who went to Iran with a press pass issued by the Erie County-, N.Y., Sheriffs Department, was “in good health and spir its.” Following the trial, she was taken back to Evin prison, where prisoners were kept during the shah’s regime. She was arrested in front of the U.S. Embassy on May 5 — 10 days after the aborted U.S. rescue raid. Tehran newspap ers immediately accused her of “collabora tion with an armed group for the release of the hostages” and “attempting to lay the groundwork for a new American attack. ” cn 5 Ul : £ b? q s2 7 i 71m o _« * .£ u. e S EO 5 ’ <*> ’xz § < @ § O l_ w « 0) , v a ® a> « aE « O o -O S - o> ’ TO <0 « ) 0) Is : tj m ; -p5 Q> £ + ! 8, Dr Dr in of It ial ly k. The newspapers said “documents pro ving her to be an American spy” were found in a Tehran Hilton hotel room, and listed further charges of “consumption of alcohol, drugs, and adultery” against the American woman. in he on tar las m. The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed Sobhani’s release and said he had rejoined his wife and child who live in Tehran. Sobhani, who emigrated to the United States in 1956, returned to Iran on an American passport to work in 1976. ed he lor- ur- gas by the