PUF is sore spot at budget hearing
By LIZ NEWLIN
Battalion Staff
AUSTIN — Chancellor Frank W.R. Hubert boldly
asked legislators to restore his System’s budget Thurs-
I day, but tip-toed around questions about the Perma-
Jnent University Fund.
He says he can’t speculate about possiblities for the
endowment fund until constitutional questions are de
cided, then interpreted.
; On the other hand, officers for the College Station
tampus were happy with their hearing before the
judget subcommittee of the House Higher Education
Committee.
“I feel, based on their reaction, we hit most of the
mportant points,” said Howard Vestal, the Universi
ty’ vice president for business affairs and a veteran of
budget hearings. Both he and a newcomer to hearings,
■Acting President Charles Samson, were satisfied with
the hearing.
Samson and Hubert lobbied for higher faculty salar
ies, additional funds to comply with federal civil rights
standards and changing the governor’s ban on hiring
lewfaculty. They said they tried to push only what the
legislators might be receptive to, instead of asking —
igain — for the whole $289 milhon in the original
request for two-year’s funding. A House study group,
the Legislative Budget Board, trimmed about 14 per
cent ($41.4 million) from the University’s original
biennium request.
They did not mention, for instance, the LBB recom
mendation to cut $5.3 million for organized research.
“They told us to quit talking about it,” Vestal said,
adding that a few years ago the Legislature eliminated
all funds for organized research. This time the LBB
recommends about $1.9 million.
Samson explained he presented a more realistic
proposal for the University’s budget.
“We felt that (the new proposal) was what we might
like to expect,” he said.
The appearance before the budget subcommittee
was only the first of at least five hearings the System
budgets will face before the money is appropriated
sometime in early summer.
But even in the first encounter there was something
of a skirmish.
Rep. Wilhelmina Delco, an Austin Democrat, cal
led on Chancellor Hubert to help explain a recom
mended $8 million “educational excellence fund” for
Prairie View A&M during the budget presentation by
Prairie View President A. I. Thomas. The fund was
hastily added to please federal civil rights officials after
the school’s original $62.5 million request was cut by
$22 million.
All three agreed the $8 million should be used to
supplement the budget, not replace funds cut by the
LBB.
But then Delco, a long-time supporter of Prairie !
View, asked Hubert about using the Permanent Uni
versity Fund to help with work at the predominantly
black school.
None of the projects, he said, could be funded
through profits from the fund — the Available Univer
sity Fund — or through revenue bonds backed by the
fund. The Texas Constitution restricts the fund to
designated schools. The schools, however, are not
named in the Constitution, and Delco believes Prairie
View, established just 2 years after Texas A&M, is one
of the schools.
More than a year ago she asked the state attorney
general to rule on the point, and she recently intro
duced legislation to recognize Prairie View as one of
the designated schools.
If Prairie View were one of the schools, she asked
Hubert, and entitled to the AUF, could it be used to
repair and renovate at the school?
Hubert would only answer that the matter needed
more study. Later he said, “It would be very difficult
to say because of the unknown cost involved.”
Photo by Steve Erickson
Texas A&M System Chancellor Frank W.R. Hubert (left) and Prairie
View A&M President A. I. Thomas explain Prairie View’s budget request
to members of a House subcommittee on higher education Thursday in
Austin.
The Battalion
Vol. 74 No. 97
16 Pages
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Friday, February 13, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Yesterday
Today
High 47
Low 35
Rain none
High
Low
Chance of rain.
... .52
.. ..36
. none
■ ezaimi
djweycL
Energy costs
over estimates
Staff photo by Chuck Chapman
We love you, too
Someone has an unusual way of sending a Valentine: via billboard. This billboard was seen on Wellborn Road north of Texas A&M.
Errors scuttle shuttle bus request
By JOHN WEAVER
Battalion Reporter
Another 1981-82 shuttle bus request
will have to be submitted to the Finance
Committee after mathematical errors
permeated the one presented Thursday
night.
The Finance Committee heard the
shuttle bus request and requests from
two other student service fee users in
the second of four meetings to review
each user’s 1981-82 request.
The committee reviews each user’s
request before recommending fee allo
cations for the next fiscal year.
Approximately $2.2 million in stu
dent fees were collected during the
1980-81 school year; these fees will be
allocated in the 1981-82 school year. All
allotments to the nine student service
fee users will come from the collected
student service fees.
An embarrassed Donald Powell,
Texas A&M assistant director of busi
ness services, told the finance commit
tee a new shuttle bus budget would be
prepared today. Powell had given a
lengthy explanation of the shuttle bus
allocation request before being in
formed by several committee members
that portions of the request were in
error.
“You mean we’ve goofed up,” Powell
said. “Well, that’s what I get for not
checking the figures.”
Powell’s budget added $71,440 too
much to planned shuttle bus service in
come by miscalculating the revenue
from shuttle bus passes and coupons and
by adding, instead of subtracting, pass
and coupon refunds to the income total.
Powell had listed the total income,
with the $169,000 allocation request
from student fees, at $833,620. The cor
rect income total was $762,180. The
estimated expenses for the shuttle bus
service also was misadded.
Powell had to renege on an earlier
statement that he anticipated no in
crease in the cost of shuttle bus passes or
coupons. This statement was based on a
projected shuttle bus service deficit of
$25,151, which Powell said would be
made up by a “reserve fund.”
After calculating with the correct in
come and expense totals that the service
would suffer a deficit of $46,440, he
changed his mind.
“Boy, we’re in a lot of trouble now,”
he explained to the committee. “Look
ing at the figures. I’d say we will have to
go up one dollar, at least, on the shuttle
bus passes.
“But that is still pretty cheap trans
portation.”
The current cost of a shuttle bus pass
is $38.
The intramural department submit
ted two figures for committee consider
ation.
Director Dennis Corrington’s re
quest represents an increase of either 45
percent or 51.3 percent over last year’s
allocation.
Corrington’s request depends on the
size of the student worker pay hike. One
figure includes an anticipated 9.2 per
cent pay raise which state employees
might receive in September; the other
figure does not. Both figures include the
Legislature’s recent 5.1 percent pay
raise.
The Department of Intramural Athle
tics received $379,781 for the 1980-81
school year and is now asking for either
$551,094 or $574,461.
Bob Rogers, chairman of the Student
Publications Board, requested $34,000,
a $2,000 increase over last year’s alloca
tion, in student service fees.
Rogers said that this amount is based
on $1 per student and will be used to
help pay circulation costs of The Batta
lion.
The recommendation requires the
approval of the student senate; Dr. John
Koldus, vice president for student ser
vices; Acting President Charles Samson
and the Board of Regents.
By CINDY GEE
Battalion Staff
The gas station is not the only place
that Texas A&M University students
will be paying more for gas — dorm
fees, dining hall fees and many other
fees will increase in September due to
rising natural gas prices.
Texas A&M, unlike many other uni
versities, generates its own electricity
and steam to heat buildings and water
by burning natural gas. Therefore, as
natural gas costs increase as they have
from $2.45 per million BTUs in 1979 to
$2.70 this month, virtually all of the
University’s energy costs increase.
Rep. Bill Presnal of Bryan has intro
duced a supplemental appropriations
bill to pay the additional costs of purch
ased utilities at Texas A&M and Texas
Tech.
Every two years the state Legislature
appropriates money to the University
based on its projected needs. At the
start of the past two legislative sessions
many state institutions have had to ask
the legislature for more money to pay
for utilities, said Presnal aide Nathan
Rheinlander.
Texas A&M, including the Moody
College branch at Galveston, is asking
for $950,120, and Texas Tech is asking
for $430,000 to help pay for its projected
utility bills.
“We don’t owe anything now,” said
Howard Vestal, Texas A&M vice presi
dent for business affairs, “but before the
end of August we will have spent all the
money that the Legislature appropri
ated for us. We won’t have enough to
S ick up the tab, but only for about 20
ays, if we’re projecting right. ”
It’s a fairly routine procedure, Rhein
lander said. Legislators realize that peo
ple don’t come to the Legislature lightly
with these bills; they’re really feeling
the crush.
Presnal’s bill, which only applies to
the end of this fiscal year, is scheduled
to appear before the appropriations
committee Tuesday. The bill is de
signed to cover the needs of all the
schools that need additional money.
Rheinlander said it was introduced as a
vehicle bill because they are waiting to
hear from other universities.
The money that the state may
appropriate would revert back to the
state if the schools don’t use all of it. This
money is not transferable, Vestal said.
The schools couldn’t use if for anything
except utility bills.
Texas A&M officials are in Austin
now with their request for money for
fiscal years 1982 and ’83. The initial re
quest for 1981 was $12,426,748. The
request for 1982 is $15,094,700 and for
1983 the University is requesting
$19,113,000. These figures show the
University is predicting a 22 percent
increase in its budget for next year, and
a 27 percent increase between 1982 and
83.
However, state tax money will not be
making up all of the energy cost in
creases. Vestal said there are many faci
lities on campus that do not receive state
support such as dormitories, dining
halls, the bookstore, the printing opera
tion, and campus apartments. All of
these facilities are charged by the Uni
versity for their electricity.
Therefore these facilities will see a
significant increase in their bills also,
Vestal said.
Today in SCONA...
The 1981 MSC Student Conference
on National Affairs concludes Saturday
at Texas A&M University. Internation
ally known leaders from academia, busi
ness and politics at the three-day affair
are addressing the topic: “International
Society in Transition.”
Speakers at sessions today and Satur
day are:
— Dr. Peter T. Bauer, chairman of
the Department of Economics at the
London School of Economics and Poli
tical Science and Dr. Douglas Bennet
Jr., former administrator at the Agency
for International Development in
Washington, D.C., debating at 10 a.m.
in Rudder Theater.
— Dr. Fred R. Glahe, professor of
Economics at the University of Colora
do at Boulder giving the closing presen
tation Saturday at 11 a.m. in 224 MSC.
The public is invited to attend.
Technology should be shared
Rich need to help the poor
By SUSAN DITTMAN
Battalion Reporter
Lesser developed countries of the
third world should be taught how they
can develop a high technology of their
own, Edgar Owens, development
Edgar Owens
officer of Appropriate Technology In
ternational, said Thursday.
Owens addressed a crowd of about
350 in Rudder Theater as part of the
1981 MSC Student Conference on Na
tional Affairs at Texas A&M Univer
sity.
Owens said most of the industrial
technology offered to the developing
countries comes from multinational
corporations. To some extent, he said,
the corporations take advantage of
these countries.
“The developing countries are real
ly quite mad at us (the rich countries),”
Owens said. “I tend to be sympathetic
with some of the complaints that come
from developing countries. ” They only
get a small percent of the profits made
by the corporations, he said.
Owens said lesser developed coun
tries have the same desire to get rich as
the people in more developed coun
tries. That is why they “hook up” with
multi-national corporations, he said.
Owens said rich countries such as the
United States do 90 percent of the re
search and development of high tech
nology.
If the developing countries are go
ing to learn how to develop high tech
nology on their own, he said, more of
the research needs to be done in their
own countries.
Owens also said the relationship be
tween the poor and the educated, who
are trying to help the lesser developed
countries, needs to be recognized.
The poor, he said, have some say in
what they are willing to pay for and
what they are willing to work for. He
used an example of a village in Thailand
whose water was dirty and hard to get.
When a sanitary engineer developed a
water faucet system they could use for
little less than $1 per year, the villagers
would not use it because they thought
it was too expensive and they relied on
water gathering as a chance to social
ize, he said.
The engineer then rigged up a water
pump system which could be used for
less than one cent per year, Owens
said. The village people were pleased
with this because it fit into their price
range and also allowed them to social
ize, he said.
Owens said the educated have
learned that they have to listen to the
people they are trying to help.
By DANA SMELSER
Battalion Reporter
Some of the world’s energy shortage
could be solved if the developed na
tions would help the Third World
countries develop their natural re
sources, a professor of energy and re
sources said Thursday.
John Holdren, addressing an enthu
siastic crowd of about 350 attending
Texas A&M’s 26th Student Conference
on National Affairs, said the rich coun
tries only give .3 percent of their gross
national products to help the underde
veloped countries.
Seventy-five percent of the world is
in poverty, he said, and 85 percent of
the world’s technology is being used
for the improvement of the countries
that are already rich.
The less developed countries are
frustrated from the conflicts over in
dustrial nations attempting to raise
their stanadard of living by acquiring
more resources, he said. This is a driv
ing force of the world-wide arms race,
Holdren said.
“Nuclear weapons will not save the
rich countries,” he said. “The real
question is whether the rich catch on in
time.”
The world is not running out of ener
gy, Holdren said. It just needs to effi
ciently utilize the resources it does
have.
Oil and gas reserves may last only 12
years, he said, but enough coal exists to
last 100 years. Metals and solar energy
have use far beyond this, he added.
Many underdeveloped countries
have a small, but significant amount of
oil and gas resources for future energy,
Holdren said. The problem is the lack
of money and technical skills to de
velop the extraction and use of these
resources, he said.
For exploration in the sea and in
space, the countries should use the
“football draft principal,” he said.
Those who have had losing seasons as
far as the development of resources,
should have the first-round draft for
the choice of desirable areas of explo
ration, he explained.
John Holdren