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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 1981)
er <1TCU^ lld roll ton The Battalion Serving the Texas A&M University community Vol. 74 No. 105 toil | 14 Pages "Texas),Hu ’ points ui;, Arkansas is i; ming sliest k particulj, Hasting Wednesday, February 25, 1981 College Station, Texas USPS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 [ The Weather Yesterday Today High 78 High .. .80 Low 49 Low .. .62 | Rain ..... Chance of rain . . 20% Mice on ( ng strealtil, ie conferee ^ haveliaiii •’played out Mencefor® :an winbign eone prod*. »tt has loin intheconft • ••III ions Fees could go up $7 instead of $1 By BERNIE FETTE Battalion Staff Texas A&M students are now faced with the prospect of a $7 (20.9 percent) increase in their student service fees next semester. After agreeing Saturday on a recom mended $1 increase in student service fees, from $33.50 to $34.50 per semes ter, the Student Government Finance Committee Tuesday voted to recom mend an increase to $40.50. Misunderstandings between be tween the committee and Dr. John Kol- dus, vice president for student services, forced the recommended increase after errors were discovered in the initial re commendation figures, Tracy Cox, vice I • • III president for finance, said. “What it boils down to is a big mis understanding,” Cox said. “I guess it was just a big mistake.” a big mistake." The committee originally recom mended a $1 increase to $34.50 Satur day when it met to recommend alloca tions to each of ten student service fee users. Using the $34.50 figure, the commit tee came up with a total of $2,622,000 in available funds. Of that amount, $2,570,136 would have been allocated to the fee users for the 1981-82 school year and $51,864 would have been left in the reserve fund to be used for emergency expenses. But two errors were made in reaching that total. First, the estimated number of stu dents used by the committee came from Koldus, who knew the number included an estimated number of summer school students. The committee didn’t know. Also, Cox said the committee assumed that all students pay the same $33.50 student service fee. But they don’t. Students pay a different amount proportional to their class load, with a maximum of $33.50 per semester. As a result, Cox said by changing the maximum to $40.50, the total amount collected would be $2,602,000. The only difference resulting from the change would be a reserve fund which contained $20,000 less than ori ginally planned, he said. “This is probably going to make the committee look bad,” Cox said. “But everything will work out.” If approved by the student senate, the committee’s recommendations will go to Koldus, to Acting President Charles Samson and the Board of Re gents for approval. Cox said that although the population of the university is increasing, it is in creasing at a slower rate than before. “But still, in my eyes, student service fees have inevitably got to go up,” he said. In its hearing held in closed session Saturday, the committee voted to allo cate less than the amount requested by each user except Student Publications, which received its entire request. “Not everyone can have everything they want, is what it boils down to, ” Cox said. Living with animals a status, ’student says By GWEN HAM Battalion Reporter A fishing pole stands in the corner, a tin coffee pot is on the )umer and horses neigh gently outside the door of the bunk- louse at tlie Texas A&M University Horse Center where two Students live. Walter Fuermann and Dave Holstford, both animal science najors, are among the chosen few who get to live in a barn for ooking after and feeding around 120 horses and paying $15 a month rent. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it,” Fuermann said dur ing an interview. “It gets real old because, since you’re right jiere, you never can just come home and relax without some- >ne poppin’ in. But it’s kind of a status thing. All the animal cience majors want to live out here.” Fuermann, a three semester veteran, said that he had tlways loved horses, even though he’s from Houston, and just lappened to need a place to stay when someone was needed at the center. “I used to take care of my neighbor’s horses when I was 'ounger,” he said, “so I knew a little about them. I feel like how I’m getting two majors because I’m learning so much. ” Even though the room has modem conveniences like a bathroom, heating, cooling, two desks and bunk beds, it’s still pretty basic. The floor is cement and the walls are brick. This can be an advantage though. Last semester when we got ready to clean our room, we |ust emptied the dead mice from the dresser drawers, moved Everything out and hosed'it down with water,” Fuermann said. The men are allowed to cook in their room but don’t be cause of lack of time, space and equipment, Fuermann said. They both eat in Sbisa Dining Hall. Other animal centers at A&M used to have men living in bams but the Poultry Center and the Sheep Center no longer do because they don’t have a place suitable anymore. Bill Stone, a veterinarian student, lives at the Equestrian Center. Gerald Popp, Bob Jones and Andy Hollaway, all senior animal science majors reside at the Swine Center but not in a bam. They live in a room, complete with a small kitchen and walk-in closet, in the main center. The room is so small though that they eat on their desks, there is no room for a kitchen table. Graduate student Keith Hayden also lives at the center but has his own room. “When I tell people where I live, they just kind of look at me and say, ‘Oh’,” Popp said. “What’s really funny is when we go to Skaggs and give a check. They ask where we live and it’s hard to explain that we live at the Swine Center,” he said. The three seniors pay a small undisclosed amount of rent and oversee the center at night and work during the day, said p opp. “We always get questions on how we stand the smell,” Popp said. “It’s not the swine center but the sewer odor from across the road that bothers us. To us, the pigs smell like money.” Popp, along with his roommates, has lived at the center for two years. He claims it is the social spot of the animal science department. “People come out of their way to come out here,” he said. The Corps is always coming out here looking for pig manure so they can quad somebody with it. “This is the good life,” Popp said. Staff photo by Brian Tate Up, up and away! Dr. Richard Morse takes the Tex as A&M emblem high in the sky on his hot-air balloon. Morse, a pe troleum engineering professor, has had the balloon for almost two years and finds it a great escape from his routine. Texas A&M has new lobbyists in Austin %G. forms own lobby group Alumni hire new lobbyist By TERRY DURAN Battalion Staff A Student Government lobbying group is gathering student input while waiting for bills to be filed in the Legisl- iture that would affect Texas A&M stu dents — and their pocketbooks. David Collins, external affairs vice 'resident, oversaw the passage of a stu- lent senate bill Feb. 18 that officially set ip a lobby group for Texas A&M stu- lents in the Legislature. Funds for gas noney and some expenses were set side in summer budget planning ses- ions, he said. Last year, the Texas A&M student enate withdrew from the Texas Stu- lent Association, which is supposed to ^present Texas student interests in the legislature. Student body president Brad Smith Hid, “We wanted to lobby in areas diere e felt we weren’t being repre- ented by the TSA, so we pulled out, eeping an eye on an option like this.” Activity of the student lobby group is taiited to gathering information right 'Ow, Collins said, because some bills baling with issues pertinent to college Indents have yet to be filed in the Leg- >lature. Legislators have until March 3—60 days after the beginning of the sssion — to introduce their bills. The lobbying group has 21 members, Ithough only four will actively be lob bying in Austin: Collins, Smith, senator [Scott Hall and Class of ’83 president dike Lawshe. The other members will Support the lobby effort by doing leg work and research, Collins said. Collins said there are several issues the lobby group would concentrate on. One would be how the Permanent Uni versity Fund is apportioned, and who gets it. The current setup gives two- thirds of the Available Fund — pro ceeds from bond sales on money in the PUF — to the University of Texas sys tem, and one-third to the Texas A&M University system. Collins said Wilhelmina Delco, chairman of the Legislature’s commit tee on higher education, will probably push for Prairie View A&M to receive 16 percent “off the top” of the Available Fund, and the remaining amount to be divided up in the previous ratio be tween the UT and Texas A&M systems. This reapportionment would de crease the UT system’s share from 66% to 56%, and Texas A&M’s part from 33% to 28%. “I would assume,” Collins said, “that we’ll be against that.” Another issue Collins said the lob byists would probably target is raising tuition fees. The actual cost of putting one student through one semster hour at Texas A&M is $97.50, Collins said, but tuition at state-supported schools is only $4. Collins said Delco and other legislators will probably push for at least a doubling of tuition to reduce the amount that must be subsidized by the state. He said there are also those who support having the student pay 10 per cent of the educational cost, which would put tuition on a sliding scale de pendent on inflation and other econo mic factors. By BELINDA McCOY Battalion Staff In an effort to protect the Permanent University Fund, the Association of Former Students at Texas A&M Uni versity has hired an Austin lobbyist to represent the System in the Texas Leg islature, said James Moore, president of the association. Robert Johnson of Austin has been hired on behalf of Texas A&M to protect its interest in the Permanent University Fund — the University’s biggest asset, Moore said. The PUF is the constitutionally man dated and protected endowment of 2.1 million acres that contain oil and gas in West Texas. Money from the PUF is invested and the return on that invest ment is known as the Available Univer sity Fund. Two-thirds of the AUF goes to the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System receives the other third. In addition to the AUF, the two sys tems are allowed to utilize the PUF money through 20 percent bonds against the fund. A constitutional amendment has been written to raise that bonding to 30 percent. The amendment would also allow other schools within the two sys tems to utilize money from the fund, not just the University of Texas and the Texas A&M campuses. “Currently the fund can be used only for new construction (by the other schools). The amendment contemplates not only new construction, but repairs and rehabilitation,” Johnson said in a speech to the Association of Former Students. Johnson will work with jobbyists from the UT System to get the amend ment passed by the Legislature and put before the voters, he said in a telephone interview. At the present, Robert Cherry, assis tant chancellor and secretary to the Board of Regents, represents the Texas A&M System in Austin when necessary. However, Moore said the former stu dents association envisions possible cri ticism of this arrangement in the future because Cherry is employed by a state institution. Cherry’s function in Austin, Moore said, could be mistaken to be that of a lobbyist — trying to influence legislation. “It is not appropriate for state em ployees on state time ... to talk to the state Legislature to attempt to influence legislation while using state funds,” Moore said. “It’s like bribing a jury.” Cherry said he does not consider bim- self a lobbyist, and does not try to influ ence legislation. “I try to project myself as a professor or educator, (not a lobbyist),” said Cher ry. “I try to provide information that the members of the Legislature need to know.” If someone decided to take action against state employees’ speaking to members of the Legislature — the way Cherry does — then Texas A&M and the PUF would be left without repre sentation in Austin, Moore said. “We don’t want to be left out in the cold,” said Moore. “We hired Johnson “The other schools en dorse the PUF. They realize there's not enough money if the PUF is spread all over to every school in Texas. They don't want to bust •m yy it up. . . for the purpose of protecting the trust fund, which is Texas A&M’s biggest asset.” Johnson said he and Cherry have been working together in Austin, and that Johnson’s employment did not mean the former students association was dissatisfied with Cherry’s work. “It was never even discussed. I think I’m just another hired hand to help carry out the wishes of the Board of Regents,” he said. “My job is to help plan strategy to get the Legislature to pass the amendment and to help protect the PUF.” “We want to make sure our people are staying in touch with what’s happen ing in Austin,” said Jim Jeter, assistant executive director of the Association of Former Students.“We want to keep up with what’s happening with the PUF. 'We feel like we would be getting straight information from (Johnson).” Other state schools want part of the PUF, said Jack Fritts, president-elect of the former students association. “Historically, about every two years the other schools try to get part of the PUF,” he said. Johnson was hired, Fritts said, to protect Texas A&M against that. However, Johnson said the other state schools do not actually want part of the PUF, but they would like for the Legislature to set up an endowment for them similar to the PUF. Johnson said he has had some discussion with legisla tors about such a fund. “The other schools endorse the PUF. They realize there’s not enough money if the PUF is spread all over to every school in Texas. They don’t want to bust it up ... With that attitude we should be able to provide them with some fund ing,” Johnson said. When asked what he thinks of the former students association’s hiring of Johnson, Cherry said, “I think it’s great. Bob Johnson is known to be a great lob byist.” “He’s the most effective lobbyist in Austin,” said Moore of Johnson. “He’s the fastest gun in town.”