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The Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Vol. 74 No. 105
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Wednesday, February 25, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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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.”