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approves fee increases
By JANE G. BRUST
Battalion Staff
■ A 20 percent increase in dormitory room rates at Texas
l&M University was approved without discussion Monday
b\ a committee of the Board of Regents.
The new rates, recommended by the Committee for
ademic Campuses and expected to be approved at today’s
11 Board meeting, will be effective with the fall semester.
The committee was to make a formal recommendation to
the Board for final approval today. The recommended in
ease would raise the rates of all residence halls per semester
follows:
crGroup I dorms — non-air, with phones, includes Hart,
iw, Puryear and Walton halls — from $219 to $263.
cr Group II dorms — air-conditioned, with phones, in-
ludes Corps dorms 1-12 and Crocker, Davis-Gary, Moore,
.iloses and Hotard halls — from $353 to $424 (except Hotard,
Hhich rises from $193 to $424).
I cr Group III dorms — air-conditioned suites — includes
1 fowler, Hughes, Keathley, Mclnnis, Schumacher halls —
Kom $389 to $467.
I cr Group IV dorms — air-conditioned, remodeled — in
cludes Legett Hall — from $408 to $490.
cr Group V dorms — new modulars, includes Haas,
McFadden, Neeley and Hobby halls and new modulars A and
B — from $523 to $628.
cr Group VI dorms — Commons Area, includes Krueger,
Dunn, Mosher and Aston halls — from $546 to $655.
Howard Vestal, University vice president for business
affairs, told committee members this is an “unusually high”
increase and the University has never before had an increase
of this magnitude.
Vestal said the increase is due primarily to necessary salary
increases for staff associated with the residence hall system.
The state legislature mandated a 5.1 percent emergency pay
raise effective Feb. 1, and there is a possibility of a 14.6
percent pay reuse.
The proposed 1981-82 budget for residence hall accounts
reflects a 22 percent increase in salaries, from $496,067 for
1980-81 to the requested $603,434.
Vestal said another factor in the dorm room rate increase is
the increased cost of utilities. The proposed budget shows a
26 percent increase in utility costs, from $2,964,458 to
$3,722,144.
Programs concerning dormitory administration reflect a 31
percent increase from $953,241 to $1,250,000. A plan to
computerize housing office operations would be funded
under this budget category.
The written proposal of the 20 percent rate increase ex
plained that funds must also be generated to pay the debt
service on bonds sold to finance construction of the two new
modular dorms.
Jack Teague, executive assistant to Vestal, said the prop
osed total debt service figure for 1981-82 is $2,996,488, a34.6
percent increase from 1980-81’s figure of $2,203,182.
Teague said this increase is definitely a part of the 20
percent room rate increase.
Another fee increase approved by the committee would
raise the married student housing rental rates by an average of
12.3 percent. The following increases would apply to speci
fied housing units:
cr Southside, three bedroom — from $187 to $210.
cr Southside, one bedroom — from $121 to $136.
cr Hensel Terrace — from $142 to $160.
or College View — from $196 to $220.
or College Avenue, one bedroom — from $196 to $220.
cr College Avenue, two bedroom — from $224 to $251.
All University-owned student apartments are furnished,
with the exception of the new Avenue A apartments. Rates for
those new apartments will remain at $224.
Other fee changes approved by the committee are as fol
lows:
or Board plans, an 8.9 percent increase:
— Five-day plan — from $462 to $503.
— Seven-day plan — from $517 to $563.
or Shuttle bus fees, five percent increase:
— Individual student — from $38 to $40.
— Student and spouse — from $55 to $58.
— Faculty/staff member — from $50 to $53.
The committee will also recommend a 10.2 percent in
crease in laundry fees, from $63.50 to $70, and an increase in
ROTC uniform rental fees for drill and ceremonies cadets,
from $125 per year to $150.
Another recommendation will seek to eliminate the $4
ROTC uniform handling fee. The Department of Defense
permits the University to use a percentage of total annual
uniform payments to provide special uniforms for the Corps of
Cadets which were previously financed by the uniform hand-
ling fees.
Battalion
tm Vol. 74 No. 119
12 Pages
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Tuesday, March 24, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High
72 High
73
Low
51 Low
52
Chance of rain.
none Chance of rain. . . .
. . . 20%
"DOLL
DAYS YOU!
NICKEL BEE
DAY!
r Our
VII Day
$1,001
yclotron plan
yed by Board
By JANE G. BRUST
Battalion Staff
Texas A&M University System re
gents on the Planning and Building
tommittee Monday approved an
Appropriation of $135,000 for the pre-
Tminary design of the Cyclotron expan
sion.
The committee was to recommend
lie appropriation to the full Board for
ifinal approval today.
I The proposed appropriation from the
Available University Fund would sup
plement previous appropriations of
165,000.
I Dr. Dave H. Youngblood of the Cyc
lotron Institute told Board members the
xpansion will give the laboratory the
pability to do research that is “un-
Inatched anywhere else in the world.”
He also said all precautions against
diation leakage were taken in the
rawings presented by Earl Alexander
f Walter P. Moore and Associates.
The expansion will include a cooling
tower constructed into the existing sys
tem which will function uninterrupted
during the remaining construction
period. Also in the expanded area will
be a new high bay area, a helium cooling
system and equipment rooms.
Estimated cost of the expansion con
struction is $3 million; estimated cost of
equipment is $5 million.
The committee also reviewed a deci
sion made Sunday to reject all bids re
ceived for the Meat Science and Tech
nology Center. Because the estimated
cost of the project exceeds the low bid
by $600,000, the design will be revised
and a new bid submitted at the May
Board meeting.
In other action, the Committee for
Academic Campuses approved a re
vised academic organization for Prairie
View A&M University. The organiza
tional structure scheduled to be recom
mended to the full Board today will not
designate specific departments in the
agriculture, home economics and nurs
ing colleges.
Signs of the times
Campaign signs for spring elections are popping up all over campus.
Voting for Student Government and other campus organizations will
Staff photo by Chuck Chapman
be March 31-April 1. The Battalion will have a special election tabloid
on March 30 listing the candidates who have filed for offices.
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-vledgement 1
imiting of enrollment is Hydra-like problem
Crowded classes, dorms and not enough faculty worry administrators seeking solution
By BELINDA McCOY
Battalion SVTAFF
Crowded classrooms, cramped living facilities and an over-
vorked faculty are what can happen when a university re-
icives an higher-than-expected enrollment increase.
When Texas A&M University had an unplanned-for burst
n enrollment last fall, it experienced some of those problems
as a result.
Now th University administration is considering the possi-
lility of having to limit enrollment to the University in the
uture, said Dr. Charles E. McCandless, associate vice presi
dent for academic affairs.
McCandless is researching the need to limit enrollment by
studying the problems created by an overcrowded University
population and the problems that would be created if a limit
as placed on enrollment.
“Were going to have to do something to relieve some of the
Pressure. Whether that means hiring more faculty, providing
buildings, limiting enrollment — something needs to
done to provide relief,” McCandless said.
The Board of Regents will have to make the final decision—
upon an administration recommendation — to limit enroll-
to Texas A&M, McCandless said.
Just how enrollment would be limited would also have to be
the decision of the Board. That decision would be based on
information and recommendations from the admissions de
partment, said Dr. Bill G. Lay, director of admissions.
Limiting enrollment to the University could create several
problems.
Since Texas / A&M is a state-funded institution, theoretical
ly every taxpayer’s child should have an opportunity to
more
be
ment
attend, McCandless explained. Limiting enrollment by rais
ing the already high entrance requirements could be consi
dered discrimination against those students who would other
wise be granted admission.
Also, sometimes when an institution limits enrollment,
McCandless said, the limiting has a reverse effect. More
students apply for admission, and the qualifications of those
students are more competitive. Prospective students view
the standards as an indicator of a school’s scholastic excell
ence.
“It has to do with prestige,” McCandless said.
The rapid growth rate has created several problems for the
University.
The biggest problem, McCandless said, is providing suffi
cient facilities such as classroom space to keep up with the
sudden rapid growth rate, and also finding enough new facul
ty members.
McCandless said that funding for new faculty is not as much
of a problem as simply finding people to hire.
The salaries that industries are now providing their em
ployees are in many cases better than the salaries that univer
sities can offer, McCandless said, so universities are losing
faculty to industry.
“The money being available for faculty and being able to
hire new faculty don’t always go hand-in-hand,” he said.
The number of students enrolled in the University is not
the only thing increasing, McCandless said. Research is also
increasing.
“In 1971, we were doing $30 million worth of funded
research. Last year it was in excess of $71 million. When you
have that much research, you’ve got to provide laboratories.
you’ve got to provide technicians, you’ve got to provide re
searchers. So we’re not only growing enrollment-wise, we’re
also growing as far as our research volume is concerned, ” said
McCandless.
The administration had expected 700 new students to en
roll last fall, but instead 2,100 new students enrolled.
McCandless said the increase could have been a result of
more transfer students and old students returning, instead of
more freshmen than anticipated.
Fewer 18-year-olds — and a natural leveling off of enroll
ment — had been expected for the early 1980s as a result of
the early-1960’s baby boom tapering off, McCandless said.
“Right now we’re sort of waiting to see if it (the rapid
growth) is going to continue,” McCandless said. “We thought
that wben we reached the point where there were a fewer
number of high school graduates, it would take a lot of the
pressure off as far as our enrollment growth. ”
“There’s not one neat, perfect answer (to how to limit
enrollment). If there were, we’d all be using it,” McCandless
said. “This sounds terrible, but it’s true. We really hope that
our expectations would be met, that there would be a natural
leveling off, without having to impose artificial restrictions.”
Lay suggested several methods that could be used to limit
enrollment.
“The only way to limit enrollment would be to have a
certain deadline for applying and select from that group based
on whatever criteria you wanted to use,” Lay said.
After that, selection could be made on a first-come-first-
served basis, or on the basis of the strictly best qualified
applicants, Lay said.
The combination of academic qualifications and activity
records could be made stiffer than it already is. Using this
method, some applicants would be chosen by best results on
certain tests and some would be chosen by the combination of
average grades and test scores and outstanding activity re
cords.
The University’s retention program could also be tight
ened, McCandless said. But most deans think it is already
tightened sufficiently, he said.
Lay said, “We think it’s good (the present retention prog
ram). We have about 80 percent of our freshman students
come back for the next fall semester.”
Entrance requirements could be raised, but administrators
are reluctant to consider it.
“It’s a reseasonable standard, I think. It’s not as high as
some of the ‘elite’ schools may say they’ve got. But for a public
institution, it’s the highest in the state,” Lay said.
“If we raised our entrance standards,” McCandless said,
“we’d have to change them quite a bit to make any significant
difference.”
Last fall, he said, over 70 percent of the entering freshmen
were in the top quarter of their class.
“The average SAT score was something like 1,024,”
McCandless said. “We feel that our entrance standards are
reasonable.”
McCandless said his research will be complete on the issue
by September. Recommendations will then be made on the
decision of whether to limit enrollment.
“It’s a very complex issue,” McCandless said, “and whatev
er you decide has far-reaching ramifications. You really have
to decide if you’re gaining more than you’re losing, or losing
more than you’re gaining.”
> sponsored by)«
aid’s ® Restaurant!
)rive and the \l£>'
lories by John
by Dav id EinselH
Solidarity leaders call
for new protest strikes
amural Frisbee
United Press International
BYDGOSZCZ. Poland Leaders
of the 10 million-member Solidarity
union called today for a warning strike
Friday followed by a general strike
next Tuesday that will destroy the
labor peace the Polish government
sought and Moscow demanded.
With only two opposed and six ab
staining, 33 members of the 41-
ntember national leadership voted for
foe work stoppages to protest a bloody
police assault last week on Solidarity
members in Bydgoszcz.
National leader I^ech Walesa had
urged caution on calling mass strikes
and stalked out of the session that be
gan Monday and finished at 3 a.m.
today. When today’s session opened,
he stayed away until the vote on strike
dates was taken.
The vote setting a stoppage of two
or four hours on Friday and the full-
scale walkout next Tuesday had been
postponed until after a break for the
tired delegates, ending a stormy 10-
hour Monday session.
The union leadership drew up a
seven-point resolution, which in
cluded the strike dates accepted to
day, during Monday’s emergency ses
sion called to decide their next move
to counter the government’s defense
of the beatings.
The resolution, which Walesa had
to support when he found himself
almost alone in advising caution, cal
led for a two-or four-hour nationwide
warning strike Friday, followed by a
general strike of unspecified duration
four days later.
Walesa had pleaded for moderation
to avoid a foil confrontation with the
government, warning “rumors have
reached me that a state of emergency
could be introduced tomorrow. ’
Origin of fish pennant a mystery
By CINDY GEE
Battalion Staff
Where is Sherlock Holmes when you need him?
The elaborate Texas A&M University fish of ’25
pennant hangs in the cadet guard room as a reminder
that the Corps remains “the founders of traditions and
the keepers of spirit.” But no one knows the history
behind the pennant.
In 1977, Lewis Cheek, Class of’43, was staying at a
motel managed by Myrtle Minor in Many, La.
“I was on a business trip there,” Cheek said. “Mrs.
Minor asked who had the car with the A&M stickers on
it. She wanted to make sure I was an Aggie. She said
she had something she wanted to show me.”
Minor gave the pennant to Cheek who promised it
would go to the Corps of Cadets.
No one knows how the pennant came into the now-
deceased mother’s posession, not even the daughters.
The unusually large pennant appliqued with a gold
eagle bearing a red, white and blue shield, and a fish
with the number 25 on it was found neatly folded in an
attic chest.
“I have no idea how it came into Mama’s posession, ”
Myrtle Minor said. “The only time Mama was in Texas
was when she was a child. They went by covered
wagon through Texas. No one in the family went to
Texas A&M.”
Minor said her mother was a school teacher. She
said her father died in 1922, but her mother would
have been too old to have a boyfriend out of the class of
1925. Her mother would have been in her 50s around
1925, Minor said.
“I have searched my brain to think of someone I
could ask,” she said, “but no one is alive that would
know. It’s always been a big mystery to me. I started to
throw it away, but I just couldn’t do it. ”
Paul Washburn, a member of the Class of‘25, said
he didn’t remember ever seeing the pennant.
“Back in those days it was pretty hard to think of
ways to make a little extra money,” Washburn said.
“There were two ways: to design and sell items like
pennants, or to work as a waiter in the dining hall. At
least one guy in every dorm sold pennants, because
the wage on campus was 25 cents an hour.”
Washbum examined the pennant and noted that
most of the pennants made back then were smaller.
He said the eagle is unusual and the pennant has more
design than most had.
George Lewis, Class of ‘24, designed pennants
while he was a student at Texas A&M. He designed a
pennant quoting then Head Football Coach D.X. Bi
ble saying, “There shall be no regrets.”
After hearing a description of the fish of‘25 pennant,
Lewis joked, “That sounds like a University of Texas
pennant; they thought they had to be fancy.”
Washbum said most of the pennants were bought
simply as personal items; they weren’t usually given as
awards. Many times the designer would sell about 20
chances at a dime each and raffle them off, he said.
Lewis said he made several thousand dollars selling
his college momentos.
We had a captive audience. My subcommisioners,
the top sergeants, sold them for me when they in
spected rooms. They’d go around at night with the
pennants on their arms, and they’d sell like hotcakes.”