he Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Wednesday, April 8, 1981
College Station, Texas
Vote in today’s runoff elections
Student lobby groups
work to kill tuition bill
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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By TERRY DURAN
Battalion StafF
Deliberations continue in Austin on legislation to double
college tuition rates. However, Texas A&M officials are not as
gloomy as some think they should be.
Efforts are underway by lobbyists from several student
groups to prevent two bills that would raise tuition from
getting out of committee. Six of the 11 senate committee
members would have to vote against the bill to kill it in
committee; so far, four senators have voiced opposition.
The Texas Student Lobby, an independent student group
headquartered in Austin, is encouraging students to appear at
the house committee meeting April 13 to testify against the
bill.
Senate Bill 925, now under consideration by the senate
higher education committee, is scheduled to be heard by the
full senate April 25. The measure would raise in-state under
graduate tuition from $4 to $8 per semester credit hour;
out-of-state tuition would jump from $40 to $80 per credit
hour.
In-state medical school tuition would jump from $400 to
$3,600 per 12-month academic year, while resident dental
students will have to pay $2,500 a year—up from $400 a year.
Rep. Bo Crawford of Beaumont has introduced a similar
bill, HB 2221, into the state House of Representatives. The
House higher education committee will hold its first hearings
on the bill April 13. The hearing is open to the public.
“Anybody can testify,” TSL member Amy Johnson told
The Battalion Tuesday. “The more people that show up, the
better we can show opposition to the bills.”
Johnson said she anticipates “a lot of students from all over
the state” at the hearing.
Sources in the state capital say the pivotal senate commit
tee members are Lindon Williams of Houston, E. L. Short of
Lubbock and Kent Caperton of College Station.
Caperton Tuesday in a telephone interview;
“I think we should pass a tuition increase only as a last
resort. I am proud that we are able to offer students a relative
ly inexpensive education, but you have to look at the total
picture to be realistic.”
Texas resident students now pay only 4.4 percent of their
educational costs through tuition, down from 15.8 percent in
1957, when tuition was a flat $50 per semester.
Caperton said he had not decided whether he would vote
to kill the bill in committee. “We’ll just have to wait and see,”
he said.
Some sources predict a significant drop in enrollment if
Texas tuition is doubled in addition to President Ronald
Reagan’s proposed $9.2 billion cutback in federal student aid
over the next five years.
However, several Texas A&M officials disagree.
Texas A&M presidential assistant Maylon Southerland is
one of them. “We don’t anticipate an enrollment decline at
A&M,” he said. “The quality of the academic program and the
overall image of the University make it a positive place that
people want to attend. The problem will be dealing with
continued growth.”
Southerland said he thought the increase for the average
in-state student, from about $60 (the fee for 15 credit hours) to
about $120, “would not be huge.
“Certain costs just have to be passed along to the student,”
he said. “I don’t think we are pricing ourselves out of the
market.”
Business Affairs Vice President Howard L. Vestal agrees.
“I don’t think the tuition will change one thing as far as
enrollment goes,” he said. “There may be a few hundred that
have real financial problems, but I don’t think there will be a
significant impact.”
Students must re-pay
loans, sooner or later
@1
H
Is that a block or a tackle?
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
ER
%
Former Aggie basketball player David Goff is
blocked by Oiler tight end Mike Barber as quar
terback Gifford Neilsen (13) looks on. The Aggie
team, made of former Texas A&M players and
other area players and coaches, played an ex
hibition game with members of the Houston Oil
er football team. The game was sponsored by
first-year vet medicine students as a fund-raising
event.
New editors nominated
lor Aggieland, Battalion
in
Editors for the summer and fall Bat-
ion and the 1982 Aggieland were
lominated Tuesday night.
Angelique Copeland, a senior jour-
ulism major from Fort Worth, was
lominated for editor of the summer and
all Battalion. The Student Publications
Board voted five to one in favor of Cope
land for the summer Battalion and four
to two for the fall position.
Copeland was a staff reporter for The
Battalion in the spring of1979, as well as
sistant city editor in the fall of 1980
K3f
and managing editor this semester.
“I would like to see The Battalion
more responsive to students at Texas
A&M, since this is their paper,” she
said.
The other candidate was Becky
Swanson, a junior journalism from
Taylor. Swanson was managing editor
last summer and city editor last fall.
The board also nominated Diane
Yount as editor of the 1982 Aggieland.
Yount is a sophomore pre-med major
from San Antonio.
Yount was editor of the yearbook at
John Marshall high school in San An
tonio. She is currently serving as editor
of the features and women’s sports sec
tions of the 1981 Aggieland.
Yount won in a five to one vote over
Wayne Cook, who is the current editor
of the 1981 Aggieland.
The nominations will now go to J.M.
Prescot, vice president for academic
affairs, for approval.
By KATHY O’CONNELL
Battalion StafF
Students who fail to pay back loans
may think they can get away with it, but
those who do so will probably pay later
— one way or another.
There are various ways to collect
money from students who have de
faulted on loans, said Jeff Whitehurst,
assistant director of the Texas Guaran
teed Student Loan Corporation in Au
stin.
TGSLC is a non-profit service orga
nization that is not affiliated with state
or federal agencies. The organization
acts as a “glorified insurance agency for
banks,” he said.
TGSLC purchases the loans from
lending institutions so they don’t have
to handle defaults, Whitehurst said.
Before TGSLC purchases loans, the
lending institution issues notices of de
linquency 30, 60 and 120 days after the
first payment is due.
After 120 days, Whitehurst said,
TGSLC purchases the loan from the
lending institution and then pursues
collection of loan payments.
He said the first step TGSLC takes in
collecting payments is to get a financial
judgment against the student in court.
He said the judgment is a court record
indicating that the student owes the
money.
These judgments are renewed every
five years, he said. However, state law
requires that judgments be filed every
ten years.
Whitehurst said a student who has
defaulted on a loan can also be tracked
down through the Texas Department of
Public Safety when he renews a driver’s
license.
“Quite simply,” he said, “if you’re
caught speeding, you’re in a little bit of
trouble if you’ve defaulted on a loan.”
TGSLC also turns in the student’s
name and financial record to credit
bureaus. These bureaus are established
coast-to-coast, he said, and when a stu
dent applies for a credit card or other
credit it won’t be granted.
Another way to collect payments, he
said, is if the student works for the state.
TGSLC has the authority to hold — but
not to cash — the person’s paycheck.
He said the check is held until a reason
able repayment plan is negotiated.
As a last resort, Whitehurst said,
they turn the student’s name over to a
collection agency. He said collection
agencies “are always 100 percent legal
in everything they do.
If a student has defaulted on a loan,
this makes it difficult to secure a loan to
buy property or a car, he said.
In addition to making a financial
judgment against the student, White
hurst said they will seek a fraud judg
ment if it can be proven that the student
didn’t use the loan for educational pur
poses.
For example, students have been
known to buy cars or to invest in certifi
cates of deposit.
Since the GSL programs are subsi
dized by the federal government, he
said, committing fraud is a felony.
Whitehurst added that abuse of the
GSL programs is one of the reasons why
President Ronald Reagan is proposing
changes in the program.
TGSLC has only been in operation
since Jan. 2, Whitehurst said, so there
have been no defaults on loans to this
date.
Whitehurst said it’s difficult to deter
mine how many students default on
loans, since repayments are made to
various education authorities or lending
institutions.
Compared to a national default rate
of approximately 17.5 percent, the de
fault rate on student loans at Texas
A&M University is between 2.5 and 3
percent, said Dr. Bill McFarland, dire
ctor of financial aid.
In the National Direct Student Loan,
the default rate was 3 percent for 1979
and 2.5 percent for 1980, said Andrea
Derrig, an accountant in the loan sec
tion of the fiscal office.
The NDSL program differs from the
GSL in that the federal government
allocates money to Texas A&M to make
loans, instead of a student securing a
loan from a lending institution. Stu
dents must fill out a financial aid form to
establish financial need.
Derrig said they receive an author
ization from the financial aid office on
the amount of money the student can
get. She said the fiscal office then issues
a check or cash for that amount.
The interest rate on NDSL loans is 3
percent but the rate will increase to 4
percent June 1, she said.
Iran sits on jugular of the West’s oil’ ex-hostage says
lion i
M ‘modi
and
By PHYLLIS HENDERSON
Battalion StafF
Iran has great strategic importance for the United
States, and that cannot be forgotten nor ignored, for
mer Iranian hostage Richard Queen told approximate
ly 700 people Tuesday night in Rudder Theater.
Tt is a country that has great strategic value in the
Mirld,” Queen said in his speech sponsored by Politic-
»1 Forum.
It is situated on the “jugular of the West’s oil,”
?ueen said. “They control the oil from Iraq, they
ttntrol the oil from the Gulf states which are on the
Persian Gulf and they control the oil from Saudi
Arabia.
The West can’t afford to have all this oil cut off. ”
However, Queen said, the situation now in Iran is
toe of confusion. “Generally it’s controlled chaos,” he
Sid, "and the control is aring.
The control depends on one old man (Ayatollah
Hhomeini) — a very old man — and when he dies, it’s
issible you might have a civil war.”
Iran is divided into two factions, the moderates and
e religious fanatics, Queen said. The religious fac-
ion is supported by the communists, he said, and the
crates are supported by other leftist groups.
“The country has really fragmented,” Queen said,
"“and that fragmentation is now too great for Khomeini
to smooth over.”
Iran is also facing a war with Iraq that has stalemated
and drained the country of most of its economic re
sources, Queen said. “It is a war which has really
brought home to them just how isolated Iran is in the
world,” he said.
“I think this, more than anything else, ended the
hostage situation — Iran’s discovery that it’s important
not to be cut off from the world. ”
Queen said the first two months of his captivity were
the worst. He said his knowledge of the language was
at times a curse, because he would hear snatches of
conversation which he would misunderstand.
“I would just hear Wednesday or Thursday, ” Queen
said, “and I would latch onto that date.” He said he
would hope that that was the day they would be re
leased, and then be disappointed to find out that it was
the day the mpqnts were returning to their village.
“My morale would soar,” he said, “and then the day
arrived and nothing happened, and my morale would
just plummet. It was like being on a roller coaster —
ups and downs — and each down was worse.”
As time passed, Queen said, he began to accept his
fate as a hostage. “I was withdrawing from the world as
it existed at that time,” he said, “and I was building up
my own fantasy world.” He said he never lost touch
with reality, but began to remember happier periods
in his life, college and high school.
Queen was released by the Iranian militants July 11,
1980, because he had developed multiple schlerosis.
“Coming back to freedom while the other 52 were
still there was very difficult,” Queen said. He said,
however, that the change he saw in the country on his
return made the ordeal he suffered worth it.
“When I returned ... I sensed a new mood in the
country, ” he said. “I’d never seen a country regain its
self-confidence so quickly. I saw people feeling united
for the first time in years. This has shown that in a
crisis, we are essentially a united country.
“It has made, at least what I suffered, worth it.”
Queen diplomatically sidestepped hostile questions
from foreign students after his speech concerning the
United State’s support of the Shah of Iran. The crowd,
however, was not as polite, greeting these questions
with hisses.
“The United States was willing to support the pre
sent regime if it had been given the chance,” Queen
said. “We just don’t want the Soviet Union in Iran.”
In answer to another question, Queen said he felt
the U.S. should have refused publicly to deal with
the militants from the beginning. “Carter. . . tipped
too much of our hand,” he said.
Photo-George Dolan
Former hostage Richard Queen spoke on his 250 days of captivity m Iran
in a speech sponsored by Political Forum Tuesday night. Queen not only
related his feelings on the hostage crisis, but discussed the ordeal’s effect
on the present world situation.