The Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
be singlJ \jbl. 74 No. 187
r 8 Pages
onal UajuK
S ever)' at-l(
le d, “Pelt,;
Wednesday, August 12, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High
98
High .
.... 98
Low
75
Low
.... 75
Chance of rain.
. . . . 20%
Chance of rain. . .
. . 20%
Madiutn, : ^ 'V
lawmakers tail to agree on tax
r mood he® > ^
n 8througl(||p
Ute to the El i United Press International
lankees, ^ STIN — Lawmakers who thought they were
'saving Austin for good following the special session
Secretan Ptfrude awakening from Gov. Bill Clements by way
not come | f a P r(,m i se that they would return in the fall to try
tadium S 3 * 11 at Polishing the state’s ad valorem property tax.
, rs jjjjj m Although the legislators were able to pass four of the
rike was i venia j°r issues on Clements’call foraspecial session,
out thee he y cou ^ n °t agree on a proposed constitutional
mendment to abolish the state property tax.
8BThe major disappointment of the special session,
oles, afteictf epurse, was the failure by the Senate to approve
od nature: epeeil of the 10 cent state ad valorem tax,” Clements
ional Anl aid Tuesday.
120 settleddeeply regret this decision, which, I feel, is
one liketl [responsible and not in good faith with the taxpayers
>f this state who were led to believe that the tax had
>een abolished by a statute passed in 1979.”
'pies
AAiiVbySen. W.E. Snelson, D-Midland, the Senate
V • fluted on f ma i day of the session to set a three cent
ter 1$ 100 valuation property tax to finance college
^^ftruction. The House had voted to repeal the tax as
/■bents wanted.
r“|nfortunately, the Senate’s action will require
TUT r n °tb er session of the Legislature — probably this fall
K I to cons 'der repeal and an alternative method
✓ LI LLffinancing higher education construction, ” Clements
aidlin a written statement as the Senate adjourned at
>:40 p.m.
Market k
Clements said if Midwestern University’s suit chal
lenging the 1979 legislative attempt to repeal the
property tax is successful later this month, Texans
would face a back tax bill of $300 million and current
state property taxes of up to $430 million annually.
“We do not need to saddle taxpayers with these
additional taxes. The money is not needed, and we can
finance higher education construction through other
methods,” the governor said.
“So I might as well say now that I expect to see our
legislators back in town later this year. And I think a
majority of our senators then will be more reasonable
about this issue, when they consider the alternative of
hitting their constituents with an unneeded tax bill
approaching a billion dollars as a result of the Midwest
ern suit.”
It appeared intially that a conference committee
would be formed to work out differences between two
plans. However Snelson led an effort not to negotiate
the proposal, saying he thought once the bill was in
conference committee, the provision for the three-
cent tax would be removed.
By not letting the proposal go to a conference com
mittee, the Senate left the House the option of either
agreeing to Snelson’s plan or letting the issue die.
The House responded by adjourning at 2:24 p.m.
An effort to reconsider the Senate passage of the three-
cent tax was made just moments before the Senate
finally adjourned but was killed on a parliamentary
ruling.
“They (the Senate) will have to explain a $450 mil
lion tax to the voters. My conscience is clear,” said
Rep. Stan Schleuter, D-Salado, a backer of the House
proposal to repeal the property tax.
Before adjourning, the Senate was able to pass legis
lation regulating Bingo. A constitutional amendment
legalizing Bingo was approved by the voters, but the
Legislature had failed to pass enacting legislation.
Sen. Carlos Truan, D-Corpus Christi, was able to turn
back a handful of amendments that would have killed
the bill.
The lawmakers did resolve four other issues submit
ted by Clements when the session began, including a
congressional redistricting plan that gives Republicans
a chance at significantly increasing their ranks in the
Texas congressional delegation. Also passed were con
tinuation of the Medical Practice Act, creation of a
water trust fund and reform of the state property tax
code.
After the passage of congressional redistricting, Cle
ments opened the call up to more than 20 other sepa
rate items.
Many of those additional items were passed, includ
ing a $1.5 million appropriation for the Agriculture
Department to fight the possible Spread of the
Mediterranean fruit fly and legislation granting tax
credits to distributors of gasohol.
* Cop portugucs6 may join air strike
■ ||
< Canadian controllers
rsume
nvita-
ts and
United Press International
Air travel between the United States and Europe,
wrly paralyzed the past two days, should return to
Jormal today with agreement of Canadian air traffic
lontrollers to lift their boycott of U.S. flights.
| The decision was announced at 2:30 a. m. EDT after
f e Canadian government agreed to investigate union
mplaints that the strike by 12,000 American control-
• :tS has endangered border air traffic.
Resumption of Canadian air traffic service on U.S.
ights also eliminated what had been a mounting fear
n hot h sides of the Atlan tic — term ination of all flights
^ Stoss the North Atlantic.
W Portuguese controllers, also voicing fears about safe-
llgelated to U.S. strike, vow to stop clearing flights
^^^letwcen the United States and Europe at midnight
^Federal Aviation Administration Administrator J.
.ynn Helms said Tuesday that if controllers from both
atioiis simultaneously refused to clear U.S. traffic the
robkms could be devastating.
S “I’in not ready to say even if both of those go down,
: would close off the North Atlantic,” Helms told
.^porters. “But at the same time, I don't want to lead
astray. It could. '
w V/l’ Helms said he had another plan — which he would
J)t disclose — that might still keep the North Atlantic
fl^Klfpert to some flights.
| V/D* But the plan appeared not to be needed after Cana-
ian controllers agreed to clear U. S. flights over Cana-
i M ian air space — a major route to and from Europe.
■ I * All flights between Canada and the United States
^|j'ere to become fully operational by 8 a.m. EDT to
day, ending two days of severe disruptions caused by
the Canadian Air Traffic Controllers Association’s re
fusal to handle American-bound or originating flights.
Canadian Transport Minister Jean-Luc Pepin
advised international aviation authorities that trans-
Atlantic services would be fully restored through the
crucial Gander, Newfoundland, control center at 6:30
a.m. EDT.
The boycott by Canadian controllers began Monday
in defiance of the government, causing reduced
flights, chaos, delays and consternation on both sides
of the ocean.
Flights between the United States and Europe
Tuesday were running at a rate of up to five an hour or
a maximum of 120, said Federal Aviation Administra
tion spokesman Chuck Murchison said. There are nor
mally between 225 and 300 transatlantic flights, he
said.
Thousands of airline passengers were turned away
Tuesday from U.S. and European airports and many
others had to wait hours for limited passage overseas.
“I don’t really know what the strike is all about but I
do know I’m out of money and hungry,” said student
Betsy Rizzolo, 26, from Morris Plains, N.J., as she
waited with 3,000 other passengers at London’s
Heathrow airport.
In Frankfurt, Pan Am said its three flights to the
United States got away but a morning flight to
Washington took off hours late. Lufthansa can
celed three flights to the Linked States and four others
took off.
“As far as Europe is concerned, the present situa
tion is completely confused,” said Peter Graf, head of
lift boycott
the West German aviation authority.
The United States, Canada, Britain and Portugal
share primary responsibility for guiding commercial
air flights across the North Atlantic, each'controlling a
quadrant.
If the northern Canadian portion and southern
Portuguese quadrant are simultaneously closed, it
could halt air traffic between the United States and
Europe.
Canadian controllers maintain there have been a
number of air traffic irregularities in recent days along
the U.S.Canadian border — attributing it the the
strike by U.S. controllers.
But Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis Tuesday
again denied it, saying the 5,000 nonstriking control
lers, along with supervisory personnel and military
controllers, are safely monitoring the skies.
“There is no way that we are going to see these
people fly in planes that aren’t safe and there is no way
we re going to have the airways unsafe,” Lewis said.
At the same time, a Ralph Nader-backed consumer
group asked the National Transportation Safety Board,
an independent federal agency, to investigate the safe
ty of the U.S. air traffic system.
In the United States Tuesday, while authorities
struggled with overseas travel, the nation’s airlines
agreed to a government plan to freeze air traffic at its
current reduced level for 30 days.
The freeze, announced by Lewis, will give the FAA
time to work out a longer-term arrangement to hold
down work loads for replacements for striking control
lers.
Finis
post
Judge Arthur Stewart, Class of ’38, stands in front
of his Management 212 class that threw a surprise
party for their retiring teacher. The Business Law
class presented a plaque to Stewart with the in-
StaiT photo by Greg Gammon
scription “For a job well done, from 25,000 Ag
gie ...” and a cake inscribed with the Latin word
“finis” meaning “the end”. Stewart is retiring after
35V2 years at Texas A&M.
Taking down Old Glory
Each evening, University Police Sgt. Mike Ragan and officer Debi
Soto lower the flag that flies in front of the Academic Building. The
police are responsible for raising and lowering the flag while the
Corps of Cadets is gone for the summer. Soto said she is looking
forward to the Corps returning and taking over the job so the police
can carry on with their other duties.
A&M faculty members
get turn as ‘guinea pigs'
The tables have been turned on 200
Texas A&M faculty members who
usually conduct experiments but now
find themselves the guinea pigs. They
are participating in a project to help
them cope with job pressures.
Following the lead of many large
corporations that provide recreational
facilities to help their executives un
wind, Texas A&M is using its research
laboratories in a scientific approach to
help faculty members and administra
tors cope with physical inactivity and
stress.
With 80 percent funding from the
University, project director Dr. George
Jessup, chairman of Texas A&M’s Hu
man Performance Laboratory, has be
gun extensive physical and psychologic
al evaluations on a group of faculty and
staff volunteers.
“It’s somewhat of a breakthrough in
terms of universities,” Jessup said.
“You can’t separate the psychological
from the physical. It’s virtually impossi
ble to be unhealthy in one without it
affecting the other.”
Included in the evaluation of the fa
culty volunteers are treadmill tests,
electrocardiograms, underwater
weighing (to determine percentage of
body fat), blood analysis and life stress
evaluation. After the tests an individual
ized modification program is designed
for each participant.
Jessup counsels faculty with fitness-
related problems. Nutritional counsel
ing is provided by a registered dietician
and pyschological counseling is pro
vided through the Personal Counseling
Center in Texas A&M’s educational
pyschology department.
Dr. William Fife, a biology professor
who was instrumental in promoting the
project, pointed out that for more than
a decade many industrial firms have
offered programs to keep their execu
tives in good physical condition, but
universities have failed to regard their
faculty members as a resource that
needs protection.
“Modem university professors no
longer belong to monastic orders of
thinkers who have dedicated them
selves to a life of poverty in search of
knowledge,” Fife said.
Expectations placed on today’s pro
fessors are similar to those on business
men, he said.
“And when a faculty member falls by
the wayside, the whole university dies a
little bit,” he said.
Aside from the benefits to faculty
members who participate, the project
will provide considerable data for re
search projects.
“It’s a good educational experience
for my students,” Jessup said. “Several
dissertations and theses will ultimately
result from the project.”
Research is already planned to study
the results of active and passive inter
vention by the laboratory in the risk-
factor modification programs.
The active approach includes up to a
three- or four-day program each week
for the faculty member to attend while
the passive approach will be a self-
motivated, self-paced program allowing
the participant to progress at his own
rate.
Dr. Clinton Phillips, dean of facul
ties, supported the project and helped
to secure the University funding.
“I would hope that it could become an
ongoing type of thing,” Phillips said. “I
think it’s important for our faculty to
have their health situation evaluated.”