Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Monday, September 28, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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andiver reflects on role at A&M
|y ANGELIQUE COPELAND
Battalion Editor
;’s been one month since Dr. Frank
W It'W iinc ^ ver t° 0 k over as the 19th presi-
JetofTexas A&M University. As Van-
! jybi becomes more acquainted with
—-^pleasures and problems of running a
Jivisrsity with an enrollment of more
■IS,000, he talks about his goals for
Ife' A&M.
fl: You have become well known as
|tive supporter of research in all the
ges at the University. You have
that you believe a professor can
th a good researcher and a good
oom teacher. However, many stu-
rlO
dents here feel like there is a problem
with teachers receiving tenure solely on
the basis of their research and as a result
there are fewer good teachers on the
campus. How will you respond to this
concern?
A: It doesn’t matter if I see it’s a prob
lem or not, if the students see it as prob
lem, it is one. They feel like they’re
getting cheated. Some universities, I
don’t know if this is a good idea here or
not, have help sessions for teachers who
are trying to improve their classroom
technique. They will take movies and
videotapes of their performance in class
and then counsel them on how to im
prove their classroom instruction. I
don’t know if the faculty here would be
willing to accept this kind of thing.
Another way would be to use student
input through a properly designed
questionnaire in the discussion of te
nure and promotion.
Q: What do you see as the role of the
president in student issues such as the
recognition of greeks and night-time
tests?
A: I think the role ought to be flexi
ble. When Student Government comes
up with some piece of major legislation
that they want to have enacted or made
a University regulation, then it would
be my function to be a fact finder. I
would also talk with the departments
involved and see if we can’t work out a
way that both students and faculty work
together in implementing this. I would
hope that I could be a facilitator, which
is a word I hate, but to work as a go-
between for Student Government and
student problems and the University
and faculty. I certainly see one of my
main roles as being responsive to stu
dent concerns. I don’t intend to sit up
here and say, “the hell with you.”
Q: You have said you would like to
maintain an “open door” policy with
students. How will you do this on a
campus of more than 35,000 students?
A: I’ve had a couple of them already
drop in. I just try and work them in. If
they have a really serious problem, I’d
like to talk with them.
Q: What would you say is your philo
sophy of administration of a major uni
versity, the “Golden Rule” you try to
follow?
A: The basic rules that I operate on
are try and get all the information be
hind any decision you have to make,
listen to all the sides you can find and
then make a decision. One of the worst
things in University administrations is
the lack of willingness a lot of adminis
trators have to make a decision. The
buck-passing syndrome, I call it. Harry
Truman had a sign on his desk that said
the buck stops here. Well, it almost
stops here. (Laughter)
The president’s role is to be a fact
finder and a decision maker. And of
course one of the main roles in a univer
sity of this size and complexity is to be a
kind of symbol. The presidency ofTexas
A&M is a very public position. You are
at the beck and call of all kinds of consti
tuencies. Not just the students and fa
culty, but various elements of the pub
lic. And I’ve always seen one of the roles
of university administrator, perhaps the
most important one, is to be a buffer
See VANDIVER page 10
‘Smilin’ Jack,’
former A&M
BRi&HTI chancellor dies
Students speak out
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
A group of students in the second deck of Kyle Field exercise their
freedom of speech during the Texas A&M football game against
Louisiana Tech. The students were reacting to statements made
last week by some university officials that H.R. “Bum” Bright,
chairman of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents,
caused the resignation of Athletic Director Marvin Tate.
0,000 A&M students
financial help
Dr. Jack K. Williams, former chan
cellor of the Texas A&M University Sys
tem, today died in a Houston hospital
after suffering a heart attack a week ago.
Williams, 61, served as System chan
cellor from May 1977 until January 1979
when he resigned from his administra
tive duties. Prior to that he was presi
dent of the System and the University.
At the time of his death he was serv
ing as executive vice president and dire
ctor of the Texas Medical Center, Inc.
in Houston. Funeral arrangements are
pending.
Williams, who was known on the
Texas A&M campus as “Smilin’ Jack,”
came to College Station in 1970. Prior to
that he served as vice president of the
University of Tennessee System and
chancellor of the University of Tennes
see’s health education campus in Mem
phis. He spent 19 years in teaching and
administration at Clemson University
in South Carolina, leaving there as vice
president, and he was the first commis
sioner of higher education in Texas.
Jack K.'Williams
During World War II, he was an
officer with the 4th Division, United
States Marine Corps.
ceive
15-years for April stabbing death
Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp.
to approve and guarantee student loans
at the state level. Before the summer of
1981, students in all 50 states had to
have their forms processed through a
central federal facility in Norfolk, Va.
Processing time for the loan applica
tions generally ran eight to 10 weeks.
“The state felt it would have better
luck on collections and processing time
if it was done at the state level, ” McFar
land said.
Texas A&M “has never had any col
lection problems,” he said. The default
rate for Aggies on federally and state
insured student loans is between 2 per
cent and 3 percent, compared to a state
average of 9 percent to 11 percent and a
national average of 15 percent to 17 per
cent.
“Aggies seem to repay their debts
very well,’’ McFarland said, “some
thing we re all very proud of here. ”
An increase in the number of loan
applicants started in the school year
1979-80. During that period, 4,025 ap
plicants received $9.6 million in guaran
teed loans, up from $6.1 million
awarded to 2,768 applicants the pre
vious year.
“People were finding out at that
point about the Middle Income Student
Assistance Act. It didn’t help (the stu
dents) for 1979-80 much, because most
.The average guaranteed student loan of them already had their paperwork in
Muest was about $2,100 for the 1980- being processed.”
■school year, McFarland said. According to the act, the Carter
■ In June 1981, Texas created the administration removed restrictions in
By TERRY DURAN
Battalion Staff
takes money to go to college.
[Even in Texas, where Education
missioner Ken Ashworth says “tui-
is inordinately low, ” not everyone
brd to go to college without help,
ire than 10,000 Texas A&M students
Tiout a third of the total enrollment
ceived some kind of financial aid in
dI year 1980-81.
lat aid, in different forms — grants,
larships, guaranteed loans —
d up to some $35 million in finan-
isistance for Aggies,
ill McFarland, director of Texas
Is Student Financial Aid Office,
j $2.7 million of that was in Basic
cational Opportunity Grants, an
ight gift from the federal govern-
t based on students’ financial
Is. Scholarships totaled about $4.3
ion, and McFarland said about $1
[ion was in short term loans, handled
tly by the University,
guaranteed student loans — those
Uy secured through a hometown
p or credit union — amounted to
it $19 million in 1980-81. These
s are guaranteed by either the state
deral government. The 10-year re-
ent period on the low-interest (7
:ent to 9 percent) loans do not begin
ent to 9 percent) loans does not
in until nine months after gradua-
1978 on maximum tamily incomes for
students eligible to receive federally in
sured loans.
But the big jump came with the 1980-
81 school year, when about $19 million
in guaranteed student loans was
awarded to more than 10,000 Texas
A&M students.
With the large increase in the num
ber of loan applications being turned in
— more than 10,000 applicants, two and
one half times the number of applica
tions the year before — the financial aid
office “had to play catch-up,” McFar
land said.
The delay while they caught up, in
addition to the several weeks taken by
federal agency processing, meant some
students had to start the semester with
out that loan check.
The Student Financial Aid Office
added eight employees in October and
December 1980 to help with the back
log. Additional personnel were also
used at some points during the spring
semester.
McFarland said employees brought
in during May 1981 to work on the back
log of applications — which were antici
pated this time — managed to catch up
by the end of June.
“By having these personnel come
back and keep working (on loan applica
tions), we were able to get down to ab
out a two-week processing time by the
end of the summer and stay there,”
McFarland said.
Jury sentences former student
ollege Bowl to begin in October
can spell “inoculate” or describe
shape of an amoeba. College Bowl
its you.
✓
riday is last
ay to Q-drop
Friday is the last day that students
|n drop courses with no penalty (Q-
p). Deadline for mid-semester
jades is Oct. 19.
College Bowl, an MSC Council pro
ject, is a question-and-answer game be
tween opposing teams. Each team com
prises four players who compete by
answering questions on general scien
ce, history, the fine arts and trivia.
Good spellers, history experts and
trivia buffs are in high demand by this
year’s College Bowl competitors, Chair
man Kathy Westerfield said.
Interested persons can sign up in 216
MSC through Wednesday. A registra
tion fee of $15 per team or $3.75 per
individual is required at that time, Wes
terfield said.
Thirty-two Texas A&M. teams parti
cipate in College Bowl competition on
campus. Each team comprises four
members and an alternate. Tourna
ments will run every Wednesday night
in October, with the championship
match to be held on Nov. 11.
The team that wins this match, along
with the four highest scoring indi
viduals, will represent Texas A&M at
the February regional championship at
Rice University.
The College Bowl teams also need
faculty members to run the matches as
well as to be judges. For more informa
tion about the event, call 845-1515, or
go by the Student Programs Office, 216
MSC.
By RANDY CLEMENTS
Battalion Staff
Joel Aniceto Quintans was sentenced
to 15 years in prison Friday for volun
tary manslaughter in the April stabbing
death of Frederick Axel Youngberg IV.
Quintans, who was charged with
capital murder, was convicted of the
lesser charge by a jury Thursday.
Before delivering the sentence Fri
day, the jury heard closing arguments
from Doug Mulder, Quintans’attorney,
and Brazos County District Attorney
Travis Bryan III.
Seeking a probated sentence for his
client, Mulder told the jury that Young
berg had “set the wheels in motion” for
his death by using and dealing in drugs.
“I feel Joel (Quintans) got caught up
in a situation beyond his control,” Mul
der said.
He told the jury it held the key to
Quintans’ future — the power to des
troy him or put him on the right track.
“He has a contribution to make to this
society, and it will serve no purpose to
put this boy in the penitentiary. This
boy is salvageable,” Mulder said.
Bryan contended the jury had already
given Quintans all the breaks he de
serves by finding him guilty of the lesser
charge of voluntary manslaughter as
opposed to capital murder or murder.
Quintans deserves a 20-year sentence,
he told the jurors.
The reason for the rise in crime is
because juries in the past have not had
“the intestinal fortitude” to put teeth in
the law after someone is convicted,
Bryan said.
“They (the defense attorneys) are
asking for mercy. I am asking for justice
— justice for the Youngberg family, the
people of the community and for Quin
tans,” he said.
In closing, he urged the jury to return
a sentence of at least 15 years and a day.
Such a sentence would have disqual
ified Quintans by one day from being
eligible to be released on bond during
an appeal.
Staff photo by Becky Swanson
The parents of Frederick Axel Youngberg IV leave the courtroom Friday
while the jury takes a break after hearing character witnesses in the
punishment phase of the Joel Quintans trial.
However, after four hours of deliber
ation, the seven-woman, five-man jury
assessed the 15-year sentence.
As of Friday evening. Mulder said he
and his cfient had not yet decided
whether they will appeal the verdict. If
the defense moves for an appeal. Quin
tans could be released on bond as early
as today, Bryan said.
The prosecuting attorney said if
Quintans appeals the case, bond will
probably be set without a hearing since
he had been free on bond earlier.
The defendant was out on bond dur
ing the trial, but it was revoked upon his
conviction Thursday.