1)1
he Battalion
i/ol. 75 No. 22
114 Pages
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Wednesday, September 30, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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''ormer ambassador to Poland
Speaker explains Polish unrest
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By LISA DICKSON
Battalion Reporter
|Loyalty to the Catholic Church, Communist Party
brts to collectivize privately owned agricultural
[ids and the outspoken nature of the Poles, have
ntributed to Poland’s present state of political un-
Jst, William Schaufele Jr., former Ambassador to the
Jtion, said Tuesday.
Schaufele, sponsored by MSC Political Forum,
Idressed the topic of “Moscow, We Have A Problem:
In Poland Emerge From The Soviet Union?”
[He cited three circumstances as factors contributing
[the Poles’ desire to break away from Soviet Union
fluence. The first, Schaufele said, is the Catholic
[lurch which historically has prompted Polish nation-
ism.
;Ninety-five percent of the Poles belong to the
Itholie Church and it is estimated that 80 percent
actively practice Catholicism, he said,
chaufele said that in recent years the Church has
hce again become the object of the Polish people’s
jialty, respect and affection. It has displayed the role
| mediator, actively engaging in negotiation, as a
_ 0 e between the Communist Party and Solidarity (a
rolish labor party).”
jEvoking further dissatisfaction in Poland is the
Communist Party’s efforts to collectivize agricultural
d which is primarily privately owned, Schaufele
Id.
“Efforts have been made to collectivize Polish agri
culture, but they have all failed,” he said. “The Polish
peasant, who has been the backbone of agriculture in
the past, objects to government’s intervention in his
affairs. When the government reaches out its hand to
the peasant, he almost automatically withdraws, be
cause he figures the government is up to something
that will not be very good for him in the long run.
“Government has given up attempts to collectivize,
only in the hope that in the long run that they will be
able to get the private land,” Schaufele said.
Also fueling unrest is the Poles determination to
exercise uninhibited freedom of expression, the for
mer ambassador said. “They have always been out
spoken. Everyone knows in Warsaw what happens in
(Communist) Party meetings. Even the worst period
of Stalinism was preceded by several years with in
creasingly bold forays by intellectuals in their writings
and their speeches against Communism.”
Given these three circumstances and an economic
and political crisis which arose during a 10-year period
leading up to 1980, Solidarity was able to gain strength
in Poland, Schaufele said.
And efforts by the Communist Party to meet the
nation’s pressing needs failed, he said, citing its
attempts to raise wages, provide more consumer
goods, stabilize prices and modernize economy.
Efforts to stabilize prices were also unsuccessful and
ultimately they became a “millstone around the gov
ernment’s neck,” the former ambassador said.
“(Communist leaders) never said it was a temporary
measure and as a result they had to subsidize the
prices from the budget until one third of the budget
was used to subsidize prices,” Schaufele said.
And at the same time, he said, the government
knew that any intent to raise prices would be political
ly unacceptable to the population.
Schaufele said, “Modernization was financed by the
West where the Polish reach exceeded its grasp. They
had terrible problems with mismanagement, inability
to meet deadlines and inability to organize.
“The population as we approached 1980 was grumb
ling and did not have much respect for the govern
ment, but I think it was largely apathetic,” he said.
The explosion occurred, however, because there
was no psychological or propaganda campaign to pre
pare the population for price increases, Schaufele said.
“When the strike broke out in July 1980, strikers set
demands unprecedented in Poland or anywhere in
Eastern Europe. These were the right to strike, the
right to form independent trade unions, the end of
censorship, the access of the Church to the media and
the release of political prisoners.
“I think that was a waiting game in hopes that Soli
darity, after its initial success, would lose some of its
militancy,” he said.
81
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&Mresearch funding best in state
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Research funding at Texas A&M Uni
versity during fiscal year 1981 totaled a
[cord $84.4 million, for an increase of
bre than $12 million over the previous
year, Dr. Frank E. Vandiver, Texas
McM president, has announced.
Texas A&M’s total of $71.8 million
[ for research in 1980 ranked first among
universities in Texas and the South-
st, according to tabulations compiled
bj' the National Science Foundation,
le annual NSF survey also has shown
’exas A&M ranked among the nation’s
top 20 research and development insti
tutions for the past decade.
Vandiver said he is pleased with the
University’s volume and growth of re
search, but he said he is even more
gratified by the underlying confidence
expressed in the University and by the
quality and potential of many of the in
dividual projects.
“You have to be pleased when you are
among the leaders nationally, and the
growth rate for research here is certain
ly healthy,” Vandiver said, “but I take
even greater pride in the fact that offi
cials and representatives of so many dif
ferent agencies and organizations —
public and private — have expressed
such confidence in the ability of our
faculty members and other researchers.
“That confidence, of course, seems to
me to be well founded. I continue to be
impressed with the quality and breadth
of research here and the potential for
solving some of the pressing problems
of today and enhancing man’s basic
knowledge,”' he said.
At $38.4 million, the federal govern
ment continued to account for the
largest share of support for research, up
from $31.9 million last year. The largest
percentage increase, however, was in
funding from private organizations,
which increased almost 50 percent —
from $8.3 million to $12.3 million.
“With the Reagan administration
calling for business and industry to
assume more responsibility in support
ing scientific study, this is a very en
couraging indicator,” Vandiver said.
Staff photo by Greg Gammon
William Schaufele, Jr.
Former ambassador to Poland
resident s wife discovering A&M
Staff photo by Dave Einsel
Renee Vandiver, wife of Texas A&M President
Frank E. Vandiver, shows off the inside of her
new home, the Texas A&M president’s house on
Throckmorton Street.
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion Staff
What might the wife of the Texas
A&M president want to talk about in
her home on a Wednesday afternoon?
As it turned out, she talked about
fried chicken, furniture, baseball and
buffets. Asking questions as well as re
sponding to them, Renee Vandiver
quickly revealed her eagerness to learn
about her new neighborhood — Texas
A&M University.
“Just what exactly are Aggie tradi
tions?” Mrs. Vandiver asked. “I’ve
heard a lot about them, but I don’t really
know what they are. I do know some
thing about A&M because a lot of my
cousins ... and a lot of my friends from
Louisiana came here.
“I’ve been to yell practice here and
really enjoyed it. And several years ago,
we came to the bonfire. It must have
been your coldest one — I nearly froze
to death.”
University life is nothing new to Mrs.
Vandiver, although Aggieland is. Here
for only a month, she said she is still
trying to learn her way around.
“I haven’t had a chance to go through
all the buildings yet,” she said, “and
when I do go on campus, I carry a map
with me so I won’t get lost.
“At North Texas, I used to walk a lot
on campus. Dr. Vandiver would go with
me and we would walk at night when it
was cool. That way, we would get a
chance to see what was going on.”
Dr. and Mrs. Vandiver came to Col
lege Station from Denton where Van
diver was serving as the president of
North Texas State University until res
igning to accept the Texas A&M pres
idency.
“I also used to visit different depart
ments at North Texas,” she said. “That
way, I would get to see the professors
and the students. You can learn a lot
about faculty-student relations by doing
that — I hope to be able to do that
here.”
Although Texas A&M is much larger
than NTSU, Mrs. Vandiver said she
doesn’t feel the two schools are all that
different.
“The first weekend I was here, one of
the men in Frank’s office told me Texas
A&M was a ‘different’ type of school, ”
she said. “But, I don’t agree. It’s a larger
school but not that much different. As
far as I’m concerned, when you talk ab
out enrollment numbers, it’s just a mat
ter of moving a decimal. Size doesn’t
have to matter that much. In fact, I
think (Texas A&M) is probably a closer
school because of all the traditions.”
As “first lady” of Texas A&M, much of
Mrs. Vandiver’s time is devoted to
attending University functions.
“My schedule is geared to Dr. Van
diver’s,” she said. “I get a weekly calen
dar of different things going on so I
know where we re supposed to be.
“My time goes to the school. I keep a
fluid time schedule so I can help Frank
any way I can. No matter what else is
going on, I’m always free if he needs
me.
“I used to play a lot of tennis,” she
said, “but I had to quit because in ten
nis, you have to pin yourself down to a
certain time when you’ll be available
and a lot of times I couldn’t make it. By
the time you go to all the things at
school, there’s just not much time left
over for other things.”
But, one of the “other things” Mrs.
Vandiver said she always makes time for
is guests.
“We do a lot of entertaining,” she
said. “We like including faculty, deans,
alumni and members of the Board (of
Regents). It’s worked out really well. ”
Mrs. Vandiver said she favors an
“open-door policy” in regard to stu
dents.
“We want people to feel like they can
drop by and see us,” she said. “At North
Texas, a lot of the students used to come
by just to visit. We’ve had a student ask
if he could come by and when we said
‘yes,’ he was so surprised. I don’t know
why he was surprised — we like having
company.
“The other night, a platoon from the
Corps came running by. I thought they
would stop but they didn’t — they just
ran right on by.”
With 11 children in the family, Dr.
and Mrs. Vandiver are accustomed to a
house full of people.
“The children have always known
they can have friends over," she said.
“They’ve always known that if there’s an
extra piece of chicken, their friends are
welcome to it.”
Vandiver has three children by his
first wife who died in 1979. They are
Nita, 24; Nancy, 22, a senior history
major at Texas A&M; and Frank Alexan
der, 17.
He married Renee Carmody in 1980.
She has eight children: Helen, 28; Re
nee, 26; Arthur, 23; Patrick, 21;
Timothy, 18; Mary, 16; Virginia, 14 and
Joseph, 11. ,
President s house
has family character
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion Staff
The cabinet of hand-painted Wedge-
wood china and the Waterford crystal
chandelier signal visitors that this home
is no ordinary bungalow. However, the
jar of peanut M&Ms on the family coffee
table and the pile of leafed-through
newspapers behind the couch are a tell
tale sign that this is no ordinary show-
place, either.
The two-story house, located on
Throckmorton Street, is the official resi
dence of the president of Texas A&M
University and now serves as the home
of Dr. Frank E. Vandiver; his wife, Re
nee, and four of their children — Nan
cy, Mary, Virginia and Joseph.
“We want this house to be a family
home,” Mrs. Vandiver said. “We want
it to be comfortable so if people feel like
coming by, they will feel like they can.”
Until the Vandivers’ arrival, the five-
bedroom, four-bath house had been
without occupants for a year. During his
one-year term as acting president of
Texas A&M, Dr. Charles H. Samson
and his family remained in their own
home in Bryan.
The president’s house is staffed by a
full-time housekeeper provided by the
University. The grounds and gardens
are maintained by University workers.
Visitors enter through the front door
into a white-marbled hallway. The for
mal living room, to the left of the entr
anceway, is dominated by a large fire
place, a china cabinet containing the
Wedgewood china and a grand piano.
The formal dining room, to the right-
of the main hallway, contains a 10-place'
mahogany dining table. The dining^
table is one of the pieces rescued fronr
the fire that destroyed the original pres
ident’s home in 1963.
A family room is located at the end of
the hallway. The room is dominated by;
shelves filled with books dealing with-
the Civil War and copies of the Aggie-^
land (the Texas A&M yearbook).
The first floor of the house also con
tains a kitchen, a guest bedroom and
Dr. Vandiver’s study.
Upstairs are four bedrooms, includ
ing the master bedroom, and three
baths.
Mrs. Vandiver said few renovations
are planned for the house. “Some re
painting is being done outside but no
thing out of the ordinary,” she said.
“The only things I want to change are
the wallpaper and curtains in the master
bedroom.”
The master bedroom is decorated
with navy blue and gold curtains and
wallpaper. This, coupled with a dark
blue carpet, “is just too dark,” Mrs.
Vandiver said. “I like bright rooms — I
always want to have the curtains and
shades open.”
The president’s mansion was built in
1965 at a cost of $105,000. According to
University officials, the current value of
the house is about $260,000.