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Vol. 75 No. 69
14 Pages
Wednesday, December 9, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
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Strake running
for Texas’ best
kept secret’ job
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u
By DANIEL PUCKETT
Battalion Staff
The lieutenant governor is Texas’
most powerful official and he is doing a
bad job, a former Texas secretary of
state said Tuesday night.
Speaking to about 35 people in Rud
der Tower, George Strake, who is a can
didate for the 1982 Republican nomina
tion for lieutenant governor, said the
lieutenant governor serves as president
of the Senate, appoints members of
Senate committees, appoints their
chairmen, assigns bills to committees
and serves on the Legislative Budget
Board. The board, Strake said, is re
sponsible for determining the level of
state spending.
“In that job, he (the lieutenant gov
ernor) has his thumb on the state’s
spending level and the number of em
ployees it has,’ he said.
And Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby has handled
the job badly, Strake said.
He said Hobby allowed the recent
proposal for a Texas water program to
pass the Senate and then campaigned
against it. Hobby also sent strong anti
pornography bills to the Jurisprudence
Committee of the Texas Senate, whose
chairman, Strake said, is “an ultraliberal
opposed to such measures.’’
In addition, Strake said. Hobby
allowed the number of state employees
to grow by 50 percent in the 1970s,
while the state’s population grew by 26
percent.
Saying he could do a better job,
Strake said one of his purposes is to help
carry out the conservative programs
proposed by President Reagan and
Gov. Bill Clements. If elected, Strake
said, he will favor a number of measures
to help solve the state’s problems.
He said he would push for formula
tion of a new water plan, one substan
tially different from the one Texas vo
ters defeated in November and one
which can easily be explained to
citizens.
Strake also plans strong anti-crime
bills and measures to reduce drug traffic
through arrests of major pushers. He
would also assist the passage of bills
dealing with the problem of child por
nography, a problem he said is epide
mic in major urban areas.
“If I become lieutenant governor,
any bill which has to do with controlling
drugs or pornography, which will stem
the tide of crime or which will help ...
small business .. . will get as much push
through that Senate as (I). fan possibly
give it,” Strake said.
In an interview earlier Tuesday,
Strake stressed the importance of the
lieutenant governor’s race and called
the power of the office “the best-kept
secret in the state of Texas.”
Even with a strong governor like Cle
ments, Strake said, the lieutenant gov
ernor has a powerful voice in shaping
Texas policy. And with the problems
Texas faces — water depletion, flood
ing, energy costs and a rapidly growing
population — the state needs effective
leadership, which he said Hobby has
not provided.
The question of Hobby’s perform
ance is one which affects Texans both
young and old, Strake said, and he stres
sed the importance of students’ involve
ment in politics and in his race.
“People your age have more to lose if
things go down the drain; you’ll be
around longer to suffer the consequ
ences,” he said.
When asked how much chance he
Reagan considers
anti-Libya moves
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan mulled over possible economic
and political sanctions today against
Libya in retaliation for alleged plots by
that nation to assassinate him and other
U.S. officials.
White House Communications dire
ctor David Gergen said Reagan would
brief Democratic and Republican con
gressional leaders either today or
Thursday on options he is considering.
Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy
denies having made any plans to assas
sinate U.S. officials, but the administra
tion says it has evidence of such plots —
including the dispatching of hit squads.
The Republican congressional
leadership was to meet today with
Reagan on matters before Congress, but
the Libya matter was expected to come
up for discussion.
Late Tuesday, Senate Republican
Leader Howard Baker caused a stir
when he said the White House told him
a final decision on the entire situation
would be made within 24 to 48 hours.
The White House, however, said
Baker misunderstood. It said no im
mediate decision was expected and that
a congressional briefing — not a final
verdict — would be held within two
days.
Aferward, Baker won an agreement
with Sen. Gary Hart, D-Col. to post
pone a resolution cutting off Libyan oil
until after the briefing.
“I think it would be premature to
have that kind of a vote before the re
view is completed,” Gergen said.
“We are not trying to stir this matter
up ... to hype this thing, ” Gergen told
reporters. “We’re trying to convey that
the atmophere here is not one of high
tension and great drama. ”
Baker told the Senate the president
may very well decide to embargo Li
byan oil. Senate Republican sources
said it would be part of a package of
economic sanctions against Libya.
The Boston Globe reported the
administration will try to get the more
than 1,500 Americans still in Libya out
before taking any action. It quoted offi
cials as saying the administration plans
to call on U. S. oil companies to get their
people out of Libya.
State Department spokeswoman
Anita Stockman said she knew of no
such plans.
Paperwork halts mailing
of new schedules to 600
Staff photo by Dave Einsel
Former Secretary of State George Strake
has of becoming Texas’ first Republican
lieutenant governor since Reconstruc
tion, Strake said his campaign, though
probably not as well financed as Hob
by’s will be, has a stronger organization
and a better volunteer base.
“I’ve got an better organization than
Gov. Clements had at a comparable
point in his campaign,” he said, “and I
have the advantage of running with a
popular governor — who, polls show,
has a 68 percent approval rating.
“But I have the disadvantage of run
ning against the name Hobby,” Strake
said. “His dad was governor, his family
owns the Houston Post and a television
station.
Recession won t hurt holiday buying
By ANJALIE ABBOTT, PAM
BARTA and JOHN WAGNER
Battalion Reporters
Area merchants are expecting a profit
able Christmas season despite national
predictions that the sluggish economy
will condemn retail sales across the
country to a slow year, especially during
the Christmas season.
Robert Ortner, chief economist at
the U.S. Commerce Department, said:
“Christmas sales will be mediocre at
best.”
And a Gallup Poll conducted in Sep
tember for the U.S. Chamber of Com
merce says 55 percent of the consumers
polled feel now is a bad time to purchase
expensive gifts. This is a 7 percent in
crease in the number of consumers that
have become pessimistic about buying,
since a similar poll was conducted in
June by the Chamber of Commerce.
However, the prediction that retail
sales will be down drastically this year
doesn’t seem to be scaring area mer
chants at all. In fact, many merchants
are preparing for a holiday boom.
Ron Morton, operations manager at
J.C. Penney in Manor East Mall, said
his store is enjoying a good year. He
attributed increases in sales to what he
calls a “pretty stable economy” in the
area.
Another local retailer, Judy Rush,
owner of R. Rush & Co., said her store is
doing excellent business.
“I expect a 50 percent increase in
sales this month,” she said.
In contrast, Robert Mooney, corpo
rate economist for New York City, pre
dicts only a 3 percent sales increase after
inflation, for the nation next month.
The fact that more than 50 percent of
the population here is employed by or
enrolled in some kind of public educa
tional facility is the main reason the re
cession has not hurt locally, said Robert
Nelson, spokesman for the Bryan-
College Station Chamber of Com-
ple to spend just as much, despite the
slumping economy.
“The one thing people don’t cut back
on at Christmas is food,” he said. Dries-
bach said he expects customers to spend
less on major variety items and general
merchandise and more on special holi
day goods.
But, unlike clothing and department
stores, Driesbach said he expects his
total business to drop 20 to 25 percent
when students go home for Christmas.
Jim Hayes, assistant manager for Re
bels Restaurant and Bar in College Sta
tion, said that although he will lose busi
ness during the Christmas break, he
expects to make more money because
customers will spend more of their in
come on entertainment during the holi
day season.
The fact that the Bryan-College Sta
tion area is one of the fastest-growing
areas in the nation keeps the economy
booming in spite of a national slump.
Nelson said.
By STEPHEN M. WARD
Battalion Reporter
About 600 students who have prere
gistered for spring semester classes at
Texas A&M University will not receive
a schedule with their fee slip in the mail.
Effective this fall, the fiscal depart
ment mails a copy of the student’s sche
dule with each invoice. This is to let
students know early which classes they
are paying fpr and which ones they may
need to add or drop.
However, students with last names
falling alphabetically between White
and Wood, inclusive, will receive their
fee slips in the mail but will not receive
their class schedules, said Bob Piwonka,
manager of student financial aid ser
vices in the fiscal office.
Those students can pick up copies of
their schedules in the Coke Building.
Piwonka said that because the added
paperwork involved in sending stu
dents’ schedules with invoices is so ex
pensive and time consuming, the fiscal
office stopped with 600 students re
maining. Those students were mailed
only their fee slips.
The fiscal office mailed the last of
24,000 fee slips Saturday, in order to
mail them to each student’s local
address before the end of school.
Now the Coke Building office is start
ing to receive a barrage of students who
want to pay their fees before Christmas
break.
However, Piwonka asks that stu
dents not make over-the-counter pay
ments to cashiers at the Coke Building,
but he encourages students to pay their
fees through the mail or drop their pay
ments in a fee slip box provided in the' !
building.
Piwonka said the fiscal office
cashiers, who are swamped with end-of-
the-year paperwork, are not set up to
handle the students who want to pay
fees in person. He also said the cashiers 11
do not have direct access to the unpaid
fee slip file.
f
However, a separate group of tem
porary workers, primarily Texas A&M
students, are presently employed to
process payments received by mail.
“This lessens the aggravation of stu
dents having to stand in line,” Piwonka
said.
College crime rate indicated
Other merchants in the Bryan-
College Station area agree that the local
economy will not suffer during the
Christmas season. Dennis Driesbach,
manager of the Safeway supermarket in
Culpepper Plaza, said he expects peo-
Projected deficit leads
to new budget proposals
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Projections of a
record federal deficit in 1982 has the
Reagan administration again studying
ways to cut the budget — by slashing
defense, further cutting non-defense
programs or raising taxes.
Amid estimates that the 1982 budget
deficit could reach $109 billion, Presi
dent Reagan met with top economic
advisers Tuesday to consider new aus
terity moves and the increasing likeli
hood of a tax hike.
The president — who in September
assured the nation he would hold the
current deficit to $43.1 billion and have
enough money to pursue a U. S. military
buildup — got the bad news from
budget director David Stockman.
Chief White House spokesman
David Gergen refused to confirm or
deny that the bottom line for 1982
would be $109 billion in red ink, as
official administration sources reported
earlier in the day.
The budget forecast, which Lawr
ence Kudlow of the Office of Manage
ment and Budget called “just staff op
tions of no consequence,” also projects a
$152.3 billion deficit in 1983 and $162
billion in 1984 — the year Reagan had
hoped to balance the budget — unless
further spending cuts are made,
House Speaker Thomas O’Neill said
he was not surprised by the latest deficit
estimates, which bear out what he pre
dicted earlier this year.
Democratic leader Jim Wright of
Texas called the deficit numbers “tell
ing figures.”
“It must be a terrible embarrassment
to the president, who has staked his
claim to a balancing of the budget for
first deficit of his administration to be
the largest in the history of this nation,”
he said.
Gergen acknowledged little can be
done about the budget for fiscal 1982,
which has already begun. The focus of
the current discussions, he said, is on
1983 and beyond.
Murray Weidenbaum, chairman of
the Council of Economic Advisers, told
the American Enterprise Institute
Tuesday the administration is studying
possible ways to increase tax revenues
by overhauling tax breaks given to
businesses or individuals for special
purposes.
Gergen confirmed that “the question
of taxes is going to be considered se
riously during this review process.”
But he said it is clear the president
“feels strongly that the tax decreases
that are in place ... particularly those on
the personal side ... should remain in
place and are an important element in
the recovery.”
Weidenbaum also said the large de
ficit now is not all that harmful, but must
be reduced in later years.
By DANIEL PUCKETT
Battalion Staff
Houston has not only been setting a
new record for the number of murders
this year, but it may also have been the
location of the state’s most violent col
lege campus in 1980.
Figures released by the Texas A&M
University Police show that, of the 33
colleges and universities reporting, the
University of Houston led the state in
the combined rate of murder, rape, rob
bery and aggravated assault.
But, in non-violent crime, the figures
indicated that Texas A&M had the fifth
highest crime rate of any campus in the
state, with Baylor University leading in
that category.
Although numbers for some cam
puses were not available, the violent
crime rate at UH — 13.4 violent crimes
per 10,000 students — was the highest
reported in the state. Sul Ross Universi
ty in Alpine was second, with 12.1 vio
lent crimes per 10,000 students.
The 1980 rate at Texas A&M was 2.8
per 10,000.
A crime prevention specialist at UH,
Dennis Buffington, said the reason for
the school’s high crime rate is its loca
tion.
“We re in the middle of the Third
Ward,” he said, “which has the second-
highest crime rate in Houston; Houston
itself has the fastest-growing crime rate
in the nation.”
Baylor, UH lead statistics
— University crime figures —
Violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault)
School Number of crimes per 10,000 students
1. University of Houston 13.4
2. Sul Ross University 12.1
3. Pan American University 11.8
4. Texas Tech University 11.3
5. Lamar University 10.7
Non-violent crimes (burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft)
School Number of crimes per 10,000 students
1. Baylor University 445.8
2. Sul Ross University 394.5
3. Southern Methodist University 387
4. Lamar University . 337
5. Texas A&M University 322.6
He attributed 90 percent of the crime
on campus to non-students, but said
that several new programs on the UH
campus are already bringing down its
crime rate. Among other measures, UH
police are assigning police officers to
specific beats and providing a 24-hour
escort service for students.
One of the most effective programs,
Buffington said, is a surveillance patrol
composed of students who work part
time, walking around campus and sur
veying parking lots with binoculars.
“They don’t get physically involved
in making arrests but they do keep in
contact with us over police radios,” he
said.
Buffington said the new programs
have already resulted in a sharp drop in
most forms of crime on campus. When
measured against figures reported at
this time last year, he said, robberies
are down 59 percent, assaults are down
47 percent and vehicle thefts are down
31 percent.
And though three rapes have already
been reported this year, as opposed to
two all last year, Buffington said this is
probably because more crimes are
being reported.
“Rape is generally under-reported,”
he said, “and when people don’t feel the
police can do anything about it, they
report it even less.
“But they see us out there now; they
know we re doing something about
crime, so they feel reporting a crime
will get something done about it,” Buf
fington said.
Despite its high incidence of violent
crime in 1980, UH showed a lower rate
of non-violent crime — 218 per 10,000
students — than did Texas A&M, which
reported 322.6 crimes per 10,000 stu
dents. The categories studied were
burglary, larceny and motor vehicle
theft.
Baylor’s Director of Security Ser
vices, E.B. Myre, said crime at the
Waco campus was high because of sev
eral special problems.
He said Baylor students own more
cars per capita than do students at other
universities, and said professional car-
thieves have been stealing cars and car-
parts from campus parking lots.
Furthermore, Myre said, Baylor has
about 33 percent of its students living on
campus, which is a higher percentage
than at most other schools.
He said the larger number of stu
dents living in dormitories means a lar
ger number of crimes of all sorts being
reported on campus.
Overall, Myre said, the most serious
campus security problem is n
students.
“We’ve got a lot of people on campus
who shouldn’t be,” he said.
In sharp contrast to the high inci
dence of crime on other campuses,
Texas Women’s University in Denton
reported the state’s lowest overall inci
dence, with 1.3 violent crimes, 29.4
non-violent crimes and 30.7 total crimes
per 10,000 students.
John Erwin, captain of the Universi
ty Police at Texas Women’s University,
attributed the university’s low crime
rate to one fact: the school’s students are
all women.
The non-violent crime rate at Texas
A&M was the fifth highest reported in
the state, but University Police Chief
Russ McDonald said those figures could
be deceiving.
McDonald questioned the accuracy
of reporting techniques at other univer
sities, and said he was sure the techni
ques at Texas A&M are totally factual,
giving rise to the impression that the
crime rate is higher than that at other
universities.
“The social norm is that females will
not have as many problems with the law
as males of the same age,” Erwin said.
He also credited police crime-
prevention and crime-awareness prog
rams with holding the campus crime
rate to a low level. Erwin said a very
strong rape-prevention program, which
includes a police escort service, has
made TWU one of the safest campuses
in the country for women.
“I do not believe we have more crime
at A&M than they do at UT or the Uni
versity of Houston,” he said.
Baylor University showed the high
est rate of non-violent crime in the three
categories studied: 445.8 per 10,000
students.
“We encourage our students to
watch out for people who shouldn’t be
on campus and for suspicious activi
ties,” Erwin said. “I think we’ve done
very well.”
He defended crime-reporting techni
ques at TWU, saying they are as good as
those at any other university.