opinion
Slouch By Jim Earle
THANK YOU
TEXAS A&M m
CHANCELLOR
AND MAN OF
QUALITY
Chancellor’s road to glory
It’s all a matter of leadership.
Texas A&M University and the Texas
A&M System have experienced their big
gest, most substantial changes when men
who were not only administrators but
leaders, were in control. James Earl Rud
der and Jack K. Williams were leaders
with a purpose, incontestably in solid
control — the more so because each held
both the University and System top slots.
That purpose was to transform the
Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas into a University and bring Texas
A&M into the second half of the 20th
is a multi-campus system
service and research agencieslii
A&M. His desire for a newel
viewed by most as healthy aggra
just the thing for the Aggies.
And no one doubts
Bright will continue to act decisiu
occasion wit hout tact, in whatlie| )ERWA‘
U.S. foreign policy
remains out of control
century.
The chancellor’s and president’s
offices were again separated in 1977, and
Dr. Frank W.R. Hubert took the System
reins in hand in 1979. As chancellor,
Hubert tempered, controlled and dire
cted three years of exploding Aggiedom;
he also reorganized — streamlined —
System operations.
Now, a direction is needed as Aggie
dom shuffles its feet just across the
threshold of the Bigtime — and the col
lective ambition of those in charge may
well furnish this direction once again.
Despite the Board of Regents’ primary
planning/policy function, chairman H.R.
“Bum” Bright has emerged as a tactical
and strategic leader who doesn’t care
whether you like him or not — as long as
he gets beneficial results for Texas A&M.
The Board of Regents are the top-dog
policy planners of a three-tier power
scheme that devolves from the Board —
to the System chancellor — to the heads
of the System parts. Make no mistake,
command is not by committee. The chief
executive officer is in charge of his parti
cular bailiwick, a system which is used all
the way to the department level, where
department heads, not elected chairmen,
reign.
The triumvirate thus is the Regents’
chairman, the System chancellor and the
University president.
the best interests of the Uniyl
the System. He too, wants Aggid
in the pre-eminent sunshine
university-ship — not a unwortlf
any means
The roles have been cast. H|
Vandiver, who are both somewl
ismatic, extremely able and ent^
and Bright, who is blunt, bli®
forceful — are all jockeying for
from whence to determine the
Aggieland.
iCOPAI
eet for H<
ry Hou*
UNG Cl
udder.
BA CLl
ap.m. U
wel to th<
iCOPAI
eet for 1
University President Frank E. Vandiv
er has mostly shed the low profile main
tained since the Jackie Sherrill affair in
January and has begun to speak out for
the concept of “world universities” —
naturally proposing Texas A&M as a
logical candidate.
Outgoing Chancellor Hubert has been
the “iron fist in the velvet glove” — the
“kind yet gracious,” “tough administra
tor” at the helm that rebuffed a Universi
ty president’s power play and realigned
the System.
Incoming Chancellor Arthur G. Han
sen views his new job as a step up from
the top spot at Purdue University, which
The change and rate of changti
— cannot — be as quantitative!!
menal as in years past, but I
deeper. Hubert hopes Aggiekl
have colleges of law and ^1^'^—
turn of the century. Hansenhasei L j n a sex
ed a desire to concentrate on tk L st Rockv
grant priorities” — science, ,u Jarp. could ;
and engineering. Bright wantsti pi women ;
at everything — no, wait, theEgHnse contr
If the triumvirate can meshth plli° n - an att
and aims, great things can hapj®^ 0 ™ 6 )'
not, things can deteriorate or w* Mond ^ y a |
matter what, things will change-®^ ^
the only constant. Id affect a
Let us hope, then, that ourleiiB a g ers or v
not lead us astray but instead iHying for i
further down the road to glory. R at Rock
Aas and C(
a five-yea
He said ;
The resignation of Secretary of State
Alexander Haig gives to the world yet
another sign of an unstable American
foreign policy. Allies who were once re
lieved by President Carter’s disappear
ance from the world scene find them
selves equally perplexed by this Presiden-
behrooz
moghaddam
cy’s diplomatic ineptitudes. United
States’ dependability — and with it pre
stige — as the leader of the free world
hang on the balance as chaos continues to
best describe the foreign policy process
here.
The principal cause for the present
deterioration, it seems to me, is directly
due to the infighting for control over
foreign policy decisions during Haig’s
brief tenure. The National Security
Advisor and the Secretary of Defense, to
a lesser extent, were the competing ele
ments.
The purpose for a Secretary of State is
exclusive to the performance of diploma
cy around the world. His assignment is
based on experience and ability. These
necessary qualifications combined with
all the resources he commands at the
State Department, provide him with un-
paralled insight into world affairs.
Hence, logically, one would expect him
to play a primary role, second only to the
president’s, in policy formulations.
The input of other cabinet and White
House Staff members is of course vital in
keeping a health level of variety and dis
agreement. However, in the final analy
sis, foreign policy is not their cup of tea,
as agriculture is not the specialty of the
Secretary of State. Thus at best this out
side advice should be volunteered cau
tiously.
The President’s foreign policy dilem
ma is a fact of life today precisely because
that constructive input has been forsaken
and replaced by detrimental competi
tion.
More specifically, when the Secretary
of Defense, Casper Weinberger, and the
National Security Advisor, William
Clark, pressed their views on the Presi
dent, they did so irresponsibly. By doing
so they interfered with the function dele
gated to the Secretary of State, a func
tion, morever, for which they were not
and are not properly equipped.
The inevitable friction which de
veloped during this coup attempt by
Clark and Weinberger threw the whole
diplomatic process into chaos. Different
voices with contradicting messages
emanated from the Administration, leav
ing the world, allies and adversaries alike,
guessing.
The final solution undoubtedly rests
with the President. Much like Jimmy Car
ter, however, Ronald Reagan’s involve
ment in actual policy formulations is li
mited by an apparent lack of sufficient
experience. Yet unlike President Carter,
President Reagan does have the adminis
trative leadership with which he may re
store some semblance of order to Amer
ica’s foreign policy.
Whatever resolution the President
opts for, his personal discipline will be
irreplaceable. It looks like he has little
choice but to wake up a little earlier once
in a while.
On the other hand if nothing is done,
the present inherent competitiveness of
the present structure, particularly be
tween the National Security Advisor and
the Secretary of State will probably not
dissipate independently.
And consequently Americans may
soon see the third defection of a Secret-
— inc
ent empl
:cted.
Barber s:
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: United P
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befri
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the Unite
The future — computer widows
ary of State in less than four years.
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
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by Art Buchwald
For every home computer sold in
America, there is a computer widow
somewhere.
I dropped over to see the Bengals the
other night. Mrs. Bengal offered me a
drink.
“Where’s Walter?” I asked Adele.
“Where he always is these nights. He’s
in the library talking to his home com
puter.”
“He talks to a computer?”
“All the time. It’s taken the place of
television, conversation and foreplay,”
she said bitterly.
“I didn’t know Walter was into compu
ters.”
“Have you ever thought about getting
your own home computer and plugging
into his? Perhaps you could talk that
way.”
“I’m not interested in interfacing with
him through a terminal. After all, we’re
in the same house.”
“Maybe I should talk to him,” I sug
gested.
“You can try, but I doubt if it will do
any good.:
“I went into the library and found Wal
ter hunched over his keyboard. “Hi, Wal
ter. Am I disturbing you?”
on a new
“He says he’s working
budget, but I walked in last night and he
was playing ‘Star Wars.’ He told me he
was just checking out his floppy disk
drive. I’ve never felt so alone in my life.
At least when he watched football, I
could sit next to him. But now that he has
a home computer, he says he has to be
alone with his software.”
“No,” he said, squinting at me. “I was
only justifying my margins.”
“How’s life?” I asked.
“Fine. I was having a problem with my
cursor for a while, but I straightened it
out by adding a protocol.”
“You have to be careful of cursors,” I
said. “What news of Adele?”
“Wait a minute,” he said, “I’ll find
out.”
He put in a disk, pushed a codt
and typed on the screen ADELE
he hit his RETURN button.
“Here it is,” he said. She’s either
kitchen, the bath, her bedroom op
to a baseball game.”
“A baseball game?”
Walter looked worried. “Thatd 1
sound right. But it’s no problem
have to do is hit this DELETE b#
“Adele thinks she’s losing you to)'
py disk retrieval system,” I told hi
“That’s ridiculous,” Walter said
I’m trying to do is store and indes
that will be able to forecast how
enjoy the September years ofoun
“We’ve been friends for years,®
going to ask you a very personalquef
Walter. How much do you love A
Walter, without saying a won
serted a disk, and started hittin
keyboard.
“What are you doing?” I asked
“I’m counting the ways. It’s rant
ter to do it on a computer.”
“You poor kid. Maybe he’ll tire of it.”
“No way. He reads computer maga
zines the way he used to read Playboy.
His idea of a centerfold now is a 64-K
Ram Micro-Computer that will expand
to 128 bytes and produce a six-color high
graphic screen resolution.
“Has he told you this?”
“No, but he talks in his sleep.”
“Well, at least he’s not dreaming about
another woman,” Adele said, “But I can’t
compete with a cerfhputer. We have no
communication any more. The only lan
guage he uses is BASIC, COBOL, and
FORTRAN. I’m at my wits’ end.”
the small society
by Bricb