Dr. Frank
Veteran administrator ma
by Denise Richter
Battalion Staff
Almost a quarter century of service
to the Texas A&M University System
will end today when chancellor Frank
W.R. Hubert steps down from the posi
tion he has held since October 1, 1979.
During a recent interview, Hubert
reflected on his tenure at Texas A&M,
a time that has included years of great
growth and dramatic change for the
University and the system.
Hubert came to Texas A&M — then
the A&M College of Texas — on July 1,
1959. A&M College consisted of four
colleges: Agriculture, Arts and Scien
ces, Engineering and Veterinary Medi
cine.
Hubert was hired as dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences, which in
cluded departments now in the colleges
of Business, Liberal Arts, Science and
Geosciences.
“My first entry on campus was very
interesting,” Hubert said. “I sat in my
office (in Nagle Hall) over a period of
two weeks ... with little to do.”
But a call from President Earl Rud
der changed all of this.
The legislature then was in session
but had adjourned for the summer
without passing an appropriation bill
for the funding of higher education for
the next year. To remedy this, Gov.
Price Daniel called the legislature back
into special session.
“It became clear toward the closing
hours of the legislative session that the
A&M College of Texas was not going to
get funding at the level that it had re
quested,” Hubert said. “So, one day ab
out mid-July, I got a call from President
Rudder and he said: ‘Frank, I’d like
very much if you could go back and visit
with your deparment heads in the Col
lege of Arts and Sciences. You’ve got to
reduce your budget request by
$180,000.’
“Well, at that time, $180,000 was a
lot of money. I think the entire budget
for the College of Arts and Sciences was
just over $1 million ... so he was re
questing more than a 10 percent de
crease in our new budget.
“I soon discovered that a very quick
way to get to know your department
heads on a very intimate basis is to go to
them and say: ‘Look, dear friend, we’ve
got a request from the President’s
office to reduce our budget request by
$180,000.’
“After much agonizing, rioting and
confusion, we got the $180,000 but it
was a horrible experience. We put the
budget together and the legislature did
appropriate a lesser amount than we
had requested. But we were off and
running in the fall of 1959.”
Hubert said program changes and
organizational matters within the Uni
versity were highlights of his 23 year
tenure. He cited creation of the De
partment of Psychology and formation
of the Political Forum as two of the
most memorable changes.
In 1963, Dr. S.O. Brown, a profes
sor in the College of Arts and Sciences,
received a research contract with the
U.S. Air Force to study the physiologic
al effects of low-level radiation expo
sure on goats. In addition, the Air
Force wanted a study on the psycholo
gical behavior and reaction of goats af
ter exposure to low-level radiation.
Since Texas A&M did not have a
practicing clinical psychologist on cam
pus, Brown suggested that one be hired
on a part-time basis from the Universi
ty of Texas. But, by combining the sal
ary of a part-time professor and a part-
time researcher, Hubert was able to
hire a practicing clinical psychologist
on a full-time basis.
“We decided that he could do the
research and also be available to stu
dents who had an interest in (psycholo
gy),” Hubert said. “It was out of that
series of events that we brought on a
full-time psychologist in animal stu
dies, which grew ... from that modest
background into the Department of
Psychology.”
The refusal of University adminis
tration to allow a Young Democrat
group on campus led to the formation
of the Political Forum.
Administrators refused the forma
tion of the Young Democrats because,
as Hubert said one administrator ex
claimed: “My God, if they have a
Democrat organization, someone’s
going to want a Republican association
of all things and then the Socialist Par
ty, and then who knows what else.”
The administration urged students
interested in politics to join the Brazos
County chapter of Young Democrats
but Hubert said students continued to
want an organization of their own.
Finally, Hubert approved the for
mation of a Political Forum, which was
given an initial appropriation and was
administered out of the Office of the
Dean of the College of Arts and Sci-
However, Rudder placed this quali
fier on the forum: every time the group
brought a proponent of one side of an
issue to campus, it would have to bring
to the same program a proponent hav
ing the opposite view.
“This made it tremendously diffi
cult to schedule top speakers to come to
A&M,” Hubert said. “But we finally
were able to get two Houston congress
men — Bob Eckhart and George Bush
— to come and share the podium ... for
the first political forum program.
“The program was just literally
October 1, 19m 30
packed. It was held in 201 MSC and it
was a standing room only crowd. After
the evening’s performance, the stu
dents gave them a standing ovation that
I would guess lasted a full 45 minutes.
It was amazing, both of them were
overwhelmed.”
Hubert said the two most dramatic
changes — making membership in the
Corps of Cadets non-mandatory and
the admission of women — came about
as a result of declining enrollment.
“A discussion and debate on
very emotional issue had been in prog
ress for several years before I arrived
on the scene,” Hubert said. “Boththe
voluntary military program and the
admission of women had a sort of con
current evolution over a period of
years.
“There were former students who
were just absolutely adamant that a
'Iter Woi
Irsities aa
Biographical inford
Birthdate: June 2, 1915, Milam County,
Texas
Wnivei
Education:
B.A., Government and History, University
of Texas, 1938
M.A., Educational Administration and
Government, University of Texas, 1946
Pb.D., Educational Administration and
American Local Government, University of
Texas, 1950
LL.D. Baylor University, 1979
Educational Experience:
Director of music, Lutcher Stark Boys, Inc.,
Orange, Texas, 1938-1944
Principal and director of secondary
education, Orange, Texas, 1946-1948
Research
Texas, 1948S
Administratk& direct
minimum foum> r ograi
division, state asp Austir
1949-1950
Director, diiW'Bnal sta,
Texas EducMW-1955
Superintendent P r auge,
1955-1959
Dean, Arts andf 1 ^ A&l
1959-1965
Dean, Liberal^ dAf, 19(
Acting Dean i
1969-1970
Dean, Collegei fTexas
1969-1979
Chancellor, TeSfersity,
1979-1982
■ exas
Chancellor Hubert and Regents Chairman H. R. “Bum” Bright at a rff ^gent