opinion
Battalion/Page 2 I
July 29,1982
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Aggie friendship — touchy issyfe
I wish the Board of 'Regents would
make up its mind.
The Regents have got to decide
whether they want the best of everything
for Texas A&M and the System — as they
have avowed, repeatedly — or whether
they just want to play favorites.
During Monday’s portion of their
three-day meeting, the regents seesawed
dangerously on the brink of a serious
ethical dilemma. Regents Royce Wisen-
baker and William McKenzie wanted to
reject a firm recommended as the most,
qualified by System planning staff to/
award a hefty contract to a better friend
of Aggieland.
architect, and Preston Geren is a
architect. He opens up his purse
gives us money
Sorry — I didn’t know financial®
butions were any indication of ti
expertise.
Wisenbaker and McKenzie
and tugged at the other Regenis
The contract in question was for de
sign of the $21.5 million engineering/
physics building scheduled to be com-
leted in 1986. The design fee comes to
980,000 — no small potatoes.
Reagan holds steady
In a briefing to the Regents, System
planning chief Wesley E. Peel put it like
this: all other things being equal—criter
ia including technical competence and
the quality of prior work done both for
the System and other customers — de
sign work would be awarded to the firm
with the most Aggie connections: Aggie-
owned, lots of Texas A&M grads em
ployed there and a history of financial
contributions to the University.
But, that’s supposed to be after a thor
ough weeding-out process based on tech
nical criteria to whittle the number of
interested firms from over 100 to three.
Those top three would be the ones
brought before the Regents, in order of
precedence.
Regents Planning and Building Com
mittee Chairman H.C. Bell praised the
procedure as “taking the politics out” of
the system: before the present procedure
was instituted in 1979, firms lobbied indi
vidual regents.
But when the design contract for the
engineering/physics building came up,
Wisenbaker wanted to give it to Preston
Geren Associates of Fort Worth — fourth
on the planning staffs list and therefore
not even on the list presented to the
board.
Wisenbaker extolled Geren’s virtues:
he had been instrumental in the design
and contruction of Cain Hall and the lib
rary, he was a past president of the Aggie
Club, and other Aggie support.
“I’m telling you,” Wisenbaker told
Peel, “Preston Geren’s grandfather was a
great architect, his father was a great
Regent Norman Moser faced upioj
issue: “I don’t think Preston Geren
formed all those valuable servicesiii'L
pectation of any favors,” he told
mavericks.
Regents Chairman H.R. “Bum
called the move “a bad mistake, ajun
action” — and the effort to stepoui
the bounds of due process was then
squashed.
Even so, System Chancellor Artkl
Hansen was left with a directive toost|
judgment in applying “some extra
sideration” to those felt to be
Aggieland.
Got all that straight? Good. Nowtl
about it, carefully.
If a state or federal governing
body did something like that, it won!
called favoritism, nepotism or somei
uglier: corruption.
The Regents didn’t really stepoi
line. T hey didn’t actually award a
tract due to non-technical factors-M iarc { y
they really thought about it for a wKt 0 f
Some of the individual regents ifc affa
each other how terrible that almostnitv
Veter
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Let’s hope a word to the wise is si
cient.
on economic course
by Helen Thomas
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan
plans to stay the course with his current
economic policies, but that does not
mean his aides are not worried about the
fall elections.
A White House official indicated that
the worst thing for Reagan would be to
become “Carteresque” and to appear un
decided, as Jimmy Carter’s opponents
liked to perceive him.
The official in effect said it would hurt
Reagan’s image as a true believer in
Reagonomics if he suddenly decided it
was not working with 9.5 million unem
ployed and workers, from blue collar to
top corporation excutives worried about
their jobs all over the country.
The president has proved stalwart and
unflexible. Despite the pleas of the hous
ing industry he refused to give a helping
hand with a bailout for mortgages. While
he quotes Calvin Coolidge that the “busi
ness of America is business,” he also be
lieves in sink or swim, survival of the fit
test when it comes to free enterprise.
He believes the government shackles
business and without restraints the U.S.
economy would be soaring. But it is not.
Something is wrong. His top aides admit
it but they say nothing will be done until
after the election.
“We are obviously concerned about
the economy,” said White House counse
lor Edwin Meese. “We think it will pick
up this year. There are some favorable
signs.
“At the same time, we’re in a pretty
serious situation,” he added. “We’ll have
to see the impact of the tax cuts.”
Chief of s'taff James Baker concedes
that the White House is conducting a
wide ranging review of economic poli
cies, but says Reagan does not intend to
announce any changes in those policies
before the election.
He believes there is too little time be
fore the election to effect a turnaround
even with new approaches, and feels it
would be politically damaging for
Reagan to seem to waver to the financial
community and the voters.
But Baker indicates that after the elec
tion, there will be some “adjustments” if
the economy does not pick up.
Reagan’s aides also believe the presi
dent has money in the bank because polls
show the majority of people, even among
the unemployed, do not blame him.
Reagan has hammered away at one
theme that he expects to hit even more
forcefully on the hustings this fall. The
theme is that he inherited all the econo
mic ills and that he needs more time to
straighten out the country.
According to his aides, the polls show
people are willing to give him more time.
But they do admit that since July 1,
Reagan must take some of the credit or
demerits for what happens to the eco
nomy. It is his show now.
From time to time, there are signals
that the Treasury Department is making
a study of the role of the Federal Reserve
Board. Much is made of the fact that it is
an independent agency. But there are
also advocates who would like to put it
under the Treasury. Former Treasury
Secretary John Connally for one has
thought it might not be a bad idea.
As for the elections, unemployment
could hurt candidates who run on
Reagan’s program. But the president has
other irons in the fire to keep his politiical
image up front. The public launching of
the campaign for an amendment requir
ing a balanced budget put him four
square against the red ink spenders.
He also is taking credit for a cost of
living increase in the Social Security
checks that he tried to block several
times.
In addition, he is leaning toward a “flat
tax” rate that he finds tempting and may
be politically saleable as well.
In short, the economy is in the dol
drums and there is no longer any hope at
the White House for a bright new pros
perous world by fall, but Reagan has
other irons in the fire that he believes will
save the day for the Republicans.
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Have a nice day — anyway
The Battalion
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by Art Buchwald
The trouble with most people is that
they never seem to leave well enough
alone. The other day I said to H. Boyer
Royal:
“Have a nice day.”
“Are you asking me a question?” he
wanted to know.
“No, I’m telling you.”
“What business of yours is it what kind
of day I have?”
“It really isn’t any of my business. As a
matter of fact, I really don’t care what
your day is like. I was trying to say good
bye to you in a friendly fashion.”
“Then why didn’t you just say, ‘Time is
like a fashionable host, that slightly
shakes his parting guest by the hand, and
with his arms outstretch’d as he would
fly, grasps in the comer; welcome ever
smiles, and farewell goes out sighing.’”
“I don’t know why I didn’t say that,” I
told him. “It never occurred to me.”
“People always tell you to have a nice
day, but they never tell you how to have
one.”
“I imagine they assume that each per
son should know how to do it. A nice day
to somebody may not necessarily be a
nice day to another. The farmer may
want it to rain; a lady who just bought a
new bathing suit may want the sun to
shine. Having your kid away from home
could be a nice day for some people,
while others will settle for a parking place
in town. When you tell someone to have a
nice day, you’re not responsible for how
it turns out.”
“Has it ever occurred to you,” Royal
said, “that when you tell someone to have
a nice day you might be putting a curse
on him?”
“I don’t believe it has. Would you care
to explain yourself?”
“Well, until you said it to me I wasn’t
giving any thought to what kind of day I
was going to have. I was going to take it as
it came. But now that ypu’ve planted the
idea in my head, I’m going to keep think
ing about it. When I return to my office
I’ll worry that Rosalie Caplan hasn’t re
turned my call. I’ll stew that Ann Bodner
in personnel is working on a new ‘reduc
tion in force’ for the company. I’ll won
der how much traffic I’ll have to fight to
get home. And when I get to the front
door I’ll be nervous about what mood my
wife is in. I know the odds of having a
nice day are stacked against me, but until
you wished me one, I was able to ignore
it. People should not say to anyone ‘Have
a nice day,’ when they don’t know what
that person is up against. It’s like putting
the evil eye on them.”
“I believe you’re reading too much
into my goodbye,” I told him. “When
someone says, ‘Have a nice day,‘ he is only
wishing you good luck.”
“Then why doesn’t he say: ‘May the
road rise up to meet you and may the
wind be always at your back, and may you
get to heaven before the devil knows
you’re there?”’
“Because most people are in a hurry,
and that takes too long to say, unless
you’re leaving an Irish bar. Why are you
making such an issue of a simple thing
like this?”
“I guess it’s a question of sincerf
Everyone tells you to have a nice day
how many people do you know real
care if you do or not?”
“Royal, you’re a cynic.”
“I am not. I know a department stoJ
and they train their employees to sa
‘Have a nice day’ to everybody."
“Well, wouldn’t you rather have the
say that than tell you what’s really®
their minds?”
“No, I think people should level will
you. They should tell you what’s on the.
minds. How can you know whomtotn^
when even the people who working
post office tell you to have a nice day!
“Well, Royal, I’m sure you realized®
when I wished you a nice day, I meant
from the bottom of my heart.”
“How can I be sure you weren’t jut
trying to get rid of me?” i
“Because I never say it to someboJ
unless I truly like and admire them.I
you don’t want to have a nice day that'sil
right with me, too.”
“There you go,” Royal cried. “Yoiit
putting the evil eye on me again."
the small society
by Brickman
©1961 King Fwturat Syndicate, Inc. World right* rxerved.
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