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— |TexasA&M IS
The Battalion
Serving the University community
1.76 No. 13 USPS 045360 34 Pages In 2 Sections
College Station, Texas
Friday, September 17, 1982
Bush rebuts
rip O’Neill’s
lid remarks
United Press International
(VASHINGTON — Vice President
orge Bush today dismissed as “de
ration” or “old Boston politics” the
larks of House Speaker Thomas
Veil! that President Reagan has ice
;er for blood and 'no real concern
fthe poor and handicapped.
“It might be desperation. It might
just old Boston politics. It’s the old
gning to a decent man motives
t are not correct. I was very dis
appointed in the Speaker. It injected
ivihole kind of personal thing in to it
hat s disappointing,” Bush said on an
JBC interview taped late Thursday
ind broadcast on the “Today” show.
lAday earlier, also in a taped inter-
ew, O’Neill said Reagan stared cold-
jathim during a White House meet-
ig when O’Neill suggested that
aagan, about to leave to have his
Cture taken with some handicapped
iildren, tell the youngsters O’Neill
s working to save government
igrams affecting them.
‘You know,” said O’Neill, “it’s nice
be, it’s nice to have an effervescent
ile and a friendly way and a warm
ndshake, but you’ve got to have
ire than ice water for blood that
urs to the heart. You have to have
lie thought for them. It’s one thing
feel sad for them. It’s another thing
do something for them and I’ve
been doing things for that type of
people all my life.
“I don’t think he has the concern
for those that are on the bottom rung
of the ladder.”
Later Thursday, in an address to
blacks. Bush said, “That is pure un
adulterated — well, that’s not true.
Tip O’Neill knows it’s not true.”
The vice president added that,
“What this president is attempting to
do is to reverse the O’Neill-Carter-
Mondale economic disaster of the
past by cutting inflation, taxes and
interest rates. And they’re all down,
Tip, because the American people re
jected your ideas of the ‘30s and
adopted the new ones we proposed
for the ‘80s.”
Today, Bush said O’Neill’s remarks
appeared to signal the start of a
Democratic campaign tactic, but
added, “It’ll fail. There isn’t the
venom, the vitriol out there about the
man. People see him as honorable
and decent. They don’t buy the de
scription the speaker laid on him.”
And referring to the $1 billion
Democratic-pushed jobs bill the
House passed Thursday, added,
“Now six weeks, eight weeks before
an election comes forth with an old
pork barrel approach, the kind of
approach that has failed in the past.”
An exhausting demonstration
staff photo hy David Fisher
Mario Perez, an executive from the Clean Fuel Institute
of Riverside, Calif., demonstrates Thursday that the
exhaust from his company’s hydrogen-burning truck —
mostly water vapor and air — is safe to breathe. The
University’s chemistry department may have found a
cheaper way to produce hydrogen fuel for the vehicle,
which would make the $2,000 conversion from a
conventional engine economically feasible.
ouncil approves change in PUF distribution
by Denise Richter
Battalion Staff
A compromise proposal affecting the distri-
tion of the Permanent University Fund was
proved this week by top officials of Texas
iblic senior colleges and universities.
The proposal, if adopted, would allow pro-
eds from the $3 billion fund to be shared
th parts of the Texas A&M and University
Texas systems other than the main cam-
ises.
The plan agreed upon by the Council of
esidents and Chancellors of Public Senior
)lleges and Universities of Texas is subject
to approval by representatives of university
boards of regents, the Legislature, the gov
ernor and voters.
The PUF is composed of income from oil
produced on land set aside by the Legislature.
The Texas A&M and UT systems share the
Available Fund, which consists of proceeds
from the PUF. Texas A&M receives one-third
of the Available Fund.
At Texas A&M, some of the money indire
ctly generated by the PUF already is used by
other campuses, said Robert G. Cherry, vice
chancellor for public affairs. Cherry repre
sented the System at the council meeting.
Regents of the Texas A&M and UT systems
can sell bonds against future PUF revenue. At
Texas A&M, proceeds from bond sales can be
used by the other components of the System,
except for Texas A&M University at Galves
ton and the Texas Veterinary Medical Diag
nostic Laboratory.
Payment on principal and interest on these
bonds is the first priority of the Available
Fund. Money left after these payments are
made can be used only by Texas A&M.
“This follows the concept of creating a uni
versity of the first class,” Cherry said.
The council also approved the establish
ment of a constitutionally dedicated approp
riated fund for the 17 schools that do not
share the PUF.
Texas A&M abstained from voting on this
issue.
“Since it (the new fund) doesn’t affect us, it
would not be appropriate for us to affect their
policy,” Cherry said.
The amount of the appropriation to be re
quested has not been determined, but will
include an escalator clause based on either
construction costs or the Consumer Price
Index.
Construction at schools outside the Texas
A&M and UT systems previously was fi
nanced by the ad valorem property tax. In
1979, however, the Legislature drastically re
duced the ad valorem tax, leaving these
schools without a dependable source of con
struction funds.
Other items endorsed by the council in
clude:
•full funding of such “formula items” as
faculty salaries. Formula items are those for
which the Legislature appropriates money
based on a set formula.
•the passage of emergency legislation to
finance the payment of utility costs, which
exceeded the amount appropriated by the
Legislature for the current fiscal year.
•full funding by the Legislature of Social
Security costs now paid by employees.
Apartments offer
T housing alternative
| for Brazos elderly
by Colette Hutchings
Battalion Staff
Ruth O’Brien, 67, moved from
Pennsylvania to Bryan to live with
I her daughter, husband and their
teen-age son. But after two
months, she found it hard to live in
a house full of people who felt
obliged to cater to her every need,
and she missed the independence
she once had.
So when she applied for the
LULAC Oak Hill apartments for
the elderly in College Station and
was accepted, she was so happy she
cried.
Here is a place secluded from
the noise, traffic and hustle-bustle
ofa young college town. It’s where
colorful flower and vegetable gar
dens, begging for garderners, sur
round private patios and where a
dear friend, who’s the same age,
lives next door.
And it’s a place where even 67-
year-olds still are encouraged to do
“their thing.”
“You’re never lonely and you
can’t get bored, there’s so much to
do,” O’Brien said.
Laquata Griffin, 77, another
Oak Hill resident, said:
“I love it, my son tells me: ‘I’ve
never seen you so satisfied.’
“I love living by myself. I can do
what I want to. If I want to clean
the apartment I can, if I don’t, I
don’t have to.”
Anna Dewitt, 85, said: “All I can
say is it’s heaven. You do what you
want — if you want coffee you go
and get it.
“You know an older person has
different ways, naturally different
from the younger generation, and
this is something for an older per
son. You can do as you please.”
The segment of the U.S. popu
lation 75 years old and older in
creased more than 37 percent dur
ing the 1970s and continues to be
one of the fastest-growing seg
ments.
A census estimate as of July 1,
1981, said the number of persons
living in the United States who are
65 and older is about 27 million.
A breakdown of this figure
shows the number of people 65 to
69 is 8.88 million; ages 70 to 74 —
7.13 million; ages 75 to 79 — 4.91
million; ages 80 to 84 — 3.85 mil
lion; and those over 85 total 2.36
million.
Census reports from 1980 show
the number of Brazos County per
sons 65 and older is 6,388 — in
cluding 4,514 from Bryan and 908
from College Station.
Although the number of elder
ly in the country is abundant, most
of the elderly don’t live in nursing
homes, Letitia Alston, sociology
professor at Texas A&M Universi
ty, said.
“I think they estimate 4 to 6
percent of the population over 65
are in nursing homes,” she said.
“The tendency for the vast major
ity is to live in their own homes.”
Ruth Morales, manager of the
College Station LULAC (League
of United Latin American
Citizens) Oak Hill, said the elderly
often have problems living in their
old home and in finding alterna
tives to nursing homes.
“Some of them had their
homes, but it’s an older home —
the roof leaks and the house has
started to run down,” Morales
said. “You know, it’s too cold for
them in the winter and too hot for
them in the summer.
“And then it’s hard for the chil
dren to keep them. It’s ‘what do we
do with momma or papa?’ They
(the elderly) still may be able to get
around, but they’re sent to nursing
homes.
“Or they’re afraid. There may
be a couple who fights all the time
living near them or kids running
around. This (Oak Hill) is an
answer and an alternative to mov
ing in with a daughter or son or
moving to a nursing home or hous
ing project.”
LULAC Oak Hill is the brain
child of Morales’ brother, Pete
Ramirez, local LULAC chapter
president and president of
LULAC Oak Hill.
see ELDERLY page 5
Shell now promoting
use of credit cards
United Press International
HOUSTON — Shell Oil Co., capi
talizing on recent moves by competi
tors who have abandoned credit cards
or charge a premium for their use,
said it is launching a campaign to
attract new credit card customers and
encourage current holders to use
them more often.
“Like our competitors, Shell is con
cerned about the rising cost of provid
ing credit, but we also have to consid
er that a large segment of the driving
public wants the convenience and
safety provided by credit cards,” said
WJ. Bittles, Shell vice president of
retail sales.
Many consumers, he said, “either
resent or don’t understand some of
the confusing gasoline price policies
they are encountering today. We
think they will opt for service stations
where the dealer’s price is competi
tive, but the same — cash or credit.”
In the past year, a number of ma
jor oil companies have tried to dis
courage credit card use. Some have
offered customers discounts for cash
purchases and others have
announced plans to discontinue their
credit card program.
Shell said it hopes its campaign will
encourage holders of other oil com
pany credit cards to present them at
Shell service stations, at which time
they would apply for a Shell card.
Shell said it will evaluate the results
of its program “very carefully while
continuing to monitor and respond to
competitive conditions in all of our
markets.”
The Shell promotional campaign
— which will utilize newspaper, radio
and television advertising — will ini
tially be confined to markets east of
the Rocky Mountains, Shell said.
TI to make chips
for IBM machines
United Press International
DALLAS — Texas Instruments has
been chosen by International Busi
ness Machines Corp. to develop
sophisticated electronic chips to con
nect various types and brands of com
puters in an office, TI has
announced.
The agreement between the two
giant firms would mean the creation
of a major market worth millions of
dollars for the Dallas-based firm.
The development of the electronic
chips would be a major step in
achieving complete automation of of
fices and permit equipment such as
electronic printers, word processors,
electronic filing cabinets and video
display terminals to communicate
and share information with one
another.
Experts say if the IBM-TI technol-
ogy proves successful, it could be
come a standard in the industry.
“It’s one of the most complex sys
tem undertakings going on in the
semiconductor industry today,” said
Wally Rhines, manager of TI’s adv
anced semiconductors development
program.
Rhines said TI was chosen by IBM
because of leadership in the devlop-
ment of single chip microcomputers.
inside
Classified 8
National. . 7
Opinions 2
Sports 15
State 4
Whatsup II
forecast
Today’s Forecast: High in the
low to mid 90s, low in the low 70s.
Twenty percent chance of after
noon showers.