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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1985)
Wednesday, February 27, 1985AThe Battalion/Page 3 ■Miiiii!' a v a i Lytle serves as liaison to boost A8cM's profile f? i wrote I •riculul itioiu nakei icrr ic oU lOW. try ( at my< ;htl iringil By KENNETH A. PEMBERTON Reporter Michael A. Lytle’s job is to make sure that Texas A&M keeps a high profile in the United States and that the University plays a dominant role in certain issues. Lytle is the special assistant to the chancellor for federal regula tions. “Basically, I help the chan cellor (Arthur G. Hansen) make more informed decisions,” Lytle said. “I’m like a clearing house or a brokerage firm — I straighten out the facts and present them to the chancellor. “I maintain liaison with gov ernmental relations staffs of Texas, federal agencies, national higher education associations, learned societies and other re search universities.” Every 45 days Lytle travels to Washington, D.C., to meet with public officials and attend lec tures of national organizations. “For example,” Lytle said, “the Department of Defense was de ciding where to locate its Software Institute (a computer software producer of defense programs). “A&M and the University of Texas as well as the University of Southern California and other schools were competing for it. It turned out Carnegie-Mellon got it, but it kept A&M very visible. Lytle said he thinks he is a nat ural for the job. Lytle served with the United States Army military intelligence in Vietnam. Later, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in politi cal science and forensic studies at MSC complex money is tight Repairs to continue By CATHIE ANDERSON Stuff Writer Rain at Texas A&M means stu dents have to break out their plastic rain gear and duck shoes. For the workers in the University Center, however, it means breaking out the trash cans to catch leaking water. Steve Hodges, University Center manager, says the leaky ceiling will soon be repaired. The entire com plex is receiving a new foam (polyeu- rathane) roof. Hodges says that reparation to Rudder Theater, Rudder Tower, the Board of Regents Annex and the Memorial Student Center will con tinue despite some fiscal difficulties. The complex was experiencing problems before, but a recent man date from University President Frank E. Vandiver has made things more difficult. Vandiver has asked University departments to reduce their budgets by 2 percent. The money that is saved would be used by the respective departments dur ing the next biennium. Because of this order, Hodges says that the complex will have to make a 2 percent profit since it was operating on a break-even budget this year. “It’ll be real tight,” Hodges says. Making a profit will be even more difficult because the complex has de pleted all of its reserve funds over the last five years, Hodges said. The complex has been operating at a def icit for the past five years. Hodges says that this is the reason that the students’ University Center fee needed to be increased. The stu dents voted to increase the fee in the spring. But the 2 percent budget cut reduces the effect of the $2-per-stu- dent-per-semester increase that the complex is getting. Other ways that the complex earns money are through leasing, guest room rental and bowling and games in the MSC. The complex was operating on a break-even budget until the recent cut was made, Hodges says. Now the complex is limiting reparation to what is necessary to prevent future damage. And repairs, which have al ready been contracted, will be made. “By the time we’ve contracted for work, we can’t just tell the people, ‘Sorry, we don’t need your serv ices,’ ” Hodges says. “It’ll take us a couple of months to gear things down.” The complex also has cut the amount of part-time help it receives in order to comply with Vandiver’s mandate, Hodges says. “It has caused us to tighten our belts considerably,” Hodges says. “We will have to use less part-time help in setting up things for the complex. But we have not had to let anyone go.” Monthly welfare grant in Texas less than half of national average Photo by DEAN SA1TO Michael Lytle, special assistant to the chancellor for federal relations, uses a computer to keep in touch with faculty. Indiana University in 1973. He then taught criminal justice and received his Master’s of Educa- tion,from A&M in 1978. “(Criminal) investigation helped me to deal with processing information — also evaluating facts and their accuracy,” he said. “And how to deal with people.” Lytle also does research for NAT O. He is a specialist on the NATO Alliance and Northern European politico-military af fairs. “I get kidded about it once in a while — the fact that I’m in on both national and international affairs,” he said. Auto plant war makes ‘Donahue’ adit, ff )bvioi t ik shci| nhanti i colk omaJ radii ration! The Associated Press WASHINGTON — General Mo tors Chief Roger Smith said Tuesday the car maker is in a “tug of war” be tween Texas and northern states jwho are closer to suppliers of a pro posed new automobile plant the ^tates are seeking. Texas Gov. Mark White, who ap peared on the syndicated “Phil Do nahue Show” with Smith and six other governors said later that he doesn’t feel he has to “sell” Texas. More than a dozen states are vy ing for the 6,000-worker plant, which will make the newly designed “Saturn,” a small model expected to take on the high-mileage Japanese imports. “Texas has the lead on this thing for a couple of reasons,” Donahue said. “It’s a right to work state, Ross Perot just did a big business deal with you (GM) having sold his whole company which is now a division of yours. There’s a rumor that he bought land, I think outside Dallas- Fort Worth.” White said later that because the new car requires a brand new plant and new showrooms, suppliers would be willing to open new facili ties in Texas. Associated Press AUSTIN — Commissioner Mar lin Johnston of the Department of Human Resources said Tuesday that Texas’ average welfare grant of $53 a month is far behind Oklahoma and New Mexico, “who are not known for being flaming liberals.” Texas’ AFDC, or Aid to Families with Dependent Children, is less than half the national monthly aver age of $109, Johnston told the Sen ate Finance Committee. The AFDC grant for the neigh boring state of Oklahoma is $98. New Mexico’s average grant is $81. The department budget for AFDC in Texas this year is $231.7 million, and the DHR asked for $2'80.7 million in the 1986 fiscal year and for $307.1 million in 1987. “We’re very pleased that we’ve been able to make some progress in getting that grant up over the past few years, thanks to the Legislature. We’re now at about $53 per person per month. The Legislative Budget Board would leave it that level. We had hoped to get it on up to around $60 for ’86 and $60 for ’87,” Johnston said. The proposed LBB budget calls £/.S.. total below the pov erty line, yet we get only about 3 percent of the federal monies to help those people.” -- DHR commissioner Marlin for $238.7 million for AFDC in 1986 and $244 million the following year. AFDC has generated repeated controversies in the past with legis lators complaining of “welfare Cadil lac” families. Johnston said the “true value” of an AFDC grant to a family of three, usually a mother and two children, is a maximum of $167 a month. The family also would be eligible for $189 in federally funded food stamps, $151 in health care and $8 iyi energy assistance for a total of $515 a month — or 69 percent of the poverty level. He told the committee, which is reviewing budget requests, that Texas has four of the seven worst “poverty pockets” in the nation in Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo and El Paso. Johnston said poverty is defined for a family of three as having an in come of less than $9,340 a year, and he added that 18 percent of Texans will live in poverty in 1986. “We have 8 percent of the U.S. to tal below the poverty line, yet we get only about 3 percent of the federal monies to help those people. Texas only reaches about 24 percent of the poverty children (in the state), while the national average is above 50 per cent,” Johnston said. DHR’s total budget request for 1986-87, including federal money, is nearly $5.70 billion, compared with the LBB’s proposal of $4.66 biillion. “We realize that the Legislature faces probably one of the toughest sessions in history from the stand point of need vs. available revenue, and we’re not unmindful of that,” Johnston said, “but we have to bal ance that with what we feel is our le gal and moral responsibility to lay out what we see to be the needs of the people. nor Snide Mallei 1 /iliiai# -i Clark iersoi ti Flirt -nnoli - Port Mam 1 Steffi, ^Lart ■ Smi* ennrt 1 ^ Hiiii Zaspert Irnrt 1400 S. 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