mm
Shakespearean production
lets audience interpret setting
— Page 8
A&M ends three-game slide
with 71-58 victory over Tech
— PagelO
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
nn ■ Texas A&M m m m •
The Battalion
Vol. 83 No. 102 CJSPS 075360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, February 20, 1986
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By FRANK SMITH
Staff Writer
Former Gov. Bill Clements
Rilled Gov. Mark White’s request
Ira 13 percent budget cut from
lath state department “absurd”
fii a Wednesday press conference
■ Texas A&M. -
I Clements, a Republican guber-
I,aerial candidate, later ad-
jfiessed an audience of about 150
in the Memorial Student Center,
but not before he had questioned
|Vhite’s experience in budgetary
,ttiatters.
I “1 think that what that (White’s
request) really says to the public is
It at this is a clear indication and
solid evidence that he has had no
experience in this field,” Clem
ents said during the press confer
ence. “That’s not the way you cut
|t budget. You don’t cut it 13 per-
ent across the board.
“fve already said that you do
actly the opposite. You set your
iriorities. You recognize that
ou’re going to have to increase
one things and decrease others.
,nd that’s just nonsense — it’s ab-
Surd —to think that we in Texas
just going to suffer a 13 per-
entcut across the board.”
System comptroller:
Budget cuts take time
Former Gov. Bill Clements, a 1986 gubernatorial candidate,
speaks at the Memorial Student Center.
White had made the request
Monday in an attempt to over-
ome an estimated $1.3 billion
hortfall in the two-year state
[udgetthat ends in August 1987.
Clements, whose visit was part
pi M.SC Political Forum’s guber-
iturval series, said if he was gov
ernor he would immediately call
ar a special session of the Legis-
tuve, set the budget priorities,
nd charge the Legislature to
rub the budget and open it for
Restructuring.
“We in Texas have the highest
tax revenues that we’ve ever had
in our history,” he said. “The tax
revenues in Texas are up 41 per
cent in the three years since I’ve
left office. Just think about that.
“1 don’t know of any business
in the state of T exas where their
profits or their revenues are up
41 percent. It’s an all-time his
toric high. And so what I’m say
ing to you is that we have ample
revenues and what we have to do
is set our priorities and, to borrow
a phrase, we have to cut the cloth
to fit the pattern. And we can get
by with no tax increases whatsoe
ver.”
But Clements said he thinks a
state income tax is “a very real
possibility” if White is re-elected.
“In fact, I will say to you that,
in my judgment, if he is re
elected it is inevitable that we will
have either a personal income
tax, a corporate income tax, or
both,” Clements said. “And to the
contrary, I’m telling you that if
I’m elected governor, just as in
the previous four years, there will
be no new taxes in Texas as long
as I’m your governor.”
Clements also elaborated on
what his ownbudgel pri.outies for
the state would be.
“I can name you two things
that I know that I would in
crease,” he said. “One has to do
with our prison system. And the
other is our Department of Public
Safety, which looks after us from
a crime standpoint.
“Another one that I can tell
you that should be set aside and
be in a priority area would be
higher education. Any kind of an
anticipation of what Texas should
be like and the quality of life in
Texas in 2001 has to have as a
fundamental building block
higher education.”
See White’s, page 13
By MONA L. PALMER and
SONDRA PICKARD
Staff Writer
Texas A&M administration and
faculty aren’t looking for quick solu
tions to Gov. Mark White’s 13 per
cent reduction order, Bill Wasson,
vice chancellor and System comp
troller, said Wednesday.
Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen
Tuesday asked the presidents of the
four System universities and the
heads of the eight University exten-
tions to develop an impact statement
as a preliminary move toward March
1, the deadline for the reduction im
plementation plan.
Wasson said, “There’s a need to
carefully look at size and type of cuts
and what they will or won’t do.
“Then you’ve got to sit down and
analyze what you can and can’t do.”
It’s also useless for the administra
tion to speculate on what budget
items it will cut, he said.
“You have to take it item by item
and area by area — and move very
quickly,” he said.
Dr. Cordon P. Eaton, provost and
vice president for academic affairs,
said the governor’s goals of retaining
faculty members and raising salaries
by 3 percent aren’t compatible.
“The arithmetic just doesn’t work
out,” he said. “Apparently they
didn’t do their arithmetic in Austin
before the press release.
“If the cuts remain as deep as they
are, then the governor’s goals simply
can’t be realized.”
White’s executive order states that
salary increases mandated by the ap
propriations bill for the current
biennium will be honored. The man
dated increases for state employees,
including staff personnel at public
universities, total 3 percent for the
fiscal year which began Sept. 1.
Eaton said the System guideline
had raised the mandated salary in
creases from 3 to 4.5 percent, but
now they’ll have to try to go back to
the 3 percent increase.
Faculty salaries don’t fall under
the mandated increase, so there’s a
See Comptroller, page 13
Budget cuts won't affect A&.M construction
By CRAIG RENFRO
Staff Writer
The current construction and
renovation of buildings at Texas
A&M will not be affected by the or
dered reduction in general revenue
spending, an A&M System adminis
trator sard Wednesday.
Daniel T. Whitt, assistant vice
chancellor for facilities planning and
construction, said construction will
continue on the eight projects now
under construction despite Gov.
Mark White’s order to reduce gen
eral revenue spending by 13 per
cent. This translates into budget cuts
of more than $68 million for TA-
MUS.
Whitt also said five proposed pro
jects, budgeted at a total cost of
$26.6 million, are under design for
fiscal years 1986 and 1987.
“I don’t know how it (budget cuts)
will affect us (on proposed pro
jects),” Whitt said. “It wouldn’t help
to speculate, but we will go on as
planned until told otherwise.”
Whitt said if planned construction
is allowed to continue, none of the
“We will go on as planned
until told otherwise.” —
Daniel T. Whitt, assistant
vice chancellor for facili
ties planning and con
struction at A&M.
money will come from the general
revenue fund.
“Most of our money comes from
the Public University Fund,” Whitt
said. “And you can’t reduce the PUF
unless the (state) constitution is
changed.”
According to White’s proposed
budget reduction, all state agencies
are to implement water and energy
conservation measures.
Joe J. Estill, physical plant direc
tor, said the plant is in the midst of
composing an energy and water re
duction plan, but did not know
whether the plan will be approved or
not.
Estill said planned utility operat
ing costs are $62 million for the next
two years. A 13 percent reduction
would amount to savings of $8 mil
lion over the next two years.
Estill said the plant is limited to
what it can cut back on.
“Do we shut down buildings?” he
asked. “Do we turn off the power at
5 p.m. and then turn it on again in
the morning?” he asked.
System Chancellor Arthur G.
Hansen Tuesday called together the
presidents of A&M, Prairie View
A&M University, Tarleton State
University and Texas A&M at Gal
veston and heads of the eight state
agencies that comprise the System.
They were told to initiate a plan that
would achieve the reductions pro
posed by the governor and to have
the plan ready for implementation
by March 1.
More than $38 million would
come out of the budgets for A&M if
the 13 percent reduction were to be
applied proportionally throughout
the System.
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Millionaire teaches A&M students about business world
Associated Press
J"Welcome to bullshit 438.” With that Clayton
Willliams, Midland’s millionaire and self-pro-
aimed warrior, kicks off his lecture.
[Williams is teaching young Aggie entrepre-
urs the do’s and don’t’s of the business world.
And who would know better than a former insur-
salesman and brick maker who worked his
Way up to owning a string of major companies.
But his business advice isn’t the stuffy bit on
!gh finance.
It’s more of a self-help course on how to be
lieve in yourself and trust your own judgement.
Williams uses examples of his own successes and
ilures to teach his students that entrepreneur-
ing is tough. He likens it to a halfback cutting
n the field, dodging defenders.
[Tonight he’s talking mostly of failures. And
Is lecture is flavored with Williams’ own sense of
humor, Texas style.
■Advice like — “Do business with good people;”
‘Don’t buy anything someone else is through
with. Get the best;” “Don’t give it away until it’s
Brned;’ and “Dance with the one who brung
R Some of these have to be put into context.
Others speak for themselves. But to Williams
they all make perfect sense.
Williams, Class of’54, got his degree in animal
husbandry. And though he’s achieved much of
his wealth in production industries, Williams is
an active rancher. But he runs his ranch differ
ently than most others, he says, his ranch makes a
profit.
And like the ranching business, Williams has
made his fortune in risky ventures. But not all of
them turned out the way he planned, especially
the first few.
He says he made his first money by renting his
garage to the local domino club for $40 a month.
And with his steady income he began his first real
business by starting a paper company. It lasted
about two years.
He moved on to his next idea — adobe bricks.
Williams and his partner bought a brick ma
chine and the rights to a “magic formula”. But he
says in the end, eating money was about the only
magic the machine performed. Still undaunted,
but more skeptical, he and his partner struck out
on their next road to riches by buying a gold
mine.
He admits it sounded crazy. But he and his
partner were convinced, after looking at the gold
flakes lining the cave, they would strike it rich.
And the salesmen assured them that the mine
also held a valuable mineral that was being used
to build space capsules. So they hired a crew and
began mining the gold and other minerals.
It turned out there was no gold in the mine.
The flakes that he and his partner had seen were
instead shotgun blasts fired into the wall by the
con artists who had sold them the property. And
the mineral that he had been told was in the cave
was of such poor grade that they just abandoned
it. He had been duped.
Needless to say, Williams decided to invest his
money a little more wisely the next time. So he
began brokering oil and gas leases in West Texas.
To some that may sound even more risky than
gold mines, but Williams was confident.
^The rest of the story is history. Williams even
tually hit a large gas well that made him wealthy
but not too proud.
See Millionaire, page 13
Clayton Williams, Class of ’54, at his ranch in Midland.
Searchers retrieve
part of right booster
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
Underwater searchers have re
covered a part from Challenger’s
ight rocket booster, considered a
major culprit in the spacecraft’s
explosion, and have located other
shattered pieces, officials said
Wednesday.
There has been no sighting of
the section of that booster which
includes a seam investigators be
lieve was the source of a destruc
tive spurt of flame.
Air Force Col. Edward A.
O'Conner, head of the shuttle
search and recovery operations,
and Capt. Charles A. Bartholo
mew, supervisor of Navy salvage,
ran a videotape clearly showing
three objects in murky \\uier at a
depth of about 1,200 feet.
They were the recovered 11-
by-20 inch hydraulic reservoir,
part of the steering system for the
booster’s rocket nozzle; a stain
less-steel sphere about 15 inches
in diameter which normally con
tains about 3 ] /j gallons of hydra
zine fuel for the controls; and a
10-foot-long portion of the boost
er’s expansion nozzle.
Current theories into the possi
ble causes of the explosion center
on a leak of flame, through a joint
between the lower two sections of
the booster, that may have deto
nated the shuttle’s external liquid
fuel tank.
See related story, page 9
Floods cause over 12,000 to flee
Associated Press
Torrents of muddy water from a
week-old series of Pacific storms
continued cascading across the sod
den Western states Wednesday, and
the estimated number of flood refu
gees rose past 12,000. But some riv
ers receded and people began re
turning home.
At least 16 people were dead and
three were missing in floods,
mudslides, avalanches, icy roads,
high wind and smashing surf from
Southern California into Canada.
Hardest hit was Northern Califor
nia with up to 22 inches of rain and 9
feet of snow in the mountains. Res
ervoirs were brim full, towns and
farmland were flooded and water
and landslides blocked major high
ways.
“There’s no town left,” said Guer-
neville, Calif., resident Beatrice
Wood. She and nearly 600 other res
idents were stranded in a church
and were removed Tuesday by heli
copter. The unincorporated resort
community north of San Francisco
remained under water Wednesday,
although the Russian River had re
ceded 6 feet from its record peak of
49 feet; flood stage is 32 feet.
The sky cleared over some areas
during the morning, and w hile more
rain was forecast, Ed Clark, a Na
tional Weather Service forecaster,
said “it looks like we’re on the uphill
side of things now. We’re expecting
more rain on Friday and Saturday,
but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be
as major as anything we’ve had.”
Elsewhere, rain during the night
caused renewed flooding that forced
the evacuation of more than 1,000
people in northwestern Nevada and
sandbag crews were hurried back
out in one northern Utah county.
Many Nevada state office buildings
were closed and 15 square blocks of
the downtown area were flooded.
Part of one Colorado town was evac
uated during the night.
High water also forced evacuation
of the Mustang Ranch brothel east
of Sparks, Nev.
Harry Stone, spokesman for the
brothel, said, “The girls are pretty
shaken up. “Some of them ran out
barefooted.”
Dick Hunt of the state Office of
Emergency Services said floods had
chased more than 11,000 northern
Californians from their homes since
the series of storms arrived Feb. 12.
Company spokesman Ron
Rutkow r ski said about 12,000 homes
served by Pacific Gas & Electric were
without power Wednesday.
“We’ve had in the last five days,
(rainfall) equivalent to half of our
normal annual total,” said William
Helms, spokesman for the state-fed
eral Flood Operations Center in Sac
ramento.
In the heart of California’s wine
country, the Napa River fell about 9
feet Wednesday at Napa, where
4,200 people had been evacuated.
The river had hit a record 30 feet
Monday, 5 feet above flood stage,
and flooded much of the downtown.
Authorities said 1,350 residents of
a small community in Glenn County
fled because of a threat of flooding
from the Sacramento River. An ad
ditional 1,500 were evacuated from
Thornton in San Joaquin County be
cause of danger of levee failure and
more had fled homes elsewhere.