Monday, March 24, 1986/The Battalion Page 3
State and Local
' Vd available to pay stuOent loans
Program to help new physicians
By JEANNE ISENBERG
Reporter
The first few years after the com-
etion of medical school can be
ugh ones, especially for the physi-
an who has student loans to repay.
Not only is he challenged by the
ressures of his new job, but he also
ay have to deal with the debts in-
irred by his education.
Now, with the aid of the Physician
udent Loan Repayment Program,
gwly-licensed physicians can pay
■pebts while practicing medicine
the same time.
The Texas College and University
fstein Coordinating Board is inau-
Hting a new program designed to
pay up to $3,000 in student loans
■every year spent working in
exas rural and inner-city areas with
health care shortages, or with pa
tients of designated state agencies.
Deborah Bay, director of public
information for the Coordinating
Board, says the program was set up
by the Texas Legislature last spring
to encourage physicians to practice
in underserved areas or with state
agencies in need of their services.
The board hopes this program
will deal with the problem of uneven
distribution of physicians by provid
ing good incentives to work in these
areas and agencies. Bay says.
Mack C. Adams, assistant commis
sioner for student services for the
Coordinating Board, says the yearly
loan repayments are an option for
up to five years, providing the stu
dent with up to $ 15,000 in aid.
The amount of money issued to
the physician each year by the state.
he says, depends on the amount of
the individual debt and on how
much of the debt normally would be
due that year.
Applicants must be licensed grad
uates of accredited medical or os
teopathic schools who finished their
postgraduate work after May 1984,
Bay says. They may apply for accep
tance during their final year of train
ing or when employment in the un
derserved area begins.
The rural and urban areas in
Texas included by the program are
designated by the state for those
physicians who wish to go into pri
vate practice. Bay says.
The designated state agencies of
the program include the Texas De
partment of Health, the Texas De
partment of Mental Health and
Mental Retardation, the Texas De
partment of Corrections and the
Texas Youth Council.
The loans to be repaid must have
been used for graduate or profes
sional education, and the payments
are made by the Coordinating Board
to approved lenders such as banks,
credit unions, universities and medi
cal schools.
Bay says the Coordinating Board,
which consists of about 37 universi
ties, 49 community college districts,
several public medical schools and a
technical institute, saw final appro
val of the program in January and
now is waiting for applications to
start coming in.
To participate in the program or
receive more information, Bay says,
potential applicants can go to the fi
nancial aid office at their school or
write the Coordinating Board in
Austin.
In Advance
Regents to consider raising
fees for Fall 1986 semester
s
Il2
■ The Texas A&M Board of Re-
Knts will consider proposed in-
Keases in parking permit fees,
bus fees, student service fees and
modular style dorm fees during
two days of meetings which begin
today.
pantH A report from A&M President
OoWBank E. Vandiver’s office says a
vout 5percent increase in parking per-
jll! mils will be necessary for the
. ,1086 fall semester. This increase
is recommended in order to meet
shot! (the funding requirements for the
that liiroulti-level parking garage,
t' nr , scheduled for completion in late
, 1988.
.■Users of the off campus bus
:r amB rv j ce can eX p ec ^ a 3 4 percent
) ne tolpcrease to $40 per shuttle pass if
f tk the board accepts the proposal in
It wasVandiver’s report.
The report also proposes an in
crease in the maximum student
services fees from $54.50 per se
mester to $61 per semester.
New modular dorm fees also
may be raised by 4.3 percent,
according to the report. The
dorms affected include Haas,
Hobby, McFadden, Clements,
Neeley and Underwood.
The current fee for modular
dorms, $791, would be raised to
$825 if the increase is approved.
Also being considered is the es
tablishment of an international
student fee of $21 per semester.
If approved, all fee increases
would be effective for the Fall
1986 semester.
ie wi
l Faculty Senate to debate
change in A&M regulations
> the rtf"
1 oldV The Faculty Senate will hold a
salesml special meeting today at 3:15
i.m. in 601 Rudder Tower to
xmdnue amending the core cur
riculum proposal and to consider
changes in the University rules
and regulations.
Also, the Senate will hear three
Resolutions from the Personnel
and Welfare Committee, one
urging state legislators to main
tain and, if needed, increase the
state contribution to retirement
programs in Texas in order to
| achieve equality with comparable
institutions.
lands, p
Man.'
_ The second resolution asks
that President Frank E. Vandiver
ihefact
i be ef®
ctballK l see ^ act i° n by the Legislature to
ret ofR
se the Ip
provide free tuition for A&M em
ployees and their dependents at
state universities in Texas.
Another resolution asks that all
campus classrooms have signs
clearly displayed, stating a Uni
versity regulation prohibiting the
use of tobacco in classrooms and
laboratories.
In other business, the Senate
will amend and vote on the re
maining two requirements of the
core curriculum proposal. The
remaining sections are cultural
heritage and social science. Fol
lowing the amendment process,
which may be completed at this
meeting, the Senate will vote on
the core curriculum document as
a whole.
Congressmen say
Texas city may get
more Navy ships
Associated Press
CORPUS CHRISTI — This Gulf
Coast city’s Homeport, to be located
on Ingleside Point, could benefit
from political debate over the Navy’s
plan to establish new battlegroups
on the nation’s three coastlines, two
congressmen say.
Rep. Mac Sweeney, R-Wharton,
and Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus
Christi, said Corpus Christi stands to
gain more ships in addition to the
battleship USS Wisconsin and its
four support vessels scheduled to ar
rive by 1990.
Congressional critics have crit
icized Homeport proposals at Ever
ett, Wash., and Staten Island, N.Y.,
as politically motivated, unstrategic
and costly.
Sweeney said it is only a question
of when more ships will arrive at the
expense of ports elsewhere.
“I see only the beginning of a
buildup along the Gulf Coast,”
Sweeney told the Corpus Christi
Caller-Times. “Without a doubt,
Corpus Christi walked away with the
big prize and, right now, the only
prize that is secure.”
Ortiz confirmed press reports
quoting unnamed congressional
sources that the House Armed Serv
ices Committee in a secret, 20-14
vote on Thursday, authorized
spending $412 million to renovate
the Wisconsin.
Ortiz said Sen. Barry M. Goldwa-
ter, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, and
others could defeat funding for
other ports in crucial test votes at va
rious intervals over the summer. ,
Goldwater wrote Defense Secre
tary Caspar Weinberger March 7,
saying the homeport proposals were
motivated by “unadulterated poli
tics” and that he would not “take any
positive action on it in my commit
tee.”
A General Accounting Office re
port said earlier the homeport dis
persal plan is costlier than stationing
ships in existing ports.
But Sen. Phil Gramm, a leading
Senate homeport advocate as Re
publican senator from Texas, said
last week that Goldwater supports
the Corpus Christi Homeport as the
most economical.
As a result, spending for various
ships and harbor facilities in the USS
Iowa battleship group at Staten Is
land and at Navy facilities elsewhere,
including Norfolk, Va., may be in
trouble, said Ortiz, a member of the
House Armed Services Committee.
“If that doesn’t pass, this doesn’t
mean that we’re going to get it for
Corpus Christi, but it becomes a situ
ation where it becomes doubtful
whether they will have a homeport,”
Ortiz said in a telephone interview
from Brownsville.
He said the Navy may have to con
sider stationing ships elsewhere at a
time when the Caribbean Sea and
Gulf of Mexico are the least pro
tected yet the most threatened be
cause of a Soviet presence at Cuba
and Nicaragua. Corpus Christi
would be a likely place for those
ships, Ortiz said.
Sweeney, also of the House
Armed Services Committee, said po
litical considerations were apparent
in the decision to put homeports at
Everett and Staten Island. Major
bases at San Diego, Calif., and Nor
folk already protect those coasts, he
said.
He said fleets anchored at San
Diego, Calif., and Norfolk are vic
tims of the “Pearl Harbor syn
drome,” while the Gulf Coast propo
sal is well-dispersed and less
vulnerable to attack or a single
knockout blow.
Hearing on needs of state transportation to be held
118
ie to itt
University News Service
COLLEGE STATION — A hear-
g on state transportation needs will
onducted by the Texas House of
Jresentatives Committee on
insportation March 25-26 at
:as A&M in conjunction with the
ual meeting of the Texas Trans-
ortation Institute’s Advisory Com-
ittee.
Testimony during the two days
will come from advisory committee
members who are leaders in the
state’s transportation community.
Speakers representing aviation,
highway facilities, railroad, water,
safety, and urban transportation
agencies are expected to outline cur
rent status and the needs of their in
dustries.
The hearing convenes at 2:45
p.m. March 25 in 301 Rudder. Leg
islators expected to attend include
Texas Sen. John Traeger, Sen. Kent
Caperton and Rep. Richard Smith of
Bryan.
TTI, judged by its peers to be the
nation’s top transportation research
organization, is a University-based
research organization that was cre
ated to serve all forms of transporta
tion in the state.
Dr. Charley Wootan, director of
TTI, said, “The institute is charged
to serve as a focal point for transpor
tation research for various agencies
of state government so that each
agency does not have to develop and
maintain its own research staff.
“We’re looking forward to meet
ing with the House Transportation
Committee once again to exchange
ideas and information about issues
that are so vital to our state.”
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