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>§2 No. 214 GSPS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, September 23, 1986
legents vote to augment faculty salaries
By Mona Palmer
Senior Staff Writer
Texas A&M Board of Re-
^^londay allocated $3.3 million
Available University Fund to
ipUrnent faculty and staff salaries
Tounteract out-of-state job of-
key University personnel,
regents also lapped the AUF
alpropriating $3.3 million to
p engineering progam, $4.3
million to the school’s computer sys
tem and $400,000 to the University’s
humanities and social sciences pro
grams in the liberal arts college.
The Available University Fund is
derived from investment returns
from the Permanent University
Fund.
Regent John Mobley of Austin
said the decision to dip into the AUF
for salaries resulted from the
Board’s concern about the retention
of distinguished faculty members
since the general faculty and staff
salary increase has been flat.
The Board’s action does not rep
resent an across-the-board bonus, he
said, but rather a pool of money the
administration will use to retain out
standing faculty and staff members.
“We’ve spent 20 years or more
building the quality of this faculty
Regents accept interest
11
for
tract
By Mona Palmer
Senior Staff Writer
1986
es
H? Texas A&M University Sys-
^■cquired a valuable asset Mon-
Bvhen the Board of Regents
Wto accept an undivided 10 per
mit i iterest in a 7,833-acre tract of
Bn Austin.
Minnie Belle Heep gave the Uni-
rsit' the interest in the land, which
^^■ently an operating ranch.
Jan es Bond, A&M deputy chan-
llor said a provision ol the gift is
at the Board form a corporation
idiiat the regents serve as nine of
i 10 directors. In their capacity as
Hors, the regents will manage
lepioperty and the revenue it pro-
uces Bond said.
He explained that this type of not-
ir-pi out corporation is used when
donor wants to stipulate who will
)nlol the property.
At present, Bond said the amount
money A&M will receive from the
Sntal of the land is minimal —
80100 to $40,000 a year. The value
fthegift won’t be fully realized un
it later, he added.
__ “as mainly holding a major asset
• ■ l ^ at property can be sold,
0^ Haped or utilized — transferred
Hn investment-type asset,” Bond
1 In other action, the Board allo-
■ H$5,000 to begin a proposed $2
■ H n ex P ans ‘ on °f the Memorial
. .J|t| nt Center to house an art col-
>naiO» donated byJ.W. Runyon.
|; The regents also gave final appro-
al to the Center for Historic Re-
purtes. The center will house ar-
piteriural drawings, photographs
dlianuscripts. It also will provide
611
' every
YG
of land as gift
hands-on experience and training
for students in professional pro
grams.
The Board also discussed “Shap
ing The New Economy of Texas” —
a symposium scheduled for Oct. 1
and 2.
The symposium will emphasize
ongoing research that could affect
the Texas economy. Each of the 12
sessions has a moderator and several
noted panelists.
Session topics deal with research
and how that research relates to the
public.
Panelists include Lt. Gov. Bill
Hobby, state Sen. Kent Caperton,
state Rep. Richard Smith and San
Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros.
Registration for the symposium
will be from 7:30 a.m. to noon in
Rudder Exhibit Hall.
The proposal submitted to the
Board for the construction of a
flight museum for vintage aircraft at
Easterwood Airport was withdrawn.
Refunds will be sent
for video yearbook
By Rodney Rather
Staff Writer
President Frank E. Vandiver has
accepted the resignations of the vi
deo yearbook staff, but hopes to re
vive the suspended project next
year, The Battalion has learned.
Bob Piwonka, manager of Student
Financial Services, said refunds for
the video yearbook will be sent to
students when drop-add refunds are
mailed.
Students who bought the Video
Aggieland and the print Aggieland
as a $52.56 package should get a re
fund of $31.53, Piwonka said.
Students who purchased only Vi
deo Aggieland should receive a
check for $47.31, he said.
Seven of 10 video yearbook staff
members resigned Sept. 5 because of
what they termed as ongoing con
flicts with Educational Broadcasting
Services.
As part of a compromise reached
this summer, Student Publications
was to rent equipment from EBS to
produce the video yearbook.
The agreement was made under
Vandiver’s instructions after it was
discovered the president had autho
rized the production of two video
yearbooks.
One of the major conflicts be
tween the student staff and EBS re
volved around the question of the
quality of the equipment EBS pro
vided under a rental agreement with
Student Publications. The video
yearbook student staff claimed they
were given faulty equipment by
EBS.
Donald C. Johnson, Student Pub
lications coordinator, said he antic
ipates EBS and Student Publications
will work together on the project
next year under an agreement simi
lar to the one reached this year.
and we don’t want to lose them,”
Mobley said.
He said the $3.3 million for sala
ries is a part of the “Commitment to
Texas” the regents passed in July.
As for the Board’s engineering
appropriations, A&M President
Frank E. Vandiver told the regents
in a written recommendation that
the monies will fund specific initia
tives made by the engineering de
partment heads, recruitment and
support of graduate students and
new faculty, and research equip
ment purchases.
In addition, the $4.3 million fi
nancial boost to the University’s
computer system is designed to en
hance A&M’s computer network by
upgrading equipment and increas-
Photo by Tom Ownbey
Candid Camera
Grace Riggan, a junior environmental design major, uses a pinhole
camera made from an oatmeal box to make a four-minute exposure
for a photography course.
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Officials.
Officials at Texas A&M and
exas Christian University say 6th
istrict Rep. Joe Barton didn’t get
ermission before using school logos
n campaign materials.
Campaign officials are writing to
exas A&M to ask if campaign stick-
rs jstating “Aggies for Barton”
jould be recalled, and stickers in-
erpoiating the Texas Christian
Jniversity logo have been with-
rawn, according to Cathy Hay, Bar
on’s campaign manager.
University officials say Barton, R-
Jmis, didn’t ask for permission be-
: Barton lacked OK to use
fore incorporating the logos, which
are registered trademarks. Hay said
the A&M stickers were used in 1984
and campaign officials didn’t know
anything was wrong until they got a
call from TCU officials.
Don Powell, director of business
services at A&M, said the University
was not contacted for permission to
use the logos.
Supporters of Barton’s Demo
cratic opponent, Pete Geren, say the
bumper stickers are trying to create
the impression the schools endorse
Barton.
The Aggie sticker is colored ma
roon and white and features the
“Gig ’Em Aggies” thumbs-up sign.
The campaign printed 3,000 stickers
and about 100 T-shirts.
Chris Efird, president of A&M’s
Young Democrats, said, “As an Ag
gie, I’m offended that the congress
man is exploiting the University for
political means. ... If he’d gone
through the process and gotten per
mission, it’d be one thing — because
then we (Geren supporters) could go
to the University and, at least theore
tically, also get permission.
“But as it is, (it makes it appear)
the University is endorsing Joe Bar
ton. I don’t know ... if they wanted
it to appear the University was en
dorsing him or if they didn’t know
any better.”
Similar sentiments were ex
pressed by Geren supporters in Fort
Worth.
At TCU, the purple and white
stickers say “TCU Congressman
Barton Backer” and include the
school symbol of a horned frog peer
ing out of the “o” in Barton’s name.
Rick Ally, leader of TCU’s Young
Democrats, said, “What’s upsetting is
that he (Barton) is exploiting the
University.”
logos
Hay said the TCU stickers are
new this year and the problem came
from a breakdown in communica
tion.
“We did ask that they (the student
group) get all the legalities checked
out,” she said. “We had no know
ledge that we were doing anything
wrong until (TCU officials) called.”
Larry Lauer, TCU assistant vice
chancellor for university relations,
told the Dallas Times Herald that
the administration asked the Barton
campaign to remove its 500 TCU
stickers.
ing student and faculty access, Van
diver wrote.
He added that the humanities and
social sciences appropriation was
needed, saying society’s problems
cannot be solved by technology
alone. A&M’s historical concentra
tion on technological studies has
tended to overshadow the growing
role of the liberal arts, Vandiver
wrote.
Tax plan
presented
to House
Sponsor expects
battle for passage
AUSTIN (AP) — House Speaker
Gib Lewis began the push for a tax
hike Monday, but the sponsor of a
tax increase bill said it could be diffi
cult to persuade a majority of House
members to approve it.
Lewis held an tax briefing before
the full House to explain to lawmak
ers various tax increase plans.
The members were told that be
sides a $2.8 billion deficit for the
two-year budget period that ends on
Aug. 31, 1987, the state could face a
shortfall of $6 billion or more in the
1988-89 budget years.
“We have a serious problem,” said
Lewis, D-Fort Worth.
Rep. Stan Schlueter, chairman of
the tax-writing House Ways and
Means Committee, said it would be a
battle just to find a way to get the tax
bill out of his committee.
“The committee was set up last
session to kill tax bills,” Schlueter
said. “When you have a committee
that’s set up to kill tax bills, it’s a pre
tty good mountain to cross to let a
bill out in any form.”
The Legislature is in its second
special session of the year as it at
tempts to rewrite the 1986-87 bud
get to eliminate a projected $2.8 bil
lion deficit.
The problem has been that Senate
leaders and the governor favor a
mix of budget cuts and tax increases
to balance the budget, but House
members have favored slicing the
budget instead of raising taxes.
The split continued throughout
the first special session in August
and it wasn’t until late Friday night
that a conference committee
reached a compromise on budget
cuts.
Now the issue is whether to pass a
tax bill.
House members had approved
$739 million in cuts and the Senate
only $418 million. Many House
members said they wouldn’t vote for
a tax hike, which senators favor, un
less they won a majority of the cuts.
Schlueter said the tax bill he intro
duced Monday is a “dummy bill” de
signed only to bring up the tax issue.
Schlueter’s bill calls for a tempo
rary increase in the sales tax from
4Vs cents to 4 ] A cents, a 1-cent per
pack increase in the cigarette tax and
a 0.5 percentage point increase in
the hotel-motel tax.
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26.
Tax bill may affect college employees
Fate of retirement plan unknown
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By Sondra Pickard
Senior Staff Writer
|f|rhe fate of the primary retirement plan used
|||most Texas higher education employees still
depends on the tax reform bill pending before
Congress.
Although the blanket overhaul of the tax rate
structure still must be approved by both houses
of Congress, the bill has strong White House sup
port and is expected to pass with few amend
ments.
Kbout 30,000 administrators and faculty at 95
colleges and universities in Texas are covered by
the Texas Optional Retirement Program. The
, Forest ln n was create< d by the Legislature in 1968 to
1 recognize the specific needs of faculty and pro
fessional administrators in institutions of higher
education.
In the new bill, a non-discrimination clause
'vas added to the tax code sections that govern
the GRP. The clause could make the ORP illegal
because the plan is available only to state univer
sity faculty and professional staff and not other
state employees.
Mp-lso. elective contributions made to retire
ment plans by faculty will be limited to $9,500 an
nually, whereas before there was a $30,000 ceil
ing. This most likely will affect senior professors
with large salaries who want to shelter income
from taxation until retirement.
Hn a recent article in News & Comment,
■j^H—— ■■ — ■'
Thomas G. Head, of the Association of American
Universities, said it is unlikely the university com
munity will have an opportunity to get “deficien
cies” (including pension plan restructuring) in
the legislation altered. The article also said ma
jority leaders in both the Senate and the House
i are expected to limit, if not prohibit, efforts to
change the tax reform bill.
The pension plan used by all primary and sec
ondary school employees in Texas, as well as the
non-professional staff of the colleges and univer
sities, is the Texas Teacher Retirement System.
But an employee must have a minimum of 10
years of service to get TRS benefits.
This is a disadvantage to college faculty, who
often move from state to state during their aca
demic careers. On the other hand, ORP gives the
faculty or administrators the ability to contribute
to their retirement plan without gaps while pur
suing a career.
Mike Lytle, special assistant to the chancellor
for federal relations, said a person covered by the
ORP can’t go back to the TRS without losing ben
efits. If the ORP is abolished because of the tax
bill, the Texas Legislature will have to create spe
cial legislation to allow faculty back into the TRS
or develop a new retirement plan that probably
wouldn’t have the same advantages as the ORP,
he said.
Lytle said he and his counterpart at the Uni
versity of Texas fought for the ORP until Au
gust, at which time the bill was sent into confer
ence committee.
A conference committee is composed of mem
bers of the Senate and the House who negotiate
the differences in the two chambers’ bills, and
who eventually produce, if all goes well, a confer
ence report, which is generally a compromise bill
with a chance of being accepted by both houses.
Lytle said the higher education lobby contin
ued to work until the conference report was writ
ten and submitted to the two houses, at which
time it was not subject to further amendments.
He said Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Reps. JJ.
Pickle, D-Ausdn, and Bill Archer, R-Houston,
did everything they could to prevent the loss of
the ORP.
The Ad Hoc Tax Committee, a group of tax
experts and lawyers involved with higher educa
tion, spent hundreds of hours trying to develop
alternative language to protect the pension plan,
Lytle said.
“They beat themselves to death up there,”
Lytle said. “We didn’t just let this thing drop.
We’ll be fighting to the very end.
“If the tax bill goes through like it is, there’s
going to have to be a whole restructuring of pen
sion plans nationwide. The final impact we don’t
know yet because it’s still up in the air.”
Reagan’s U.N. speech
expresses optimism
for arms control talks
UNITED NATIONS (AP) —
President Reagan told the U.N. Gen
eral Assembly Monday that “the ice
of the negotiating stalemate could
break” during the current round of
Geneva arms talks with the Soviet
Union.
Although Reagan said “a pall has
been cast” over U.S.-Soviet relations
by the Nicholas Daniloff affair, he
did not suggest the case would stand
in the way of progress toward reduc
ing both medium- and long-range
nuclear weapons.
Referring to the FBI’s arrest in
August of a Soviet employee of the
United Nations accused of spying
for the Kremlin, Reagan said: “Mis
using the United Nations for pur
poses of espionage does a grave dis
service to this organization. The
world expects better.”
Reagan’s speech used stern words
to criticize the Soviets, not only for
their treatment of Daniloff, an
American journalist arrested in Mos
cow, but also for their treatment of
civilians in Soviet-occupied Afghani
stan and their insistence on support
ing Marxist-Leninist insurrections
around the world.
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
A. Shevardnadze listened to Rea
gan’s address, making notes without
signaling any emotion, and sat qui
etly as representatives of other na
tions applauded when Reagan fin
ished speaking.
Reagan cited DanilofFs arrest and
his subsequent confinement to Mos
cow on spy charges as “a particularly
disturbing example of Soviet trans
gressions against human rights. The
Soviet Union bears the responsibility
for the consequences of its action.”
Later, as he was going into a meet
ing here with foreign ministers of
U.S. allies, Reagan told reporters:
“I’m not going to comment now. Ev
erything’s too delicate.”
On arms control, however, Rea
gan’s tone was unusually concilia
tory.
He said the Soviets, while unwil
ling to accept U.S. proposals for a 50
percent cut in intercontinental mis
siles, bombers and submarines, have
“now embraced our idea of radical
reductions in offensive systems.”