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.82 Mo.l 16 GSPS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, March 11,1987
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lements ‘sorry’
or his actions
lin SMU scandal
AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Bill Clem
ents, saying Southern Methodist
University is wracked by agony over
pay-for-players football scandal,
apologized Tuesday for his role in
Continuing the payments.
“To those rightfully upset and an-
ry about the decision, 1 am truly
Sorry,” Clements said. “We made a
(mistake at SMU. I made a mistake at
SMU."
Clements, a former SMU student
[and twice chairman of the school’s
board of governors, made his com-
pnents at a news conference.
He renewed his call for other
school officials involved to come for-
(ward and promised to cooperate
red it rating
[lowered on
exas’ bonds
AUSTIN (AP) — Moody’s Inves-
r Service lowered its credit rating
pn Texas’ general obligation bonds
"rom Aaa to Aa, the first time it has
alien below the top rating in a quar-
:er-century, the company said Tues
day.
Moody’s cited the state’s troubled
conomy for its action.
“The strongest and singlemost
actor is the economic shock that’s
happened to Texas over the last year
and the magnitude of the finan-
;ial problems,” said Claire Cohen, an
nalyst with Moody’s.
The oil-price drop since Novem
ber 1985 has created state govern-
tent budget deficits and sent the
exas jobless rate soaring. Cohen
aid Moody’s believes the state is in
bra long-range shakenp.
“The economy seems to us to be
[making a fundamental change in
“’exas and seems likely to have an ef-
:t for a long time,” she said.
State Comptroller Bob Bullock
said a reduction in bond ratings can
ause borrowing costs on newly is-
debt to rise one-half to one per-
jcentage point a year.
Moody’s said Texas has enjoyed a
Aaa bond rating since 1962. The Aa
rating is in the firm’s second-highest
category, and only 11 states cur-
, „_rentTy have been assigned the Aaa
ICtllH Jrating, she said.
The Aaa rating is followed by Aa-
1, Aa, A-l, A, Baa-1, Baa, Ba-1, Ba,
B-l, B, Caa, Ca and C, the firm said.
Bullock spokesman Tony Profitt
said the state’s rating remains solid:
“Aa is still high-quality bonds.
There’s no question about that.”
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with a Methodist Church investiga
tion of the affair.
Last week, Clements touched off a
wave of new investigations at SMU
by saying he and some other school
governors and administrators knew
in 1984 or 1985 of booster payments
to football players. He said they de
cided to continue some payments
while trying to “phase out” that sys
tem.
Payments eventually were re
duced from 26 players to three, he
said.
The NCAA has banned SMU
from playing football this year and
limited its 1988 season to seven road
games for rules violations which oc
curred while the school already was
on a probation handed down in Au
gust 1985.
Clements said Tuesday that
continuing the payments was a mis
take and that the school has suffered
a tragedy because of it.
“The decision to phase out the
system of payments to SMU players
was wrong,” he said. “In hindsight, it
is clear we were wrong. SMU is the
victim of a system we should have
stopped immediately.
“It is a tragedy what has hap
pened. ... SMU is a great institution,
and I am distressed that it is going
through such agony.”
Clements again refused a request
from the current SMU Board of
Governors to “name names” of oth
ers involved in the continued pay
ment decision. But he predicted
those people eventually will speak
up, even though some board mem-
bers have disputed his allegations.
“These are people that occupy
those positions on the board and
have for some time,” Clements said.
“They are really part of the problem
at this point and not part of the solu
tion. They’re going to have to make
this decision for themselves. I think
that in due course they will.”
The governor noted that one
other SMU board member, Dallas
banker Robert H. Stewart III, had
confirmed his story.
Clements said he never made a
payment himself or raised money
for such payments.
He voiced support for a bill now
in the Legislature that would penal
ize college boosters for making such
payments, and he called on the
NCAA to strip athletic elgibility
from players who violate the rules.
Clements said he brought the af
fair to light last week because he be
lieved it was necessary to get SMU
moving in the right direction.
“It is critical . . . that the truth pre
vail,” he said. “Once all the facts are
out, SMU then will move forward.”
In Control
Dr. Robert Tribble, head of the A&M physics department, sits at a
control board while working on an experiment at the Cyclotron Insti-
Photo by Tracy Staton
tute. The control board for the cyclotron fills a room at the institute,
which is located at the corner of Spence Street and University Drive.
Official: Don’t grant immunity in Iran affair yet
WASHINGTON (AP) — Law
rence E. Walsh, the independent
counsel investigating the Iran-Con
tra affair, asked Congress on Tues
day to wait at least 90 days before
granting limited immunity to key
witnesses.
He vowed to challenge in court
any attempt to act sooner.
“The danger is substantial,”
Walsh said, that his probe would be
compromised by any effort to move
quickly to grant immunity to former
National Security Adviser John M.
Poindexter or his fired aide, Lt. Col.
Oliver North.
Key lawmakers in the House and
Senate have said in recent days they
hoped to move quickly to grant lim
ited immunity from prosecution to
Poindexter and North.
But Walsh said if Congress moves
before 90 days, “we would then have
to do whatever we could to get our
selves as much time as possible to
perfect our case” against anyone
who might be indicted.
Walsh said he would deliver a sim
ilar message when he met with the
Senate investigating committee
Wednesday.
Under federal law, Walsh would
be able to delay a grant of immunity
for roughly 30 days. Any court chal
lenge by him would create a conflict
with congressional investigators that
both sides have sought to avoid.
Earlier Tuesday, Senate commit
tee chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Ha-
waii, said the panel should not wait
until July to arrange immunity to
force testimony by North and Poin
dexter and perhaps others.
“If you want the full story, there’s
no question” that immunity will have
to be granted to key figures, he said.
Leaders of the House panel were
also meeting Tuesday with their
Senate counterparts, in part to deal
with disagreements over when to
bring up the immunity issue for the
investigation’s central figures.
Walsh said his request for a delay
covered any grant of immunity to re
tired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard
Secord, who, according to investiga
tors played a
arms sale.
key role in the Iran
The independent counsel said
that he was not sure all loose ends in
the investigation could be tied up in
90 days but that the time period rep
resented “a fair balance” between his
need to develop evidence and the
need of Congress and the public to
resolve unanswered questions.
Walsh said he also had discussed
with congressional investigators the
possibility of granting immunity to
other, lower-level witnesses, but that
no names had been cleared so far be
yond an initial list of three, including
North’s secretary, Fawn Hall.
MSC Council asks
for aid in acquiring
computer system
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Student leaders express objections
New finals policy draws criticism
By Christi Daugherty
Staff Writer
“1 think this is one of the most
asinine things to happen at this
University in the last five years.”
Jim Cleary’s voice reflects the
frustration accompanying two
years of bucking both the Faculty
Senate and the Texas A&M ad
ministration on the issue of senior
finals.
Senior finals
Part two of a two-part series
Cleary is the Student Govern
ment representative on the Fac
ulty Senate and former vice presi
dent of the Student Senate
Academic Affairs Committee. He
said he did everything within his
power to prevent the current
plan of common finals from be
ing chosen, but to no avail.
Cleary considers the finals situ
ation an example of the severely
diminished political clout of
A&M’s Student Government.
“Everyone got the short stick
on this one,” Cleary said. “There
are better alternatives.”
Cleary, like many Student Gov
ernment members, said the Fac
ulty Senate exerted a dispropor
tionate amount of influence over
A&M President Frank Vandiver
in this case, and he thinks the
wishes of the students were vir
tually ignored.
Jerry Dingmore is chairman of
the Student Senate’s Academic
Affairs Committee, which has
been studying the senior finals is
sue. He also was the student rep
resentative on the Academic Cal
endar Subcommittee last year.
Dingmore said the administra
tion handled the whole situation
badly by ignoring protocol and
never attempting to disguise the
fact that the students’ wishes were
being steamrolled.
Calendar Subcommittee mem
bers never heard from Vandiver
after releasing their findings,
which conflicted with the ideas of
the Faculty Senate, Dingmore
said, and Student Senate mem
bers working on the issue
couldn’t get an audience with the
president.
The letter in which Vandiver
revealed his decision on senior fi
nals was addressed to Dr. Sam
Black, speaker of the Faculty Sen
ate, and Dingmore considered
that insulting.
“When you’re working on
something this big you need to
consult with the committee ap
pointed to study it, and Vandiver
didn’t,” he said. “The president
made the only decision I think he
could, based on the process he
took.
“He chose to ignore the Cal
endar Subcommittee and sur
round himself with (Provost Don
ald) McDonald, (Associate
Provost Dr. Jerry) Gaston, and
Black.
“As I sit here today, I wonder if
he ever knew the subcommittee
existed.”
Dingmore said that after at
tending Faculty Senate meetings
where the senior finals issue was
discussed, he felt most senators
were uninformed about the issue
and had already made their
minds up without studying avail
able information.
“They said the staggered finals
plan suggested by the subcommit
tee gave the students everything
they wanted,” he said. “If it was
what the students wanted, there
would have been no finals.
“I was sitting there talking to
the Faculty Senate about a report
99 percent of them didn’t bother
to read.”
Dr. Jon Bond, an associate pro
fessor of political science, was one
of the Faculty Senate members
most strongly in favor of senior
“If it (staggered finals
plan) was what the stu
dents wanted, there would
have been no finals. ”
— Jerry Dingmore, Stu
dent Senate’s Academic
Affairs Committee chair
man
finals. He said the Senate didn’t
exert any undue influence over
the president.
“We showed President Van
diver the problems we had with
the Calendar plan and he said,
‘Yeah, you’re right, that’s unwor
kable,’ ” Bond said. “The stu
dents’ views were not ignored.
The Faculty Senate talked to
them, and the Calendar Commit
tee had a student member.
“But playing a role doesn’t al
ways mean you’re going to get
your way.”
Bond said he’s not completely
satisfied with the finals plan, but
he considers it an acceptable com
promise, and better than the pre
vious situation.
“What was irritating about se
nior exemptions was that here
was a rule, justified largely on the
basis of tradition, that said you
can’t make decisions about your
classes,” Bond said. “The issue of
commencement is important, but
the ceremony is a symbol of
what’s gone on for four years.
“It seems a perversion of prio
rities to put more emphasis on
commencement itself than the
education.”
Bond said the Calendar Sub
committee didn’t study the idea
of staggered finals thoroughly
enough to know that it’s more
than a minor inconvenience, es
pecially for professors who have
20 to 30 graduating seniors in
one class.
Black agreed, saying the sub
committee limited itself by trying
to protect tradition, and there
fore didn’t study all conceivable
options.
“They were acting under cer
tain assumptions that some things
had to be preserved,” Black said.
“We didn’t act under such as
sumptions.”
Faculty reaction to the plan has
been mixed, he said, with some
• See Finals, page 12
By Carolyn Garcia
Staff Writer
If the MSC Council gets its way,
the Memorial Student Center will be
the proud owner of a new $200,000
state-of-the-art computer system to
help the organization in a variety of
ways.
After extensive studies into need,
productivity and accessibility, the
MSC has found what it is looking for
— if it can just find the money to get
it.
The council submitted a proposal
to Student Government requesting
the needed amount. Council Presi
dent Bobby Bisor said.
The money, if granted, will come
from student service fee reserves, he
said.
The proposal was sent by the Stu
dent Senate to Vice President for
Student Services John Koldus for
approval, Bisor said. Koldus will re
view the request and consider
whether the reserve fund can handle
the expenditure.
The need for a new system has
arisen from several factors, the first
being the existing needs of the MSC,
including the operating needs of fi
nancial services.
Bisor said financial services, which
operates as a banking system for
more than 500 student organiza
tions, would greatly benefit from the
new system.
“It prevents organizations from
writing hot checks to local business
es,” Bisor said. “Our relationship
with these businesses is very impor
tant and it is imperative that we
don’t abuse it in any way.”
Office automation is another area
in need of an upgrade, said James
Randolph, senior associate director
of the MSC.
“Word processing and desk-top
publishing is very important to us —
not to mention a whole set of data
base activities,” Randolph said.
The new computer system would
allow a more efficient system to
maintain records of those who con
tribute money to the MSC.
As part of the MSC expansion
plan, Randolph said, the council is
planning a computer lab, which will
accommodate 24 computers and
printers for use by student organiza
tions. The lab would make it easier
for organizations to prepare mem
orandums, projects and reports.
Should Student Government
move back into the MSC, Randolph
said, there is a possibility that the two
organizations could share the com
puter system.
The MSC currently uses three
computer systems. Randolph said
the systems used by the MSC have ei-
“We’re overloaded. We lit
erally have to take things
off the computer to use
it. ”
— James Randolph, MSC
Senior Associate Director
ther reached capacity or are no
longer serviceable because they are
just too old.
“We’re overloaded,” he said. “We
literally have to take things off the
computer to use it.
“The Balcones system is five years
old. That is a long time in the com
puter world. We can no longer get
service agreements on this system
and parts are getting very hard to
come by. We will continue using this
system as long as we can. When we
can no longer get parts, we will just
have to surplus it.”
When the council set out to inves
tigate its computer possiblities, it
called in a campus computer special
ist and an independent firm to ex
amine the situation.
The investigation resulted in two
decisions, the first being that the
MSC must find a software package
to best serve its needs, and the sec
ond, to follow up with a hardware
choice to accommodate that pack
age.The choice was a IBM PC com
patible Wang computer.
“We are at the point now where
we can either update and modernize
or just limp along,” Randolph said.