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The Battalion
lol. 82 No. 133 GSPS 045360 16 pages
Colleae Station, Texas
Friday, April 10, 1987
&M releases findings of football probe
Report makes no mention of published allegations against Murray, A8dVI grad Dockery
Photo by Tracy Staton
Ine Stephenson, director of Texas A&M’s Office of public Infor
mation, releases the investigation of the football program Thursday.
By Frank Smith
Senior Staff Writer
Texas A&M officials, complying
with newspaper requests and an at
torney general’s directive, on Thurs
day released the results of the
school’s in-house investigation of its
football program.
Sort of.
Some 820 pages of the report
were released to the public. Officials
have estimated that the full report,
which the school released to the
NCAA last August, spans some
2,000 pages.
Absent from the report issued
Thursday are any direct references
to quarterback Kevin Murray or Dal
las booster Rod Dockery.
The investigation was initiated in
late 1985 after published reports al
leged possible NCAA rules infrac
tions.
Included among those allegations
was a report that Dockery paid Mur
ray $3,550 in 1983-84 for cleaning
printing presses — work which two
of Dockery’s former employees have
told NCAA officials Murray never
performed.
Murray has announced he will not
return to A&M for his final year of
eligibility.
A&M President Frank Vandiver,
in a brief written statement issued
with the report, cited the attorney
general’s contention that portions of
the report concerning specific stu
dents are subject to the Family Edu
cational Rights and Privacy Act of
1974, and thus can be withheld.
Those segments mentioning stu
dents’ names were deleted.
According to the report, the in
vestigation yielded no evidence of a
“pattern of conscious or willful viola
tion” of NCAA or Southwest Con
ference rules and regulations by ei
ther alumni or present and former
members of the A&M football staff.
“Nonetheless,” the report said,
“we have found several instances
where NCAA rules and regulations
were, or may have been, violated ei
ther intentionally, unwittingly or
through a lack of knowledge.”
At least six examples of such in
stances were given.
It was unknown whether there
were any other examples since more
than a half page following the sixth
item was left blank, meaning additio
nal items may have been deleted.
The deletions left details sketchy,
so much so that only two items could
be reasonably understood. Those
items reported that:
• Former assistant coach Jess
Stiles loaned $60 to (name deleted
from report), and $50 eventually
was repaid.
• Some violations of the NCAA,
SWC and University complimentary
ticket policy were found. The viola
tions primarily involved former
scholarship players.
“Evidence . . . included selling the
tickets through the newspaper, hav
ing a girlfriend sell them, having
trainers sell them or meeting un
identified alumni in the dressing
room,” the report said.
The report contained statements
from 15 people, including A&M
alumnus Tom Poynor, who was
quoted in a Dec. 15, 1985, Dallas
Times Herald article as saying he
made annual contributions of about
$5,000 to a “football slush fund” at
A&M. The article quoted comments
Poynor made during a divorce depo
sition.
In the report, however, Poynor
said he has never given any money
to a football slush fund.
“I was thinking only of total
money that I gave to Texas A&M
and I said approximately $5,000,”
he said.
When asked why he didn’t correct
the phrasing of the “slush fund”
question at the time it was posed to
him, Poynor said, “Yes, it was a very
hostile divorce deposition and I hon
estly did not catch his use of the
words.”
In addition to the statements, the
report contained a variety of docu
ments, including some 486 pages of
material that was already accessible
See Report, page 16
bgan garners victory
in presidential election
)adet draws 65 percent of votes in runoff
By Chrisd Daugherty
[ Staff Writer
■Mason Hogan won Wednesday’s
Hnoff election for student body
Besident, defeating his opponent,
Biles Bradshaw, by a healthy per-
Bntage.
■Hogan, a senior agricultural edu-
■tion/animal science major from
in Hyde, garnered 65 percent of the
mm votes cast, winning with 1,259
Ivotes, while Bradshaw earned 35
■rcent or 677 votes.
■ 2,019 votes were cast overall in the
■e ct > on . which is an increase of
3«t400 votes from last year’s run-
m.
^JComing into the runoffs, Hogan
mad led the primary election with 27
H ■rcent of those votes to Bradshaw’s
;1/ percent.
I But Hogan, a member of the
I larps of Cadets, admitted he’d had
H Ime reservations during the early
II nit of this week. He said he was
|iv()iried that the Corps would be
jBimplacent after his earlier success
mid not turn out to vote in the run-
Bf election.
■ “I did (relax) for a while after the
iKrst election, but then I started
• thinking that if the Corps didn’t vote
B’d be beaten,” Hogan said.
■ Hogan ran primarily on the plat-
Bonn of abolishing finals for grad
uating seniors, and said he plans to
■fgin working on that as soon as he
Itakes office in the next few weeks.
Mason Hogan
A 24-hour health center and a stu
dent member of the Board of Re
gents were also issues he cam
paigned on heavily, and he said he
plans to pursue both before the cur
rent semester ends.
“We’ll probably just get started on
the Board of Regents idea, but I’ve
already started talking to some peo
ple about the health center,” he said.
Bradshaw, who was accused of
overspending by six of the other
presidential candidates, outlined
what he said he’d learned was the
only sure way to win an A&M elec
tion.
“I hope that anyone who plans on
running for student body president
has taken heed of how to win the po
litical game,” Bradshaw said.
“Rule 1: Accuse your opponent of
anything.
“Rule 2: Be a member of a large
group that sticks together, regard
less.
“Rule 3: Smile until it hurts.
“Unfortunately, I only paid atten
tion to Rule 3.”
Hogan said he plans to talk to
Mike Sims, the current student body
president, within the next week. He
will take office shortly thereafter.
In other races:
• Doug Beall was selected head
yell leader.
• Class of ’88 treasurer: Chris
Yancy
•Class of ’89 president: Denise
Arledge
• Class of ’90 president: Dan Gat-
tis
• Class of ’90 vice-president: Mi
chael Campbell
• Krueger/Mosher senator: Jody
Manier
• College of Agriculture grad
uate senator: Robert Berg
• College of Medicine graduate
senator: Scott Brooks
• College of Architecture Grad
uate Council: J. Tim Potter, Kim
Stine, Anne Hurley, Augustin Agroz
and two candidates tied for the final
position in the Graduate Council:
Alfredo Tellez-Giron, Martin Wells.
Election Commissioner Derek
Blakeley said the tie would be solved
by the Graduate Council, and that
there would not be another runoff.
».i f
I ;■
Nose To The Grindstone
Photo by Bill Hughes
Tom Wilhoit grinds mortar from between the ing’s renovation. The grinding is the first part of a
bricks of the Physics Building as part of the build- process used to replace the old mortar.
House approves
$1 trillion budget,
proposes tax hike
Counseling service overloaded;
new clients won’t be accepted
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
|House on Thursday approved a
fl trillion Democratic budget
[that would raise $18 billion in
taxes, slash President Rea-
jgan's military buildup and block
IWhite House plans for sharp de-
Icreases in domestic programs.
The House endorsed the plan
Idrafted by its Budget Committee,
1230-192, with no Republicans
Ivoting for it.
“The resolution today adopts a
[very solid budget which many
leconomists believe can make a
[difference between continued
[economic growth in the United
[States and economic stagnation,”
[said Speaker Jim Wright, D-
|Texas.
But most lawmakers conceded
[the blueprint would fail to meet
[the $108 billion deficit target of
Jthe Gramm-Rudman budget-bal-
[ancing law. Democrats argued it
[did more to cut red ink than any
[other option, including the presi-
Idenfs.
Rep. Lynn Martin, R-Ill., said it
|made Democratic priorities clear
[to the voters. “All you care about
[is cutting defense and raising
[taxes,” she told the majority
[party. “The American people
now know what they elected.”
The House plan features a call
for $18 billion in unspecified new
taxes plus $1 billion from in
creased tax enforcement and an
other $2 billion from fees and
premiums for government serv
ices. Overall, it claims $38 billion
in taxes and spending cuts toward
reducing the deficit, compared
with $36 billion in the White
House plan.
Reagan has threatened to veto
any tax rate increase, and Wright
said he wasn’t sure the Congress
could override him. “If the presi
dent is determined to obstruct
deficit reduction, he can do that,”
he said.
Reagan submitted a budget
with less than one-third that
much in new taxes, mostly with
technical changes in the law. But
he proposed raising a similar
money total with heavy reliance
on selling government assets.
The president’s domestic
spending cut plans, including the
elimination of dozens of federal
programs, were unacceptable to
the lawmakers. In a symbolic
vote, the House rejected Reagan’s
budget, 394-27.
By Daniel A. La Bry
Staff Writer
Texas A&M’s Student Counseling
Service is having a crisis.
Due to an overload of students
seeking assistance, the service has
been forced to stop accepting new
clients for continuing personal coun
seling, a service administrator said.
Dr. Kerry Hope, associate direc
tor of counseling services, said the
service hit the crisis stage last week
after intake service appointments
had its counselors booked for up to
three weeks.
That left no room for continuing
personal counseling.
To make every hour available for
student counseling, the service also
has stopped all of its outreach pro
grams, such as stress management
workshops and assertiveness train
ing.
The intake system allows counsel
ors to meet with students as quickly
as possible, spend a full hour with
them and assess what they need,
whether it be a one-time visit, group
therapy, or a referral.
But Hope stressed that Student
Counseling Service is not cutting its
emergency services or academic and
career services.
“The one thing that we are always
providing is emergency crisis serv
ices during the daytime,” she said.
“That will never change.”
Comparison of New Clients
300
■ 1986
0 1987
Jan
Feb
Months
Mar
Emergency walk-in crisis inter
vention services are still being pro
vided from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on week
days for individuals in a crisis
situation — immediate decisions of
great importance, fear of harming
oneself or somebody else or severe
depression.
The service also will continue its
academic and career services be
cause of their importance to the aca
demic community.
“This (the overload) is not an un
usual occurence,” Hope said. “It
commonly gets to this point, but it’s
usually right at the end of April or
November (in the fall).
“We are a full month ahead of
schedule this time.”
The staff usually is able to handle
the overload for two weeks at the
end of a semester, she said, but six is
impossible.
Why the unusual overload?
The service isn’t sure, but Hope
said there has been an overall in
crease in students as compared to
the same time last year.
The staff has experienced a 35-
percent increase in new clients,
jumping from 171 last March to 224
this March. Total sessions at the
counseling service increased from
801 last March to 1,015, a 25-per-
cent increase.
“It’s a scary situation,” Hope said.
“We don’t have the chance to do a lot
of preventive mental health kind of
things that we would like to do —
getting out and doing stress manage
ment workshops and things like that.
“That is part of what we had to cut
out in order to see more clients.”
At the end of March, counseling
services had about 40 people on the
waiting list, she said.
“We’re not even putting people
on the waiting list now,” she said.
“We don’t feel it would be fair to a
student to say, ‘You’re going to get
in.’ The likelihood is that they won’t.
“We think we will be able to han
dle everybody who is currently on
the waiting list.”
The counseling service staff con
sists of 13 full-time counselors, four
administrative counselors, five part-
time, unpaid practicum counselors
and two one-day-a-week psychia
trists.
Texas A&M, with an enrollment
of 36,000, has 24 counseling staff
members.
In comparison, Hope said Iowa
State University, with an enrollment
of 10,000, has about the same num
ber of counseling staff members as
A&M does.
The University of Texas has
somewhere between 100 and 150
people on the counseling services
staff with an enrollment of 48,000
students, she said.
See Counsel, page 16