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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 3, 1987)
MnV Texas A&MV^ mm V# The Battalion |Vol. 82 No. 156 GSRS 045360 6 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, June 3, 1987 eagcm names pick br chairman of Fed sepanit - divoro ision. V amid ‘We tali iefofihi lined ii cesman ■ light. \ woniei, aut corp ment to ;r an ins disKked. .*ss font al" abot (I deck JVASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Reagan announced Tuesday he isBnciminating economist Alan pfeenspan as chairman of the Fed eral Reserve hoard to succeed Paul VBcker, who guided the nation’s economic fortunes for eight years. Reagan made the startling an nouncement concerning what is of ten described as the second most Rverful job in the nation in a brief statement he read as Volcker and Greenspan stood at his side. Volcker, 59, a hard-money man who was named to head the central bank by President Carter in 1979, said he was leaving voluntarily and had informed Reagan of his decision at a meeting Monday. “I had no feeling I was being pushed,” Volcker said, refusing to answer directly a question of Analysts: Greenspan continue policies. agenda set by Volcker ■WASHINGTON (AP) — Al though news that Paul Volcker is stepping down as chairman of the nation’s central bank shocked the fi nancial and political communities, major policy changes at the Federal Reserve under economist Alan Greenspan seem unlikely. ■\nalysts predicted Greenspan Ijjitmmmmammmmmmmm would follow l of the Analysis many same conserva tive policies championed by Volcker, who in his eight-year ten ure earned an international reputa tion as an inflation fighter. ffiVolcker’s departure will mean that all seven members of the mone tary policy-setting board will be Rea gan appointees. ■But economists generally sug gested that Greenspan, a Republican who was President Ford’s chief econ omist, is just as independent as Vol cker, a nominal Democrat. B“He is even less likely to gun the money supply or move to an easier policy for political purposes,” Wash ington economist Michael K. Evans said. “In 1976, when he was chair man of the Council of Economic Ad visers, he refused Ur spur the econ omy even though Ford was running for president.” But while Volcker took a keen in terest in international financial is sues, engineering a landmark 1982 financial rescue package for Mexico, Greenspan has focused on domestic economics. Allen Sinai, chief economist for Shearson Lehman Bros, of New York, said, “The strengths of Vol cker are not the strengths of Greens pan. Greenspan’s strengths are more industrial economics and the U.S. economy and certainly not financial markets and international finance.” While Volcker focused on infla tion as the nation’s foremost eco nomic concern, Greenspan has said reversing deficit spending “is the most important policy action that one could identily for the 1980s.” While Volcker ruled the Fed with almost an iron hand, a degree of control that had slipped of late as Reagan appointees became more numerous, Greenspan “is much more deliberative, more methodi cal,” Evans said. “I think he will draw people out and get a consensus.” Clements kills permanent rise in gasoline tax AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Bill Clements, who earlier had in sisted it was either all of his tax plan or nothing, made good on his threat Tuesday and vetoed a permanent 5-cent increase in the motor fuels tax. Less than 12 hours after the Legislature’s regular session ended, Clements sent lawmakers a veto message saying he wanted two tax bills passed — the 5-cent gas tax hike and a bill to keep the sales tax rate at 5 'A percent. He vetoed a permanent 5-cent increase in the motor fuels tax. “Games are being played with the fiscal integrity of Texas,” he said. “The games must end,” Clem ents said. “We must do what is right. “We must make both taxes permanent to preserve the cash flow and avoid a major problem this fall.” Clements has scheduled a spe cial legislative session to meet June 22 to complete work on the unfinished state budget and on taxes. Throughout the 140-day reg ular session, (dements had pledged to veto any tax increase larger than $2.9 billion. He said he wanted to raise that amount by making perma nent the “temporary” sales and gas tax hikes adopted last au tumn. But both of those increases expire Aug. 31. Unless action is taken, the mo tor fuels tax will fall from 15 cents per gallon to 10 cents, and the sales tax rate will drop from 5'/i cents to 4 l /s cents. Both the House and Senate approved the extension of the fuels tax. The extension would have raised an estimated $888 million for 1988-89. But lawmakers bogged down on the sales tax. The House approved the plan Clements wanted, but the Senate voted to extend the S'A-cent rate only through the end of 1987. Clements said that won’t do. “There is no rhyme or reason to passing the permanent exten sion of the fuels tax and limiting the sales tax extension,” the gov ernor said. “This bill was part of a two-bill package of legislation to con tinue the present revenue stream to help finance state gov ernment,” Clements said. “To have one without the other serves no useful purpose,” he said. Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, who leads a Senate that reportedly was pre pared to increase taxes by nearly $6 billion, said the governor’s veto didn’t bother him. Although the state’s fiscal year ends Aug. 31 and faces a serious need for more cash, Hobby said the veto only will add pressure to the Legislature to find a solution to the problems. “That means the Legislature has a very few weeks to enact the necessary taxes to keep the state going for the next biennium,” Hobby said. “As Sir Walter Raleigh said as he was about to lay his head on the block and have his head cut off, and he felt the sharpness of the hitsman’s ax, he said it fo cuses the attention marvelously,” Hobby said. House Speaker Gib Lewis said Clements’ veto wasn’t a surprise. “He said he was going to do it unless something happened, and it didn’t happen,” Lewis said. “So therefore, he fulfilled his commitment. “We’ll have to pass it again.” whether the president had asked him to stay. Reagan said he was accepting Vol- cker’s resignation with “great reluc tance and regret.” The surprise announcement sent financial markets momentarily into a tailspin. There had been a widespread be lief the administration would seek to keep Volcker at the Fed given the turmoil in recent months caused by the unsettled Third World debt situ ation, rising inflation worries and a falling dollar. The Dow Jones average of 30 in dustrial stocks fell 22 points within minutes of the announcement al though it later rebounded after trad ers recovered from the initial shock. But bond prices and the value of the dollar continued to be under downward pressure. While surprised about Volcker’s departure, many in financial mar kets and on Capitol Hill said the White House could have not selected a better, person for the post than Greenspan, who served from 1974 to 1977 as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Presi dent Ford. Greenspan, 61, who now runs an economic consulting firm in New York, won widespread praise for his chairmanship of the blue-ribbon commission appointed by Reagan in 1983 to recommend reforms to the financially ailing Social Security sys tem. “Filling Paul Volcker’s shoes will be a major challenge,” Greenspan told reporters, saying it took him only “milliseconds,” to decide to take the job when he was called by the president on Monday. The post of Federal Reserve chairman often is viewed as second in influence only to the president be cause of the great effect the central bank has on the overall economy through its control of the U.S. money supply. By controlling how much money banks have to lend, the Fed influ ences the price of money — interest rates —and also the pace of eco nomic growth. Cannonball Fun Hunter Coles takes advantage of a sunny morning to go swimming at Thomas Pool. Coles, 11, is one of many local children on summer vacation. Photo by Robert W. Rizzo Thomas Pool, on Moss Street in Bryan, is open Monday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Child-care services missing atA&M Student parents confront problem By Lisa Vandiver Reporter The alarm goes off at 6 a.m. and Rachel Kennedy, a student at Texas A&M, gets up for a day of classes. While trying to get herself ready for class, though, Kennedy also must get her daughters — Amber, 7, and April, 6 — ready for their day. After the breakfast dishes are done, everyone’s teeth are brushed and clothes are on right-side out, Kennedy, an experienced student parent, gathers books, crayons and children and heads for class. This situation is not unfamiliar to Kennedy or to other student parents who attend A&M, at which child care is an especially difficult prob lem. If Kennedy had been a student at the University of Houston, the Uni versity of Texas or one of 13 other schools in Texas, she could place her children in a campus child-care cen ter, but not at A&M. Most campus day-care centers are set up through the departments of education, home economics or edu cational psychology. Dr. Douglas Godwin, assistant professor in A&M’s College of Edu cation, says the main reason the edu cation department hasn’t become in volved in a program is because of the lack of a home economics depart ment with which to coordinate it. According to an article in Texas College Student magazine titled “Student Parents Scramble for Childcare,” about 40 percent of the nation’s colleges and universities provide some child care, which in cludes schools that merely refer stu dents to non-campus facilities. Aside from the convenience of an on-campus facility at A&M, the cost of a campus center would probably be less than private off-campus child care. The cost of the university cen ters around the state ranges from $8 to $45 a week, while the average cost of the off-campus care in the Bryan- College Station area starts at about $45 a week. The need for such centers is hi- lighted by the lengthy waiting lists at most day-care facilities. According to the Texas College Student article, some students place their unborn children on waiting lists in order to ensure them a spot in a center. , Richard Beil, an A&M graduate student, likes the idea of an on-cam pus center because of personal moral qualms about outside centers. “We don’t like the idea of our daughter being in a day-care center eight hours a day, five days a week,” was, she founded the Students with Children program at A&M, a sup port and action group designed for student parents. “The group lets you know some one is there,” Kennedy says. “I re member being sick and knowing I’d have to get the kids to day care and go to class because I didn’t have any- “Working parents as well as student parents try to bal ance several roles — the more resources they have, the easier it is to manage. ” — Diane Welch, family life education specialist he says. “We want to be able to say we raised our own child — not some one else.” So Beil and his wife, who also is a graduate student, alternate days of staying home two days a week to take care of their 15-month-old daugh ter. The other three weekdays she goes to a mother’s day out program. According to Diane Welch, a fam ily life education specialist at A&M, a center at A&M would not only create a more convenient situation and less of a financial strain on student par ents, but also would lessen stress that is created by juggling roles. “Working parents as well as stu dent parents try to balance several roles — the more resources they have, the easier it is to manage,” Welch says. “Several of the roles they try to balance are time and finance. The student parents can sometimes be more flexible than working par ents because of class schedules.” Kennedy also says the amount of stress a student parent faces as op posed to the single, childless student attending school is great. “There is a tremendous amount of guilt,” she says. “It seems that no matter how much I do, I can always do better — something always has to suffer. “It is very hard to keep your prio rities in line, to know what comes first and what must be sacrificed — studying, the children or sleep. Sleep is always the thing put aside.” When Kennedy discovered just how tough being a student parent one to fall back on. I would drive April to day care wondering if I was going to pass out on the way.” The group also is planning to bring in speakers and create a coop erative program designed on a point system rather than a monetary one that would revolve around child care. Members would earn points by keeping children and spend points by using baby-sitting services. “I’m surprised at the people who are willing to invest their time in a co-op, because the time we do have is so valuable,” Kennedy says. “Right now though, it’s our only alternative because child care is so expensive and so difficult to find.” The ultimate goal of the group, Kennedy says, is to create an on- campus child-care facility that offers qualifications not met by off-campus facilities. Qualifications include a low adult to child ratio, which has proven to be much lower in on-campus centers. Additionally, some campus cen ters coordinated by the school’s de partments of education or educatio nal psychology are called lab schools. These programs are used as learn ing laboratories for departmental students, creating a learning atmo sphere for both the students and the children, as well as offering an even smaller adult to child ratio. The cost of lab schools is slightly higher than regular day-care pro grams, but some campuses, such as the University of Houston, provide both types of programs for their stu dent parents. By having students work in the programs as a lab, the children’s learning and playing time is be!ter structured than in current day-care facilities because the student teach ers’ labs only last from one to three hours. Also, Kennedy says that because her children have been associated with A&M through her classes, they are less intimidated of the school and the campus. “It has given them confidence in education and themselves,” she says. “They are already talking about going to college. To them, it is just an accepted notion that they will go. I just wish that they had learned this in a more fun way rather than color ing in Mom’s class because the sitter didn’t show up.” One of the main problems Ken nedy has found with creating a cen ter on campus is getting in contact with other student parents at the University — no forms require infor mation pertaining to a student’s maritiai or child status. Kennedy’s group plans to contact those who would most likely be candidates for the student-parent category — grad uate students and married students who have applied for financial aid. However, a majority of people si ill aren’t reached. The idea for campus child care also has been picked up by other or ganizations. The campus chapter of the National Organization for Women has become aware of the problem and is interested in a possi ble program to support the issue Wendy Stock, campus presid. of NOW, is enthusiastic about re searching the subject. “We would be very interested in doing a program on the mailer,” Stock says. “We would like to adver tise the program, and depending on the amount of response we receive, perhaps support such a program. It is a definite need at this school.” In a Faculty Senate meeting held on January 19, the Senate approved a resolution that suggested a com mittee be appointed by President Frank E. Vandiver to investigate die possibility of an on-campus child care center at A&M.