Texas A&MW^ m m « #
Th e B a tt alio n
Vol 82 No. 165 CJSPS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas Friday, June 19, 1987
Clements reinforces
Open Meetings Act
AUSTIN (AP) — Legislation de
signed to strengthen the Open Meet
ings Act was signed into law Thurs
day by Gov. Bill Clements, who said
it would help make government
more accountable to the public.
“The people have a right to know
what goes on in state government,”
Clements said, noting that the bill
will help guarantee that governmen
tal bodies “discuss the public’s busi
ness in public.”
Clements said the legislation has
benefits for both the public and gov
ernmental officials.
“This bill will force governmental
bodies to think twice before going
into closed sessions, while at the
same time protecting them from
frivolous lawsuits,” he said.
Signing of the bill capped efforts
begun in 1977 to close loopholes in
the law.
Currently, the law allows govern
mental bodies to meet in private,
“executive” sessions to discuss a vari
ety of matters, including personnel
matters, litigation and property ac
quisition. The bill would require
them to keep certified agendas or
tape recordings of such closed meet-
ings.
Under the bill, the tape or agen
das could be made available to mem
bers of the public who challenge ac
tion by a governmental body, and
any action taken by public officials
who violate the law could be voided.
The bill also guarantees that tele
vision news crews can take their cam
eras into governmental meetings
and videotape the sessions. The
original act guaranteed that meet
ings could be covered by reporters
taking written notes or using tape re
corders or by still photographers.
Passage was sought by a variety of
groups, including Texas Media, a
coalition of seven state news media
organizations interested in freedom
of information issues.
“I’m delighted that the governor’s
done it,” said Jeff Bruce, Texas Me
dia chairman and managing editor
of the Austin American-Statesman.
“It will definitely result in better
government and more open govern
ment,” he said. “It will make govern
ment more open to the people.”
Bruce noted that the effort to re
vise the open meetings law had been
a lengthy one.
“A number of people over the
years have worked very hard to write
a bill acceptable to all parties in
volved,” he said, praising the spon
sors, Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan,
and Rep. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen.
Hinojosa said that too often in the
past, the old law’s guidelines had
been used to close public sessions
and limit information available to
citizens.
“The inadequacies of the old act
allow government to escape public
scrutiny of and accountability for its
actions,” Hinojosa said. “Open gov
ernment lets the people know what
their public officials are doing with
their taxes and their business.”
Report shows security
in U.S. airports lacking
WASHINGTON (AP) — Angry
lawmakers, saying security at Ameri
can airports leaves travelers vulnera
ble to weapon-toting hijackers, said
Thursday they are ready to force the
facilities to improve their detection
systems.
Their wrath was fueled by a con
gressional report that disclosed that
when Federal Aviation Administra
tion inspectors tried to carry 2,419
mock guns and other weapons onto
planes in late 1986, 496 — or 20 per
cent — were not detected at security
checkpoints.
“It disturbs me no end to think
that anytime somebody gets on that
airplane, they’re playing Russian
roulette with their lives,” said Rep.
Cardiss Collins, D-Ill., chairman of
the House government activities and
transportation subcommittee, which
held a hearing on airport security.
The tests were conducted at 28
major American airports and the re
port, based on FAA records, was
prepared by the General Accounting
Office, Congress’ investigative
branch.
Collins and other legislators used
the hearing to repeatedly call for
government standards for airport
screening systems.
Raymond A. Salazar, director of
the FAA’s Office of Civil Aviation
Security, agreed that such perfor
mance standards were needed, but
he said the agency needed three
more months to study the X-ray and
metal-detection systems.
“If you don’t have minimum stan
dards set in the next three months,
I’ll write legislation myself,” Collins
told him.
Salazar said that since screening
began in 1973, security systems in
the United States have detected
37,000 firearms, led to 16,000 ar
rests and prevented 117 hijackings.
Under prodding by Rep. Major
Owens, D-N.Y., Salazar said the
FAA believes none of the incidents
involved organized, trained terror
ists.
“We are jeopardizing and placing
at high risk the riding public . . . ,”
Owens said.
“If the system were really tested,
we’d have a disaster, really, if we had
well-organized conspirators,” he
said.
Salazar said that while the FAA is
working to improve airport screen
ing, the agency believes “an 80 per
cent (detection) rate is an effective
deterrent.”
“Terrorists and other criminals
intent on hijacking or sabotaging an
airliner are not going to try when the
odds of being detected at the screen
ing checkpoint are at least four out
of five,” he contended.
In its report, the GAO did not dis
close which 28 airports it had tested,
citing security reasons.
But during the hearings. Rep.
Howard C. Nielson, R-Utah, said
that the airport that detected 99 per
cent of the test weapons — the high
est rate in the test -— was at
Anchorage, Alaska.
BMU donations dwindle more than $4 million
| DALLAS (AP) — Gifts to Southern Methodist
University, plagued by a pay-for-athletes scan
dal. were down by more than $4 million, school
ojFicials said.
But they attributed the 15 percent decline
more to the sagging Texas economy than to the
football recruiting scandal.
[ SMU officials predicted in May that the up
roar over illicit payments to football players
would cause donations to dwindle from last
year's $29.9 million to about $26 million this
year.
But the decline is greater than expected, with
the university receiving less than $>26 million,
said Andrew D. Parker Jr., vice president for
development and alumni relations.
Parker declined to release exact figures.
He said the figures would be included in a re
port presented Friday to the SMU Board of
Trustees.
He said he had not received any calls or let
ters from individuals who said they were with
drawing financial support because of the ath
letic scandal.
“The driving force is the economy,” Parker
said.
He also said that other colleges are experienc
ing similar declines.
Larry Landry, SMU’s vice president of fi
nance and administration, said, “We cannot
measure any direct fallout from the football
scandal. There must be some, but we cannot
measure it. We haven’t stopped any projects be
cause of the decline in gifts.
“We’ll have to tighten our belts, but that’s
what all of Dallas is doing.
“We don’t have a major problem or crisis.”
Landry said he expects contributions to in
crease between 10 and 30 percent next year.
“People are rallying,” Landry said. “I fully ex
pect contributions to increase because we have
all the ingredients to move forward.
“People are no longer lamenting problems
but celebrating the new day.”
Survey sees short supply of housing
in future despite past over-building
By Carolyn Kelbly
Reporter
RlStudents searching for cheap off-
canipus housing may find a dwin
dling supply in upcoming semesters,
Id local survey indicates.
|j|An April survey by Branson Re-
Ijearch Associates, Inc. shows a shift
in the housing market in the Bryan-
College Station area.
V
■Seven thousand apartment units
Were surveyed, or 60 Bryan-College
Station apartment complexes.
■The survey looked into the avail
ability of apartments in Bryan-Col
lege Station for students, staff or
new residents. As of April, 11 per
cent of the apartments in the area
were vacant.
■In Bryan, 16 percent were unoc
cupied, and College Station showed
Irate of 8 percent.
■According to Branson’s survey, 77
percent of the apartment occupants
were Texas A&M students.
Norman Godwin, secretary trea
surer of the Bryan-College Station
Board of Realtors, said that the real
estate market was booming from
1979 to 1982, he said. In 1982 the
high vacancy in north Bryan was the
“A lot of bad decisions
caused the over-built situ
ation in Bryan-College
Station. We’ve just over
built in the marketplace
and the only solution is to
sweat it out. ”
— Richard Smith, realtor
first sign of economic strain. By
1984 there was still some rental
housing construction, but in 1985
the construction finished and in
1986 no new units were begun, God
win said.
Richard Smith, president of Cold-
well Banker Richard Smith, Real
tors, said that the problem with real
estate today is an old one: the law of
supply and demand.
The construction of duplexes,
four-plexes and apartments was not
due to a need for more area hous
ing, but for favorable tax benefits
for developers at the time. Smith
said.
Before the Tax Reform Act of
1986, long-term capital gains — net
appreciation on an asset owned
longer than one year — was taxed at
half the rate of ordinary income,
Smith said. Ordinary income is
wages, dividends, rents and interest
earned throughout the year, he said.
The Tax Reform Act redefined
long term capital gains as ordinary
income, Smith said.
“A lot of bad decisions caused the
over-built situation in Bryan-College
Station,” he said. “We’ve just over
built in the marketplace and the only
solution is to sweat it out. This is not
a permanent problem, it’s a cycle.
The demand is growing right now
but supply is stagnant. Bryan-Col
lege Station is a renter’s market right
now.”
Branson’s survey reports there is
likely to be a student enrollment in
crease of 2,000 for the fall semester
at Texas A&M. And the remodeling
plans for some dormitories on cam
pus this fall will likely cause a further
decline in availablity of apartments.
According to the survey, the local
rental housing market is moving
away from a renter’s market toward
normal rental rates, investment op
portunities and operating costs.
Updates at the Texas A&M Off-
Campus Housing office show the av
erage cost to lease an unfurnished
apartment ranges from an efficiency
at $233 to a three-bedroom apart
ment at $485. The furnished units
are slightly higher, ranging from an
efficiency at $280 to a tnree-bed-
room apartment at $524.
Democrats agree
on tentative plan
for 1988 budget
WASHINGTON (AP) —
House and Senate Democrats
reached tentative agreement
Wednesday on their $1 trillion
budget for fiscal 1988, House
Speaker Jim Wright said.
“I think we’ve got an
agreement,” Wright, D-Texas,
told reporters following the lat
est in a series of meetings with
Senate Majority Leader Robert
C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and other
congressional leaders.
House Majority Leader
Thomas S. Foley, D-Wash., said
he was “very optimistic” and that
only some minor matters re
mained.
“The details are being, as they
say, massaged,” he said.
The House and Senate each
approved spending plans with
similar themes — a tax increase
to reduce the deficit, restraints
on military spending and reject
ion of the deep domestic spend
ing cuts President Reagan re
quested.
However, final passage of a
compromise fiscal blueprint has
been delayed for weeks because
liberals and conservatives in the
Democratic Party disagreed on
the precise level of defense
spending.
Wright, Foley and the other
lawmakers declined to say what
the exact Pentagon spending fig
ure was in the agreement.
The latest House position had
been about $295 billion, while
the Senate favored about $300
billion — with part of the money
withheld unless Reagan agreed
to the tax increase.
President Reagan had sought
a budget with $312 billion for
defense in the fiscal year starting
Oct. 1.
The Democrats’ plan would
not meet the mandate of the
Gramm-Rudman budget-ba'l-
ancing law, because it would not
reduce the deficit to $108 billion
in fiscal 1988.
Even with deficit reductions,
through taxes and spending
cuts, in the neighborhood of $36
billion, the budget would leave
more than $130 billion in red
ink.
Reagan said he met the target
with the budget he submitted,
but administration officials con
ceded recently that their own es
timates put his deficit at $27 bil
lion over the limit.
Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Calif.,
the House majority whip, said fi
nal congressional approval of
the plan could come early next
week.
A House-Senate conference
committee on the budget must
first approve the detailed plan.
The budget is a congressional
resolution that does not require
the president’s signature.
However, it serves as a guide
for spending and tax bills that
are sent to the White House.
Reagan has repeatedly said he
would veto a tax increase, and
Democratic leaders have said
they would not be able to muster
enough votes to override.