6
Texas A&M claims a long list of distinguished alumni as
its own, including many minority former students. On
this page we take a look at two successful Old Ags.
stories by Staci Finch
Henry Cisneros
His list of accomplishments
goes on and on. At 23, he was
the youngest man ever to be
selected to a White House
Fellowship. He has served on
the San Antonio City Council,
was a member of the Kissinger
Panel on Central America in
1983, and was interviewed for
the vice presidential position as
Walter Mondale’s running mate
in 1984. He has served on such
national boards as the
American Cancer Society, the
American Red Cross, the
National League of Cities and
the Council on Urban
Economic Development. He
also served on the Texas A&M
Board of Regents from June
1985 to February 1986.
Aside from these positions,
he has probably garnered the
most attention as the mayor of
San Antonio, a position he has
held since 1981. He is one of
the best known Former
Students around. He is Henry
Cisneros.
As a Hispanic mayor,
Cisneros has received much
attention since his election as
mayor of San Antonio.
However, Cisneros told U.S.
News and World Report that
the minority aspect faded from
the spotlight after elections were
over.
“There’s a point where you
stop being a curiosity, an
interesting novelty,” he said in
the article, “and you are a
person who has true power and
resources to deliver. ”
Cisneros said issues facing a
mayor go beyond ethnicity.
“The minority community
never stops seeing you as a
minority mayor, ” he said.
“But once you get elected
your concerns suddenly are a
lot larger than the minority
community. For instance,
you’re very much concerned
Fred McClure
When some students
graduate from college, they end
up in careers that are hardly
connected to their degree. But
not Fred McClure. Since his
college days at Texas A&M,
McClure has been involved in
government.
When he was elected student
body president for the 1977-78
term, McClure became the first
and only black man ever to
serve in that capacity at A&M.
He was also a member of the
Pre Law Society, and was
speaker of the student senate
for the 1975-76 term.
Since graduating from A&M
in 1977, McClure has stayed in
government service. He served
as legislative director and legal
counsel to U.S. Senator John
Tower, and also as associate
deputy attorney general for the
Justice Department. He was a
member of the Real Estate
Research Advisory Committee
for the State of Texas, and
worked for two years as special
assistant for legislative affairs to
President Ronald Reagan.
McClure is now staff vice
president of government affairs
for the Texas Air Corp.
McClure has also stayed in
touch with A&M. He is serving
his third term as international
vice president for the
Association of Former Students,
and is closely involved with
minority recruitment.
Although there were few
minorities at Texas A&M in the
seventies, McClure said he
didn’t think there was too much
discrimination.
“Now there is a greater
desire on the part of minority
students to come to A&M, ” he
said. “When I was at A&M,
with economic development,
which is not in any way a strictly
Hispanic issue. ”
While Cisneros’ minority
heritage may be no problem in
San Antonio, he told Texas
Monthly it was a different story
in the late 60s when he
attended A&M.
“The worst place I could
have selected to go to college as
a Hispanic in the sixties was
A&M,” he said in the Texas
Monthly article. “Sometimes I
got angry, but I had friends who
went to other schools who
came away worse than angry —
having been put in their place.
At A&M there is no place for
you except the one you make
for yourself. ”
Cisneros is certainly making
a place for himself in San
Antonio. In the 1983 election
he received more than 94
percent of the vote, and he is
constantly pushing to get new
industry for the area. He
succeeded in getting Sea World
to come to San Antonio, and
that organization alone should
bring two thousand jobs and
three million tourists to the area
each year, according to the
Texas Monthly article.
Cisneros’ efforts to improve
the city of San Antonio follow
what he told Texas Monthly
was his “fundamental
objective. ”
“I want to raise incomes and
help reduce the poverty
percentage, ” he said, “to help
the overall economy grow so
that there’ll be enough resorces
to deal with the ethnic
unfairness of the past. ”
Of course, mayors never
please everybody, and Cisneros
is no exception. The Texas
Monthly article said his last-
minute dissent on the
construction site of a new mall
angered some developers in
San Antonio, and some
residents think Cisneros is too
concerned with tourist
attractions and has lost touch
with the real needs of the city,
like good public libraries.
But all dissent aside, the city
of San Antonio wants to keep
its mayor. One city official told
Texas Monthly that “people
have their problems with
Henry, but if you said you could
wave a magic wand and make
him go away, nobody would
take you up on it. ”
minority students came because
of geographical advantage, or a
particular academic curriculum
they wanted. Also many
parents who had been in the
military sent their children to
A&M because of the Corps of
Cadets program, and of course
there were athletes who came
because of scholarships. ”
But these options didn’t draw
many minority students.
“There were about 100 of us
there (at A&M) when I was
elected student body president,
out of about 28,000 students, ”
McClure said.
However, the small number
of minority students didn’t deter
McClure from running for
student body president.
“I never felt like there was
any discrimination when I was
running for office, and I didn’t
have any problem running for
president as a minority, ” he
said.
McClure said the changes in
minority recruitment have not
been in the level of difficulty of
getting into A&M, but in the
increased efforts by the
Association of Former Students.
“We don’t set any quotas
about how many minorities
should be in A&M, ” he said,
“but we have really been
concerned with increased
minority recruitment.
“We basically fund the office
of School Relations. A portion
of that funding goes to minority
recruitment, and we have
greatly increased that funding
over the years.
“Now we have more people
who can get out and recruit in
high schools, and they try to
explain to students what
opportunities are available at
A&M. The more minority
students are aware of what
A&M has to offer, the better our
minority enrollment will be. ”