Page 6/The Battalion/Tuesday, December 8, 1987
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A&M fails to give former governor
credit for helping create college
“It bothers me that A&M students don’t really know
how their school got started. ”
— Dr. Dale Baum, an A&M associate professor
of history.
By Deborah A. Haring
Reporter
How many Texas A&M students
know the name of the man whose act
created this University?
Many men were leaders in A&M’s
early days, but just one man was re
sponsible for setting up the college.
(Although Lawrence Sullivan Ross
was a prominent figure in A&M’s
history, he was not the man.)
In 1871, Gov. Edmund J. Davis
signed into law a bill establishing the
Agricultural and Mechanical College
of Texas, said Dr. Dale Baum, an
A&M associate professor of history.
Despite Davis’ role in the found
ing of A&M, there are no statues of
him and no streets or buildings
named after him on A&M’s campus,
Baum said.
Baum said one reason for this is
the difficulty in overcoming the
older, racist accounts of the origins
of the school. Davis, a staunch
Unionist governor, implemented
policies that were unpopular with
some Southerners.
“For years we couldn’t forgive the
accomplishments of the Davis re
gime and we couldn’t forgive the
things that were done during Re
construction,” he said.
During the Reconstruction pe
riod, Baum said, black people began
to be given full civic and political
equality, which was unthinkable to
some white people at that time.
“That was part of the nightmare
of Reconstruction — that Davis was
elevating blacks to equality with
whites,” Baum said.
Davis helped blacks by creating
Prairie View A&M, a primarily black
college, at the same time he created
A&M’s main campus near Bryan.
The creation of a black college at this
period of history was unacceptable,
Baum said.
“It bothers me that A&M students
don’t really know how their school
got started,” he said. “I like being at
a school that is very proud of its tra
ditions because it makes sense to
have a collective memory to fall back
on. It hurts when others point out
that students here don’t know about
the origins of this school.”
Few know of Davis’ role in A&M’s
creation because it was associated
with a controversial time and has
been kept somewhat hidden, Baum
said.
“Standard histories of A&M hark
back to older interpretations that say
it’s just too bad that this school had
to be founded at such a tumultuous
time,” he said.
Since the period was so controver
sial, those such as Davis were not
honored with statues when most
were erected on campus, Baum said.
Baum said recognition of Davis'
accomplishments is long overdue be
cause attempts to erase parts of his
tory or keep them hidden just hurt
people intellectually, he said.
“There really is no reason to be
ashamed of the founding of this
school,” he said. “In fact, there
should be a tremendous amount of
pride. We’re really the first institu
tion of higher learning in the state."
More understanding of the time
surrounding A&M’s beginning is be
coming evident in the recent interest
of people wanting to recognize Da
vis’ contributions to A&M, he said.
Baum agrees that there is a need
for recognition of Davis.
“In the name of fairness and just
ness we certainly should commem
orate someone like Edmund J. Da
vis,” he said. “The bottom line is that
there’s a good Ag here who's not get
ting recognition.
Eighth-grade student holds
assistant principal hostage
PASADENA (AP) — An eighth-
grade student held an assistant prin
cipal at gunpoint for about two
hours Monday but surrendered
shortly after the administrator es
caped, authorities said.
Grover Belcher, an assistant prin
cipal at Deepwater Junior High
School, said he escaped through the
back door in his office when the 14-
year-old went to use the restroom.
“I had told him the door was a
closet,” Belcher said.
The boy walked into the school’s
administrative offices about 9 a.m.
asking to see Belcher. He went into
Belcher’s office, closed the door and
then pulled a gun out of his jacket,
Belcher said.
“He pointed it at me and said, ‘I
need to talk,’ ” Belcher told report
ers during a news conference Mon
day afternoon. The boy mentioned
some family problems, he said.
“I’ve not dealt with him before,”
Belcher said. “I did not know him at
all.”
The two were in the office for
more than a half hour before the
student told Belcher to call police
and tell them he was being held hos
tage, Belcher said. Until then, other
school officials were unaware of
what was happening.
“He wanted the building evac
uated,” the first-year assistant princi
pal said.
The 670 students were evacuated
to two nearby elementary schools,
but they returned to class after the
youth surrendered, Deer Park Inde
pendent School District officials
said.
The school, which has students
from sixth through eighth grades, is
in a residential area of Pasadena, a
suburb southeast of Houston.
Belcher said the student — whose
name was not released because he is
a juvenile — did not give specifics
about what was troubling him and
seemed calm. He did get nervous
when he heard a helicopter circling
above the school.
The 42-year-old school adminis
trator talked to a police negotiator
who also is a chaplain on the tele
phone and relayed the conversations
to the student.
“The chaplain encouraged him to
do what was necessary to get out of
there,” Belcher said.
At one point, the teen-ager men
tioned the name of a friend he said
he wanted to come to the office so he
could surrender to police with him.
The friend never was summoned to
the office.
The student never threatened
Belcher, but he kept the gun per
ched on a desk and pointed at the as
sistant principal, Belcher said.
Jury selection
begins in trial
for slaying
BELTON (AP) — Jury selec
tion began Monday in the trial of
a Fort Hood soldier accused in
the dismemberment slaying of his
pregnant wife.
Ernest Jack Chappelle, 22, was
charged with murcier in the Aug.
1 slaying of 19-year-old Lisa
Chappelle. The head and arms of
the woman were found in a trash
bin in Austin, near the University
of Texas campus.
Chappelle, a medic, was ar
rested Aug. 7.
An attorney for Chappelle on
Nov. 6 requested a change of ve
nue, which has not been acted
upon by State District Judge Jack
Prescott.
Mrs. Chappelle was seven
months pregnant at the time of
her death, investigators said.
Controller gives
low estimate
of city reserves
HOUSTON (AP) — A New York
bond rating agency says the city of
Houston has more money in reserve
than the city controller reported in
his year-end financial report, the
Houston Chronicle reported Mon
clay.
Controller Lance Lalor’s draft of
the year-end financial report shows
the city with $4.6 million in reserve
on June 30, the end of fiscal 1987.
At the end of fiscal 1986, the city
had nearly $24 million in reserve.
But Vladimir Stadnyk, senior vice
president of Standard & Poor’s
Corp., said that the available reserve
in the city’s general fund is closer to
$29 million.
Rating agencies that determine
the interest Houston taxpayers pay
for borrowed money judge a city’s fi
nancial health, in part, on how much
money is in reserve.
The accounting firm of Ernst &
Whinney said there was no real
change in Lalor’s method of ac
counting, but said Lalor was incon
sistent in recording two major city
liabilities — payment of workman’s
compensation and payment for com
pensated absences. The inconsis
tencies in those two categories alone
could account for the $17 million
discrepency.
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