Texas A&M
The Battalion
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Monday, March 27,1989
College Station, Texas
Vol. 88 No. 119USPS 045360 16pages
Board interference upset Mobley, paper says
Eagle reports president almost quit over meddling in Sherrill investigation
By Alan Sembera
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Texas A&M President William
Mobley was on the verge of re
signing last November because of
what he felt was interference by for
mer Board of Regents Chairman
David Eller into his investigation of
Jackie Sherrill, the Bryan-College
Station Eagle reported Sunday.
The Eagle, basing its story on
anonymous “sources close to the ad
ministration and to the regents,” also
said several regents discussed firing
Mobley because he insisted on pur
suing the Sherrill investigation.
Tensions between the two inten
sified in December because Mobley
decided Sherrill must resign or be
fired, the paper reported.
Eller said Sunday he had no dif
ferences with President Mobley. He
said he had not read the Eagle's
story and, therefore, could not com
ment on its accuracy. President Mob-
Newspaper says
Iran kidnapped
Kuwaiti royalty
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) —
Iran’s navy hijacked an Arab ty
coon’s yacht with five members of
Kuwait’s royal family and four Bri
tons aboard and was holding them
for ransom, news reports said Sun
day.
Government information officers
in Kuwait, Bahrain and other gulf
states said they had no information
about the incident, which reportedly
occurred Thursday.
Independent Television News in
Britain quoted diplomatic sources in
Kuwait as saying the four Britons
are young women who were aboard
the 82-foot yacht, owned by Kuwait’s
al-Sabah royal family.
The report said the yacht appar
ently was seized for ransom after it
strayed into a sensitive area near
Iran’s northern Farsi island.
It said officials leaked information
to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa
because Iran’s Revolutionary
Guards are demanding a ransom
and negotiations between Kuwait
and Iran are going badly.
Al-Anbaa first reported the story,
saying the yacht had come from
France and docked briefly at Bah
rain, before leaving Thursday. Six
hours after it sailed for Kuwait, a
distress signal was picked up, said
the paper.
Officials at a Bahrain yacht club
said their registers showed a distress
signal issued Thursday.
A man speaking English with an
Arabic accent said, “My yacht is bur
ning. What can I do?” according to a
club official.
In London, Britain’s foreign of
fice said it was the first it had heard
of the report.
Battalion file photo
William Mobley
ley could not be reached for com
ment Sunday.
A spokesman for the Eagle said its
story is accurate, and its sources are
knowlegeable. He said the sources
requested anonymity for fear of re
prisals.
The Eagle reported that Mobley
typed out a letter of resignation the
morning of Nov. 21, after newspa
pers reported statements by Eller
that contradicted his own.
The statements were related to ac
cusations made by former A&M
football player George Smith that
Sherrill had paid him “hush money.”
Smith retracted his statements at a
press conference set by A&M Nov.
19.
The next day, Mobley told report
ers he would continue investigating
the accusations against Sherrill.
The same day in a seperate inter
view, Eller told reporters he didn’t
think there was any reason to con
tinue investigating Sherrill.
Mobley apparently was prepared
to turn in his resignation at the
Board of Regents’ bimonthly meet
ing, the Eagle story said.
But Chancellor Perry Adkisson
persuaded Mobley to delay his resig
nation until a compromise could be
attempted with the regents, the pa
per reported.
A compromise was reached, the
paper said, and a statement was re
leased in which Mobley and Eller ex
pressed complete support for each
other, saying earlier statements were
contradictory because they were in
terviewed separately.
Mobley continued his investiga
tion, the paper reported, and hired a
firm of private investigators to loiok
into Sherrill’s conduct.
After the investigation, the Eagle
said, Mobley decided Sherrill must
go. The paper said Mobley wanted
to buy out Sherrill’s contract by pay
ing him off for only one year.
Sherrill is reported to have been
willing to accept a buyout, but only
for his entire five-year contract,
which would have cost A&M about
$1.6 million.
Tensions continued between
Mobley and Eller, the paper re
ported. It stated that Mobley appa-
rantly was angry his administration
was being hampered by the Sherrill
controversy, and was upset by ques
tions over who was in control of the
University.
But some regents also were upset
that Mobley would challenge them,
the Eagle stated.
In the regents’ box at Kyle Field
during the Dec. 1 A&M-Alabama
game, the paper reported, some re
gents debated whether to fire Mob
ley because of his insistence on inves
tigating Sherrill. One regent is
quoted as saying, “Maybe we should
fire Mobley.”
Regents Eller and William McK
enzie decided at that time to meet
with Mobley on Dec. 8, the paper
said.
At the meeting, which included
Regent Douglas De Gluitt at Mob
ley’s request, the president kept his
stance and said he would try to fire
Sherrill for failing to perform his
duties as athletic director if he did
not accept a contract buyout, the Ea
gle reported.
Under Sherrill’s contract, the only
reasons he could be fired were an in
tentional breach of NCAA regula
tions that resulted in TAMU being
put on probation for more than
three years or resulted in A&M los
ing its television appearance rights
for more than three years.
Last September, A&M was put on
probation for two years.
Sherrill also could be dismissed
for becoming physically or mentally
disabled.
The Eagle reported that Mobley
would have tried to dismiss Sherrill
on the basis of another part of the
contract, which states.
“His duties as Athletic Director
shall consist of the following: 1. Ad
minister all athletic programs and
insure that all appropriate rules,
regulations, policies, etc. are ad
hered to. . . .”
A compromise was eventually
worked out, and Sherrill resigned
Dec. 12.
Pope offers
Easter wishes
from Rome
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope
John Paul II Sunday offered Easter
wishes in 55 languages to a world he
said was driven toward self-destruc
tion, and the Roman Catholic patri
arch in Jerusalem blamed politicians
for violence in the Holy Land.
The patriarch, Michel Sabah,
made his comments before pilgrims
at Easter Mass in Jerusalem’s
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the
site where Christians believe Jesus
was resurrected.
Elsewhere Sunday, shells and
rockets pounded Beirut as Lebanese
Christians commemorated Easter,
and in Afghanistan, about 30 mem
bers of the dwindling Western com
munity gathered for services.
In Czechoslovakia, Christians
called for the pope to visit the com
munist nation and in the Soviet
Union many Masses were celebrated
for the first time in years.
About 180,000 faithful crowded
the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square for
John Paul’s message commemorat
ing the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In his 20-minute speech in Italian,
the pope decried religious persecu
tion, exploitation of women, degen
eration of family life, sectarian strife
and lack of concern for the environ
ment.
Earlier Sunday, the pope, squint
ing in the warm spring sun, held a
Mass on the steps of St. Peter’s Ba
silica.
Calling Easter the new Passover, a
reference to the Old Testament ac
count of the miraculous rescue of
the Jews in Egypt, the pope said,
“God passes where there do not exist
conditions worthy of a truly human
life.”
False start
Cindy Wells pulls back her son, Cole Jordan Wells, who tried to
get a head start on the other participants at an Easter Egg Hunt
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
sponsored by MSC Hospitality. The event was held Saturday af
ternoon at Hensel Park in Bryan.
Tanker accident causes
nation’s largest oil spill
VALDEZ, Alaska (AP) — Mil
lions of gallons of crude oil,
spilled when a tanker ran ag
round, spread across a wildlife-
rich area of ocean Saturday while
See related story/Page 6
crews briefly tried to pump out
some of the oil remaining in the
ship’s holds.
The biggest oil spill in U.S. his
tory created a slick 8 miles long
and 3-and-a-half miles wide in
Prince William Sound. The Coast
Guard said only Reef Island and
the western edge of Bligh Island
had been touched by the slick.
The effect on wildlife had not
yet been assessed but commercial
fishermen who depend on the
sound for a catch worth millions
of dollars were outraged and said
a key herring spawning area had
been polluted.
“The whole food chain could
be affected by the spill,” Alan
Reichman, ocean ecology coordi
nator for the environmental
group Greenpeace, said in
Seattle.
“There’s a high concentration
of sea otter, waterfowl, sea birds
and pink salmon in that area,”
Steve Goldstein, a spokesman for
the Interior Department in
Washington, said. “Some birds
have already died, and we are
doing our best to try to save the
fish by containing the oil to the
area where it presently is and by
trying to skim it.”
Some 270,000 barrels — or
11.3 million gallons — of crude
oil from Alaska’s North Slope
spilled early Friday when the 987-
foot tanker Exxon Valdez ran
hard aground on Bligh Reef,
about 25 miles outside Valdez,
where it had taken on a total
cargo of 1.2 million barrels.
Pumping operations to trans
fer some of the remaining oil
from the Exxon Valdez to an
other tanker started early Satur
day, but were halted after about
an hour, the Coast Guard said.
Coast Guard Lt. Ed Wieliczkie-
wicz said he was unsure why the
pumping was stopped.
Exxon wants to pump 200,000
barrels of the stricken ship’s
cargo onto the Exxon Baton
Rouge, in hopes that would re
move enough weight to let the
ship float free of the jagged reef,
said Tom Cirigliano, a spokes
man for Exxon Shipping Co. Inc.
He said the unloading would con
tinue for a number of days.
The Port of Valdez remained
closed to tanker traffic. North
Slope crude oil is shipped 800
miles through the trans-Alaska oil
pipeline from Prudhoe Bay south
to Valdez for shipment aboard
tankers to refineries outside
Alaska.
The Coast Guard said the Ex
xon Valdez struck the reef when
it maneuvered outside normal
tanker traffic lanes to avoid ice
bergs.
Students take care in allocating service fees
By Sharon Maberry
STAFF WRITER
Every Texas A&M student pays a
student service fee each semester,
but most people don’t know where
their money is going.
Student service fees help fund
campus organizations or programs
that potentially benefit all students.
It’s the Senate Finance Committee’s
job to distribute the money.
The current student service fee of
$67 per semester will increase to $73
next fall. Four-year Finance Com
mittee member Guy Diedrich said
the $6 increase is necessary because
A&M fees have not risen with infla
tion.
“We’ve been amazingly conserva
tive,” Diedrich said of the Commit
tee’s 1989-90 recommendations.
“Since I’ve been here, fees have gone
from $65 to $67. For the student
service fees to go up only $8 in four
years is, I think, phenomenal.
“We were told this year that a 7
percent increase would bring us
(A&M) up to standards. Essentially,
our increases were responsible.
Many of the groups applying for
money didn’t get everything they
asked for. Maybe next year they can
hire that half-time secretary or extra
graduate student, but to hit students
with any more than a $6 increase
would be too much.”
Finance Committee Chairman Mi
chael Lister said A&M’s fee is among
the lowest in the state.
“According to state legislation,
student service fees can't be more
than $90 per semester, although
they’re attempting to increase that to
$120,” Lister said. “Many Texas
schools are at $90.”
This year, 18 budgets were sent
before the Finance Committee for
consideration. Each budget was as
signed to a committee member who
researched the requests to determine
if they were justified.
“We audited the 18 budgets and
gave detailed and responsible rec
ommendations on where these
funds should go and how much they
should be,” Diedrich said. “Now, our
budget report goes to the adminis
tration for approval.
“In the past, the administration
has almost always gone exactly by
our recommendation. This system
keeps the huge bureaucracies that
student services are becoming re
sponsible and in check.”
According to the Finance Com
mittee Budget Report, $5,799,385
from student service fees are recom
mended for allocation to those orga
nizations and programs offering
services to all students for the 1990
fiscal year.
Diedrich said the committee cut
more than $1,350,000 from the 18
budgets’ original requests.
“If we had given everyone what
they wanted, the fee would have
been $94,” Diedrich said. “We deter
mined that $73 could be allocated
this year. That’s what’s necessary for
those (student service) groups to
properly function and provide their
services.”
The following is a list of the Fi
nance Committee’s recommended
funding for different organizations:
• A.P. Beutel Health Center —
$1,422,450.
• MSC-—$1,424,196.
• Intramurals — $889,402.
• Student Counseling Service —
$837,983.
• Student Activities — $371,570.
• Intra Campus Bus Operations
— $178,690.
• Students’ Attorney —$ 133,397.
• Multicultural Service Center —
$127,659.
• International Students’ Asso
ciation — $114,226.
• Extramurals — $62,236.
• Student Government Associa
tion — $58,265.
• Center for Drug Prevention &
Education — $46,062.
• Student Publications —
$39,000.
• Study Abroad — $23,912.
• University ’ Art Exhibits —
$22,680.
• Student Handbook — $ 14,550.
• Graduate Student Council —
$8,103.
Of the 18 groups requesting
funds, only one was denied. The
Texas Aggie Band requested
$110,000, but the committee agreed
that funding for the band should
come from resources other than the
student service fee.
All other groups, except the
Graduate Student Council, tradi
tionally have been funded by the stu
dent service fee. This is the first year
the Council has requested funds.
“We’re getting more and more
graduate students each year,” Lister
said. “They’re paying the student
service fee just like everyone else,
but they have different needs from
undergraduate students.
“The average age of graduate stu
dents is 28. Many of them are mar
ried and are interested in things
such as tax and insurance seminars
and child day care. We can’t deny
them money from the student serv
ice fee because their needs are justi
fied.”
Apart from the financial recom
mendations, the Finance Committee
See Service fees/Page 8