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STATE & LOCAL
Monday, May 1,1989
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Schools begin battle for Bush’s presidential library
FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS
Now that George Bush has finished his
first 100 days in office, the battle to find a
home for his presidential library has begun.
It has the trappings of any good political
fight: Cities battling for prestige and a piece
of history — not to mention revenues from
an estimated 400,000 annual tourists. In
Bush’s case, the battle is all the more inter
esting since he has divided loyalties and
familial ties.
Bush was born and educated in Connect
icut, but has claimed Texas as home for
more than 40 years. That opens the bidding
among several of Texas’ finest and Bush’s
Ivy League alma mater, Yale.
Texas A&M is mounting an ambitious of
fensive.
Graduate Michel Halbouty, a longtime
Bush friend, broached the matter to Bush
after the election, and some A&M profes
sors mentioned it again in February, an
A&M spokesman said.
A&M President William Mobley has an
nounced that the location of the library will
be west of Wellborn Road, on FM 2347.
Students at A&M also want the presi
dential library in College Station, The Bat
talion reported Wednesday.
Ty Clevenger, speaker of A&M’s Student
Senate, told The Battalion that almost 200
petition packets, with the potential for
16,000 signatures, were circulating around
the campus.
Although the petition drive was planned
for later in the year, Sen. Phil Gramm, R-
Texas, asked the group to aim for present
ing the petition to Bush when he speaks at
commencement May 12.
“I’m flattered, and it may be what I want
to do,” Bush recently told Newsweek. “The
idea has great appeal to me. It’s a little pre
mature, but I want Texas to be the recipi
ent.”
But the president said Rice University,
where he taught an administrative science
course in 1978 and which is located in his
hometown, “would seem logical, too.”
“He’s spoken on the campus many times.
We just feel that this is very much a part of
his home,” said Mimi Crossley, a spokes
man for Rice University in Houston.
Bush has had a “long history of involve
ment” with Rice, she said, mentioning a
one-semester teaching job he held and
friendship he has with Rice officials and
supporters.
^ It’s a little premature, but I
want Texas to be the recipient
(of the presidential library).”
— President Bush
Besides, she told the Dallas Times
Herald, Rice promotes its academic excel
lence — only fitting for a president’s pa
pers.
But so does Yale University.
Jack Siggins, Yale’s deputy librarian, said
about four years ago a Yale professor dis
creetly contacted Bush about donating his
papers to the New Haven college, where
Bush graduated in 1948.
“He didn’t make a commitment,” Siggins
said.
Shortly after the November election,
Yale repeated its offer and the Texas uni
versities chimed in.
Rice officials made an oral proposal for
the library shortly after the election and a
few weeks later Charles Duncan Jr., chair
man of the school’s board of governors,
made the suggestion by letter.
University of Houston representatives
also sounded out advisors after the election
and fired off a letter to Bush earlier this
month, Randal Blauvelt, a school spokes
man, said.
But the Aggies won’t be outdone. Last
week, the University announced a detailed
battle plan to capture the library, including
the formation of a steering committee to
prepare the library bid and enlistment of
graduate students to help design the build
ing. University officials say when Bush
speaks at commencement, A&M will be able
to get a foot in the door.
But other universities pooh-pooh the ad
vantage.
“He spoke at a commencement exercise
at the University of Houston in 1977,”
Blauvelt said.
Blauvelt fended off the competition, say
ing, “Houston is a much bigger school than
Rice also. And in Texas, bigger’s better.”
Both Rice and Houston are touting their
Houston location over College Station.
“We are in a major population center,”
Crossley, of Rice, said.
“We’re not out of the way where people
have to strain to get there,” Crossley said.
But A&M officials say College Station is
equidistant from several metropolitan
areas, allowing it to draw at least 500,000
visitors a year.
Back East, Yale isn’t sitting on its hands.
Siggins said the school will quietly pursue
the Bush library with the force of per
suasive logic.
Among other selling points, Yale is in a
region in which Bush’s family goes back for
centuries. The school sports impressive col
lections and scholars and has had experi
ence at finding donations.
Chili’s CEO gets entrepreneurship award
By Melissa Naumann
STAFF WRITER
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When Norman Brinker, the
founder of Steak & Ale Restaurant
and chief executive officer of Chili’s
Restaurant, comes across something
good, he doesn’t stick with it; he
makes it better and then moves on to
another project.
Brinker received the first Master
Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Thursday, given by the Texas A&M
Center For Entrepreneurship and
New Venture Management.
Dean A. Benton Cocanougher of
the College of Business Administra
tion saicl Brinker’s management
technique of attracting high quality
employees sets him apart from other
businessmen.
Brinker’s success began in the
1940s with his first business venture:
raising rabbits. His later experience
on the 1952 Olympic Equestrian
Team gave him insight into how
people become winners.
“I began to watch the people who
were winners and the people who
weren’t,” Brinker said. “The winners
had a very clear-cut goal and bench
marks along the way.”
He said this philosophy applies to
success in business. People who say
their goal is to make a million dollars
probably won’t, Brinker said.
“The person who sees the steps to
success will,” he said.
Brinker is someone who has seen
and taken these steps. In 1965, he
formed a new company — Steak &
Ale. His only obstacle came when he
wanted to hire Southern Methodist
University students as servers.
“I called the placement office at
SMU and told them I needed
around 30 students,” he said. “The
woman who answered the phone
said, ‘Steak and what? We don’t
place students at establishments
where liquor is sold.’”
Brinker solved the problem by vis
iting a fraternity house and luring
members to work with promises of
big tips, and Steak & Ale opened on
time.
By 1976, the Steak & Ale chain
consisted of 199 restaurants.
In 1983, Brinker invested in and
became chairman and CEO of Chili’s
Restaurant.
“I wanted to see if my principles
would work again in a totally differ
ent environment,” he said.
nies that know where they’re going
and have a niche, like Wal-Mart and
Mary Kay Cosmetics,” Brinker said.
• Positive thinking is essential for
success, he said. A problem is not a
problem until it is identified as one;
it’s just a challenge, he said.
A high level of integrity
for si
Chili’s went from a 22-outlet chain
with $30 million in sales in 1983 to a
150-outlet chain with sales for 1989
that should exceed $325 million by-
next month, he said.
Brinker said the principles he has
lived by can help students just about
to enter the job market.
• A student should know a com
pany’s goals and ideals before be
coming involved with the company,
he said.
“For young people, the thing to
do is identify and look for compa-
is an
other quality necessary for success,
Brinker said.
“We see young people come in
and ask if you can really be honest in
today’s world,” he said. “We say yes.”
• Everyone needs to remember
and understand that computers
have their place. Relationships with
people are the most important, even
in the business world, Brinker said.
• Students should become ex
perts in their fields and make sure
they enjoy their work.
“Money is not the measure of suc
cess,” Brinker said. “What we do
with our lives is.”
Williams remains ‘close’ to entering governor race
FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS
Acting very much like a gubernatorial candi
date but refusing to admit lie is one, entrepre
neur Clayton Williams, Class of ‘54, told Texas
broadcasters Saturday his business background
qualifies him for the top post.
The Midland Republican pressed “Clayton
Williams for Governor” brochures into the hands
of those attending the annual convention of the
Texas Associated Press Broadcasters but de
clined to make a formal announcement at the
meeting.
“I’m c-l-o-s-e, close,” Williams said.
Although Williams has never held public of
fice, he said his in-depth knowledge of the core
industries of Texas qualified him for the gover
nor’s seat. His business interests include banking,
real estate, energy and agriculture.
Williams spoke with The Battalion April 20 to
discuss his impending candidacy for governor.
“My qualifications are the lessons and experi
ences I’ve learned which can well be applied to
run the biggest endeavor in the state —the state
government with a $45 billion biennium (bud
get),” Williams said. “This state could be well run
like a business.
“I believe I can apply the lessons I’ve learned
and the scars I’ve carried to create a better Texas,
more like the one when I graduated from Texas
A&M those many years ago. I’m sincere and ded
icated to trying to make a difference.”
Other potential GOP gubernatorial candidates
include Secretary of State Jack Rains, Railroad
Commission Chairman Kent Hance, George W.
Bush, the president’s son; and Amarillo oilman
T. Boone Pickens.
Williams told The Battalion he would continue
and strengthen the war on drugs, a subject that
hits close to home with him. His older son be
came addicted to marijuana and alcohol in high
See Williams/Page 4
Pickens considers race
for Texas governorship
AMARILLO (AP) — With re
ports that George W. Bush’s
mother has advised the presi
dent’s son not to run for gover
nor of Texas, oilman T. Boone
Pickens is giving the run for the
Republican nomination a careful
look.
Bush was considering a cam
paign for Texas governor next
year, but on Thursday, his
mother, Barbara, told reporters
that she hopes her son’s recent
purchase of the Rangers will keep
him out of Texas politics for a
while.
The same day, corporate
raider T. Boone Pickens told re
porters that he’ll decide by Sept. 1
whether to seek the 1990 Repub
lican nomination.
According to one political ob
server, Pickens has several advan
tages.
Pickens’ lack of political office
experience could be an asset, said
George Christian, a longtime
state Democratic Party consultant
and press secretary to President
Lyndon Johnson from 1966 to
1969.
“I doubt that the average citi
zen has formed an opinion of Mr.
Pickens as a politician. They
won’t do that until they see him as
a political candidate. He hasn’t
run for anything. They don’t see
him as a well-defined political
personality.
“That’s an advantage an out
sider has sometimes. He can form
his own profile.”
Meyer compared Pickens’ lack
of political office experience to
that of Bill Clements when he ran
for his first term as governor in
1978. Despite never having run
for political office before then,
and given no chance in the pri
mary and general elections,
Clements won.
Christian said he thinks most
people perceive Pickens as a suc
cessful businessman.
Pickens probably has a lot of
name recognition, too, and there
fore would not have to buy much
recognition, Christian said. On
the down side for Pickens, any
one who has been in the public
limelight is bound to have ene
mies, he added.
“I would expect that Pickens
has some. He’s been fighting wars
in the business community.”
Fred Meyer, state Republican
Party chairman since June, said it
is too early to evaluate the race.
“It’s too hard to get the likely
voters now,” Meyer said. “Pri
mary polls, just days before the
primary election, are notoriously
inaccurate.
But Meyer doubts that Pickens’
well-known business ventures
would translate into high voter
identification.
Pickens’ name recognition “in
no way could be up with (Rail
road Commissioner) Kent Hance
or George W. Bush” and perhaps
not as great as Texas Secretary of
State Jack Rains, Meyer said.
However, Andrew Littlefair,
an assistant to Pickens, said poll
ing results are positive.
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CLOTH OR PAER
WHETHER USED ON THIS CAMPUS OR NOT.
WE BUY ALL TITLES HAVING RESALE MARKET VALUE!
Our Text Book Buyers Will Be On Duty
To buy your books at:
Texas A&M Bookstores in the MSC
May 1 Thru 5
May 8 Thru 12
7:30 AM-6:00 PM
May 6, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Special convenient location in the Commons
May 8 Thru 10
8:00 AM-4:30 PM
After graduation, this will be
your first smart move.
At Lincoln Property Company, all you
need is this ad and a copy of your diploma
or proof of graduation, and we’ll forget
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You’ve finally made it, and we at LPC
believe you deserve this great graduation
present! Call the Lincoln Lifestyle Center
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ing of the 20,000 apartment homes in
the Dallas/Fort Worth area, including
The Village. Let us introduce you to The
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*Plus we’ll give you a $300 rebate on your
l s t full month’s rent. Offer expires July 31,
1989. Offer good only at participating LPC
communities.
We've got the best apartments in Dallas!
Lincoln Property Company 214/373-9300
Certain restrictions apply. Must be 21 or older to qualify. Must meet qualifications. Offer applies to new
residents only. You must bring this ad on your 1st visit to quality.
Plant your ad in The Battalion Classified
and harvest the RESULTS!
Phone 845-2611
for help in
placing your ad.