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Mobley names Groff as A&M athletic director
By Mark Smith
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M University's search for a
jew athletic director came to end Tues-
iaywhen President William H. Mobley
mounced Wally Groff would take over
kvacancy left by departed athletic di-
dor, John David Crow.
Groff, who has been acting as interim
iirector since Crow left in May, has
torked for the University for 27 years
ad said that he is honored to have been
amed to the post of a department that is
ftenthe most visible to the public.
"The athletic department is the front
srch of the school, it's what people see
then they drive by," he said. "1 want the
ililetic department at Texas A&M to pro
ject a first-class image that will reflect
positively on A&M."
Mobley said Groff has demonstrated
his leadership skills while serving as as
sociate athletic director and will use these
skills to carry the department forward in
the 1990s.
"Wally is well-respected and has the
qualities we were looking for to lead our
athletic department," Mobley said. "He
is a man of utmost integrity and without
question has sound business credentials
and has proven himself as an administra
tor."
Interim President Dr. E. Dean Gage
agreed and said, "Wally Groff is an out
standing individual, and I look forward
to working very closely with him."
A 12-member search committee chose
Groff from a field of 31 applicants from
around the country.
Dr. Tom Adair, chairman of the search
committee, said the committee decided
last week to focus the search on Groff and
his qualifications for the job.
"The procedure started in late May or
early June with the committee writing a
position specification that described the
ideal candidate for the job as we saw it,"
he said. "And as weeks have gone by we
came to the conclusion that Wally Groff
fit that position specification better than
anybody else."
Steve Hatchell, commissioner of the
Southwest Conference, said, "I know the
description of Wally Groff from people
that I have spoken with last night. They
said things (about Wally) that all of us
would like to have said about us in our
professional careers."
Groff said Crow left the department in
good shape and that he plans to make no
major changes in the immediate future.
"I think our program as it stands is in
excellent shape," he said.
However, Groff said, one of the main
points he wants to stress is compliance
with conference and league policies.
"I'm going to single out compliance in
particular, because I as athletic director,
and we as the Aggie community, will not
tolerate anyone who breaks the rules or
regulations of the Southwest Conference
or the National Collegiate Athletic Asso
ciation," he said.
Groff also mentioned a renewed inter
est in building the proposed special
events center.
"The university has conducted a feasi
bility study," he said. "I think we'll prob
ably look at conducting other studies
about what we might be able to do in the
future. Right now, we're just in the study
phase."
Mobley said that when G. Rollie White
Coliseum was built the student body to
taled 7,000 students, one-sixth of its cur
rent enrollment. It was not designed to
serve a university the size that A&M has
grown to.
"We need an additional facility that
will accommodate larger events such as
our commencement. Muster, some enter
tainment that the students would like to
bring to this campus, as well as men's
and women's basketball," he said.
"The climate is changing and what is
happening internally is an evaluation of
See Groff/Page 6
Mary Macmanus/THE Battalion
Faculty, friends
honor Koldus
as 'one of a kind'
By Geneen Pipher
THE BATTALION
Words like "legend," "great individual," and "one of a kind" were
the fare of the day Tuesday at a reception honoring Dr. John J. Koldus
III, retiring vice president of student services, and his wife Mary Dell.
System Chancellor William Mobley and Mrs. Jane Mobley along
with A&M faculty, students, family and friends paid tribute to the
couple at a reception held at the Clayton Williams Alumni Center.
Koldus, who retired Tuesday after 20 years of service as vice presi
dent, was called a legend and a great man by many of his peers.
"He will be missed," Southerland said. "He has had 20 great years
and during that time he has touched thousands of lives. He is a man
whose top priority was always the students."
Mobley said Koldus has helped increase the reputation of the stu
dent services department.
"This is a historic day at A&M," Mobley said. "He is a legend.
They both are (Koldus and his wife). The reputation of the student
services department has developed greatly since he has been here. We
have the highest student retention rates in the state and that could be
greatly attributed to John and his staff."
In his speech, Mobley told of a young woman who was involved in
a car accident. Her mother and her doctor wanted her to go home for
a semester, but the woman wished to stay at A&M. The woman was
asked to stay with the Kolduses at their home on campus while she
made her recovery and attended school.
E. Dean Gage, interim University president, said Koldus has a spe
cial quality not often found in administrators.
"I am here today to honor, not only a legend, but a man who has
given his heart and soul to the University," Gage said in his speech.
"He will be missed simply by his presence not being here. The pro
grams he created will be here, but his warm, friendly smile will be
missed."
Koldus said he has enjoyed his years at A&M and intends to stay
MSCdirector Jim Reynolds congratulates Dr. John Koldus on his retirement at a reception Tuesday at the Clayton Williams Alumni Center.
See Koldus/Page 2
Eckels to run as land commissioner
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Republican state Rep. Robert Eckels says he will
run for Texas land commissioner, a job held by Democrat Garry
Mauro since 1982.
"Issues that affect that office are really interesting to me,” Eck
els said Monday in announcing his candidacy. 'T think nothing de
fines Texans better than the land, and I'd like to be a part of that.”
Eckels said Monday he will announce a steering committee for
his campaign in a few weeks.
"The bottom line is that I'm just ready to get on with it,” he
said. "At this point, there aren't any other GOP candidates in the
running, and Mauro hasn't said what he's going to do.”
But Mauro said Monday he will run for a fourth term.
Another potential Republican candidate for the job. Public Utili
ty Commissioner Marta Greytok, said she's not ready to announce
her plans.
TCA cable subscribers may not receive CBS
By Kim McGuire
The Battalion
TCA Cable-TV subscribers
won't be viewing any CBS sta
tions on cable unless local station
KBTX-TV grants written consent
for carriage rights by Oct. 6, TCA
General Manager Randy Rogers
said.
Under the 1992 Cable Act, ca
ble companies are forbidden to
carry any broadcast signals with
out the broadcaster's consent.
Federal law requires TCA to re
move any broadcast stations they
do not have permission to carry
by Oct. 6, Rogers said.
KBTX General Manager Jim
Baronet said their station is re
questing TCA pay 30 cents per
customer for viewing rights
which equates to $10,000 annual-
1 y-
Rogers said TCA will not pay
See Editorial, Page 13
cash for carriage rights.
"KBTX is trying to drum up
support to force us to pay for car
riage,” Rogers said. "TCA does
not feel it's fair for KBTX to
charge cable subscribers a fee for
programming they can get free
over public airwaves."
Baronet said cable subscribers
should realize they are already
paying TCA for what should be
free viewing rights.
"When you pay your cable bill
you're paying for a service that
should be free," Baronet said.
"This is not about money. It's
about maintaining a basic free
dom."
Rogers said TCA has reached
agreements to continue carrying
KXXV-ABC-Waco, KCEN-NBC-
Temple and KHTV-IND-Houston.
In addition to KBTX, TCA still
is negotiating with KWKT-Fox-
Waco, KTRH-ABC-Houston and
KXAN-NBC-Austin for carriage
rights.
Rogers said TCA is prohibited
from airing any other CBS affiliate
because of an agreement between
KBTX and CBS.
"Basically it's a monopoly,"
Rogers said. "We can't transmit
the CBS affiliates in Austin or
Houston because of the. agree
ment between KBTX and CBS."
He said KBTX isn't charging
other cable companies for its car
riage rights and KBTX's Waco-
based parent company, Brazos
See TCA/Page 6
Multiculturalism: Hot topic for Texas colleges
The Associated Press
DALLAS — The temperature may still be
near the century mark, but summer is over for
nearly one million Texans.
Classes have either already started or are
about to open at colleges and universities
across the state. Enrollment statewide is ex
pected to be right above the 900,000 mark this
year, including a record number of minority
students, educators say.
Some 48,500.students have been back at the
state's largest school, the University of Texas
at Austin, for nearly a week.
At the state's second-largest college, Texas
A&M University in College Station, 43,000
students went back to school Monday. So did
students at Texas Tech in Lubbock and the
University of North Texas in Denton.
Freshmen in many cases went early to take
part in orientations that included everything
from study tips to A&M's "Fish Camp,”
where Aggies go to learn all the important
things about being an Aggie, such as the fa
mous Aggie yells.
Prompted in part by the growing national
debate over whether colleges should require
students to take "multi-cultural'' classes, a
number of colleges are including optional
courses in orientation that focus on ethnic dif
ferences this year.
So far, Texas A&M is the only university in
Texas that makes such courses a requirement.
Texas A&M's College of Liberal Arts voted
this summer to require all of its students en
tering school in 1994 or later to take at least six
hours of class work focusing on ethnic groups
or countries and international topics other
than the Western culture that has long domi
nated American curriculum.
Such requirements have sparked intense
debates on campuses in Texas and across the
country, and the A&M debate is likely to kick
in again later this year when the faculty is ex
pected to vote on whether to require students
in all of its colleges to meet the multi-cultural
prerequisites.
The University of Texas at Austin fiercely
argued the issue last year. The proposed re
quirement was finally rejected by the faculty
senate, which decided that its curriculum al
ready had a broad range of required classes of
See Colleges/Page 10
Inside
State & Local
• Highway 6 frontage roads to
undergo construction
Page 2
Sports
•Coaches react to new
athletic director hiring
Page 7
Opinion
•Editorial: Both sides wrong
in cable debate
Page 13
Weather
•Wednesday:mostly
cloudy with scattered
showers, highs in the 90s
•Forecast for Thursday:
partly cloudy, highs in
the 90s
•Extended forecast:
partly cloudy, highs in
the 90s
Fomorrow in Aggielife
Feature:
Journalism professor retrieves his
adopted Romanian son after months
of negotiation and red-tape
Reviews.
Garth Brooks’ In Pieces,’
Mariah Carey’s ‘Music Box’
& M (iihon’s
Man Without
a Face’