ustxtxb_obs_1963_05_30_50_00010-00000_000.pdf

freedom of the kind in the Koeninger case that resulted in the censuring of Sam Houston State Teachers’ College by the American assn. of university professors in convention this spring in San Francisco. In these matters the governor kept to one side; but his influence was felt on behalf of the two new state colleges. Rep. John Allen, chairman of the House state affairs committeeupset that the legislature will have to raise taxes in 1965 to finance the new state colleges when they become state-supported that yearcomplained that Connally, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker put pressure on him to report them favorably from his committee. The governor charged his 25-member committee to study every aspect of higher education in Texas. A preliminary report is anticipated in about a yearsometime around the spring or summer of 1964. The committee is composed of 15 businessmen \(including three lawyer-businessficial, one judge, one teachers’ association executive, and one hospital administrator. Twenty-three of the 25 are college graduates. Some of the businessmen have served in various capacities on educational instituitions’ boards, but they are not professional educators. The businessmen members are H. B. Zachry, San Antonio, the contractor, chairman of the committee; George R. Brown, Houston, president, Brown & Root, Inc., and chairman of the board, Texas Eastern Transmission Co.; E. H. Danner, San Angelo, president, General Telephone Co. of the Southwest and president of the West Texas chamber of commerce; Morgan J. Davis, Houston, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Humble Oil and Refining Co.; Mrs. Ray L. Dudley, Houston, publisher and board chairman, Gulf Printing Co.; J. H. Dunn, Amarillo, board chairman, Shamrock Oil and Gas Corp.; Jenkins Garrett, Fort Worth attorney, general counsel for Leonard interests and a co-owner of three newspapers; John E. Gray, president and director, First Security National Bank, Beaumont; H. H. Imray, Longview, vice president and assistant manager, Texas Eastman Co.; John Erik Jonsson, Dallas, chairman of the board, Texas Instruments, Inc.; J. M. Odom, Austin, general contractor; Tom Sealy, attorney, director of various corporations; M. Harvey Weil, Corpus Christi, attorney, vice president and director of White Point Development Co.; Dr. Dossie M. Wiggins, chairman, executive committee, Citizens National Bank of Lubbock; and Gifford K. Johnson, Dallas, president, Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc. The educator members are Ben W. Jones, president, Navarro College, Corsicana; Dr. A. B. Martin, president, Amarillo Junior College; Abner V. McCall, president, Baylor University ; Harry Ransom, chancellor, the University of Texas; Earl Rudder, president, Texas A.&M. University ; and Willis Tate, president, Southern Methodist University. 10 The Texas Observer The other four members are Martin Burns, Houston, director, United Steelworkers of America, district 37; Reynaldo Garza, Brownsville, U.S. district judge, southern district of Texas; Vernon McDaniel, Austin, executive secretary-treasurer, Teachers state assn. of teachers, the Negro teachers’ organization ; and Sister Mary Vincent O’Donnell, San Antonio, administrator, Santa Rosa Medical Center. Connally, announcing the committee, said its study will include “such important areas as how many schools we should havewhere they should bewhat they should teachin general, what the aims and functions of the total educational system are.” In a statement that was timed for release with Connally’s announcement, Zachry said; “If we make money the sole solution and make our goal simply to plan how to get morewe will end up subsidizing mediocrity. One of the problems obviously will be to determine how better to utilize the huge sums which are now being poured into higher education in Texas. Our overall aim, of course, will involve generally rising the standards of education for our state, which unfortunately ranks rather low in many areas of college and university education.” Calling for higher college tuitionsan issue so controversial neither the governor nor the legislature pressed for it this sessionZachry said it is only proper that a youth seeking to invest in his future The “conflict of interest” bill passed by the House this session died in the Senate amid fluttering tags and flying rule books. Just how this happened is of some interest ; although just why it happened would be Rep. Eckhardt should be required to put his own assets in the task. “Any young man in the land today who can show a year or two of academic grades can go to the bank and get a loan on his future at low interest rates with or without government .guarantees. The banks recognize the serious student as a good investment on a long-term loan,” he said. \(It is of interest in this connection that Arlington State College officials have only recently discontinued participation in the low-interest federal college loan program for their students and have instituted a program requiring students needing loans to get them from private banks at six perZachry deplored spending $4 million a year on. A. & M.’s extension branches “to bring agriculture to every creek and dry gulch in the hinterlands. When we consider that fewer than 8% of our people are engaged in agriculture, this means that we are continuing an antiquated system . . ,” On the question of classroom loads, a sensitive subject with professors, Zachry said: “I feel we can get away from the old concept of blindly holding one teacher to 20 students in the classroom or lecture hall. A brilliant, inspired teacher can handle 40 better than the incompetent can teach 20. Then again, we have not probed deeply enough into the adaptation of television in the spread of learning,” he added. of more interest, it would be difficult to say just why. The measure was introduced by Reps. Bob Eckhardt, Houston, Jim Nugent, Kerrville, and Travis Peeler, Corpus Christi. It passed the House, with amendments, by more than two-to-one, despite objections by Rep. Maurice Doke, Wichita Falls, that most of the members lose money by serving in the legislature and that it was unfair to say it was wrong for them to earn money on the side. The 1957 code of ethics law is a toothless creature of little consequence. The resignation of Bill Murray from the Texas railroad commission because of his oil investments and the appearance of House appropriations chairman W. S. Heatly as counsel during the session in a case pending before a state agency turned some members’ minds toward the subject, however, and the House devised legislation giving some of the pleasantries in the 1957 code some snap. Under the House bill, state officials .could not have invested in a business over which their agencies exercised substantial control if the investment exceeded $25,000. However, there was an exception for a case in which an official might own less than ten eeeeeeeeeeee:-1 over CONFLICTS