ustxtxb_obs_1983_09_02_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

“According to BU President John R. Silber, Brown, Darthmouth, Yale, and other universities that help students who don’t register find alternative funding are acting ‘subversively’ and ‘supporting lawlessness.’ . . . ‘Universities and colleges have been used as an arm of the law for at least 25 to 30 years,’ Silber says. ‘I suppose we enforce not fewer than 100 to 150 national laws and state laws and regulations, not the leash of which are the collection of taxes from our employees, the collection of taxes on the services of meals, the observance of laws concerning the distribution of medicine and drugs, and affirmativeaction laws.’ ” po From the Aug. 21, 1983 Houston Chronicle: Critics of the Public Utility Commission under former Gov. William P. Clements Jr. frequently complained that Clements’ appointees were too close to the utilities they regulated. Determined that “there won’t even be any proximity” between utilities and the new members of the PUC, chairman Al Erwin has asked four utility companies to move out of the north Austin building which houses the PUC’s headquarters. Houston Lighting & Power, Texas Utilities, Gulf States Utilities, and Texas-New Mexico Power Co. have given their moving notices to H. Ross Perot, who owns the building. ‘,Apparently only four Texas Congressional representatives saw any connection between continued funding for the MX missile program, nuclear proliferation, and the increasing possibility of nuclear war. While eleven Texas reps voted for the Zablocki resolution calling for a nuclear freeze, only Henry B. nuclear freeze and against restoring $625 million for fiscal year 1983 for continued development and testing of the MX missile. Conservative Republican Ron Paul of Lake Jackson voted against MX funding, but he also voted against the May 4 resolution on the nuclear freeze. Texas votes on the two issues were as follows: May 4, 1983 Nuclear Freeze Resolution For Gonzalez, Brooks, Bryant, Leland, Kazen, Frost, Vandergriff, Coleman, Pickle, de la Garza, Wright. Against Paul, Ortiz, Andrews, S. Hall, R. Hall, Archer, Bartlett, Hightower, Gramm, Leath, Fields, Wilson, Patman, Stenholm, Hance, Loeffler. May 24-25, 1983 Restoration of MX Development Funding For Kazen, Frost, Vandergriff, Coleman, Pickle, de la Garza, Wright, Ortiz, Andrews, S. Hall, R. Hall, Archer, Bartlett, Hightower, Gramm, Leath, Fields, Wilson, Patman, Stenholm, Hance, Loeffler; Senators Tower and Bentsen. Against Gonzalez, Brooks, Bryant, Leland, Paul. vRep, El Franco Lee appears to be a shoo-in at this point to replace Harris County Commissioner Tom Bass in next spring’s primaries. Rep. Al Edwards, who had geared up for the battle, has reassessed his chances in light of last session’s adverse publicity over his horseracing wavering. Edwards is expected to announce for re-election in late fall. Ross Perot to the Rescue The Select Committee on Education Probes the Public Schools By Joe Holley Sherman FOUR YEARS AGO, as head of Gov. Bill Clements’ Texans War Drugs, computer mogul H. Ross Perot worked zealously and with great skill at getting Junior out of the head shop and into the classroom where presumably he would find a natural high via reading, writing, and the senior prom. This year, as head of Gov. Mark White’s Select Committee on Public Education, Perot has plunged with characteristic verve into the thicket of public school finance, poorly paid and sometimes poorly prepared teachers, apathetic students, and a Texas public gone bonkers over ballgames. He may be wondering how much better off Junior really is. Perot, a Texarkana public school product whose own children attended Dallas private schools, told the Observer he didn’t know that much about public schools; the governor’s call, he thought, might be for his sister, a former teacher and vice-principal who now heads the Perot Foundation. White, of course, wanted Ross Perot, and since mid-July this patron of public causes has led his 18-member committee to school districts large and small around the state. “I felt I had to spend a lot of time in the field listening to people, ” he told the Observer, “so I wouldn’t get misled by simplistic solutions.” One of those meetings was in Sherman where for eight hours Perot and seven fellow committee members heard teachers, administrators, and school board members talk about social promotion, vocational education, football, teacher pay raises, students toiling at the local Dairy Queen instead of doing homework, and a variety of other issues that make up the everyday universe of Texas public schools. Some of the big, Good books in every field JENKINS PUBLISHING CO. The Pemberton Press John H. Jenkins, Publisher Box 2085 ill Austin 78768 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5