THE RECORD

FEBRUARY 17,1976

NO. 18

LYNDON B. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

EDITOR Hoyt H. Purvis

BROWN, WOOD DISCUSS ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

DR. ROBERT C. WOOD

"It is currently fashionable to put down the public programs of the 1960's," Dr. Robert C. Wood, president of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, told LBJ School students and faculty on February 2.

Wood, who served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said, "There is a current view that we blew it in the sixties by an overweening belief in organized public action. Instead, the feeling is that the effort should be put into the private sector and the free market."

Wood said that some of the newer political leaders in the country are "advancing the thesis that government can do little and is basically counterproductive." These leaders, Wood said, "would disassemble and retreat."

He said that The Public Interest (quarterly edited by Irving Kristol and Nathan Glazer) is "the most pervasive intellectual spokesman for this view point."

Wood pointed out, "As you come to judge and evaluate the public programs of the 1960s, it is important to remember that they were all slated to last through the sixties and seventies. Model Cities and OEO, for example, were based on the assumption that Democrats would be in office at least through 1972."

He said that those who push for reliance on the private sector "overlook the fact that two of the most important areas currently—energy and finance—are fields of gross mismanagement in the private sector."

He said, "In the seventies we will probably find that the private sector performance is not much better. The eighties will probably be a period of putting some reasonable private-public balance back together."

Wood said, "It is time to take some risks in the international scene." He noted the importance of progress in the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks and said the need for funding for domestic programs is critical. "I am suspicious of priorities that continue to take so much of our resources for the military."

He noted that universities, in particular, are under attack.

In response to questions, Wood said, "I don't see any candidate really coming to grips with the problems of lack of resources." He said someone was needed who could "take a new risk position in defense or a new kind of welfare." He said "changes in defense probably will be the toughest because of the difficulty of reforming the bureaucracy."

"The tragedy of political candidates," Wood said, "is that they don't believe you need policies to run, but public relations and money. We have a divorce of plausible candidates from a disciplined, tough selection method."

Wood was introduced by Acting Dean Kenneth Tolo.

DR. BERTRAM S. BROWN

Dr. Bertram S. Brown, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, told an LBJ School schoolwide seminar on February 11 that the NIMH is in a crisis period and faces a highly uncertain future.

The NIMH is part of Pubic Health Service's Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and Brown has headed it since 1970. He is also on the faculty at the George Washington University Medical School.

Brown said, "The present budget proposal for NIMH is essentially a death sentence. This crisis has been building for a period of four or five years."

NIMH currently has 5,000 employees and a $500 million annual budget, according to Brown, but he noted that about 4,000 employees work in connection with St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington. The remaining 1,000 are involved in administering the NIMH's research grants and contracts, training, and services, including the community mental health centers.

He said all of these programs are threatened by the budget proposals. He noted that the community mental health centers have strong Congressional support and that a veto of funding for the centers has been overriden and that Congress last year appropriated $60 million more than the Administration wanted for the centers.

He said the proposed budget would begin a phase out of the NIMH training budget, with $30 million allocated for Fiscal Year 1977, and nothing the following year, as opposed to the current $80 million. He said 3,000 current social work students and 700 faculty members

He commented that the NIMH is faced with a "splintering of authority" in dealing with Congress. Whereas power over NIMH programs was formerly concentrated in the heads of one Senate and House Committee, "we now have a half dozen to a dozen different committees and subcommittees."

Further, he said, that the NIMH also has to deal with the judiciary as well as the legislative and executive branch because of legal questions over such matters as impoundment. Restoring to psychiatric parlance, he said it was "a case of trizophrenia instead of schizophrenia."

Brown also discussed what he referred to as "a doubting period in the country" with some "expressing the feeling that almost nothing works" in regard to governmental programs.

would be cut off.

He noted that research programs, which have involved persons such as Nobel laureate Julius Axelrod and a number of important developments including significant advances in drug therapy, are headed for a 50 percent cut from the FY 1968 figure.

Brown noted that there is a continuing debate about what the roles of the states and the federal government should be.

[news item]

The Dean Search Committee reports these actions:

. Ads have appeared (over the weekend of February 7-8) in The New York Times and the Washington Post. A large number of responses are expected.

. Letters have been sent to the deans of the schools of public affairs throughout the country asking for their suggestions as to possible candidates.

. Letters have gone to the deans of the UT Law School and College of Business Administration and to the chairmen of the Departments of Economics, History, and Government asking for their suggestions.

. More than 60 names have been reviewed by the committee. These names were submitted by students, faculty, and persons outside the University.

[news item]

For a report on the work of the LBJ School's South Texas Policy Research Project, see page 4.

"On the Record"

. Texas Attorney General John L. Hill will speak at a brown-bag luncheon at the LBJ School on Tuesday, February 24 at noon in the Student Lounge. Hill, who has been attorney general since 1973, is a graduate of the UT Law School. His son, Graham, is a 1973 graduate of the LBJ School.

. On February 12 representatives of the LBJ School were in San Antonio to discuss the graduate program of the LBJ School with students at St. Mary's University and Trinity University. Elizabeth Hall, director of the Office of Student Affairs, reports that LBJ School representatives have been making a number of visits to colleges around the country to talk with prospective students. The next issue of The Record will contain a full report.

. On Tuesday February 24 Brian Roherty an LBJ School graduate and budget analyst for the Department of Administration, State of Wisconsin, will be at the LBJ School to conduct interviews. From 8 to 9 a.m. he will interview students interested in an internship in the State Budget Office and from 9 a.m. to noon will interview students interested in permanent employment upon graduation. The afternoon will be devoted to second-year students interested in employment this year.

. Professor David Warner has accepted the chairmanship of the Student Admissions and Financial Aid Committee at the LBJ School. Warner suceeds Dr. Kenneth Tolo, who is now serving as Acting Dean. Other committee members are Professors Marlan Blissett, Dagmar Hamilton, and Victor Bach, Elizabeth Hall (ex officio), and students Peter Lemonias and Bob Farley.

. Hoyt Purvis, director of publications at the LBJ School, has been elected president of Austin Community Television (ACTV), Austin's cable television access center. George Warmingham, head of the media support unit at the LBJ School, is a member of the ACTV board.

. Brian Petraitis, second-year student, addressed a meeting of University of Arizona student service administrators and student association persons on February 7 in Tempe, Arizona. The topic of his talk was the development and funding of activities and alternative services on university campuses. He was actively involved with this area while in New York.

. The month of January was a time when the new xerox facility in the library operated at peak capacity. Its location in a convenient area was noted by both busy students and library staff. It should be noted that refunds are available for all imperfect copies. Refund envelopes are available at the library circulation desk or in the basement vending machine room. Please list your address on the envelope as SRH 3.244 and as a matter of convenience the refunds will be delivered to and distributed by the library.

. The LBJ School men's intramural basketball team plays its first game on Wednesday February 18 at 9 p.m. The team has been holding practice sessions for several weeks. Team members are Julius Whittier, Glenn Deck, Steve Cobble, Dan Friedhoff, Joe Murphy, Rick Gentry, Bob Nicholson, Ken Leonczyk, and John Riddle. The team is coached by Hoyt Purvis.

. Dr. David Warner and his wife Phyllis are parents of a baby girl, Ann Fitch, born on February 9 at St. David's Hospital.

SPEAKERS SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED

A heavy schedule of speakers at the LBJ School is planned for the coming weeks. Among those who will be speaking here are:

February 17, 10:15 a.m. (SRH 3.111)–Dr. Victor L. Arnold, director of developmental planning, Minnesota State Planning Agency. He will discuss issues related to the initiation, staffing, and administration of a comprehensive, long-range planning program in a state planning agency/governor's office. Particular attention will be given to special studies his office has recently undertaken for the Minnesota Legislature.

Dr. Arnold is a graduate of Colorado State University and has his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in economics-oceanography. He has served as executive director of the Commission on Minnesota's Future and as assistant professor and director of continuing education in public affairs at the University of Minnesota. He also worked as an economist-systems analyst in the U.S. Department of the Interior.

February 20, 2 p.m. (SRH 3.111)–Dr. Mortimer Dittenhofer, assistant director of the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program of the U.S. General Accounting Office.

February 24, 12 noon (Student Lounge), Texas Attorney General John Hill (see "On the Record.")

March 2, 12 noon (Student Lounge), Charles Hill, executive director, Wisconsin Council on Criminal Justice. Hill previously served as secretary of Wisconsin Local Affairs and Development and worked in the poverty program in Milwaukee. He was also a field representative for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has a master's degree in urban affairs from the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee).

March 3, 4 p.m. (Student Lounge), Donna Shalala, member of the board of the New York Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC). Ms. Shalala was the only woman named to the nine-member board which is trying to restore New York City's fiscal health. She is also an associate professor of politics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

She has a Ph.D. from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse. She received a Guggenhein Fellowship to work on a book on "The Political Economy of State Government."

March 5, 10 a.m. (East Campus Lecture Hall), Jack Valenti, former special assistant to President Johnson. Valenti is the author if A Very Human President (Norton, 1976), and President of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Other speakers include Brock Evans, Daniel Phillips, and Douglass Cater. Details will be announced in forthcoming issues of The Record

ARNOLD APPOINTED TO RESEARCH POSITION

Dr. Eldon Sutton, vice president for research at The University of Texas at Austin, has announced the appointment of Dr. Keith Arnold as assistant vice president for research.

Dr. Arnold is a professor of public affairs and has had administrative experience as associate dean and acting dean of the LBJ School and also as director of the Division of Natural Resources and Environment.

A nationally known natural resource scientist, Dr. Arnold joined the UT Austin faculty in 1973 after serving four years as deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Earlier, he was dean of the School of Natural Resources at The University of Michigan and taught at the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Arnold recently began a two-year term as president of the Society of American Foresters, which represents 20,000 forestry professionals and forest technicians.

He has three degrees in forestry—Bachelor of Science from the University of California at Berkeley, Master of Science from Yale University and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

OFFICE OF CONFERENCES & TRAINING SPRING SCHEDULE

Lynn Anderson, director of the Office of Conferences and Training, has announced the schedule of programs to be organized during the remainder of the school year.

SPRING TRAINING SCHEDULE (as of February 1, 1976)

TCC –Thompson Conference Center

SRH – Sid Richardson Hall

ECLH – East Campus Lecture Hall

Date --- Title --- Location

March 8-10 --- Professional Development Seminar for Local Government Administrators --- 2-120 TCC

March 22-23 --- Policy Conference: "Energy and the Future: The Impact of Changes in the Sources and Availability of Energy on Urban Governance and Design" --- Aud. TCC

April 5-7 --- Professional Development Seminar for Local Government Administrators --- 3.109 SRH

April 8-9 --- Policy Conference: "Improving the Electoral Process and Citizen Participation in Local Government --- ECLH

April 12-13 --- 22nd Governmental Accounting and Finance Institute --- Aud. TCC

April 26-27 --- 3rd City Management Institute --- ECLH

April 29-30 --- Policy Conference: "Improving the Equity, Productivity, and Adequacy of the State and Local Fiscal System" --- ECLH

May 3-5 --- Professional Development Seminar for Local Government Administrators --- 3-120 TCC

May 6-7 --- Policy Conference: "Improving Service Delivery Capabilities of Local Governments" --- ECLH

May 13-14 --- 18th County Auditors Institute --- Aud. TCC

SOUTH TEXAS PROJECT ISSUES PROGRESS REPORT

The LBJ School's South Texas Policy Research Project has issued a progress report on its work thus far in identifying and analyzing policy issues in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

The LBJ's South Texas Policy Research Project has issued a progress report on its work thus far in identifying and analyzing policy issues in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

After a preliminary survey of all facets of the three-county region (Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy Counties) it was decided to focus research on specific policy issues related to the colonias of South Texas. The project is focusing on the socio-economic characteristics of the colonias and the policy alternatives for the colonias regarding land-use management, a clean water supply, and improvement in sewage and drainage facilities.

The project is partially financed by the National Science Foundation, as part of the Coastal Zone Management Project, and by general grants from the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

More than half of the families in the Lower Rio Grande Valley fall below or near the poverty line and poverty is most apparent in the unincorporated rural settlements known as colonias.

Colonias, whose residents are primarily farm-worker families, frequently lack public facilities and social services and few have water and sewer systems. Housing is generally substandard and flooding is a recurring problem. Residents have difficulty in gaining access to educational and health facilities.

Because colonias are unincorporated, they are not eligible to receive many types of financial assistance for housing, water, and sewer systems, and other types of community development programs supported by federal grants-in-aid.

Initially, the Policy Research Project participants conducted interviews with community leaders and program coordinators in the region. As the first phase of the research effort, a profile of the Valley was compiled. The study includes: data on the demographic characteristics of the region and population projections; a study of the regional economy and economic development; a factorial ecology study of the region; and a study of the federal, state, and local governmental institutions which have an impact on the area.

The field client selected is "Colonias del Valle, Inc.", a cooperative association of colonias involved in developing a self-help approach to community development. The organization began as a grass roots effort and has retained this focus.

The seminar has also maintained contact with the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council, which is the regional council of governments; the City of McAllen; the Hidalgo County government; and Senator Raul L. Longoria, a State Senator from the Valley. Each of these has expressed interest in the research.

Reports on the findings in the areas of land-use control, water supply systems, and sewer and drainage systems will be published in the summer.

As a part of the final presentation of the results of the project, the Project has contracted with the School of Communications to produce a film on the colonias. The 28-minute color film will focus on the problems of the colonias as they fit into the profile of the Valley. The film will be a useful tool for presenting the issues and alternatives for the colonias visually to groups in the Valley and throughout the state.

This study of the colonias represents the first effort, in what is hoped to be, a long-term policy involvement of the LBJ School in the South Texas-Lower Rio Grande Valley Region.

The policy research team is composed of 14 LBJ School students and three faculty members, Mark Estes, Kingsley Haynes, and Jared Hazleton, with Dr. Haynes serving as project director.

Copies of the full progress report are available from the Office of Publications.