Daily
rojan
University of Southern California
Vol. LXVII, No. 13
Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, October 2, 1974
Report to be submitted on academic calendar
FOR YOUR INFORMATION - Steve Cheney, director of the Tutorial Program, puts the finishing touches on an information booth in front of Tommy Trojan. It is designed to relieve traffic at the Student Activities Center and is scheduled to open Monday. DT photo by Mike Martinez.
BY WAYNE WALLEY
The financial feasibility of an early semester calendar will the topic of a report to be submitted to the Academic Calendar Commission on Monday.
The report will be submitted by the subcommittee of the commission, chaired by Connie Seinfeld, Student Caucus chairperson.
“There is no evidence in either direction of the cost of calendar reform. The university could possibly lose money from a change, but then not lose anything,” Seinfeld said.
Seinfeld said the early semester plan with fall classes starting in early September and ending before Christmas vacation was termed desirable in academic standards by the President’s Advisory Council.
Idyllwild campus to add courses outside the arts
BY NANCY SHINABARGAR
Staff Writer
The Idyllwild School ofMusic and the Arts campus of USC will begin to expand course offerings next month to include the sciences and humanities.
A director, independent of the School of Performing Arts, will be appointed by November.
“The timetable depends on the new director, and how fast he puts his program together,” said Rod Punt, assistant to the dean ofthe School of Performing Arts.
Classes outside of the performing arts curriculum may be offered as early as the spring semester, Punt said.
The campus is located outside the city of Idyllwild, about 120 miles southeast of Los Angeles in the San Jacinto Mountains. The 200-acre campus on university owned land is in a heavily forested valley about 5,000 feet high.
It is open during the summer for adult and children’s work-
Juvenile no longer suspected in murders
The 17-year-old youth charged with the kidnap-robbery of a USC coed and two counts of attempted extortion is no longer suspect in the murders of two students on the Row Sept. 3, police reported Tuesday.
A police detective from the Southwest division of the Los Angeles Police Department said that since no evidence had been found, the suspect was not considered to have committed or been a participant of the murders.
Police have no new leads in the case.
The juvenile was, however, charged with the kidnap-robbery of a USC student on Sept. 5 and the attempted extortion of two women, one a coed here, the week of Sept. 23.
shops in music, arts and crafts. Except for small university conferences and retreats, the campus is closed in the winter.
Under the new program, the campus will be open all year round.
“Theldyllwild SchoolofMusic and the Arts was within the School of Performing Arts before,” Punt explained.
“For it to be developed fully to its potential related to the indigenous area, it is appropriate to view it as a total asset,” he said.
Ecology was mentioned by Punt as one of the areas Idyllwild is ideally suited to studying. He said natural science courses, especially biology, will probably be offered.
Continuing education courses in the humanities are also expected to be taught.
The director of Idyllwild will have a wide latitude in creating programs for the campus, Punt said.
“The director will have more freedom to develop the campus to his own fashion. The campus was taken out of performing arts so new programs could be developed outside of the performing arts offerings,” Punt said.
No cost for the administrative changeover has been set, Punt said. He wouldn’t comment on any estimated costs of the new programs.
“Undoubtedly there will be some building in the future but plans haven’t been submitted for that,” he said.
Bowman Auditorium, an open-air auditorium, is one of the largest buildings on campus. Guest cabins and dorms were built in the last 10 years in a rustic-modern style, Punt said.
The ideas for developing the Idyllwild campus are in a general rather than specific state. Punt said.
However, the campus will be run as a separate entity with a higher degree in independence than ever before, Punt said.
“It will have to stand on its own feet,” he said.
The director will still work with various schools and departments on the USC campus, Punt said. The ventures will be patterned after the College of Continuing Education, which has administrative and course programming similarities.
Paul Jans, director of the Idyllwild campus, will continue as director ofthe music and arts program. The primary courses in the summer will be under the music, arts and crafts program.
Summer residency programs for students eight years and older now include guitar, piano, film making, chamber orchestra and creative writing.
Adult classes, which can be applied toward college credit, include folk dancing, recorder lessons, design and graphics, and environmental awareness.
After-class recreation is another part of the Idyllwild summer experience. Swimming, hiking, mountain climbling, sports, concerts, recitals and camp fire sings are offered for adults and children.
The major task of the subcommission was to investigate the financial feasibility of the proposal.
Seinfeld said it would be best to start the spring semester on Jan. 20 because this would be the best time for students from jun-ion colleges and community colleges to transfer.
The report states that most junior college students polled felt they would come to USC even if their exam period overlapped the first week of spring classes.
Of the transfer students who responded to an Institutional Studies Survey, 73% said that they would come at this time.
A plan to start the spring semester around Jan. 1 was discovered not to be feasible because junior colleges and community colleges in the area will not go to a different calendar even if USC does.
A report by the subcommission in August said that if the present number of transfer students could not attend USC, the loss in tuition costs would be about $100,000.
With the spring semester starting Jan. 20, a four-to six-week intercession period would be created.
A possibility of a higher dropout rate caused by a long break between semesters was discovered to be negligible by a telephone survey of administrators at other universities with such a calendar reform.
The administrators indicated that they felt they had experienced no drop in spring enrollment from the calendar change.
A more in-depth survey showed a two to three percent variance in the drop-out rate, but it was not determined if the actual cause was the change in calendar.
With the long break between semesters, there does not have to be an intersession period, but voluntary intersessions could be
considered, which would allow students to take classes between semesters.
Experience in other schools with a voluntary intersession indicated 159c to 40% of the student body participated, but a possible advantage would be the attraction of extra students for the intersession.
Residence halls and food service would suffer no financial
loss if there is an extra charge for their use during a voluntary intersession.
Financial aid for the two major semesters would not be affected but scholarship money might not be available for the intersession.
Various plans for a change in the academic calendar have been discussed since 1968, but no actual decision has been made.
The earliest any plan could go into effect would be in the fall of 1975.
The first rough draft of a study on academic calendars was presented March 14 to the executive committee of the President’s Advisory Council.
The report was returned to the office of Institutional Studies for completion.
On March 20, the Executive Board ofthe Faculty Senate announced plans to investigate the adoption of a new academic claendar.
Later in April, the President’s Advisory Council continued the discussion on calendar reform.
At the April 15 meeting, John E. Elliot, professor of economics, said that the need for a continuous uninterrupted period of student study is the primary reason for the support of the calendar change.
A faculty survey at that time showed 64% favored ending the fall semester before Christmas.
Seinfeld said, “This calendar reform would be a major achievement of the President’s Advisory Council if it goes through.”
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The Game Coordinating Committee met Tuesday and discussed possible improvements for the new football ticket system.
“We’re trying to eliminate standing in lines,” James Dennis, chairman of the committee, said. “We don’t feel that this current system is the one we want."
The committee plans to try a variation of the present system but first wants to hear student comments concerning the system.
“No decision has been made yet. We just discussed the problems ofthe ticket exchange. We have three weeks until the next home game to make an alteration.’’ said Robert Mannes, dean for student life.
The problems discussed included students missing classes to waiti in line, student realization that there were only 3,000 reserved tickets available and anticipation of insufficient seating in the card section, and students crashing the lines.
One suggestion includes going strictly to a lottery system with reserved seating for all students. Another involves going to a lottery with half the seats reserved and the others on a first-come, first-served basis. The third suggestion is to maintain the same procedure but police the lines.
Dennis said that student input would be helpful. Students can submit proposals to Dennis in Heritage Hall 103.
The committee is expected to reach a decision at its meeting next Tuesdav.