Daily
yan
University of Southern California
Vol. LXVll, No. 18
Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, October 9, 1974
Dental students may strike over clinic conditions
AMBULANCES DISPLAYED—Members of a Los Angeles Fire Department rescue team were on campus Tuesday to explain emergency services available for, accidents and to answer students' questions regarding
emergency situations. Ambulance services are available 24 hours a day and cover the entire city. DT photo by Mike Ito. See story, page 3.
MONEY NEEDED FOR PAY HIKES
Cut of employees asked
Divisions and departments should modify teaching loads, curtail or eliminate faculty and staff positions and transfer more faculty or staff to research contracts. the Advisory Committee on Faculty and Staff Compensation recommended.
Zohrab A. Kaprielian. vice-president of Academic Ad mi-nistration and Research and chairman of the committee, said these provisions must be considered to liberate funds for faculty salary increases.
Various constituencies within the university were polled about faculty and staff salary expectations.
On the recommendation ofthe Faculty Senate, Kaprielian sent out a letter to divisions and
schools to consider internal cutbacks.
“Because of inflation it will be difficult to come up with something satisfactory/’ he said.
He said it would be impossible to tax the students any further to make up for salary and compensation increases.
David Malone, dean of the Humanities Division, said there are two major problems the faculty has to consider. One is the manner in which a department will receiv-e those funds which are iiberated for salary increases.
“What guarantee do we have for receiving funds for our division s departments salary increases?" he asked.
Another problem the Humanities Division has to con-
Speaker criticizes transit proposition
BY QUENTIN SCHAFFER
Staff Writer
The pro ballot argument for Proposition A is a pack of lies, Charles F. Barr, Jr., chairman of the Libertarian Alternative of Los Angeles County, said Tuesday.
Barr, who spoke inthe Student Activities Center, said he opposed the proposed rapid transit system and suggested a private free-enterprise transportation system instead.
“There would be no subsidy from taxpayers for a free enterprise sytem and competition would tend to keep the prices down and the quality and service up,” he said.
A private enterprise system is able to adapt to market changes faster such as changing their routes according to customer needs, he said.
Private companies would have to meet their immediate customer needs or go out of business, whereas the government system would have to go to the politicians and a whole bunch of extraneous considerations would come in. he added.
“Best of all. the public would no longer have the threat ui a
transit strike hanging over its head,” Barr said. If one company went on strike then other companies could come in and fill the
gap.”
Barr said that the fundamental issue was the proposed 1% sales tax increase which he said would not only raise prices but would hardly help subsidize the system’s expense.
“Los Angeles is counting on 80% federal support as contrasted to 20% local support. The maximum amount available by the government for the next several years would be $2 billion and Los Angeles is estimated to only produce $1.3 billion in the next 10 years,” he said.
Barr said that this combined total of $3.3 billion does not come close to meeting the estimated cost of$8-10 billion for the system.
Barr also said that a successful RTD system, might encourage more people to move to Los Angeles like the freeways did 20 years ago.
“This system might relieve traffic congestion a bit but I don’t feel it’s worth from $8 to 10 billion to do so.” he said.
sider is the burden which would be on students if the number of teaching assistants is cut down, Malone said.
“It’s impossible to come up with any meaningful savings without seriously jeopardizing academic quality,” he said.
“Short of a major economic crisis we’re not prepared to think about sacrificing academic quality in order to save funds for a salary increase,” Malone said.
Malone also said there was faculty confusion on how to read a budget, let alone understand it.
In a meeting of the Social Sciences Division to discuss Kaprielian’s memo, there was a general feeling that the faculty is entitled to a clearer understanding of the university budget. Many faculty members were concerned about allocation of resources and where liberated funds would go.
James McBath, professor and chairman of the speech communication department, said he agreed with Malone.
“If we made cutbacks we want a return instead of having all the money channeled to engineering or medicine,” he said.
BY STEVEN R. HAWKINS
Students in the School of Dentistry are dissatisfied with the school’s operations and are threatening to strike their clinical work if conditions are not improved, said one senior dental student who wishes to remain anonymous.
Nothing definite was established at a meeting of concerned students held Tuesday afternoon. Complaints were aired and various types of action were discussed, said a reliable source.
He said the students are considering everything from taking no action to striking. A decision will be made in a few weeks, after all possible alternatives have been discussed.
The source said the complaints include a lack of patients and a lack of equipment due to remodeling. He also said students were also concerned by a recent increase in the charge for dental work involving gold.
The source explained that the Dental School is now applying a $6 surcharge to previously quoted prices on work done in the university’s dentistry clinic.
He said dental students were completing cases using gold where a price had been quoted to the patient, and that later patients were informed of a higher price.
The source said the administration was taking advantage of patients. He cited a policy stating the school would honor prices quoted on work already undertaken.
He compared the surcharge to a student starting school and then discovering there would be a tuition increase during the semester.
Michael Blais, manager of business affairs for the School of Dentistry, said the school usually honors quoted prices. But he said the gold surcharge is the one exception.
Dr. Rex Ingraham, associate dean of clinical education, said that if work on a case started prior to Sept. 6. then the old
price would be honored.
Ingraham said gold fluctuation was an international affair and difficult to deal with. He called it a matter of survival for the school.
The School of Dentistry is providing a health service to the community, and the patient must absorb the costs, he said.
Blais said the cost of gold has tripled in the past year, and that the university must make up last year’s deficit.
The $6 surcharge is applied to each unit of work or restoration involving gold. Blais said restorations range from $46 and up. He compared this to the $200 charge a private physician might charge.
The Dental School requires excessive gold preparation work, said the student source. He said dental students must purchase excessive amounts of gold to use in the work.
Sue van Genert. administrative assistant to the dean of the school, said the Dental School is known for its gold work. She said students should be aware ofthis.
Students also face a shortage of patients for clinical work, the source said. He said the school has certain requirements in clinical work and that it was difficult to fulfill some when no patients were available.
Van Genert said the school is working hard to increase the patient pool. She said that in some instances the students were using mannequins.
Remodeling in the dentristry school is also affecting students’ ability to meet some clinical requirements, said the source.
He said dental students were forced to double up on the use of some chairs, making it difficult to complete individual workloads.
Dr. Robert L. Reeves, associate dean of planning and development at the Dental School, said not as much equipment was available as prior to the remodeling.
But he said a substantial
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Game ticket exchange to be altered
The coupon exchange program for football tickets will result in some form of reserved seating and not a return to the scramble system. James M. Dennis, chairman of the Game Coordination Committee said following a meeting Tuesday.
The committee will make a decision on a revised method Oct. 15. which will be implemented for the Oct. 26 USC-Oregon State football game.
The committee started work on a revised system after more than 400 students waited in line on Sept. 30 to exchange activity coupons for reserved seats for the USC-Iowa football game.
The system used for the Iowa game was a compromise
between an all-reserved system and the scramble system used last year.
Dennis said the goal of the committee is to eliminate the lines, insure student safety and find an equitable method.
All-reserved seating with a lottery was considered but presents three problems, Dennis said.
•Wrho would operate the lottery and how would it be implemented0
•Could the tickets be printed fast enough for the next home game?
•What about students who would rather opt for an unreserved seat and do not want to hassle a ticket exchange?