Daily ljp Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXVIII, No. 110	Los Angeles, California	Wednesday, April 7,
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Group answers gays; says current policy is nondiscriminatory
By Dorothy Reinhold
Assistant City Editor The Affirmative Action and Personnel Policies Committee has unanimously decided that the university's current nondiscrimination policy is adequate and that its wording does not need to be expanded to cover a policy concerning sexual orientation.
The committee considered a proposal Tuesday from Donald Knutson, professor of law, that the university add the words “sexual orientation” to its nondiscrimination policy, in addition to the words “race, creed and national origin.” Knutson’s proposal was recently adopted by the Law Center, and will mean that the center’s facilities cannot be used by employers (such as the Marine Corps) who do discriminate in their hiring practices on the basis of sexual orientation.
Barbara Solomon, chairman of the commitee. said. ‘‘We reaffirm to the Gay Student Union and to Professor Knutson the university’s nondiscrimination policy on factors that are irrelevant to the job. Therefore there is no need for a specific recommendation to the President’s Advisory Council concerning modification to the existing statement. However, we are willing to review any allegations they may have in the future.”
Matt St. George, cochairman of the Gay Student Union, said, “This should be looked upon as not a step forward or backward but a step sideways. This action indicates a lack of awareness and sympathy to the still existing prejudices and social pressures on gays in today’s society.
“The Gay Student Union won’t allow the affirmative ac-
tion committee to straddle the issue but will continue to seek action through the proper channels. They will be hearing from us again.”
In discussion leading up to the committee’s decision, Barbara Pearson, director of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action for the university, said she thought existing nondiscrimination laws sufficiently covered all the bases.
“We are up to our ears in affirmative action for special classes. We may be opening a can of worms in doing this, but I feel there is a solid basis for the other factors to be listed. I see no evidence that there is a need to overcome this. It is a sociological thing and people take stances according to their own morality,” she said.
Pearson said several laws applied to this issue. The Civil Rights Act of 1964; Title VII, which prohibits discrimination in private employment on the basis of “sex, race, color, religion or national origin,” and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of “race, color or national origin” in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance, all covered the issue, she said.
“It is faulty reasoning to say that there are no existing laws applicable. I don’t think it is necessary to expand the concept of groups against which we do not discriminate,” Pearson said.
Solomon said she wondered if, in making a recommendation like this, the committee would be expressing the university’s broad-mindedness, or “raising something and mak ing a public issue out of something that doesn’t need to be.
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MILT KAHN
Often-fired sportscaster speaks his own mind
about athletes, arenas
By Marcus Oviatt
Staff Writer
Milt Kahn is an outspoken sports commentator who calls himself the most fired sportscaster/sportswriter in the history of the media.
He’s been fired from two television sportscasting jobs and one radio talk show on KGBS.
Kahn, the driving force behind Milt’s Mirror, a sports newsletter he says is going to “revolutionalize the world of sportswriting,” has never been known to pull punches.
True to form, Kahn came out swinging in a rambling speech at the Student Activities Center Tuesday.
Kahn on USC basketball: “I have anoiher year of eligibility as a basketball player. Bob Boyd’s team isn’t that great...I could make the team. I wouldn’t make as many turnovers.”
On Bob Boyd: “I think Bob Boyd is a damn good coach. I think he’s one of the best in the country.”
On the Sports Arena: “That’s got to be the worst place to play. Making those poor kids play there to
3,000	people is one of the all-time lows.”
On USC sportscaster Tom Kelly: “Tom Kelly is to me, really, the guy who should be selling insurance for Allstate. He’s made USC basketball more boring than it really is, and that takes talent.”
On John McKay: “He peaked here at USC and went to Tampa. A lot of people knocked him for that but he was just starting a new life.”
On life after USC: “The odds you’re going to enjoy life after you get out of here are about 100 to one. The
and rival broadcasters
fun is here—Disneyland. You’ll get out of here and the girl you’re dating will put on about 40 pounds and four kids.”
Kahn also touched upon a variety of topics unrelated to the university.
On homosexuals in athletics: “I think it’s healthy. I think there should be more homosexuals in sports. They shouldn’t be discriminated against.’’
On Walter Alston, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers: “Walter Alston’s a clown. At best he should be a maitre d’ at the Commons Cafeteria.”
On baseball: “People don’t go to baseball games to get excited. They go there to relax, eat hot dogs and talk about batting averages. Baseball is boring, but there are a lot of boring people in the world who support it and I’m one of them.”
On Candlestick Park in San Francisco: “Going to a game there is like going to Siberia. To pay money for that torture is ridiculous.”
Kahn said he started Milt’s Mirror to give another side to what he considers the slanted sports coverage presently provided by sportswriters.
“I felt there was a need to really cover sports in an honest way,” he said. “It’s important that the sports format be covered in the same objective way as other news.”
When asked if he thought he might be successful if he weren’t so outspoken, Kahn said he couldn’t change things.
“I’m Milt Kahn,” he said. 441 can’t play the hired hand, the houseman.”
Academic commission advises changes in graduation honors
By Cathy Taylor
Assistant City Editor
The Academic Standards Commission voted Tuesday afternoon to recommend a change in the requirements for graduation with honors.
The 10-5 vote of the commission must be approved by John Cantelon, vice-president for undergraduate studies.
The grade-point average requirements will remain the same: 3.25 will be the minimum for cum laude, 3.60 for magna cum laude and a 3.90 for summa cum laude. However, the number of recipients of honors in each category will be figured on a percentage basis in each division of the university.
No more than 1% will be allowed to graduate summa cum laude, no more than 6% will be allowed to graduate magna cum laude or above, and no more than 15% with honors, even though the student may have the appropriate grade-
point average. The system will be effective with the August, 1977 graduation.
Juanita Mantovani, chairman for the committee on grade distribution, said the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences will be the most affected by the percentages.
The move to cut the number of people graduating with honors stemmed from reports that showed a steady increase in the percent of students receiving honors.
For example, in the year 1965-66, 18.7% of the total graduating class graduated either cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude.
In these years, the requirement for the three categories were 3.00, 3.50 and 3.90. Under this scale, the percentage of honors rose to 24% by 1970.
The requirements were made more restrictive beginning in the academic year 1970-71 and brought to the current levels. Once again, the percentage of the total graduating class re-
ceiving honors began at a low 12.9% and increased each year to a new high of 30% for the graduating class of 1974-75.
“It’s not fair for students in a hard division to compete with students in an easier division for honors on the basis of grade-point average,” Mantovani said.
William Hall, the registrar and acting chairman of the meeting, commented on the problem of back dating. He said that because of many changes and corrections in registration, some 200 additional degrees were granted for last year after the final report in August.
However, Mantovani said that the few extra students who may qualify after grading problems are corrected would be added to those already accepted. She said the system would be flexible in this respect.
Hall added that the percen-
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BAND'S EYE VIEW—If you've ever wondered what it's like to face a crowd that you're usually a part of, this picture, taken from behind Hermes Ninos
and The Columbian Boys band, tells it all. The band played Tuesday on the Student Activities Center patio as a part of International Week.