University Village suffering from 23% occupancy rate
through the village, but it is not booming. The low occupancy as well as their own low sales volume is due to the lack of promotion.
Roscoe said the village has the potential for being one of the most high volume sales centers in Southern California.
It has a ready market, he said. USC is next door, and a dense population area surrounds it. There is hardly any competition—only a small shopping center nearby on Vermont Avenue. The nearest major center is the Broadway Plaza downtown.
Merchants feel that the promotion of the village as a group of stores must be a shared responsibility between themselves and the management to let people know that stores like the sandal shop are open. Accordingto their leases, merchants are paying 15 cents per square foot to management for such advertising, Roscoe said.
He agreed that this responsibility in part belongs to the management, but at this point none of the money collected for promotion can be spent.
The reason for this is complicated, Roscoe said. The Hoover Redevelopment Corp., which originally owned the village, wrote bylaws into the leases stating that money collected from the merchants for the promotion of the village was undei its control rather than the merchants’ control. In return for control, the corporation donated $10,000 for promotional expenses.
I continued on poge 10)
By Justin Fox
Staff Writer
TIME WILL TELL—University Village merchants say they hope that the remaining store space will be leased in time for the grand opening in, September. Low occupancy problems continue to plague the shopping center. DT photo by Rick Stern.
Low occupancy is the latest problem facing the University Village. Managers and merchants are finding it hard to draw buyers and other stores into the center.
The grand opening is scheduled for September, but as of yet only 16 out of the planned 72 stores are operating. Chris Roscoe, general manager of the village, said the empty space leaves a negative impression with the buyers and prospective lessees.
Roscoe, who works for Ernest W. Hahn Property Management and who is being transferred to another shopping center in Santa Anita on Friday, said the 16 stores represent 55% of the square footage in the village. By September, he hopes that 75% of the floor space will be leased.
The low occupancy in general has hurt some of the merchants, Roscoe said. Stores like the University Sandalmakers seem almost hidden behind unfinished and vacant buildings.
Other stores that are well-established in the area and are located on the main streets, like Tam’s and Silverwoods, enjoy good business. The lesser-known stores have to depend on whatever advertising they can do themselves. Some pool their funds and buy space together in local newspapers.
These merchants claim that the business they get is commensurate with the foot traffic that wanders
University to limit fall freshman admissions
University of Southern California
By Peter Fletcher
Stall Writer
The university doesn't want to admit more undergraduates for fall. 1976 than it did last year, said Conrad Wedberg, dean of admissions. Wednesday. The university admitted 6.987 undergraduates last fall and 6.980 in the fall of 1974.
“If admissions of undergraduates increases it will be because more transfer students are admitted.'’ he said. “We can admit these students because the upper-division classes aren't as crowded. We will not increase the size of next year's freshman class.”
Wedberg said the university admits roughly twice the number of students it expects will enroll. It is impossible at this time to project the number of new and transfer students who will enroll next year.
Interest in the university is still high, he said.'Last year we printed 95.000 applications. We
B> Denis Wolcott
Stall Writer
Construction will begin in about 60 days on the new daycare center that was recently approved by the Board of Trustees. Final approval by the task force for the center is pending.
Mike Bocchicchio. director of architectual services, said he has sent the finalized plans for the center, which should be completed by September. 1976.
The center will accommodate between 66 and 75 children of student, faculty and staff members.
The new site is located between 27th and 28th Streets on University Avenue. The original site had been planned adjacent to the Married Students Housing Complex but the Married Students Housing Committee drew protest to it in a formal complaint to President John H. Hubbard.
The committee said the proposed site near the Married Student Complex was in an area of high noise and high pollution.
Virginia Zoitl. director ofthe task force, said the alternate site is better because it isn't a major thoroughfare so there is less pol-
had to reorder because we ran out in April. This year we ordered 110.000 and we ran out Tuesday.”
So far 4.944 students have applied as incoming freshmen, said Richard Dolen, acting director of Student Administrative Services. Of the applicants considered, 1,797 have been admitted and 39 have been rejected.
Dolen said the figures are misleading because many applicants have had their decisions delayed because the university wants to review their seventh or eighth semester transcripts. “We consider people on the basis of six semesters of high school work, if it is good; otherwise we wait to see what they have done in their senior year.”
Of 1.290 transfer students who have applied. 354 have been admitted and 36 have been rejected. Dolen said. The same policy on admissions applies to
(continued on page 2)
lution and noise.
In addition, she said, the site is near tjie USC Early Childhood Training Center, the Kerckhoff Building (part of the Department of Psychology), the John Tracy Clinic for deaf children and the Los Angeles Child Guidance Center.
In January of 1974 the idea for a day-care center was proposed and the task force started to look for a possible site.
In April. 1975. a $100,000 donation by Anna Bing Arnold, a member of the Board of Trustees, was given to help construction of the center.
The Married Students Housing Committee made its formal complaint to President Hubbard about the proposed site next to the Married Student Complex in May. 1975.
On Oct. 10. 1975. the task force approved the alternate location after visiting it a week before. The new site was suggested by Anthony D. Lazzaro, vice-president for business affairs.
Louise Maddox, director ofthe Isabelle Patterson Child Development Center at Cal State Long Beach, has been working with the task force as a consultant.
Volume LXVIII, Number 81
By Wayne Walley
City Editor
The Dental School may withdraw from the Student Senate because its representative was ousted last Friday for excessive absenteeism.
In a statement given to Dave Blackmar, chairman of the senate, the associated student body council of the Dental School said it will not elect another representative until the problem of senate meetings times is resolved.
“Unfortunately, main campus •politicians' feel it is imperative that the Student Senate and President’s Advisory Council meet at times that conflict with Dental School course hours,” the statement said.
Albert Moss, the ousted senate member, said the meeting times were just not compatible, with his schedule and that he did not receive the notices until after the meetings.
Blackmar was surprised at the action taken by the Dental School. ”1 really did not expect those people to be upeset about the removal of the people, but rather, to be more upset about not being represented.”
Blackmar said earlier that the senate did not believe the ousted students were negligent, but that they should not be serving as senators if they could not attend the meetings.
“The action was taken so that we will have people who will represent their constituency or else that constituency goes unrepresented,” he said.
Still, because of that action, the Dental School council said the graduate schools feel isolated from the main campus.
The council said it is important that the different schools within the university be represented in student government, but that graduate schools face conflicts between schedules and meeting times.
Blackmar said the senate tried different meeting times last
Los Angeles, California
semester, but that it did not help solve the attendance problem of graduate students.
“We even held three meetings after 5 p.m., which was the best meeting time for Moss, but he was still unable to attend,” Blackmar said.
“But meetings after 5 p.m. were unpopular with the rest of the members present at the meetings and by majority vote the time was changed again.” The Dental School council’s statement also referred to a lack of communication between the senate and its members as a reason for absenteeism.
“Our representative continu-
Thursday, February 26, 1976
ally received the information after the deadline. It is impossible for our representative to adequately function in the absence of information,” the council said.
But Blackmar said announcements of meetings had been sent to all members and attempts had been made to contact representatives.
“What they are failing to realize is that they have a responsibility too. as elected representatives. And then, if there are irreconcilable differences, the school should find another representative w ho can come to the meetings,” he said.
CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE—A beautiful belly dancer displays her craft in Founders Park to Kuwaiti music. The group, which performed to celebrate Kuwaiti National Day on Wednesday, drew a sizeable crowd in the balmy spring weather. DT photo by Bob Labayne.
Construction to start on day-care center
Dental School may leave Student Senate after delegate’s ouster