Med school ponders revised aid law
BY MARC GROSSMAN
Staff Writer
The university’s medical school it appears will not follow the lead of the Stanford University and Yale University medical schools in the possible rejection of federal capitation funding, a school official said. Capitation funding is a per capita money allotment.
In October. President Gerald R. Ford signed into law the continuation of these funds for the next three years.
A spokesman for the Stanford medical school said one provision of the law requires schools to reserve places for Americans who failed to gain admission into U.S. medical schools and are currently studying abroad.
The official from the medical school here believes “we have no intention of foregoing our capitation funding." The school currently receives $600,000 in capitation funding.
The Los Angeles Times (Nov. 11) reported Stanford and Yale officials saying they may take this action to defend an academic principle: deciding who does and does not qualify for admission to their schools.
“I believe universities must not compromise if they are to remain free academic institutions,” said Clayton Rich, vice-president for medical affairs and dean of the Stanford medical school.
Rich said Stanford, Yale and more than likely other medical schools, are helping to persuade Congress to reconsider the provision in the law which Rich maintains was rushed through a Senate and House conference committee at the last minute of this year's session.
If this effort is unsuccessful, however. Stanford and Yale are considering not complying with the law.
The University of Indiana has also sided strongly with the other two.
“It is very unusual for a public school to go along with this,” Rich said. “After all, if a state-supported school refuses federal aid, that means more money would have to come from the state. State legislatures and of course taxpayers would be very displeased. In this case, however, the governor of Indiana (Otis R. Eowen) felt it was the proper thing to do.”
Stanford could lose up to $800,000. A spokesman added that noncompliance
could mean the Department of Health. Education and Welfare would withdraw its federally insured loan program, which accounts for 407r or $556,000 'worth of the loans received by Stanford medical students.
A Yale spokesman said the school could lose up to $1.5 million in federal support.
Another admissions issue that has received a great deal of publicity is the Bakke decision.
Allan Bakke. a Caucasian 34-year-old engineer, was twice denied admission to the UC Davis medical school. He argued that less qualified minorities were accepted under a special admissions program that set aside 16 of 100 places each first-year class for disadvantaged minorities:
Bakke was upheld in a 6-1 state court decision.
“We have no quotas for the admittance of minorities.” said Williams E. Nerlich. director of admissions for the university's medical school. “I don't know what effect the Bakke decision will have on any policies here, but as of now. we do not plan to change anything."
An issue similar to that of the Bakke case confronted the U.S. Supreme Court in 1974.
Marco DeFunis. a caucasian applicant to the University of Washington law school, charged that he had been denied admission in favor of less qualified minorities.
By the time the court heard the case. DeFunis had been admitted and was about to graduate from law school. The court then declared the issue moot.
In a Los Angeles Times editorial (Nov. 9). the paper said ‘*it was wrong for justice to evade the question, because other cases that were not moot would inevitably reach their docket.”
The Times said it was .a choice between reverse discrimination and "the certain and systematic exclusion of blacks, Chicanos and other minorities...if the preferential admissions policy is struck down.”
The university's Law Center has taken no direct action regarding the Bakke decision.
“We have requested the dean (Dorothy Nelson) to have the university counsel (continued on page 2)
Reckless drivers not pursued by Security
BY VALERIE NELSON
Staff Writer
Reckless drivers on campus are not pursued by Campus Security officers because it is just too dangerous, said John F. Lechner, director of the force.
More people would be injured if the force engaged in pursuit. Lechner said.
People have been hit by Campus Security vehicles, but this only happens once or twice a year. Lechner said.
“You must look at how many people have been hit by speeding vehicles,which is no one — to be fair about the situation,” he said.
. However, about one to three reckless drivers receive warnings daily, said Bill Lanza, a Campus Security officer.
“Students here must be the luckiest people on earth because there have been no bad accidents,” Lanza said.
Campus Security vehicles are not equipped to overtake and engage in the dangers of pursuit. Officers are not trained to do this and are considered private citizens. Lechner said.
If the force did have the power to enforce traffic regulations they could be more effective, Lanza said.
“If we were given the power to enforce traffic regulations, the community feels we would go completely bananas. The truth is we would not do a whole lot of things different than we do now,” Lanza said.
The policy of not making traffic stops is set by the administration. Lanza said.
People are cautioned every day, but repeated offenses are taken care of through administration channels in the student's case, or the person’s employer, Lechner said.
Reporting the offenders to administrators is much more effective than if we tried to enforce regulations with a strict police attitude, Lechner said.
The overall speed policy applied here is the basic speed law — for everybody to drive only as fast as it is safe, Lechner said.
The Los Angeles Police Department does not enforce regulations on campus. The main reason is the university is on private property, Lanza said.
The police can come on campus if they are pursuing someone who committed an offense off campus, he said.
“Judgment is the matter used to decide whether to stop and ticket a person who has just rolled through a stop. A young officer would stop him, but I would tend to let him go,” Lechner said.
An officer was pursuing another vehicle a few years ago when the chase went off campus. The police became involved and the Campus Security officer received a ticket for speeding, Lechner said.
Students tend to be lax about stop signs, but a certain number just do not observe the rules, Lanza said.
“Everybody on this campus is constantly going in different directions — we have just been lucky, that’s all,” he said.
University of Southern California
Volume LXX, Number 41
Los Angeles, Californio
Friday, November 19, 1976
TROJAN SPIRIT — As the Row completed its house decs for Troy Week, students in Marks Towers did their own kind of decorating before the upcoming
battle Saturday between USC and UCLA at the Coliseum. DT photo by Mark Salvaterra.
Budget group urges $800,000 added funding to improve library system
BY DEAN SMITH
When students think about the university library system, some imagine the absolute silence maintained in the Law Library, or the Doheny stacks, where it’s rumored students have gotten lost for long periods of time amongst the volumes.
DECISIONS, DECISIONS—Students participate in a
game simulation at the Davidson Conference Center as part of an urban research exercise. The game is
designed as a
decision-making
training exercise for individuals in roles. DT photo by Mark Salvaterra.
But how often have students wondered how our libraries rate compared to other institutional library systems?
An accrediting committee said in its report last spring that the university needs to pay more attention to libraries resources, or specifically, the system needs more financial sources to improve its services. University librarians were doing a good job with the resources they had, the report said, but the library wasn’t meeting the complete needs of the university.
A request to the Budget Commission of the President’s Advisory Council for an $800,000 increase was submitted by Roy Kidman, head librarian. The two major appropriations listed for the money were $563,000 for new books and $100,000 to raise salaries of student library workers.
The Budget Commission voted Monday to recommend the $800,000 for the university libraries. The request now goes to the Resource Management and Planning Commission of PAC, for a vote. If it’s accepted, it will be forwarded to the Ex-
ecutive Committee of the President's Advisory Council.
The commission was impressed by the figures given it on the library inflation costs, estimated at 20.2^ a year, said John Schutz, dean of social sciences and communications for the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and a member of the Budget Commission.
The coniijiission recommended the appropriation for the libraries to forestall any decline in the system until monies from Toward Century II, the university’s drive to increase its endowment by $265
million, are appropriated in 1979-80, he said.
Kidman said requested monies were calculated to keep the libraries at their present ranking of 39th in volumes held (of the 88 reporting member institutions of the Association of Research Libraries) for the 1974-75 fiscal year.
The association represents more than 100 prestigous educational institutions throughout the United States and Canada.
The university has dropped from 37th to 39th on the list
(continued on page 7)