Students haven’t yet felt impact of food stamp bill
By Valerie Nelson
The tax dependency bill, which bars students claimed as dependents by their parents from receiving food stamps, has been approved by theCalifornia state legislature. However. Los Angeles County has yet to implement its use.
“The written procedures are published in the regulations, and they are in the process of being put into the pipelines,” said John Moran, program analyst for the Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services.
“The revision is not that unreasonable, because if the family has enough money it doesn’t really matter,” he said.
Before the change, students could qualify for the program even if their parents could not.
“At first the legislation looked like a bummer, but ifyou look at its intent, it’s not,” said Moran.
Moran said the revision was not passed to create problems with students, but to make the program more equitable.
The change has not yet been implemented because it is hard for the service to determine which students are ineligible for aid.
Student eligibility is determined by evaluation of a form filled out by both the student and his family. Moran said it is difficult to determine student eligibility because the application must be processed within 30 days.
Except forthe revision, student qualification standards
are not much different than they were before. Eligibility is determined by households, and based on adjusted net income.
The service had no idea which students are cheating. “Who knows? We assume what people say is true,” said Moran.
Students who are found to be aquiring food stamps fraudulently are sent a note saying “please repay.”
Moran said the goodness of human nature is trusted even though food stamp fraud has been a major problem since the mid-sixties.
“The federal government does not prosecute, and it is almost an impossible task to do so. There are means to prosecute but they are very difficult and unwielding
He said it is very conceivable that ineligible students are getting food stamps because he has personally known students who received stamps, who in actuality, did not need the stamps.
He equated the numberofstudentscheatingthe service with the question: “How many pickpockets are there in Los Angeles? You know they exist, but how can you count them?”
PAC recommends salary increase be distributed on merit
By Carolyn Horn
Staff Writer
It was round three in the annual faculty and staff salary debate. This time the topic was salary distribution.
The President’s Advisory Council elected at a meeting Friday to recommend that salary raises be distributed on the basis of merit, which would be decided by the deans and directors of the various units.
President John R. Hubbard will present that recommendation to the Board of Trustees for approval.
The recommendation was one made by the Resource Management and Planning Committee, which is a part of PAC, and is similar to the Faculty Caucus’ recommendation.
However, it conflicted with the Faculty Senate proposal that 90% of the increase be distributed across the board and 10% on merit.
JOHN R. HUBBARD
some doubt was voiced on the equity of either proposal.
“In working with various systems, I’ve found that a 100% merit distribution can be unfair, as can one that is 100% across-the-board. Both systems have imperfections,” said Theodore E. Harris, a professor of mathematics and electrical engineering.
“There are cases where deans
have extreme ideas on what constitutes merit,” he said.
“In one department a small number of faculty got all the merit, and the rest received no raise at all.”
J. Jerry Wiley, chairman of the planning committee, said he feels the chances of that situation arising are small.
“I think it’s extremely unlikely that some would get nothing,” he said.
“A unit is most likely to find some merit in most of its faculty. To say how much the departments must put in did not strike us (the committee) as our right. It’s up to the units to settle any disputes.”
Zohrab A. Kaprelian, executive vice-president, said he feels that distribution on the basis of merit is advantageous.
“Different units have different problems,” he said.
Following the decision on salary appropriation, Robert H. Coffey, president of the Faculty Senate, approached President Hubbard with the senate’s resolution to express its dissatisfaction with the salary increase.
Hubbard said that, although he understood their dissap-pointment, the dilemma was a simple one—not enough money.
“For the past few years, we have emphasized remuneration and, in doing so, neglected program development,” he said.
“This year we decided to bal-or the money allotted for program development.”
He did say that the estimate of enrollment was extremely conservative and tha't the faculty might receive more money if enrollment exceeded the estimate.
“I feel almost certain that the board will not touch the contingency fund to allow for salary increases,” he said.
“So, we have found ourselves in a situation where we’re not happy with the salary increase or the money allotted for program development.”
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‘Joy of Sex’ author discusses efforts to slow aging process
By Marcus Oviatt
Staff Writer
Alexander Comfort is famous for his definitive efforts on sex education—The Joy of Sex and More Joy. But he says he is also deeply concerned with aging and the way in which society treats the elderly.
Comfort spoke about aging and people’s attitudes towards it in Bovard Auditorium Thursday as part of the dedication ceremonies for the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.
There have been two major influences in gerontology, he said—efforts to postpone the causes of premature death and the effort to slow the aging processes.
Research in the last cei\tury has been primarily concerned with removing the causes of premature death, but recent efforts are emphasizing the slowing of the aging processes, Comfort said.
Biological limit “There is a biological limit on longevity,” he said. “It can only be transcended by altering the rate at which aging occurs.” Comfort defined aging as “the process that results in increasing instability.”
A man who dies at age 40 is likely to have one cause of death,” he said. “A man who dies
at the age of 90 is likely to have 13 to 15 causes of death.”
Causes of death
Comfort said the three main causes of death that can attack the body are diseases of the cardiovascular and cerebralvascu-lar systems, and malignant diseases.
Extensive experiments done with rodents, employing antioxidants to slow the rate of increasing instability are being conducted in an effort to slow aging.
Comfort expressed his ideas on what would happen if the experimenters were to come up with a successful way to retard aging.
Instability delayed
He said the instability that accompanies aging would occur later in life, but would not be eliminated.
“It’s easier to delay than it is to prevent altogether,” he said. “A treated man of 80 would have the same state of health and instability as a man of 70 (given a 10-year effectiveness of the treatment.)”
It is not the purpose of gerontology to prolong life by prolonging the age of decline, Comfort said.
“When you ask people if they want to live to be 110. most will say Hell no!”’ Comfort said.
“They are envisioning the situation they’d be in at that age. But if you ask them if they’d like 80 years to reach age 60, you get a much different answer.”
The primary concern in the study of aging should be the attitudes of society toward the elderly, Comfort said.
Immediate problem
“The immediate problem is sociogenic aging,” he said. “Seventy-five per cent of what we see as ‘old age’ is the result of arbitrary roles imposed on healthy individuals to restrict them. They’re discriminated against. ' They’re often incarcerated in group for wives of foreign students.
Speaking of needs
“We should eliminate the word ‘age’ and speak instead in terms of need. A man of 90 who is confined to a wheelchair is no different in terms of need than a man of 19 who sits in a wheelchair.”
Comfort said he considers the changing of our attitudes toward aging the first priority in the study of aging, but he said he doesn’t discount the value of medical research.
“Technical advances would heighten pressure for an age-blind society,’’ he said. “Longer life would catalyze the attitude changes long since overdue.”
Daily II Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXVIII, Number 78	Los Anqeles, California	Monday, February 23,
CHECKMATE—The game of chess is a game for thinkers, and the thinkers turned out Friday to compete in a round-robin chess tournament conducted by the Chess
Club. The tournament determined the lineup for the university's intercoHegiate chess team.