Group presents concept for university center
By Sherry Stern
Editor
They don’t know where it’s going to be, how much it will cost or exactly what it will house. All they know is there is a need for it on campus.
“It” is a university center, a facility to serve as a cultural, social and recreational center on campus.
“They” are university administrators involved with student affairs, including James R. Appleton, vice-president for student affairs; Richard Perry, athletic director; James Dennis, assistant athletic director; Paul Moore, director of student activities; and Jim Gross, assistant director of student activities.
The concept of a university center was presented Wednesday to university administrators, including President John R. Hubbard, Ralph Wilcox, a trustee, and Anthony Lazzaro, vice-president for business affairs.
Perry said the presentation was the result of two years of research and planning, including an inventory ofthe university’s present facilities and an
examination of similar centers at other campuses.
The purpose of the meeting was just to plant the concept into everyone’s minds. Appleton said that the University Center Committee will now start making more concrete plans and will eventually make a proposal to the Board of Trustees.
RICHARD PERRY
Hubbard and Wilcox said they don’t plan to take any action until a proposal is presented.
Appleton said he is hoping the university center concept will be included in the Century II project and therefore will be included in the Century II fund-raising campaign.
He stressed that when the plans are made, they will include the use of any present facilities that are adequate.
Whether or not a new structure will be built won’t be known until the plans are made, but Perry said possibilities for a location include the present site of the Physical Plant, Parking Lot K (at Hoover Street and Childs Way) or behind Dedeaux Field.
Guests at the presentation saw a videotape of interviews with students and scenes of centers at other colleges. They were also presented with nametags, folders and refreshments, all at the expense ofthe Student Union Board, one of the student groups actively supporting the university center concept.
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University of Southern California
PAC seeks probe of financial aid
Volume LXVII, Number 96
Los Angeles, California Thursday, March 18, 1976
Marathon loss mounts; organizers pay $600 debt
By Julie Fosgate
Feature Editor .
The final accounting of expenditures and receipts for the First Annual Basketball Marathon last weekend has revealed a loss of about $600, not $400 as was originally estimated.
Rick Quintero, president of the Physical Education Majors Club and organizer of the event, said the money was paid to the university in full Wednesday. The deficit was made up by the personal funds of Quintero, Gerry Mouzis and Kirk Stewart, publicity coordinators for the marathon.
The university had approved a $1,000 budget for the project, with proceeds benefiting the J. Tillman Hall Scholarship Fund. But ticket sales and sponsor donations totaled only about $400.
The loss was split among the three students who had carried the burden of work for the marathon. “It’s only money,” Quintero said.
“We didn’t want to be a burden on the university or blemish the name of physical education or Dr. Hall. Anyway it’s over and done with.”
He said Hall had expressed his appreciation for the ideals behind the marathon and for the effort involved in its organization.
“So many people don’t do anything,” Quintero said. “At least we stepped out and took control. Maybe we fell down but we learned from it and next time we’ll know how to handle it better.”
The debt had to be paid quickly in order to prevent any ill feelings, he said. The club was also worried about other possible projects that mightsuffer if it set a bad example.
Mouzis said there were not too many alternative sources for repaying the money and so they were forced to turn to personal savings accounts.
“We just didn’t know what to
do. At least now the slate is clean and things are all over,” Mouzis said. He said the three students were still hoping to find some way of making up the loss.
“I feel bad personally for Dr. Hall. Noonehasthoughtofhim.” Hall is chairman of the Physical Education Department and the man for whom the proposed scholarship was named.
Mouzis said he thought the marathon was a good idea despite the discouraging results. “I thought we could start something that would be really good. We still can; there’s no reason why we can’t. I guess I’m disappointed because I had such high hopes,” he said.
Mouzis said there are little crises that accompany any project, “but deep down there is always the belief that it will come off. We had that belief all along.”
He said the financial failure of this first marathon should not jeopardize the staging of another one next year.
By Cathy Taylor
Assistant City Editor
The Executive Committee of the President’s Advisory Council has established a committee that will set the parameters for a commission that will investigate the circumstances surrounding the resignation of Michael J. Scarpelli, former director of financial aid.
The council met in a special meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Five people were selected from the executive committee of the council to form the new committee. They will decide the details of the purpose of the commission.
One of those appointed, David Blackmar, president of the Student Senate, described the initial functions of the committee.
He said the committee will delineate the time restraints that face the commission, for example, the questions that can be answered immediately as opposed to those that will be investigated over a longer period of time.
Secondly, Blackmar said, the committee will outline questions to be addressed by the commission.
It will also decide the membership of the commission and who it will report to.
The people selected for the committee are Blackmar, Alvin Rudisill, university chaplain and chairman of the Student Affairs Committee; Francis Feldman, chairman of the Student Administrative Services Com-
mission and chairman of the President’s Advisory Council; and Barbara Solomon, associate professor of social work.
Blackmar questioned the amount and quality of the testimony the commission would receive if no provisions were made to protect the confidentiality of the staff. He said, in an interview Wednesday, that he would work for some sort of protection for the staff of the Student Aid Office.
As far as the Student Senate is concerned, Blackmar said it will continue its own investigation. “But with the evidence we gather, we will now have a channel to go through,” he said.
“We will have our own report, however. We have a preliminary report coming out Thursday or Friday concerning the response to the surveys.”
At an open meeting last Monday about financial aid, Blackmar distributed surveys to the staff of the office. The questionnaire probed staff feelings of their administrators.
Blackmar said that about 30 forms had already been turned in, and that a recent count revealed that about 14 to 1 showed low staff morale was attributed to William G. Wagner, special assistant to the president for academic record services, rather than Scarpelli.
“It’s an encouraging sign,” Blackmar said of the meeting, “that PAC is moving to take care of this thing quickly.”
President details 1976-77 budget; maintenance of programs sought
JOHN R. HUBBARD
The 1976-77 university budget of $175 million was detailed and explained to the Faculty Senate Wednesday by President John R. Hubbard and Zohrab A. Kap-rielian, executive vice-presi-dent.
The budget, the iar£ ^st ever approved, is aimed at maintaining the university’s current programs. “All we want to do in this budget is get back to where we were the year before,” Hubbard said.
Although Hubbard said he was pleased with the validity and the formulation of the budget, he cited three recurring elements as problem areas: the endowment, tuition increases and the size of the faculty compensation pool.
“The major problem is the paucity of our endowment,” Hubbard said. “The endowment brings in about 3% of our annual
operating expenses. That leaves us very little room to maneuver.
“If we miscalculate on incoming expenditures by 1%, we have a serious potential problem on our hands because we have simply no fallback position.”
The endowment is a fund of which only the interest gained from it may be used for university expenditures.
Hubbard also expressed unhappiness with the size of the faculty compensation pool and the tuition increase.
“We would have wished to double the faculty compensation pool and not to have increased tuition. The common enemy is inflation,” he said.
Hubbard said the faculty compensation increase would be 8%—6.5% for faculty compensation and 1.5% for fringe benefits. In addition, $150,000 will be distributed among full professors each year for three years based
on merit to improve their position in comparison to full professors at other institutions.
One ofthe proposals suggested by the Board of Trustees was to double the tuition increase in order to obtain more money. Hubbard said that although tuition increases occurred every year, it didn’t seem to affect enrollment.
“It hasn’t hurt us, but we want to minimize the impact of tuition on students as much as possible,” he said.
Hubbard did say he felt “certain of its (the budget’s) validity. We have tried to take care of every foreseeable contingency. It’s a tight budget. Our main concern is that we come in with a balanced budget.”
Kaprielian concluded the presentation with figures concerning revenues, expenditures and a breakdown of individual departmental funding.