Student arrested at Crafts Faire for forgery; tries to eat evidence
BY DAVID BLAC a AND GARY LINEHAN
A 20-year-old psychology student was arrested for forgery Thursday after purchasing merchandise at the Crafts Faire using a credit card that had been reported lost more than a month ago.
The student later tried to swallow some of the evidence, Campus Security officers said.
Gregory’ Jay Herrera, of Sacramento, was apprehended about 1:30 p.m. after a faire merchant discovered the card Herrera presented was invalid, a Campus Security report said.
Herrera bought merchandise totaling over $200 from several merchants over a two-day period before being apprehended.
Marilyn Lawenda, a faire merchant, told officers she became suspicious when Herrera bought a neck ornament of the letter G because the name on the charge card did not contain the letter.
Lawenda said she immediately phoned the card’s na-
tional verification center and learned that it had been reported lost over a month ago. She then called Campus Security.
While Lawenda was providing the man’s description to officer Art Blair, she spotted Herrera nearby. Seconds later, Blair arrested him.
While Herrera was being questioned, he tried to swallow both the false driver’s license he was using and a receipt he had received after using the charge card, said Russell Peterson, a Campus Security officer.
Peterson said he retrieved the items before Herrera could swallow them.
Herrera was taken to Campus Security headquarters for questioning and then turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He was booked on forgery charges, said Sgt. Robert Warners, of the LAPD forgery division. Each time the card was used will constitute another count of forgery, Warners said.
Hugh Gundry, a woodcraft
vendor, sold $60 worth of wooden toys to Herrera. “He kept coming back to the same people and bought things without paying attention to price. He seemed like he just wanted to see what he could get away with,” Gundry said.
Another merchant, Liz Martin, sold him a $35 lithograph. When Herrera presented the card under the name of Ray Iwani, she casually asked him his national origin and he replied that he was of Korean descent. She said, “You don’t look Korean,” but still went through with the sale.
At a booth run by Wendy Huber, Herrera calmly bargained on the price of a 14K gold-and-ivory ring and bracelet set. He got the price down from $140 to $100, presented the credit card and driver’s license and walked away.
The merchandise is being held as evidence and eventually will be returned to the craftsmen.
VICTIM — Wendy Huber was one of the merchants at the Crafts Faire who accepted an invalid credit card from a psychology student here. The student used the card to purchase a ring and bracelet set for $100. DT photo by Denis Wolcott.
Proposed budget gets subdued PAC reaction
BY CLARA GERMANI
SUIT Writer
Members of the President’s Advisory Council (PAC) were subdued and unresponsive Friday as the proposed budget that has sparked controversy over tuition and wage hikes was presented by J. Jerry Wiley, chairman of the Resource Management and Planning Committee.
The preliminary budget for the 1977-78 academic year calls for an 8.4% tuition increase and 7% wage increase for faculty, staff and teaching assistants. Opposition to the proposed budget may have been prevented because of a two-hour limit on PAC meetings.
The meeting included a review of the 1975-76 financial report of the university by Zorhab Kapreilian, executive vice-president who itemized the absorption of a $2.63-million surplus in this year’s budget.
At the beginning of Friday’s meeting, the executive committee of the PAC approved the presentation of the Student Senate’s alternative formulation of the 1977-78 budget and the Faculty Senates’ position paper on salaries, if time permitted.
Wiley presented the preliminary budget in a lengthy and detailed report that left time for a few comments from the audience, but no presentations.
Glenn Sonnenburg, chairman ofthe Student Senate, said he thought the budget had not been discussed enough at the PAC meeting. “The purpose ofthe meeting was to get further comment on the budget,” he said.
Commenting on the lack of response, he said, “The majority of people didn’t understand what was going on.”
In an earlier PAC meeting this year, Kapreilian reported that admissions recruitment had been stepped up. Sonnenberg believes this will mean more revenue because more students will enroll. Because of this he said he thinks budgeting has been too conservative and there will actually be more money to work with next year. Therefore, the tuition hike need not be as high, he believes.
The $101-million projected budget was developed Tt>y the Budget Commission and the Resource Management and Planning Committee, committees of the PAC. The proposed budget will be returned to committee for reconsiderations and come back Jan. 14 to the PAC for its final approval before President John R. Hubbard presents it to the Board of Trustees.
Board allocates funds to 2 groups; denies 3
BY DAVID ROSENBAUM
Two groups received funds totaling $88? from the Campus Activities Allocation Board on Thursday and three other groups were denied funding requests.
Masters in Business Administration was allotted $418, and the nursery school at the Married Student Housing Complex was allotted $464. Funding requests were turned down for an alternate press, the Arnold Air Society and a residence hall production of the musical Godspell.
Masters in Business Administration had requested $2,030, but was denied $1,000 for a dinner dance, $200 for tutoring sessions and $200 for a retreat during which organizational behavior and management development
could be studied. The $418 it received will go for speakers and a lecture series, as well as office supplies and publicity.
All money for the nursery school will go for chairs, tables and arts and crafts supplies. The groups had requested $1,010. but the allocation board decided they should request additional monies from the Office of Residential Life.
John Grasso. a junior in psychology, asked for $6,700 to publish four monthly 16-page issues of an alternative newspaper. His proposal said his paper would “feature interviews with government leaders, prisoners of conscience and those individuals who represent the diverse cultures found within (continued on page 2)
Daily @ Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXX, Number '48 Los Angeles, California Monday, December 6, 1976
Insurance cost, health fee to increase next semester
BY DIANE SLEZA v
Assistant City Editor
The cost of maintaining a healthy body is going up everywhere — and university students are not going to be excepted from this.
The university’s student health insurance program, in association with Blue Cross of Southern California, will increase from $59 to $72 per semester starting next semester, said Addie Klotz, executive director of the Student Health Center.
Also, the $32 health fee that each student must pay per semester is expected to go up for 1977-78. Klotz said she is not sure how much it will increase, although she estimated it would be not more than $8 per semester.
“We’re trying to decide if we should increase the health fee, decrease services or a combination of the two,” she said.
This is the second consecutive year that the cost of the Blue Cross plan has been increased, Klotz explained. Last spring, the charge rose from $45 to the present $59 per semester.
The increase came not from the university, but from Blue Cross, Klotz said.
“They have to adjust their rates because of the increasing medical cost everywhere,” she said. “They suddenly found they were paying out more than they were taking in.”
Even with the increase, students are getting a bargain, she said. The cost to regular Blue Cross customers is increasing at a much higher rate. For example, Klotz said the Blue Cross insurance for university employees is four times as much than it is for students.
Benefits included in the program are no cost for semi-private hospital accommodations and outpatient care, partial cost of ambulance benefits, surgery, consultation services and doctor’s office visits.
The plan does not cover the costs of such things as routine physical examinations, dental care, cosmetic surgery, eye examinations, blood and blood plasma, conditions of pregnancy (unless specifically listed as a contract benefit) or services rendered by the Student Health Center for which no charge would be made in the absence of insurance.
“Every student should have some form of health insurance,” Klotz said. “Nobody can afford the high cost of medical care these days.”
DOWN HOME — Musicians provide this student with the opportunity to lay back and enjoy some California sunshine as the Crafts Faire goes on about him. The three-day event brought numerous artists and
craftsmen to the campus community and allowed students to purchase gifts before the beginning of Christine;, vacation. DT photo by Denis Wolcott.