Daily § Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXXI, Number 8
Los Angeles, Californio Thursday, February 17, 1977
STUDENTS MUST REAPPLY
Financial aid forms due Feb. 28
By John Hughes
Staff Writer
Feb. 28 is the deadline for students who wish to apply for financial aid from the university for the fall semester.
All students, whether they are currently receiving financial aid or are applying forthe first time, must submit their applications, stressed Linda Berkshire, director of Resource Development and Student Aid Programs.
“Students must reapply each year,” Berkshire said.
Application forms and explanatory materials are available at the financial aid information desk in the lobby of Student Administrative Services.
“We want to start processing fall (financial aid) packages this spring,” Berkshire said. She expects processing to be completed and students notified prior to the end of this semester.
“We want the students to have time to look over the award offer and to understand what will be available,” Berkshire said. The hope, she explained. is that students will be able to plan ahead so they will not be caught short when it comes time to pay fee bills.
Students applying for financial aid for the' 1977-78 academic year must complete the university financial aid application and the College Scholarship Service's Financial Aid Form.
Berkshire said the aid form is being used as a common form forboth dependent and independent students. This is being done for the first time this year and will be the procedure in the future.
The university application must be returned to
the university and the aid form mailed to Berkeley before the deadline date.
Students also are encouraged to submit applications to the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program (BEOG). The application is required of all students who receive financial aid from the university. Berkshire said. The deadline, however, is not until March, 1978 for the 1977-78 academic year.
‘‘We are encouraging students not to wait in filing for BEOGs,” Berkshire said.
James L. Jones, director of Student Administrative Services, said students should not be overly concerned with whether they qualify when filing for financial aid.
“If there is any doubt in your mind, apply,” Jones said.
“We go to every available source to make it possible for students to attend the university,” Berkshire said.
Berkshire and David House, assistant directorof Resource Development and Student Aid Programs, have several suggestions for students completing applications.
• Students should read the material with the applications carefully. Each application comes with a set of instructions. Careful reading should provide the answer to any question on how to complete the forms.
“It would be a terrific help to us if students would read the material,” House said.
Ifthe answer cannot be found in the instructions< students can either stop by the information desk or call 746-6772.
(continued on page 2)
Four months later, Physical Plant unionization issue remains alive
By kent Sehoknecht
Focus Editor
Unionization of Physical Plant workers was voted down almost four months ago. but neither proponents or opponents of the plan have forgotten the issue.
“As far as I know, the administration is trying to live up tothe thingsthat it said would be changed. They are trying to make improvements.” said Jay Savage, chairman of the President's Advisory Council.
Almost immediately after the election, the administration, which opposed unionization, began making plans to meet some of the needs of the custodians.
Arnold Shafer, executive director of facilities management and director of the Physical Plant; Barbara M. Pearson, director of Affirmative Action/ Equal Employment Opportunity; and Anthony D. Lazzaro, vice-president for business affairs; all agreed to look into any charges that might be made.
MECHA was a proponents of the unionization drive last Oc-. tober. But it will not reveal what work, if any, it is doing toward organizing custodians and other Physical Plant workers for another election this fall.
“We can t really give out any comments on what we re doing,” said Victor Manrique. a senior in business administration, and one of three MECHA chairmen.
Directly after the election, a MECHA spokesman said the organization was prepared to further assist custodians by defending them against any possible retaliation by the administration.
The spokesman said MECHA
did not have any immediate plans, but was prepared to file charges if custodians became objects of abuse or were fired because of their stand on the unionization issue.
At that time, the spokesman said there were threats that if the workers were fired, Teamsters would come to the university and expose “the illegal activities the university’s been doing.
It was added that MECHA had several cases proving the university tried to intimidate workers from joining the union, but would not use them unless it became necessary.
One teamster spokesman went so far as to say the Prounion Committee had collected statements on the activities of Shafer.
and supervisors that he was prepared to publish because ofthe failure of the union to be accepted. No information, however, was ever published.
At the same time, Shafer said in a letter to all Physical Plant employees: “With due respect to all employees’ views, we accept the results of the election as a vote of confidence in your management team.”
There were three major problems affecting the custodians' situation when the unionization issue wfas brought up: wages, communication between workers and the administration and health benefits for custodians.
To solve all of these problems, Pearson and Lazzaro said wages (continued on page 2)
PAC budget process raises faculty concern
By Gary Maloney
Staff Writer
Resolutions were introduced Wednesday in the Faculty Senate meeting to withdraw faculty support of the budget recommendation process of the President’s Advisory Council (PAC), and in particular the Budget Commission and the Resource Management and Planning Committee. The measures were not acted on due to the absence of a quorum.
Sentiment was strong for the resolutions, however, as Solomon Golomb, senate president, and Nazir Ahmad, author ofthe measures, spoke about the ineffectiveness of the PAC in the budget recommendation process.
“Universal recognition is needed of the fact that the Budget Commission of the PAC is superfluous,” Golomb said. “After long hours of work are put into the commission’s report to the Resource Management and Planning Committee, the committee then rejects the work done because the data used in its making are considered old and out of date.
“Whether the resource management committee should try to form a budget is now also seriously in doubt.”
The Budget Commission has recently been criticized by faculty, students and staff as an ineffective means for constituencies to forward budget proposals to the PAC and Board of Trustees.
The senate’s original salary proposal, approved by the Budget Commission, was for a 12Vfe% to 15V2% salary pool increase for 1977-78. The Resource Management and Planning Committee pared that down to a 9% to 12% increase, and the faculty-student compromise in the full PAC dropped the raise request to an 8% increase with a $250,000 salary adjustment and a 1% fringe benefit allowance.
Last week, the Finance and Budget Committee of the Board of Trus-' tees dropped the requests to a final 6% increase, a $225,000 salary adjustment and no fringe benefits allowance.
“Nothing seems to be binding from the PAC groups to the board. There are going to be many changes in the structure of governance in regard to budgeting,” Golomb said.
Ahmad, chairman of the Faculty Committee on Employment Remuneration, also proposed that individual departments form committees to determine the distribution of raises, which have been recommended by the trustee committee to be apportioned on the basis of merit. These committees, Ahmad said, would act unilaterally and serve as final authority for determination of merit.
(continued on page 2)
Redevelopment project approaches completion
The Hoover Redevelopment Project quickly is approaching its completion, said the coordinator of the federally and locally subsidized program to revitalize the areas immediately surrounding the university.
David Lew'is, coordinator for five of the seven years construction has been underway, said Tuesday that the completion of the division of Jefferson Boulevard and the widening of Figueroa Street involves the last major step of public improvement in the project.
“Only one building is left to be cleared away — the Crossroad Cleaners on the north side of Jefferson by the Shrine Auditorium,” Lewis said. “The mall w ill then be continued on the land presently taken up by the cleaners.”
Lewis dispelled speculation that private funds were in part responsible for the landscaping and masonry additions to the road dividers on Jefferson.
“The lanes were funded 100% with taxpayer money," he said. “Federal funds for the project and city gas-tax funds meant for this type of improvement were used, with the federal government supplying just under two-thirds of the money used for improvement.”
Lewis estimated the time of completion forthe street improvements as at most 30 days, and about 60 forthe site clearance. As forthe rest of the project, only a few parcels of land in the area remain to be sold to private firms for development.
On the northeast corner of Jefferson and Vermont, Lewis said, a 170-unit federally subsidized, privately operated senior citizen complex is under construction. Next to that, near the northwest corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Orchard Street, a 150-unit family housing complex is also being built. It is federally subsidized and earmarked for low and moderate-income families.
Time of completion of the complexes. Lewis said, will be between September and December.
BLAG! ART—Lois Pitter, a junior in journalism, studies a picture in an exhibit of works by four black artists. The Alumni Park exhibit was part of Black History Week and included sketches and photographs. DT photo by Denis Wolcott.