Daily W Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXX, Number 28	L°s Angeles, California	Thursday, October 28, 1976
Clerical staff turnover exceeds citywide rate
BY KENT SCHOKNECHT
Staff Writer
Turnover among clerical workers here exceeds both the overall university rate and a citywide projection, according to the current issue of the Chronicle, a faculty and staff newsletter.
The clerical rate is about 37% while the overall rate is about 20%.
The generalized rate closely corresponds with the city projection, said a spokesman for Merchants and Manufacturers of Los Angeles, a service that computes job markets and situations for the L.A. area.
The figures were included in a Chronicle article answering a Staff Women’s Caucus question regarding payment and standardization of women at the university.
Some of the turnover can be attributed to the departure of people after they’ve received the benefits of the university’s tuition remission plan, said Jack Schneider, director of personnel.
Under the plan, employees or their spouses or children may receive reductions in tuition as a fringe benefit of employment here. After the graduation ofthe person utilizing the benefit, the employee will often quit, Schneider said.
“In order to be competitive in the job market, we have to offer some incentives, some advantages for working at the university,” he said. “One of the ways we do this is by promoting the tuition remission plan.”
The Office of Personnel computes the turnover rate for staff. It also processes all employment forms and issues job descriptions.
The overall staff classification includes clerical ^workers, secretaries and laboratory aides, as well as some persons in managerial and supervisorial positions. About 5,600 employees are covered by the category.
Information from the various employment forms—those dealing with hiring, transfers and termination—is utilized in computing and analyzing trends of university employment.
“Of course, the biggest reason people quit is probably the same here as it would be anywhere,” Schneider said. “They become burned out at their jobs. They aren’t satisfied with what they’re doing or they go on to greener pastures, economically.”
He said some staff resign or are fired in situations unrelated to use of the tuition remission plan.
The Office of Personnel began computing the turnover rate in June after development of an affirmative action plan that brought the university into compliance with regulations handled by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
The university had to implement the plan to continue to be eligible for some ofthe federal grants it receives, Schneider said.
BOOK PLAGUE—Midterms descended this week like an epidemic. As a result, students like Leo Youngblood could be seen all over—even in the Rose Garden across Exposition Boulevard—taking the cure. They studied. DT photo by Mark Kariya.
Earthquakes get a shakedown
BY GARY MALONEY
The earthquake is a subtle menace and the student is not exempt from its ability to elicit nagging doubt. How will his home or classroom hold up under the stress of a major tremor? What effects have past quakes had on these structures?
“Our campus has performed quite well, having been subjected to several quakes over the past few decades,” said Michael Bocchicchio, university architect and director of architectural services, in a report to a commission of the President’s Advisory Council.
He said the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, of comparable magnitude to the 1971 San Fernando tremor, was serious enough to encourage the state to pass the Field Act, which required local communities to draw up and enforce seismic safety ordinances.
The Los Angeles statute required steel reinforcing be used in all buildings of concrete masonry construction. As other earthquakes have occurred and the art of seismology has advanced, minor changes to tighten these original ordinances have been enacted.
“Steel reinforcing is the minimal protection against earthquake structural damage,” said an of-
ficial with the L.A. City Conservation Bureau. “It is generally assumed that buildings built prior to the enactment of the 1933 ordinance have not been reinforced and are hence potentially unsafe.” Many campus buildings, including the Administration Building, Doheny Library, the Student Union, Mudd Hall, Physical Education Building, Stonier Hall, Teuton Hall and the Education Library were built prior to then.
“The older buildings on campus were extremely well-constructed,” Bocchicchio said. “A good example is Bovard. Built around the original chapel, it has solid masonry crosswalls. Reinforced concrete floors are tied into the walls making it inherently quite strong.”
In the 1950s the City Conservation Bureau required reinforcement of numerous parapets (over-extending exterior walls) in older buildings. “Effects of this can be seen on the roofs of such buildings as the Education Library, the Parkview Building, Stonier Hall and Bruce Hall,” Bocchicchio said.
“As we remodel the older buildings (as the Student Union was in 1970), we are careful to upgrade the safety factor, as far as seismic design goes. “Every opportunity to brace ceilings and bolt
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Uri Geller fixes watches, bends spoons for crowd
BY DIANE SLEZAK
Assistant City Editor
Not even midterms could keep people from coming to see Uri Geller demonstrate his psychic powers Wednesday in Bovard Auditorium.
But then, it’s not every day a person can have his watch fixed in less than two minutes and be entertained at the same time.
Geller, the former Israeli soldier who has become famous for reading thoughts and bending spoons and keys by concentrating on what he wants to accomplish, did all of that, much to the amazement of most of the 1,600 people in attendance.
Geller gave an unintentional preview of what was to come as soon as he stepped up to the microphone, which came apart from its stand.
“I hope I didn’t bend it,” he said.
Geller started his demonstration with experiments in mental telepathy. He had four young women volunteers come up from the audience and then
URI GELLER
asked one of them to write the name of a color on a blackboard near the back of the stage while he faced the audience with his eyes closed.
After the audience had informed him that a word was written on the board, Geller asked her to erase it and stand next to him. The entire audience was asked to concentrate on the image of the word on the blackboard. After several attempts, Geller announced what he had perceived.
“I’m not quite sure, but is the color blue?” he asked.
It was and the audience clapped in approval.
Geller then had another volunteer write the name of a city, draw a picture and write a number on the board while he placed a wooden board between himself and the blackboard and closed his eyes.
Once again, he had the girl erase eve-
rything and stand next to him and had the audience “project” its image of the writing to him. Once again, it took several attempts before he thought he had the answer.
“This is not coming very clear,” he said, “but I think it’s something like Carlson City. I’ve never heard of this place before.”
The girl had written “Carson City” on the blackboard.
Geller also reproduced her drawing and quickly came up with the number she had written.
The experiments don’t always work, Geller said.
“If people are hostile to me, then it won’t work,” he explained. “It’s working now because you are being positive to me and not blocking your minds.”
Only one experiment that he tried failed. Geller had one woman write a color on the board, after which he and another woman tried to tell what it was. Although Geller was able to pick up the thought waves from the audience, the other woman could not.
While he was blindfolded, Geller had a male volunteer pick a woman from the audience and asked her to come up on stage. By having the audience concentrate on the woman, Geller was able to tell what she was wearing, the color of her clothes and even that she was wearing a belt that was a different color than her one-color dress.
Geller demonstrated his ability to fix broken watches and bend metal objects during the last part of the demonstration. Approximately 40 people brought watches up to the stage.
As he knelt before the watches, he asked the audience to concentrate and shout, “Work!” on the count of three. After a couple of tries, Geller announced that some of the watches had indeed started to tick.
He held some up to a television camera that had been set up so people could see on the monitors throughout the auditorium that the second hands were moving. He held another up to the microphone so the audience could hear the ticking.
Geller also demonstrated how a metal spoon could be bent to the point of breaking. As he spoke, some keys held by people in the audience bent.
Geller has known about his unusual power ever since he was four years old when a soup spoon broke off in his hand while he was eating. When he was young, he used to cause silverware to curl up while sitting at a restaurant table. His powers have been tested by scientists all over the world under carefully controlled conditions.
Geller feels skepticism toward psychic phenomena by Americans in particular could have a drastic effect within 200 years.
“Russia is much further advanced than the American government in researching psychic abilities. Can you imagine if Russia would have someone trained to erase computer tapes (which Geller has done) or to sight out missiles before they are set off?”
Geller closed his demonstration by saying he hopes powers like the ones he possesses will one day be put to use for mankind.