Daily fp Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXXI, Number 36
Los Angeles, California
Thursday, March 31, 1977
Evacuation of health center may start campus-wide drill instruction
By John Hughes
StafT Writer
Students and staff were evacuated from the Student Health Center Wednesday during what may have been a first-of-its-kind drill at the university.
At approximately 1:20 p.m., Addie Klotz, executive director of the center, told the building switchboard operator to announce an immediate evacuation drill.
Announcmement of the “code red” drill came over the public address system and by word of mouth. While students filed out, staff members went through their assigned areas, checking to ensure that windows and doors were closed, electrical appliances were disconnected and all people out.
Klotz said it took less than three minutes for all of the students and staff to evacuate.
While this was not the first time a code red drill has been held at the center, Klotz said it was the first time they have actually evacuated the building. She had special praise forthe student cooperation, and said, “Some of them had to get dressed.”
The drill, by itself, was little more than a standard fire drill without saying fire. What makes it unique is thatthe drill and the entire preparedness program at the center are virtually unique at the university.
“Every building should have an evacuation plan
ISSUE DIVIDES PROFS
and every staff and administrator should be responsible,” Klotz said when asked a bout the importance of the drill and being prepared for emergencies.
Developing such a plan—one that would prepare the entire university and each separate building for any conceivable emergency — is what Noble Kuwata, safety administrator, has been attempting for more than three years.
Last July, he began receiving help when the Resource Management and Planning Committee of the President’s Advisory Council voted to establish the Facility Utilization, Safety and Design Commission to expedite completion of a comprehensive safety system for the university.
The safety commission completed work last week on preparation of a brochure detailing university-wide safety procedures. Before this can be published and distributed, however, it must receive approval from the resource committee and funding from the advisory council.
This brochure, though, will not create or instigate the type of planning and preparedness evident in the health center, members ofthe commission said. This will have to come from Kuwata and the physical plant.
At present the university has a general university-wide plan that outlines primary and emergency measures. A comprehensive preparedness plan is now being developed, Kuwata said.
Philosophy school ranking debated
By David Rosenbaum
Staff Writer
An associate professor of philosophy charged Wednesday that the School of Philosophy has falsely ranked itself among the nation’s 10 best.
Kevin Robb, the associate professor, said the school is more concerned with its prestige with professors of other universities than in supplying students here with the curriculum they desire.
Steven Schiffer, associate professor of philosophy, and Martin Lean, director of the school, disputed Robb’s allegations.
“By unanimous consent, we are now one of the 10 best, and this was achieved within the last two years,” Schiffer said. He attributed this to the school’s recent hiring of four faculty members.
“Before we came here, the department wasn’t even listed in the national surveys — not even mentioned,” Schiffer said.
Lean, appointed the school’s director four years ago, said, “Now, we’re the talk of the conventions. Four of us were invited to talk to the APA (American Philosophy Assn.). This hasn’t happened in the
history of the school.”
“I think we are all internationally distinguished,” Schiffer said.
The rift is between the school’s “historical philosophers and the recent “analytic” appointees.
“They were good appointments, but they weren’t in the areas which I would have preferred,” Robb said. “I feel we’re not balanced properly in history.” Students here favor the study of the history of philosophy, ethics, social and political philosophy and aesthetics over (continued on page 2)
THE BUNNY TRAIL — The eggs these 1st and second graders from the 32nd Street School are hunting for weren't really hidden by Peter Cottontail but by members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity who sponsored the Easter egg hunt for the children. DT photo by Paul Rodriguez.
Simpler housing choice system for fall begins
A simplified system for determining housing priorities for returning residents is now in operation, and students must name their housing preferences for next year by April 14.
A$75 deposit will beduethen, refundable upto July 15, which isthe deadline for cancellation of housing contracts.
“This year’s system is pretty simple for students,” said Sharon Kettler, housing coordinator for the Office of Residential Life. “There is no four-page instruction sheet like last year, and the procedure is fair and uncomplicated.”
Students may pick up applications for next year’s housing at their respective complex desks: Marks Tower for the Men’s Complex, the Elisabeth von KleinSmid Hall lobby forthe Women's Complex or the main desks at the apartment complexes. They should be completed and returned before April 14 with the deposit.
Students are allowed to designate five choices for next year’s housing. Priority is determined in the following manner: students returning to their rooms have the highest priority; next, students changing rooms in the same facility; last, students changing facilities. (A facility is defined as a separate building, such as Trojan Hall or Marks Tower.)
The student’s present room should be included as one of the five choices,to insure at leastthe same housingfor nextyear, Kettlersaid. “No one will be denied staying in his or her present room for next year. That’s the bottom line if all other requests are turned down.”
An alphabetical list will be posted May 2 in the complexes with the assignments for next year. At a designated date in mid-May, students may pick up their housing contracts and choose specific rooms for the fall.
Unsatisfied students may cancel or wait until fall reassignment, which will probably take place in October.
“Students must cancel in writing — there can be no verbal cancellations,” Kettler said.
Reassignments will only be made thisspring ifstudents designated as roommates for the fall are not assigned to the same facility. “We will make extra efforts-to put roommates together, but only in these special cases will we reassign before next fall,” she said.
More information may be obtained in the Office of Residential Life, Student Union 202, or by calling 746-2616.
Jive talking can lead to gate crashing
By Matt Cohn
The guest lecturer pulled up to the parkingattendant’s booth, rolled down his windowand said in a heavy German accent, “I haf to make un lecture in der VonKleinSchmid Centuh.” The attendant waved him through.
The “lecturer” snickered as he drove away; he was merely a student who had found a new way to avoid the $1 parking fee.
Many students, faculty members and guests use their imaginations to avoid forking over the dollar or paying the $37.50-per-semester parking sticker charge. They will go to great lengths to outwit or evade the guards who regulate traffic coming into the university.
One student thought pathos would get him through the gates. When a guard wouldn’t let him in free to pick up his sister, he opened his eyes wide and pleaded, “But she’s blind!” His scheme might have worked if his passenger hadn't giggled.
People have posed as delivery boys, community dignitaries and athletic recruits in efforts to gain free admission. One student drove up and announced that he wras President John R. Hubbard’sguest for lunch. The alert guard called the President’s office and found out Hubbard was in Europe. The student was instructed never to return to the gate again.
This technique probably wouldn’t have worked even if Hubbard was in. Each guard has a list of guests due to arrive at his gate.
At gates where there are two lanes, people often use large cars ortrucks as “blockers.” They drive behind the huge vehicle, hiding from the guards, and then zip through the entrance before the guard can catch them.
One of the most common techniques used is to casually drive through the entrance without stopping, ignoring the frantic cries of the guard. “At the beginning of every semester, gate running is an acute problem.” said John Lechner. director of parking operations at the university.
Gate running is dangerous. Campus Security can give tickets and order cars to be towed away. Regular gate runners can be forbidden to enter campus again if they are caught.
Students have been known to vent their frustrations on the wooden parking arms that block many entrances. Mostofthesegatescanonly be raised by employees. One student tried to follow a maintenance truck through, but he didn’t make it and splintered the arm. It was replaced in less than an hour.
Another student plowed straight through the gate, broke the arm and hung it on his wall in the style of a (continued on page 2)