dMS^ trojan
Volume XCIV, Number 44
University of Southern California
Monday, November 7, 1983
Freshmen lean toward professional majors
About 800 enter business, engineering schools
By Mark Lowe
Assistant City Editor
Freshmen who registered at the university this fall entered into professional and career-oriented departments, continuing a marked trend in that direction, according to preliminary statistics from the office of admissions.
The figures, compiled last week by administration information resource systems, show that out of an estimated 2,769 freshmen enrolled this semester, 14.5 percent, or about 400, entered into both the business administration and engineering schools.
This continues a trend away from traditional academic fields, such as social sciences, natural sciences and the humanities, and toward majors leading to professional careers, such as business and engineering.
"What I've heard said is that students have really strong interests in professions and careers, and that is what is pushing them toward engineering and business administration," said Robert Biller, vice provost.
Final figures on the enrollment and direction of the 1983 freshmen class will not be known until January or February, said Mark Olson, director of administration information resource systems.
"These are only tentative. They're the best numbers we have today," he said.
The available figures tally students who have registered for classes or declared a particular major. Until next year, though, the university will not know how many freshmen actually settled their fees, enrolled in those programs and received grades in them.
"No school in the country knows," Olson said.
"All they know is registered figures."
The pattern is also complicated by the large number of freshmen who register without declaring a major. This fall, more than 600 university freshmen entered school undeclared. Nevertheless, a trend emerges, Biller said.
"There are some changes in there," he said. "If you compare it to five years ago, it represents a slight increase in business administration."
Biller said records the university keeps on which departments students graduate from indicate that the number of students enrolled in majors in the college of letters, arts and sciences has dropped significantly in the last five years. The number of LAS majors has dropped so much, in fact, that the number of business degrees now exceeds the number of LAS degrees.
Five years ago, 1,045 students graduated from LAS programs, which constitute most traditional academic fields. In 1982, the most recent year for which such figures are available, 704 students received LAS degrees.
By contrast, the number of business degrees awarded in 1982 was 762, a slight increase from the 730 degrees awarded in 1978. In addition, the number of engineering degrees nearly doubled in the same period, from 202 to 411.
Biller said the university wants to study the change in emphasis and has assigned that task to the University Retention Committee, a group designed to study ways of improving academics at the university to keep students enrolled.
The committee has not been formed yet. Biller said explaining the administration is still asking for nominations from students, staff and faculty, and has yet to appoint a chairman.
So. African vote: reaction mixed
New constitution draws both criticism, support
By Carmen Chandler
Assistant City Editor
University reaction has been mixed to the recent approval of a new South African constitution that extends political rights to "coloreds," people of mixed race, and Asians, but still excludes the black majority population.
"It's progress, but not enough," said Carl Christol, a professor in political science and a specialist in the study of international law. "It's encouraging
—	maybe it's a sign that the (South African) people are aware of the need for human rights."
Pamela Porter, director of Black Student Services, said the vote, taken last Wednesday, "seems to be a progressive move."
"It's difficult to analyze it out of context," she said. "Why could it not be sooner in coming, some
recognition of the non-white population?"
But, she said, this was a first step in getting representation for blacks, though it would be a slow progress.
However, Darryl Adams, president of the Black Student Union, did not see the election as a positive step.
"All it did was to allow the Asians and the 'coloreds' to have an advisory role," h^ said. '"Coloreds now have the right to raise their hands at a meeting but they don't vote. The white regime still has the ability to overrule them. It didn't give away any power."
Carol Thompson, an assistant professor of political science and a specialist in the study of Third World countries, agreed.
"The electoral results do not change one point of the apartheid policy," Thompson said. "The so-called overwhelming majority who voted for the change is less than 8 percent of the total population."
(Continued on page 3)
Decline of university degrees awarded from the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.		
	1978	1982
Letters, Arts and Sciences	1,045	704
Business	730	762
Engineering	202	411
Joint training effort to ease teacher void
By Jeffrey Tylicki
Assistant City Editor
A severe shortage of school teachers in the inner-city has prompted the Los Angeles Unified School District and the university to embark on a joint program which will place new graduates in the classroom as paid teachers in as short a time as eight weeks.
"There is a dire need for teachers in the inner city," said Donald Wilson, director of teacher training for the school of education. "They need from 600 to 900 teachers to fill vacancies."
In the joint effort, called the Excellerator Program, accepted applicants go through an eight-week student teaching experience, then go right to a salaried job in an L.A. district school, while they continue with the university's two-year credential program on the side, Wilson explained.
Wilson said program officials are looking for graduates interested in a teaching career. Graduates who took 18-20 units of math, science, or English can be candidates for a secondary credential, while almost any bachelor's degree would go toward an elementary school teaching job, he said.
In order to be eligible for the program, a graduate must have at least a 2.75 college grade point average, pass the California Basic Education Skills Test, and pass a joint interview with school district personnel and university education faculty.
"We try to assess the personal ■ - -------:—;
Wanda Meir, director of secondary teacher education at the university, recently reported that only four students will complete secondary teaching credentials this year.
ATHER ALI/DAILY TROJAN
Construction workers lay brickwork trim along the University Avenue segment of the new mall project.
qualities of the indivudual in the interview," Wilson said.
Wilson asserted that this selection process would keep the quality of applicants at a high level. He noted that only 10 percent of the applicants — 47 out of more than 300 — had qualified this summer.
Those teachers who do go through the eight-week training program will enter inner-city classrooms with emergency teaching credentials and are salaried at SI,600 a month for the 10-month school year.
"These teachers are better than no teachers at all, or having day-to-day substitutes in the classroom," said Robert Aim, administrator of certificated selection and assignment for the L.A.U.S.D.
Aim, himself a graduate of the university, noted that these teachers are in touch with university professors several times a week and receive regular classroom visitations from members of the education faculty.
One university student who entered the program during the summer is now teaching junior high science at 32nd Street Elementary School.
"She's working out just beautifully," said Sam Marchese, principal of 32nd Street Elementary School. "If you went into the classroom, you would think she had been teaching for years."
32nd Street is the only elementary school in the district that teaches kindergarten through ninth grade, Marchese said.
The school of education is now recruiting interested graduates for the next group training, which will start Dec. 5. Aim said he hoped these prospective teachers would be ready to assume classroom responsibilities when the district's spring term begins Jan. 30.
The program has been in effect since last year, Aim said. He did not think it was especially unique to Los Angeles, but added that it is not common.
"We're a special district with special needs," Aim said.
He predicted that a program like this would have to be maintained until colleges and universities can begin turning out more creden-tialed teachers. Alms noted that Wanda Meir, director of secondary teacher education at the university, recently reported that only four students will complete secondary' teaching credentials this year.
Enrollment in teaching programs declined in the mid-1970s, when more students were graduating with teaching credentials than there were teaching jobs. The maximum salaries paid to beginning teachers at that time was $13,500.
(Continued on page 3)