Student Senate to begin new tuition-slashing campaign
RESISTING PUBLISHERS’ TREND TO SIMPLIFY
Faculty raising textbook standards
By Yolanda Austin
Staff Writer
Contrary to a reported trend of simplifying college texts to meet the needs of ill-prepared college students, university faculty and administrators say there is no need for simplified texts on campus and efforts are being made to upgrade textbook standards.
According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, writers, professors and publishers admit college textbooks are simplified and students have problems understanding complicated material.
Jay Vanatta, administrative coordinator of the Freshman Writing Program, said just the opposite occurs on campus. "We aren’t reducing the level of difficulty of textbooks. We're looking for books that challenge the reading level of students,” Vanatta said.
Cornelius Pings, vice president of Academic Affairs, said he was not aware of the trend and had seen no indication that it is occurring on campus. "Books I pick up in the bookstore are a lot more complicated now,” he said.
Pings said that a successful chemistry book, for example, may be published in a simpler version for a scaled-down chemistry course at a community college, but this does not apply here where courses and texts are much more advanced. He added that there may be differences in some departments due to vary-
ing difficulty of course material.
Bob Thompson, textbook manager for the university bookstore, said the large sales of basic books are due to high enrollment in introductory classes. "Introductory books for classes like Psychology 100 are published by all publishers,” Thompson said. "The books are on the same level and it has always been that way. They (the books) are not getting easier. If anything, books are upgraded because of new standards and research.”
David Eggenschwiler, professor of English and chairman of the university Curriculum Committee, said many students in lower division courses have a background in “easy" literature and are unprepared to handle more difficult literature.
“There is now a reversal from high school faddish English courses (focusing primarily on high interest subjects such as science fiction) that developed half a dozen years ago and it (the reversal) will have a good effect,” he said.
Tom Perry, of the General Education Committee, said the committee reviews courses at different levels from 50 to 60 departments and approves a course if sample exams, midterms and syllabi meet the objectives of the course. He could not determine whether courses and texts are now easier. "The general educa-
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Administration frustrates committee budget advisors
By Charla Foster
Staff Writer
Frustrated by their attempts to influence budget planning through administrative channels, student senators said Monday they plan to take the tuition issue out of committee meetings and back into the public arena.
A student representative on the Resource Management and Planning Committee of the President’s Advisory Council said the university has thwarted the committee’s efforts to advise the administration about tuition and related issues. As a result, the student senators hope to start a letter-writ-ing campaign to pressure the administration on the tuition issue.
“In Wednesday’s issue of the Daily Trojan, (the Student Senate) will run an ad to encourage students to write letters to President (James H.) Zumberge about tuition increases,” said Mark Slavkin,
one of the four students on the Resource Management and Planning Committee of the President’s Advisory Council.
The letter-writing campaign, the biggest Student Senate-sponsored protest since a Nov. 19 rally which drew more than 500 students, is only the beginning, Slavkin said.
Slavkin, financial affairs chairman of the Student Senate, said senate members have realized that working within administrative committees, while theoretically ideal, is essentially ineffective. Such was the case at a meeting of the , Resource Management and Planning Committee Monday, he said.
The meeting with John Curry, director of Management Planning, was another unsuccessful attempt by students to learn about the administration’s budget proposal for the 1983 fiscal year.
The students had hoped to receive
detailed information about the budget and threatened last week to walk out on the meeting if the administration did not provide it. The detailed information never materialized, but neither did the walkout. Slavkin did not fully explain why the senators failed to walk out on the meeting.
Curry discussed only two of the four items on the agenda he had prepared for the meeting. Although other meetings are planned, the last session between Curry and the committee w'ill be held Feb. 17, a date which Slavkin and other committee members said leaves them little time to review the university’s budget proposal and its effects on tuition.
The administration has committed itself to a March 10 deadline to set next year’s tuition rate. By releasing information about the budget slowly, the university is making it difficult for the com-
mittee to come up with budget revisions and counter proposals in time.
“Since tuition is the main thing the Student Senate has been concerned with, the committe will be useless in helping to meet our goals for lower tuition increases,” Slavkin said.
Slavkin said the meeting provided an example of how the administration has failed to provide information requested by the students. Committee members had requested for Monday’s meeting a line-by-line budget of Student Admin-stration Services and information regarding the improvement of campus security. student aid and SAS operations.
Instead, Curry presented the group with what some committee members called a sketchy description of the methodolgv behind the administration’s budget decisions.
ROY HERBERGER
Volume XCI Number 16	University of Southern California Tuesday, February 2, 1982
University professor selected as dean of SMU business school
dM
trojan
Roy Herberger, associate dean of the School of Business Administration, has been named dean of the Cox School of Business Administration at Southern Methodist University in Texas.
“SMU’s choice of Roy reinforces our high regard for him and for his contributions to our School of Business,” said Jack Steele, dean of the School of Business Administration.
Joining the staff of the university in 1971, Herberger served as an associate professor in marketing. He became associate dean of the business school in 1972, appointed by Ted Brannen, the dean of the business school at that time.
Herberger’s interests include studies of consumer behavior and writing a report on the ability of consumers to purchase goods which are environmentally safe.
In 1975, Herberger created the International Business, Education and Research program at the university, which he has directed since that time.
The program involved training businessmen from foreign countries in American management methods. The program was a part of the Graduate School of Business Administration.
With his appointment to Southern Methodist
University, Herberger will be returning to his home state.
Hailing from Fort Worth, Texas, Herberger attended the University of Texas from 1961 to 1968, where he earned his bachelors degree and masters degree in business administration.
In 1971, Herberger was awarded his doctorate from the University of Colorado.
Herberger also served as an instructor at both institutions during his terms there. While attending school, Herberger worked for First National Bank of Midland, Texas, as a credit analyst and for Sunset Oil as an oil analyst.
Herberger summed up his years at the university as being outstanding. “I have nothing but just a warm, warm feeling for USC. Since I came here in 1971, I have always had an opportunity to develop new educational programs and to be a part of them both as a faculty member as well as a dean,” Herberger said.
“We’re not sitting around here waiting for something to happen, and I’ve really enjoyed that,” Herberger said.
Staff photo by Junji Yasuda
HOGGING THE GROUND — A large member of the groundhog team of Pacific Telephone prepares a hole of today's annual visit of the Los Angeles groundhog. The groundhog abandoned Punxsutawney. Penn., for California's warmer climes.