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Volume XCI Number 50
University of Southern California
Thursday March 25, 1982
Perry blamed for athletic woes
Student Senate calls for review
By Eric Onstad
Staff Writer
The Student Senate, in a resolution passed Wednesday night, blamed “the corrupt practices within the Athletic Department” on Richard Perry, athletic director, and called on President James H. Zumberge to appoint a special task force “to make a comprehensive investigation of the Athletic Department.”
In a resolution passed with only one dissenting vote, the senate cited the probation of the 1980 football team by the PAC-10, the revoking of the 1978 Track championship by the NCAA, and “recent allegations of additional sanctions” as evidence that an investigation is needed.
The alleged additional sanctions reported by the Los Angeles Times last Sunday, which include two years suspension from bowl games and national television coverage, are what prompted Mark Slavkin, a student senator, to write the resolution.
“The host of negative publicity surrounding each of these actions (past and alleged sanctions) are an embarrassment and a major blow to the university’s stature as a legitimate academic institution,” the resolution stated.
“All members of the university community, especially the students who will one day hold a degree, feel betrayed by the Athletic Department’s corrupt administration,” it said.
Senator Jill Richards, co-sponsor of the resolution, was personally affected by the 1980 investigation into a Speech Communications course in which athletes received credit without attending the class.
“I graduated from the Speech Communications Department at the height of the investigation.”
Richards said, “and I can’t tell you what a mess that department was in.”
Mark Stockwell, a graduate senator, said the resolution was premature, because no official announcement had been made by either the NCAA or the university concerning the sanctions.
Zumberge said Wednesday that the university will appeal the NCAA report. The appeal will be heard from April 21 to 23 at the next NCAA council meeting in St. Louis.
Senator Alan Cox proposed an investigation of collegiate sports nationwide, because “USC is not the only one doing this.”
“We should look at the NCAA and college sports as a whole,” he said. “It’s a big business.”
John Kennedy, a commuter senator, said he knew the university was guilty of violations.
“A couple of guys on the team have told me what goes on,” he said, “and I know we’re guilty. We should be reprimanded.”
The opening statement of the resolution emphasizes the academic quality of the university as its most important concern.
“The overall strength of the university rests upon its integrity and credibility as an institution of higher learning,” the resolution states.
“University athletics are a supplement to and not an equal of our academic mission,” it said.
Steve Terry, a residence hall senator, said it may not be practical to ask athletes to maintain a high academic standing when they come to universities in hopes of becoming professional athletes.
“We are kidding ourselves if we expect athletes to be superhumans,” he said.
The investigative commission suggested by the senate would include three senior representitives of the Office of the President and representatives of student, faculty and staff constituencies.
The commission would “make a comprehensive investigation of the Athletic Department and its practices, to be concluded by a formal report of recommendations . . . to be presented to the president for his action.” the resolution states.
The only senator who voted against the resolution, Terri Bingham, sounded cynical as she left the meeting.
“Having the president appoint a commission won’t do any good,” she said. “We did that last year, and look where we are now.”
Hazing victim’s mother talks of CHUCK: her son and her group
By Eric Onstad
Staff Writer
After detailing how her son died in a hazing incident, Eileen Stevens told almost 100 students Monday, “You are the only ones who can bring about the demise of the indignity, abuse, killing and injury (that) still continues.
“They (fraternity brothers) asked for (her son’s) trust, and his trust was abused,” Stevens said in a Hancock Auditorium speech sponsored by the Sigma Nu and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternities, and the University Speakers committee.
The event was part of a required educational campaign by Sigma Nu resulting from last semester’s hazing incident in which two Sigma Nu pledges were stripped to their underwear and left tied to a freeway sign in Bakersfield.
The Sigma Nu sanctions also include a 220-mile, three-day run from Bakersfield this weekend, which will raise money for Stevens’ organization, the Committee to Halt Useless College Killings.
The acronym for Stevens’ organization, CHUCK, is also the name of her son, who was an honor student at Alfred University in upstate New York in 1978.
She said Chuck had decided to pledge the “oldest and most
prestigious” fraternity on campus, Klan Alpine, the afternoon he died.
One student walked out of the auditorium during an emotional moment when Stevens matter of factly described how her son was found unconscious and turning blue after being locked in a car trunk and told to drink a pint of Jack Daniels, a six-pack of beer and a fifth of wine.
“I’m not anti-fraternity, I’m anti-abuse,” Stevens told the predominantly Greek audience.
“The word brotherhood has been grossly distorted,” she said. “It (hazing) contradicts everything fraternities stand for.”
After her son’s death and an inconclusive investigation by the district attorney and school officials, Stevens said she was not satisfied.
The “blatant disregard of life” shown from no disipli-nary action taken, and the hundreds of letters from students, former students, parents and school administrators she received, prompted Stevens to organize CHUCK.
Her group lobbied for an anti-hazing law that eventually passed after another student died from a hazing incident.
Gov. Hugh Carey of New York vetoed the bill the first time because “his attitude was.
‘Boys will be boys,’ ” Stevens said, adding that 5,000 "letters of outrage” were sent to the governor after the second incident, and he subsequently signed the bill.
Stevens said Carey’s apathetic attitude is a frequent one among some administrators she encounters while traveling on speaking tours throughout the country'.
“I’ve seen a lot of apathy,” she said. “You are lucky. You are very fortunate that the administrators at this school care.”
One member of the audience suggested that some fraternity alumni are also apathetic and are responsible for the continuation of hazing.
“The ones who should really hear this speech aren’t here,” said Chip Stewart of the Sigma Nu fraternity.
“They (the alumni) are the ones who have all the money and a lot of influence,” he said.
“Sometimes the (rush) chairman will want to get rid of hazing, and the alumni will 'hear about it,” Stewart said. “Two weeks later he’s not chairman.”
The argument by some alumni that hazing is traditional is not factual, Stevens said.
“Your founding fathers did (Continued on page 5)
University to challenge alleged NCAA violations
The university will appeal the report handed down by the NCAA regarding alleged rule infractions by the athletic program, university officials said.
In a prepared statement released late Wednesday afternoon, the university said it will exercise its right under NCAA rules to appeal the report, which was sent to university officials on March 15 by the NCAA Committee of Infractions.
The appeal will be heard by the NCAA Council at its next scheduled meeting, to be held in St. Louis from April 21 to 23. The 19-member council is the elected governing body of the NCAA.
“I have no comment on this matter,” said George Abdo, executive assistant to President James H. Zumberge. “The ultimate spokesman on this would be President Zumberge.”
Abdo said Zumberge, who was not available for comment, was spending the afternoon at the university presidential residence in San Marino and would be representing the university at a community function Wednesday evening.
The announcement stated that the NCAA asked the university to refrain from making any public comment on the Committee of Infraction’s report until either the committee makes an announcement or until the matter has been resolved by the association through its regular enforcement procedures.
Earlier this week, news reports speculated on the findings of the NCAA report. The Los Angeles Times reported that the football team would be put on probation for three years, two in which the Trojans would be barred from national television and bowl game appearances.
The Times quoted unnamed sources and university officials would neither confirm nor deny the story.
The university already served the 1980 season on probation for academic violations under the auspices of the Pac-10, and the NCAA findings may involve those violations and others linked to monetary improprieties.
Speech revives protest of S. Africa investments
By Marc Igler
Staff Writer
In an attempt to revive an issue which she feels is slowly losing campus attention, an assistant professor of Political Science urged students Wednesday to step up their opposition to university investments in South Africa.
At a forum — sponsored by various university groups — concerning struggles for national liberation, Carol Thompson said alternative investments should be given serious consideration and that profits made by the university investments in South Africa are “dripping with blood.”
“I’m not arguing against the university’s need to make a profit, but they can make the
same, if not more, profit without giving financial support to apartheid,” said Thompson, who has written several publications on foreign investments in southern Africa.
Thompson, a harsh critic of U.S. foreign policy toward South Africa, told the small gathering of students in Von KleinSmid Center to keep the pressure on the university to pull its investments out of South Africa.
The assistant professor, in addition, denounced the Student Senate for what she believes was a retreat on its original stance of firm support of the divestment campaign.
“In order for the divestment campaign to be successful, stu-
(Continued on page 3)
CAROL THOMPSON
Staff photo bv Andrew Innerarity