trojan
Volume XCI Number 19
University of Southern California
Friday, February 5, 1982
Staff photo by Adam Schaffer
FAMILIAR SCOWL — Actor John Houseman relaxes in front of Bovard Auditorium. The actor, who was on campus Thursday filming a commercial, makes money the old-fashioned way — he earns it
Language necessary
By Yolanda Austi.i
Staff Writer
Incoming freshmen and transfer students beginning in the Fall of 1982 will no longer be able to fulfull their foriegn language requirements by only passing the placement exam. A policy passed by the university Curriculum Committee will require that a competency exam also be taken.
The test should benefit students by enabling them to waive up to three semesters of language and receive subject credit.
The test must be taken to meet the foreign language requirement for students seeking A.B. or B.S. degrees in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, since foreign language has been redefined as a skill area.
The Foreign Language Executive Committee's plan allows incoming freshmen and transfer students who pass the placement test with a grade comparable to a second semester student to take the skill level exam. Class requirements will be waived and subject credit will be given to passing students.
The testing will benefit stu-
waiver exam judged to fulfill requirement
Business competition policy challenged: Student Senate discusses ten priorities
By Eric Onstad
Staff Writer
Student senators challenged the university's policies regard-ingstudent services at a meeting Wednesday in which a report that listed the “10 most pressing problems” of students was discussed.
The university’s policy of no competition for university-run businesses, such as the USC Bookstore and the Commons, bore the brunt of the report’s attack.
“A free market should be allowed to operate, allowing students to challenge the university to provide low cost, effective services,” the report said.
High cafeteria prices and the absence of weekend programming result from the policy, members of the Student Senate said.
An elimination of the policy would open many possibilities for student programming, the report said. “This (a free market) would open the door to effective weekend campus programming through the creation of a pub or some other facility.”
The agenda grew out of student efforts to stop a tuition increase.
Cornelius Pings, senior vice president of Academic Affairs, had previously asked the senate for 10 things the students would
want improved at the university if tuition was increased .
Other items quoted in the students’ agenda include:
—	Staff attitude: Staff members having contact with the public should be given a mandatory in-service training program on how to deal with people.
—	Overall academic standing of the university: Today, students are unclear as to the direction this administration plans to take in advancing the university academically.
—	Senior degree check: Expecting all seniors to be provided with a completed degree check
(Continued on page 4)
dents in several ways, according to the committee. Passing students, especially those with a foreign language background from community colleges or high school, will save time and money by avoiding redundant courses.
Karen Segal, coordinator of the General Education Program, said transfer students will especially benefit from the change. “It should enhance the value of a USC degree,’’she said, adding that students will gain a practical speaking skill in the process of testing.
“When students know they must pass this test, there will be more motivation for learning-
'Segal said.
Karen Smith, assistant professor of Spanish, said, “We’re trying to appeal to students’ needs, not with a textbook Spanish but Spanish they can use in real communication situations. Our goal is to get students to a level of proficiency at which they can continue to develop once they leave the university.”
Smith said the test consists of oral and written parts which deal with real life situations. The oral portion consists of an im-propmtu conversation between the student and the examiner or the description of a picture. The written section includes compositions and reading comprehension.
Smith said this is a common sense approach to language. Students learn grammar in the classroom, but the oral exam does not penalize for small grammatical errors. Passage of the test implies the student has the ability to communicate in languages, she said.
A student may take the test at any time while he is at the university, Smith said. If he fails the test, he must take remedial instruction in the weak area and take the test again. But all students must take the exam, regardless to how many semesters of Spanish they have had.
“We’re not out to penalize anyone. We want to teach students survival skills,” and “prepare students to live in a world where Spanish is a second language,” Smith said.
Jay Berger, director of Admissions and School Relations is concerned that the requirement change may anger prospective transfer students and community colleges. “New requirements won't help transfer students. It is unfair. This will have a great impact on the admission of transfer students,” Berger said.
Berger said the university depends heavily on transfer students admissions and the new test policy may discourage enrollment. “It doesn’t make sense to make students take the test after passing the class,” he said.
The admissions director was also concerned about the additional test fee students will have to pay. “Students shouldn’t have to pay for additional classes when they’ve already taken the courses somewhere else.”
Berger said it is morally wrong to “sneak” the requirements in on students once they have enrolled, because this may delay graduation. "Those who don’t pass can’t graduate,” he said.
Segal said the proposal was made in the fall of 1979 ,in the form of a mandate from the administration. Admissions has had since last July to act on the proposal.
There is a possible one year moratorium for transfer students, in order to inform them of the new policy, Segal said.
Gayle Fiedler, Spanish teaching assistant and assistant to the director of language programs, said the testing will give students a more positive learning attitude.
She described the situation of many students now in Spanish classes. “They don’t want to participate in class. They do as little as possible and they’re not get-
(Continued on page 3)
Nigerian ambassador discusses U.S./African relations
By Chris Navarro
Staff Writer
Speaking on U.S./Nigerian relations, Chief Abudu Eke, Nigerian ambassador to the United States, was critical of current U.S. policy toward his country and expressed disapproval of President Ronald Reagan’s policies toward South Africa.
The ambassador, who was two hours late because of a mix-up in travel arrangements, spoke yesterday in Bovard to the small number of people who remained to hear him.
Eke, who reportedly met with President Reagan yesterday, flew into Los Angeles to speak before the World Affairs Council. He was invited to the university by the University Speakers Committee.
After briefly outlining the history of U.S. / Nigerian relations,
ABUDU EKE
the ambassador said he felt the Carter administration was more sympathetic to Nigerian goals than the current administration. He went on to delineate what he would like to see in the United States' policy in the future.
A meaningful relationship between the two countries began in 1960, soon after Nigeria gained its independence, the ambassador said. At that time, the United States was instrumental in the development of the country.
“The relationship between Nigeria and the United States improved steadily in the first five or six years of the independence of Nigeria,” he said. The honeymoon ended rather abruptly with the outbreak of a Nigerian civil war. A region of Nigeria, containing large oil reserves, wanted to secede.
There was some fear that the United States would intervene in the civil war, but after meeting with then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Nigeria merely received some aid from the United States.
The ambassador said that relations between the two countries
improved after this, but “until Mr. Jimmy Carter came to power, this country (the United States) never had an African policy,” the ambassador said.
“It is President Carter who had an African policy. It (the United States) approached Africa with friendliness. The United States was ready to listen to voices of the black people. That was the highest mark ever reached in relationships between the U.S. and Nigeria,” he said.
The ambassador commented on current relations. “Candidly speaking, our relationship under the new administration is really cordial. We have no problems whatsoever with the present administration.”
But he was quick to point out that Nigeria “objects very strongly to the cordial or warm relationship now between the U.S. and South Africa.”
“In our minds it is inconceivable that a country like the United States which was established on the basis of freedom should associate itself with a country that practices apartheid,” the ambassador said.
He was critical of the United States’ strategic interest in South Africa, a country which is not under majority rule.
“What we’re told is that South Africa sells its products to the U.S. and that those products are very important to the United States. But South Africa is not doing the U.S. any favors, it is South Africa that needs the United States,” he said.
One aspect of the relations between U.S. and Nigeria that the ambassador would like to see is for American foreign policy to “rise to the level” he knew when Carter was president.