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Volume XCI Number	University of Southern California Thursday, November 5, 1981
EFFICIENCY SOUGHT
Advisement panel established
3y David Wharton
Staff Writer
The provost’s office has established the Advisory Advisement Committee to analyze and recommend improvements for advisement processes which affect approximately 8,000 students in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
“When I came to the university, a number of people told me they were distressed with advisory services,” said Irwin Lieb, the provost, explaining why he established the committee. Lieb became the university’s provost this semester.
The panel, which consists of five faculty members and one student, has met three times already and is scheduled to submit its recommendations by Dec. 1. ad-
Staff photo by Pam Veasey
RUMOR REBUTTAL — Sgt Carol Steele mans the booth set up by University Security to provide information about the crime situation in the community. Steele denied the rumors pertaining to an alleged gang initiation rite involving the .'ape of university women. “It's the big lie theory,” she said. "Someone started a rumor, and for whatever reason, it spread.’’
‘The administration has made a commitment to improve advisement because it really is an important part of a student’s education. We realize there will have to be major changes in organization and management to increase (advisement) efficiency’
El Salvador regime criticized for killings
By George Aguilar
Staff Writer
Two experts in El Salvadoran affairs said Wednesday that the military regime of El Salvador continues to violate human rights, obstruct the education of Salvadorans and repress the political opposition present in the country.
Carlos Hernandez and Blase Bonpane also criticized U.S. foreign policy, saying it was detrimental to a peaceful resolution of the crisis in the belea-gured country.
The men expressed their views at a forum entitled “Revolution and Repression in El Salvador” in the Student Activities Center. The noontime discussion, attended by nearly 80 students and faculty members, was sponsored by the Faculty Committee for Human Rights in El Salvador, MEChA and Students for Economic Democracy. It was moderated by Nora Hamilton, associate professor of political science.
The forum centered on the committee’s efforts to reopen the National University in El Salvador, which was taken over and closed down by the military junta June 26, 1980. Hernandez was secretary of planning there, the only public university in El Salvador.
“It was closed because of the military dictatorship, which considers the scientific and academic work of the university subversive,” Hernandez said through Katherine Kovacs, an interpreter and assistant professor of Spanish.
Hernandez said it was the fourth time the military has shut down the university.
From 1972 to 1978, the university was controlled by another military regime, Hernandez said. During that period, they
imprisoned any student protesting against the regime. It was also a period of administrative corruption, committed by administrators appointed by the government, he added.
In the past three years, Hernandez said, the campus in the capital city of San Salvador (Continued on page 2)
“The ministration has made a commitment to improve advisement because it really is an impor- < tant part of a student’s education,” said _
Peyton Fisher, ™“““™■—
a student senator and the only student on the committee. “We realize there will have to be major changes in organization and management to increase (advisement) efficiency.”
In order to understand the advisement situation clearly, the panel has interviewed more than 20 students, advisers, faculty members and administrators who are either directly involved with or related to the Advisement Office.
“The committee is involved in a study of the entire advisement process that involves other agencies within the university that relate to the Advisement Office,” said J. Wesley Robb, the chairman and a professor of religion.
The office does not stand alone, and the efficiency of advisers is contingent upon assistance from other, interrelated departments, Robb said. The panel has closely examined the inefficiencies in communications between the Advisement
Office and other offices, especially the Registrar’s Office.
“Availability of transcripts, credit evaluations and senior records are important if you are going to give good advisement,” he explained.
“If the Advisement Office has to wait for months (to receive transcripts and credit evaluation), it is hard to give good advisement,” Robb said. He explained that swift communication is especially crucial to the advisement of transfer students.
The panel has researched faculty advisement, the preprofessional advisement program, the need for more full-time staff in the Advisement Office and the feasibility of an improved information retrieval computer system. There is also a
difficulty in
advising the 3,500 undeclared students on campus, Robb said.
The chairman	expressed con-
__cern about the
“““““	decentraliza-
tion of the different student services, such as advisement, transcripts and financial aid.
“As it is now, (the student) has to run around from place to place to get service,” he said.
Fisher said the panel investigated the effectiveness of peer advisers and discovered that the students who are counseling other students can do a good job, but are handicapped by the inefficiencies of the system.
“They (peer advisers) could do a better job if the system could be improved. I think we need to retain peer advisers,” the committee member said.
Other committee members include: Clarke Howatt, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and the assistant dean of Alumni and Student Affairs; Sylvia Manning, an associate professor of English and director of the Freshman Writing Program: Lawrence Singer, a chem-
(Continued on page 16)
Co-op to offer alternative student housing
Possibility of vandalism, theft, to be decreased
By Angie Fernandez
i Staff Writer
t
Those students who are considering an alternative to the conventional university housing system may find what they are looking for in co-op housing.
Basically, a co-op housing • unit is run as a non-profit corporation, offering low cost, high quality living to those persons who choose to participate in the cooperative.
The University Students Cooperative Organization, a branch of the Office of Residential Life, holds as one of its main purposes “to provide basic needs of shelter for students as they continue their higher education at the university,” said John Baker, a Commuter Housing worker at Residential Life and a member of the board of directors of the cooperative organization.
The idea of housing co-ops for students is not a new one. At the start of the Depression, it became more economical for university students to reside in co-ops, housing that offered affordable and decent living. The Roachdale Co-op, the first college co-op, was started at the University of Wisconsin in 1930.
In 1933, the University of California at Berkeley established another student cooperative. In 1938, UCLA followed with one, and the University of California at Santa Barbara and University of California at San Diego have recently formed their own successful housing cooperatives.
Last summer, Baker raised the issue of co-op housing in the Commuter Housing Office at this university. “I felt that it would be good to have that alternative because some students have problems finding suitable off-campus housing,” he said.
The housing cooperative is
actually a non-profit corporation in which members as a “community” invest in a residence, such as a house, apartment complex or condominium. The payment method differs from regular rent in that there is no landlord being employed to oversee the man-(Continued on page 5)
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UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' COOPERATIVE
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Staff photo by Junji Yasuda
HOUSING ALTERNATIVE — Frank Montejano, John Baker, Larry Bosch (l-r) of the University Students’ Cooperative Organization hope to establish a housing co-op on campus. The payment method differs from regular rent in that there is no landlord being employed to oversee the management of the residence.