Staff photos by Pam Veasey
EVENING OF SOUL — Sharon Pennix of the Los Angeles Repertory Dance Theater (top photo) dances her way into the hearts of the audience (middle photo), who respond warmly. Bob Mardis and Perry Bienis (bottom photo) also performed in the showcase of black talent The theme of the ninth annual Evening of Soul was 'The Me I Hope To Be." The audience was also treated to Grammy-winner Quincy Jones Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. All of the performers were university students.
trojan
Volume XCI Number 38
University of Southern California
Tuesday March 9, 1982
LAS reorganizes advisement services
Adds advisers, walk-in information counter
By Mark Grabow
Staff Writer
The College of Letters. Arts and Sciences is implementing a series of major changes within the Advisement Office in order to expand, reorganize and improve its services to students.
These changes, recommended by an ad hoc advisory committee chaired by J. Wesley Robb, professor of religion, were brought before Irwin Lieb, provost of the college, who has instituted the following plans:
—	Create a post for an associate dean for advisement.
—	Appoint a director for international students.
—	Add four more academic advisors, which will bring the total to 16.
—	Establish a closer relationship with Student Administrative Services and with other offices and programs
-related to students’ academic advisement.
—	Institute a walk-in information service for students.
“I think advisory services are going to be vastly improved and if they aren't. I will continue to do something about it,” said Lieb, adding that students should start noticing changes in the system next year.
Apart from internal changes within the office, the provost said that improvements in the larger system in which advisement operates will enhance the college’s services.
Lieb stressed a better arrangement with SAS and a more stable curriculum as the two most important factors in the LAS advisement improvement.
Instead of having records sent over from the registrar's office or requiring students to bring copies, advisers will have them at their immediate disposal.
The provost said a more stable curriculum will mean that “students can be assured when and where courses will be given in order to meet degree requirements.”
He expects the over-the-counter information service to function as either “the first place or the last place a student can go when. he is in doubt.
“We need well-informed people to provide immediate services to the students,” Lieb said. “Students are busy, they are paying a lot of money and deserve better. I want no more of this business of students running all over the place just to get a paper signed.
Hoose Library houses medieval manuscripts
By Charla Foster
Staff Writer
On the southernmost side of campus, a library scarcely more than a half a century' old draws professors from all over the world to sift through its bookshelves.
The Hoose Philosophy Library, dedicated to James Harmon Hoose, a founding professor in the School of Philosophy, houses some of the rarest books ever printed. But the appeal lies in its appearance — a quiet, church-like atmosphere. The floor, longer than it is wide, reflects the mid-afternoon sun as students study underneath chandeliers and stained-glass windows. Carved wood and leather chairs line a series of oak tables.
“When students enter the library, it’s almost as if they feel they have to genuflect." said Bridget Malloy, librarian.
“There are also the favorite sayings of old philosophers on the walls that look like the Stations of the Cross in a Catholic church."
In addition to its atmosphere, the library' houses 45,000 volumes from medieval manuscripts and incunabula to the latest present-day philosophy books.
Malloy, a native of Ireland and a graduate of the School of Librarv Sciences, became librarian when she replaced Wallace Nethery seven years ago.
Nethery worked as the school librarian for at least 25 years and later wrote a detailed history of how a part-time university student brought about one of the most comprehensive philosophy libraries in the world.
In the summer of 1919. Seeley Greenleaf Mudd. a Stanford student, decided to take a summer philosophy class at the university. His instructor impressed him so much that he brought his father, Seeley Wintersmith Mudd, to meet him.
The senior member of the Mudd family came to his son’s next class and met Ralph Tyler Flewelling, a professor in philosophy. Together, they erected the Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Memorial Hall of Philosophy.
"Colonel Mudd was a great philanthropist," Malloy said. “He was responsible for the building of many of California’s university’s buildings.”
(Continued on page 9)
“I don’t want students coming in here and being told they should come back two weeks later,” he added.
The newr associate dean for advisement will be responsible for the organization and the overview of the dailv activities of the office. As a result, Norman Fertig, dean of honors and advisement, will have a chance to devote more time and energy' to the overall direction and goals of the office.
“Dean Fertig is largely responsible for the advisement program wre have," Lieb recently told the Transcript. "He has served the university with dedication for 30 years and is widely regarded for his warm and affectionate associations.”
Fertig will create a program of faculty advisement for incoming students as well as a program of mandatory advisement for students on probation.
Expressing his pleasure with the substantial support that LAS is receiving, Fertig said. “I am enormously enthusiastic and grateful that the administration is fit to do this. Within the coming year, considerable improvement can be expected.”
The dean added that after instruction, the second best place to put university money is in advisement.
(Continued on page 3)
Medical students defy trend of loan defaults
By Yolanda Austin
Staff Writer
While the trend of physicians defaulting on their medical school loans has sparked the Department of Health and Human Services to request that Congress grant it greater power to recover such money, .university officials say the trend is not a problem here.
The department has found that the delinquency rate in medical school loans nationwide was approximately 15.8 percent last year.
A recent HHS report revealed that 70 physicians from 17 medical schools were delinquent in repaying federal student loans. The department made the finding while investigating 37 medical schools.
HHS officials also found that 17 of their own physicians were delinquent. Two of these doctors were earning $42,546 a year.
Betty Cowan, university manager of student loans, said findings such as those compiled by HHS “really make students look bad. People think doctors are borrowing all this money and becoming deadbeats who don’t repay their loans. I don’t think that is the case here.”
“Different programs have different ways of defining default,” added Charles Wolfkill, director of Student Financial Operations.
When a loan is in default, the government or the university takes action to recover the money. Institutions vary as to when they will take such action.
What most institutions agree upon, however, is that when a payment is missed a loan is delinquent. Universities often issue a series of warnings before declaring a delinquent loan in default.
Cowan said the default rate for health professionals at the university is 2 percent and the average borrower receives S2.200 in HPSL funds.
“This (default on HPSL) is not an extreme problem here. There is no abuse here. On the whole, ‘SC students are more conscientious about repaying their loans." Cowan said.
In addition, the university and other institutions give students up to four months to repay their loans. HHS allows only' 90 days to keep payments current.
Cowan said professional students at this university are very good about repaying school loans, as compared to undergraduates. The default rate for National Direct Student Loans at the university is seven percent to nine percent. Graduate students must repay undergraduate loans and HPSL’s averaging S2.200 per student.
Wolfkill said the default rate of HPSL loans is far less than for other loans because it is a small program open to an exclusive group of students.
“Students receiving HPSL’s are consistent in their academic programs, as compared to undergrads who may transfer from school to school,” Wolfkill said.
“Traditionally, doctors are one of the best groups for repaying loans — not just HPSL, but all loans. If we were restricted to loaning only to doctors, the default rate would be much lower,” he said.
(Continued on page 8)
POOR ORIGINAL