dM% trojan
Volume XCI Number 17
University of Southern California	Wednesday, February 3, 1982
PLUS /MINUS SYSTEM STILL CONTROVERSIAL
Commission alters grade policy
By Johannes Tesselaar
Staff Writer
The Academic Standards Commission (ASCOM) answered student complaints about the plus / minus grading system by redefining it Tuesday. Despite the change that the commission made, students remained unsatisfied with the grading system.
The Student Senate’s Academic Affairs Commission brought the issue to ASCOM after students complained that professors could practice the plus/minus system optionally.
The new system initiated in the fall semester calls for grades to be designated by A, B, C, D, or F and pluses and minuses. The policy made the designation of plus / minus grades optional; this is what students objected to.
Monica Fisher, chairman of the Academic Affairs Commission, said the memo announcing the new system confused professors with an ambiguous concluding sentence: “This does not mean that faculty must use plus and minus designations, but it does mean that they may be used in the large majority of courses where they seem appropriate in distinguishing the quality of work performed.”
Fisher said the wording caused the university to have two grading systems, one, an A—B—C—D—F system, the other, a plus/minus system.
The commisssion hoped to resolve the discrepancy by omitting the optional clause of the system and sending out a new memo to all deans and departments re-explaining the system.
“We’re very unhappy. ASCOM is trying to patronize us, and we’re insulted,” Fisher said, referring to the commission’s action.
Guilford Babcock, chairman of ASCOM. said the new memo will state that plus/minus designations “are the policy of the university.”
Fisher noted that, “the faculty does not perceive the plus/minus system as important. We are going to get signatures for petitions to present to Cornelius Pings (executive vice president of Academic Affairs) to push the administration for an official grading scale.”
Andrew Morrow, a member of the Student Senate’s Academic Affairs Research Unit, said that if the proposed memo is handled properly, it could be the solution to the plus/minus controversy. He doubted it would be handled properly, however.
Tami Taecker, another member of the Student Senate's research unit, concurred, saying, “I don’t think it will work.”
Fisher said the Student Senate’s Academic Affairs Commission came to the meeting in hopes of either making the plus/minus system mandatory' or abolishing it.
Babcock began the discussion by motioning that the system be made mandatory. This angered Taecker, who said, “They (ASCOM) were biased coming in. They weren’t going to listen to us.”
Fisher presented a plan to ASCOM to make the policy mandatory because of its unfairness to students.
The plan said that the current plus/minus use was unreasonable because it did not allow for an average grade.
If a student earned a B-plus from a teacher who did not use the system, the plan continued, and a
(Continued on page 13)
Staff photo by Andrew Innerarity
A LITTLE HELP — A young fan fixes the net with some aid from a university yell leader between the men's and women's basketball games.
Policy of no censorship
maintained by university
By Alan Grossman
Staff Writer
Any outside political group that wishes to distribute literature on campus will discover that there are restrictions but no censorship.
These groups fill out an application at the Student Activities Center and submit to that office a copy of each pamphlet they will use.
Nadine Felix, director of the center, said that the university does not practice censorship, but likes to know which groups are on campus at a given time.
“The groups are welcome at the free speech area in front of Tommy Trojan,” she said, adding that “USC tries very hard not to censor any group. We don't want any group to believe it can’t speak its mind (at the university).”
Felix explained that when an organization inquires about space at the university, its representative fills out a request form at the SAC counter. The completed form details the intentions of the group while on campus. A group may conduct literature distribution, petition-signing and advertising while on campus.
Felix said the examples a group turns in are the only materials allowed on campus.
There are two reasons the center requests such information, the director said. First, it enables the center to make copies for interested people after a group leaves the university. Felix added that the center also likes to have the literature in case it receives a complaint about the group.
Ste said that complaints do not come often, but when one is received, “the group is asked to leave by campus security and is never allowed back.”
Felix also keeps track of such organizations after they are gone.
The type of complaint that really angers the center, Felix said, is “when a student comes in and tells us he was chased or harassed. If we hear something like this, the group is gone.”
Sgt. Carole Steele of University Security said she does not remember an incident of harassment from an outside group in the past two years.“Once we received a complaint about a fellow preaching in front of Tommy Trojan, but generally most groups know they have to get permission to come on campus (and hand out pamphlets, etc.). It’s never been a big problem on this campus.”
Felix said that a group also must tell the center what hours it plans to be on campus, as well as the number of days. The organization is also advised to keep its area clean, and it must promise to take its posters or fliers down after two weeks.
After an application is approved, the group is finally told that it must understand that approval does not mean university sponsorship.
Cancer Center needs $16 million
By Mark Grabow
Staff Writer
The university launched a Sl6 million fund-raising campaign last week to complete construction of the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Research Institute.
President James H. Zumberge said the campaign for the Norris Institute, a $38 million project and the largest in university history, is the university's number one fund-raising priority.
The building, with all interior development in place, is expected to be completed in June on the Health Sciences Campus.
A S5 million donation from university trustee Kenneth Norris Jr. and his family, along with Si 1.88 million from the National Cancer Institute, have increased the project's funds to a total of S22 million.
The institute will become headquarters for the university’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of only 20 in the United States.
Roger F. Olson, associate vice president for development, oversees the project’s fund-raising. He said the importance of cancer research has attracted 13 university trustees to the project. They form a select campaign committee
which also includes representation from the university’s family of Cancer Center donors, leaders of the Cancer Research Associates support group, members of the School of Medicine's board of counselors and the university administration.
“Our earliest task." Olson said, “will be to evaluate individuals, corporations and philanthropic foundations likely to be interested in support of the Norris Institute.”
The National Cancer Institute in 1973 named the university as one of the first eight comprehensive cancer centers (Continued on page 16)
Staff photo by Alexis Ignatieff
Wanted: $16 MILLION — The Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Research Institute, located on the Health sciences campus, is 90 percent complete. If the building is to be finished on schedule, the university needs $ 16 million more.