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Volume XCI Number 10	University of Southern California	Monday, January 25, 1982
Class size rule works for faculty
By Chris Navarro
Staff Writer
Some administrators and faculty members initially felt apprehensive about the enforcement of the minimal class size policy, but since its implementation, the program has received generally positive comments.
“For our department, you can say “that, as expected, the policy was implemented with reasonableness and equity,” said Martin Lean, director of the School of Philosophy.
“In our department, at least, there was no case in which the administration’s decision was unreasonable,” he added.
The rule states that an undergraduate class with less than 12 students enrolled and graduate classes with less than eight students face the possibility of being cancelled after the first week of school. Requests by faculty members to keep some underenrolled classes are considered on a case by case basis.
Irwin Lieb, provost of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said he was impressed by the reports submitted by each division. A number of classes were cancelled, but many classes that were below the minimal enrollment have been permitted to run, the provost said.
“Dean (David) Wiesen (of Humanities), wrote a set of criterion he used in deciding where a class should be cancelled or not. That was very good,” Lieb said.
Underenrolled classes which faculty members wanted to keep were judged on such criterion as their importance to the program. "In one case we had two undergrad classes in ‘speech’ where one class had two and the other had three; they were combined.” he said. “I have comparable things from every department in all divisions.”
Lieb added that an honors political science class with six students enrolled (Continued on page 3)
Staff photo by Junji Yasuda
COLLEGE KID — A young child, dressed snugly for cold weather, plays happily at the feet of students near the Married Students Housing Complex at the comer of Exposition Boulevard and Hoover Street
’82ASSOCIATES AWARDS
Faculty excellence sought
By Pauline Marquez
Staff Writer
Although excellence in research and scholarship is often equated with the publication of ideas, artistic creation and performance are equally important to the university’s academic activities.
With this in mind, the university is accepting nominations from students, faculty and staff for the 1981-82 Associates Awards, given for excellence in teaching and creativity in research and scholarship.
“We seek to actively involve the student community and make them aware that they can nominate faculty members,” said Jerome Walker, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs.
The four faculty members whose academic contributions to the university are judged to be most worthy will receive awards of $5,000 each. Two of the awards acknowledge leaders in teaching excellence, and the other two honor creativity in scholarship.
Continuing creative growth over time, having impact upon their fields and displaying examples of scholarship as an exemplar for students and other faculty are among the issues by which the candidates will be judged.
The winners will receive their awards at the annual Awards Honors Convocation in March. They will also be saluted during the associate's banquet set for April.
Throughout the coming academic year, award recipients will be encouraged to present public lectures, exhibits and performances that showcase their teaching and scholastic ability.	(Continued on page 7)
LAS majors seek to gain honors key
By Charla Foster
Staff Writer
Applications by university students for Phi Beta Kappa have increased greatly over the 'ast eight years despite early application deadlines and some confusion over eligibility requirements.
“Because Phi Beta Kappa has become the oldest and one of the most prestigious honor societies in the United States, we have seen a great increase in student interest in the society,” said Joan Schaefer, dean of women for Student Affairs.
The faculty board of Epsilon Chapter, the university’s branch of the society, has concentrated its efforts toward familiarizing students with Phi Beta Kappa, she said, explaining one possible reason for the increase in student interest.
The board, which is made up of Phi Beta Kappa faculty members, evaluates student applications each year on the basis of grade point average and class schedule.
“Although eligibility is strictly based on high academic standing, the board is sincerely interested in offering consideration to as many students as possible,” Schaefer said, adding that students are welcome to discuss their eligibilty with board members.
However, limited advertisement and early application deadlines may be preventing eligible students from joining the society, said Tom Myers, secretary for Schaefer.
The society's Feb. 5 application deadline often undermines its purpose of recruiting eligible humanities students — liberal arts juniors and seniors with high academic standing — because they receive their fall semester grades too late. As.a result, many students remain unsure of their grade point average and fail to apply.
In order to remedy this problem, the society now allows students to omit (Continued on page 6)
Freshman admission program offers second chance
Counselors help students through beginning year
By Sheri Davenport
The Freshman Access Program gives high-potential students who fall short of the admission requirements an opportunity to attend this university on a provisional basis.
“The university established the program recognizing that an admissions decision based solely on high school grades and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores is, at best, only adequate,” said Ernest Cioffi, head of skills development and community programs for the College of Continuing Education.
The admissions office, when considering a student’s application, either accepts the student through regular admission, rejects the student, or accepts the student through the Freshman Access Program.
When considering a student for the program, the admissions office takes into consideration additional factors besides high school grades and SAT scores. They look at the student’s writing ability, his involvement in student government or extracurricular activities and steady improvement in grades over the high school years. They also look for students who show outstanding service in school or community projects and have strong recommendations from teachers or school administrators.
Cioffi also said the program was started because of some projections made 10 years ago showing that there were not going to be enough students to fill the spaces at the university. Paul Hadler, then director of the College of Continuing Education, and the late Zorab Kaprielian, former executive vice president, ini-
tiated the experimental program in an effort to allow the university to be more selective in accepting students with lower skills, Cioffi said.
The idea behind the program was to give marginal students an opportunity to receive a college education. Counseling and tutoring services are provided to help these students try to successfully complete their freshman year.
The counselors help the students plan their schedules and inform them of the university’s resources and programs available to them. They also try to expose and deal with any problems the student might have, Cioffi said.
The students are expected to meet with their counselor at least four times during the semester, as laid out in the contract each student signs when joining the program. The contract outlines the program and what is expected from the students.
The program sends out surveys to the faculty to check on the progress of the freshmen, said Rudy Leyva, director of the program and one of the three counselors. If problems are noted, the counselors immediately get in touch with the student to discuss the problems before they become too severe. He said this survey program has worked successfully because of the cooperation of the staff.
The students must maintain a 2.0 grade point average and take 24 units in their first year to remain at the university. This standard is higher than that for regular freshmen, Cioffi added.
The students can achieve regular university standing after one semester if they complete a minimum of 15 units with a 3.0 GPA. Thirty-five percent of the Freshman Access students have a GPA of 3.0 or better after their freshman year.
The success rate, or retention rate, of program students is 85 percent. “This is especially impressive considering all of the students were originally rejected (from the university),” Leyva said.
There are also Freshman Access students who go on to graduate school, Leyva said.
Recently, the restrictions on participation in social activities were relaxed because students showed a greater motivation to work hard when they felt fully integrated into student life, Cioffi said.
But the counselors do try to caution students about the large time commitments that some activities — like the marching band, fraternities, sororities and intercollegiate athletics — demand, Leyva said.
Approximately 350 students are involved in the program this year, Leyva said.
The program has been unfairly criticized for being a minority program, Leyva said. “We have a good cross-section of the students at USC,” he said.
The important aspect of this program is that the unversity gave the students a second chance, Cioffi said.