Temporary appointment fills Robinson's post
By Marc Igler
City Editor
Roger Olson, a former university administrator with an extensive background in fund raising, has been appointed as the interim senior vice president of university relations.
He replaces John Robinson, who left Feb. 14 to coach the Los Angeles Rams football team after three months in the position.
University President James Zumberge, who made the announcement at Thursday's University Advisory' Council meeting, said Olson has been given a 22-month contract.
Olson, 52, left the university less than a vear ago as associate vice president for development and executive director of capital campaigns. Since his de-
parture, he and an associate have been running the Pasadena-based Hanson, Olson and Co., a management services consulting firm.
“Roger is a skilled professional in development, knowledgeable about the university’ and our primary donors and well-known to our alumni and Board of Trustees," Zumberge said in a prepared statement.
Olson, who will become one of only three senior vice presidents, will be in charge of a major portion of the university's financing, a job which Donald Lewis, president of the faculty senate, called "immensely important."
In his new position, which he will assume immediately, Olson will oversee the office of development, alumni affairs.
University expects surplus in budget
By Jeffrey Tylicki
Staff Writer
John Curry', executive director of the budget, told the student senate Wednesday that the university is expecting a S4-million surplus in this year's budget and that tuition will increase 11 percent this fall.
"It has been a good fiscal year," Curry' said, adding that the S4-miIlion surplus of income over expenditures will probably be greater when more careful accounting results are available from the spring semester.
Curry attributed several factors to the financial turnaround from last year's deficit.
"Enrollment this year was beyond our expectations," he said. "This year, our applicant pool is up by 9 percent, w'hile most universities are experiencing a drop in applications."
He said a new accounting system, in which all fee bills can be considered income whether or not they are paid for by the end of the budget year, also helped to create the surplus.
Currv added, "The flat tuition fee contributed in balancing the budget, too."
However, the surplus will not result in a reduction of next year's tuition increase. Curry said the money will go into special accounts and deans will be able to request some of it for improvements in their schools in order to get "a leg up on inflation."
While Curry declined to commit himself to a dollar figure for next year's tuition, he said he doubted it would be more than 11 percent, and he said he would be surprised if it was below 11 percent.
In response to charges from senate members that the university has been insensitive to the effects of budget increases on students, Curry said there has been great scrutiny of economic costs.
"But cost reductions mean cutting salaries," he said, explaining that the university has been concentrating its efforts in closing positions when they become empty instead of firing personnel.
Commenting on the senate's student referendum stating that it would not tolerate a tuition increase above 8 percent, Curry said, "students feel any in-
crease beyond inflation should be justified with improvement. I could not agree more."
He said examples of the "significant qualitative improvements" on campus are everywhere. He used the current renovations of the school of social work, the Olympic swimming pool and the Seeley G. Mudd building as examples. "You have to understand that these improvements all require additional upkeep and utility costs," he said. "When you have quality changes you get more for your money, so (in a sense) the price is going down."
Curry said he feels the university's improvements have been significant. He said the computer support system now' in use has caught the interest of Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and its efficiency has caused great cost reductions.
"We really do have an online transcript system that should be getting degree checks out quicker," he insisted.
Curry also said he would like to see a change in the structure of the current Budget Advisory Committee.
"The people on the committee don't feel it has worked too well in the last few years," he said. "Some feel they haven't done any w'ork, were not being listened to and were not having any significant influence."
Curry said he would like to make the committee more effective, and he has not always been pleased with the quality of debate that has taken place at meetings.
Curry’ said he enjoyed having the opportunity to talk with the student senate, which received him well.
"They asked excellent questions. Some were better than the budget committee has asked," he said.
Giving a rare view of an administrator's opinion of the senate, Curry said he recognized the student senate as representative of the student body, but he seemed to question the representativeness of the selection process.
"I agree it is representative, but I wash more students were involved with (the selection process)," he said.
public relations and KUSC, the university-affiliated National Public Radio station.
The university is not prepared to make a permanent appointment to the position at this time, Zjumberge said, opting instead to "ensure the stability and continuity of our development and university relations efforts ..."
Zumberge added that during Olson's 22-month tenure, the university will conduct a search for a permanent appointment to the position.
George Abdo, executive secretary to the president said the 22-month period w'as chosen for two reasons. "It's a lengthy-enough period to develop plans for the next major development campaign and then look at the administrative structure and see what sort of person we need," he said. "Also, it carries us w’ell past the summer of 1984, which will be a significant watershed for the university."
Olson, who held virtually every fund-raising position within the administration during his 23-vear stay, came to the university in 1960 after serving as development and public relations director for tw'o liberal arts colleges in Iowa.
While at this university, Olson participated in programs that helped raise about 5500 (Continued on poge 5)
Roger Olson, who has been named as interim senior vice president of universitv relations.
trojan
Volume XCfll, Number 41
University of Southern California
Friday, March 11, 1983
Ceremony bestows honors onto faculty, staff, students
By Mark Lowe
Staff Writer
In a formal and low-key ceremony, members of the university community gathered Thursday for the second annual Academic Honors Convocation to recognize the achievements of faculty, staff and students.
Dressed in the traditional black robes of scholars, representatives of the administration and faculty presented various awards to recognize accomplishments in teaching, research and scholarship, i
"It is a particularly happy occasion to come together to honor our faculty, our staff and our students," sJiid university President James Zumberge during his opening remarks in Bovard Auditorium.
The eveiit; marked the debut of the USC Presidential Medallion Award, which recognizes "outstanding service to the university."
Though the Medallion Award is not necessarily to be given posthumously, this year”s recipients, Charles Heidelberger and Zohrab Kaprielian, both died before they could be presented with the dtation.
Heidelberger, who died in January, was director of basic Research at the university's Comprehensive Caricer Center at the medical campus and was well-known internationally for his work with carcinogenesis — the chemical processes that cause cancer — and chemotherapy.
"He was a brilliant pioneering scientist," Zumberge said it the presentation. "His work will have a profound impact for years to come."
Zumberge gave the award "with deep respect" to Heidelberger's wife, who proudly held up the red-lined case containing the bronze medallion for the appljauding audience to see.
The second medallion was dedicated to Kaprielian, whom Zumberge called "the driving force behind the school of engineering's rise to national prominence]" Kaprielian's niece accepted the award.
Kaprielian came to the university' in the 1960s and served as dean of the engineering school from 1970 until he died in December 1981. He was also universitv executive vice president from 1975 to 1980.
"The search for excellence characterized his every action," Zumberge said. "The foundation he helped to lay will serve us through the 1980s and beyond."
The convocation also honored student achievements with several awards for scholarship, participation in activities both inside and outside the universitv and original work that was not part of a class or program.
Sharon Dolezal, a psychology major, and Henry Honda, a biomedical engineering major, received aw'ards for their 4.0 grade point averages in university* classes and their extensive involvement in activities. Both students will be valedictorians at this May's commencement ceremonies.
The undergraduate award for original work went to Jonathan Woetzel, an interdisciplinary major, for his paper "The War Powers Act: The Executive-Legislative Conflict."
Four students were presented with the graduate award for original work: Douglas Cazort for an essay on writing style, Michael Donovan and Charles Morris, both for poetry, and Pradeep Iyer for a paper on the coupling constants of carbon-13 atoms.
Linn van Woerkom, a doctoral candidate in physics, w'ho under the anxiety and stress of receiving a citation for outstanding academic achievement, fainted at the podium as he prepared to give a response to the student awards. He was revived by administrators and returned to his seat amid thunderous applause.
The university' associates also presented their awards for both excellence in teaching and creativity in research and scholarship, selecting the recipients on the recommendations of colleagues and students.
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