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Volume XCIII, Number 36	University of Southern California	-RlUay; March \1983
The quality of food sold in the 32nd Street Market has been harshly criticized by 200 volunteer food inspectors, who charge that spoiled meat and rotten vegetables are being sold to customers, many of whom are students.
University graduates face tough employment situation
By Kimberly Durment
This is the first of two parts.
Times are hard, jobs are scarce and it is no secret that the employment market has come to a virtual standstill. Unfortunately, this situation affects both recent and future university graduates.
Sharon Slavin, director of the USC Placement Center, said she has seen a drastic change in the employment market over the last few years. “In the past, if a student applied at four different companies, he or she usually received four job offers. Now, it may take twice as many interview's to get that same number of job offers," she said;_
Besides fewer jobs, graduating seniors are also faced with the problem of having to look for jobs sooner. "It used to take a couple of months for most seniors to be placed in a job," Slavin said. “Students now are finding out that they need at least three to six months, and sometimes longer, to locate a job."
Naturally, ways of coping with these depressed economic times vary from student to student. For some, having a degree has still not paid off. High unemployment levels have come to mean that it is time to enter graduate school or to begin another field of study altogether.
Dan de Brauwere is a 27-vear-old graduate student participating in the university's master of business administration program. In 1978, after receiving a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara, de Brauw'ere was interviewed
'Students . . . are finding out that they need at least three to six months ... to locate a job.'
at several banks. Although he believed that companies would be eager to hire him because he had a college education, de Brauwere instead found himself competing with people who had more experience in banking.
Encouraged by the fact that most record companies were enjoying banner years in the late 1970s, de Brauwere decided to get involved in the record industry instead and took a job at Polygram. "After a year and a half, I found that I had worked myself out of a job, in customer service, and that the record business was starting to feel the economic crunch," he said.
With this experience behind him, de Brauwere thought he would have more success in
the job market if he went back to school. Although he will graduate in May, de Brauw'ere still has not found a job in investment banking. His efforts have included researching investment and commercial banks, sending resumes to the top 20 investment firms such as Merrill
Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc., Paine Webber, and Smith Bamev Harris Upham and Co., Inc., and even financing a trip to New York in the hope that someone would hire him. Terry Peters, assistant director of the Career Services Center for the school of business, said it is necessary for students to leave Los Angeles. "New* York," Peters said, "is where all the major firms have their corporate finance departments."
De Brauwere attributes his dilemma to several factors. "My problem was that I didn't know' what I wanted to do until I went back to _(Continued on page 2)
32nd Street Market ruled unsanitary by local group
By Michael Molinski
Assistant City Editor
Allegations of spoiled meat, rotting vegetables, crowded aisles and general unsanitary conditions are the basis of recent criticism of the 32nd Street Market by a local community group.
Of 28 area markets the group inspected, "32nd Street Market was the worst on the list," said Melrose Hardy, one of the committee's inspectors. "Other markets had problems, but they weren't as bad. 32nd Street was just terrible."
On Saturday morning, Feb. 26, the market, where most students w’ho live in the university area shop, was paid a visit by more than 200 volunteer store inspectors (not accredited health officials) from the South Central Organizing Committee.
The church-based organization is in its fourth year of service in the area. It is concerned with the "betterment of the community,” said Loraine Watts, co-chairperson of the committee.
The findings of the supermarket investigations were released at the group's meeting Thursday.
Hardy said that the inspectors found rotten meat on the counters, boxes of goods blocking both the aisles and the exits, rotten produce on the counters and on the floor, and goods w'ith sale dates that expired months ago.
"The fish looked like I don't know' what," Hardv said. "The produce was bad, the melons
were bad, and the	nant." He said that he tried to
yams . . . when I touched one	get someone else to represent
my fingers just W'ent in it."	the market at the meeting but
She said that they also found	"with all the rain and stuff,
a package of lunch meat with	w'ho's gonna drive to Compton
an expiration date of last De-	(where the meeting was held)?
cember. The store violates both	"Because I didn't attend the
health and safety codes, she	meeting — that's why they're
said.	harassing me."
However, Morrie Notrica,	Notrica acknowledged that
owner of the the 32nd Street	there are some conditions in
Market, responded with bitter	the store that are not necessar-
criticism to the committee and	ily sanitary, but he said these
its allegations.	conditions can be found in any
"They're making demands	inner-city supermarket.
Of 28 area markets the group inspected, "32nd Street Market was the worst on the list," said Melrose Hardy, one of the committee's inspectors. "Other markets had problems, but they weren't as bad. 32nd Street was just terrible."
without knowing w'hat they're	Otherwise, he attacked each
talking about," he said. "This	of the allegations made by the
is one of the most modern	committee. The discoloration
stores in the inner-city."	on the fish, he said, can be
The South Central Organiz-	traced to a preservative, which
ing Committee invited the ac-	is used on all catfish. The yams
cused supermarket ow'ners to	had recently been put on the
its Thursday meeting with the	shelf, and there was one from
hope that market representa-	the bottom of the box that was
tives would be exposed to the	rotten. He attributed some of
findings and that they would	the cluttering of boxes to a re-
be encouraged to clean up their	organization of the meat de-
act, Watts said.	partment.
"I personally invited (No-	"When they say rotten meat,
trica)," she said. Notrica, how-	they got to bite their tongue
ever, did not attend the meet-	and step on their zipper," said
ing.	Mike Foley, meat manager of
"I would have liked to," No-	the market. "It's disheartening
trica said, "but my wife is preg-	(Continued on page 3)
Progress reported
on ombudsman post
By Sheldon Ito
Staff Writer
The administration is finalizing plans to create a university ombudsman who will serve as a representative for students who have legitimate gripes about the university.
The committee that was appointed to revise the ombudsman's job description will submit its recommendations soon to Cornelius Pings, senior vice president of academic affairs, said Tony Manos, undergraduate vice president of the student senate and a member of the committee.
The committee, made up of students, faculty and staff, agreed in a meeting last Friday that the two major functions of the ombudsman position would be to help solve problems of students, to identify problems in the university' system and make appropriate recommenda tions.
The ombudsman will help students solve their problems once they have filed a complaint with the university.
The position is designed to "relieve bottlenecks" and to "help the student work through systems that already exist," Manos said.
"If a problem still exists after going through the system and taking the appropriate steps, the student will go to the ombudsman," he added.
The recommendations must be approved by the committee members before they are submitted to Pings for final approval.
"The creation of an ombudsman, whose purpose is to assure that every student gets a 'fair shake’ at the university, was initiated by the student senate last year," said Peyton Fisher, a student senator and committee member.
However, the "lack of clarity" in the original job description caused Pings to appoint a committee to revise the document, said Janet Chaudhuri, staff assodate to Pings.
"The student view of the position w'asn't 100 percent in agreement with the (previous) job description," Chaudhuri said.
One of the major revisions recommended by the committee is for the ombudsman to be appointed by the president, be salaried through the office of the president and have the right to meet with any member of that office, including the president himself.
Previously, the ombudsman position was going to be connected with the provost's (Pings) office, but under that plan the ombudsman would have difficulty addressing both academic and non-academic issues, a duty the committee saw as a "must," Manos said.
"It would be better to (have the ombudsman) report to someone above Jon Strauss (senior vice president of administration) or Pings," Fisher said.
(Continued on page 3)