Volume XCII, Number 27
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University of Southern California
Wednesday, October 13, 1982
MINORITIES IN HIGH POSTS CONSPICUOUSLY ABSENT
Affirmative action: reforms cited, criticisms persist
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While not as dramatic, there have been increases in the number of women and minority faculty members.
Currently, almost 10 percent of the faculty is made up of Hispanics, blacks, Asians and American Indians. In contrast, the percentage of minorities on the faculty was 6.6 percent in 1970.
Women now make up 16 percent of faculty members on campus. In 1970, the figure was 11 percent.
In the University of California system, the percentage of minority and women representation almost never topped the university’s numbers.
Lack of Minorities
Yet. numbers do not tell the entire story. Minority representatives on campus are alarmed at w'hat thev see as a
serious lack of minorities and women on the faculty. Blacks, for example, comprise less than 2 percent of the 1.359 faculty members on campus.
University administrators admit to a serious absence of minorities and women in high-ranking administrative posi-tons. Pamela Porter, director of Black Student Services, worries about the ability of minorities and women to move up in the ranks of the administration hierarchy after being hired.
Affirmative action even falls short in student enrollment. The 25 percent who are minorities is less than the 33 percent “rule of thumb." that Porter says is needed in institutions of higher education.
These deficiencies are not being ignored by the university. President James Zumberge is expected to announce in the (Continued on page 6)
BSU says it will not push for ex-BSS leader’s return
By Belma Johnson
Staff Writer
For the first time since Pamela Porter’s appointment to heaH Black Student Services, the Black Student Union denied that its attacks on her are designed to lead to the reinstatement of former BSS leader Bobbie Rodgers.
For the past year, BSU members have blamed Porter for the termination of Rodgers.
“Rodgers received a raw deal. Rodgers was made an example,” BSU co-chairman Ronnie Martin said.
He added that although it sympathizes with her, the BSU does not endorse Rodgers as a possible replacement for Porter because such support could be misinterpreted.
Martin said observers may think the BSU is protesting the director simply to bring back Rodgers. The group wants Porter out because of her record, he insisted.
“She’s producing programs and nobody is attending them. In our opinion the money being spent to put these programs on is being wasted,” Martin said.
He said that her programs are unappealing to most students and are held at inconvenient times.
“Nobody’s going to go to something at 5:30 or 6:30 (p.m.),” he said.
The renewed protests by the BSU against Porter are aimed to coincide writh the her first anniversary on the job.
Martin said the organization will maintain its “continuous celebration” of Porter’s anniversary until it feels enough attention is drawn to its complaints.
He said that the BSU plans to publicly demonstrate against Porter on Homecoming Day, Oct. 23, to commemorate Porter’s anniversary'. She first headed BSS on Oct. 21, 1981.
The BSU circulated a flier Tuesday that lists 10 complaints about her first-vear's performance.
The complaints vary from Porter’s alleged firing of Rodgers to claims that Porter did not attend black student social functions.
Porter was unavailable for comment.
Martin said he made an appointment for himself and a group of 23 students, including BSU members, to see Porter on Monday.
But when they showed up at her office, she would not see them, reportedly stating that she did not know about the appointment, he said.
Martin said Porter suggested that the students reschedule the meeting through her secretary. He said the group has not done that because it is difficult to coordinate the group's schedules.
The group planned to tell Porter it wanted her to quit her job, Martin said.
Martin repeated often that the latest campaign against Porter is expected to involve the entire university, not just black students.
“Let's move it beyond 'black'. We’re talking about an administrator who does not service the needs of the students,” Martin said.
“We do not want (the issue) to be isolated. We have a fee bill too. Why should we pay so much to be treated so bad?
“Don’t use our blackness against us. We are students who happen to be black. Take the black out of it. We want everybody on this campus to know that we have a problem.”
He said the BSU would be willing to work with the newly appointed associate director of BSS, Gary Channer, but only after Porter is removed.
By George Aguilar
Assistant City Editor
Affirmative action practices at the university have improved immensely in the past decade, university administrators will tell you. But the dissenters are many and even the university’s affirmative action administrators, while proud of their record, will agree on the need for continued improvement.
For a variety of reasons, the issue of affirmative action hir-
ing practices has become increasingly visible this semester. The university is currently experiencing a significant increase in the frequency of grievances and legal actions against it because of affirmative action violations, according to a university memo.
Yet, the records show that the university has increased its minority representation in its employment ranks from 21 percent in 1970 to 31 percent in 1981, according to data from
the office of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity here on campus. Those statistics compare the university favorably against the University of California system, presumed to be a leader in affirmative action practices.
The minority student enrollment here is up from 18 percent to 25 percent in the last decade. There is an increase in the percentage of women students on campus, from 35 to 42 percent during the same pe-
Cinema center work begins
1984 completion date slated
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Photo by Steve Wright
HOME OF THE STARS?—A small scale model of the new Cinema-Television Center features the George Lucas Instructional Building, Carson Television Center and the Steven Spielberg Music Scoring Stage. The complex will be located across from the Student Health Center. The building's namesakes each donated money to the construction of the facility.
The university began construction on its new five-building Cinema-Television Center on Monday — a structure scheduled to be completed by June. 1984.
Construction was originally scheduled to begin the last of this month.
Authorization for construction was based upon a fund-raising campaign which, to date, has raised S12 million of the S15 million estimated project cost.
Brad Calhoun, director of development of the school of performing arts, said the university is fortunate to have started construction on the complex tbis earlv. The univsr.siH. he said, gave its consent to start construction when it saw that the cineina-television division could support the costs without tapping into general university lunds.
Calhoun credited George Lucas's S4.7 million contribution, made in November of 1980 to go toward an instructional building and a post production building, as having set a healthy precedent for fund raising for the complex. “When people like Lucas. (Johnny) Carson and (Steven) Spielberg give money, it lends more credibility to the school. People want to be identified with winners." Calhoun said.
Major financial contributors toward the center include Spielberg's donation of S500.000.
to be used toward a music scoring stage, and lohnny and Joanna Carson's Si million donation. to be used to construct a television center.
The complex will be composed of the George Lucas Instructional Building, the Marcia Lucas Post Production Building, the Steven Spielberg Music Scoring Stage, the Carson Television Center anti the Harold Lloyd Motion Picture Sound Stage.
The studio complex will be located in the north-central portion of the campus.
The new i omplex was planned and developed by the architectural firm of A Quin< v (ones and Associates. Int .. in consultation with cinema faculty and university planners.
The Cinema-Television Center represents a new direction in facilities for film and telev ision education: The concept evolved from a single massive high-rise building to a group of smaller, more comfortably scaled buildings clustered around a garden patio. It is hoped that the center will recapture the informal creative atmosphere ol a 1930s Hollywood motion picture studio.
Remaining funding requirements include S2 million in project costs, and an additional Si million to meet equipment requirements. Fund raising will continue through 1984.
(Continued on page 3)
POOR ORIGINAL