Low student, faculty interest in Idyllwild
This is the second in a series of reports about the condition and future of the university's fine arts school in the San Jacinto Mountains.
By Belma Johnson
Investigations Editor
Idyllwild and university officials now face the tough question of how to make the fine arts school — which offers no collegiate courses — attractive to university students and faculty.
The administrators are trying to decide if the university should withdraw its support for the school in the San Jacinto Mountains, ending a 19-vear deal which has cost hundreds, of thousands of dollars and threatens to costs much more.
One of the university's primary gripes is that main- campus students do not gain much from the school or have much interest in it.
The question the officials face is this: Can university students be made interested? Some say it can be done, others say it should not be done. That is the problem — disagreement.
"It probably would not be in their interest to save it," said Pat Clark, the school's interim director. But she said that, with a few changes, students may be wooed to the picturesque campus.
For now, the problem is money. Idyllwild operates at an 582,000 deficit despite a university subsidy of about S125,000.
Those costs do not include thousands of dollars in fringe benefits and university overhead costs to run the school.
The other money problem is tuition. Tuition fees at Idyllwild are separate from university fees. "How do we make them pay for both places?" Clark asked.
She has some answers to that question, however.
For instance, she suggests that students use Idyllwild as a quiet place to study. But Idyllwild is 150 miles southeast of the main campus.
Jon Strauss, senior vice president for administration, said he doubts students would ever travel that far to relax — especially not if they have to pay for travel, lodging, board and tuition to do it.
William Thomson, interim dean of performing arts, oversees about 12 university faculty members who also teach at Idyllwild. Students in his school are also the most likely main-campus students to use the facility.
Although he is not involved in the negotiations to save or sever the Idvllwild contract, he too said he doubted students would drive so far to study.
However, Clark has a possible solution to the problem. She suggests changing the school's curricula, somewhat.
For instance, architecture students could study solar energy technology better on the open mountain terrain than in the main campus' urban environment.
Geology students could use Idyllwild as a laboratory: "Where can you go (in Los Angeles) to find a rock to study?" she asked.
Botany students could explore the high desert or the mountains or any of the four growth zones around Idyllwild.
But the performing arts dean said he hopes the school survives unchanged Thomson said faculty members who teach and students who work as staff members there represent universitv interest in the school.
He also said he doubts the school could develop fruitful college curricula.
"It's reallv for younger than college-age students," Thomson said. "I think it should remain as it has been."
He said the "enormous amount of space and the enormous amount of equipment" it takes to teach collegiate artists would make the change impossible.
Thomson said construction costs for ne<v dorms, costs for pianos or cinema equipment, for instance, would make it too expensive for Idyllwild.
He said he has told Strauss he believes Idyllwild is a worthwhile commitment — for instance, for recruitment. He could not say how many students came to the university because of Idyllwild, but he did say some students here once attended there.
Idyllwild also has problems attracting some university instructors
(Continued on page 12)
Police arrest student for alleged assault
By Michael Molinski
Assistant Gty Editor
Kenneth Tait, a university student, has been arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly tried to run down a University Security officer with his pick-up truck Friday.
Tait, 20, was released on 511,000 bail from Southwest Jail in Los Angeles, an officer said.
Officer Steve Pryor was not injured in the assault which occured after he caught Tait stealing the handlebars from a bicycle in front of the EVK dormitory after he was notified of the theft by two female students. They reported it to Pryor, who was at the location investigating another incident.
The students pointed out Tait, a political science major, who was loading the handlebars into the back of the truck, which was parked in front of EVK. He was accompanied bv another student. Pryor then approached the truck to investigate. Tait reportedly hopped in his car and sped toward Pryor.
"I had to dive out of the way to keep from being killed," Pryor said.
The officer then jumped into his security car and chased Tait off university7 property.
Helicopters were dispatched by LAPD to join in the search, but they arrived after Tait had already been caught.
"There is no way anyone could say that this was an accident," Pryor said. "He righteously tried to do me in."
trojan
Volume XCIII, Number 43	University of Southern California	Tuesday, March 15, 1983
Senators take hard line on Coliseum seat issue
By Mark Lowe
Staff Writer
Student representives told the administration Monday that they will not compromise in the conflict over the university's plan to transfer prime Coliseum football seats from students to spedal alumni donors.
"I've been told to say no," said senate president Dan Dunmoyer. "The only compromise acceptable to us was to move the student seats 4.7 yards, which (university’ representatives) said was impossible."
Senate members met with senior vice president Jon Strauss and alumni spokespersons to debate the administration's proposal to give student seats on the 50-yard line to spedal university donors and move the student section down 20 y'ards, after the Coliseum gridiron is shifted 4.7 yards to the east.
"This means that approximately 55 percent of the students will be in the end zone or further back," Dunmoyer said. "Over 65 percent of the seats will be at the 10-yard line or back.
"So the chance of finding a seat between the 20- and 35- yard line will be about two out of
11," he said, adding that the chance of finding such a seat now is about two out of five.
"That's quite a change," he said.
Dunmoyer said he also opposes the plan because all other Pac-10 schools give their students 50-vard-line seats, and the plan could damage the traditionally overwhelming student support for football.
"All students want to feel like they're a part of the game," Dunmoyer said. "The farther and farther away from the game a student gets, the less he feels a part of it."
But Strauss said that a change has to occur after the field is moved because of "finandal and political" reasons.
"There's a growing pressure to increase the seats for alumni," Strauss said. "That would generally’ be at the expense of the students."
Strauss said that, though both groups have an interest in the university and in football, the number of alumni increases about 4,000 each year, while the number of students remains fairly constant.
"Suppose you're an alumnus and you give 52,500 a year. We will allow you to buy four good seats," Strauss said. "But right now, those good seats are in the end zone."
He added that alumni think they’ deserve more than this, and the university's problem is that "there are more and more of them" than there (Continued on page 14)
Ather Ali/Daily Trojan
In the student senate meeting student representatives told the administration that they will not compromise on the issue of new seating for students in the Coliseum.
Administration divided over
campus green space issue
By Sheldon Ito
Staff Writer
The lack of campus green space — grassy areas made available for recreation and intramural activities — has been a problem this semester that has been acknowledged by both students and administrators. But a solution may take some time, because almost every proposal to solve the problem has been determined to be either impractical or too expensive.
The effect of the shortage of intramural areas is evidenced by the ragged condition of Cromwell Field, which has borne the brunt of the lack of green space.
On a typical day hundreds of students compete for space on
Cromwell Field — on what is now essentially dead or dying grass. From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. students playing everything from football to softball to lacrosse are on Cromwell. Because of the heavy traffic, grounds crews have been unable to maintain the field properly, said Burl Middendorf, supervisor of landscape and grounds services.
"No grass can survive constant use, and because of our limited space, we (Cromwell Field) have constant use," Middendorf said in January’. "We have to keep scheduling one event after another because of our limited fields, and Cromwell has no time to recuperate."
The university's lack of green
space has long been a primary concern of the student senate, but the destruction of the old intramural field last year in favor of the Oh'mpic swimming complex brought the issue to the forefront.
Last November, the student senate submitted a number of proposals that would increase the amount of green space on campus, and in December they received assurances from Anthony Lazzaro, vice president of business affairs, that the administration would seriously consider the proposals.
"The need for green space in an urban campus is essential," Lazzaro said. "I think it has to have a high priority on this campus."
(Continued on page 2)