Zumberge announces plans for academic improvement
Advisory council formed, budget process changed
By George Aguilar
Assistant City Editor
University President James Zumberge urged faculty members and administrators Saturday to continue the effort for academic excellence despite expected financial problems that will plague universities for the next decade.
The annual breakfast, held at Town and Gown for the university’s teachers, was filled with warnings of cuts in federal grants and tuition revenues for the university in the coming years. But Zumberge announced several steps aimed at minimizing effects.
Among those steps is the alteration of the budget process to allow for more
detailed account of university expenditures. Also, a new committee has been formed, the University Advisory Council, designed to increase the input by deans, professors, and administrators to formulate university policy.
He also disclosed formation of an academic plan by each department in hopes of putting the department “within the cutting edge of its field within the decade,” Zumberge said.
Keeping with the spirit of upgrading academics on campus this semester, Zumberge called on the faculty to “help design a model of excellence for USC that is not designed by analogy to some other university ... a model of excel-
lence consistent with the historical identity and strenghts of USC.”
The faculty of each department will be asked to assess their department's strengths, weaknesses and what the department needs to become a leader in its field. The deans and directors of each department will be asked to submit by Dec. 1 a plan to estimate where the department will be in one year, three years, and 10 years.
“We want to have a clear view of where USC will be heading in the next few years, with an eye to the explicit and implicit compacts we have made with this community, our alumni and our students,” Zumberge said.
The plans are necessary, Zumberge added, because of expected drastic cuts in federal aid by 1985, and the coming expected drop in student enrollments because of the decrease in the number of 18 year-olds in the country.
In recapping the past year, the president noted some pleasant surprises. The number of students enrolled this semester increased by one percent over last year, despite the predicted two percent dedline forecasted for this semester.
However, the added tuition revenue will likely be offset by the loss in research grants given to the university by
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Volume XCII, Number 20
(okfiHw trojan
University of Southern California
Monday, October 4, 1982
DEANS TO DECIDE FATE OF COURSES
CCE credit classes redistributed
By George Aguilar
Assistant City Editor
In an effort to integrate non-traditional students into traditional academics, the university has decided to disperse College of Continuing Education credit classes to other appropriate schools.
The changes will take effect in the summer session of 1983, at the earliest. CCE will continue to administer non-credit courses for students not offically enrolled in the university, according to Cornelius Pings, senior vice president for academic affairs.
Pings said Saturday that the change was necessary because of the increased number of professional people and part-time students who are expected to enroll in the university in the coming years. The shift will allow these students to study in schools with established faculties and facilities.
“We are embarking on a bold step,” Pings said. “We want to allow all of our continuing education academic units to parallel what full-time students receive.”
The action should not be taken as a reflection of the CCE’s work in the past, Pings said. In fact, he praised the college for enabling the credit courses to progress to a stage where they could be integrated into the university’s traditional schools.
CCE is the largest academic unit on campus and offers degree programs as well as academic credit and non-credit courses. During the past year, CCE conducted over 1,330 credit courses and 350 non-credit workshops, conferences, and courses, servicing over 9,000 students. The majority of those students are between the ages of 25 and 46.
Under the plan, the individual courses will be administered by the deans of appropriate col-
leges and schools. For example, the American Language Institute and the Institute of Politics and Government will likely be reassigned to the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences.
What effect the changes might have on extended education courses and their budgets remains to be seen. Pings said, adding that he will appoint special task groups to reassign the various courses and determine funding. Reports from these groups will be due before Dec. 1.
Pings hinted that the shift will also serve as a type of quality control. It will be up to the deans of individual schools to decide whether they will continue their new-found classes, he said. If a course is determined to be unnecessary, it will be dropped from the curriculum.
“Bascially it is a review of certain programs and it’s pushing more responsibilty to the deans of the academic units,” Pings said.
The planned shift should not be disruptive to the courses now being administered by CCE. Pings said. He added that if the changes go smoothly, there will be no apparent differences.
CCE completed a change of leadership Friday as Rosalind Loring left her position as dean to become associate provost for extended education, where she will serve as an adviser to Pings. Dr. Sherry May, director of the university’s summer session, will serve as acting dean until the position is filled.
CCE’s budget, currently $18 million, will be reduced to approximately $3 million next fiscal year, because of the loss of the credit courses. Pings said. The remaining funds will be distributed among the schools that absorb the extended education courses.
CCE will continue to provide marketing and registration for the courses. Pings said. It will also continue to recruit professional adults as students.
FUTURE ARCHEOLOGIST? — Adam Fliesher digs up soil samples at the foundation of the YWCA building. This is just one of many ways a student can spend time between classes.
BRIAN HENDERSON
University cancer center names interim director
By Jeannie Wong
Staff Writer
Brian Henderson, a chairman in the school of medicine and an associate director in the university’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, will become interim director of the center Oct. 11.
Henderson, chairman of the family and preventive medicine department of the school of medicine and associate director of epidemiology and biostatistics at the cancer center, will replace Richard O’Brien. O'Brien resigned to become dean of the school of medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.
Meanwhile, a search for a permanent director is underway. Henderson said that serious negotiations are commencing with at least two candidates.
“I am pleased and honored to take this responsibility,” Henderson said, adding that he is not interested in the opening.
“The director of the cancer center is a full-time position,” Henderson said. “We’re searching for someone more suitable than myself. I know that we are anxious to get a permanent director as soon as possible.”
As interim director. Henderson will be responsible for overall direction of the cancer center’s research activities as well as for the opening and operating of the hospital and any clinical facilities connected with it.
“It's a very exciting time because of the opening of the new Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Hospital and Research Institute. USC is one of the 20 comprehensive cancer rese	Titers in the
country.” Henderson said. “This new building is the focus of the cancer center.”
The $37-million Norris Hospital-Institute, located on the university’s Health Sciences campus, will primarily be a referral center for Southern California.
"We will treat people with unusual types of cancer who need special, very sophisticated equipment that we have (and) that community hospitals do not,” he added.
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