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Volume XCV, Number 29
University of Southern California
Friday, February 17, 1984
Senior honor society surprises professor with service award
By Karen Kucher
City Writer
Moments after William Weber administered a midterm exam to his graduate chemistry students Thrusday morning, he was presented with the Outstanding Professor Award by 12 robed members of the Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society.
“It was a very unexpected award," said Weber, who has been a professor of chemistry with the university for 16 years.
His wife, Heather Weber, who is a researcher in the university's cellular molecular department, is over nine months pregnant.
"It was pretty funny. We wanted his wife to be there, so we called her the day before. She was very excited about it (the award), but couldn't come because she is expecting any day now," said Mortar Board member Cathie Gantner.
Gantner, a senior majoring in psychology, had previously taken Weber's organic chemstry class.
Regarding the graduate students who were interrupted by the presentation, Gantner said,
"Maybe it took some pressure off of them."
"Mortar Board holds as its ideals excellence in scholarship, leadership and service. Because you make such outstanding contributions to these three areas, we honor you today," Gantner said, as she presented the award to the surprised professor.
. Susan Sandstrom, Mortar Board president, said the professors are selected for the Outstanding Professor Awards through a structured process.
"The professors are first named through nominations within current members of Mortar Board," said Sandstrom, who is majoring in French and international relations.
Often the students have had the professor, and feel he is an outstanding teacher, because he gives students extra help or encouragement, Sandstrom said.
"We try to pick a strong candidate for the award," she added.
The board then runs a series of investigations, checking through the departments and asking the opinions of other students. The board even looks at the professor's resume if possible, Sandstrom said.
The university's national chapter, Torch and Tassel, is made up of seniors who have at least a 3.3 GPA.
Sandstrom said that references were helpful when applying to the society.
The society has selected one other professor for this award this year, Dallas Willard, a pro-(Continued on page 2)
Student raise in
By Joann Galardy
City Editor
The Student Senate is expected to vote next week on a proposal to raise the student programming fee by 28.5 percent for the 1984-85 academic year — an increase of $4 per semester, said Steve Mandala, Row senator and executive assistant to the president.
If approved, students will have, pay $18 a semester instead of the 514 which had previously been added to fee-bills each semester.
Mandala admitted that it is usually the senate's job to oppose increases in student fees, rather than propose them, but added that he felt this increase is necessary and will benefit students in the long run.
"We (the senate) are not really thrilled about propos-
senator proposes programming fee
ing the increase, but it is necessary," Mandala said.
He added that while the senate has proposed a 28.5 percent increase, there has been a 55 percent decrease in the senate's buying power.
He explained the proposal to the senate at this week's meeting, and said there did not seem to be any opposition to the proposal.
If the senate votes to approve the plan, Mandala said it will then be up to James Dennis, vice president of student affairs, to make recommendations to the senate.
Because this is the first increase in the student programming fee in at least five years, Mandala said the senate is not yet sure who will have final approval of the increase.
He said final approval could be the responsibility of
either Jon Strauss, senior vice president of administration, or John Curry, executive direct or‘of the university budget.
Both Barry Nelson, programming coordinator, and Nadine Felix, director of the Topping Student Center, who usually have some say in how programming funds are spent, admitted knowing little about the proposal in its early stages.
"The plan has basically come from the students," Nelson said.
Mandala said the increase, based on an enrollment of
21,200 students, will raise the budget from $593,600 to $763,200, an increase of $169,600.
Mandala said students can expect to gain two things from the Programming (Continued on page^T)
Politician analyzes media coverage
By Sonia Saruba
City Writer
"There should be a symbolic relationship between the politician and the press; there must be healthy skepticism on both sides," said Congressman Silvio Conte (R-Mass.) when discussing the effects of the media on politics and legislation in Washington, D.C.
Addressing the political science class "Mass Media and Politics," earlier this week, the congressman examined his own relationship with the media, as well as the feelings of other politicians about journalists.
Conte, who was first elected in 1958 and is presently the ranking minority member on the House Appropriations Committee, added that his dealings
with the media have always been good.
Conte went on to say that the politician's “bread and butter" is based on public awareness of his or her activities.
He proposed that members of the media observe both him and other politicians at work before writing or interpreting anything about how they do their jobs. He stressed that politicians and the media should "not be adversaries."
"The press should be impartial, unbiased, and no one should know how they vote," Conte said.
"We all agree that a free press is a necessity in a democracy," he noted, adding that without it a government cannot perform its job.
Conte contrasted the press of 10 to 20 years ago with the press
of today, saying that today's press "seems to go out of its way to present controversy, especially the Washington me-
dia."
Reporters are reduced to quoting each other on slow days, he said, adding that this is one of the reasons he calls today's press "the world's largest system of recycling garbage."
Conte said that television has had quite an effect on politics. The media emphasizes "appearance over reality, form over substance and has elevated new figures to sudden stardom," he explained.
"Watergate has influenced the way the media does its job," Conte said. "We have seen the
emergence of the reporter as an antagonist."
Television has changed the image of the reporter into someone petty and cynical, he said.
"Maybe the media has gone too far," he noted.
He cited that since 1976, journalists have lost over 85 percent of the cases in which they have been sued for libel. In 24 of these, the awards were over $1 million.
The confidence the American public has in the press has decreased from 29 percent in 1976 to 13.7 percent in 1983, he added.
By focusing on the negative, the press is missing the boat, Conte said.
VIOLET HAMILTON
Patricia Powers who painted a surrealist view of a horse in “Chivalry," is just one of the 29 artists featured in the current exhibit at Fisher Galleries, called Ceci n est pas le surrealisme — California: Idioms of Surrealism.
29 California artists featured in exhibit
By Dan Janeck
News Editor
In an exhibition of surrealist art at Fisher Galleries, the images are not what they seem to be. From the computer graphics representation of the Christ-figure by Bobby Ross to the miniaturized men in boats sailing in kitchen and bathroom sinks by Doug Webb, the frequent use of dream images permeates the exhibit.
It is the dream image, plus automatism — or the depiction of abstract configurations that take on human or animal charcteristics — that characterize the surreal, as stated by the original manifestos for the movement by Andre Breton in Europe in the 1920s.
In California, similar movements developed.
"California has always been identified as a manufacturer of dreams. This characteristic has provided a fertile ground for an outgrowth of surrealism in California,'' said Marie de Alcuaz, curator for Fisher Galleries. An exhibition centered on this development is on view at Fisher, called Ceci n'est pas le surrealisme — California: Idioms of Surrealism.	y
The exhibit, which opened Jan. 21, continues until Feb. 24.
The show is divided into two segments: the historical aspect, which is in the center gallery, and the contemporary exhibition in the eastern wing of the Fisher building.
Included in the exhibit are such seminal surrealist artists as Stanley William Havter, Lee Mullican and Gordon Onslow-Ford. Michael McMillen, Tom Stanton and Joyce Treiman are included in the contemporary segment.
W’ithin California, the surrealist idea evolved into the camps of Dvnaton and post-surrealism.
(Continued on page 8)