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Volume XCVII, Number 17	•	University of Southern California	Wednesday, September 26, 1984
Regulation of courses aids in major changes
By Stephen Lawson
News Editor
The Reasonable Degree Progress Guidelines, which regulate the number of general education, major and elective courses students take, have been amended to allow more students to change their majors.
Willie Wu, director of student athlete academics, said the guidelines, which athletes must follow to be eligible for National Collegiate Athletic Association competition, will now allow a student to begin a major program as a junior even if none of his previous units will count as general education or major requirements for the new major.
Previously, students were in violation of the guidelines if they began a major program in their third year without having taken at least half the general education and major courses for the new major.
Students will be required to take only general education and major courses, however, until they have made up for the required classes they missed.
Wu said he originally suggested the change — which was announced in a July 23 memorandum from Cornelius Pings, senior vice president of academic affairs and university provost — after he heard students were having trouble changing majors.
"What brought it to my attention was the Business School," Wu said. Since students cannot apply to the Business School until they have completed 44 units, he said, those who were rejected by the Business School could not enter other majors because required classes they had taken for business, such as Math 118, were considered electives by other schools.
The guidelines require that 60 percent of a student's first 72 units must count toward general education or major requirements, so these students were in violation of the guidelines, Wu said.
He added many transfer students from junior colleges had similar problems. These students may transfer from schools in which few of the general education courses fulfill requirements for degrees at this university.
"With this new amendment," Wu said, "they will not be violating progress requirements, provided all of their subsequent units are applicable to general education or major requirements.
"I think this is a reasonable thing, to protect students from violating the guidelines."
Janet Chaudhuri, assistant provost, said the amendment is an improvement.
"I think it adds strength to the guidelines," Chaudhuri said. "Our rules and regulations were making it. very difficult for an athlete to change a major."
Study on contraceptives ongoing
By Craig Hotti
Staff Writer
Having concluded that different types of contraception are equally effective, university medical researchers are now trying to determine which types are the most convenient for women to use.
Maria Lacarra, who is in charge of the Family Planning Clinic at the Los Angeles Coun-ty-USC Medical Center, said the four studies, which include research into birth control pills, vaginal rings, long-acting implants and intrauterine devices are proving successful.
"The purpose of the studies are to find forms of contraception which are more convenient for the woman," Lacarra said. "All the forms are equally successful at preventing conception."
Some women find it difficult to take birth control pills daily and others get nauseous because of the pills, Lacarra said. Others do not want to use implants or vaginal rings.
Lacarra said because of this the Medical School researchers are trying to improve different forms of contraception.
"The new IUDs, which are currently being tested, are made of copper which will allow them to remain in as long as 15 years," she said. "Current IUDs have to come out after eight years. The new ones will also cause less cramping and bleeding."
IUDs are inserted into the uterus to prevent conception.
Another type of contraception the clinic is testing is a long-act-ing implant placed in a woman's
arm that releases hormones that prevent conception.
"The implant remains in the woman for five years, and, after it is taken out, studies have shown that all the women can conceive children again," La-carra said.
Studies done on new types of birth control pills are designed to find pills which will release fewer hormones and consequently have fewer side effects on women.
Lacarra said vaginal rings are currently being used for three weeks at a time and have been shown to cause less nausea in women.
The four studies have more than a thousand women partici-
pating as subjects. Lacarra said all of the women are more than willing to participate.
"Most of the women come to us because they have tried other forms of contraception which for one reason or another doesn't seem to suit their needs," Lacarra said.
The participating women receive no compensation, but are given complete physicals when they first enter the program, and they receive free contraception for as long as they stay with the project.
Women participating in the study must be between the ages of 18 and 25, and must be in good health.
Health center incorporates sex education into services
By Rebecca Esquibel
Staff Writer
The Student Health Center has incorporated the Sexual Health and Reproductive Education clinic into its regular health services because too many students are using the service, making it difficult to see a doctor.
Dr. Ronald Mandel, associate medical director, said many patients were complaining because there was such a great demand for SHARE clinic services that people were forced to wait a long time to see a doctor.
Now that the clinic has been incorporated into the regular walk-in health service, more people can be seen, Mandel said. However, appointments can still be made if a student would like to see a particular practitioner. They will still have three outside gynecologists who come in weekly to back up the regular staff.
Mandel said one reason the SHARE clinic was overloaded is that campus doctors are seeing more and more problems with infertility in married students.
Although there is no longer a SHARE clinic, the health center will still offer the same services as the clinic, such as gynecological examinations, testing for venereal disease, contraceptive classes and meth-
(Continued on. page 6)
The guidebook to the fun of higher education
By Mark Gill
Lisa Bimbach's College Book, Ballantine Books, New York, 515 pages, $9.95
"Peer pressure at USC has more to do with material possessions than attitudes or behavior. 'Appearance is everything.' Students look good, dress well, and if the weather in Los Angeles is overcast or chilly, they take four-day weekends to Mexico to replenish their tans.”
So ends the section on this university in Lisa Bimbach’s College Book, 515 pages of lists and clever prose that fill a need long neglected. It really is, as the cover proclaims, "the first and only college guide to tell it like it is," or at least to outline the more sa-
dication of what campus life is like at that school you sent a transfer application to; as a general indication of how your life at the big university meshes (or doesn't) with what's happening at the rest of America's colleges; and for a good laugh. (Turn right to pages 44, 45 and 46, if you must, for several chuckles, or perhaps some outrage, over what Bimbach says about this university.)
College Book is even worthy reading for parents, as a dose of reality or to evoke a smile of nostalgic understanding. And alumni might get a laugh (or wi-sen up) after reading such things as "Rules for Returning
er's pithiness.
College Book is neither polyester shirt nor cashmere overcoat — just a light sweater appropriate for the elements.
Pop culture's seers and savants decided it is "hip" enough to merit 12 pages in a recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
And yet Bimbach doesn't subscribe to Playboy's "Sex on Campus” school of reporting (recopying bogus answers from questionnaires). There is a modicum of accuracy here.
Which is not to say College Book is infallible. "Be prepared to be surprised," Birnbach
writes. "This book should make you laugh, make you wince, get you excited and agitated ... If you disagree with what I've found or want to add your opinions, write in. I'd love to get your input for future updated editions." .
(Continued on page 11)
Book Review
lient aspects.
Lifestyle comes to the ivory tower. And it's speaking a language you won't hear from university relations people or read in their brochures (for reasons that range from being out of touch to outright fraud).
At first glance, College Book would seem best for high school students combing the Barrons guide and finding such hot tips as "percent of student body living in single-sex dormitories."
But it is in fact equally appropriate for students in college: As a map to the best pizza place and the popular bars for the next football road trip; as an in-
to Your Alma Mater, or How Not to Look Like a Desperado": "If you feel you must dress in your school's colors, try to do so only when attending football games. (It is hard to pretend that you're in town for business if you carry a pennant.)"
Bimbach is as good a fit as anyone for the subject. As the pioneer of the non-book rage (the Official Preppy Handbook begot the MBA Handbook which begot the Yuppie Handbook, ad nauseam), she is well equipped to entertain and inform a (generally) impatient audience — with a mixture of hyperbole, sardonic wit and an advertising copywrit-
Lisa Bimbach’s College Book strives to capture the spirit of college life nationwide — telling it like it is, so to speak.