(sMly trojan
Volume XCVII, Number 25
University of Southern California
Monday, October 8, 1984
Salesmen pose as students
STEVEN CHURCH/DAJLY TROJAN
TODD BARRETT
BSU demands divestment of South African holdings
By Karen Castro
Assistant Qty Editor
Members of the Black Student Union are protesting USC's investment policies in South Africa, and have appealed to university President James Zumberge with a formal proposal for immediate university action.
Last October, following a trip to South Africa, Zumberge told the BSU he would be receptive to a written plan which called for appointing a student / faculty commission to study the issues. The BSU proposal suggests such a commission.
which calls for the formulation of a university commission to assess policies and actions toward South Africa.
The proposed commission would be made up of six students: two student senators, one BSU representative, one African Student Association member, one representative from the Graduate Students Association and one representative from the Pi Sigma Alpha honorary society.
The proposed commission also plans to include two faculty members from the Academic Senate, two members of the
The university is 'unequivocally opposed to the policy of .. . apartheid, existing in South Africa' . . .
University administrators recently rejected the proposal, however, "on the grounds that it did not come from the right governing body, meaning the Student Senate and Faculty Senate," said Todd Barrett, a member of the BSU.
"We mainly want to get the commission assembled and we want the trustees to be bound to respect the results and findings of the commission. We want to make sure our time isn't wasted, and find our input isn't accepted by the trustees," Barrett said.
He said the university's present policy has produced no meaningful change in attitude toward divesting from South Africa. The BSU condemns the investments because of South Africa's system of apartheid, the legal segregation of whites from non-whites.
Barrett, along with current BSU president Bernard Walker and International Student Association president Harouna Niang, drafted the proposal.
Board of Trustees, two other fa culty members and one admin istrator.
The two board members were included in the plan to encourage a harmonious relationship between university community members and the Board of Trustees, which has the ultimate say on all university policy decisions.
"The Board of Trustees has the final say in matters of the university; we would like the trustees to work with us instead of coming out from left field and voicing their opinion," Barrett said.
The purpose of the commission, according to the proposal, is to present detailed recommendations, based on analysis of a wide range of options to the president and trustees for their adoption.
In December 1981, the Student Senate passed a resolution which strongly suggested immediate and full divestment by the (Continued on page 4)
By Craig Hotti
Staff Writer
People claiming to be USC students have been selling magazine subscriptions in university housing for a number of years, but University Security has had no problems with the alleged impostors yet this year, said Dexter Thomas, a senior security officer.
The sales pitch varies. Sometimes the salespeople claim to be track team members who are raising money to meet travel expenses. Other times salesmen claim to be community residents who are raising money for a special program which will allow them to attend this university.
Whatever the pitch, the tactics are the same. The salesmen are fast-talking, pushy people who will not take "no" for an answer.
"Usually we will get a dozen or so complaints at a time. It is hard to tell how many we get a year, but usually they come in
sporadic intervals," Thomas said.
The university has a policy prohibiting non-university groups from soliciting on campus.
Some of the salespeople carry order forms from Summit Clearing House, a publishing company based in Houston, that legitimately sells subscriptions on campus. The company declined to comment about why some of its salespeople claim to be university students.
"Most of the people selling magazines on campus are legitimate, though a few just take your money and never give you the magazines," Thomas said.
When the solicitors are caught on campus, security officers ask them to leave, and if they do not comply with the request they can be arrested.
"These people are just dropped off in the area by their managers, with no money and no way of getting back to where
they are staying, so they are stuck here," Thomas said. "That's why they are so pushy; they've got nothing else to do except sell their magazines until they are picked up later in the day."
Thomas said University Security contacts the managers of these salespeople and gives them warnings. Usually after the second or third warning, the salespeople stop soliciting.
Carol Schmitz, assistant director of residential student development, remembered an incident two years ago, while she was living in Embassy Apartments on Portland Street, when she was approached by a salesperson.
"A girl selling these magazine subscriptions knocked on my door and claimed to be trying to earn money so she could go back to school," Schmitz said.
Schmitz let the girl in her apartment and told the girl she (Continued on page 4)
Rent now included on fee bills
By Aaron Van Curen
Staff Writer . ________ .	.	_	.	_
Residents of university-owned housing can no longer pay their rent at their complex office or at the Housing Services office, but now have their rent incorporated into their accounts at Financial Services.
Jean Miles, assistant manager of Housing Services, said all rent payments are now a part of students' fee bills, payable along with tuition and other first-of-the-year fees.
The only transactions now handled through Housing Services are the contract option payment and the first contract payment, because these charges are paid before the fee bills are issued, Miles said.
In the past, rent for university-owned apartments was due by the 10th of each month, and could be paid at the apartment complex office or at the Housing Collections office. If the rent was not paid by the 10th, students were assessed a $10 late fee.
Beginning this year, Miles said, apartment dwellers will receive a monthly bill for their housing charges.
These bills are mailed at the beginning of each month from the tuition audit department of Financial Services, and are accompanied by a return envelope, so that payment can be mailed. Payment can also be made in person at the Student Accounts Office.
Cerise Dragicevich, manager of tuition audit, said this billing process is nothing new. The housing charges have been incorporated into the student accounts receivable billings, through which students are billed for money owed from tuition deferment.
Under the system, a late fee is no longer assessed. However, students who owe rent will not be permitted to enroll for the next semester until their charges are cleared.
Dormitory residents have ex-
perienced no major change from last year's procedures. Miles said dormitory charges were included on students' fee bills last year, as the first phase of this program.
Miles said the change will simplify the check-in process at the beginning of the year.
Before the change, all housing charges had to be paid, and fee bills had to cleared before a student could move into his room.
In previous years, Miles said, students would show up at the university on check-in day, and then be forced to tote their luggage around and wait in line several hours to pay various
charges before they could check in.
Now students are able to check in when they arrive, and pay their fee bills at their convenience. Miles said it "helps to avoid the first-day hassle."
The change was effected with little difficulty, Miles said. The only problems occur when "people come in here to pay their rent, and are unhappy when we have to send them across campus (to Financial Services)," Miles said.
Although the office no longer handles monthly rent payments, Miles said she expects no immediate cutbacks in the Housing Services office.
Research sponsors face 8 percent cost increase
By Maria Villarreal
Staff Writer
Prospective sponsors of university research projects will be confronted with footing 61 percent of indirect costs for on-campus projects, an 8 percent increase over last year.
The rate is the ratio of indirect costs to modified total direct costs for federal contracts and grants. Indirect cost rates include utilities, administrative costs, mailing services and student aid.
Direct costs include salaries and fringe benefits, and travel and computing costs. The modified total direct costs consist of the total direct costs minus equipment, subcontracts over $25,000, and patient care.
In an Aug. 7 memorandum, Jon Strauss, senior vice president of administration, explained the reason for the 1984-85 rate.
"After operating for the complete 1983-84 fiscal year with provisional indirect cost rates and after being threatened by our cognizant auditor with having these rates reduced retroactively by more than 25 percent, we have succeeded in negotiating the provisional rates to be fixed at the same level we employed last year," the memo stated.
A rate of 61 percent was agreed upon, although the federal audit would have supported a 68.6 percent indirect cost rate for fiscal year 1984-85, according to the memorandum. Some researchers have said the eight point jump in the indirect cost rate is too high. They feared they would not be able to attract sponsors and compete with other universities for contracts and grants.
Administrators pointed to the rates of other colleges to further justify the rates. Stanford University, at 69 percent; Yale University, 68 percent; and Johns Hopkins University, 64 percent, were cited as "peer institutions."
(Continued on page 4)