dki% trojan
Volume C, Number 38
University of Southern California
Thursday, March 6, 1986
Harris Plaza residents moved
Kerchkoff chosen as new home for program
BRUCE LE/DAILY TROJAN
Korean Dancers in front of Tommy Trojan take part in yesterday’s Asian culture exhibition. ______
By Matthew Gaven
Staff Writer
Housing officials have agreed to allow most residents of Harris Plaza to move to Kerckhoff Apartments when their building is closed at the end of this semester, ending a month of controversy.
The Office of Housing and Residence Halls had planned to move the Harris residents to Centennial Apartments, a plan that did not sit well with mam' of them.
The office distributed a memo, on Feb. 6, announcing that Harris Plaza would be closed because it does not meet safety standards.
"The decision to close Harris Plaza came from a higher level. . .the Board of Trustees," said David Blackmar, assistant director of Housing and Residence Halls, in an interview on Feb. 10. "The reason that was given to me was that the building does not meet seismic safety standards."
Many of Harris' residents are involved in the building's Self-Directed Housing program. The program, a product of the mid-1970s, gives students more residential responsibilities than their peers in the housing system.
When the closing w'as announced, the residents were offered the opportunity to move as a collective group to Centennial Apartments to preserve the program.
Stacey Gong-Wong, president of the Harris Plaza Self-Directed Program, said last month, "We don't find (Centennial) conducive to our program. There are
William Thompson, director of Housing and Residence Halls, said that if the Harris residents freely chose Kerckhoff over Centennial, his office would comply.
problems with transportation to the area. . .and the security factor."
Last week, Harris residents staged a demonstration to protest the decision to close the building. They hoped the university would reverse the decision, but this was not to be.
Student Senator Larry Hroch, a Harris resident, said the residents met to discuss the options open to them and said that if they were to move, Kerckhoff
Apartments would be a more suitable location.
"We took a survey and found out a greater number of people preferred Kerckhoff to Center* nial," he said. "There are mixec emotions, but 1 think fhey are more satisfied ^hari it they were onlv offered Centennial/' he added.
William Thompson, director of Housing and Residence Halls, said that if the Harris residents freely chose Kerckhoff over Centennial, his office would comply.
One of the questions raised by Harris occupants during their discussions with housing officials was whether the low rents they were paying at Harris would be maintained at the new location.
The lowest rental rate in Harris is for a double room without a bathroom. The occupants pay $154 per month, including utilities. The highest rate is for a large double room with a bathroom and a kitchen for S238 per occupant with utilities included.
Thompson said Harris residents who move to Kerckhoff "wrill be paying the same rents that anyone else living in Kerckhoff pays," which are higher than the old Harris rates and do not include utilities.
New policies set to help students in special classes
Senate sponsors advertisement of pro-choice group
By Marci Kenon
Staff Writer
To alleviate confusion in the using of 390 (Special Problems) and 490 (Directed Research) courses, the Undergraduate Studies Committee has adopted new policies for both courses that are effective starting in Fall Semester 1986, said Janet Chaudhuri, assistant vice provost.
"Inquiry' has been going on for a couple of years," Chaudhuri said, adding that the Academic Standards Commission (ASCOM) began the process, which was recently finalized by the superceding group, the Committee on Academic Policies and Procedures.
An increasing number of incorrect petitions to take 490 courses led ASCOM to investigate, according to the provost's office.
It discovered that students and their faculty advisers were petitioning to take 490 courses when they realized they needed to take a few more units in order to graduate on time, Chaudhuri said.
However, it is the 390 courses that are designed to provide seniors with the one to four units needed in emergency cases, Chaudhuri said.
Such cases arise when students receive their degree check results in the spring of their senior year and realize they need one or two extra units to graduate on time, Chaudhuri said.
Chaudhuri said transfer students also sometimes discover they need more units when the credits from their other school have been evaluated.
Courses numbered 490 do not serve this purpose as some at the university have assumed, Chaudhuri said. Instead, 490 courses are a chance for students "with evidence of superior academic performance" to do independent research in their majors and minors, she added.
(Continued on page 6)
Scott Webber, secretary general of the International Association of University Students, presents Student Senate President Pauline Ng with a plaque recognizing USC for being the founding chapter of the association.
Leaders educate other college students at national seminar
By Tania Soussan
Staff Writer
Four members of the Student Senate went to Ohio State University last week to represent the university in an intercollegiate conference and "impressed the socks off their feet/' said Pauline Ng, president of the Student Senate.
Wally Bobkiew'icz, chairman of the senate's Academic Affairs Rea search / Action Unit; Denise Guerrero, a graduate senator; Danielle Torres, co-chairman of the Council of Presidents; and Ng attended the eighth annual conference of the American Association of University Students (AAUS), which centered on the
theme "Creating, Communicating and Connecting/'
They embarked on a "five-day journey into the realm of student affairs," attending workshops and lectures by people associated with higher education nationwide, according to a letter from AAUS President Mark Koide.
Ng accepted a plaque awarded to the university for its role as the founding chapter of the International Association of University Students in August, 1985.
Bobkiewicz was invited to lead a workshop on "Student's Role in University Governance," examining the history and (Continued on page 3)
By Roseanne Tellez
Assistant City Editor
Following a brief debate, the Student Senate voted last night to provide advertising funds to a student organization that wants to publicize the National March for Women's Lives in the Daily Trojan.
The measure provides USC Students for Choice, a group that advocates the right of women to obtain abortions, with the senate's full "endorsement and support," and $50 to place the ad.
The resolution says "This march is being organized to make a strong public statement that the majority of Americans support accessible birth control and the freedom to choose when to parent. These rights should not be infringed because citizens have been silent."
Bill Fisher, a residence hall senator, said it might not be the senate's responsibility to take a stand on an issue this controversial.
But Bill Townsend, the senator who wrote and sponsored the resolution, said that a measure the senate approved last week that urges the university to divest ' companies that profit from apartheid in South Africa was just as controversial.
He also said that divestment in South Africa probably is not as important to students as abortion questions, since students are more directly affected by them.
"The senate has to take stands on these issues," he said.
"But there's a difference between investments and morality and the question of when life starts," said Phil Clement, a residence hall senator.
Fisher said he was still reluctant to speak for every student in residence halls, since many probably do not support pro-choice.
(Continued on page 6)