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Volume XCIX, Number 18
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University of Southern California
Thursday, September 26, 1985
Goal is academic balance
Group fights bias
By Frank Buckley
Staff Writer
Accuracy in Academia (AIA), a recently formed conservative group, has begun efforts to have students "report" professors who aren't providing "academic balance" in the classroom, the executive director of the organization said.
The new group's purpose will be to fight "a lack of balance, especially in the social sciences" in university discussions around the country, said Les Csorba, the executive director. The group is an extension of former Federal Reserve Board official Reed Irvine's Accuracy in Media (AIM).
Though Csorba said the organization is concerned with professors whose teaching is too far to the "left, right, or center," the organization is particularly concerned with what he called a "growing Marxist academic movement."
"What we want students to do is participate in the classroom," and "be able to put grades aside and challenge professors who aren't presenting things as fairly as possible," Csorba said.
However, Thomas Greene, a university political science professor, said he thinks the organization is simply a watchdog group acting as an extension of "periodic expressions of radical right opinion."
"This movement is reflecting an external movement that is predicated on actually influencing academia in a biased way under the ruse of balance and accuracy," said Henry Slucki, head of the university chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which is a leading opponent of AIA.
Slucki also warned that the monitoring of political biases in the classroom by outside groups is dangerous.
Csorba, 22, said AIA will help students who feel their professors only tell one side of an issue or teach only one ideology as correct. Mailings will soon go out to groups to make them aware oc what AIA is all about, and encourage students to call or write the group, explaining their personal situations, he said.
If it's a complaint about a professor, a member of AIA would then call the instructor to confirm information received by the group is accurate. This would allow the instructor to tell his point of view, Csorba said.
"We would urge the professor to see if he can't provide more of a balance," Csorba said, suggesting guest speakers as one way to achieve balance.
After talking to the professor, Csorba said AIA would decide whether or not to write about the incident in its monthly newsletter. The director said he has already received nearly 500 letters and phone calls from dissatisfied students.
"One University of Maryland student said a professor was saying there's more injustice in the United States today than thare was in Nazi Germany," Csorba said. "I called the professor to verify it and he explained that the sexism, racism, and bigotry in America today is equal to the injustices in Nazi Germany. We may print that."
AIA is also concerned with speakers who appear on college campuses. Csorba said, "If a university is going to
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MILLER PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES Tommy Trojan was the place, last Saturday (before the Baylor game) the time for the celebration President Zumberge promised alumni if they met the Irvine challenge.
Irvine Challenge is a success
$6.8 million collected
By Stacy Sadowski
Staff Writer
President James Zumberge promised alumni a big celebration last March if the Irvine Challenge was met, and success was celebrated Saturday after a total of $6.8 million in donations was collected over three years, said Richard Nordin, director of annual giving and alumni relations.
The James Irvine Alumni Incentive Grant was offered to the university in 1982 after alumni had donated $4.5 million that year. The grant, which was contingent upon a $2 million total increase over the next three years, has been collected partially each year.
"Almost 50 percent of the grant was done in the last year," Nordin said. "That isn't unusual, we all respond to deadlines."
The pre-game celebration for alumni Saturday included a box-lunch picnic and a group photograph in front of Tommy Trojan, which will be available as a color poster Several thousand donors accepted the half-price football tickets offered to them by the uni-
versity, Nordin said.
Fireworks exploded during halftime at the Baylor game as the Trojan Marching Band spelled out, "Irvine," to honor the alumni achievement.
Because donors can designate the way their funds will be allocated, there was a specific anchor group each year, Nordin explained.
During the first year funds came from the academic support groups. Telephoning and mailing were used the second year, and the last year athletics did a "bang-up job, collecting $920,000," Nordin said.
The grant has certain specifications for matching dollars, which are dependent on the donor's year of graduation, Nordin said.
"Established alums — those attending USC prior to 1967 — have contributed the most in past years, so the grant only offers 50c to their dollar," Nordin said.
Recent alumni donations are matched dollar for dollar by the grant, Nordin added.
"This was the target group...they increased their giving by 112 percent," he said.
University uses satellite dishes for learning
By Eric Di Giovanni
Staff Writer
A satellite dish recently placed atop Heritage Hall t	is	the	latest	in	a series of advanced
telecommunications devices that the university is using to enhance its learning capabilities. Dishes pointed toward the sky, listening for the ^signal of distantly orbiting satellites, can now be seen in at least four locations around campus.
Jim Hefner, assistant director of athletics, said that the dish atop Heritage Hall will help the athletic department. "It gives us a new perspective in scouting an opponent. We don't have to take the time and expense to put someone on a plane anymore to cover a
•	—•	game," Hefner said.
"It's definitely the way to communicate in this electronic
GURI DHALIWAL DAILY TROJAN
age," said Gabriele Valenti, director of Business People Incorporated's Satellite Career Network.
The Satellite Career Network works closely with this university and others across the country to bring students and large corporate recruiters together through live satellite conferences.
Valenti said she believes the visual element of this type of telecommunication is much more attractive and personal than the alternative communication by phone.
"The telephone is best used to relate cold facts," she said, questioning the effectiveness of the spoken word compared
to a visual experience in trying to introduce the feeling of a region to a prospective employee.
Valenti said there is also great potential for university instruction through such telecommunications. A university could survive without such a system, but "they would be at a great disadvantage, especially over the next twenty years," she said.
At this university such views are shared by scholastic departments including the Schools of Engineering and Communication.
Microwave dishes atop the Seaver Science Center and (Continued on page 7)