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Volume C, Number 17
University of Southern California
Monday, February 3, 1986
Flat-rate tuition fee is both bargain and loss
By Roseanne Tellez
Assistant City Editor
Students who take 16 to 18 units at the university get a bargain; they only pay for 15 of them. Students who take 12 to 14 units make up the difference; they also pay for 15.
The practice of using a flat-rate, 15-unit tuition fee for students taking 12 to 18 units began more than four years ago and has served its purpose, said John Curry, executive director of university budget.
Prior to the fall of 1982, only students with between 15 and 18 units were subject to a flat-rate, or the cost of 15 units. Now, however, students with only 12 units actually pay the price of 15 units, and Curry said there are two good reasons why.
The first reason is an academic one. "It encourages students to take 15 units or more," Curry said. Satisfactory academic progress is a concern of all universities, and, with 15 units or more, students are more likely to graduate in four years, he added.
Curry said that not only are most curriculums devised for four-year study, but student aid packages usually compel students to complete their studies within four and a half years.
"There's a lot of federal pressure for students to graduate on time," he added.
The second reason for the change is related to student aid budgets as well. "We were overspending our student aid budget. . . .Students would sign up (and drop to) 12 units . . . but the student aid wasn't dropped," he said.
This resulted in a loss of revenue since the students, still considered full-time, received enough aid to pay for 15 units. Now, however, if they drop to 12 units they must pay the flat tuition fee.
"The move did improve our revenues," Curry said. But there was a potential for loss if a lot of students had dropped their course load to under 12 units, he added.
Curry said the 12 to 18 unit flat-rate tuition fee is very common at private universities. "We moved much more toward the norm than away from it," he said.
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University defends research
Officials claim primates well-treated
By Daisy Ridgway
Staff Writer
While the Coalition To Save USC Primates is in the midst of a campaign to force the university to house and treat its research animals more humanely, university officials maintain that their animal-research program is one of the most humane around.
U.S. actions condemned
By Daphne Nugent
Staff Writer
In a speech and slide show at El Centro Chicano on Friday, a co-founder of the American-Indian Movement condemned the United States for supporting repressive governments in Central America and for being no better than South Africa in its own continued mistreatment of North American Indians.
Vernon Bellcourt called on American students who protest against apartheid to also look at "our own brand of American apartheid" toward the American Indian.
He compared continued congressional proposals to confiscate Indian land and the United States' creation of Indian reservations to South Africa's creation of Bantu states for the black South Africans.
"It's easy to say 'let's destroy apartheid/ but continue to perpetuate the system here," Bellcourt said. "But I'll bet your parents pay for your education here with dividends from South African investments."
In his 30-minute slide show taken during a fact-finding excursion through Mexico and Guatemala, he described the economic misery of the Indian peasant populations. "They have not even reached the height of poverty level/' he said.
More alarming than their poverty is the government-sponsored death-squad activity carried out against these people, he said.
"They have claimed 80,000
victims," Bellcourt said.
He explained that 70 percent of the land in Guatemala is controlled by three percent of the population.
Most of the land is devoted to cultivating bananas and coffee for exporting only "while those who work that land are
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JOAN FRANK/DAILY TROJAN
Vernon Bellcourt condemned the United States for supporting repressive governments in a speech at the El Centro Chicano on Friday.
Bob Barker, host of the "Price is Right" and spokesman for the coalition, explained in a press release, issued by the Beverly Hills-based coalition, that the organization was formed for the purpose of convincing the university that it is obligated to remove its research primates from the cages on campus, in which they have been confined for eight years, and place them in a facility which provides a natural habitat for them.
Dr. Robert Benedict, assistant vice president for health affairs, and Dr. William Blackmore, director of the university's vivaria, staunchly defend the university's record of treating its animals humanely, and last semester
proposed to move the primates to the even more humane environment of the Los Angeles
Zoo.
The Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission, however, unanimously rejected the proposal on Jan. 10, in part because it would create too much controversy with the zoo's main function of displaying endangered animals for public viewing; and, according to Dr. Warren Thomas, director of the zoo, because the proposal would have set a precedent in which other universities would claim the right to house their research animals at the zoo also.
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Medical Center researches new birth control methods
By David Miranda
Staff Writer
In order to establish a birth control method that is more effective than conventional pills, the USC Medical Center is currently testing at least two alternatives designed to preempt pregnancies said Dr. Donna Shoupe, assistant professor in the obstetrics-gynecology department.
A subdermal implant (a tiny device inserted under the skin with a needle) and the 'RU-486', otherwise known as the "moming-after pill," are the alternatives under study, Shoupe said.
The subdermal implant is "the most effective form of reversible birth control available right now," Shoupe said. Approval from the Food and Drug Administration is still pending, she added.
Shoupe said that approximately one to three women out of every 100 using conventional birth control pills become pregnant. In contrast, of every 100 using the implant, only .5 become pregnant, she said.
The estrogen in birth control pills has been known to cause side effects, including blood clots in deep leg veins and in the veins leading to the lungs, said Paul Brenner, professor in the obstetrics-gyne-cology department.
Because of this, he said, the university medical center and several major institutions have been exploring the development of hormonal methods of family planning that do not involve estrogen.
"The one that seems to have come the furthest is the subdermal implant," Brenner said. "If you think overpopulation happens to be a major problem in the world. . .then I think any improvement in family planning is very important."
TTie implant is about 1 1/2 inches long, and is inserted under the skin above muscle tissue in the inner uper-arm area, said Diane Poole, a registered nurse in the department. She said it is practically invisible to the naked eye after insertion.
"It's a relatively simple procedure. . .and takes approximately 15 minutes to a half an hour," Poole said.
The implant remains in the patient's arm for five years, secreting a hormone called levomorgestral into the bloodstream, and is removed
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