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Volume XCVIV, Number 2	University of Southern California	Wednesday, May 29, 1985
Senior park nearly finished; students give over $30,000
By Christopher Perez
Senior Park, a gift to the university from the Class of 1985, is ahead of schedule and will be completed well before its projected deadline of September, said Thayer Weddle, assistant director of annual giving.
Although no official dedication ceremony has been planned, the park will be the site of a "Welcome Back Celebration" for the recently graduated class on September 21. The celebration will be a picnic held in honor of the class and coincides with the football team's first home game against Baylor.
The park, located on the former site of the cinema school bungalows, marks only the second time in at least 20 years that a senior class has presented a gift to the university. The other gift was a donation of funds to the library system last year.
Weddle said the Senior Development Committee has already raised $30,000 from students alone and is well on its way to meeting its participation goal of 65 percent of the class donating funds. Donations are also coming from private donors. In addition, the Irvine Foundation will match dollar for dollar all funds raised by student contributions.
Weddle stressed that the student contributions are not a means of purchasing the park at all, but are instead only a donation to the university. The park, therefore, is being named in honor of the class but will not carry "Class of '85" with the title.
When fully completed, the park will contain picnic areas, barbe-que pits and plenty of green space, as well as a plaque that will list major donors. Weddle said the fund raising wili officially end June 30.
Guggenheim Foundation awards $23,000 to philosophy professor
By Kirsten Levingston
USC Associate Professor Barbara Herman feels that it is time for a comprehensive theory of morality that will "make intelligible to us what we are doing" when we choose between good and bad.
And evidently she is not the only person who feels that the time has come for such a theory.
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded Dr. Herman $23,000 so that she may explore the issues of right versus wrong in an upcoming book entitled The Practice of Moral Judgement.
The Guggenheim Foundation gives monetary awards to scientists, authors, artists and others the Foundation feels can make a significant contribution to society through their work.
Though the foundation receives thousands of applicants from the United States and Canada each year, Herman is one of only about 200 people who were selected for awards this year.
Herman believes contemporary theories of morality do not seem to meet man's needs. "In recent times there has been an effort to bring back other tradi-
tions of moral thinking," she said.
She noted that people have strayed from the more modem theories of utilitarianism and human rights.
Utilitarianism stresses the
Herman believes contemporary theories of morality do not seem to meet man's needs. "In recent times there has been an effort to bring back other traditions of moral thinkingshe says.
production of as much happiness as possible, "but sometimes the means can be brutal," Herman said.
There is also the possibility that one person's human rights might conflict with another per-
son's human rights, she added, thus making the human rights theory at times impossible to apply.
In her book Herman will explore 18th century Kantian theory. Developed by philosopher Immanuel Kant, Kantianism stresses the link between morality, rationality and freedom, Herman said.
Kant believed that the ability to rationalize "freed man from the bondage to inclination" that is typical of animal behavior, Herman said.
According to Kantian theory, Herman said, "If you are being rational you are being moral. Likewise if you are being irrational, you are being immoral."
Herman earned her bachelor's degree at Cornell University and went on to Harvard, where she earned her master's and Ph. D. in philosophy.
She has been at USC since 1981 and presently teaches both graduate and undergraduate philosophy classes.
Herman will return to the classroom in September of 1986 after the completion of her book, she said.
School of Library and Information Management will close next May
By Beth Laski
Although enrollment has increased almost 50 percent since Dean Roger Greer took over and restructured the program in
1979,	the School of Library and Information Management has accepted the last of its students and has been ordered to close completely in May of 1986.
Upon its termination, the School of Library and Information Management will celebrate its 50 year association with USC. When the school began in 1936, its focus was primarily on infor-
University receives $3.8 million for research of demyelinating diseases
USC has been awarded $3.8 million to study multiple sclerosis and similar diseases of the central nervous system.
The award, a five-year grant, was made by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health.
The funds will support a ba-sic-science research program into the mechanisms of demyelinating diseases, the diseases that interfere with nerve impulses to the brain by attacking the covering — myelin — of certain nerves.
Multiple sclerosis is the No. 1 demyelinating disease, afflicting
250,000	Americans. A chronic and incurable disease, MS produces a range of neurological symptons including slurred speech, muscle weakness and paralysis.
Although the cause of MS is unknown, the disease is
thought to be triggered by a virus or viruses that cause the body's immune system to attack its own myelin.
The USC research program will be directed by Leslie P. Weiner, M.D., chairman and professor of neurology and microbiology at the USC School of Medicine. Dr Weiner will lead an interdisciplinary team of neurologists, microbiologists, immunologists, and molecular biologists in a multi-faceted investigation of the disease process.
The researchers will use genetic engineering, monoclonal antibodies, recombinant DNA and other advanced techniques to study key factors known to play a part in multiple sclerosis. They will investigate the role of genetics, viral infections, immune response, and hormonal responses to stress.
"Critical questions about these influences have remained
unanswered for a long time," Weiner says. "Only in the last three or four years have we had the technology to get at them. I expect to see major breakthroughs in the next five years."
The USC research will involve tissue cultures and animals — not human subjects.
"Once the basic mechanism has been unraveled in the lab, it will be a short step to apply that knowledge to humans," Weiner says.
Principal investigators in the USC research program are Michael Lai, M.D., professor of microbiology and neurology; Stephen Stohlman, associate professor of neurology and microbiology; John Fleming, M.D., assistant professor of neurology; Minnie McMillan, assistant professor of microbiology; Nancy Casteel, assistant professor of neurologic research; and Wendy Gilmore, assistant professor of neurologic research.
mation and its containers. The program, in its initial stage, was designed to emphasize information and the cataloging of it.
In 1979, Roger Greer came to the university to update the program. In his revision of the program, Greer de-emphasized the custodial course work and focused on the sociology and psychology of providing information. The new program was designed to prepare students to study clientele, assess information needs, and design and manage efficient information systems. The goal of the system is now to deliver the right information, to the right person, at the right place and time.
With the change of focus from simply mechanical and technological to more personal, a study committee was formed in 1982 to investigate the school. There were numerous factors that prompted the review of the school, but some believe it was the change in curriculum and direction that was the most important. In 1984, a letter from Provost Cornelius Pings indicated that a provisional decision had been made to discontinue the School.
In the memo. Pings declared that the decision was "no reflection on what the School of Library and Information Management has accomplished," but was "the consequence of the necessary clarification of the academic priorities of this university."
As expressed by Lelia Ny-berg, Administrative Assistant to the Dean of the School, those directly involved in the school understand that it is the smallest individual unit on campus, but
the importance of the continuation of this professional training in the "information age" is crucial. As Dean Greer expressed in response to the decision to discontinue the school, "USC will have cause to regret its decision to exclude the information professions from its future. The information age has just begun."
In late 1984, the Board of Trustees approved the discontinuance of the school, effective with the completion of the 1985-86 academic year. Provost Pings explained in a letter, "Unfortunately, private universities with finite resources must make fiscal choices." According to Lelia Ny-berg though, "At one time there was a deficit, but this past year the school operated on profit from the increased enrollment and tuition payments. The school was no significant financial drain to the University," she claims.
Despite what Nyberg says was "bitterness on the part of the alumni, administration and students of the school," the final closing date for the School of Library and Information Management will be May of 1986. The last class was admitted in September 1984. All existing students must complete their programs by the final closing date.
With the announcement of the school’s closing date, the entering class of Fall 1984 increased — by 42 percent, the largest increase in 37 years. Nyberg commented that "Students want to get their degrees from our school, and this is their last chance." Dean Roger Greer asserted that the school is "determined to maintain the quality of this program to the end."