N
S
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viewpoint
Remaining alive in race results in a powerful voice — page 4.
performance
A former student greets his success as a director calmly — page 7.
	
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sports
The track teams have signed some of the nation’s best — page 20.
(ofeiwiioian
Volume CIV, Number 61
University of Southern California
Friday, April 15, 1988
Angry protesters decry women’s center denial
By Chris Eftychiou
Staff Writer
MIKE SUDO DAILY TROJAN
Kathy Spillar (left), Los Angeles chapter president of NOW, denounces the rejection of the women’s center proposal and pledges her organization’s support. Jennifer Glickman (right), passes out balloons with the confrontational slogan, “They’ve got Theirs, We want Ours." More than 100 students and professors attended Thursday’s
A loud and unified chant echoed through the hallways of Bovard Administration Building Thursday as more than 100 students and faculty members protested the university's recent rejection of a proposed Women's Resource Center.
"What do we want? A women's center. When do we want it? Now!" the group shouted together outside the office of Lyn Hutton, senior vice president of administration.
Hutton, who along with executive vice provost Robert Biller recently rejected the proposal, said later that the protest probably wouldn't bring a change in their decision.
"I think it would be difficult. I don't
think it's impossible, but competition for space is tremendous," she said. "There's just not space currently available on campus that we've been able to identify."
The protest followed a 40-minute rally at Tommy Trojan, where an audience of almost 200 stood under a rain-threatening sky to hear feminists condemn the administration's action.
The crowd cheered the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, Kathy Spillar, as she pledged the group's support for the center.
"We will be right here helping in any way we can until you get your resource center," she said. "It is a male administration that is making this decision. It is women asking for rights the way they've (Continued on page 14)
Biller appointed to external affairs post
By Kathleen Berry
Staff Writer
Robert Biller, executive vice provost, has been appointed vice president for external affairs, administration officials confirmed Thursday.
In the newly created position. Biller will supervise the university's relations in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.,with respect to grants, financial aid and research programs.
"President (James) Zumberge last spring concluded that the
university needed to find a way of becoming more pro-active with our major government lending partners," Biller said. "The primary responsibility is in areas of research funding and loan funding."
The position was first proposed by Zumberge last July to maintain and improve university contacts with dty, state and federal government agencies, Biller said.
“It's something that's happening at many universities at the same time — Cal Tech, Stan-
ford and UCLA," he said.
Biller's new office will track about 150 issues, ranging from federal grant money to animal rights legislation.
"We will probably have an advisory council that will clear these issues once or twice a month," Biller said.
"The principal objective is to become more pro-active in both the federal and state arena . . . to make sure we're not pushed aside," he said.
Biller assumed his new responsibilities Monday. No one
will replace him as executive vice provost. Instead, Sylvia Manning, vice provost, will oversee the various functions of his office.
"He isn't being replaced directly," Manning said. "I am going to take over a sizable amount of his responsibilities."
As a result, the focus of her duties will likely change, she said.
"It is not at all clear at this time that I will be paying the same attention to undergradu-(Continued on page 13)
JIMMY LEE / DAILY TROJAN
ROBERT BILLER
University press deemed a need for academic clout
Would supply USC means to publish its own research
By Craig Hausman
Assistant Entertainment Editor
As the university tries to improve its academic ranking, critics say it has largely ignored one element that could provide the prestige it needs to attract the nation's best faculty members and students — a university printing press.
University presses publish scholarly research in specific fields of study and sell the finished books to academic societies, libraries and specialty shops.
USC is the only comprehensive research university in the United States that doesn't run such a press, according to Chet Lieb, a philosophy professor and former vice president of the university.
"USC is certainly the most prominent university in the country that does not have one," said Grant Barnes, director of the press at Stanford University.
Would require subsidies
The massive cost of a university press is its biggest roadblock, said John Curry, vice president of budget and planning.
Curry said he studied an official proposal by Lieb in 1982 to establish a press at USC and, at the time, deemed it financially feasible. However, Curry stipulated that his decision was dependent on donations — and today, a USC press would likely be a financial risk.
(Continued on page 3)
Chet Ueb, a former supervisor of the press at the University of Texas, says USC “is certainly the most prominent university in the country that does not have one.” Other institutions, the philosophy professor says, glean considerable prestige from their publishing facilities.