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Volume Clll, Number 52	University of Southern California	Friday, March 27, 1987
Elderly in changing society urged to utilize their wisdom
rapid changes in the aging process," she said.
Riley said social institutions and cultural norms are failing to provide opportunity for older people.
"There is a current failure in long term care facilities. . .in academic institutions to make room for those older faculty members who aren't ready to retire. . .to accord esteem to the wisdom they've accumulated. . .to recognize the strengths of older people," she said.
Social institutions have failed to accommodate the rising numbers of older people and their capacities, she said.
Citing low numbers of elderly people in the work force, Riley said the jobs offered are not rewarding or meaningful enough.
"There's a continuing interplay between aging and social change in which each one influences and is influenced by the other," she said.
The interplay includes lack of synchronization between aging and social change as w'ell as the reconstruction of society. "They (aging and social change) march
to different drummers,” she said.
This principle of interplay means that the process of aging and the social structure is flexible, she said.
Riley told the audience how changes in the aging process can optimize the strengths and capabilities of older people. "These strengths are still widely underestimated among policymakers, professionals and among the public at large."
"Social sciences demonstrated that it's simply not true that because of aging all older people are destined to be ill, impoverished and corrupt in society, sexually incapacitated, despondent and unable to reason or remember. . .only a minority are seriously ill," Riley said.
"The vast majority of older people function independently and effectively," she said.
There has been an increase in longevity in the 20th century, she said. The average life span has increased from lower than 50 in 1900 to more than 70 years today.
(Continued on page 6)
Matilda White Riley received the Kesten Memorial Award from the School of Gerontology yesterday after giving the school’s 13th annual Kesten Memorial lecture.
Riley receives Kesten award for research
By Nicole Biohm
Staff Writer
The 13th annual Kesten Memorial lecture held yesterday focused on ways to maximize the strong points of older people and how changes in society can help to utilize and reward their strengths.
Matilda White Riley, who is associate director for behavioral sciences research at the National Institute on Aging and an emeritus professor of sociology at Rutgers University and Bow-doin College, received the Kesten Memorial Award from the School of Gerontology after presenting "Sociological Issues in Health and Aging Research" at the Andrus Gerontology Center.
Research on these issues bears directly on "structural lag. That is, modifications of the structure of social opportunities just haven't kept pace with the
Exploitation of women, environment to be examined
Conference to focus on link between feminism, nature
By John Perrone
Staff Writer
A three-day ecofeminist conference beginning tonight will attempt to link the gradual destruction of nature with the subordination of women.
"Ecofeminist Perspectives: Culture, Nature, Theory" will combine diverse opinions from around the world concerning sexual equality, ecological balance and planetary survival.
"We're not interested in replacing men in positions of
'We're not interested in replacing men in positions of power; we're interested in changing the whole relationship of humans to nature.'
—	Gloria Orenstein
power; we're interested in changing the whole relationship of humans to nature," said Gloria Orenstein, associate professor of the Study of Women and Men in Society at the university.
Emphasizing that humans are but a part of the ecological system and not above it, Orenstein said the excessive exploitation of the atmosphere, plants and animals will destroy the human race.
Despite conflicts which made it necessary to schedule the con-
ference during spring break, Orenstein expects about 300 guests, who she said will hear an abundance of personalities in return for the $15 registration fee.
The conference is being sponsored by the university's SWMS program, made possible by a grant from the California Council for the Humanities.
Late registration will begin at
5	p.m. in the Grace Ford Salva-tori building lobby. The cost is $20. Following registration, a welcoming reception will be held until 7:30 p.m. The group will then move to Room 123 of Seeley G. Mudd, where three women authors will present "the issues and visions that have been generated by ecofeminist activism," Orenstein said.
Susan Griffin, author of Women and Nature, will be one of the speakers. Her book is a study of the parallel ways in which women and nature have been misused and abused in patriarchal, technological cultures.
The conference resumes Saturday morning at 9:30 in Taper Hall, Room 101. This three-hour segment will feature Starhawk, a theologian and nuclear peace activist, who practices a feminist spirituality which "draws no distinction betw'een spirit and earth," Orenstein said.
Two representatives from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Inez Talamantez and Barbara Epstein, will also lecture on Saturday. George Sessions, a Sierra College professor and author of Deep Ecology, will lead
the other discussion.
Ellen-Marit Gaup-Dunfjeld, a shaman from Samiland (Lapland), will speak about the effects the Chernobyl fallout had on her country, which lies within the boundaries of Finland, northwest of the Soviet Union. Lapland's reindeer grazing lands have been destroyed by last May's nuclear disaster.
Orenstein sees the connection: "Ecofeminism says because (women) were connected so in-
'Ecofeminism says because. . .(women have) become very sensitized to the fact that nature is being exloited like we are.'
timately with nature for so long, we became very sensitized to the fact that nature is being exploited like we are."
Sunday's activities begin at 9 a.m. in Taper Hall, Room 201, and will last until 3 p.m.
The conference will close with a ritual created by Starhawk, Deena Metzger and Gaup-Dunfjeld, which is designed "to cement the bonds of communal solidarity among those attending the conference," Orenstein said.
Spring Break the Army way
BRUCE LE / DAILY TROJAN
Army ROTC Cadet Stuart Jones waits for the others in his unit as they get set to leave for a five-day training session at Fort Ord, in Northern California.