University of Southern California
SUMMER m TROJAN
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JULY 8, 1969, VOL. LX, NO.6
Orientation group asks for student help
So you have to administer also, USC Sports Club—gateway to the community. See story and more pictures on page four.
Photo by Robert Parker
Wanted: Students who either commute to school or live in an apartment near campus to act as counselors during fall orientation week.
“Plans for ‘Making of a Trojan 1969,’ the fall orientation program, are nearing completion, but we are still needing students who commute or live in apartments to act as counselors,” Chuck Jones, chairman of Orientation Committee, said.
These students would be required to attend a training-sensitivity session during
NEPENTHE resurrected
By LOWELL PONTE
In recent years the emergence of USC’s literary-satire magazine NEPENTHE has become a symbolic ritual, as indicative of spring’s coming as the return of Capistrano’s swallows. This year, however, like the swallows NEPENTHE arrived a bit late.
“Better late than too soon,” quipped cryptic editor Eric Cohen. “The ends more than justify the meanings.” To judge by contents, one could only agree: NEPENTHE was in many ways improved over previous issues. It features, among other things:
—Phil Freshman’s account of service as Jules Feiffer’s bracero, a short simile of insights, the quality of which parallels accounts by Hemingway’s gardener.
—Eric Cohen’s tale “Any Exit,” a fictional psychostudy of the identity crises of young Zwiegler, a lad doomed by name to stand at the end of any line where relevance is being dispensed. The story, an extract from Cohen’s forthcoming work “Profiles in Impotence,” is witty and well-paced; it marks the author as a potentially great writer.
— Hal Lancaster’s two contributions, “We Should Kill Him,” a narrative on reactions to the later-assassinated Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell’s appearance at UCLA, and cover article “The Merchants of Death?”, a finely written piece on the difficulties of dialoging with Dow about Napalm. Lancaster is clearly a good reporter with an assured style. Perhaps the major fUw of these articles is the self-conscious manner in which he relates proof of his diligence and anguish as a reporter.
—Frequent PLAYBOY author William F. Nolan’s Short Story ‘Two Coffees,” a dunking tale of the baptism and babblings of a would-be Willy Loman.
—Dennis Etchison’s “Sitting in the Corner Weeping Quietly,” the story of a complicated encounter in a late-night laundromat. Etchison’s genius for mystery and ambiguity are carried by a style rich in the comprehension of the senses.
—Film writer George Ch.yton Johnson’s “A Note From the U n d e r g rou nd, ” an excellent encapsulation of the urge and motivation to do murder.
The issue has many other bright spots: a fine, if brief, description by Cohen of an
evening spent in proximity to black author James Baldwin; a photo album on the days “When Ronnie Was Good”; a pair of original Ron Cobb cartoons appearing for the first time in the issue; other fine cartoons, including a magnificent parody of PLAYBOY and modern love by Keith Jefferds; several poems, the vainglorious disaster of most college magazines, but one of which, “Graduation” by Jan Short, will seem masterful to those who’ve been there.
The issue touches twice on SciFi Fellow Emeritus Ray Bradbury. The first touch, “Bradbury, Freberg vs. The Prune People,” is a Zappaesque narrative of how the future, prunes and the Madison Ad game can come together; it is related exquisitively by Cohen, who knows and loves his subjects well. The second touch is “You Can Go Home Again,” a poetic meditation freighted
with colors and metals and glib by Bradbury; it makes one hope he returns home to SciFi where his talents are.
Taken as a whole.
NEPENTHE is a wonderful (in every sense of the word) collection of writings, a collection' that was well worth waiting for. Some weaknesses as a • campus magazine exist, however, the greatest of which is that little of the writing is done by USC students; much of the issue is written by pros, hence the quality, and the rest is done in the main by editors Cohen and Lancaster. This situation has brought disapproval from spokesmen in USC’s student government. Cohen’s reply is simple: “In past years NEPENTHE has had similar troubles with the ASSC. We editors are determined to print the best of what we get, not to be a showcase for the junk that any would-be student writer produces. Next year we plan to continue independent of the ASSC.”
NEPENTHE is named for a drug, known to Homer, which supposedly had the power to wash away sorrow and care. Cohen’s most recent issue, as bright as its flaming cover suggests, lives up to its name well.
the first week in September and counsel at two meetings during Orientation Week, Sept. 11 and 12 from 10 a.m. to noon.
“We divided the entire orientation program into four main categories,” Jones explained. “They include physical orientation, academic programming, student activities and living seminar groups.”
Physical orientation includes campus tours, information on library facilities and open houses. Under academic programming new students will have the opportunity to attend sample lectures, a Great Issues forum (possibly with Sen. Edward Kennedy, Democrat, Massachusetts) and various departmental festivals.
The third division will consist of a spirit rally, street dances, information on student government and an activity fair to orient new students to campus organizations.
“It’s the fourth division, living seminar groups, where we need the volunteers,” Jones continued. “We subdivided this division into four groups, according to where the students would be living, fraternity and sorority houses, dormitories, apartments or at home.”
Counseling positions for the first two groups have been filled, but quotas for the other two categories have not.
“Actually we’re not demanding too much,” Jones said. “The main thing the volunteers would do is talk with groups of 20 to 30 new students about where they live, their problems and how they keep in touch with what is going on. And, we have a training-sensitivity session during
the first week in September to prepare for it.”
Also, the Orientation Committee, which includes everybody connected with fall orientation, will be meeting 1) after the second week of classes to evaluate the program, 2) at the end of the fall semester to discuss finals and pre-registration and 3) to act as a sounding board whenever an important campus issue arises.
Students who would like to volunteer or receive more information about the positions available may contact Juli Pugh, orientation personnel chairman, in the Student Activities Center, 746-6283 or Jones in Student Union 323, 2760 or 365-3708i
URA OFFERS 7 ACTIVITIES
Reservations for a University Recreation Association-sponsored trip to Disneyland are now being taken in the URA office. Physical Education 112. The trip to Disneyland is scheduled from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday.
Other URA activities include a tour of CBS Television City and various homes of Hollywood stars Friday from 12:30 to 5 p.m., a dance program also Friday from 8 to 10 p.m., an evening at the Hollywood Bowl, a trip to Old Mexico July 20, a dinner in Chinatown and a boat trip to Catalina.
Grill prices aren’t so bad
By JIM STRAIT
At times, to think about our university’s food service, is to think unpleasant thoughts. Most of us have wandered into the Grill, or some other eatery in the Commons, and come out with a complaint or two about the food or the service or the prices.
I found Herbert Harbeson, director of Residence Halls and Food Service, in the Information Center. The Info Center, as most of you know, is the former home of “Get a Commie,” the Research Institute on Communist Strategy and Propaganda, as it’s known in the campus directory. I was disappointed there were no bushes to look behind.
When I was ushered into Mr. Harbeson’s office by his beautiful secretary, he was in the midst of a conversation with Vic Martino, the owner of Martino Foods. If you haven’t heard, Martino’s supplies several large institutions with their sweet goods. USC is among the customers.
It seems that the sale of sweet rolls had gone down recently and Mr. Martino was in to see
what was wrong. As it turned out it seemed that someone had made a mistake in the computation of prices, and with the price too high, the bottom had fallen out of the roll market here.
I learned a number of things during my two and one-half hours with Mr. Harbeson.
I always assumed that if you bought more of something, you got it cheaper. Th is unfortunately isn’t true in the food business. It seems that many items can be bought cheaper in the market than food service can get them. This happens because the grocer is willing to take a loss on lead items to lure you into the store, and also because the university has to pay tremendous delivery costs on many of the staple items.
I asked why places like McDonalds or Jack in the Box can make money on a 25-cent hamburger and the Grill price recently went to 65 cents. Mr. Harbeson explained that the Grill served a 5 oz. as compared to a 2 oz. pattie, and that when the meat is charcoal cooked
instead of grilled, a lot of the fat runs off.
To break even, or better yet, to make a small profit, the Commons should work on a price system where the raw food is 40 percent of the total price of the item. If the cost goes much above that 40 percent, then the Grill loses money. Since the Grill is supposed to be self-supporting, this can’t continue for long and eventually prices have to be raised.
Another area that takes up its share of space on the debit page is labor/ Many institutions pay food workers only $1.35 per hour. The minimum wage for
kitchen and service personnel at the university is $1.65. The maximum now is $3.15.
I asked how food service could make money on the Grill and the other eating establishments in Commons, and then perhaps lower the prices. The director said that the main reason for high costs is that food service must stay open hours when there isn’t much business, and provide so many different types of service. For example, there are four different places to
eat in the Commons alone, and most of the time there isn’t enough business to justify keeping them all open. But, the word to keep all of these places operating comes from much higher up in the administration than Harbeson.
If any of you knew of that great battle between the Daily Trojan and Mr. Haberson over plates and trays not returned to the Grill, then you know at least part of the reason why loss and breakage run to $7,000 a year.
All in all, it appeared to me that food service is trying to do the best job they can, and within certain limitations, they are managing to run it pretty decently, for an institution.
Herbert Harbeson assured me that he and all of the supervisors were anxious to learn of any deficiencies in the Grill, or anywhere else in Commons.
He also mentioned that students are invited to attend the taste tests for new products that are held on the third Thursday of every month in Town and Gown.