New president race ordered
By GUNTHER MERLI
The ASSC presidential election was invalidated by the Student Behavior Committee in its meeting last evening.
In reversing the Student Court s previous decision to validate the presidential pri-
Results for the presidency of Associated Men Students and junior representative were announced early this morning.
Colin Kurata is the new AMS president, polling 692 votes against Ron Rus’s 666.
Steve Wiley is the new junior rep getting 251 votes against Bob Spira’s 219.
The election results were validated by a 7-1 vote of the Student Court. Jerry Reitman cast the dissenting vote.
mary, the committee cited new and overwhelming evidence of ballot tampering. It recommended that new presidential elections be held “as soon as possible.”
Apparently it is up to the new ASSC Executive Council to set the date for the new election. The committee decided that all five original presidential candidates will be on the ballot again in order to insure a fair election and not give any one candidate an advantage.
Kent Clemence. candidate for ASSC president who brought the appeal of the elections validation before the committee, said, “All I can say is that I’m ecstatic. I’ll start campaigning as soon as possible.” Clemence came in third in the original primary and was kept out of the run-off by a controversial 11-vote margin.
The controversy arose when a student admitted to stuffing the ballot box with 14 votes for Chuck Jones, who finished second in the presidential primary and went on to the runoff. New evidence was presented to the committee which supported this confession.
The student identified a sig-
nature he allegedly forged on the voting signature sheet. The committee apparently found this to be dissimilar to the signature of two students who actually have that name, after a check with spring 1971 registration cards, and determined that an actual case of tampering had occurred.
Randy Goodwin, Free Trojan editor and a supporter of John McGuinness for ASSC president, said, “The action of the Student Behavior Committee is going to eliminate from the race the guy (McGuinness) who polled the most votes in the primary. On several occasions the court validated the election. We took the decisions at face value and campaigned full force on that assumption.”
Goodwin plans to contact President Hubbard tomorrow about the case, since the president of the university is the final step in the appeals process.
Goodwin was against the invalidation of the election because, as he said, McGuinness’ organizational strength was sapped by a week of campaigning. The other candidates would have the advantage, he said.
McGuinness, however, along with Chuck Jones, signed a statement attached to Cle-mence's appeal which asked the committee to review the case.
When asked if the ASSC Executive Council would set a date for the elections, Sam Hurst, ASSC president, replied, “I have no intention of calling a council meeting tomorrow. I don’t think we could get a quorum. Both the candidates and the campus need time to rest and get their heads together.”
Apparently it will be up to the new council, which takes office next week, to set the date for the election and any necessary run-off.
Joel Rosenzweig, vice-presi-
dent-elect for programs, who would become acting president on May 1, announced his intentions to call an Executive Council meeting next Tuesday at 4 p.m.
The issue of the ASSC constitutional amendment that requires all newly elected officers to take office by May 1 was also raised at the committee meeting. The committee decided that this did not “present insurmountable barriers” and that “the constitution should be read in a manner consistent with the course necessitated by the extraordinary circumstances presented to us.”
Making the decision were Dr. Scott H. Bice, chairman of the panel, and Dr. Mary A. Reilly, chairman of the committee, faculty members; and Kenneth Ziskin, a law student and committee member.
The committee recommended that the ASSC elections pro-(Continued on page 9)
University of Southern California
DAILY ® TROJAN
VOL LX!I
NO. 114
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1971
JOE COCKER DAY HAPPENING	Pho,° b* Bruee Bo,inser
Students gather around psychedelic limousine	Dogs and Englishmen." Gifts included Cocker
in front of Tommy Trojan in an attempt to get	and Leon Russell albums and singles, posters,
a free gift. The giveaway was part of a pro-	buttons and bubble gum. motional campaign for Cocker's latest film "Mad
CONCERN RISING
Student suicides mount
By JIM SPOO
“A student gets to a certain point in life, a point of desperation, when death seems more pleasant than life.”
The words of Mrs. Anita Siegman, coordinator of the USC Residential Conseling Office, reveal the concern of some that suicide may be a lurking problem on America's campuses.
A recent Newsweek story reported that “in Los Angeles County, the rate of suicides by people in their late teens and 20s exceeds the rate among over 30s—an alarming reversal of the longstanding assumption that the likelihood of
focus
suicide increases with age."
Seventy-eight college students in the county committed suicide between 1960 and 1967, said Michael L. Peck and Albert Schrut of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center. Peck reported that 200 calls per year to the center come from suicide—prone college students.
Suicide is not USC's number one problem, nor is it the number two problem. That it is a problem at all. however, is an unsettling discovery.
Although no student suicides have been reported within recent months at USC, the longterm estimate is that one or two occur each year. But actual suicides do not represent the entire scope of the suicide problem. Researchers be-
lieve that attempted suicides occur 10 to 20 times as frequently as actual suicides, and that threats of suicide occur 10 to 20 times as frequently as attempts.
Mrs. Siegman estimates that she deals with one attempted suicide each semester. She adds that she may never be notified of other attempts, threats and actual suicides.
Attempted and threatened suicides are difficult to discover because of personal and professional secrecy, and consequently information is sketchy. Nevertheless, some authorities fear that suicidal behavior may be a hidden problem at USC.
It is not necessary to possess exact information to know the seriousness of the problem. “It is a significant problem if just one person attempts it," says William Ofman. a professor in the Department of Counselor Education. “The question is how seriously do we take people."
Mrs. Siegman adds, "A person who as much as expresses a desire to commit suicide had damn well better be taken seriously."
In attempting to find the causes of suicide. Peck and Schrut interviewed friends and relatives of students in the county who had committed. attempted, or threatened suicide.
Most of those who had committed suicide were males. They were average students, but were often pressured by parents to be much better than average. Most had neither at-
(Continued on page 5)
May 10:24-hour dorm visitation?
By JOANNE PUHRMAN
The 24-hour girls’ dorm visitation will go into effect as an experimental policy on May 10, if approved by the Women’s Halls Association and President John Hubbard.
The plan for implementing the experiment, drawn-up by Paul Bloland, vice-president of student affairs and Laurel Phinney, former WHA president, was approved yesterday morning by the Student Activities Committee.
A letter will be sent to the parents of the girls who live in the dorms early next week. It will explain the 24-hour visitation experiment and will also give the parents an opportunity to reply and express their views.
Included in the letter will be a release which must be signed and returned by the parents of all girls who are under 18. This release is a necessary formality which will release the university from all legal responsibility. For those who are opposed to the experiment, the WHA will find other accommodations for them until the end of the year.
The WHA also requested yesterday that the administration be lenient in prosecuting those girls who violated university policy during the “boy-in” on April 14.
Under the proposals of the experiment, girls still must sign in all male guests and must escort them in the halls.
If any complications arise, the WHA will solve them during the summer. If approved, the experiment will go into effect on a permenant basis in the fall.
WHA president-elect Laura Kotsiris, said “We are all very optimistic about the experiment and want to see it pass.
Nader to discuss TV censorship
Ralph Nader, consumer crusader, will tackle the field of television Monday at 8 p.m. in Bovard Auditorium. He will speak on “The Rights of a Professional in an Employment Context.”
His investigation of the censorship television forces upon itself and the role of the writer who works as a professional in the medium will be discussed.
Nader’s appearance on campus is sponsored jointly
by the Writers Guild of America West, the Great Issues Forum and the University College.
Since attacking the automotive industry with his book, “Unsafe at Any Speed,” Nader has become a watchdog of consumer rights. He has probed inflight smoking, birth control pills, nursing homes, bureaucratic secrecy, and other consumer problems.
Students, faculty and staff may pick up free tickets at the Ticket Office and at the door with an ID card. Admission for all others is $3.