University of Southern California
DAILY • TROJAN
VOL. LXIV NO. 58
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1972
Specialist says conflict, change needed
CONFLICT ANALYST — John W. Burton, director of the Center for the Analysis of Conflict at University College in London, discussed his theories yesterday in Hancock Auditorium and applied them to the conflict in Northern Ireland. Burton was sponsored by the Great Issues Forum. DT photo by Tony Korody.
By DAN HOFFBAUER
“Conflict is like sex— it is widespread, it is necessary, and it should be enjoyed.*’ said John W. Burton, a conflict resolution specialist, in a speech yesterday at Hancock Auditorium.
“Without conflict, there is no change,” he said.
Burton, who is director of the Center for the Analysis of Conflict at University College in London, was discussing some theories of the causes of conflict between communities and between states, and applied these to the present conflict in Northern Ireland.
The one cause that all conflicts have in common, he said, is the friction of the majority against the minority. A minority is not a problem, he said, when it is less than 10% of the population so that it can be readily assimilated, or if it is over 40% so that it can stand up for its rights successfully.
The problem, said Burton, comes when the minority is strong enough to have political strength, but not strong enough to have its own way.
In Northern Ireland, he said,
Premed students' advisor resigns
One of the originators of the premedical students advisement program has resigned as an advisor.
Edwin (Bud) Perkins, an assistant professor of biology who has been counselling premed students on limited funds from the LAS advisement office and the Biological Sciences Department. said he resigned for personal and professional reasons.
He would give no other com-
ment except that he would stick with his 192 of the 1.100 premed students “until the bitter end.”
John Cantelon, dean of the College of Letters. Arts and Sciences, and Norman Fertig, associate dean for advisement, were not available for comment, although Fertig said that an announcement about a possible restructuring of the premed program will be available next
week.
Perkins was the motivating force behind the innovative premedical student counselling and advisement program, which included professors from all departments acting as advisors to premeds. The program, which included a rating system and facilitated letters of recommendation to medical schools, began in the spring of
1970.
the conflict is superficially one of religion, or between Irish-backed republicans and British-backed royalists, or a struggle between the underprivileged and the upper class.
“Actually, it is none of these,” said Burton. “The conflict is not caused by the superficial manifestations.”
The Northern Ireland conflict is the majority-minority problem, he said, and as such is similar to other conflicts such as the Greek-Turkish crisis in Cyprus, the French-English conflict in Canada, the conflict in Vietnam.
The Protestant royalists have control over the distribution of services, such as housing, in Northern Ireland and are discriminating against the Catholic republicans, said Burton.
The republicans are attempting to assert their rights as a minority and are fighting the royalist domination, he said.
The majority's view is that law and order must be preserved before any negotiation take place, said Burton.
“The minority knows that if the talks are held under the majority's law and order, then there will be no change,” he said.
Burton claimed that the intervention of Great Britain is only aggravating the problem, and is not contributing to a solution.
Burton said that a probable resolution to the problem is the independence of Northern Ireland.
“I have interviewed 87 people, including extremists from both sides,” he said, “and not one would rule out the possibility of an independent Northern
Ireland. There is a tremendous urge to identify with Northern Ireland.”
Burton said that the final solution would never be what any of the different parties are considering. An outcome would be established, he said, when it was handled as a problem and not as a conflict.
Violent conflicts would end when people learn to find a way of removing those in power who no longer represent the people under them, he said.
The way to do this, said Burton. is to change the education processes at all levels since children are being taught today to view world problems as conflicts to be won instead of problems to be solved. The world tends to view the existing situation as something which should not be changed, he said.
“Should we always be in support of legal, established governments?” he asked. “Where do we have the right to intervene — at the request of the legal government.
“We have finally moved up to where existing institutions and structures are being questioned when these are inflicting structural violence on those in it.”
Functional conflict, that is, conflict which is useful to improve conditions of those living within the system, can develop into destructive conflict, especially when any expectation of external intervention or support exists, he said.
New processes of political change must be developed to keep up with the changing social and technological changes, said Burton.
USC telephone system
By JERRY TROWBRIDGE
It's easy to talk with the campus operator if you call in, but considerably harder if you go in person.
All of the calls placed to the university’s main number (746-2311) are received in a small office in the Administration Building. A single door at the bottom of a dark stairway is the only public entrance to that room. That door is always locked.
The visitor who knocks for admittance has the feeling of the old speakeasy customer. You resist the urge to whisper “Joe sent me.” because you know the operators would not understand.
Most operators open the door only a crack at first, but then swing it wide. They are friendly but cautious — a hallmark it seems, of all operators.
Behind that door — the communications center for the university. The innocent who call the university's main number get their first impression of USC from one of the six people on duty at the board.
To find out what it is like to be an operator here, I became one of the six.
My first hour on the board was a slow one. It was a warm Friday afternoon. The sun outside had begun to set; the time neared 4:30. The university was being deserted by its staff. People called to ask what time the evening movie began in Bovard or for offices that were closed or closing.
Next to me. sat the operator who I replaced. She plugged her headset in along with mine and would write down the numbers for me that I could not find or look up quickly.
Campus operators are expected to have an inhuman amount of information at their immediate disposal. Anyone who doubts this should try to look up a number in the campus directory quickly.
The role of USC operator has two main parts: answering and connecting incoming calls, and placing long distance calls.
With the exception of dorm room phones (for which long distance and message unit charges are billed directly to the student) all long distance
calls are placed by the campus operator.
People are interested in how to beat the telephone system. There doesn't seem to be any way with USC’s present system. Last year, students discovered a way to get an outside operator from campus phones, but when they returned this year, the equipment had been modified: forcing everyone to go through the campus operator again.
The university contracts with the telephone company for a minimum of 10 hours a week of calling time on each of five special lines known as WATS lines. WATS stands for Wide Area Telephone Service. One WATS line allows 10 hours of telephoning to any place in the nation for a monthly rate of $1,900.
It is virtually impossible to trick an operator into allowing the unauthorized to use a WATS line. The operators are instructed to take down such detailed information that it would be difficult for fraud to escape detection. On most calls, the operator calls you back to complete the call.
On my first day. I performed both tasks, placing calls and answering them. One woman called and upon hearing my male voice, said she was quite surprised. I was pleased when she added that it was a pleasant surprise.
Throughout my education of the board, my professor was Hazel McKeighen.
The campus switchboard is a specially modified CENTREX board. It is like no other board used by the telephone company so each operator must be specially trained at USC in its operation. A veteran of 31 years with USC. Ms. McKeighen is now the chief operator and trains all of the operators.
Ms. McKeighen remembers the system in use here before 1966. where all calls to the university had to pass through the main switchboard. There were 1,450 phones in use in 1965; there are 3.250 today.
The dormitories, with their own phone system and three separate switchboards had only 95 phones in 1965. Today the dorms have 1,000
(Continued on page 6) j
Male explores
VETERAN AND ROOKIE —Hazel McKeighen, chief operator, supervises Jerry Trowbridge, author of the accompanying story, as he searches for campus phone numbers. Ms. McKeighen hedged at allowing Trowbridge to sit in for one day because he was not female. The administration finally relented and Trowbridge became USC's first male operator since World War II. DT photo by Stan Kelton. v____