Daily mb Trojan
vol. Ixv
no. 29
University of Southern California
los angeles, California
tuesday, october 31, 1972
Senate rejects Hubbard’s assembly plan
By Peter Wong
associate editor
Faculty members of the University Senate rejected Saturday the plan for university decision-making that Presider* John Hubbard favors.
Although they did not precisely define an alternative plan, faculty members made it clear they did not want the plan offered in May by Hubbard’s Commission on Governance, which would establish a large assembly as the key decisionmaking mechanism.
“The verdict against the assembly plan was implicit in the senate’s actions,” James McBath, professor of speech communication and chairman of the senate’s professor of speech
Flutist to open at coffeehouse
Tim Weisberg, pop-jazz flutist, will open tonight in the Bitter Ashtray coffeehouse in the Grill.
Weisberg’s material in his latest album, Hurtwood Edge, runs the gamut from rock to ballad to classical forms. He has appeared with such artists as the Butterfield Blues Band, Dave Mason, Cheech and Chong and Donny Hathaway. Weisberg appeared at the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival, which brought him a contract with A&M records.
communication and chairman of the senate’s ad hoc committee on governance, said after the meeting.
Agreement on 2 elements
Faculty members agreed upon two key elements of an alternative to the assembly plan—a university senate with solely faculty membership, which would exclude the present 52 ex-officio members, and a small university council.
The council would have an equal representation of students, faculty and deans. It would advise the president on matters of general university concern, and it would supervise the university committee system, including the task forces under the Advisory Committee on Academic Planning.
Faculty members were highly critical of the Advisory Committee on Academic Planning, headed by Z.A. Kaprielian, vice-president for academic administration and research. It relies on experts from the faculty and administration to develop solutions to university problems under a systems-management framework.
“The committee and its task-force system are subversive to the university committee system,” McCormick Templeton, professor in the School of Dentistry and vice-chairman of Hubbard’s Commission of Governance, said.
Faculty team studies automobile accidents
By Dennis Bartel
What kind of people search out auto accidents night after night? Perverted masochists? Deranged psychopaths? Or the USC Highway Accident Investigation Team?
In this case, it’s the last group—and for good reason.
Since July, 1971, a team of 10 faculty and staff members, with credentials ranging from physician to automotive engineer to psychologist, have been investigating major auto accidents in the L.A. area. In each case, they have prepared an incredibly precise case report for the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The program, contracted to the USC Institute of Aerospace, Research Division, is directed by Jack D. Baird and is one of 16 such investigation teams at universities throughout the country.
Stationed in area
Through the week the team is stationed somewhere in the L.A. area in their two semiemergency vehicles. As soon as there is a major accident, one in which there’s a fatality or the cars are required to be towed, the team is alerted by the California Highway Patrol, the L.A. Police Department or the L.A. Fire Department Rescue Ambulance.
The investigation is conducted in 3 phases: precrash, crash and post-crash. Three factors are investigated in each phase: human, vehicle and environmental, such as an obstructed stop sign.
Within 2 weeks a 75- to 100-page case report is submitted to the Department of Transportation, analyzing the cause of the accident and injuries and the effectiveness of new safety features. It recommends design changes, and evaluates the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and the Federal Highway Safety Program Standards.
“A prerequisite to the investigation,” said Baird, “is that at least one car involved must be a 1970 model or later.”
60,000 accidents a year
The team is supplied with ample amount of work by Los Angeles motorists, as there are approximately 60,000 reported auto accidents a year in the area.
On occasion a report will be compiied that points out a serious fault in one of the car’s safety features due to the manufacturer.
“However,” said Baird, “only about a fourth of all accidents studied are caused in some way by a malfunction in the vehicle, and the great majority of those are due to a lack of maintenance by the owner.”
Oct. 9, the team investigated the very first accident in which a car was installed with the new “air bag” safety feature. The report's findings were that the air bag functioned properly in all respects.
However, the bag had only been installed on the passenger side, ana there had been no other occupants in the car other than the driver, who was seriously injured.
“It not only supplants the regular committee system; it shows a contempt for the concept of pluralism—shared authority for university governance by students and faculty.”
Combination of plans Faculty members combined elements of a plan endorsed by the senate Oct. 22, 1969, and a plan developed in 1970 by a committee headed by Paul Hadley, dean of University College and Summer Session.
The plan that Hubbard favors was developed by a commission he appointed in September, 1971, headed by Henry Reining, Jr., dean of Von KleinSmid
Center for International and Public Affairs.
Hubbard will discuss the faculty’s recommendations with the senate’s 10-member executive committee Monday.
It is not known what will happen to the assembly plan. The Council of Deans approved it Sept. 21; no mechanism exists by which students can express their opinions on the plan.
Extensive preparations More than a week before the meeting, the faculty members read major proposals and other documents, including the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities, prepared in
1966 by the American Association of University Professors, the American Council on Education and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
Seven former senate chairmen discussed their experiences and problems with the university decision-making system.
Small-group discussion Faculty members first considered in small groups the 4 major proposals on university decision-making, two groups on each plan—the current faculty-administration senate, a senate with solely faculty members, a
(Continued on page 2)
PROPOSITION 22 BATTLE—In the fight against Proposition 22, left to right, Dolores Huerta, Cesar
Chavez and Salinas farm workers at a press conference. Photo by Cris Sanchez
Commentary
Cesar Chavez to speak today
By Mark Day
“This struggle is going to last at least 25 years,” Cesar Chaves has said. “And there are going to be many, many battles, one after the other.”
The 44-year-old farm labor leader made that statement 4 years ago. He was chatting with a group of organizers about the future of the farm labor movement, sitting at the supper table of his small home on Kensington Street in Delano.
His latest struggle against the grower-sponsored Proposition 22 has brought him to Southern California, where he is speaking and organizing.
The name Chavez became a household word in September, 1965, when he and his fellow Mexican-American farm workers joined their Filipino brothers in Delano and went out on one of the longest and hardest-fought strikes in U.S. labor history.
His famous march to Sacramento in the spring of 1966 pegged him as a radically different kind of labor leader. He knew his people and
understood that the success of his struggle lay in respecting and utilizing the religious
Cesar Chavez, farm labor leader, will be in Hancock Auditorium at noon today to discuss Proposition 22.
and cultural heritage of the Mexican-American workers, who were in the majority.
Total mobilization
Unlike the many farm labor organizers that preceeded him, Chavez understood and mobilized not only the workers, but also their wives and children to make the sacrifices necessary to win the struggle.
He insisted that the churches should be on his side.
He made use of socially concerned ministers, priests and nuns on his picket lines, just as much as Eastern liberals, Chicano militants, Berkeley radicals and urban labor leaders.
This was not to be an ordinary labor struggle. Delano, like Selma, Ala., was a place where America was searching for its soul, its identity. Chavez welcomed anybody
that would help the farm workers. He needed all the help he could get. The stakes were higher because the farm interests in the state of California were powerful. And farm laborers in the United States have always been on the bottom of the heap, economically, socially and politically.
He had many historical forces on his side, such as the church’s renewed interest in the social gospel, as seen in the civil rights struggle in the South. The California Migrant Ministry began to lend him assistance from the very beginning, amid protests from conservative church people.
Catholic church support
The support of the Catholic church came slowly, but substantially. The U.S. Catholic Conference formed a farm labor committee, headed by Monsignor George Higgins of Washington, D.C. The committee was influential in bringing growers to the bargaining table in the absence of any federal bargaining machinery.
(Continued on page 3)