DAILY
University of Southern California
TROJAN
VOL. LDC
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1968
NO. 31
Weird events in Psychology 320
An enormous mute rodent with a cardboard face padded into a psychology class yesterday, sat down, listened to a lecture on the research findings of Clovis Shepherd for about 45 minutes then hitched up its fur and walked out.
Later in the same day a man in a white uniform entered the same class and silently dispensed ice cream.
Members of the class—Psychology 320. Group communication and discussion — speculated afterwards that the rat and the ice cream man were somehow related to two other mysterious incidents.
Earlier in the semester what appeared to be a Victorian butler entered and pasged around cake. He was followed a few days later by an unknown decorator who draped the room in crepe paper, put bowls of punch by the lectern and wrote “Happy Birthday to Me” on the blackboard.
Psychology 320 class plagued by “rodent” and other mysterious incidents
Candidates' appeals due in disqualification hassle
Election Commissioner Ray Cochard said Monday that valid excuses could prevent the four ASSC candidates who missed Monday’s mandatory meeting in the Student Lounge from being disqualified.
Yesterday he braced for the 11 days of ASSC elections that begin today by disqualifying three of them, pending an appeal to the ASSC Board of Inquiry.
The fourth absentee candidate, Jeff Lewis, withdrew voluntarily when he discovered he didn’t have enough units to make the race for sophomore representative.
The other candidates—Doug Gallup. running for AMS president; Joe
La Torre, junior representative; and Peter Salvatori, sophomore representative—will have the opportunity tp make their case for reinstatement at the meeting of the Board of Inquiry tomorrow night at 7.
The board, which functions as the ASSC Student Court during the rest of the year, will consider appeals based only on the Ell ection Code and the ASSC Constitution.
Cochard officially disqualified the three students yesterday afternoon after receiving a complaint from Andy Miller.
Miller, a candidate for AMS vice-president and campaign manager for AWS vice-presidential candidate Jan-
Jane Lindenthal runs for university affairs VP
Jane Lindenthal, president of the Women's Housing Association, announced her platform yesterday in her campaign for the office of ASSC vice-president for university affairs.
"At USC we need an abundance of activity in all areas of student life.” she said.
“What this means is continuance of those programs and policies which are successful, reappraisal of those which are unsatisfactory and creativity in leadership to develop a new and exciting atmosphere in academics, in services, in student policies and in student programs.
“Those areas of responsibility are incumbent in the Office of Vice-President of University Affairs.” said Miss Lindenthal, a junior in philosophy and comparative literature.
Emphasizing continuance and innovation. she proposes investigating specific aspects of student services, curriculum, academic innovations and policies and processes.
She listed many specific ideas which she plans to investigate.
Under student services are free medicine, a mutual ticket agency, vocational guidance, ASSC and Los Angeles newsletter, distribution of existing calendar of USC events, a traffic light at 35th Street, an intercom in the Grill, a student directory, kiosks and a student-faculty coffee lounge.
Miss Lindenthal suggested the possibility of investigations into physical education grades and senior colloquia. a review of LAS requirements and waiver exams for required courses.
Her ideas for academic innovations included a better artist-in-resi-dence program and extended conferences on Vietnam, drugs, mock political conventions and the megaversity versus the multiversity.
She would also like to investigate having a free speech area, a university free hour for speakers and meetings and one optional pass - fail in a nonmajor course each semester.
Miss Lindenthal also mentioned
(Continued on Page 2)
Jane Lindenthal
ice Tait, said Cochard had failed to adhere to the Election Code.
“Above all, the Election Code must be upheld. If the appeals are granted, the code will be rendered useless,” Miller said.
Miller also asked for the disqualification of Donna DeDiemar, Miss Tait's only competition for the AWS vice-presidency, on the ground that she was absent from the meeting and not represented by a written proxy.
Cochard, however, noted that the Election Code does not require a written proxy, but only that “each candidate or his proxy must be pres-
The ASSC presidential candidates will hold a debate at the IFC meeting tonight at 10 in the East Case Study Room of Hoffman Hall.
The debate, which is oopen to all students, will follow the regular IFC meeting.
Ralph Lippman, Bill Mauk and Gary Rafferty are running for the top ASSC office.
ent.” Two students served as proxies for Miss DeDiemar.
“Miller was wrong in saying five candidates were absent,” Cochard explained.
“Four candidates were not presend and did not have proxies. Many others, Miss DeDiemar among them, were not present but did have proxies.
“The candidate petitions did ask for written proxies, but that was only to emphasize the importance of the meeting. The Election Code is the only law. It does not require written prox-is, and I never asked for them at the meeting.”
Cochard said that although he
personally feels any student interested enough to run for election should be allowed to do so, he is bound by the Elections Code to disqualify those candidates who violated it.
“After the election, I plan to ask for some changes in the code,” he said.
Cochard also criticized the code as undemocratic for not allowing disqualified candidates to win as write-ins, even if the majority of students vote for them.
Prof to try block of LBJ war plan
By STAN METZLER
Editor
Dr. Edward Borgers, chairman of the Department of Telecommunications, will follow his conscience today to Washington, D.C.
Dr. Borgers, a member of the American Friends Service Committee who opposes the war, will spend 10 days in the capital trying to persuade senators and congressmen from giving President Johnson a declaration of war.
“One of our observers, who just returned to Washington from Vietnam, believes the United States will suffer a serious defeat in Khe Sanh within a month, and that President Johnson will use this as a basis for calling for a declaration of war.” Dr. Borgers told the Daily Trojan yesterday.
“His position is that many in the Senate and House are very much opposed to the President's policy, but are convinced it will be political suicide to say so.
“But after the events of the last two weeks. I don't think we should be quite so sure who thinks what. Certainly the atmosphere of those who hope for a change is brighter than it’s ever been before.”
For Dr. Borgers, the most important change is an end to what he sees as a criminal war.
The pledge of allegiance, he noted, was changed under President Eisenhower's administration to include the phrase, “one nation, under God.”
“I am one of the few among us who really feels that means something,” he explained.
“I feel my first loyalty must be to God.
“If I think the war is a criminal war. as I do. then it is my first, my most serious, profound, religious responsibility to protest it on the grounds that it is wrong.
“This has nothing to do with national strategy or whether or not we can win. Under God it is wrong.”
While in Washington, Dr. Borgers will speak to as many government officials as he can fit into his schedule, primarily to dissuade them from supporting a Congressional declaration of war.
“It now seems that President Johnson will have very little chance for re-election unless he can get Congress to declare war. This would let him silence his opposition by labeling it treason and putting the dissenters in prison.
“My judgment of the man's character is that that is exactly what he would do. If I am wrong, nothing would please me more than to apologize.”
But he will also offer various specific suggestions.
These include “making the experiment of stopping the bombs in North Vietnam,” recognizing the National Liberation Front as a necessary consulting body in any negotiations, and working to admit Vietnam and Red China to the United Nations.
“I also think we should follow our only official commitment as a nation,” he said, “by carrying out the United Nations charter.
“The commitments Mr. Johnson talks about were all presidential assurances; they were all m^de to governments that have ceased to exist; and they were all made in direct violation of our official pledge in the U.N.”
Dr. Borgers also urged any students or faculty who oppose the war to write, telegraph or phone their representatives in Washington immediately.
“Whatever your view of the war,” he explained, “now is the time to speak. Within the next 30 days the essential direction of the nation will b;; set for the next decade.
“If you feel something strongly, take a little time and let it be known.”
ASSC members debate
open door visitation plan
“I want to apologize for the copout,” said MHA President Fred Minnes at yesterday’s ASSC meeting. “But President Topping said we would have immediate approval of the dorm visitation proposal if we put in an ‘open door’ policy.”
Minnes reported that at a recent meeting of the Men’s Housing Association floor presidents it was decided that a clause requiring that the doors to rooms be left open during visitations should be included in the proposal. John Wardlow, Associated Men Students president, termed this a “cop-out.”
“This is just another example of a paper proposal being passed on to the administration.” he said. “The students come up with something and the administration says yes. but here’s the catch: you’ve got to take the purpose out of the proposal. Students wanted privacy in their rooms.
Now they might get it — with the doors open.”
Bob Innes, graduate representative from the School of Law, disagreed.
“I don’t think this is a ‘cop-out’ at all. In essence, we have created an open door for ourselves,” he said.
Innes cited examples of other schools which have had similar problems with dorm visitations.
“At the school I attended as an undergraduate, our dorm proposal was finally brought down to visitation between 3 to 5 p.m. every other Sunday with doors open. The next year we could have visitors each weekend and by the year after that the open door clause was removed. At least this is a step for USC.” he said.
Minnes plans to meet with President Topping tomorrow to discuss approval of the amended proposal.
STRONG ANTI-AMERICAN FEELING
Dockson talks on U. S. image
By JO ELLEN KRUMM
“We have a great problem overseas based on our unpopular image and the war in Vietnam.” said Dr. Robert R. Dockson, dean of the School of Business Administration, after his recent trip around the world.
He returned Saturday night from his three and one-half week tour of seven countries. He went, at the request of the Department of State, on a speaking tour in foreign countries to try to combat anti-American feelings.
“We haven’t done the job in the international arena since World War n,” he said. “We have failed to communicate our national, purpose to the rest of the world.”
He suggested that the Communist Chinese pose another problem, particularly to the people of Asia.
“The Asian people feel that the Chinese must be stopped, but they don’t think they can do anything about it,” Dr. Dockson said.
“They feel the United States is the only country that can do it.”
He was received differently by the various audiences to whom he spoke. Sometimes he received thunderous applause. At other times he was booed and heckled.
“In Pakistan, nearly every serious discussion with students, businessmen and government personnel eventually got around to the subject of the Vietnam War,” he said.
“While all seemed to condemn us for that holocaust, a little probing invariably turned up other reasons than those expressed in this country for opposing our stand.
“The Pakistanis feel that we let them down in 1965 during the India-Pakistan War, and as a consequence, they are vulnerable to India which they consider their mortal enemy.
“Students are being told that the long period of sustained growth in the United States is due to the war and unless we produce for war, our economy will collapse,” Dr. Dockson continued.
“Many of them believe we would supply their country with the equipment they need to defend themselves against India if it were not for Vietnam.
“The Pakistanis’ fear of India is very real and our support of India, as well as our lack of support of Pakistan, is a burning issue coloring all of their thinking about the United States.
“I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” he said.
His cultural exchange tour included visits to London, Athens, Cairo, Karachi, Delhi, Bombay,
Singapore and Saigon.
“The subjects discussed ranged from the Vietnam War to management education and its role in a developing nation,” he said.
Dr. Dockson said that he felt depressed by what he had seen on his trip.
“I felt a genuine concern over what appeared to be the universal lack of understanding of what America is and what it stands for.”
He said that in Dacca. East Pakistan, a group of students heckled and booed him over America’s role in Vietnam, and a group of students at the University of Bombay claimed it was a myth that the American consumer had any real choice of products.
“In India, there appears to be considerably less anti-Americanism than in Pakistan.” he said, adding that this was probably an oversimplification because India has such marked diversity in philosophy and politics.
Dr. Dockson summed up what he had learned on his trip by warning of the possibility of a catastrophic war in 20 or 30 years, a war which the U.S. would not win.
This war could be prevented by improving work in our relations with the rest of the world, especially on the part of well-educated young people, Dr. Dockson suggested.
If no decision is reached at that time the subject will again be brought up at the joint meeting of the ASSC Council. Dr. Topping and the vice-presidents of the university.
Plans for the forthcoming Forum Committee panel discussion,” Vietnam: Napalm.” in which representatives of Dow Chemical Company, the American Society of Friends and a faculty member from UCLA will discuss the pros and cons of napalm, were also reviewed at the meeting.
Shelley Linderman, senior representative. objected to ASSC sponsorship of the program.
“I don’t see the validity of the ASSC sponsoring a discussion on napalm,” he said. “It would be lowering the question of Vietnam to an emotional level.
“I think it is incredible that we should get bogged down on something like this.”
He moved that the council not sponsor the discussion and propose some other topic.
“Open discussion is the essence of education.” Bob Lutz, vice-president of academic affairs, said in defense of the planned forum.
Linderman’s motion was defeated.
Other business included a brief discussion of the Drinking Proposal, which states that beer should be sold at the Grill. However, consideration of the issue was postponed until Monday’s joint meeting.
TICKETS ON SALE FOR ROCK CONCE
Tickets are still on sale for the two performances of The Jefferson Airplane, The Iron Butterfly and The Headlight Light Show to be held March 30 in Bovard Auditorium.
They may be bought for $3, $2 and $1.50 each, all day in 209 Student Union and at the YWCA. During the morning, tickets may be purchased in front of Founders Hall.
Tickets may be bought in blocks by calling the YWCA. Further information can be supplied by contacting the YWCA.