Minnes to oppose constitution
By ANDY MILLER Editor
» Fred Minnes, ASSC president, announced yesterday that he will campaign against the ratification of the proposed ASSC Constitution.
“I’m opposed to the revised constitution and I’m urging students to vote no during the special constitutional election,” Minnes said. He said he was basing his opposition on four aspects of the revised constitution: the preamble, the addition of three minority representatives, a too-large ASSC Executive Council and an impolitic manner by which the council amended the document, rather than consulting the Constitutional Review Committee.
“I think it’s unfortunate that it has become necessary to defeat the entire constitution to compensate for the irrational and irresponsible actions of a handful of executive council members,” Minnes said. “In my opinion there is much of value in the revised constitution but it does not outweigh the negative aspects.”
Minnes’ opposition to the constitution surprised both Mark Savit, vice-president
of academic affairs, and Stan Diorio, graduate representative. Savit and Diorio had pushed a package of amendments to the constitution through the Feb. 24 council meeting where the ASSC approved the document.
One of their amendments was the new preamble, which includes a controversial third paragraph: “Further, we understand that the university as it presently operates, does not fully recognize all of our rights as equal partners in the university and does, in fact, have the power, but not the right to change or abrogate this constitution.”
The proposed ASSC Constitution will require a simple majority in a special constitutional election, which is scheduled for March 11. If defeated, the current ASSC constitution, which was ratified March 30, 1966, will continue to be the official constitution.
“Although I don't think the preamble is in bad taste as others do, I feel it has a very arrogant tone,” Minnes said. “It is supposed to set the spirit for the rest of the document, and the proposed preamble does not do that,”
On minority representatives, Minnes said that he felt it would be detrimental in the long run for minority students to have special treatment on the executive council. “There is also a problem in defining what is a minority student and determining the selection procedure. As it stands in the revised constitution, the selection procedure is self-defeating and unworkable,” he said.
“The selection of the minority representative is illustrative of the way the executive council simply tore into the revised constitution without sufficient thought or consideration.”
The Constitutional Review Committee began dissecting the document in mid-November, and finally brought their recommendations to the council Feb. 24. Some of the changes made are:
—Provisions that would allow a freshman to run for ASSC president, in order to serve his sophomore year.
—Reduction in the number of signatures required on referendum and initiative proceedings from 10 percent to seven percent.
—Addition of one graduate representative.
—Elimination of a 2.5 grade point average needed to hold office.
—Authority for the Student Court to remove elected or appointed officials.
Minnes also said that he felt the new constitution would add too many members to the executive council. “I think the executive council—and I’m sorry I hadn’t thought of this before — is at present too large a body to work effectively. And, the revised constitution only aggravates this problem by adding four more council members.
“We should reject the revised constitution and investigate the possibility of reapportioning the entire council and substantially reduce the total number of council members.”
“I also think that the executive council was extremely irresponsible by showing almost no interest in the constitutional revisions until the Constitutional Review Committee had completed its work.
“Any significant revision such as the minority student representatives should have been transmitted to the committee
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University of Southern California
DAILY • TROJAN
VOL. LXI, NO. 86	LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA	THURS., MARCH 5, 1970
PROGRESS ON LAW CENTER CONTINUES — EVEN IN RAIN
Buldozer rumbles past rising center, due for completion in September
Photo by Steve Bolinger
MINORITY FUND QUESTIONED
YAF opposes scholarship fee
John McGuiness, c a m pus chairman of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) said his group will probably be against
a proposed $4 student fee hike to fund scholarships for minority students.
Both McGuiness and Pat No-
lan, former YAF chairman, said they expect the student body to reject the measure in the April election.
They also said they are opposed to all ASSC student fees and that their stand against the additional fee is in line with that policy.
McGuiness said he was in favor of more minority scholarships, but questioned their defrayment by the students.
“I think it would be better if the university stepped up its own scholarship p r o g r a m,” said McGuiness. “State and federal scholarships for these minority students would be better than putting the burden on our own students.”
McGuiness and Nolan emphasized that the group has not taken any official policy on the minority scholarships as yet, but will make their policy known before the election.
Students to vote on revised constitution
The ASSC’s revised constitution will face voter approval or rejection in a special election March 11.
Copies of the proposed constitution will be available tomorrow at the YWCA, the Student Activities Center and the Student Union, Room 321.
Students will vote gther for or against the entire document.
Voting will take place in front of Bovard Auditorium from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Petitions for the general election in April will be available at the YWCA, the Student Activities Center, and the ASSC office on March 9. They must be returned to the YWCA by 1 p.m. on March 20.
Campaigning begins March 30. The primary election will be held April 7-8 and the runoff will take place April 15.
If the new constitution is voted in there will be two changes in voting for the general election: No ballot for a senior representa-' tive and ballots for seven graduate representatives instead of six.
Dan Wallace, senior in pre-med. was unanimously endorsed by the ASSC as election commissioner in the group's meeting Tuesday.
MD tells risk of criminal abortions
By MARYLENE CHUN
It is apparent that the majority of Californians would be in favor of a more liberalized law regarding abortion, Dr. Keith Russell said in a joint talk with Dr. Bill Anderson in Founders Hall yesterday.
A preferred law would allow legal abortions, almost upon the request of the pregnant woman, Russell said.
Russell is the chairman of the Maternal Mortality Board of the American Medical Association. Anderson has been teaching at the USC-County General Hospital for 12 years and heads the gynecology section at the School of Medicine.
The talk, along with a film on abortion, was part of the Associated Women Students’ and Student Y’s “Eros and Errors” program.
Before going into legal aspects of abortion, Anderson explained what abortion is.
“An abortion is a termination of a pregnancy prior to viability,” he said. “Viability is the capability of a fetus to survive in an outside environment, usually about 20 weeks.”
A pregnancy can terminate by itself or be induced by outside forces, he explained. He estimated that 10 percent of all pregnancies are terminated by spontaneous abortion or miscarriage.
Of the induced abortion he listed two categories, Therapeutic or surgical abortion, which is medically approved and carried out legally in an authorized hospital, and criminal abortion, which is illegal and medically unauthorized.
Anderson said he was reluctant to dignify illegal abortion bv placing it under the category of surgical procedure.
Criminal abortion is the single greatest cause of maternal mortality, constituting about 40 percent of all maternal deaths.
Illegal abortionists induce
abortions through preparations which are taken orally, most of which do not work and are injurious to the woman’s health, he said.
The other type of criminal abortion would be mechanical, through suction or the introduction of objects such as a coat hanger or liquids in the uterine cavity.
Besides the fact that most of these methods do not induce an abortion, the woman runs the risk of hemorrhaging, infection, and perforation of the uterus, Anderson said.
In the case of injection of substances like soap, blindness or a shutdown of the kidneys may ensue.
There is much confusion on the legal aspects of an abortion. One connotation of the word abortion is that it is an illegal clandestine operation, Russell said.
Under a new law in California, an abortion may be legally obtained if the pregnancy threatens the physical or mental health of the mother, or is the product of incest or rape.
The law does not take into consideration the birth of a severely damaged baby due to German measles or Thalidi-mide.
ASSC elects CACC head
The ASSC Executive Council officially confirmed the reelection of Dan Smith as executive director of the Community Action Coordinating Council Tuesday.
Smith, a sophomore, was elected to a second term Monday by an 8-2 vote over Maurice Becnel, a sophomore business major.
The Community Action Coordinating Council is the administrative umbrella for ail student-sponsored community action programs.