Norris named new chairman of trustees
By ROXANE SINK
Kenneth Norris, a USC trustee for eight years, was elected chairman of the Board of Trustees Wednesday at the annual campus meeting. He succeeds Justin Dart, chairman for the past four years, who will now serve as vice-chairman of the board.
“I am delighted that Mr. Norris has accepted the chairmanship of the Board of Trustees," said President Hubbard. "His many generosities to the university evidence his genuine interest in USC, and all who know him know of his dedication to the goals of a great university. I certainly share the confidence the board has evidenced by electing him to this position," Dr. Hubbard added.
“The board expressed profound appreciation for the great services Dart has rendered to the university while serving as chairman of the Board of Trustees,” said Norris. Norris added that most chairmen stay in office for only three years.
In addition to being a board member, Norris has been chairman of the board of counselors for the School of Medicine since 1958. He also headed the fund raising campaign to build the medical campus.
Norris and his wife were also the principal donors to the library building on the medical campus and to the Dental Science Center on the main campus.
Norris holds the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering from USC and Doctor of Laws from Occidental.
Commenting on his future as chairman. Norris said. “I'm proud of USC. We (the trustees) are going to work hard for the growth and betterment of the university."
“I am honored by this election. My service as a trustee for both USC and Occidental College has convinced me that privately supported institutions are among our most precious national assets," Norris said.
University of Sourhern California
DAILY ® TROJAN
VOL. LXIV NO. 14
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1971
Show to mark weekend fare
KEEPING THEIR COOL — As Civic Center temper atures came close to 100 for the third consecutive day, students Debra Atken and Aaron Thain
sought relief at the edge of the Alumni Park fountain. DT photo by Tony Korody.
Campus entertainment this weekend will include a variety show in Bovard Auditorium tonight. featuring an improvisa-tional theater group, and an allgirl band in the Grill after Saturday’s football game.
Students with ID cards will be admitted free to the show at 8, sponsored by the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre. The Kev-Out Players, Black Pocket. a country blue-grass duo, The Road, a hard rock group; and Sharon Gregg, a vocalist will perform.
The Kev-Out Players work entirely from audience suggestions creating anything
from a panting dog to a Swa-hilian bystander.
“Birtha” is the name of the seven-piece female band which will provide entertainment along with “Mojave Gold," a rock group. Admission to the Grill on Saturday night will be $1, and the fountain will be open.
No classes on Columbus Day
No classes will be held and all university offices will be closed Monday, Oct. 11, in com-emoration of Columbus Day, President Hubbard announced.
Michael Trope — a politician by accident
By NANCY MYERS SMITH
He's been called a politico, an inconsistent headline seeker. But Michael Lance Trope prefers to think of himself as business-like when it comes to student politics, a sports fan in his leisure time and a serious individual who is consistent to the dictates of his conscience.
“I merely consider myself a concerned individual." says Trope, whose most recent claim to USC fame is as president of the Student Senate. “If something irks me — 1 11 do something about it.”
And few would disagree with his self-asseesment. His name first made Daily Trojan headlines early last year when he headed a drive to recall Sam Hurst, then ASSC president.
In the spring. Trope launched an attempt to silence the Free Trojan, a right-wing underground newspaper, because he claimed it was giving unfair publicity to right-wing candidates in the ASSC election.
First he launched out against the left, then the right. Although both attempts failed. Trope's name was bandied around campus political circles. No one was sure where he stood — or if he stood anywhere. Many shrugged him off as simply a politician doing what would be to his advantage at the time. Others just snickered at the mention of his name.
Trope, a junior with no particular major, has 22 USC graduates in his family. The most recent is Happy Trope, a 1968 graduate who was chief justice of the Student Court and
the university’s first Rhodes Scholar. His father, Sorrell, was a national debate champion for the universitv in the 40s.
After he becomes 23rd in the list of Trope graduates he wants to go to law school and specialize in sports-contract law. His long-term goal in life is to own a professional football team.
He repeatedly notes he is not a politician. Remembering his
tangles with the Hurst recall and the Free Trojan case. Trope says, “From the standpoint of politicality, it was stupid . . . I'm not a politician. But the people in politics are afraid of me because I'm not predictable."
He points to the character of USC politics as the reason he is unpredictable and called inconsistent. USC, he says, is a college of political cliques, all easily labeled as hvpercon-servative or hyperliberal. “I just don't go by party lines . . . It s not a sin to cross party lines."
And the Hurst-Free Trojan crossover wasn't the first time. In 1964 he passed out handbills for the Barry Gold-water presidential campaign. In 1968 he was a precinct worker for the late Robert Kennedy's campaign for the same office.
His plans for this year re-
volve around the Student Senate. He wants to make it work as an academic body concerned with evaluating courses, getting seats on university academic committees and gaining respect from the students.
After a year as Student Senate president, will he run for ASSC president?
“No. I think it would be lowering the prestige of the Student Senate to run for ASSC president ... If the senate is a successful organization. I would have no need to want to run for ASSC president ... It would be a step down to run for ASSC office.”
(Student government was formerly called the Student Senate before a 1965 constitution formed the ASSC Executive Council. The Student Senate is currently recognized as a student organization under the same conditions as a club or fraternity.)
He laughingly recalls his first public political stance as a speech he made to the Parent-Teacher's Association of Pacific Palisades High School. As an award-winning debater for the school s team he had been requested to speak to the PTA. “It was a very political speech." he says smiling. “But instead of blasting the administrators as being the conservatives holding back the students. I said they were the liberals.’’
He also remembers going to public meetings wearing his three-piece suit with his hair closely trimmed, to protest the school s dress code that didn't
permit boys to have long hair.
Although he was involved in student politics in high school as the vice president of the student council and an unsuccessful candidate for president, he says. “When I first came here I had no intention of getting involved in politics.”
He says it happened by accident. He had a proposal for a lower division humanities course he had written while attending summer school after his freshman year. He asked someone how he would go about getting it approved. He was told there was a guy named Chuck Jones, then ASSC vice president for academic affairs, that he should see.
“I didn't even know what the initials ASSC stood for . . . If it hadn't been for that curriculum proposal and a letter to the editor I wrote saying I disagreed with Sam Hurst, I still wouldn't know what the initials mean.”
(The proposal was for Humanities 290. a seminar in contemporary environmental problems and was approved by the university’s curriculum committee last June.)
But he learned quickly. And while he claims not to be politically motivated, he can tell you the latest gossip about anyone holding or desirous of hoiding an ASSC office — appointed or elected. Names like Steve Knowles. Joel Rosenzweig, Chuck Jones, Craig Caldwell. Brian and Miles
Mitchell . . . And he uses specific words to describe them.
He is unequivocal in expressing his opinions. And any reporter who has talked to him would agree that he thinks in newspaper quotes. As he explains his plans for the Student Senate or tells of his future in USC politics, he watches the reporter's pen to see what is being written down.
But he says this is his last year in the eye of the USC public. “Next year — I'm out completely. My senior year I'm going to devote to studying and getting into law school.
“I’m going	to divorce myself from student politics the same
way I got	married to it
—	abruptly.”
MICHAEL TROPE