University of Southern California
VOL. LXI, NO. 126
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1970
Teach-in on
ROTC set for today
An ROTC Teach-in, with the purpose of educating “students and faculty about ROTC and anti-ROTC,” will be held at 11 a.m. today in Founders Hall,
Room 335.
It will feature speakers from the NROTC, AFROTC, the End-ROTC-on-Campus Committee and the Strike Committee, with each individual presenting his own personal viewpoint on the issue.
Phil Borja, chairman of the ROTC Committee which works in coordination with the Strike Committee, stressed that the hour-long program would be “a lecture, not a debate or a dialogue.”
“If the audience has any questions, the questions will be handled in small rap groups after the presentations,” he added.
Speakers will include Tim Taylor and Steve Troutman, both Navy midshipmen; Doug Dovey, an Air Force cadet;
Steve Foldes, chairman of the End-ROTC-on-Campus Committee; Stan Diorio, a law student; and Dr. Nathaniel Hickerson, associate professor of education, both of the Strike Committee;
Tim Dilenbeck from Alice’s Restaurant, and Charles Vestal, a Vietnam veteran. Other students are also expected to express their views.
McGOVERN AMENDMENT
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LETTER TO AN ALUMNA
The long roll of paper on University Avenue is actually a letter to Mrs. Richard Nixon (USC ’37).
Photo by Steve Bolinger
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Students seek petition signers
USC students will continue their strike activities today and through the weekend.
Many students will be seeking signatures for petitions endorsing the so-called McGovern amendment.
Students from USC, Cal Tech, Valley State and UCLA have canvassed the Los Angeles area seeking support from citizens for the move spearheaded by Sen. George McGovern, of South Dakota. Hhe amendment would cut off funds for U.S. military operations in Southeast Asia. Congress will vote on military appropriations at the end of this month.
More than 16,000 signatures have been gathered by USC students alone. Strike leaders here say that the petition is “our last chance to end the war.”
Today’s activities include a rap-in on economics, politics and war on the first floor of the Student Activities Center at 10:30 a.m. and an ROTC teach-in in Founders Hall, Room 335, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Community Action Peace Committee will meet in the Center for Social Action, 701 W. 34th St., at 1 p.m.
There will be a teach-in on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Founders Hall 129 at noon.
A film of David Schoenburn’s speech “Vietnam: How We Got In, How We Can Get Out” will be shown continuously in VKC Lounge every hour on the hour.
Tonight at 7:30 and 10:30, “The Battle Of Algiers” will be shown in Founders Hall, Room 133.
Tomorrow USC students who will participate in the “People’s Armed Forces Day” rally in Oceanside will meet at 7 a.m. at 2707 Portland Apt. 210.
The Oceanside actiivties will feature a march at Mission Park at 12:30 and a rally at Beach Bowl at 3 p.m. Speakers will include soldiers, marines, sailors, a Black Panther and a Chicano militant. For further information call 749-9530.
At USC tomorrow at 8 p.m. there will be a street dance followed by a movie at 10:30 p.m. in Bovard Auditorium. The film will be “W a t e r m e 1 o n Man” featuring Godfrey Cambridge. There will be a nominal admission charge.
Sunday the Urban Semester is sponsoring a teach-in for parents of USC students in either Harris Hall or Edison Auditorium of Hoffman Hall.
Sunday night at 7 p.m. there will be a mass meeting in Town and Gown to discuss the strike and plans for future activities.
Law faculty votes own grade options
By BARBARA PHILLIPS
The Law Center faculty voted to allow students the option of receiving either grades or pass-fail ratings for this semester’s classes after four hours of deliberations yesterday.
They also agreed that once a student decides which option he will take, that option must be used for all classes completed during the semester.
A third option, similar to Monday’s proposal adopted by President Topping, would allow a student to receive the grade he has earned so far in classwork and consider that his final course grade. This third option will remain, however, up to the discretion of each faculty member in the law school. It also will not apply to first year law students who are required to take finals.
Law students do not usually receive grades during a semester, but instead receive their final exam score as a class grade. Faculty and students therefore felt that a program more suitable to the structure of the law school curriculum should replace the all-university proposal announced earlier this week.
Last week, law students submitted demands to the faculty asking for a grading system which would not penalize those students desiring to finish the semester outside the classroom working for a peace.
The only demand rejected by the faculty was that every student be automatically passed for the semester.
“We voted the one proposal down because we (the faculty) felt that to disregard what a student has done at the beginning and end of a course is a denial of the concept of academic freedom,” said Gary Bellow, associate professor of law.
“To attempt to pass or fail a student, regardless of faculty evaluation would be, we feel, a disservice to both the university and to the student,” he continued.
Other decisions of the faculty were as follows:
—Students may take exams at any of three different times. All professors must offer their finals to students at the regularly scheduled time, for June 8-18 and during the first week of September.
—It is acceptable for a student to take any of his finals at any of the three times, in any combination. Thus, it would be possible for a student to take two of his finals during the scheduled time, one during June and one during September.
—If a student desires to take the grade he has earned up to the present, and his professor is allowing such an option, the student may take the class on a pass-fail basis.
—Any faculty member has the option of giving a take-home final. He still retains the privilege of controlling how long a student will have to complete the final.
—The pass-fail option will function as a three-tiered system. Either “pass,” “fail,” or “marginal” may be designated for a student’s work. Any grade within the range of 70 to 100 will be considered a “pass.” A student who earns a numerical average between 60 and 70 will be labeled “marginal.” Any student receiving below a 60 will be considered to “fail.” Credit will be given for any course mark of either “marginal” or “pass.”
If a student decides to take his classes on a pass-fail basis, his numerical scores will not be recorded at all. However, a numerical evaluation of 75 will be designated as a “pass,” and “marginal” will be valued as a 65. A grade of “fail” will be considered equal to an average of 57.
Those numerical assignments will only be used to determine if a student will be placed on probationary status. They may also be considered guidelines for outsiders wishing to evaluate a student’s grades.
In addition to developing this new grade option system, the Law Center has initiated several programs hoping to correct social injustices.
Early this semester, the students demanded Dr. Topping allow 20 minority scholarships for incoming law students. In addition to being granted those scholarships through the University Associates’
(Continued on page 4)
New military course sought
Students urging the end to ROTC activities on campus will present a proposal today at 9 a.m. to the Curriculum Committee, asking that a course be taught in military tactics for the defense of oppressed people of the world.
Steve Foldes, chairman of the Off-ROTC committee, said the proposal is being made because of the bad faith with which the administration responded to the group’s demands.
Wednesday the ad hoc committee listed three demands during a rally in Alumni Park. The demands asked for the end of Air Force and Naval ROTC activities at USC and a reply troin the university administrators within 24 hours.
The demands were to have been dii cussed in an 11 a.m. meeting of the Executive Committee of the University Senate, the Dean’s Council and officers of the ASSC.
However, no meeting was held. “President Topping made the statement (announc-
ing the meeting) in good faith,” Dr. Paul Bloland, vice-president of student and alumni affairs, said yesterday, “because he was evidently under the impression that such a meeting had been arranged. However, no such meeting was ever planned or scheduled.” The meeting, between members of the Executive Committee, the student strike committee, D*. Bloland and Daniel Nowak, interim dean of students, was held to discuss campus housekeeping chores—specifically use of the YWCA and the Student Activities Center by students.
Dr. lames McBath, chairman of the University Senate, said the meeting was held “to throw out ideas and establish a line of communication we have never had.”
Foldes said yesterday that he attended the meeting, and laier presented a petition with 610 signatures opposing the presence of ROTC on campus to Dr. John Hubbard, vice-president and provost. Twenty faculty members, one dean and one department
chairman also signed the petition, Foldes said.
Foldes, who led Wednesday’s demonstration against ROTC, emphasized that the group’s demands were definitely negotiable.
“We feel the administration acted irresponsibly and in bad faith by not responding to the demands,” he said.
“Since the administration falsely indicated to the students that the civilianization of courses had begun as of Oct. 6, 1969, I asked Dr. Hubbard to publish those budget allocations in the Daily Trojan, indicating that the program had in fact begun. I know as a member of the ROTC subcommittee that no civilianization has yet taken place.”
Hubbard said yesterday that the program approved by the subcommittee would be put into effect, and that his office had guaranteed the funding. He added that the committee would be willing to listen to new ideas concerning the ROTC issue.