Action group seeks help
By GENE SHELBY
Researchers are needed for an action group to change corporations from a wartime economy to focusing on social problems. The group, the Center for New Corporate Priorities, is encouraging corporations to become more involved in hiring practices, rapid transit, poverty and pollution.
The center hopes to sway industry from military investment, to socially relevant projects through investigation and publication of their activities. They hope to influence business interests through economic boycott, the media and legal action, among others.
“The main thing is that it is innately more profitable to produce for defense," Steve Schmidt, a member of the center, said.
Schmidt, a senior in urban affairs at USC. and former chairman of the Vietnam Moritorium Committee, formed the center with Jim Lowery, a graduate student in German at USC and former assistant editor for Business Week; and Al Appleby, Los Angeles chairman of the Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace.
Currently the group, who recently traced the interlocking business activities of USC's Trustees, are recruiting researchers to find ways to convert corporations to social welfare programs and methods of persuasion.
“We spent $1.1 billion on just air-launched general purpose bombs last year and only $200 million for urban mass transportation,” Lowery said.
Susceptible corporations are those, unlike the government-financed Lockheed Aircraft, who depend in part on consumers (instead of the government), on public image or good relations with labor or on recruiting university graduates for employees.
Schmidt feels that the Pentagon has become a corporation itself, spending $4 million a year in lobbying in Washington and using Vietnam as a testing grounds for weaponry.
“We have kept on fighting the war for military interests; to research, test and produce biological warfare, anti-personnel bombs and even studies on tactical nuclear warfare.”
Researchers are needed to investigate the organization of these corporations, their goals, their images, actions and need for favorable publicity. They also look into what action, economic boycotts, demonstrations, legal challenges or educational campaigns would be most effective against them.
Other areas of research are national priorities, where the government has been spending and where seed money—expenditures for research and development, such as the SST, which must be followed up with more funds—is being spent. They will also investigate corporate interdependency with each other and the government.
“The issues demanding corporate change are many; poverty, the war and oppression, racism and pollution” said Schmidt. He added that by using popular opinion and the media to change government and corporate priorities, the center is trying to make the public more aware.
“Ultimately it's a question of education.” said Schmidt. “People feel inert and think they have to accept things like this.” By using Ralph Nader tactics, though, he feels the center can affect a change in priorities in government and business.
“The best thing to happen to the United States is Ralph Nader— he showed us that the public have some power in affecting change.”
The forests, minerals and rubber plantations in Vietnam and Cambodia would have been extremely profitable if the war hadn't gone on so long,” Lowery said.
UCLA game tickets to go on sale Jan. 18 in SU 200
A limited amount of student tickets for the USC-UCLA basketball game on Feb. 6 will be available on Jan. 18.
Tbe tickets may be picked up only at the Ticket Office, Student Union 200.
They will not be available at the Information Center, as was previously announced.
To obtain tickets students must have an activity book and 25 cents.
Tbe Ticket Office will open at 9 a.m.
University of Southern California
DAILY ® TROJAN
VOL. LXII NO. 52 9	LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA	THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1971
APATHY CITED
Concert lag explored
INSIDE HERITAGE HALL	Ph°'° Bo'"""
A peek into the future home of Trojan athletics which will include coaches’offices, athletic
facilities and trophy cases
CHEECH AND CHONG
By MICHAEL COATES and ELYSE MINTY
Cheech and Chong charm audience
The sedate and quiet atmosphere which is usually a part of the patio area surrounding the Student Activities Center was shattered yesterday noon with the sounds of roaring laughter, cheers and whistles.
All of the loud goings-on were generated by the poignant humor exhibited by a newly-formed comedy twosome who go by the unlikely names of Cheech and Chong. They had just finished running through a sample of some of their funny material in front of the lunchtime gathering.
Their audience, which numbered anywhere between 150 to approximately 200 people, was thoroughly treated to an hour or so s worth of comic delirium—taking an amusingly sarcastic view of the various persons, places and things on the current vernacular.
The comic talents of Richard Marin (Cheech) and Tommy Chong (the obvious) combined within that short span of time in presenting a repetoire that made light of everything from the space program to acid-rock artists. They also poked a bit of fun at the names of such notables as Cal Worthington, the Frito Bandido and the Pontiff himself—Pope Paul.
of popularity for both groups.
The other performers suffered the same fate. Joni Mitchell drew no more than 300 persons, Foster said.
“It's not as if we have never had any big names on campus. People just don’t come. I hate to say that the students don’t care, but maybe it's true.”
Still, Foster believes that with adequate facilities and a larger budget, a major concert would be worth a try.
But the fact remains, even if student turnout could be assured, the USC entertainment budget does not allow for expensive talent. And there are no adequate facilities.
On campus, only Bovard Auditorium vaguely resembles a performing place. However, size eliminates it immediately. Bovard seats only about 1,300 persons at a time, which is hardly sufficient for a major attraction—one which hopefully would make money.
Off campus, there is the Shrine Auditorium with a seating capacity of 6,500. It has parking facilities and the acoustics are listenable.
“The Shrine has turned us down,” Foster said, “the reason being that they had trouble with a Lee Michaels concert last year and ever since then they won’t rent to students or anyone trying to put on a rock concert.”
W. L. McMeekin, booking agent and manager of the Shrine confirmed Foster’s statement.
“The board of trustees of this organization (the Shriners) has prohibited rock concerts due to the destruction of property and security problems. In September, there were seats burned and a general riot occurred, and since then, no rock concerts are permitted. If we were approached by someone desiring to rent the auditorium for a
(Continued on page 2)
Each year, a number of students ask: “Why doesn’t USC ever present a big name act in con cert? You know, someone we’ve all heard of.” Though there is a basis for the question, it is not entirely accurate. USC has never featured artists such as Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Elton John, Santana or James Taylor.
Within the last four years, however, Jefferson Airplane, Iron Butterfly, the Association, Lou Rawls, Glenn Yarborough and Joni Mitchell have all appeared on campus.
Each concert lost money. Only the Glenn Yarborough act came close to breaking even.
The reason for the lack of supergroups and superstars can be attributed to a lack of funds and facilities. And perhaps it is fortunate that such is the case, because it is not altogether certain that super concerts would fare any better than those staged here in the past.
Despite the inevitability of the question concerning big names, there appears to be a general student disinterest in concerts on this campus. Booking costs were only partly responsible for past failures. Students simply did not turn out for the performances.
According to Ken Foster, ASSC entertainment director, the Jefferson Airplane-Iron Butterfly double bill drew only 1,600 persons for their twc performances in Bovard Auditorium. Some 2,600 seats were available. And this was at the height
Photo by Donnie Wallace