University of Southern California
SUMMER
TROJAN
VOL. LXIII
NO. 5
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA
TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1971
Community Center stamps out loafing
By John Didion Western High School
Summertime in the ghetto is not the same as summertime in the suburbs. Instead of vacations and parties, a ghetto summer is full of unemployment and idle time.
However, the USC Community Center has expanded its regular programs for the summer in an attempt to remedy this situation.
The Community Center is sponsored by the Richard King Mellon Charitable Trust and serves close to 400 youngsters a day. Mr. Gilbert Williams, Director of the Community Center, outlines the center's goals as serving the needs of the community with the emphasis on youth.
The center has filled 40 job slots this summer and it is hoped that many more can be filled before school starts.
Aside from job placement, the center is open daily from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. offering its recreational facilities to the community’s youth. Free breakfasts and lunches are served five days a week as another service of the center.
Various field trips to Southern California's tourist attractions take place every Tuesday at a cost of 50 cents per child. In the words of Mr. Williams. “These trips benefit the youngsters who never get out of the community. ”
Community Center activities such as basketball, softball, pool, tennis, ping pong, swimming, movies, the girls' drill team, karate class and Afro modern dance class will, according to Mr. Williams, “keep the youngster’s energies dir* ected in positive areas.”
The center will also sponsor a “Freedom School” which will teach the youth their culture and heritage.
The Martin Luther King
Memorial Camp in the San Jacinto Mountains is sponsored by the community center for children ages 8-12 and will run in one week sessions from July 11 to August 7. This camp will offer swimming, horseback riding, archery and sports and will give the children a chance to live in a country atmosphere.
The Community Center’s extensive summer programs will last until September 11. Until that time it will continue to offer the type of summer the youth of the community would otherwise miss.
Engineer
retraining
underway
Nineteen engineers and chemists displaced by cutbacks in the aerospace industry in Southern California are being retrained to become administrators of air pollution control organizations in an intensive 14-week effort conducted by USC s Air Pollution Control Institute.
The Institute, situated on the Civic Campus downtown, has trained three classes per year since 1965. The class for the former aerospace people is the fourth to be taught this year and is conducted under the auspices of the Pacific Southwest Universities Association (PSUA) as a pilot program.
Participating in the training are faculty from the School of Public Administration, Engineering and Medicine and from UCLA, University of California at Irvine, University of California at Riverside, and federal-to-city level governmental personnel, as well as representatives from various industries and citizens' groups.
Photo by Bruce Botinger
TO THE BUS
Linda Vaughn points way to bus for Community Center field trip. Trips are scheduled for each Tuesday during the summer.
Summer of'71 worst job situation in years
By Mike Fairchild Western High School
The job situation this summer is the grimmest in years.
Aside from students, the person who realizes this most is Snydley Smith, director of Financial Aid and the Student Employment Service on campus.
“On the average, 50 students per day come to me looking for employment.” commented Mr. Smith, “but the jobs just
aren't there.”
A graphic illustration of the situation were the 536 employers contacted by the Employment Service. Of the 536, who had contacted the service in past years, only 17 responded positively.
“Most of these jobs.” Smith points out, “are commission type, and don’t appeal to the majority of students.”
Despite the snails’ pace of job openings, the Employment
H. LESLIE HOFFMAN
Trustee dies in Switzerland
H. Leslie Hoffman, a member of the USC Board of Trustees, died Thursday, in Zurich, Switzerland after a long illness. He was 65 years old.
An acknowledged patron of the arts, he also has been the prime mover in charting the course and raising funds for the expansion of USC.
A native of Michigan, Mr. Hoffman attended Albion College in that state, finding time during his undergraduate days to simultaneously operate three campus-oriented small businesses. In his first post-campus job. he needed all of four months to rise to night superintendent of 1,500 employees of a radio manufacturer.
But the West beckoned, and he made the trek in 1929. a challenging year for a stock and bond salesman, which was his initial endeavor in California. In 1930 he joined Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., where he spent seven years, rising to director of retail operations in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Hoffman left Firestone to found and operate an electrical distributorship.
In 1941, just prior to the Pearl Harbor explosion, he founded the present Hoffman Electronics Corp. by purchasing a small radio manufacturing company. However, the outbreak of World War II soon terminated its consumer business.
It was at this time that Mr. Hoffman proved his ability as an industry leader. He organized the West Coast Electronic Manufacturers Association (now the Western Electronic Manufacturers Association) to persuade a skeptical government that California companies could do more for the nation than build ships and airplanes. Convinced that West Coast electronics had unrecognized capabilities and an excellent capacity for growth, he took his case to Washington. And he won it. Defense contracts for electronic equipment, previously limited to Eastern and Midwestern manufacturers, began to flow across the Rockies. During this period Mr. Hoffman also was instrumental in founding the now giant Western
Electronics Show and Convention.
From 1959 to 1967 Mr. Hoffman also owned and operated Western Mortgage Corp.. which he built into one of the largest such firms in existence. During the latter part of this period his attention shifted to Hawaii, Australia and other portions of the Pacific Basin. To participate fully in “the last great frontier,” he became a major stockholder in AMFAC Inc. of Honolulu, a widely diversified company with major interests in land development, merchandising and associated fields. As an exceptionally active AMFAC director, Mr. Hoffman is imbuing that company with his pioneering spirit.
But Mr. Hoffman’s vocation occupies only a portion of his energy and drive. Like his wife, Elaine Stevely Hoffman, deeply concerned with civic and cultural activities, he originated USC’s master plan and led a drive that raised more than $100 million in four-and-one-half years. Original projections called for 20 years to raise that sum.
He and his family personally donated more than $2 million toward establishment of the H. Leslie Hoffman Graduate School of Business and the Elaine Stevely Hoffman Medical Research Center. Other donations of the Hoffman family have been pivotal in providing the French Impressionistic Gallery of the Los Angeles Museum of Art and the Gladys Petersen Art Studio at West Ridge School in Pasadena.
Mr. Hoffman’s achievements have been acknowledged in many ways. He holds honorary doctor of law degrees from the University of Southern California and Albion College, the Medal of Honor from the Electronics Industries Association, and the Medal of Achievement from the Western Electronic Manufacturers Association. Mr. Hoffman is the only man to be honored by medals from both organizations.
He is survived by his wife, Elaine and one daughter, Mrs.
Jane Popovich of San Marino.
Service is open from 8:30-12:00 a.m. daily for students.
Whether a student has a job or not, Mr. Smith suggests he begin planning for the 71-72 year, and save whatever income he has for the coming expenses.
“In general, assistance funds for the 71-72 year will be very tight,” continues Smith. “Government programs are being cut back. Not only because of the economy situation, but also more schools (like JC’s) are getting federal programs. "
Smith’s principle suggestion to students stresses that applications for any scholarship be turned in as early as possible. Of particular importance are the federally insured loans which, Smith recommends, be submitted in mid-July. The applications are processed in Room 201 of the Student Union from 9-11 a.m. daily.
Any other questions concerning financial assistance, or summer employment should be directed to Mr. Smith whose door is “always open. ”
Bursar's office
All Staff and Students: Effective immediately, hours for transacting business in the Bursar’s office will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Evening and Saturday office hours have been discontinued.