volume Ixv, number 89
tuesday, march 13, 1973
Daily CS Trojan
university of southern California los angeles, California
Nixon’s budget may affect enrollment
By Loren Ledin
associate editor
When Congress considers the passage of President Nixon’s proposed 1973-74 budget in the upcoming weeks, the future of several hundred USC students may be at stake.
That's the portion ofthe undergraduates and graduates currently receiving federal financial aid under the Educational Opportunity Grant and National Direct Student Loan programs—each of which is scheduled for starvation or death under the President’s $268.7 billion budget.
If Congress accepts the new budget, and neither Nixon nor the university is able to provide alternative aid programs for the 856 students involved with the programs here, then conceivably a good percentage of the students could be forced to transfer elsewhere.
In addition, many students now receiving aid directly from the university may find their piece of the USC pot a little too small to alleviate financial crisis, should the university attempt to spread its aid to the students affected by the budget cuts.
Said Pamela Walbom. director of the Student Aid Office, “Right now the situation is pretty bad.”
Both the President and the university have alternatives available which they say should avert financial disaster for affected students. But these proposals could run into snags.
Nixon has instituted in his budget for 1973-74 the $622 million Basic Opportunity Grants program. This will replace the $210 million for the Educational Opportunity Grant and $309 million for the National Direct Student Loan alloted the last fiscal year.
Neither of the programs will receive any funds under the proposed budget for 1973-74, with National Direct Student Loan getting $5 million for 1974-75. The Basic Opportunity Grants allotment jumps to $959 million for 1974-75.
The College Work-Study Program will receive $250 million for 1973-74 as opposed to $270 million last year. The Federally Insured Student Loan Program is unaffected by budget cuts with its allotment of $310 million.
The problem with Basic Opportunity Grants, WTalbom said, is that the abrupt shift from the old programs to the new program could cause difficulties for students awaiting their funds for the fall.
“The problem is how students are going to get their loans approved by September,” she said.
If Congress were to accept the Nixon budget and Basic Opportunity Grants, then the work completed on the old programs’ applications would probably be scrapped and the tedious task of processing applications for Basic Opportunity Grants would start anew.
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Press conference set for tuition hike suit
Law students suing the university and the trustees over the tuition increases the students claim are illegal will hold a press conference this afternoon in the office of their attorney.
The meeting, at which plaintiffs for the two suits will appear, is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. in the office of Jack Levine, an attorney with the firm of Levy, Van Bourg and Hackler, located at 3550 Wilshire Blvd., suite 1020.
Spokesmen for the law students said that background information and details of the suits will be given to reporters attending the conference.
Activities in connection with the suit will move to the campus Thursday with a rally in front of Tommy Trojan at 12:30 p.m., where more information regarding the suits will be available.
The two suits, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, charge the university and Board of Trustees with breach of con-
tract in raising tuition since
1970.
Thestudents claimthatthe university’s ignoring consultation with official student representatives, as required in section four of the “Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities” published in SCampus, constitutes a breach of contract on the part of the university.
Both suits are class action suits seeking to recover damages from the university totaling more than $5 million. Both suits have been filed by law students, one on behalf of all law students, the other on behalf of undergraduate students attending USC from 1970 to the present.
A spokesman for the Tuition Action Committee, a group composed of law students and some undergraduates, supporting the suits, said that students from other professional schools, such as business or medicine, who wish to be included in the suits may contact the committee at 746-6496 or in the Law Center, 4.
Krishna devotee ousted
Satsangananda (right), a representative of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, talks about his religious views with Jim Davis, a faculty member of the Experimental College.
The Krishna devotee was attempting to raise money by distributing books and materials.
Daily Trojan photo by Michael Sedano.
He was later ordered off campus by a Campus Security officer who said the man was not observing rules for campus soliciting. Campus Security said that the man could not approach students: they’d have to come to him.
Student funds may be cut from Great Issues Forum
By Kit Spalding
Any remaining student funds in the 1972-73 budget of the Great Issues Forum will probably be withdrawn in accordance with action taken Friday by the Programming Board.
The move to reclaim the money represented an attempt by the board to reform the university speakers' program. The program has recently been
Meeting to examine student government
The relationship between the University Council. an advisory body being formed by President John Hubbard, and the formulation of a new student government will be discussed in an all-day meeting Saturday, in the Town and Gown Foyer.
The session will begin at 9 a.m. with coffee. The meeting will start at 9:30 a.m.
Interested persons should contact the Student Activities Office. Student Union 303 by 4:00 p.m. Wednesday.
Notification of attendance is necessary to arrange lunches for those present.
Further information is available by calling the Student Activities Office at 746-2791.
suffering from extremely small attendance.
The Great Issues Forum, the university committee in charge of contracting prominent speakers for campus appearances, has been operating with a September to June budget of $14,000 half of which was allocated by the Programming Board. Of the estimated $4,000 that remains, $2,000 is student money.
The motion to recall the funds, made Clby Cliff Ishii, academic and educational programs director, also recommended that an investigation be made ofthe committee’s program development, with focus on the relationship between attendance, publicity and speaker selection.
Ishii charged that faculty members on the committee have sometimes pushed through their private preferences for speakers with little regard given to student interest. He cited examples of four speakers contracted by this year's committee at a combined cost of about $2,500 who. all together, drew less than 200 students.
In addition, he said that publicity for speakers has. in some cases, been negligible.
He emphasized that the board considered the withdrawal of student funds as a last-resort attempt to force the Great Issues Forum both to reevaluate its policies of selection and publicity
and to reorganize its structure, which he said was too large and has a membership which is too vaguely defined to be effective.
“The committee is too autonomous and unresponsive,” said Ishii. "The student members are appointed by a vague process and I have no idea how the faculty are appointed.”
Marilyn Smith, social and cultural programs director of the Programming Board and a member of the Great Issues Forum, acknowledged that there was “a great deal of student dissatisfaction with the committee.” She said that several students on the committee had warned faculty members that such speakers as Jacques Piccard and Charles West, who were contracted at a combined cost of $1,500, would draw few students.
About 80 listeners turned out for Piccard and about 10 for West.
The board agreed to reclaim only those funds that have not yet been allocated. Thus, the appearances of several, as yet, unpaid speakers planned for the upcoming semester, including Julian Bond. James Buckley and Rollo May, will not be affected.
Before the board’s action becomes final, it must first be approved by the Fee Allocations Board.
Ishii said that he hoped that the board’s move
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