Custodians say work conditions are substandard
LIBRARY DIM-OUT—Doheny Library was lit by candlelight for a few minutes at noon Tuesday, as the library staff protested the elimination of federal library appropriations. The dim-out was
staged ortfy at the entrance of the library, and was part of a nationwide demonstration organized by the American Library Association. DT photo by Gehrig Ikeda.
Senate to pick representatives, officers in today’s final meeting
The University Senate, an advisory body composed of administration and faculty members, is holding it’s last meeting today.
The group will elect officers for the new Faculty Senate and faculty representatives-at-large to the University Council.
The University Senate is separating into these two bodies in the hopes of creating increased attendance and constructive participation.
The University Council will serve as an advisory body to President Hubbard. It will work largely out of the presidents’ office and consist of 87 members. The members are selected from each of the 20 divisions of the university. Each division may have one student, one administrator and two faculty members on the council.
The Faculty Senate will contain faculty members only. This body will serve as
Former POWs talk of readjustment and effects of protesters
By Don La Plante
assistant city editor
“It took me about five minutes to readjust. I got a glass of gin and I felt just great,” said John Nasmyth, a former prisoner of war who spoke on campus Tuesday.
Nasmyth, a captain, shared the platform with Lt. Colonel Robert W. Barnett, a 1953 graduate of USC.
Barnett took a more serious approach to the problems of readjustment, saying that he had been told everything bad about the United States by the North Vietnamese. He said he was expecting the worst but was impressed with the progress he saw.
Both pilots said that they felt the activities of the antiwar movement in the United States prolonged their captivity by at least 18 months.
“The North Vietnamese told their people to hold on for two years in 1970, until the elections. They said the lovers of freedom will win and the gangsters in the White House will be thrown out,” Nasmyth said.
Nasmyth also came down on the American peace movement members, such as Jane Fonda, Ramsey Clark and Tom Hayden, who visited Hanoi.
“The people who came saw only the prisoners who were held in special camps. The visitors said they saw the prisoners and that they had not been tortured, when they only saw a few prisoners. The reports they made to America did not give a truthful representation of what was happening,” he said.
An antiwar group, the Indochina Peace Campaign, distributed leaflets to the audience before the speech questioning the attention being given the POWs and the torture stories being told. The group made no effort to disrupt the speakers.
Nasmyth was a POWT for five-and-one-half years while Barnett was held for six-and-one-half-years before being released in March.
a forum for the faculty to discuss issues that pertain to them.
This year has been a year of transition for Senate members who have become confused about the structure and purpose of the body.
Leslie Wilbur, chairman of the University Senate, said that the restructuring of the Senate will give it a running start on next year and that the Faculty Senate will operate on much of the constitution from the University Senate.
Wilbur said the new Faculty Senate will have to redefine its function and relate to the University Council. The faculty senate members will be elected from the schools and divisions of the university.-/--------------------------------
By Marc Groothaert
associate editor
Some professors call it injustice; in the case of custodial workers, the word that has been used to best describe administrative insensitivity is dictatorship.
USC custodial workers have sent a letter to Anthony Lazzaro, vice-president for business affairs, in which they contend that their working conditions have become nearly untenable.
The letter charges that custodians are working in a “concentration-camp style operation”, that they are “treated like slaves”, and that they are working “under a dictatorship.”
While the language is strong and the problems perhaps not as serious as implied, there does exist a climate of uneasiness among the custodian workers at this university. The majority of these workers are of Latin-origin and the letter was originally written in Spanish.
Specifically, the workers charge that:
•	Permission to go on holiday was suspended.
•	Workers were subjected to what they refer to as “brain-washing type” interviews with Gordon Johnson, superintendent of custodial services, to determine their loyalty to him.
•	Perhaps the most serious problem faced by the workers is that, according to them, they are treated like “slaves” because they do not possess the proper immigration papers to work in the United States, thus coming under easy abuse for fear of losing their jobs.
•	Finally, there seems to be no just system of reward-
ing effort through salary increases and advancement since, the workers say, they are “at the mercy of Mr. Johnson’s personal whim.”
The letter was not signed for fear of repercussions from Johnson. However, its authenticity was verified by the Daily Trojan and this reporter talked to the writers over the telephone.
Lazzaro preferred not to comment on the matter saying only that the university was indeed taking the affair seriously and that all necessary steps to remedy it would be taken. He placed all his confidence in Arnold Shafer, executive director of university facilities, to resolve the problems.
Shafer, while admitting that there does exist a real problem of bad communication between the workers and their administrative bosses, tends to think that the letter represents the opinions of only a handful of employees. He also underscored the seriousness of the accusations saying that on the whole he has “a loyal group of employees who derive a sense of security from working at USC.”
Giving specific answers to the workers’ accusations, Shafer said that back in February there had been a flu epidemic among custodians that forced his office to cancel all leave for healthy employees so that the work could still get done.
The manner in which this decree was issued however, perhaps exemplifies the problems. Johnson apparently issued a memo telling all workers that as of a certain day all vacations would be suspended and gave no
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It’s a long story
Some students will go to any length to get into a biology class, as shown by this line for H cards in front of the Allan Hancock Foundation on Tuesday.
Registration for the fall semester is underway and students who have their packets may now pick up
their H cards. Others may pick up their packets starting today at the Registrar’s
Office.
Registration materials may be returned to the registrar on Thursday, when R cards will be pulled. DT photo by Gehrig Ikeda.