University of Southern California
DAILY ® TROJAN
VOL LXIV
NO. 103
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1972
Space travel defended New deans will
By RICHARD SIMON Staff Writer
Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author, discussed the space program and the future of an advanced communications system yesterday in Bovard Auditorium. The speech was sponsored by the Great Issues Forum.
Clarke challenged the critics of the spaee program and explained the importance of interplanetary travel. Discussing the significance ofthe moon, the 54-year-old Englishman said. “Once we have gained a foothold on our single natural satellite—a world as large as Africa, with unknown but certainly immense resources—we will establish permanent bases there.”
He predicts that by the end of the century, permanent bases on the moon will be established, similar to those in Antarctica, and later they may grow into cities and colonies.
“Some of the more pressing social problems on Earth can be solved by space technology,” Clarke said. He proposed a vast communications network, which would result in a series of satellites strategically stationed around the world to transfer information to people with greater speed.
He foresees the day when a businessman—whether in New York, London or Tokyo—can sit at a desk-size communications center and conduct his day's work without leaving his home.
“All the knowledge of mankind would be at one’s finger-
tips,” Clarke said. Such satellites would broadcast the news from any spot in the world plus improve agricultural and medical techniques,” Clarke said. “I can imagine a time when a brain surgeon can live in one place and operate on patients all over
ARTHUR C. CLARKE
DT photo by Danny Alaimo.
the world through remote-controlled artificial hands.”
The greatest role of the communications network, Clarke said, will be in bringing education to millions through direct television broadcasts. “Africa, South America, even China could be opened up to direct TV broadcasts,” he said. “Whole populations could thereby be brought into the modern world.” He estimates the cost of such a system at approximately one dollar per person per year.
A world of communication satellites would unite mankind,
Clarke said. “Communications and meteorological satellites have proved that many earthly problems can be solved in space.”
A graduate of Kings College in London. Clarke described the prehistoric earth in “The Sentinel,” the short story that was later transformed into “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
“Such was our own Earth, the smoke of the great volcanoes still staining the skies, when that first ship of the peoples of the dawn came sliding into the abyss beyond Pluto. It passed the frozen outer worlds, knowing that life could play no part in their destinies. It came to rest among the inner planets, warming themselves around the fire of the sun and waiting for their stories to begin,” he said.
Whatever lies ahead in space, Clarke feels that man must press on to explore the universe. “I am a little tired of the complaint, ‘Why should we go to the planets when there is so much on Earth?’ ” Clarke said.
“There was plenty to do in Europe when Columbus left it-and there’s still plenty to do there. But the opening of the new world liberated men’s minds from the long trance of the Middle Ages and fueled the fires of the Renaissance. Columbus was just in time. I think the spaceship is just in time.”
The latter-day Jules Verne believes new frontiers are urgently needed to turn men’s minds away from the problems of society and towards a future of infinite promise.
Registration for June 6 primary ends; students urged to sign up
Today is the last day to register to vote in the June 6 primary.
One can register for any one of four major parties—American Independent, Democratic, Peace and Freedom, or Republican—or as an independent, in which case he is not eligible to vote for partisan offices in the primary.
Kathy Fleming, a leader of Students for McGovern, a group sponsoring the registration drive on campus, said there has been an increase in registrations this week, and that most of those registering are registering as Democrats.
“This past week we’ve had about 80% registering in the Democratic Party, with a negligible amount registering as independents,” she said.
“The reason so many voters are registering as Democrats, is because there is a lesser contest in the Republican primary than there is in the Democratic.
“Many voters realize that their vote would count a lot more in the Democratic race, where there are eight candidates on the California ballot.”
The Students for McGovern will have a registration table set
up in front of Tommy Trojan all
day.
Voters are urged to register if they have changed their residence, if they have never registered before, if they wish to change party membership, or if they are independents and wish to vote in the primary.
restructure LAS
By JEAN JARVIS
The recent administrative revitalization of the College of Letters. Arts and Sciences is the beginning of an effort by the Board of Trustees to recognize the importance ofthe college and “beef up the academic side” of the education experience, John E. Cantelon, dean of LAS said Tuesday.
The reorganization, which elevated Cantelon to the new position of vice-president for undergraduate studies and created the posts of divisional deans of humanities, sciences and social sciences, was approved at the board’s regular meeting last Wednesday.
The deans’ staff, chosen on their performance in critical examination and after being judged by a board of faculty, students and departmental chairmen, was also approved at the meeting.
David Malone, chairman for the Comparative Literature Program, will become the humanities dean; Donald J. Lewis, chairman of the Psychology Department, the social science dean; and William G. Spitzer, chairman of the Physics Department, the sciences dean. All will assume their new posts July 1.
“This reflects my dream for a new undergraduate curriculum,” Cantelon said. “It provides an emphasis on the undergraduate which wasn’t there before.”
The need to achieve a scholastic eminence equal to USC’s nationally known athletic prowess was cited as an important one by the new administrators.
“The new deans are really academicians,” Cantelon said. “With this staff, we can begin to exercise ‘quality control' over the education experience and review the curricula.”
Curricula renovations; greater degree of cooperation and integration within divisions, departments and levels; a study of priorities for tight funding allocation; and student-faculty participatibn in policy making, are primary considerations in the new administrative direction.
“The curricula should become more future oriented,” Cantelon said. “It should be not just descriptive, but also prescriptive.
“In the past, most of the education experience has been descrip-
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Karate demonstration to highlight end of ‘Focus’
A karate demonstration will highlight the last day of the University Recreation Association’s “Focus” program today in Alumni Park.
“Focus” is being sponsored by the association through its Council of Leaders, a group created several months ago consisting of 28 campus club presidents. It is designed to acquaint students with the large number of clubs and interest groups on campus.
Tomorrow’s schedule includes another demonstration in sparring and the basic training techniques of karate by the Karate Club.
The Flying Club will display equipment and materials used in the instruction of flying.
Films about surfing and demonstrations of equipment by the Surfing Club will be shown at University Avenue and Childs Way.
Students interested in joining the new Photography Club will get a chance to see various kinds of photographic equipment.
John Naisbitt, who organized the program and is president of the Scuba Club, said, “I think we turned a lot of people on to a lot of new things they’ve never seen at USC.”
Few students at polls
The first day of the spring ASSC elections drew only a small number of voters to the polls. Approximately 800 students had cast ballots.
A larger turn-out is expected for today’s second round of primary-elections, as the University Recreation Association’s Club Week concentrates students around the displays in the center of campus.
The central Bovard poll will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Other polls near the Row. the dorms and the engineering and dental schools will be open from 11 a.m to 3 p.m.
The election results will be tabulated tonight and announced at approximately 10 p.m. in the Student Activities Center.
In last-minute election switches. Jack McNamara, a candidate for vice-president of programs, dropped out of the race.
Brian Cox also announced his write-in candidacy for the AMS presidency late Wednesday.
MOUNTAIN CLIMBING—Doug Meyer demonstrated climbing techniques of the Mountaineering Club that may also serve to capture a few votes. Meyer, a write-in candidate for sophomore representative, became a modern-day human fly Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. by
scaling the north wall of the Student Union, slowing the pace of ASSC election campaigns far below. His demonstration was part of the University Recreation Association's "Focus," DT photo by Will Hertzberg.