volume Ixv, number 67 Wednesday, february 7, 1973
Daily fgi Trojan
university of southern California los angeles, California
Course Evaluation Guide, plagued by many problems, may come out in early May
Bv Brian Robinette
staff writer
If the long awaited Course Evaluation Guide comes out as planned in May, students may no longer have to rely on rumors and word-of-mouth as credible sources when they select their courses and teachers next fall.
The Course Evaluation Guide, which has been in a state of limbo since it ceased publication in 1968, would give students the opportunity to rate the quality of their undergraduate courses as well as the per-formace of their professors.
In the intervening years, the few attempts made to reactivate the guide have failed for a variety of reasons, the last one having terminated last summer. Past evaluation guide committees cited insufficient funds, poor computer readouts and lack of workers as the main impediments.
However, with the appointment of Cliff Ishii as academic-educational program director, the guide has been revived and is expected to be available to students before fall preregistration in early May. Ishii, who was appointed by the Programs Board, in
turn named Gordon Dossett as the guide’s director.
The new evaluation guide committee has inherited much the same problems as those which plagued former guide director Fred Laban-koff, who resigned last October.
‘‘We might need some more money,” said Dossett. “Our budget is $3,500 right now, which is taken from the ASSC fund. I’m not sure if it’s enough.”
Since Labankoffs departure, there has been a controversy concerning the reasons for his resignation, as well as the feasibility of reusing the old computer cards. Despite months of effort and $3,500 spent on the last guide attempt, little or nothing could be salvaged from the defunct project.
“All we got from last year’s was a bunch of computer cards,” he said. “Fred was doing it by computers and computer printouts. We can’t even use last semesters printouts any more; all that money used and we can’t use anything that was done.” Labankoff vehemently disagrees with this attitude regarding the usefulness of the computer card printouts. The former director maintains
that the material he compiled is not outdated but instead, can be used in a future course guide.
“They could have had the guide done in November,” said Labankoff. “I don’t know why it wasn’t.”
Labankoff, who began work on the guide in June, 1971, claims that acts of sabotage were committed against his operation. Labankoff said documents disappeared, pages were torn in half or scribbled on and one ASSC Council member allegedly labeled the guide “a Communist plot.”
Additional problems arose due to a generally uncooperative faculty, inefficient workers and the mixing of carefully ordered computer cards by the general staff of the University Computer Center, said Labankoff.
Labankoffs resignation resulted three days after he claimed he returned to the guide’s third-floor Student Union office only to find that the lock had been changed. Although he said that 95% of the guide had been completed, he refused to remain due to the door-locking incident.
“Without this, the guide would have been done, finished. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s a disturbing thing when they pull the rug out from under you,” said Labankoff.
Ishii has said that Labankoffs material has been gathered and that it will be studied starting Friday.
Aside from the controversy, Dossett said that the guide’s committee intends to print 4,500 copies selling at less than 50 cents each. The guide will be sold in the College, University and Tam’s bookstores in early May, and could contain up to 150 pages.
Dossett confirmed the possibility
that the guide committee, which is entirely student-funded, may request additional funds from the university itself if it exceeds its $3,500 budget.
“We figure it’s going to cost us $1,200 in printing costs,” said Dossett. “That doesn’t include work on composition, which could be $2,400 or more if we have to hire professionals.”
Lack of personnel is admittedly Dossett’s biggest problem. In this respect, both the current and preceding campaigns to print the guide are similar.
“Fred (Labankoff) didn’t have that many people working for him,” claimed Dossett. “You figure there are 1,300 classes and 900 teachers at USC. There was no way the 10 people on his staff were going to write 900 little essays on each one. This is really a massive undertaking.”
If this past is any precedent, Dossett’s particular undertaking may be even more massive considering he has only three or four regular workers now at his disposal. Other problems include the need for additional volunteers to write the questions for and distribute the questionnaires, as well as writers to lucidly summarize the questionnaire results. Also needed, said Dossett, are artists, photographers, typists and people who can lay out each page graphically.
“I didn’t think it’s been publicized enough,” said Dossett. “Ideally, we could use 50 to 60 people.”
The committee is currently trying to decide upon the exact format of the guide. There are basically two choices. One would involve the use
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Two fine arts students feature print, etching collection in exhibit
A collection of silkscreen prints, a monoprint embossing of plastic forks and a variety of etchings produced by two fine arts students are currently on display in the Student Activities Center.
The exhibit, which features works by Deborah Irmas and Robert Hull, will be on display through Friday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
A variety oftextures obtained by combining many of the graphic arts, including silkscreening, etching and photolithic processes, are illustrated in the exhibit.
Hull, whose prints were produced by metal plate etchings and photolithography, said he enjoys working in that medium.
“Etching is an old method,” he explained, “but I can control the quality of the prints better with it.” He added that many of his etchings require as much as 100 hours to create.
Irmas' works, many of which she said are tangible manifestations of some of her dreams, feature a variety of colors used in a silkscreening process. Some are silkscreens superimposed on a print already produced by intaglio printing (printing from incised plates).
Howard Levine, a sophomore chemistry major, is shown viewing the works.
DT photo by Gehrig Ikeda.
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Evelle Younger calls for return to strict law enforcement
State Attorney General Evelle Younger called for a return to law and order including “sending the street peddlers back to jail.”
In a speech before the members of Town and Gown, a women’s group, Younger said he felt there has been too much leniency with those convicted of crimes. “In California last year, of those persons convicted of pushing heroin, less than 20 °7c of them were sentenced to state prisons,” he said.
The audience, composed mostly of conservative elderly women, responded favorably to Younger's speech. Younger said he favors “getting back to the basics.”
“Maybe we should start sending the street peddlers to jail. Once they are isolated, we can get to the big men.”
Younger spoke of an amendment
that he hopes to soon introduce to the California legislature. The bill would send a convicted felon to prison if found guilty of heroin possession or discovered carrying firearms.
“We are accused of over-reacting, but I don’t think we are,” said Younger. “We have to find the answers. While we are looking, let’s give the citizen a break and go back to fundamentals.”
Younger is currently chairman of a committee that is involved in finding alternatives to incarceration. He cited the recent decrease of prison populations and the increase in probation, parole, and rehabilitation.
“Today in the prisons there is a very violent population. Over 50% are there because they have assaulted, raped, or killed somebody. Once we
find somebody who has committed a crime, may be we should lock him up—isolate him.” Younger added, “We must exercise better judgment on who we lock up.”
Throughout his speech, Younger stressed a hard-nosed, conservative approach to the crime problem. “We are inclined to experiment with
problems,” he said. “We haven’t learned about human behavior or how to control it. but we’re trying. But we've asked the law-abiding citizen to take the risk.”
When asked after his speech about the possibility of running for governor. Younger said he is giving it “agonizing appraisal.”
October Collective to present play on Vietnamese culture
X.4, a play described as a Vietnam primer, is being presented by a group called October Collective tonight at 7:30 in Student Activities 204, 205 and 206.
The play is described as freeform guerrilla theater and includes audience involvement. Based on the history of Vietnam, it emphasizes Vietnamese people, their culture and history.