University of Southern California
DAILY 9 TROJAN
VOL. LXIV
NO. 126
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1972
Bugliosi to speak on campaign issues today
Vincent T. Bugliosi, prosecuting attorney of the Tate-La Bianca murder trials and candidate for Los Angeles District Attorney, will speak today at 12:30 p.m. in front of Tommy Trojan.
Bugliosi, who is running against incumbent Joseph P. Busch and Marge Buckley, has criticized the inefficiency of Busch’s office. He compared the felony conviction rate of 73% under Evelle J. Younger to the drop to 389c under Busch.
Bugliosi has also criticized Busch’s backing. He claims that Busch cannot represent the majority of citizens because he is heavily financed by corporations who fear the enforcement of consumer protection, industrial safety, and pollution statutes.
Bugliosi, whose contributions are usually under $100, claims that he is politically free to represent common people everywhere.
He believes that crime is a symptom and not a disease. Therefore, until the disease is cured, crime will remain on the increase, he said.
APPEAL TO PROF FIRST
“We must continue to arrest, convict, and imprison hard-core criminals, such as robbers, murderers, and rapists,” said Bugliosi. “However, we can no longer be satisfied with merely confining ourselves to this role. We have to start attacking the causes of crime by enforcing those laws aimed at protecting the poor and the disadvantaged.”
Bugliosi intends to reorder and refocus the priorities of prosecution, placing less emphasis on victimless crimes such as possession of marijuana and certain sex crimes among consenting adults, and emphasizing crimes against the public welfare.
He cited crimes in the areas of housing, sanitation, false advertising, consumer fraud, unsafe working conditions and air pollution. Bugliosi claims these areas have been virtually ignored by Busch.
Bugliosi has been endorsed by the Democratic County Central Committee. He was also selected Republican “Man of the Year” by the Los Angeles County Republican Assembly.
Grading plan outlined
BUGUOSI'S HIS MAN — Brian Oxman, a campaign worker for Vincent Bugliosi, who is running for Los Angeles District Attorney, tells Alana Grajewski about iiis candidate. A table has been set up in front of Tommy Trojan to draw students into such discussions. Bugliosi is set to talk at 12:30 p.m. DT photo by Danny Alaimo.
Students benefit from Topping aid program
By DANA CAMP
The Norman Topping Student Aid Fund, since its inception in Fall, 1970. has not only helped 30 students attend the university but also has directed itself toward plans of expansion and experimentation with student aid to assist the high-potential, low-income students desiring college educations.
Established by Ron McDuffie, former student and director of the program, and named after the former university president, the program hopes to aid some 110 low-income students by providing full tuition.
The fund is comprised of two boards, a governing board and an academic board, each dealing directly with the student on one-to-one terms.
“USC is a dehumanizing institution.” said George Bolanos, a sophomore and chairman of the fund’s academic advisory board. “None of the administrators work on a person-to-person basis. We try to relate with students and help them with whatever problems that may arise.
“The Topping Fund tries to be personal, talking over what it is to be a student here besides grades,” Bolanos said.
Close contact with recipients may be one of the main reasons the Topping Fund has succeeded. Twice a year receptions are held for all the participants in the program in an effort to acquaint new and old members and to provide a friendly atmosphere.
All money is administered by the governing board, which is made up of students, faculty and university staff.
These people continuously evaluate and improve the fund to insure the most cohesive approach to student aid. Currently, each recipient receives a $1,000 grant for tuition.
Running concurrently with the ASSC. the fund is sponsoring an Emergency Loan fund that lends, on a no-interest basis, $50 for a two-week period. The program director, Dan Smith, a senior, hopes to see the amount of money increased in the coming academic year.
As part-time director, Smith draws a salary from the interest on the fund’s balance, as do the staff of the fund. This balance was reached by donations from both the student body and the University Associates, a campus support group. Each student contributes $8 per academic year to the fund. University Associates, consisting of American businessmen and public servants, have donated a total of$600,000 to the fund.
It is estimated that with these combined resourc s, the fund will be generating more than $2 million in this decade.
Free tutoring, counseling and advisement is continuously offered, in cooperation with the Student Services Center.
The Topping Fund recipients include students from black, Chicano, Caucasian and Oriental backgrounds pursuing all majors. However, only in coming students are eligible for consideration by
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By AL FLORES
It has happened many times. You sit at home days after taking your last final, restlessly waiting for your grade cards to arrive in the mail. Finally one arrives, you check the address on the front—“Yep, that’s me,”—close your eyes, say a short prayer, and turn it over.
The next phrase usually runs something like “A ‘B’! Dammit,
I	deserved an ‘A’!”
Well, what do you do if you disagree with a final grade? Scream? Cry? Break a window? No, the best thing is to appeal to the professor.
Like all things, there has to be a procedure to follow in order to get a grade changed, and the first step is to try and work the problem out with the professor.
If the professor agrees that he made a mistake he’ll fill out a change-of-grade form on which he writes down the new grade, gives the reason for the change, and sends it on to the department chairman and dean of the student’s school (LAS. Business, etc.) for signature.
From there it goes to the Scholarship Standards Committee, a group consisting of 20 faculty members, 10 students nominated by the ASSC and appointed by President John Hubbard, and 5 administrators.
The Scholarship Standards Committee, which has jurisdiction over the grading system, among other things, then approves or disapproves the change.
Now, you might ask, why would they disapprove it?
John Niedercorn, chairman of the Scholarship Standards Committee as well as chairman ofthe Department of Economics, said, “We disapprove approximately 10% of those grade changes. The reason is that there are many soft-hearted professors on this campus who will change a grade out of sympathy or after allowing the student to do extra work.
“It's important that we try to police this, because when students get a grade raised when they don’t deserve it, it harms others who don’t get their grades raised.”
What about the case in which the professor doesn’t change the grade? What then?
In this event ifthe student still believes he has a good case he can move on to step two, the department chairman.
Here, the department chairman acts as an arbitrator. He listens to both sides, makes a decision on who is right, and offers a suggestion for resolving the problem. This is usually where the case ends, although, if the student still thinks he is being treated unfairly, he can go further up the ladder to the dean of his school, the academic vice-presidents, and finally President Hubbard himself.
However, Niedercorn said, there never has been a case that went past the dean. “Usually the case ends at a lower level, where something is worked out that’s reasonable and not altogether against the student,” he said.
No matter where the case ends, it always has to be referred to the Scholarship Standards Committee for final review.
Niedercorn recalled a typical appeal case that resulted from the Days of Concern in 1970, when a student was given an incomplete by a professor for missing his classes, even though the university allowed students to do so during that period.
The professor was part-time and wasn't rehired for the fall semester, and the student claimed that he handed in the necessary make-up work during the summer.
But the ex-professor said that the student had not done so and asked the incomplete to be changed to a fail, which it was.
The student appealed to the Scholarship Standards Committee and received four units of credit with a passing grade of C.
“It was the only way it could have been handled,” said Niedercorn, “considering the
situation. The paper was never found and both parties were sincere.”
Niedercorn added that the student most always gets something favorable from a grade appeal, unless it is obvious from the start that he has no case at all.
“If the student disagrees over the way a paper is graded, then the student is at a disadvantage because most administrators and faculty members are hesitant to support the student and say a teacher doesn’t know what he’s doing in his own subject,” he said.
The grade appeal system as it is today has been used for more than 30 years, beginning before World War II, but it is used only in about two or three cases a year.
Niedercorn believes there is a basic reason for the small number of cases. “Most faculty members are reasonable and if a student has what looks like a legitimate gripe they will honor it,” he said.
Niedercorn says that the appeal system is the only way a student can get a grade changed within the university. He indicated, though, that there are other ways to change a grade.
A little subtle pressure applied by an influential source to a sensitive area can very often be helpful. And obviously, the richer or more powerful the source, the better are the chances the grade will be changed. “Of course, in the final analysis, a student can always get a lawyer and sue the university,” he said.
Niedercorn cited one case in which a student was going to sue the university because he thought there was a conspiracy
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School yearbook to be released to students with activity books
The USC yearbook, E! Rodeo, will be released to students on June 13. They will be available in the Student Activities Center for students with activity books.
Yearbooks will be mailed to students living outside the area who bring their activity book cover and mailing address to Student Union 400 before June 6.
Yearbooks will go on sale to students without activity books on July 1 in Student Union 400 for $7.50. Those who wish to buy the yearbook can put their names on a waiting list in Student Union ____________________________________________________