New apartment housing insufficient for demand
By Craig Gima
Staff Writer
Six new university apartment buildings will be open by the fall of 1981 but if present trends continue, the additional units will still not meet increasing student demand for housing.
Five buildings will be constructed at a cost of about $6 million: Kerckhoff Hall located on Adams Boulevard, an addition to Troy Hall, Terrace Apartments on Ellendale Street, Embassy Apartments on Portland Street, and Pacific Apartments on Severance Street. Another apartment building was purchased by the university
last fall at a cost of $236,000 and will be open in the fall of 1980.
The six buildings will add 686 beds to the amount of university housing available but a total of 5,539 beds available in 1981
will only meet slightly over half of the demand for housing. According to a report prepared by Guy Hubbard, director of Auxiliary Services, 8,686 applications for university housing were received last fall for 4,667 spaces.
University housing pays for itself, Hubbard said, and the rents charged reflect the high cost of construction. Anywhere from 60-70% of rents go toward paying off mortgages on new apartment buildings. Present construction costs range from
$11,000-513,000 per bed, said Michael Bocchicchio, director of Architectural Services. The university tries not to make a profit or take a loss in housing, Hubbard said.
Another factor in the cost of rent is maintenance. "I think it is hard to find comparable (Continued on page 2)
HOUSING EXPANSION — The university is adding six new apartment buildings, which are to open in the fall of 1981. Pictured above is Century apartments, one of the university’s more recently built complexes.
Volume LXXXVIII, Number 37
University of Southern California
Thursday, March 27 1980
Credit card restrictions may be tough for many
By Carole Long
City Editor
Restrictions on credit-card buying as outlined by President Carter in his anti-inflation program could harshly affect persons without long credit histories — traditionally women, minorities, and students.
Carter, who in his March 14 address called for discipline and self-sacrifice by Americans, said "inflation is fed by credit-fi-nanced spending. Consumers have gone into debt too heavily."
The Federal Reserve Board, carrying out the President's request for restricted credit spending, directed banks, credit card companies and others who make unsecured loans to pay a penalty if they expand that type of credit.
Though direct controls on credit card use have not been imposed, lenders must make a no-interest deposit equal to 15% of the increase in total credit outstanding.
What this means to institutions such as Bank of America and Security Pacific National Bank is a reduction in the number of loans and new credit cards granted and a limiting of credit.
Both banks have branch offices in University Village and carry a large number of student accounts.
Emily Card, director of the Women's Credit Rights Project at the university, sees women as one of the hardest hit groups by the President's plan among those who will seek credit.
Banks have several ways they can deal with the guidelines: charge an annual credit card user fee, increase interest payments above 18%, restrict the issuing of new cards, or install a transaction fee.
"If companies decide to change their policy with respect to the length of a client's relationship with a creditor, women will suffer," Card said. "Women are new to the credit arena and have a shorter credit history than men. They may find it more difficult to obtain a credit card."
Women were excluded from credit until the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974. Card, who was instrumental in formation of the act, said there is a parallel between credit and women. "It's the last-hired, first-fired syndrome in the credit world. ’	•
"Women were the last to get credit; so when credit agencies need to cut back, they will do so with the credit holders who have the least tenure — women."
Students too may find their applications for credit rejected by banks.
"Potentially, students who have an outstanding loan with a bank (such as a Federally Insured Student Loan) would have a better chance of getting a student Visa card than those who do not have a financial tie with the bank," said Dave Garcia, a public information officer for the Bank of America.
"Right now, we are in the process of evaluating student credit and should have a decision on the issue within the next two weeks," Garcia said.
A public relations officer at Security Pacific National Bank said company officials have not yet reached any decisions on student credit.
"Preliminary restraints, which apply to everyone, will freeze credit limits on existing Master Charge and Visa credits and place a $1,600 credit limit on approved new applications," said Suzie Whyte, who works in the University Village branch.
(Continued on page 2)
More student interaction sought
Student Senate urges policy changes
By David Romero
Staff Writer
Recommendations to enhance interaction among international and American students and to decrease the university's financial dependence on tuition from Middle Eastern students were passed by the Student Senate Wednesday.
Paula Tripp, senator, submitted a report that indicated an imbalance in the university's foreign student population toward students from the Middle East.
The report states that students from the Near and Middle East make up 45% of the university's international population. These students make up 16% of the population at Stanford University and 31% for the entire United States.
Tripp said there was concern over the loss of Iranian students this year and that the university was unable to make up that tuition money. One of the recommendations called for the university to begin a wider program of recruitment in areas of the world where there is low representation at the university such as Europe, South America and Africa.
Tripp said a wider background of international students here will cause an enrollment drop in one group to be less of a problem.
Chip Hughes, senate financial coordinator, said recruitment costs will have to be researched before any effort is made.
The report also cited lifestyle and language differences, and animosity between American and foreign students as contributing factors to divisions between the groups.
The report said that a clear policy on the goals of international education does not exist at the university and is needed. The policy would include communication between international student organizations as well as other university groups.
Jobs as teaching assistants and an international work-study program will aid in recruiting of international students.
The senate specified that any jobs as teaching assistants should come from departments that determine beforehand that an international student's financial needs are equal to those of American students.
Some senators said language problems exist with some teaching assistants and a recommendation was made to develop a uniform policy for all university departments regarding requirements and training of teaching assistants.
The senate discussed university scholarships for international students but passed no recommendation. It was instead recommended that the university provide a numbered breakdown of international students and American minority students so that a fairer distribution of financial aid can be made.
FOCUS ON DRIVERS
Experts discuss transit options
By Margaret Bernstein
Staff Writer
A conference of local transportation leaders discussed alternatives to the "auto-mania-cal" lifestyle of the Los Angeles commuter Wednesday in Annenberg Auditorium.
The transportation experts criticized the present status of the sprawling freeways and roads that characterize the Southland.
Press, Education and Government (PEG), a public nonprofit organization that sponsored the conference, has presented a series of conferences on current issues in an attempt to bring the three entities closer together.
Herman Rappaport, president of PEG, invited Norman Emer-
son, project coordinator for the $1.5 billion Century Freeway, to defend the project against staunch supporters of mass transit.
Extending from the San Gabriel Freeway to Los Angeles International Airport, the freeway is generally acknowledged to cover an industrial area that has suffered in the past from a lack of rapid and direct transportation routes.
Emerson billed his project, the most expensive and largest transportation investment in the region, as a "sensitive freeway."
The Century Freeway will be an essential highway link when completed in 1990, providing 44,000 jobs for the immediate community as well as a con-
cerned system of housing redevelopment, Emerson said.
Pat Russell, a Los Angeles City councilwoman who chairs the local Transportation Commission, outlined her group's four-part projection for Los Angeles rapid transit.
She is attempting to implement, in addition to the Century Freeway, a Wilshire subway, an El Monte busway and a Los Angeles downtown people-mover.
"The truth is that people like their cars," Russell said.
Converting Los Angeles commuters from their auto-mania is difficult, she said, because the public, fantasizing a "long and shining monorail which will drop from the sky" and solve (Continued on page 7)