Trustees form special group to pick presidential nominee, hope to eliminate news leaks
By Susan Pedersen
Assistant City Editor
The Board of Trustees created a special selection committee Wednesday with the sole responsibility of acquiring a candidate for the university presidency.
J. Robert Fluor, chairman of the board, said the committee is composed of five trustees who will be the only people from within the board to be actively involved in determining future presidential candidates. The members are John McCone, Jack Horton, Carl Hartnack, Charles Thornton and John Wilson.
Fluor said the committee was created to expedite the presidential search process and maintain confidentiality. With fewer board members handling the process, Fluor hopes that there will be less opportunity for information leaks to the media.
The final recommendations for candidates will be presented by the committee to the board for its approval with or without being screened by the university's current search committee, Huor said.
"We are not disbanding the search committee/' he said, "We are merely restricting them to their original assignment."
This assignment consists of assisting in determining a list of possible candidates for presentation to the board, Fluor said. The search committee will be at the disposal of the selection committee for whatever tasks it feels are appropriate.
The new selection committee may use "any means necessary to deliver a list of candidates to the board," Fluor said.
Alterations in the current search stages or meetings, if any, will be made by the selection committee. Fluor speculated that it would be very likely that future meetings with candidates would be held almost exclusively off campus.
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Staff photo by McKmI Yada
FEELS SO GOOD — Naida Brooks is one of many students who gathered to listen and participate in the rock music of Shalama during a noontime concert yesterday.
Volume LXXXVIII, Number 4
University of
trojan
Southern California	Thursday February 7, 1980
Prices increase in Commons, Sidewalk Cafe
By Linda Suzuki
Staff Writer
Food prices in all Commons dining areas rose over the semester break to compensate for rising costs in utilities, labor and food itself, said Neil Hirsh-field, general manager of the Commons Food Service.
Deli rates were raised on the average by 4%, as were Sidewalk Cafe rates. Cafeteria prices were up 8% and the Upstairs Commons restaurant increased its rates 6.6%.
Approximately 9,000 students per day are served in the Commons area, including almost
2,000	Validine holders. Because of the increases, the Validine office increased its daily meal allowances by 5 cents at breakfast (to $1.60), 10 cents at lunch (to $2.50), and 10 cents at din-
ner (to $2.80) but charged the same price for the card as last semester.
This is the first time in several years that the Validine service has increased the allowances in midyear, Hirshfield said.
Validine sales in the second semester are traditionally down 10% to 15% from first semester sales, he said, making it difficult to determine the effect of the increases on Validine sales and costs to Validine holders.
Current residence halls' room-and-board contracts will not immediately be affected by increases although the rate of inflation will undoubtedly be reflected in next year's prices, Hirshfield said.
The decision to raise prices, the first such increase since
Student seeks payment in food poisoning case
By Stephanie Chavez
Staff Writer
A medical liability claim, submitted by a student who was diagnosed for food poisoning, is now being processed by the university's insurance liability carrier.
John Dervin, a freshman in biological science who submitted an $84 hospital bill to the office of Risk Management and Insurance, was one of four students given emergency treatment at California Hospital Medical Center on Dec. 2, 1979. Dervin was treated for enteritis, a disturbance of the intestinal tract.
The students claim their conditions were caused by food eaten in the Bimkrant dining hall Dec. 2.
Dervin said he was convinced that he became ill because of the beef he had eaten that night at dinner.
"I have no way of paying the hospital bill. It is only fair that they (university insurance) pay it," Dervin said.
The university is insured by Hartford Insurance Co. Claims are submitted to Risk Management and Insurance and then sent to Hartford for review.
If the company suspects that the university food service is to blame for Dervin's illness, they will pay for his bill, said Alex Rat-ka, director of Risk Management and Insurance.
Robert Nabor, a sophomore majoring in physical education, was treated for gatroenteritus, a disturbance of the stomach and intes-
July 1, 1979, followed a projection by the university's Physical Plant that utility costs would increase 58% in 1980. Also cited were the increase in cost of paper goods, up 22% in the last year, and a cost-of-living increase of the minimum wage from $2.90 to $3.10 affecting the Commons' 100 full time and 30 part time workers.
Food prices went up 8% in the last year (meat prices increasing almost 35%) with the government projecting a 15% to 18% rise in the next year, leading the general inflation trend of 13%.
Other Los Angeles area colleges face similar increases. Food prices at Los Angeles City College rose as much as three times in the last year on such items as milk and meat dishes, according to Elsie Knott, cafeteria supervisor for LACC.
Prices in the cash-operations dining areas at UCLA, serving approximately 25,000 students, have not been raised since July, 1979 and will not be raised before the end of the school year, according to Roman Melnyk of UCLA Auxiliary Services. UCLA is able to maintain food prices throughout the year be-
cause their food service is organized to show a deficit at the end of each year.
Surveys conducted every two to three months by Auxiliary Services show that Commons' prices are still competitive with commercial restaurants and fast food establishments in this area, and, in some cases, as much as 40% cheaper. In past years, the Commons has operated with a year-end deficit; but Hirshfield said that in order to break even, inflation rates would have to be passed on to the students.
PLANS RE-ELECTION
Freshman on school board
By David Romero
Staff Writer
Mark Abrams, a freshman in political science, may be the i youngest elected official in the United States.
Elected in June 1979 to the Los Alamitos Unified School District Board of Education, Abrams is currently serving his first of a two-and-a-half year term while taking 20 upits at the university.
Abrams, 18, was still attending Los Alamitos High School when he ran for one of fiVe seats on the board.
"I've never worked so hard in my life as when I was in the Board of Education campaign," Abrams said. "People would say, 'Oh, so you're the kid,' and would seem skeptical of my campaign."
Using an extensive house-to-house campaign Abrams, with 25 friends, covered the district. Most people reacted positively,
he said, because they did not expect candidates to knock on doors. He worked 15 hours a day campaigning from the beginning of April until the election and spent about $6,000.
"I was lucky because I wa^ young and could work that hard," Abrams said.
He was supported by the lo-
Mark Abrams
cal PTA and placed fourth in the voting, behind three virtually incumbent candidates.
As a decision-maker in a district comprised of about 6,000 pupils, Abrams has been working on establishing new curriculum and restructuring the grade-level pattern in Los Alamitos schools.
He spends 35 minutes driving home to attend Monday evening board meetings and other related functions he is invited to, and spends few nights here on campus.
Abrams intends to run for re-election in November 1981. "I wouldn't want to leave anything that's moving along and isn't finished, and it won't be finished for another five years."
After that, Abrams is not totally sure of what he will do in politics.
"My career has pretty much (Continued on page 15)
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