Academic scandal involving football team thwardted
Attempt to gain credit for players not attending classes discovered
By Richard Bonin
Associate Investigations Editor
University administrators discovered last December that 34 football players were slated to receive passing grades in courses whose classes they had not attended, university officials confirmed. •
However the athletes involved were either given incomplete marks or took a crash course to justify the academic credit. Two of the athletes will receive a mark of "illegally registered,'' sources said.
Class lists for the fall 1979 semester show that 19 of the student athletes were enrolled in Speech Communication 380, a forensics laboratory open only to members of the debate squad.
They received credit for an entire semester's work by attending a five-day crash course in forensics during Christmas
vacation. After the Rose Bowl the athletes also had to grade six debates in tournaments held at the university and at UCLA, sources confirmed.
Eleven other athletes enrolled in Speech Communication 422, Problems in Argumentation Theory, during the fall semester received incomplete grades. They had not attended any class sessions when university administrators investigated in December. Sources said these athletes are supposedly making up class requirements this semester.
In a directed research course, Speech Communication 490x, two football players have received incomplete grades while two others will receive "illegally registered" marks.
As a result of these and other findings, John DeBross was forced to resign as university coach of the nation's number
one debate squad. Previously, he had been stripped of his lecturing and academic advisorial duties.
Richard Perry, athletic director, has suspended Jeff Birren, academic coordinator for football players, until an investigation into Birren's role in advising the football players is completed.
Deans in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences learned that football players were enrolled in the Speech Communication courses when disgruntled members of the debate squad told them that football players were allegedly buying their grades for the debate laboratory, sources confirmed.
The Speech Communication department created the laboratory to compensate debaters for research they do for the squad, which can amount to as much as 30 hours a week. While stu-
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dents in the class must research and sometimes compete in debate tournaments to earn from one to eight academic units, they are not required to do homework or take exams.
Students also must pay a $65 organizational fee to become debate team members. The fee covers the costs of research index cards and a banquet held at the end of each semester.
Some debaters told university investigators, who included John Marburger, dean of the College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences, John Schutz, dean of social sciences, and the university attorney, that the football players each allegedly paid the organizational fee to become "official" members of the debate team, sources confirmed. The debaters also charged that DeBross used the SI,235 in fees from the 19 athletes to help pay for additional debate trips for competition in Washington, D.C., sources confirmed.
"The best information that we can get at this time," Perry (Continued on page 2)
Volume LXXXVH1, Number 12 University of Southern California Thursday February 21, 1980
DeBross resigns
John DeBross, director of forensics, resigned Tuesday.
Sources said he resigned in part as a result of charges brought against him by members of the debate team.
Among these charges were irresponsibility in teaching and assigning grades, irregularities in debate squad management, and possible favoritism to athletes.
The charges were presented to June Shoup, chairman of the speech communication department, in December of last year.
She apprised John Marburger, dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, and John Schutz, dean of social sciences, of DeBross' alleged behavior and the college immediately initiated an investigation of the charges.
"Upon investigation, it has appeared that Mr. DeBross has been involved in questionable activities, not necessarily those of which he was accused," Shoup said.
(Continued on page 13)
Prof claims attack by armed assailants
Faculty ask role in candidate screening
By Galen Gruman
Staff Writer
Two men with guns allegedly attacked George Chilingar, a professor of petroleum engineering, Tuesday.
He claims this incident is the third attempt on his life this year.
He said two bearded men ordered him to stop around 2 p.m. while he was driving onto the fourth level of Parking Structure A, at McClintock Street and 36th Place.
He drove towards them in his car, and they jumped aside, one firing a shot. Carl Levredge, director of Parking Operations, said two witnesses heard no shots and saw no weapons.
Investigating officers could find no evidence of any shots being fired, he said. The witnesses had seen the crash, but did not mention in their testimony anything about two men, said Sgt. George Farina of University Security.
Chilingar said he then lost control of the car. He smashed into five vehicles and came to rest against a sixth, Levredge said. The vehicles were damaged "moderately to severely" and the owners of the cars were notified.
Chilingar's car was severely damaged and had to be towed.
"I don't know who made this apparent attempt on my life or why," Chilingar said. He believes the bullet he said was fired "probably went into the cement structure."
(Continued on page 12)
By Gina Becchetti
Assistant City Editor
A Faculty Senate resolution endorsed Wednesday advises that elected faculty representatives from the Presidential Search Committee should contribute to the screening of presidential candidates.
A new presidential selection committee was established Feb. 6 to expedite the choice of a successor to President John R. Hubbard, who is scheduled to retire in August 1980.
The resolution is addressed to the board of trustees and the new committee.
"The motion arose because of the establishment by the board of trustees of a new selection committee in addition to the existing search committee and the fact that the preferred assistance offered by the faculty members of the original search committee was politely de-
clined by the chairman of the new selection committee," said Richard L. Davis, a professor in the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and initiator of the motion.
Carl E. Hartnack, chairman of the board of Security Pacific National Bank, is chairman of the new selection committee.
Faculty, staff, and students have expressed concern with the board's decision to place the choice of a candidate in a small group of hands.
"The Facility Senate is deeply concerned about the transfer of the presidential search process to a small group of trustees," the resolution stated.
"This new arrangement does not include active participation by elected representatives of the faculty, as well as those of other constituencies, in the search deliberations..."'
(Continued on page 6)
SUfl photo by W«yn« L*vtn«
NOT AGAIN! - Michelle Connor, student affairs assistant for the school of engineering, gets dunked in part of the festivities of the annual Engineering Week.