Report released to respond to athletic controversy
Outlines changes in admissions, advisement, conduct
By Steve Padilla
C itv Editor
In response to the athletic controversy which eliminated the Trojan football team from post-season competition. President James H. Zumberge released a report today on the academic conduct, admissions, advisement and counseling of student-athletes.
The report specified several reforms and actions being taken by the university that hope to "insure future integrity of the academic-athletic program."
The report is based on the findings and recommendations of three ad hoc committees formed by former President John R. Hubbard last spring to study student-athlete advisement, academic procedure in speech communication, and to consider student-athlete sanctions. Establishment of the committees followed the fall
1979 discovery of a nonfunctional speech communications course in which 32 athletes were enrolled and about to receive academic credit.
The report described academic irregularities found bv the committees and listed reforms and actions being taken in
admissions, advise-ment/coun-seling and included the
disciplinary actions taken against the students enrolled in the speech communications
Admissions
• In the past academically marginal athletes have been admitted to the university chiefly on athletic prowess as judged by the Athletic Department and without normal Admissions Of-
Now the Office of Admissions shall have the sole responsibility of admitting all students, including athletes, in accordance with established university policies and procedures governing appeals and referrals.
• For several years, the report
found, the university admitted students who, while adhering to NCAA admissions standards for athletic eligibility, fell below normal university admission standards. This practice also applied to non-athlete student applicants. Between 1970 and 1980, an average of 33 student-athletes in this category were admitted each vear.
University-wide admissions standaiJs are presently under discussion within the university admissions committee, and a proposed policy for regular admissions has been forwarded to the President’s Advisory Council. The admissions committee will consider specific special-ac-tion admissions later this fall.
In the interim, Zumberge directed the office of admissions to adhere to the following criteria for special-action admissions: Applicants falling below a minimum high school grade point standard of 2.7 and combined Scholastic Aptitude Test scores normally shall not be admitted to the university.
(The average freshman enters the university with a 3.4 high school GPA and combined SAT scores of 1040.)
However, students falling below the mimimums set by Zumberge may be admitted, in certain cases, through special-action admissions. Special-ac-tion admissions is a process which considers not only a student's past work and SAT scores, but indications of a student's potential for academic success, such as writing samples, cultural factors, or extra-
curricular involvement.
Circumstances justifying special-action review will vary, but may include consideration of special talent such as musical, dramatic, scientific and athletic.
A small number of athletes admitted to the university is exceptions of admissions standards have graduated from the university. The retention and graduation rate of other student-athletes during the past decade has been approximately the same as the undergraduate student body as a whole.
• All student-athletes transferring after two years at a community or four-vear college or university shall satisfy standard academic admissions criteria without consideration of other factors that may be taken into account for students entering as freshmen
Advisement Beginning this fall, the academic advisement of all student-athletes shall be through regularly established procedures set up by the schools and departments in which an athlete majors.
In the past athletes were advised by an academic coordinator for the Athletic Department. Most of the student athletes enrolled in the three speech communications courses involved
(Continued on page 2)
fice review.
on
trojan
Volume LXXXIX, Number 20 University of Southern California Monday, October 13, 1980
‘Excellence on the field and excellence in the classroom are not inherently incompatible.'
Staff photo by Kenneth Lewis
OH! WHAT FOOLS THESE ACTORS BE! — Dr Janet Bollon directs her sophomore drama class as they practice excerpts from A Midsummer Nights Dream
Students climb mountain to celebrate centennial
As part of the university's centennial celebration, four Trojans will attempt to climb Trojan Peak in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range and place a commemorative plaque at the summit.
The peak, which stands next to Lake Helen of Troy, was named in honor of the university in 1951 by Chester Versteeg, Al Drummond and Noble Trenham, during the ninth known ascent up the mountain.
Climbing the peak on Oct. 18 will be Dave Wyman, program director of the university's Outdoor Adventure Travel Program and three students: Lorraine Johnson, Chris Wills and Stephan Schaie.
The attempt on the 13,968-foot high peak will be a rugged, three-dav, 35-mile trip retracing the original 1959 assent.
“Definitely not one you would want to make for your first time out," Wvman said.
"The only real problem would be the weather. Late summer and early fall are usually not the best time for hikes like this, lt we don't make it, the weather will probably be why."
Trojan Peak is not the onlv peak named in honor of a university. California also has a Stanford Peak and University (of California) Peak.
The outdoor travel program arranges other, less strenuous hikes that students can take, Wyman said.
The group has more than enough experience to prepare for the hike. Wyman has hiked everything from beaches to the Sierra Nev-adas. The rest of the group has accompanied Wyman on other trips, and he expressed confidence in each of them.
Discovery of potentially lethal material at med school not told
By Natalie Perlin
The highly explosive ether and picric acid found last month on the Health Sciences campus at the USC/County Medical Center could have posed a more serious threat than was originally expressed by Los Angeles Fire and Police Department officials.
On Sept. 11 Cancer Research Center officials discovered, along with the ether and picric acid, a potentially lethal substance similar to nerve gas.
Although this substance, in itself, presented no serious danger, if the ether had exploded, it could have set off this substance, which when vaporized and inhaled, could interfere with nerve transmission in human beings, said Allen W. Mathies, dean of the School of Medicine.
In an article in the Los Angeles Times Friday, Los Angeles police admitted that they decided not to warn the public when the substance was found, but stressed that no segment of the city was in any danger at any time.
The substance has since been removed, along with the ether and picric acid. Mathies said, however, that the substance was disposed of because it was no longer needed as the researcher who had used it has left the Medical School.
A government agency removed the substance because its chemical nature made it dangerous for the Medical School to dispose of it in ordinary w'avs, such as diluting it and pouring it down the sink, Mathies said.
Instead, the substance had to be specicallv neutralized before it could be disposed of, he said.
Government agencies commonly dispose of such substances. It is onlv when the chemicals present an immediate danger that a special unit disposes of them. The LAPD unit removed the ether and picric acid, not the substance.
The bomb disposal unit is often called to dispose of outdated chemicals in laboratories around the city, a spokesman for the unit, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
"This is an all too common occurrence and points to negligence on the part of the laboratories," he said. The bomb squad did not take care of the substance found with the ether, however, because the squad only fakes care of explosive substances that pose an immediate danger to people in the area, he said.
(Continued on page 7)
Senate holds feedback forum
Time for students to voice opinions
The Student Senate will hold feedback forums next week to let students voice their opinions about various aspects of the university. Students who wish to express their opinions can fill out a form at tables located near Tommy Trojan, outside of the Student Activities Center, at the University Village and possibly outside the parking structure at 36th and Mc-Clintock Streets.
Senators and senate committee members will staff the tables.
The forms will cover several topics, such as housing, Student Administrative Services and parking. There will also be spaces for students to express their opinions in areas not specified.
This will be the third vear the senate has held feedback forums. Some of the most com-
mon complaints received last vear were about housing and the Financial Aid Office, said Steve Kwong, chairman of the feedback forum committee.
Kwong said the information provided in the forms will let the senate know what problems it should address and which ones are of most interest.
Kwong said that as a result of complaints received last year about Student Administrative Services, it has since been reorganized and decentralized in an attempt to make it more efficient.
"What's really important is that people come and complain about what is bothering them. This is one of the best chances students will get to air their complaints," Kwong said.