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Volume LXXXIX, Number 52	University of Southern California	Thursday, December 4, 1980
Zumberge changes top administration
Eliminates three vice presidencies
By Matthew Kane
Staff Writer
President James H. Zumberge is eliminating three vice-presidential positions to make way for a reorganized administration more suited to his style.
Zohrab A. Kaprielian, executive vice president, Paul E. Hadley, vice president for Academic Affairs, and Thomas P. Nickell, Jr., vice president for University Affairs, will vacate their offices by July 1, 1981.
Zumberge said Kaprielian will continue as the dean of the School of Engineering and Hadley, he expects, will retire within the next year.
Nickell has a contract with the university that will end Dec. 31, 1981 which will be honored, Zumberge said, but it is possible Nickell may act as a consultant to the university after his contract expires.
The other vice presidents will remain as part of the reorganized administration. Their roles in the new structure will be determined during the transition period, which will run until July 1.
In an interview and later in a meeting with the Student Senate, Zumberge stressed he is not making the changes because he is dissatisfied with the way the university is being run.
"I believe that it's necessary and essential for me to have my own team on board to carry out the responsibilities that the Board of Trustees has lain on my shoulders," Zumberge said. "It's more related to the style of the new man than to the past organization."
Zumberge explained the new administration structure through the use of diagrams he drew on a blackboard in his office. (Recreated in the accompanying chart.)
In the old structure, eight vice presidents reported to the Office of the President. The Office of the President consisted of the president and the executive vice president.
In the new' structure the Office of the President is made up of the President and three senior vice presidents: academic affairs, administrative affairs and development. Every other administration official will re-
port to one of the three senior vice presidents. Who is to report to each senior vice president will be determined during the transition.
The President's Advisory Council, Student Senate and Faculty Senate will continue to function as recom-
Old Structure
Office of the President President Executive VP
VP VP VP VP VP VP VP
New Structure
mending bodies with direct access to the president. Zumberge will also keep his personal assistant, George Abdo.
"(The old) structure was too cumbersome for my style," Zumberge said. "I had seven vice presidents, and that's too large a group to use as an executive committee."
The three senior vice presidents make up the new executive committee.
"I am not used to functioning with an executive vice president," Zumberge said. "My style calls for this kind of organization."
Zumberge said the senior vice presidents will not function to pass down orders from a central command post.
"My style also involves decentralization of decisionmaking," he said. "A university is not like a corporation."
Zumberge, however, does not want decentralized decision-making to produce chaos.
"Everyone in the university would like to say they report to the president, but that's impossible — that's why we need the structure," he said.
Zumberge described the three-and-a-half months since he became president as a gestation period in which the new structure developed.
Zumberge said he discussed the administration structure independently with all three of the outgoing vice presidents. While planning the reorganization, he used Carl Hartnack, chairman of the Board of Trustees, as a sounding board for his ideas.
However, Zumberge said, "This was purely my brainchild."
The plan for the new administration structure finally came together over the Thanksgiving recess, Zumberge said. "On Monday, I pressed the button."
Wednesday, Zumberge announced the changes at the regular December meeting of the Board of Trustees.
(Continued on page 7)
DEPARTING VPs
Retrospective on three careers
By Eric Vincent
Staff Writer
Zohrab Kaprielian — Executive v.p.
Zohrab Kaprielian, when once asked to assess his responsibilities at the university, said he w'as "dedicated to the point that the university might be my life."
A review of his record over the past 23 years at the university supports this statement.
Kaprielians' first position at the university was as an assistant professor of electrical engineering in 1957. He was promoted to associate professor in 1958 and to full professor in 1962 when he also became chairman of the electrical engineering department.
In 1970, he was appointed dean of engineering as well as vice president of academic planning, a position which brought him a great deal of attention and controversy.
Kaprielian was accused of having too much power in his position, managing the university as if it were a corporation, with experts as the key decision-makers and students and faculty holding onlv minor roles.
Others felt he was simply attempting to bring benefits to the university through the use of modem management techniques.
Although he suffered a heart attack in the summer of 1973, Kaprielian still maintained his heavy work
ZOHRAB KAPRIELIAN
schedule, continuing to hold the same positions.
Kaprielian was named executive vice president in October 1975 by former president John R. Hubbard, officially giving him the number-two position in the university administration.
Thomas Nickell — University Affairs
Thomas P. Nickell, Jr. earned a bachelor of science degree in marketing and ad-
vertising at the university in 1948. Two years later later he returned as an alumni fund director and has remained ever since.
In 1957, Nickell became both director of fund raising and development. Two years later, he became director of University Planning and vice president of that office the following year.
Nickell was appointed to his current position of vice president of University Affairs in 1971 and as such, handles development of funding sources and public relations as well as administrating the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and General Alumni Association.
Nickell came under attack in April of 1979 when he was asked to resign by several minority groups that said he was discriminating against minorities in admissions.
Jay Berger, director of the Office of Admissions and James Jones, director of Student Administrative Services were also asked to resign.
Nickell has served as a Ford Foundation educational consultant for Latin America and on the attorney gener-(Continued on page 7)
President stresses need to better faculty caliber
By Dave Fisher
Maintaining the quality of its faculty is the major problem facing the university today. President James H. Zumberge told the Student Senate Wednesday night.
"Human resources have got to take number one priority,'' Zumberge said. "If we have to cut something out, I'd cut travel expenses and equipment before I'd cut out human resources."
Zumberge said the university must be willing to offer salaries and renumerations that will be competitive with private companies in order to obtain high quality teachers, even though finances are a major problem.
•	"I'd like to go one year without raising tuition, but because of inflation, I can't do that," Zumberge said.
"We've got to stop some things that we'Te spending monev on now so w’e can balance our costs and our income; but we can't cut human resources," he said.
Zumberge said the Schools of Science and Engineering are areas where the university needs to improve the faculty.
"We're way below where we want to be in science and engineering, especially engineering," he said. "We're having a difficult time getting instructors, not because of other universities, but because of General Motors, TRW and other companies who are able to pay higher salaries than we can."
Zumberge said the university must cope with declining enrollment. As high school enrollments decline, competition between colleges for students will intensify. Although the university will have to join this competition, it should not try to attract students by lowering its standards, he said.
He said the university will continue to grow, but not at the expense of lower academic standards. One way to increase the student population is to offer more scholarships, Zumberge said.
"We need more scholarship funds, lots more," he said. "We must also continue our support of underprivileged students who don't have the opportunities that other students do."
But, Zumberge warned, these underprivileged students should demonstrate they are capable of handling college work before entering a university.
"Because these students come to the university unprepared, we have to provide remedial courses for things that should have been taught in high school," he said.
(Continued on page 18)