Program to increase recruitment of scholars
By Roger Wedberg
Staff Writer
The university' will recruit some of the nation's brightest high school students on National Merit Scholars Honors Day, Nov. 7.
Last year the program raised the number of National Merit semi-finalists attending the university from 11 to 55, said Joseph Simms, coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Major Program.
"It's like a one-stop shopping trip for students — kind of an academic cafeteria," Simms said.
"We decided two years ago that it would be really neat if National Merit students could come here for a day, meet faculty, talk to students, see the library and get to know the university," said Joe Mayer, assistant to the executive vice president in Student Administrative Services.
The university is competing with the best schools in the na-
tion for a declining amount of applicants, he said.
Simms, the program’s founder, was critical of university efforts at recruiting quality students.
"I believe that the admissions process has been very effective thus far in producing a large applicant pool. What appears to be lacking is a firm commitment on the part of Student Administrative Services to upgrade the quality of students, in terms of grade point average and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores," he said.
"These students present a different and difficult marketing problem. I hate to be crude but we are selling academia. These kids want to know what kind of faculty the university has."
He said, however, that the overall grade point average of students.
"I'd like to see better students here because I think we're competitive with Stanford and Harvard due to the kind of faculty (Continued on page 5)
Carelessness blamed for rash of small-item thefts
Carelessness was cited as the reason for thefts of more than $600 of merchandise and currency from buildings on and around campus Tuesday.
All of the items were taken after they were left unattended by their owners, said Sgt. George Farina of University Security.
"We call these thefts 'crimes of opportunity' because the owner's giving the thief the opportunity to steal when he leaves a possession alone," Farina said.
A camera and photographic accessories worth $405 were taken from a room in Elizabeth von KleinSmid dormitory when the owner left to use the restroom, Farina said.
Other items taken Tuesday were a purse, a wallet and a briefcase that had a combined value of $130. A backpack with materials worth $152 was stolen from the racks in the bookstore.
"If something is left unattended — let's face it — people will be tempted," Farina said. Students cannot assume items left in campus buildings are safe. Many of these thefts are made by members of the university and not by people from off the street, he said.
In a related incident, a bike worth $625 was stolen while it was parked in front of the 32nd Street Market in the University Village Tuesday, Farina said.
"The student was in the store only for 10 minutes. But when he came out, his lock, chain, bike and his spirits were gone," Farina said.
PART OF HOOVER PROJECT
University to pay for housing
Construction of a $4.2 million low and middle income housing complex on Vermont Avenue will begin this month.
The 103 units will be a partial replacement for the Century Apartment complex on Jefferson Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, which was turned over to the university last year to meet a severe shortage of student housing.
Watt Industries, which owns the land, will build the new complex. The university will buy the apartments after construction is completed and turn them over to the city of Los Angeles.
The Century complex, also built by Watt Industries, was originally intended for low and middle-income housing. The university agreed to provide 300 new units in exchange for the Century complex.
The new units, built as part of the Hoover Redevelopment Project, will be located across from the university on Vermont Avenue between 37th Street and 37th Place.
The development will consist of three residen-
tial buildings with one and two-bedroom apartments and a recreational facility. There will be six one-bedroom units for handicapped persons.
All units will be subsidized, with qualified tenants paying one-fourth of their income toward rent.
The Community Redevelopment Agency, sponsored by the city of Los Angeles, had to approve the sale of the land before construction could begin. The agency acquired the land several years ago, intending to sell it for commercial development, but when the university requested the site for low-income housing, the agency asked the City Council to change the land designation from commercial to residential.
After reviewing the construction plans, the agency allowed Watt Industries to purchase the land.
Construction of the remaining replacement units is expected to begin in mid-1980. "We are in the process of identifying property to complete the project," Parker said. "We expect to acquire the land by the end of this year."
f trojan
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Volume LXXXVII Number 38 University of Southern California Thursday, November 8, 1979
Staff photo by Mark Stictit
OBSTACLE — This ditch running parallel to the Chemistry building presents an annoying barrier to student traffic, while the heavy machinery disturbs the peace of the Student Activities Center Patio.
Editor questions secrecy laws
Says H-bomb details already public
By Carole Long
Articles Editor
"Secrecy is a sort of mystique that helps the military program keep people from asking questions. K the Russians or Chinese want to find out secret information, they can. Secrecy laws do not protect information from hostile people, they just keep the public out."
If Sam Day, the managing editor of The Progressive had his way, most of the information the government classifies restricted and secret would be public knowledge. In the November issue of The Progresive, a story by Howard Morland reveals what has been considered one of the super secrets of the military, that of the design of the hydrogen bomb.
To Day, the information contained in the story really was not secret.
"When Howard began researching for the story he never looked at any secret documents and interviewed people out in the open. The whole point of the story was to show that this
information was really out in the open and there wasn't any excuse to hide behind a secrecy law."
Before the story went to publication, an early draft was leaked to the Department of Energy. They contacted The Progressive and gave them three choices:
1.	Not to publish the article because it would damage the country by proliferating nuclear weapons.
2.	To let the Department of Energy rewrite the article, or
3.	To publish the article and face prosecution.
"We felt the government had no foundation for saying the article would endanger the security of the United States, so we decided to run the story anyway," Day said.
The Department of Energy responded by obtaining a temporary restraining order, the first prior restraint injunction ever issued to suppress an article on the basis of national security, and touched off a six-month debate over the supposed viola-
tion by the magazine. In September the government ceased its objection to publicaton of the Morland article after a similar story was published in a Wisconsin newspaper.
"In the past it has always been the government's policy not to comment on stories that purported to tell about nuclear weapons design. They had a consistent policy of saying 'we will neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of this.' I have no idea why they decided to comment on The Progressive story."
Day and Morland discussed The Progressive case and the whole question of nuclear secrecy with various groups on campus this week as part of a Southern California tour for the Alliance For Survival, an anti-nuclear organization.
During the period when The Progresive was "on trial," Day said the magazine received little support from other members of the media.
"The New York Times supported us but most of the liberal (Continued on page 13)
GLASS FORMING — Unlike the delicate art of glass-blowing, Julie Skilton is using a more physically strenuous technique of heating glass in a special oven, twirling it and using metal tools to shape it. The art department offers many facilities to students interested in a multitude of techniques and media, including not only glass forming, but ceramics, lithography, itaglio printmaking, sculpture and others.