GOVERNANCE REVISIONS SOUGHT
Faculty Senate advises secession from council
By Sean Dunnahoo and Michael Schroeder
The Faculty Senate voted to abolish the President's Advisory Council and a sweeping change in the university governance system.
As a part of its action, the senate advised its members and other faculty to end their participation in the council and its subordinate groups.
The first section of the recommendation states that the Faculty Senate feels that participation of faculty representatives on the council hasn't been sufficiently productive to warrant their further participation.
Donald Yett, a professor of economics and chairman of the senate committee that drafted the recommendation, said that the advice to faculty members is in hopes that this will start action within the administration to restructure university governance.
The recommendation was drafted by a special committee on university governance. The senate feels faculty unrest has increased due to obstacles faced by the senate in representing the faculty.
Under the recommendation, the Faculty Senate has asked that the President's Advisory Council consist exclusively of members from the executive boards of the four representative bodies at the university. The groups are the Faculty Senate, Student Senate, the Council of Deans and the Staff Caucus.
The purpose of the restructured coudl would be consultation and coordination only and it would no longer have the power to endorse or reject actions by the four university constituencies.
Action from each of the groups would be sent directly to the president, who would respond to them within 30 days.
In the past, some actions were referred by the administration to the council before the administration considered them.
The governance recommendation calls for the council to be named the University Constituency Coordination Council. It would consist of eight representatives from the executive board of the Faculty Senate, two from the executive committee of the Council of Deans and two from the Staff Caucus.
The proposed council would elect its chairman from a slate consisting of its faculty members and the past three Faculty Senate presidents.
The council will only be used to coordinate the corresponding committees of the four representative bodies.
Before the governance recommendation can go into effect all groups involved in the change will have to agree on the changes. These changes would be implemented in September 1979.
The recommendation is not likely to be approved by other campus constituencies. These constituencies (the Student Senate, Staff Caucus and Council of Deans)
would have to approve the recommendation as part of the senate plan.
Most constituencies were surprised by the Faculty Senate action. David Mars, chairman of the President's Advisory Council, said he was not impressed by the action that included the implication that he should step down from his council post.
"I don't think I will act on that recommendation, though," Mars said.
Mars also expressed a lack of confidence in the Faculty Senate. He said, however, that one school was well represented — the School of Public Administration.
Mars is the school's representative to the Faculty Senate.
Robert Biller, dean of the School of Public Administration and chairman of the Council of Deans, was also sur-pnsed by the senate resolution.
"It was curiously timed. . . to deliver a message to an outgoing president," Biller said. "I can only say that anyone who contributes to a sense of unease is not responsible."
The governance recommendation followed another activity two weeks ago that was widely considered an action^ by the Faculty Senate against the deans. This was the senate's distribution of an evaluation of the deans without informing the Council of Deans.
(continued on page 8)
OT photo by Marsha Trasqer
FIRE ALARM—A fire ignited in the rubbish room of Webb Tower Wednesday. The fire, which iasted only about 15 minutes, caused no injuries and only minor damage to the building. The Fire Department said the fire was probably accidental.
Students extinguish fire in Webb Tower
By Teresa Watanabe
Staff Writer
Braving swirling smoke and flying ashes, two students squelched a fire that ignited Wednesday in the rubbish room of Webb Tower.
Marvin Okumura and Sean Mercadante detected smoke, sounded the alarm, helped evacuate students from the building and extinguished the fire — all before fire fighters reached the scene.
The fire was the first at Webb Tower in two years, a management representative said. Although the evacuation went smoothly there were a few problems “convincing people their lives were in danger," she said.
"Most people think it's a prank when they hear fire alarms, especially when we do have students who pull the alarms for no reason," she said. "In the fall they were doing it right and left."
Capt. Robert Aker of Fire Station 15 said the fire, which lasted about 15 minutes caused no injuries and only minor damages to the building. A lit cigarette carelessly discarded probably caused the fire, he said.
"We have had no arson recently and the nature and time of the fire indicates it was ac-
cidental," he said.
Okumura said he was eating lunch when he began smelling smoke. His roommate thought his pizza was burning, Okamura said.
But when he peered down the hall he saw smoke coming from the trash chute and went to investigate, he said. There he met Mercadante who had gone to throw his garbage away.
Suspecting a fire, the two scrambled to the glass case containing a fire hose and extinguisher. Mercadante shattered the glass with a flying kick.
They lowered the hose down the trash chute and turned the water on, bracing themselves for the blast but nothing happened, they said.
So they frantically grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed the foam down the chute. The chute spit it back, plastering their faces with foam and ash, they said.
"Bov it was gross," Mercadante said.
While Mercadante manned the hose (still waiting for it to cough up water), Okumura ran down the hall screaming fire warnings and opening doors for ventilation. He also turned on the fire alarm.
By the time he returned to Mercadante the recalcitrant (continued on page 8)
trojan
Volume LXXVI. Number 57_University of Southern California_Thursday. May 10, 1979
Moratorium on noon concerts lifted
By Karen Kelly
Staff Writer
James Dennis, director of the office of campus life and recreation, has lifted the moratorium on noon concerts on the Student Activities Center patio.
The moratorium was put into effect March 28 in response to faculty complaints about the noise level the concerts were causing in buildings adjacent to the patio.
Lee Weingarten, director of student programs in the office of campus life and recreation, said an ad-hoc committee on amplification comprised of two faculty members affected by the noise, two members of campus life and recreation and two members of student entertainment committees have discussed the problem and possible solutions to it.
The committee agreed that the location of the shows should not be changed but decible readings must be taken during the rest of the spring concerts.
"We resolved to buy a decibel-reader to monitor sound levels during the shows to try to come up with a level agreeable to all," Guy Himeno, cochairman of the Student Committee on Popular Entertainment (SCOPE) said.
Arnold Dunn, a professor of molecular biology and faculty representative, said the moratorium has been lifted for "experimental purposes" to monitor sound levels and find an acceptable one.
"We absolutely agree and believe in the right of students to have concerts, but we just want to see the maximum sound range that is in tolerable limits," Dunn said.
To test this, he has suggested that a band perform on the patio that will "really blast walls down. We'll see what the decibel readings are and see how much the decibels have to be brought down."
SCOPE has been given per-
Voice of Bugs Bunny to children at heart in
mission to book a fully amplified concert as a final test this spring to determine parameters and set guidelines for the sound level of patio concerts, Weingarten said.
Following the concert the committee will meet and pass a final set of guidelines.
Dunn said the committee hopes to find noise level that is acceptable to faculty, students and the musicians in the bands.
Himeno said the decibel reader has been used to take readings in buildings adjacent to the patio during the last three concerts held. These shows were not affected by the moratorium because they were contracted before it went into effect.
Readings during the shows have been between 95 and 100 dedbels on the patio. Readings taken inside adjacent buildings have been about 25 to 30 decibels lower.
Dunn said the sound level dur-
(continued on page 6)
appeals Bovard
By Chuck Coppola
' Staff Writer
It wouldn't be Saturday morning without corn flakes, kids and Bugs Bunny — just don't tell the kids that Bugs^famnv's real name is Mel Blanc.
As far as thev're concerned, Mel Blanc is "that nice man standing on the stage who talks like Bugs Bunny," said one preschooler.
About 200 students and 20 children from the childcare center heard Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester the Cat, Iweetv Bi:dt Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Le Pew, the Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote and a whole Saturday morning full of other voice characterizations speak Tuesday in Bovard Auditorium.
All the cartoon character voices came from the imagination of one man — Mel Blanc, possibly the only man besides Chuck Jones who can return a crowd of college students to tneir childhood
While the preschoolers got settled down for the show sponsored by the university speaker's committee one of their teachers asked if any of them wanted to sit closer.
"I do! I do!," about five of them replied in unison.
No one wanted to miss the cartoons.
The kids had no sooner gotten settled when members of Skull and Dagger, the senior men's honor fraternity, stormed the auditorium announc-
ing that they were the "warm up" act.
Dressed in swallow-tail coats a-la-Groucho Marx and shorts the group waved to the kid*, sarg paraded about and picked a "queen for a naif-minute' from the crowd.
The kids went bananas
Shortly thereafter, Mel BLanc was introduced and received a minute-long standing ovation, whereupon ever/ famous character in bianc's unagmati- n introduced themselves.
"Eeehh what's up doc? I tawt I law a puddv tet* B'deva, b'deva, b'deva — that's all folks!' said Biun . in rapio-fire succession.
‘That's just to let you know who the heil i am, i.i said when he concluded his bst c. ^ha ^cie-;
After hearing the characters, the kids f*r!>ed up. They knew exactly who was there
Blan-; said later that the children s re-'ctun typical of most kids when they near one ot his r.-nnv voices.
"I do a lot of work for the crippled ehiiUrv.V? hospital. 1 enjoy being able to go there and heir th kids forget the pain and the braces they' re 1 n* v all smile when they hear Bugs bunny. They sm:le almost immediately," Blanc said
Blanc began his lecture by spurts, sputters and a tornado of nonwords that characterize his version of
(continue.: on page 2'