Recruiting aims to make university number 1
By Shari Cookson
Assistant City Editor
"Like some scarlet woman of penny-dreadful fiction studiously ignoring the raised eyebrows of Sunday morning churchgoers, the University of Southern California has now slipped into an academic pew down front, still a little unsure of herself but determined to sit there with her sober elders."
The above is the opening paragraph of an article that appeared in Change magazine in May 1977.
Today, almost two years later, the university is still working to enhance its academic reputation. As almost any administrator will tell you, "We've made substantial gains. . ."
"We want to be number one, in both athletics and academics," said David Malone, dean of the humanities division.
The zealously voiced password that administrators hope will take the university to the top is "quality" — quality students and quality faculty."
"It's a beneficial circle — better faculty want better students, better students want
better faculty," Malone said.
The administration has spent the past few years trying to recruit the "better" students.
"We have enough applicants so that we wouldn't have to do much recruitment if we didn't care about quality," said Jay Berger, director of admissions, assistance and school relations.
But administrators have continued active recruitment and built up the university's applicant pool to the point where they can now afford to be choosey about who is admitted.
In the current batch of freshmen applicants, one-third have a 3.75 grade point average or higher, Berger said.
When recruiting, administrators and faculty visit about 1,400 community colleges and high schools in 30 states in an attempt to increase the number of students from out of state.
About 28% of the student body this year is from out of state this year, a 5% increase over last year, Berger said.
The administration also wants to attract more students from areas immediately adjacent to the university.
"The university has always had problems attracting students from the inner-dty schools because it has been known as a racist, rich white kids school," Berger said.
Currently the university is sending peer counselors to visit local high schools to initiate more interaction.
Administrators are also working to raise more money to aid local students, said Robert Biller, dean of public administration.
"We were amazed that only one student from Manual Arts High School was admitted to the university last fall," Biller said.
Harvard recruits some of the excellent students from the university's surrounding areas, which the university overlooks, Biller said.
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University of Southern California Volume LXXVI, Number 16	Monday March 5, 1979
Admissions process reflects flexible system
By Karen Holloway
Staff Writer
"We are much more concerned with getting people out than with getting people in."
This seems like a different approach to admissions at the university. Ted Meyer, assistant director of admissions, assistance and school relations, said, "It sounds like jive but it really isn't." Determining who will remain outside and who will enter the walls of Troy is no cut-and-dried decision.
"We do not base our admissions on just a mathematical scale. We don't believe in the magic number system," Meyer said.
The admissions process begins in the service bureau of operations, which is not under the supervisory control of the admissions staff. Here the routine paper work is done, such as verifying code numbers and notifying applicants if they failed to include any information.
"I elected three years ago not to have them (operations employees) under admissions," James Jones, executive director of student administrative services, said. The opera-
Health center director dies
Addie Klotz, executive director of the Student Health Center, died early Saturday morning after waging an open and dignified battle with cancer for two years.
Klotz was 51 years old.
Klotz was admitted into Northridge Hospital last Tuesday, eight weeks following her resignation.
Known for the honest manner with which she dealt with her illness, Klotz returned to campus two weeks ago to attend a reception held on her behalf. She was presented with the Hitchcock Award for outstanding contribution to student health services from the American College Health Assn. President John Hubbard gave her the USC Citation for Merit Achievement at the ceremony in rcognition for years of service to the university.
Klotz held the health center director's post since 1971. For the past six years,
Klotz also served as associate vice-president of student affairs.
The funeral will take place at 11 a.m.
Tuesday at Lorenzen Chapel in Reseda.
Klotz is survived bv her mother and two sisters.
tions staff performs strictly logistics functions and do not make admissions decisions, Jones said. From operations the applications are brought to the admissions evaluators who periodically go through the newly flagged files and make the initial affirmative admissions decisions.
Every negative decision comes to the attention of Jay Berger, director of admissions, assistance and school relations. Berger estimated that he makes about 25% of the decisions on freshmen applications. If the evaluators are uncertain about an acceptance decision, the file is taken to one of the assistant directors. If there is still any question on w hether a student should be admitted after an assistant director has evaluated the application, it is then directed to
Berger, who has the final word on admissions at the university.
Berger decides the requirements for admissions in consultation with Jones and the admissions staff. When persons other than Berger make admissions decisions, they are expected to follow these established guidelines.
"Realistically, it's very unusual for a student to be rejected from USC with less than three reviews," Meyer said.
About 150 to 175 students who do not meet the regular admissions requirements are admitted each year under the Freshman Access Program. Applicants who have low grade point averages, low test scores or other factors that disqualify them from regular admissions, but demonstrate the potential to succeed academically are referred to the program.
Carol Sezna, assistant coordinator of freshman access, said the traditional admissions factors are fallible indicators of a student's ability.
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I Topping: a man for all seasons
Ex-president comments on Hubbard
I By John Frith
Staff Writer
Norman Topping served as || president of the university for 12 H difficult years, from 1958 to H 1970. In that span of time, the f! university grew from a provin-H cial “sleeping giant" to an ag-|! gressive, national institution of H higher.
In light of the impending re-| tirement of President John R.
Hubbard, successor to Topping p (who is now chancellor), it is perhaps time to recall the Topping presidency, and especially the selection process that installed Hubbard.
The university had been stagnating for years Rufus B. Von KleinSmid. the university's fifth president, had led the school through the depression and World War II, but was 75 years old w hen the war ended. His inactivity finallv prompted the faculty to approach the Board of Trustees and suggest it was time for him to retire.
Fred Fagg was then appointed to the post. When he res-
igned ten years later, a three-man "presidium" governed for two years.
"There was no progress (at the university) for ten years," Topping recalled. "Other universities had enlarged, but USC stayed about even with its World War II time. In comparison with other institutions, it had fallen way back."
So in May, 1958, the board announced the selection of Topping. Fifty years old at the time, he had been born in a small Missouri town, but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was eight years old.
After receiving his M.D. from the university's School of Medicine, he joined the public health service, where he developed the World War II typhus vaccine.
From 1952 to 1958, he was vice-president of medical affairs at the Universitv of Pennsylvania. With his background, the board figured he was a safe, traditional choice. The board was wrong.
His ambitious master plan, introduced in 1960, resulted in more than 40 new buildings and 3 million square feet of new classrooms and offices. The campus was given a new look.
But Topping didn't only rebuild the universitv' physically. New appointments, such as Dorothy Nelson as dean of the Law Center and Zohrab Kaprielian as dean of engineering, began to shake off the university's long-standing image as a trade school.
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NORMAN TOPPING