Administrators, critics support guidelines for Mideast center
By Sean Dunnahoo
Staff Writer
Administrators and previous critics of the Middle East Center have expressed support for the draft of recommendations released Wednesday.
While the special committee on the Middle East Center was discussing the center's future, administrators had refused to express their opinions until the committee's work was done.
Most of the controversy centered around the sources of funding for the center, the implications that the university may not have total control over the proposed center and the resentment among university constituencies' when they weren't consulted about the center when it was being planned.
David Lehrer, western states counsel of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, saw the name change (from the "Middle East Center at the University of Southern California to the "University of Southern California Middle East Center) as important because it reflects the attitude of the document and reiterates that the university will have all control over the center.
The recommendation stresses that the university do its own fundraising for the center and have no ties with any fundrais-
ing foundations for the center.
"Given the history of the Middle East Center, it is a wise recommendation on the part of the committee," Lehrer said.
Lehrer received a copy of the draft shortly before he made his comments, and stressed that until he could study the recommendations in detail, he wouldn't be able to make finalized statements.
"After a brief review, it appears that the recommendations deal forthrightly with problems facing USC as a result of the formulation of the earlier recommendations," Lehrer said.
The recommendations seem to be an honest, thorough effort on the part of the special committee, he said.
Willard Beling, who was appointed director of the center and Middle East Center Foundation, was the center of the controversy during the committee's deliberations.
Beling's critics had felt that his former ties with the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia would pose a conflict of interest in his part as director of the center.
Beling said he hasn't evaluated the recommendations in terms of what it would do for him.
"Since last fall, I haven't been involved in even thinking about what the commit-
tee would decide," he said.
Beling said he has not been involved with or accepted any funding from the government or the CIA since he edited the Maghreb Labor Digest, which was under-writed by the Fund for International and Social and Economic Education. The fund was found to be a channel for CIA funds in 1967.
Kenneth Owler Smith, associate director of the School of Journalism, had been outspoken on the controversy of the center.
After reviewing the draft released by Christol's committee. Smith felt that the committee did a fine job, and they "almost had to come to those conclusions."
The recommendations are excellent, and will do a great deal if they are adopted. Smith said. The question is whether the administration will act on them and do such things as sever the relationship between the foundation and the university, he said.
Carl Q. Christol, professor of political science and chairman of the committee feels that the previous controversy ".. .(is) dealt with by the totally new arrangements between the univesity and the founda-
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trojan
University of Southern California Volume LXXVI, Number 63	Friday, May 18, 1979
Task force sets forth proposals to improve admission procedures
By John Frith
Staff Writer
A task force of minority students has completed a report outlining the situation in the office of admissions and a list of 21 recommendations designed to help solve the problem.
Many black and Chicano students and staff members have protested alleged favoritism on the part of Jay Berger, director of the office of admissions.
They have charged that the office has admitted white students with lower grade point averages and test scores than qualified minority applicants.
"Clearly," Biller said, "there are some important things we need to tend to. There are also some things we can take pride in."
The draft report found the size and quality of the undergraduate applicant pool has been sharply and substantially increased over the past three years.
'There is now a need to assess how these gains in numbers are to be best secured, subjected to continuing quality and diversity growth and balanced in ways supportive of the university's long term interests," the report stated.
The report found total minority enrollment had increased from 21% of the campus total to 23% between 1974 and 1978.
Black enrollment has declined from a 7% total to 6%, Hispanic enrollment has grown from 5% to 6%, white enrollment has declined from 75% to 63% and international student enrollment has increased from 4% to 14%.
The report said the admissions process at the university is in several respects more rigorous than, for example, the University of California system.
"For a more or less sure admissions action at USC, you must establish both a particular GPA (grade point average) and a particular SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) Store.
"UC, for example, allows you to demonstrate excellence on either criteria rather than both."
Biller was excited by this finding.
"UC has been very prima-donnaish about admissions, claiming that they take the best students in the state.
"The simple fact is that one can get into UC by any one of these (critena). We've been much tougher.
"The students should be very proud of this," he said.
The report also said many majors and programs at the university are substantially oversubscribed and have adopted admissions standards substantially higher than the general university requirements.
The report said the present admissions policy tends to decrease the percentage of blacks at the university.
"The present recruitment, admissions and acceptance processes act: to increase the percentage of whites and Asian-Americans (in the enrolled group relative to their proportion in the applicant pool); to decrease the percentage of blacks; and to hold constant the percentage of Hispanics in this regard."
The level of minority enrollment compared to other universities in California is not low.
The university's overall 1976-77 percentage, which is the most recent data available, of 6% black and 6% Hispanic students, is better than the average of all UC campuses, which is 4.6% and 5.4% respectively.
To improve the university's performance on minority admissions,the task force came up with these conclusions.
The university should establish an admissions policy congruent with its academic objectives.
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BRANDED — Items in the Trojan Bookstore with the university logo are a small part of the marketing techniques implemented to promote the USC image.
Police report university crime rate not arrested
By Bob Conti
Staff Writer
Crime in the university area has not been arrested despite Los Angeles Police Department efforts, said Leonard Bivens, a captain with the police department.
Bivens said the main problem is student apathy. Despite anticrime programs by campus groups and the police, Bivens said, "It doesn't seem as though anyone's concerned."
Bivens said a police captain drove down the Row one morning and found numerous bicycles (many of them expensive 10-speeds) unlocked and scattered around.
"The university is our number-two crime problem in
the (10-square-mile) southwest division," he said.
The police department has previously reported that the university has a reputation as an easy target for thieves.
Hundreds of cars, bicycles and other personal property are stolen from faculty and staff each year.
The majority of stolen merchandise is found in areas distant from the university, such as Long Beach, Compton and Culver City, Bivens said.
One of the reasons for apathy in crime prevention at the university is because most people have their expensive property insured, Bivens said.
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University promoted by tradition
By Randy Oliver
Staff Wnter
When it comes to recruitment, the university has not had to resort to flashy marketing techmuues to promute itself. Instead it has chosen to adhere to more traditional methods.
An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education said one college sends recruiters to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in the spring to distribute monogram-med flying discs to high school students on the beach and another ofters free "Jog Your Mind" T-shirts to students who enroll in adult education classes
Admissions officials at one Western college planned to release balloons over its campus on a day when it was being visited by potential students, but the plan was vetoed. Some of the balloons were to have contained scholarships for the students who caught them.
"We don't need to head-hunt students all over the country." said Leonard Wines, associate vice-president ot universitv affairs. "We already have a national reputation "
Wines said the main tool for recruitment is the brochures sent out to prospective students bv student administrative services.
"Of course, we always trv to present ourselves in the most favorable light," he said. "Football puts us in the spotlight in front of most of the country."
Wines said his office has prepared a one-minute film about the university, which was shown on both NBC and ABC during the football season.
One tool for marketing the university is selling
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