Students request area be declared ‘historical district’
By Randy Oliver
Staff Writer
The Los Angeles City Council's passage of a Historical Preservation Overlay Ordinance on Wednesday may help students in the School of Urban and Regional planning to have the area north of campus declared a historical district.
The effort began last fall when students in the graduate planning laboratory began a building-by-building survey of the North University Park area.
The report, which they issued for the Cultural Heritage Board, indicated that the area contained a number of historical buildings and outlined two walking tours of the community.
"The area contains some of the oldest homes in Los Angeles, which have survived since the earliest days of the dty," said Jamie Rogers, a graduate student majoring in urban planning and public administration. "Being a student area, many of the buildings are being cut up and divided into many units.
"Many speculators would like to tear down the old housing and put in high rise buildings," Rogers said. "There is a way to do both; provide student housing and preserve houses.
"Houses that don't blend into the surroundings create a visual headache. Everyone's quality of life suffers. If the area was a historical district certain houses would be given priority for saving. Others
not worth saving should be taken out. New multi-family units could be integrated into the neighborhood," the report stated.
Mark Subbotin, a student in the class, said the decision about what buildings were saved would be made by a five member architectural board. Decisions would be checked by the city council, planning board and the cultural heritage board.
'The policy would be adopted by a local group, as far as what buildings would be preserved and what limitations would be placed on new buildings," he said. "It won't halt new construction."
Structures included in the report were selected on the basis of architectural, cultural and environmental significance. Although seven of the buildings are currently recognized as historical sites, the majority have not received such recognition.
"The idea is to get the entire area declared a historical district," Rogers said.
"We need to get the neighborhood interested in preserving old historical houses and find a way to continue the involvement of students," she said. "We need to show that planning students can do the technical work and to involve people who own property and live in the area. We understand that there is only so much we can do as students."
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Faculty senators involved in PAC will forfeit status
By Sean Dunn ah oo
Staff Writer
AJthough the Faculty Senate cannot force faculty to end participation in the President's Advisory Council, members are being told that if they participate they will not be able to say they represent the Faculty Senate.
The senate had voted on a recommendation to advise faculty members to end participation in the council.
Part of the recommendation was also an invitation to other constituencies to meet and discuss changes in the council structure and to provide examples of changes the senate feels would be useful.
The portion of the recommendation that advises ceasing participation reads, "It is the sense of the Faculty Senate that further participation of faculty representatives in the presently constituted PAC structure hasn't been sufficiently productive to warrant further participation."
The senate is the largest and most diverse representative of the faculty with one out of eight faculty members serving on the senate, said Donald Yett, professor of economics and chairman of the Special Faculty Senate Committee on university governance.
"Those faculty who continue to participate in the current PAC structure can no longer say that they represent the largest segment of faculty representatives," he said.
Robert Biller, chairman of the Council of Deans, said
he doesn't understand why the senate would want everyone to pull out of the council, because faculty participation in the council has been important in determining the outcome of many issues.
"Since the faculty is the majority of PAC, its weight has been well recognized and effective," he said.
The important issue is that the most representative faculty group on campus is saying that faculty participation on the council has not been useful and that the present governance structure must be changed, Yett said.
Another major point of the recommendation is the senate's statement of willingness to "go into dialogue with other constituencies" before governance restructuring is made, he said.
These constituencies are the Student Senate, Council .of Deans and Staff Caucus.
Each of these groups are represented on the council, and the Faculty Senate said a new governance procedure should be designed that is mutually acceptable to all constituent bodies.
Finding a mutually acceptable plan is important since "the present structure was imposed on us," and there was no opportunity given them by the administration to approve it, Yett said.
Many other constituencies, however, have expressed their support for the present council structure.
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Profs to be evaluated in LAS course guide
A student course guide containing evaluations of professors and classes in the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences will be available next week.
The evaluations are a breakdown of student responses in percentage (for example, the number of students who felt a professor w'as excellent).
"The course guide provides the best means for students to make a decision of which class to take," said Mark Kaufman, outgoing chairman of the Student Senate's academic affairs committee.
Kaufman compiled the 260-page guide with a staff of 10. The $7,000 project was funded entirely by programming money.
The guide, which is furnished free of charge, contains evaluations of about 100 classes in the college.
Classes are described in terms of workload, tests, required textbooks and the basis used for determination of a final grade.
The course guide is designed to primarily include those general education requirements usually taken by freshmen and sophomores.
The story of course guides at the university shows a history of deterioration. In 1968, the guide w'as respected among students and faculty as valuable and functional.
Kaufman said that course guides at the university in the early 1970s were an attempt to attack faculty members.
"Many of the comments were derogatory and off the heads of the guide's editors," Kaufman said.
The following evaluations ap-
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University of Southern California Volume LXXV1, Number 58	_Friday, May 11, 1979
OT photo by Marsha Traagar
SUNLIGHT, STARBRIGHT—Gleaming like the stars on Christmas night, these multi-faceted crystal figures caught the sunlight as they dangled on display at the Crafts Faire in Alumni Park.