Public relations forms three distinct sections
By Robin Oto
Assistant City- Editor
Public relations services have been reorganized into three sections — news service, periodicals and media development.
Public relations, under the academic relations department, had been divided into two sections, news serv ice and media and public relations.
"Charles (Weisenberg) was handling it all and it's just too much for one person," said Vance Peterson, director of academic relations.
Weisenberg, former director of media and public relations, resigned last October The university news bureau, headed by Weisenberg, had combined public relations services until President John R. Hubbard ordered a reorganization last March.
"1 will be handling some of the things Charles (Weisenberg) was. I will work directlv with the administration on matters of policy w’here there are media inquiries,'' Peterson said.
"It's not a major reorganization, it's an adjustment. We're still very' much in an expenmental mode and we re going to continue that way until we get what we want," Peterson said.
Under the new organization, the news service will be directed bv Martha Harris, previously director of public relations at Claremont Men's College and former columnist at the San Luis Obispo Telegram Tribune.
Peterson said news releases, placement of the news releases and media relations or inquiries from the press will be handled bv the news service.
The periodicals section, working with the news service, writes and places articles in university publications such as the Chronicle, Calendar and Items, a monthly newsletter to members of the Board of Trustees.
Peterson said interviews for a director of periodicals have already begun.
The media development section handles media promotional services • such as promotion of the university's centennial celebration, media development such as finding the appropriate media channels to place releases, and media programs.
Peterson said he is trying to develop a media and production center under media programs for special productions featuring university faculty and other members exploring various academic issues and ideas.
Peterson said there are no funds currently available to hire a director for the media development section.
Peterson said emphasis is now' being placed on publicizing academic achievements and research as wrell as the activities and general promotion of the university.
Some faculty members have expressed dissatisfaction with the method with w hich Harris was hired.
A search committee chosen bv Peterson including Zohrab kaprie-Iian, executive vice-president, Ldward Bassett, director of the School of Journalism, and John Marburger, dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, chose Harris after a five-month nationwide search.
One faculty member said most of the committee members had no public relations experience or background
PAC REPORT ISSUED
trojan
Volume LXXV, Number 60 University of Southern California Wednesday, January 10, 1979
Student rent strike possible in protest of poor services
By Gail Harris
Staff Writer
The Student Community Council will vote Sunday on a possible rent strike against the university.
Lack of security in universitv-owned apartments and parking facilities are the major issues of the potential strike, council members said.
If the council votes to strike, it will collect rents from students agreeing to participate and put the money in a trust fund until the university met the requests.
Ron McElhaney, president of the Student Community Council, said the organization has made numerous attempts to make the university take action on certain complaints.
Originally, the complaints included missing furniture, maintenance problems and lack of security in apartments and parking areas, McElhaney said.
In an attempt to use normal university procedure to solve the problems, the council sent memos to various departments, he said.
The departments included Campus Security and Parking Operations, the Office of Residential Life, and auxiliary services, McElhaney said.
Auxiliary services corrected most of the problems involving maintenance and missing furniture but the council had difficulty contacting the other departments, he said.
In addition to distributing the memo, the council tried to speak with Anthony Lazzaro, vice-president of business affairs and
University faces $4-million deficit
By John Frith
Staff VVnter
The university faces deficits of more than $4 million over the next five years if corrective measures aren't taken, according to a report bv a committee of the President's Advisory Council.
The mid-vear report was issued bv the resource management and planning committee as a review' of the university's proposed 1979 budget.
The report found "the current budgetary situation of the university is verv serious." It said the university faces a deficit of over $1.6 million in the current year (1978-79), a shortage of over $2 million in 1979-80, and deficits of more than $4 million annually after 1980 if needed deferred maintenance was undertaken.
(The report was issued before changes in President Carter's wage and price guidelines, which mav allow the university to charge a higher tuition rate.)
The report cited several reasons for the projected deficit.
Besides tuition hikes, income for the university will nse only slightly. The report projects enrollment will be at most the same as this year
Unrestricted endowment will grow by 3.8%, while no increase in the amount of unrestricted gifts is expected.
On the expenditure side, salanes will increase bv 6%, while wages will increase bv 8 14% because the federal minimum wage has risen that amount.
In addition, governmental requirements, such as improving elevator service for the handicapped and county cutbacks to the medical school due to Proposition 13, resulted in increased expenditures
Another problem the report cited was tuition. The university's five-year forecast indicated it will increase its dependence on tuition income.
"The growth rate in tuition income is projected to be larger than from that of any other major source.
"Thus, by 1982-83, tuition will make up 81.9% oi the revenue, compared to 80.5% at present. While this difference is small, (the committee) believes this
trend to be in the w’rong direction."
The report recommended the university establish internal controls on tuition increases, even without federal controls.
It also suggested the university should study alternative methods of tuition payment to help ease the cash flow burden on the student and his family and financial services.
Some of these methods are monthly tuition payments, tuition contracts for a study over a specified number of years, payment in advance at prevailing rates and payments through insurance companies.
The report suggested that contracts with decreasing annual tuition might enhance student retention.
The report said the university should upgrade administrative services, citing justifiable complaints about registration, financial aid, housing, parking and security, among others.
"In many cases data show USC to be comparable to other institutions. However, student perceptions, based on innumberable snafus and failures combined with the increases in tuition, are that the quality of their life is declining," the report said.
"Unless positive steps are taken to reverse these perceptions, student enrollment will eventually be affected."
The report noted that a 6% increase in teaching assistants' stipends, which is part of a three-year commitment, is not included in the first draft of the budget because of the administration's interpretation of the wage and price guidelines.
The committee's report will be presented to the full President's Advisory Council at 2:30 p.m. Friday in Law Center Caseroom 7. The meeting is open to the public.
Suzanne Nora, chairman of the Student Senate and vice-chairman of the committee, said she believed the full council will approve the committee's recommendations.
"I think (the recommendations) are good in that they show' that there are a lot of things (at the university) that need doing," Nora said.
Carl Levredge, director of Campus Security and Parking Operations.
Levredge did not respond and Lazzaro said he would refer the matter to Levredge, McElhaney said.
A spokesman from business affairs said Lazzaro will make a final resolution about the problem after he gets a report from Levredge and Guy Hubbard, director of auxiliary services.
Levredge was not available for comment.
McElhaney said Levredge has been "totally negligent" in responding to the council.
"It's benign neglect," McElhaney said. "I don't think that's any way to treat someone who is paving $7,500 a year to attend this university. It’s a situation of where vour priorities are and the council's priorities happen to be the safety of students."
McElhaney said the council has documentation of several crimes affecting university students. They include four attempted rapes that occurred in Century Apartments, stolen cars, auto burglaries and $6,000 worth of property that was stolen from a resident of Jewell Manor.
The council was inspired by
the outcome of several court cases involving security, he said.
In recent cases in California, the courts have held that landlords are liable and have the re-sponsiblity to provide security for their residents, McElhaney said.
The university, and not auxiliary services, acts as the landlord of the apartments, he said. The strike would not be against auxiliary services.
From the beginning he maintained the council would like to work with the university's system and avoid the strike, but Campus Security and Parking Operations forced them to go against normal procedure, McElhaney said.
MiKe McCarthy , assistant director of auxiliary services, said instead of the strike, the council should consider other action that would deal directlv with the offices involved w ithout jeopardizing students' housing.
"If the council is going to represent the student community effectively, it should contemplate the seriousness of the rent strike and how’ effective it will be in accomplishing theirgoals," McCarthy said.
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DT photo by Larry Drum
MOON WATCH — On Feb. 26 the moon will move between the sun and the earth as Los Angeles experiences a 78% eclipse of the sun. The eclipse will be 100% in the Northwest United States. It will be the last total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. for the rest of the century.