Trajan
University of Southern California
Vol. LX1V, No. 42	____Los Angeles, California__Friday, November 16, 1973
Married Housing Rents Decreased
BY ALIX RILEY
Rent levels for students living in the Married Students Housing Complex have been rolled back to the level as of June.
The decision to decrease the rents is the result of negotiations between the Housing Office and the Married Students Housing Committee.
The talks were undertaken in response to the July, 1973 proposal by the Student Auxiliary Services to raise rents by an average of $10 to $30 a month.
THE TWO groups met throughout the summer to determine approximate expenses for the 1973-74 fiscal year. A review of the findings indicated that rent levels in June were sufficient to cover costs. No rent increases may be made until next July.
After the rent hike was announced, some students refused to pay the extra difference because they felt the raise was unjustified. Guy Hubbard, director of auxiliary7 services, said that students who paid the extra rent would be reimbursed.
Both the complex residents and the Office of Auxiliary Services said they felt the negotiations took place in an atmosphere of good will and good faith.
TONY AURIEMMA, unofficial chairman of the Married Students Housing Committee, said that all in
all, there was a good atmosphere, considering what was involved.
Hubbard agreed and added: "The students did a splendid job. They were diligent, patient, and did an excellent job of doing study work.”
Representatives from both groups did an in-depth study of projected expenditures. It was discovered that the main error in estimation was in utilities.
Hubbard said that under the original projections, the Married Students Complex had been given a disproportionate share of utility costs.
Auriemma said that the people in the Office of Auxiliary Services are placed in an awkward position because ofthe university policy under which profits or losses are absorbed by the university’s general fund. This policy, he said, allows no room for long-range planning, and so. the students pay in the long run.
ALL PARTIES concerned are satisfied with the agreement.
“Of course I’m pleased. I think it was a fair settlement,” Auriemma said.
Hubbard concurred, “The agreement is fair to both parties and it’s fair to the university as well.”
He said that in the future, a student committee will be invited to assist in determining rent levels.
Suspect Arrested For Campus Rape
A long search by Campus Security officers ended in a chase through Exposition Park and the capture of a suspect in the rape of a university employee Thursday morning.
The victim, a secretary in the School of Architecture and Fine Arts, was assaulted outside Watt Hall while on her way to work at 8:15 a.m.
A Campus Security spokesman said that the suspect, who was not immediately identified, was a 19-year-old. He was thought to be a dropout from Arizona State University and not a student here.
HE WAS being held by the Southwest Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The secretary w'as taken to the Student Health Center for treatment and was later released to the care of her physician.
Campus Security detailed five officers to the search after receiving a description of the suspect.
After scouring the vicinity for several hours, an officer spotted a man fitting the suspect’s description crossing Exposition Boulevard at Hoover Street.
APPARENTLY the officer and suspect saw each other atthesamf^time. The suspect broke inti) a run across the street into Exposition Park, where he was apprehended at 11:05 a.m.
MUCHO MUSIC—The Black and Brown Brotherhood Band appeared Thursday in conjunction with El Centro Chicano’s Flor y Canto, a national Con-
ference on Chicano Literature. The Conference, to be held through Sunday, features Chicano artists and critics. DT photo by Michael Sedano.
Travel Director Denies Making Slander Charges
BY KEVIN McKENNA
Assistant City Editor
The director ofthe Student Travel Bureau has denied an allegation by an off-campus charter flight agency that he made “certain false and defamatory allegations” concerning the agency’s procedures.
Abraham van Kempen, director of student travel, said Thursday that the agency’s lawyers were misinformed and that statements he made to representatives of American Airlines and UCLA were not libelous.
The controversy focuses on the alleged use of USC’s name in connection with charter flights promoted by the agency, the Academy of International Studies in Beverly Hills. ^
VAN KEMPEN said that his statements to representatives of American Airlines and the travel bureau at UCLA were not slanderous. He said he only told them that "there was reason to be-
lieve the academy was using the names of USC and UCLA faculty and students without authorization” in organizing the flights.
Two charter flights to New York during Christmas vacation were being organized by the academy last month under the name of USC and UCLA Faculty and Students, Van Kempen said.
A sales representative for
American Airlines confirmed Thursday that the academy appiied for a charter under that name.
THE REPRESENTATIVE also said that although the academy had applied for the charter, none will be scheduled. The spokesman would not elaborate. (The other flight involved, with United Airlines, has now apparently been chartered
(Continued on page 3)
NLRB Sets Hearing
A hearing will be held Monday downtown to determine the appropriateness of a Teamsters Union petition requesting an election for the university’s 15 transportation and utility service employees.
The petition, filed by Teamsters Local 986 with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). is necessary, since the NLRB will not conduct an election if the proposed unit of employees is not deemed suitable.
The Teamsters local submitted the petition Oct. 18. However, the director of the NLRB’s Region 31 ordered the hearing to judge the appropriateness ofthe requested unit.
A final decision is not expected for at least several weeks, and possibly not until 1974, a statement from Musick, Peeler and Garrett, the university’s legal representatives, said
FLIGHT CONTROVERY—Abraham van Kempen, director of student travel, denied Thursday that he made certain false charges about an off-campus flight agency’s procedures. DT photo by Bob Chavez.