Daily
Trojan
University of Southern California
Vol. LXVI, No. 65
Los Angeles, California
Tuesday, February 5, 1974
Bid for retarded center near campus rejected
$16,000 QUESTION—The question posed in front of Tommy Trojan seemed appropriate enough last week during mid-year graduation Apparently, the sign
exercises.
prompted one graduate to ponder his alma mater one last time before deciding whether his four-year experience was worth the price. DT photo by Michael Sedano.
BY ELLEN NORMAN
Staff Writer
A proposal to build a center for the trainable mentally retarded within the Hoover Redevelopment Project area has been rejected by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. The board voted, instead, that the area be used for market-rate housing.
The proposal for the center w as rejected by a vote of 3-2 at the agency’s meeting Jan. 23.
The Los Angeles Unified School District had offered to buy the land, which comprises the eastern two-thirds of the area bounded by Jefferson Boulevard, Orchard Avenue, West 30th Place and Vermont Avenue, for $700,000.
But university officials felt the land should be used for housing, as stipulated in the original plans of the project.
Leonard R. Wines, executive director of university relations, said, “It’s not that we’re against the center for the trainable mentally retarded. We just feel that housing is essential in order to complete the Hoover Project.”
The university has offered to buy the six-acre ’and parcel if a private developer does not.
Richard G. Mitchell, adminis-
trator for the agency, said he recommended that the site go to the school board because no private developers had submitted any concrete proposals for the development of the land.
“Both uses of the land were desirable, but housing is more preferable,” Mitchell said. “As one board member put it ‘this is a situation where there are no villains.”
Mitchell said the land will be readvertised for residential development.
Bill Rivera, special assistant to the superintendent ofthe Los Angeles Unified School District, said the school board might resort to condemnation ofthe land.
Any public agency has the right of eminent domain, which
enables it to condemn community land for its own purposes.
"If we bring a suit to condemn the land to Superior Court, it could pose a curious problem.” Rivera said. “Two public agencies would be involved, and the court would have to rule that one public agency has a greater power over another.”
Rivera explained that the school board would have to prove to the court that the center for the trainable mentally retarded would benefit the community more than market-rate housing.
“We may select another site in the USC area, but we’re taking a good hard look at everything concerned,” Rivera said.
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Hedda Gabler’ set to premiere tomorrow
Hedda Gabler, the Division of Drama’s second Master’s Company production, will be presented Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Stop Gap Theatre.
2,000 RECEIVE DIPLOMAS
Free press important, grads told
BY JEAN JARVIS
Assistant SoCal Editor
The freedoms of the press to know’, question and challenge must be protected and safeguarded, former CBS President Frank Stanton told more than 2.000 graduates last week.
“Like our free institutions of learning, our free press also exists to protect the people’s right to know. The press is the critical ingredient in the cement that binds a society together,” Stanton said at the midyear commencement exercises at the Shrine Auditorium.
Presently the chairman of the American National Red Cross, Stanton spoke of the current political crises and urged constant vigilance and unconditional support of a vigorous investigative free press in hi3 address.
The salvation of this republic is “the freedom to pursue the truth and the freedom to assert it,” he said.
“Our country needs a free press to inform the people of the events of the day and to provide them with a means of transmitting and receiving the widest possible variety of opinions and ideas.
“We need the press also as a direct rein on the powers of government.” Stanton told graduates and guests.
In the brief one-hour ceremony. honorary degrees of doctor of laws were conferred by President John R. Hubbard upon Stanton and six other persons.
Will and Ariel Durant, Pulitzer Prize-winning historians were among those hon-
ored and received a standing ovation from the graduates as the symbolic cardinal and gold hoods of the university were placed on their robes.
Also receiving honorary doctor of laws degrees w ere Robert D. Fisher, former USC vice-president and chairman of the Seeley G. Mudd Fund; Dr. Howard P House, internationally known ear surgeon; Forrest N.
Shumw ay, director of the Signal Companies, Inc. and treasurer of the Board of Trustees; and Gordon Norton Ray, president, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
The number of diplomas granted to students receiving degrees at the bachelor, master and doctoral levels brought the total number of degrees awarded in the university’s 94-year history to 142,000.
In his speech, Stanton decried the increasing attacks made on the press and especially those through government intervention as “more dangerous for being devious and subtle.
“The respectability that cloaks certain recent -.attacks —in come cases, from unexpected sources—on free journalism should worry every thoughtful citizen.”
Written by Henrik Ibsen, the play ranks very high among Ibsen’s works for its portrayal of an emergent new woman with the impulse to murder as a primitive form of self-assertion.
Hedda Gabler, although a ‘ new woman,” has not developed any capacity except for boring herself to death. She endeavors to mold a human destiny but w ith all drive and no direction. Her efforts results in destruction.
The play is directed by James Wilson and is produced by the graduate students of the Master of Fine Arts Company.
Tickets may be reserved by phoning 746-SHOW between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and may also be purchased at the door. Ticket prices are $1 on Wednesday and Thursday, and $1.50 on Friday and Saturday.
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Politics prof makes run for House
KEN THOMPSON
BY PETER WONG
Editor
Ken Thompson, an associate professor of political science, w ill run again for Congress this year.
He is a great deal more confident of winning this time—a goal that eluded him in 1972, when he won the Democratic Party primary handily, but lost the general election to Rep. Jerry L. Pettis (R-San Bernardino) by more than two to one.
In an interview, Thompson said he had just about decided not to run after what happened to him in 1972.
“On a professor’s resources—my salary of $12,500—I really couldn’t afford to run for Congress again,” he said.
“In 1972 I was running against a three-term incumbent, a millionaire and the head of a public relations firm. He owns a jet—and I own a Volkswagen.”
However, as he did some Christmas shop-ping.Thompson stopped for a haircut—and listened to the barber complain about the state of the nation.
"He talked about Watergate, the energy crisis, and other assorted problems, and how he didn't believe in the government. I told him those were exactly thesame issues I tried to discuss in the 1972 campaign,” Thompson said.
"I said then how corrupt this administration was, and howT the nation must plan for the energy crisis in the light of our dwindling resources and how we must develop alternative sources.
Thompson told the barber not to take his anger out on him—and in reply, the barber said he would work for Thompson if he w ere to run in the next election.
“He still didn’t know my name. And of course, talk is cheap. But at least that conversation led me to think about it again.” Thompson said.
“I will run w ith the intention of winning, and I am confident I can do that.”
Unlike last time. Thompson will not be facing an incumbent. In the 33rd Congressional District. Rep. Pettis beat Thompson. 140.868 to 46, 911.
Howver. because of the recent court-mandated reapportionment. Thompson will be running in the 35th Congressional District, which includes much of eastern Los Angeles County—and it has no incumbent.
Thompson, who lives in Claremont, said that the new district encompasses about two-thirds ofthe former 33rd Congressional District.
“Politicians often talk about issues that are
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