Funding needed for Middle East Center
By John Antczak
Staff Wnter
Approximately $5 million will be needed for the development of the Middle East Center, recently approved by the Board of Trustees, said Willard Beling, head of the Department of International Relations' Middle East-North Africa program.
The cost includes the construction of a building on campus.
Funds will not come from Toward Century II, the university's general fund raising effort, said Vance Peterson, director of academic relations.
Despite die large number of alumni in the Mideast, none have contributed to the center, Beling said.
"We are not soliciting money from governments. We want it to be clean and free of special interest. I would like to tap the alumni. It's a legitimate source. In any case, our alumni have not contributed," he said.
The center will be supervised by a joint committee of university trustees and officers of a nonprofit foundation established to support the center.
Beling and Norman Fertig, dean of advisement for letters, arts and sciences, are two of the foundation's officers.
Beling said areas of research will include the major political and economic factors involved in the Persian Gulf, the interaction between the Mideast and the Third World, and language and literature. "But the center will not deal specifically with the Arab-Israeli conflict," Beling said.
Beling, who holds the King Faisal Chair of Arab and Islamic Studies, said the center would add enormously to the study of the Mideast as well as to the prestige of the university.
"We've had a long tradition of association with the Middle East. This will give a name to the university as a major research center in the Mideast," Beling said.
A unique aspect of the center will be the use of a computer to accumulate and preserve information.
"There is no center in the world like this. Our focus is to put information into computers. It's totally new and dramatic," Beling said.
The information will be available to scholars and businesses.
Arab and Israeli researchers will be selected to conduct research for up to a year at the center.
Beling emphasized that only academic qualifications would be used in the selection of scholars "in case anyone would have any feelings on the choice of scholars."
All instruction will remain in the control of various university departments, which will also retain control over the appointment of faculty and the development of course content.
Foreign TAs required to pass English tests
By Andrea Ignatowski	Students passing this test
Staff writer	must then take the Foreign Stu-
Competencv tests in English	dents’ English Examination
will now be required for all	(FSE) a test which is adminis-
foreign graduate students ap-	tered to ail foreign students plying for teaching assistant upon entering the university,
positions at the university.	The exam determines the stu-
David Eskey, assistant direc-	dents' level of competency in tor of the American Language English and places them in ap-
Institute, said the new regula-	propriate English classes in the tion is a result of many student American Language Institute if
complaints that some foreign	necessary.
TAs possess only a limited	The test of English is a 3V2-
knowledge of English and are	hour, multiple-choice test cover-
often hard to understand in the	ing three areas of the English
classroom.	language — structure and writ-
"No one knows the real di-	ing; reading and vocabulary;
mension of the problem," Eskey	and listening comprehension,
said. "Few people want to come	The Foreign Students' English
forward and single out particu-	exam is similar, except that it
lar TAs, so we have very few	also measures language perfor-
complaints with names actually	mance through interviews and
on paper."	writing samples, which the Test
A policy statement prepared	of English does not.
by the graduate and profes-	"The TOEFL is really not
sional schools committee and	adequate by itself to measure
the academic affairs committee	language competency because it
of the President's Advisory	doesn’t measure performance,
Council last spring recom-	Eskey said. A student may do
mended that foreign students	well on the TOEFL but may
be obligated to take the Test of	have bad pronunciation and
English as a Foreign Language	can't be understood. The FSE
(TOEFL) before being consi-	gives us a better indication of
dered as a TA. A score of 550	actual language performance."
out of about 700 is the minimum	Eskey also noted that all
passing score for a TA position,	foreign graduate students are
indicating a high competency in	strongly urged to take the test
English vocabulary and struc-	of English,
ture.	(continued on page 2)
Volume LXXV, Number 21	University of Southern California Wednesday, October 18,1978
-FORMED BY PAC
Task forces to study housing, aid
By Gail Harris
Staff Writer
Some university personnel believe housing and financial aid problems may cause students to transfer after their freshman year.
The student affairs committee of the President's Advisory Council has formed two subcommittees to review these problems.
A task force on financial aid standards and a task force on housing priorities and contracts will observe the housing and financial aid systems and determine how they effect the student population.
The results of the study will be brought before the whole committee sometime between December and February.
Glenn Sonnenberg, chairman of the student affairs committee, said the task force on financial standards resulted from suggestions by the student population task force and Zohrab kaprielian, executive vice-president of the university.
"A lot of people are fearful that we are losing some of our best students because of financial aid and housing," Sonnenberg said.
Housing is guaranteed to all incoming freshmen living outside a 20-mile radius of the university who have met application deadlines.
Continuing students who live on campus get 50% of the total housing space and those who reside off-campus are not guaranteed space for the next year.
Housing and the financial aid distribution could
be the major determinants for students deciding whether to stay or leave the university.
"Financial aid is the lifeline of the university," said Sonnenberg as he repeated a quote once used by President John R. Hubbard.
Freshmen get housing and financial aid but their chances of receiving one or the other decreases after the first year, Sonnenberg said.
The task forces plan to re-examine the housing priorities and give special attention to the subject of the university's responsibility to returning students.
In addition to this, they will review the policies for student enrollment to decide what grade-point-average should be used as a standard for financial aid renewal.
The committees also want to check variations in academic programs that cause some students to have higher grade-point averages than others.
Sonnenberg summed up the purpose of the task forces by saying, "We're trying to get an equitable arrangement that best represents students' needs.
"The committee (student affairs) has to be a conscience to the university and constantly remind them that they're here to serve students, because the product USC is selling is lacking in student services," Sonnenberg said.
The student affairs committee will make recommendations based on the results of the investigations to the administration.
QUEUING UP BY TOMMY TROJAN - The last day rush for participation in the Oregon State football lottery resulted in a 45-minute wait in line for many students Tuesday afternoon. DT photo by Marsha Traeger.
Press fears loss of reporter rights in ‘Daily’ search
By Brad Avery
Staff Writer
American newspapers were left shaken when the Supreme Court ruled against The Stanford Daily last May in the paper's fight to defend its constitutional rights. Governor Brown recently signed a bill counteracting the ruling but knowledgeable observers know the battle isn’t over.
On the evening of April 12, 1971, the offices of Stanford University's newspaper, The Stanford Daily, were suddenly entered by four Palo Alto police officers.
A search warrant allowed them to make their unannounced visit — where in a period of 15 minutes they calmly went through the Daily's files, desks, mailboxes, and wastebaskets. After carefully replacing the items they had inspected, the officers left, taking nothing.
The police had been looking for photographs of an illegal riot that had taken place at Stanford Hospital three days before. After seeing news photographs of the riot in the Daily, the officers were hoping to find more photographs of the incident and thus be able to identify additional suspects.
The intrustion on the Daily marked the first time in American history that a newspaper had been searched. Since then, at least nine other newspapers and radio and television stations have been subjected to unannounced searches by authorities.
The alternative to police searches for evidence is a court ordered subpoena — which could be contested.
The Daily filed suit one month after the search in federal district court. The Daily asked that (continued on page 2)