Daily fgp Trojan
University of Southern California
Vol. LXV1, No. 81 __Los Angeles, California	Friday, March 1, 1974
HOWARD MILLER
Law prof running for lieutenant governor
BY STEVE HESS
Assistant City Editor
“In a campaign like this, in a year like this, a candidate has to be all over the state at one time. In the past, the incumbent would be at a definite advantage but this year (the year of Watergate) the new office-seeker would be the favorite.”
Howard Miller, a USC law professor, is running for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. “It looks like we’ve got a good chance for the nomination,” Miller said in a phone interview from his Century City campaign office.
He considers his toughest opponent State Sen. Mervyn Dym-ally (D-Los Angeles). Other announced candidates for the nomination are State Sen. Lawrence Walsh (D-Downey) and Orange County Supervisor Robert Battin.
Miller has proposed a series of candidate forums similar to the televised debates during the Kennedy-Nixon presidential campaign for statewide elections.
“Today most politics is deceptive,” Miller said. He cited massive advertising campaigns which, he said, package candidates like commodities. He also hit the manner in which “candidates are canned and manipulated in 30 and 60 seconds on radio and television.”
He criticized the style of campaigning that refuses to take the risk of showing the candidate as he really is. unprotected by what Miller called “packages.”
In his call for organized confrontations between candidates. Miller said he would support the political reform initiative on the ballot in June.
‘ The initiative, which was written by members of Common Cause, a consumer action group, is split into two areas,” he said.
“The first area deals with conflict of interest in political campaigns and the second prohibits
campaign contributions from any registered lobbyists.”
“I plan to follow these proposals in my campaign whether or not they become law in June,” Miller said.
“I think that candidates ought to appear together in public all over the state and radio and television stations have the responsibility of broadcasting these.”
In this way, Miller said, the public can get a truly realistic view of the candidates running not only for lieutenant governor but for any public office.
“When the public can view a candidate matching wits with another candidate, the voters will be better prepared to make a decision at the polls.”
Miller is best known in Southern California for his appearances on the television program, The Advocates.
In his role as one of the political advocates on the program he said that he was exposed to all areas of public question. “On that show I’ve taken on just about every political leader in the country.”
The office Miller is running for is a strategic one in California politics. The lieutenant governor sits as the chairman of several state commissions including the State Lands Commission which has jurisdiction over land acquisition for freeways and state parks.
The lieutenant governor also sits on the University of California Board of Regents and is the president of the State Senate.
“The man in that position must be someone who will fight for the public interest. He must be someone who will publicly advocate issues that no one else will touch, like the environment and education.”
And Miller says, “I’m the man to do that.”
DT editor urges House to extend student aid
WATERGATE NOTWITHSTANDING—Although many political experts predict a gloomy year for Republican candidates, party supporters on campus are still out in full force. Craig Coleman (left), Tom Carter, and
John Nakaoka confer around the Trojan Young Republicans table near Tommy Trojan. DT photo by Bob
Chavez.
WASHINGTON—A major student aid program should be continued after the scheduled expiration in 1975, Peter Wong, Daily Trojan editor, told a House subcommittee Wednesday.
“I urged the Congress and particularly this subcommittee to reauthorize all present student assistance programs—including supplemental grants, direct loans and work-study,” Wong said.
“When it comes time to draft new authorizing legislation, the programs high on President Nixon’s enemies list should be even higher on the congressional retention list.”
The House special subcommittee on education, under the chairmanship of Rep. James G. O’Hara (D-Mich ), heard Wong and three other students testify about the administration of student aid programs on their campuses.
The subcommittee also accepted suggestions for program improvements as it considered legislation to extend the programs of the Education Amendments of 1972, which expire next year.
Wong urged the retention of three major student aid programs—Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants Program, National Direct Student Loan Program, College Work-Study Program—“because they provide the flexibility that institutions require in meeting the financial needs of students.”
In his budget requests last year and this year, President Nixon asked nothing for supplemental grants and new direct loans and requested only $250 million for work-study.
“His attempts to end two programs clearly violate the letter and the intend of the 1972 law,” Wong told the subcommittee.
The law says that before the basic opportunity grants program can be funded, the three rams clearly violate the letter and the intent of the 1972 law,” Wong told th subcommittee.
The law says that before the
basic opportunity grants program can be funded, the three previous programs must be funded at specified minimum levels.
Congress refused to go along with Nixon’s request, however, in its two most recent appropriations of student aid funds—for the 1973-74 and 1974-75 academic years.
Wong praised the Congress for such actions and told O’Hara, “You put the congressional response best when you told your colleagues, ‘let us obey the law the way we wrote the law, and let us turn down the request of the administration that it be granted amnesty from observing the law which it finds uncomfortable to live with.’ ”
He urged Congress to stand firm again this year.
Supplemental grants, direct loans and work-study are administered by educational institutions, “and they add to the support students receive from such direct aid programs as basic grants and insured loans,” Wong said.
(USC students this year are getting more than $500,000 in supplemental grants, an estimated $4 million in direct loans, and $1 million in wages from work-study. They also receive about $4 million in insured loans made by banks, and as of early fall. $45,000 in basic grants.)
Wong also discussed problems with the basic grants program. “Since its enactment in 1972
(Continued on page 3)
New VP will seek unity of health fields
BY DON LaPLANTE
Contributing Editor
Edmund F. Ackell, the newly-appointed vice-president for health affairs, hopes to bring the various health-related departments ofthe university into a closer working relationship.
Ackell, who is vice-president for health affairs at the University of Florida, will take the position here July 1.
Speaking via telephone Thursday afternoon from Florida, Ackell said that he would like to bring some departments of the university such as the Gerontology Center and the departments of physical and occupational therapy together with the medical, dental and pharmacy schools to look at the total health care needs of the patient.
“Our goal is to get the best physicians and dentists possible. If we can improve the situation by combining some undergraduate work with the medical and dental programs, then we will consider it,” he said.
“Possibly we can reduce the time needed to get the degree by teaching some of the basic courses at the undergraduate level. But no matter what we do we will never be able to admit all of the people who want to be doctors.”
Ackell plans to visit USC two or three times before he begins here full-time. He expects his first visit to be either in late March or early April, depending on when he can fit it into his schedule.
During one of his visits he hopes to start preparations for a search committee for a new dean for the School of Dentistry. Dr. William Crawford has been the interim dean of the School of Dentistry since November, 1972.
Ackell said that he would appoint a permanent dean as soon as the search committee suggests three or four names to him.
“I don’t believe in letting it drag on,” he said. “The school needs permanent full-time leadership. Being without a permanent dean slows the progress of the school.”	(Continued on page 3)