Conspiracy theory rejected at meeting
John LeBlanc, president of the Faculty Senate, rejected a theory at Wednesday’s senate meeting by a chief administrative officer that a letter to the president and Board of Trustees"... was the result of a conspiracy between certain Jewish trustees and certain Jewish faculty on our Faculty Senate executive board to unseat or somehow discredit the president of this university "
The Nov. 6 letter drafted by the Faculty Senate executive board prompted the Board of Trustees' action in forming a President's Advisory Council committee to handle questions over the center. President John R. Hubbard denied that any theory had been presented.
"There's not an ounce of truth to that. There's not the slightest suggestion any of that has been an issue at any time," he said.
The direct contradiction between Hubbard and LeBlanc went unchallenged by faculty members.
Survey says students resist Mideast Center
By Marsha Johnston
Assistant Citv Editor
A random survey ot students shows a majority of students are opposed to the establishment of the Middle East Center and a greater majority are displeased with the wav the universitv handled the center agreement.
Most students also felt the center jeopardizes the university's integrity.
The survev was administered to 136 students bv the Daily Tro-ian at Tommy Trojan for 2 days last week.
A total of 76 students said thev opposed the establishment of the proposed Middle East Center on campus. Fittv-seven respondents supported the idea.
Students felt, bv the widest margin of any of the questions asked that the university had handled the whole matter poorlv. (114 yes, 17 no)
Manv students said thev approved of the proposed Middle l ast Center but disapproved of the procedures the universitv followed in the establishment of the proposal.
A little more than 50% of the students surveyed (K2 ves, 74 no) telt the university's integrity was jeopardized b\ the establishment ot the Middle East Center. Comm liters outnumbered
other students surveyed by about three to one. The breakdown was: 61 commuters, 29 on-campus residents, 14 Row residents and 12 off-campus residents. Twenty students failed to answer the question.
Of the surveys returned, eight indicated the students had no knowledge of the Middle East Center or the surrounding controversy. Many more students, however, declined to take the survey because they did not know about the issue.
Most of the comments made on the surveys concerned whether the university's integrity had been damaged.
"If the university had set out to do harm to the university's prestige, they couldn't have done a better job than they already have."
"The center might jeopardize L SC’s integrity if the public is not convinced of the established
academic control ____Sure,
changes can be made to ensure this control .... but with the national news coverage in Time and Slezi'suvek, perhaps USC should wait until a later date."
‘‘’Only it this (Middle East Center) can be shown to be free ot political purposes should it be considered."
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By Amy Alpern
Feature/Focus Editor
The eyes of the UCLA students widened. Their mouths instantly opened. A look of disbelief was portrayed on their faces. They couldn't believe they were reading the Daily Bruin. They weren't.
It was too early in the morning to start playing Detective Holmes for most of tiie UCLA students who read the Daily Trojan’s prank version of the Daily Bruin.
Haven't they learned by now? Another USC versus UCLA football game week brings another successful cross-town rival prank.
Some have learned, and in not too much time were able to just laugh rather than be alarmed about the information in the prank Daily Bruin.
But the feeling of relief after learning that the contents contained no validity was immediately replaced with a feeling of defeat.
"USC is up to their pranks again," one student said.
But soon after, these people would read the real Daily Bruin
and see that UCLA does it share of pranks too. Inserted in Wednesday's Daily Bruin was a bogus Daily Trojan.
The difference was, UCLA put its Daily Trojan creation in the morning paper, without distributing copies on this campus. USC also put its imitation in the regular paper, but then went one better.
It distributed 10,000 copies on the UCLA campus and surrounding student community. What's worse, the prank Bruin came out an hour earlier than the real one.
But the Daily Bruin staff seemed more amused than anything else over the issue.
Four students were discussing the prank, unaware that they were being overheard by Daily Trojan staff members.
"Did you see some of the names (in the staff box) they came up with? My gosh, Joanne Whiplash (Joanne Eglash). Those names are gonna stick," said one student in the Daily Bruin office.
"Some of these ads are really funny," one said.
Another girl on the staff said the paper was even funnier be-
cause some of the fake names really fit the people they satired.
"Joanne Flipmeoff, (Joanne Sanfilippo) was a good one, because everybody would like to do just that," one girl on the Bruin staff said.
But despite the fact that it is USC-UCLA football week and both schools have played pranks on the others newspaper, there are those who didn't seem to quite figure out the joke.
One teacher at UCLA was curiously inspecting his prank Daily Bruin.
Noticing his utter confusion, I decided it might be fun to talk to him.
I walked over and started picking up a few of the Daily Bruins that had fallen onto the sidewalk.
When I got next to him, I asked him to help me pick up the papers.
He was dazed by what he had just read and wanted to share his disbelief with someone. After glancing over his shoulder to perhaps check for a hidden camera, he bent over, asking, if anv-(continued on page 2)
Senate affirms Mideast committee
By Robin Oto
Assistant City Editor
The Faculty Senate endorsed the representative committee of the President's Advisory Council at Wednesday's Senate meeting. The committee was established last week by the Board of Trustees to handle questions on the Middle East Center.
The senate also fully endorsed the Middle East Center as a result of the board's action.
The senate passed an amendment to the resolution declaring the initial agreement for establishment of the center and the second memorandum of understanding null and void.
President John R. Hubbard announced committee members who were elected by their constituencies.
John McCone, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will represent the Board of Trustees and Dorthy Nelson, dean of the Law School, will represent the Council of Deans.
Faculty representatives are William Spitzer, pro-
fessor of material science, electrical engineering and physics; Carl Christol, professor of political science; and Leslie Wilbur, professor and chairman of High and Postsecondary education.
The staff representative is Barbara MacEachem of the College of Continuing Education and J.D. Crouch, an international relations major, is the student representative.
The senate tabled a resolution made by Solomon Golomb, professor of electrical engineering and mathematics, to commend Don Speich, Los Angeles Times Education writer and Neil Sandberg of the American Jewish Committee for their coverage of the Middle East Center controversy.
The senate voted to vote until the next meeting, when more recent developments concerning the center will have been published.
A motion to ban the media from the meeting was overwhelmingly defeated. A television crew from
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trojan
Volume LXXV, Number 39 University of Southern California Thursday, November 16, 1978
Rent strike considered to protest security problems
By Betty Wong
St.itt Writer
Students in university-owned off-campus housing may refuse to pay their rent and parking fees unless the university responds to their demands for increased security
A parking fee and housing rent strike will be supported by most of the Student Community Council unless the administration responds more immediately to the growing incidences of crime in off-campus residence facilities.
Suggestions to explore the possibility of improving the lighting on streets north ot the campus (where there is a heavy concentration of students) has been already made to Anthony Lazzaro, vice-president ot business affairs.
Robert Biller, dean of public administration, suggested that students living off-campus form a "lighting district." He said residents of the area will be encouraged to appeal to the city of Los Angeles for permission to form a district. Forming a district means extra taxes that will pay for the installation of better lighting on city streets.
McElhanev believes a special district isn't needed. He feels the city and the university should provide security services anyway. "It's this job ..that's what they're there for."
Some speculate that if residents form a district, the value of property will increase. Better lighting will make the area a more desirable place to live. It will make people feel safer, Biller said. However it will take about a year or two before anything is actually installed and students are worried about providing security now — not two years from now.
Crime — rape, assault and auto theft — has caused deep concern among the student communitv.
The area north of the campus is the least covered by security, said Su/anne Nora, chairman of the Student Senate.
At least 50% of crimes against students occur in nonuniversitv areas, \ora said.
Although the exact number of assaults is not yet certain, the Student Community Council said there have been at least 7 to 10 attempted attacks made on students in the Century Apartment complex.
One such attack occurred on the stairwell in the Century Apartments Friday. A student was reportedly attacked when she was forced to climb the stairs, because the elevator had not been repaired.
Many students feel unsafe living in off-campus housing facilities.
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RITUAL RIVALRY RETURNS - A UCLA student grins while reading one of the 10.000 farcical Daily Bruins written by the Daily Trojan staff and distributed
EYE OFF CAMPUS
OT otioto by Mchael Hooter
on the Westwood campus. The Bruins came up with a fake Daily Trojan, but never circulated it here.
Westwood chuckles over fake ‘Bruin’