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University of Southern California
Vol. IXVI, No. 75	_Los Angeles, Colifornia__Thursday, February 21, 1974
Nixon-Congress battle to decide future of U.S. aid
Koupal mentioned that the People s Lobby owns printing plants of .ts own, from which it gains some profits, and also runs two bicycle shops (in San Jose and Los Angeles), which contribute extra money to the organization’s efforts.
Each year the People’s Lobby also runs the “Bike for Life” program.
Koupal said that the intent of the People’s Lobby is to “make a change and make it in the shortest possible period of time,” and then to “clear out,” all in a period of about 10 years.
“Age in an organization corrupts,” Koupal said.
Koupal talked about the Political Reform Initiative that the People's Lobby is currently involved with. He said that the People’s Lobby. Common Cause, the Nader organization, and Secretary ofState Edmund
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BY ALIX RILEY
Staff Writer
Colleges and universities have long been criticized for failing to utilize their resources to alleviate society’s problems.
A student-funded group designed to end that criticism by applying various methods to in-depth research, public education and legal-political advocacy to a wide range of social issues, is being organized in the Los Angeles area.
The California Public Interest Research Group of the Los Angeles Region is a nonprofit corporation made up of professionals in such fields as law, sociology and engineering along with undergraduate and graduate students. The corporation is controlled by a student
EDWIN KOUPAL
Initiative process called students’ power tool
BY JON ALLEN
StafT Writer
Students, like all California citizens, have the power to make laws through the initiative process, Edwin A. Koupal, founder of the People’s Lobby, said in a speech here Wednesday.
Speaking before political science classes, Koupal said, “Here, right now, in this room, we can write a law.” He said that the initiative procedure, the People’s Lobby has won such issues as the right of those 18 to 20 years old to vote where they live instead of where their parents live.
Koupal also said that the People’s Lobby recently won a U.S. Supreme Court case involving the right to collect petition signatures in public places.
Proposition 9 (the so-called Pollution Initiative), which failed at the polls, was also originated by the People’s Lobby.
He indicated that most of the workers for the lobby are volunteer and that those who are paid are only paid what they need to live and pay expenses.
The effort that took the petitioning-in -public-places issue to the Supreme Court cost the People’s Lobby only around $50. said Koupal. because most of the work by lawyers and others was contributed free of charge.
He said a similar amount of money was spent on Proposition 9, but the interests that opposed it spent about 5 million to defeat it.
Koupal stressed that the People’s Lobby is a California organization, not a national one. He said it was started to “do something very specific about our social problems.”
The People’s Lobby, he said, ignores political methods such as lobbying, and instead employs the processes of initiative, referendum and recall.
BY PETER WONG
Editor
President Nixon and Congress renew their annual battle over student aid funds in the next few weeks.
Each side, however, is looking toward more than the appropriation of funds for the 1975-76 academic year, when today’s sophomores will be seniors.
What is more important is the law that authorizes federal student aid programs—the Education Amendments of 1972 —which will come up for renewal in 1975.
The outcome of the battle this year will influence provisions of the legislation considered in 1975—and therefore, federal student aid programs into the 1980s.
President Nixon has asked Congress for $1.3 billion for the Basic Opportunity Grants Program, established in the 1972 law.
Under this level of funding, the maximum grant would be $1,400. minus the expected family contribution.
He has also asked $250 million for the College Work-Study Program, which enables students to obtain part-time jobs in university offices and nonprofit organizations.
Nixon has asked $315 million for the Federal Insured Student Loan Program. This money subsidizes the 7% interest on loans made by banks.
An additional $115 million is sought to help pay off defaulted loans.
However, he has requested only $6 million for the National Direct Student Loan Program, under which educational in-
stitutions make loans at 3°Ic interest.
Furthermore. Nixon asked nothing for the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Program. Students from low-income families benefit from this program.
The 1972 law provides that student aid programs enacted in the 1960s must be funded at minimum levels before basic grants can be funded.
Supplemental grants are to get at least $130.4 million: direct study. $237.4 million; direct loans. $286 million.
For the second straight year. Nixon’s budget has violated this provision of the law.
In appropriating funds for the 1973-74 and 1974-75 academic years, Congress has changed Nixon’s priorities accordingly.
For these years, supplemental grants has been allocated $210.3 million; work-study, $270.2 million; direct loans, $293 million.
USC students are receiving about $5 million from federal programs, excluding an additional $4 million from insured loans.
Students start group to solve social ills
board of directors.
Madeline Nawar. a graduate student in engineering, is one of the organizers of the Los Angeles chapter and serves on the board of directors. She is working with students from UCLA, California State University Northridge. California State College at San Bernardino, Loyola Law School and other local schools.
It is hoped that the group s projects will be funded by a registration fee increase of up to $3 on each of the participating campuses.
The money will be used to maintain a staff of professionals who will assist in projects.
Steve Traiger, a California State University, Northridge student who is a member of the board of directors, said that by maintaining a professional staff, there will be a sense of continuity as far as long-term projects are concerned.
The group has three methods for dealing with societal concerns. The first step is research and investigation ofthe problem and evaluation of alternate solutions.
A research project must be approved by the board of directors before any research is begun. After receiving approval, a team of students, under the guidance of the professional staff, conducts a thorough investigation ofthe existing information on the problem. If necessary. original research may be conducted through facilities made available at the participating schools. Provisions will be made for reimbursing the schools.
It may be possible for students to earn academic credit while working for the group.
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Bradley to
speak today
Mayor Tom Bradley will speak at 10:30 a.m. today in a ceremony at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center.
A time capsule will be placed in an underground vault during the ceremony. The capsule will contain predictions on the subject of aging from government officials, authorities on aging, educators, entertainers, and other prominent persons.
The statements will not be revealed until the time capsule is opened in the year 2000.
A statement from President Nixon is in the capusle, along with similar statements written by persons reflecting a wide spectrum of interests: Buckminster Fuller, author; Harry Belafonte and John Wayne, entertainers; Leonard Davis, a philanthropist; Gov. Ronald Reagan; Robert Moretti, speaker of the Assembly; Dr. Benjamin Spock, a pediatrician; and Dr. Michael E. De-Bakey, a heart surgeon.
The university will be represented with statements in the time capsule by President John R. Hubbard: James E. Birren, director of the Gerontology Center, and James A. Peterson, sociologist and director of the center’s liason service.
In addition, the capsule will contain copies of the Los Angeles
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AN ENGINEERED EVENT—Bob Alexander, left, a crafted paper airplane, which eventually gets measured junior in mechanical engineering, tosses his carefully for distance. The event was part of Engineers7 Week.