Power cable failure affects 19 buildings
A power failure affected 19 buildings on campus Friday, including several residence halls.
The blackout occurred around noon when two main power cables failed. Each cable carries power to certain campus buildings.
The Women's Complex including College-University, Elisabeth Von KleinSmid and Birnkrant Residence and Dining Halls were affected by the power shortage.
Harris Plaza, Von KleinSmid Center, Student Union, Waite Phillips Hall, the Physical Education building, Allan Hancock Foundation Building and the Administration Building were also without electricity.
Power was restored to the Women's Cor :plex first around 4 p.m. that afternoon.
"We felt the academic buildings are important but don't carry as much priority (as the dorms). We have the ability to switch part of the load to other feeders as a backup," said Jerome Norris, director of the physical plant.
Some classes were cancelled in the affected buildings.
"Probably very few, we don't have that many classes on Friday afternoons," said Marilyn Baker, assistant to academic vice-president Paul Hadlev.
Von KleinSmid Center was evacuated because there are no windows in the hallways, Baker said.
Baker said people were also evacuated from stalled elevators in the affected buildings.
The first gymnastics meet of the season, the Trojan Open, was cancelled because of the power failure.
The faulty' cables outside of Von KleinSmid Center were replaced Saturday.
IRANIAN STUDENTS APPEAL
Reactions to fund freezing vary
The recent freezing of funds for the Iranian Students Club has drawn varied reactions about the potential effect of the decision from other groups funded by the Campus Activities Allocation Aoard.
CAAB will hear arguments Wednesday from the Iranian Student Club, which is trying to regain its fundingi»Stan Kiyota, board chairman, said he expects other groups funded by CAAB to be present for the meeting.
The board, or Kiyota alone, will decide whether a board-funded appearance of an Iranian poet is a political or cultural event.
Such a decision, defining what is political, could affect the activities of other organizations funded by the board.
"We are 100% in support of the Iranians," said Berta Silva, a cochairman of MEChA, the Mexican-American student organization.
"Sometimes you cannot separate a political issue when it (the issue) is educational. You can call a political issue educational," she said.
The reasoning behind the board's decision could affect organizations like MEChA, which engage in political activities, if it were used as a precedent. CAAB by-laws prohibit funding of political events.
MEChA is planning some response to the board's action, although it has not decided what that response will be, a spokesman said.
Steve Klar, chairperson of the Gay Student Union, another group funded by CAAB, did not share the concerns of MEChA.
Klar acknowledged that a decision could be used against the Gay Student Union but said that he is "not actively worried about it."
Klar said that although the organization is political, social and educational in purpose, it is careful to use CAAB funds only on events which are educational.
He said any activity that might cross the boundary from educational to political is checked against university policy.
Klar agreed with the board's by-laws and the action initiated by Kiyota.
"I think it's the only equitable way for him to act," he said.
According to Kiyota, the Student Senate has urged him to handle the matter carefully. Clarifying the board's stand, he said the poet will be funded if his poetry is political, but not if he makes political statements aside from the poetry.
HIGH-ENERGY PERFORMANCE -
Cindy Bullens, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, performed Monday to a large crowd on the SAC patio. Bullens. whose performance was sponsored by the Student Committee on Popular Entertainment and United Artists, has sung back-up vocals with Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Bob Dylan. She is currently singing with her own band.
OT photo by Doug Gray
Music practice rooms to be destroyed for LAS construction
Music practice rooms will be torn down to make wav for an ll-story building for the College of Letters. Arts and Sciences by the end of the semester, but no provisions have vet been made to provide students with a new practice facility.
Construction of the Seeley G. Mudd structure, a building which will house onlv the Chemistry and Psychology Departments, will displace music majors, but both the university and the School of Music are working to find a solution.
One suggestion to relocate the two practice barracks from parking lot K (on the corner of Hoover Street and McClintock Avenue) to another part of campus was abandoned.
"It is silly to consider moving these old World W'ar II barracks," said Grant Belgarian, dean of performing arts.
Belgananspeculated that construction of a low-cost warehouse or the installation of a
few pre-fabricated units might be a temporary answer to the problem.
Part of the difficulty in finding a solution to the problem, whether it is relocating or constructing a replacement for the music practice rooms, is finding a place for it on campus.
"Space on campus is a real commodity , there really is none available," said Michael Bocchic-chio, university architect.
This also explains why the new Mudd building will be the tallest on campus, as the university is forced by economic and spatial factors to grow not horizontally but vertically.
Until university officials arrive at a solution, music majors will
face this dilemma: No practice, no degree.
In order to receive a degree in music, each student must practice at least two hours a dav. But without practice rooms, students w'ill have no access to either a piano or a place of relative seclusion.
A student may remedy the problem by practicing in a far-off nook on the lawn of the music complex, but "it's like telling a chemist to mix his chemicals in the toilet," said Grant Belgarian. "People think it's cute if a trumpet player sits out on the grass to practice but that's not right-... that's not good for his concentration."
The loss of the practice rooms, which are the most used facilities
in the School of Music, makes it doubly difficult for the music major to fulfill his curriculum requirements.
Belgarian describes the current situation as being a catch-22. "The school requires practice hours but doesn't provide the facilities...we will have to provide the means to carry' out our own requirements, somehow."
The loss of the practice facility may affect the accreditation of the School of Music. Earlier in March, the school was warned that they may lose accreditation if practice rooms and equipment continue to lag behind the national average.
Denial of accreditation by the national accreditation committee
will mean that credits earned by students will not be accepted in either transfer or towards degrees by any accredited university.
Belgarian says that the university is aware of the need to construct a new practice facility and upgrade equipment, but the school cannot act until the Board of Trustees authorizes a formal campaign to raise funds.
With 750 students in the School of Music, the department needs 80 to 100 practice rooms in order to meet the national average. (The national average of students per practice room is 11; at USC it is 32.)
If the university does not solve it's problems by 1980, which is when the accreditation committee revisits the school, then they will be put on probation for two years.
Belgarian is optimistic. "I am almost positive we will meet accreditation criteria bv then," he
said.
dM
trojan
Volume LXXV. Number 48
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Tuesday, December 5,1978