Student shot, 3 killed while filming in desert
By Gail Asayama
Staff Writer
Lance Buflo, a junior in cinema-television, was shot in the hand Sunday evening while working on a film for a visual communications class. Two companions were shot to death and Buf-lo’s wife, Martha Soto, wounded in the head, died Monday afternoon.
James Lee Henderson, 24, a student at La Verne College, and Ingrid Etayo, 22, a resident of Los Angeles, were helping Buflo with his film project 6 miles north of the Mojave Desert when 2 men approached them and asked for a ride to Mojave.
Buflo told investigators the men left after he told them the filming could not be interrupted, said reports by Associated Press. Buflo told them he would give them a ride later, but the two men left.
The men returned about 20 minutes later and opened fire on the group with a small caliber rifle, Buflo said.
Henderson and Etayo died immediately. Soto was wounded in the head and died at the hospital.
Buflo said he ran from the shooting, catching a bullet in his right hand. After running about one mile to the nearest highway, he received a ride with a motorist who drove him to an office of the California Highway Patrol. Two Kern County deputies responded to the call finding the dead and Martha Soto, 22.
The incident occurred about a mile west of Highway 14, one mile north of California City Boulevard at about 5:30 p.m.
Soto, formerly a student at Pepperdine University at Malibu, was reported to be in critical condition at Antelope Valley Hospital early Monday. The Associated Press reported she was on a life-support system until she died a day after the shooting.
Buflo was born in Saudi Arabia. Before attending the university, he was a student at La Verne College.
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Appeals to declare 5 commuters ineligible for senate turned down
By Peter Bylsma
Staff Writer
Appeals to declare five students campaigning on a commuter ticket ineligible for the Student Senate were turned down Monday at a meeting of the senate’s Joint Elections and Credentials Committee.
The committee considered two appeals that claimed the commuters’ spending for campaign materials exceeded the Senate’s $75 limit and that they knowingly committed the excesses.
The five commuters on the ticket are Dan Suruki, Michael Kulwiec, Chris Dombrowski, Nancy Somers and Mark Kaufman.
The committee heard testimonies by Gale Sonnenberg, a candidate for senator from the student community, and Tom Verdegem, former Student Senate cabinet member, in favor of the appeals. Bill Matsumura, campaign and financial manager for the commuter group, refuted their statements.
Sonnenberg said she was asked by Matsumura during
University of Southern California
Volume LXXIII, Number 37	Los	Angeles, California	Tuesday,	April	11,	1978
spring break to be on a ticket with Steve Johnson and Lisa Lawrence, candidates from the student community. Sonnenberg said she declined because she was asked by Dombrowski, commuter candidate, to donate $30 for campaign materials, which would have placed them above the limit.
Sonnenberg also said she was present at a meeting of some of the commuter candidates, and Matsumura, Lawrence and Johnson.
Lawrence offered the use of her father’s printing service, Sonnenberg said, and the group discussed falsification of receipts for the printing.
Lawrence’s father said he printed materials for both the five-member commuter and two-member student community tickets at a discount. He also said he had never met Matsumura.
Sonnenberg described a conversation she had Friday with Dombrowski concerning the group’s campaign practices. She said Dombrowski affirmed her accusations of intentional overspending.
Dombrowski refused to comment on the conversation when asked by the committee. He told Verdegem, “You’re hurting my friend (Matsumura) and you’d better watch out.”
Matsumura denied Sonnen-berg’s accusations. He said there was no falsification of receipts and the commuter group had paid only $45 for the print-
ing of the pamphlets.
Matsumura, in his rebuttal to the claims, said the facts showed the committee had not come close to exceeding their budget.
He stressed the committee had to rely on the receipts submitted by his group as evidence and they were looked upon as “guilty until proven innocent.”
Matsumura said they presented their evidence and there was no proof that they had gone over the $75 limit. Matsumura refused to' turn over the printer’s number to Daily Trojan reporters unless he was in the room when the phone interview was conducted.
Lawrence’s father refused to price any pamphlets, saying the prices could be found on the receipts.
Verdegem’s claims centered around the cost of the commuter group’s campaign pamphlets. He contacted eight printing companies and said the estimates he received for pamphlets of the type used by the commuter group exceeded the limit. He did not include the cost of the posters used by the commuters in his estimate.
Matsumura rebutted Verdegem’s accusations stating the printing of the commuter tickets campaign materials was a special case.
Matsumura said Lawrence’s father did not falsify campaign receipts. He said Verdegem had (continued on page 2)
IN SUNSHINE AND IN SHADOW—Students savor the shady surroundings while they strol! slowly through the campus on their way to classes. These trees cover the walkway near the southeast corner of the Von KleinSmid Center. DT photo by Paul Rodriguez.
LAS institutes program designed to inform students failing classes
By Robin Oto
Staff Writer
A notification and help referral system for students with poor or failing course grades has been instituted in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Under the retention program, students will be informed of failing grades during the eighth week of the semester after completing the first midterms before the deadline for dropping classes.
“What we’re trying to do — as precisely as possible — is to notify students as to their midterm grade progress, especially marginal students who may be failing these courses. The main thrust is to let the poor student know what’s happening,” said Joe Kertes, assistant dean for student affairs.
The program was experimental last semester and now has expanded into a full-scale priority system, first informing underclassmen and later juniors and seniors, if the semester has not progressed past the drop deadline.
Several thousand students are estimated to have failing grades this semester, and LAS reminded faculty to turn in class lists with grades so these failing students can be notified.
“We used to have midterm grade reports, but the responsibility is now up to individual faculty and departments,” said John Marburger, dean of LAS.
Marburger said that most sophomore and freshmen classes are informed of grades on a fairly regular basis, but some upper division courses may cause problems for students because
grading is done on an informal basis.
Professors are supposed to compile class lists with midterm grades for engineering, education and business students in addition to those in LAS.
The class lists, with failing grades marked in red, are submitted to the Learning Skills Development Center, and a computer list with the names and addresses of failing students is compiled.
The list is confidential and names can be deleted from the list if a student requests it.
The staff at the center calls as many students as possible and advises them of available counseling options such as academic advisement and peer counseling.
“We really get to the immediate problem, assigning tutors, then we see if we can get to the core of the problem. Confidentiality is the number one thing here,” said Emmitt Clark, program coordinator at the center.
The staff, which is composed of students, has private tutors and peer counselors of all ages and ethnic backgrounds.
The center also handles tutoring and counseling for university athletes who are having grade problems.
“It’s a unique problem. Certain athletes are attracted from areas where sports, and not education, were emphasized. But they’re going to classes and getting good grades now,” Clark said.
Clark said the center tries to make education as important as sports to the athletes.
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More awareness of financial aid planned
Guidelines to make sure financial aid information is readily available to students have been established under rules issued by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
The rules are part of a program to protect the consumer rights of students.
The rules state all colleges and postsecondary vocational schools must make information about financial aid programs available to students who request it. The cost of attending the institution and eligibility rules for the various awards must also be made available.
Joann Stedman, director of
operations for Student Administrative Services, does not feel that the rules greatly affect the operations of the financial aid office. The office is presently working on a few brochures that they were lacking, but “there’s not any large omission, we’re always working to improve brochures,” Stedman said.
The rule also specifies institutions participating in federal student aid programs, such as the university, must have an employee or group of employees available on a fulltime basis to help all students obtain information.
She added there are about 20 full-time employees in financial aid who see students and also process paperwork.*
The rules also specify that the institutions must prepare a statement of rights and responsibilities of students receiving grants and loans.
Because students have been unaware of their obligation to repay education loans, the rules also specify that students •en sample loan repayment schedules to show a student what he is committing himself to.