PAC to study report on auditoriums’ usage
By Richard Bonin
Staff Writer
Current administrative procedures make university auditoriums inaccessible to students, faculty and staff, a Student Affairs Committee report has stated.
The report, to be sent to the President’s Advisory Council for evaluation, recommends a centralization of responsibility for the scheduling and establishment of priorities for campus auditorium usage.
Under present admisistrative procedures, the scheduling of campus auditoriums is left up to various individual academic departments, leaving 19 departments to delegate priority usage for the university’s 36 auditoriums.
Consequently outside groups, such as student organizations, university faculty and staff and community members seeking to use a department facility must go through many contacts to secure its renal, which is a prohibitive procedure, said Glenn Sonnenberg, committee chairman.
In addition, several academic departments make it difficult
---sometimes impossible------to acquire the usage of facilities,
fearing they may lose priority over their facility and that other organizations may depreciate the facility by using it.
The School of Business for example does not permit any person or organization outside the School of Business’ use of its facility, Edison Auditorium, because “people who have used it in the past have misused the facility, leaving lights on and not locking up correctly after using it,” said Lynette Perry, an administrative assistant for the School of Business.
“This is a university and a community,” Sonnenberg said, “and for any one academic unit to deny other student organizations or faculty use of the facility is absurd.
“How can you have more student organizations and np place to put them?” Sonnenberg asked.
The report states, “For students, their expectations of a congenial environment, where out-of-class associations and events are extremely important to social needs, are often unfulfilled.
“For faculty and staff the payment of usage fees and the difficulties encountered in scheduling serve as a deterrent to the sponsorship of important meetings including those of statewide and regional significance.”
Under the committee’s proposals, to be reviewed by the President’s Advisory Council in mid-March, the Business Affairs
(continued on page 2)
BOVARD AUDITORIUM
University administration protests
KABC-TV campus crime series
By Carla Schalman
Focus Editor
The university has officially protested to KABC-TV about that station’s series on crime here.
The series ran on the 11 p.m. news broadcasts ‘ Feb. 13, 14 and 15. Students, Campus Security officers and Carl Levredge, director of security and parking operations, were interviewed about campus crime.
The protest is in the form of a letter to John Severino, vice-president and general manager of the station. It calls the series and the promotional announcements, which referred to a “reign of terror” and a “crime wave” on the campus, “biased and irresponsible.”
The letter is signed by John R. Hubbard, university president. The university will not take any other action against the station, said Zohrab Kaprielian, executive vice-president of the university.
Both Hubbard and Kaprielian said the series was an example of bad reporting.
Wayne Satz, the reporter who did the series, said the story is accurate.
“I stand behind it as totally fair reporting,” he said. He said the issue was not overstated.
He said he disagreed with the promotional lines for the series. The announcements that referred to a “reign of terror” were stopped immediately, he said.
Before the series aired, an invitation was extended to Hubbard to respond to it, Satz said. Hubbard said he was not contacted for comment.
Satz said he got the idea for the series from a letter he received from a famous parent of a university student. The parent said his son and some of his friends had experienced crime here.
At the same time, in an unrelated incident, Satz said he received a call from a Campus Security
officer who also had information about crime at the university.
Satz said he asked to interview the top university spokesman for Campus Security. He was referred to Levredge.
Levredge was disappointed with the series.
“It was laced with biases, distortiens and overdramatized sensationalism,” he said.
Levredge said some of his longer statements were edited to one-word answers.
“The series talked about the numbers game and said it was impossible to ascertain the figures,” he said. “It then used numbers to its own benefit.
“The only thing they lacked was music to gq along with it,” he said. Levredge said that when he was initially interviewed, he was asked about Campus Security and not crime.
Charles Robb, a Campus Security officer who was interviewed in the series, said the reporting was generally accurate. He said he objected to the promotional announcements but felt the series itself was well-made.
As president of the Security Officers’ Assn. here, Robb was appointed spokesman for the series. He believes his job is in jeopardy because of the statements he made.
Robb said the editing of some of his statements implied inferences by omission. In the series, he said he would not send his 11-year-old daughter here because of the crime problem. He said he also called the university a good school, but this was edited out of the final series.
Campus Security officers have tried to talk to the administration about campus crime for over a year. The administration has refused to listen, Robb said, calling the series a last resort to alert the university to the problem.
“It’s kind of like a last effort to avoid somebody (continued on page 2)
Daily fp Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXXIII, Number 10 Los Angeles, California Wednesday, February 22, 1978
Funding for special events forces postponement of USCaleidoscope
By Lynn Sprenger
Staff Writer
USCaleidoscope, the annual all-university open house, will not be held this year because two special events put constraints on available funds.
Danielle Dietrich, director of the Office of Alumni Special Events, which coordinates USCaleidoscope activities, expects the university will resume its open house next spring.
Dietrich said the postponement marks the first break in nine years of USCaleidoscopes and doesn’t think it is harmful.
“We may come back with a new name next year if we change the event. I’m kind of looking forward to coming up with some new ideas and we’re open to any suggestions for im-
provement on it,” Dietrich said.
The two events that drew on funds USCaleidoscope might otherwise have used were the Founders Day celebration and the Festival of the Arts, which were held last fall.
“There’s only so much money to spend and this just seemed an appropriate year to launch the university’s centennial and provide exposure for the university through a program of unique and enjoyable entertainment,” said William Hromadka, assistant to Zohrab Kaprielian, executive vice-president, in reference to Founders Day and the arts festival. Kaprielian made the decision in the fall.
Jay Berger, director of admission, assistance and school re-
lations, thought the cancellation might have a greater effect on the number of people who submit certifications of intention to register than on the number of appplications for admission.
“We admit a lot more people than actually show up and we get very few applications at that point (in the year) anyhow,” Berger said.
He thought, however, that any such negative effect would be immeasurable and probably diminished by the reinstitution of Caleidoscope next year.
Dietrich said two annual events that normally accompany the open house — the alumni awards luncheon and the celebrity baseball game — would still be held April 16 as planned.
MEChA seeks support, funds
A series of demands was submitted last week in a letter to the Office of Student Affairs by MEChA, a chicano student organization.
The letter, written by Gus Frias, MEChA chairman, requested a commitment from university administrators to financially support the student needs of MEChA’s operational functions, and in particular the materials and supplies to be outlined in the following proposal.
The proposal asked for a personal statement from the administration to appear in the Daily Trojan in support of affirmative action programs at the university and in light of the Bakke decision, which is still in deliberation.
“We demand a personal commitment to integrate the university’s professional schools by publicly opposing the ill-omened Bakke decision which centers on minority student admissions into professional schools,” Frias said in his letter.
“Some of the items which MEChA is requesting are certainly important to the university and we are certainly going to review them,” said James Appleton, vice-president of student affairs.
“Basically, what they are concerned about in reference to the Bakke case is equal access for the students. They’re concerned about what the impact of the case will have on the university’s policy and if the policies will be reviewed after the decision. I think they will,” Appleton said.
Frias also asked for a thorough analysis by each of the university’s professional schools on their minority student admissions, attrition rate and financial aid policies before and after the decision.
“Financial aid is not a concern over which we are prepared to specifically comment on,” Appleton said, “and as far as admissions is concerned, we shouldn’t speculate right now.”
Frias also requested that Appleton endorse the demand to search and hire a professional “tenured” staff to administer a solid and well-rounded ethnic studies department.
“It was a surprise to me that this request was presented and it’s a new item to me,” Appleton said. “Such a request should be considered by the academic leaders of the uni versity.”
Frias was unavailable for comment.