AN EYE ON CAMPUS
Alumni, children discover hunchback highlights tour
By Carla Schalman and Devra Lieb
Campus tour guides not only have to learn every fact about the university, but they must also be able to think quickly when unusual questions arise.
For example, a little boy pointed to the Mudd Hall of Philosophy tower and asked, “Does the hunchback of Notre Dame still live there?”
John Pentz, a campus tour guide, told the boy that the hunchback still inhabits the tower, but only comes out at night.
‘Little kids are fun,” Pentz said. “They’re not really aware of what’s going on.”
Cindy Kerns, another tour guide, had the unique experience of losing Norman Topping, chancellor of the university. Kerns was supposed to meet Topping and some associates at the Alumni House and take them on a tour. Topping was not there so she went to the Student Activities Center to find him.
After two hours of looking for Topping, Kerns decided the search was futile. She went to get her bicycle to ride home and saw it parked next to Topping’s car. It was the closest she got to the chancellor all day.
Campus tour guides do not merely walk around like mechanical robots spouting university-sanctioned statistics. The guides, properly known as the guest relations staff, show visitors around the campus, but that is only 50% of their job. The guides also conduct slide presentations in various high schools and workshops for student leaders.
The guides help coordinate activities on campus, such as Homecoming, with the Office of Alumni Special Events.
The 10 tour guides, who are selected through an interview process every spring, are required to read and learn a one-hundred page book containing information about every facet of university life. The guides are given a 25-page test on the book in September as part of their orientation program.
The book, however, does not always prepare them for the questions visitors ask.
"A group of little kids wanted to know if people ever have any fun at USC,” Mary Hasbrouck, a guide, said. “They heard all we ever did was study.
“Mothers ask a lot of questions,” she said. “Dads ask if their kids need a car, while the kid just stands there glaring at you, hoping you say ‘yes.’ ”
The guides enjoy showing alumni around the campus. “Old alumni give us tours,” Steve Rubin, a guide, said. “They remember the good old days and start rambling on.”
Rubin experienced his own problems with rambling at a slide presentation in Marin County last fall. Instead of using the word “see,” Rubin told the high school students, “The university has everything you would ever want to touch.”
Local historical district proposed
Resolutions passed in prof’s grievance case
The Faculty Senate passed two resolutions Wednesday regarding the grievance case of Irving Rehman, a retired professor, involved in legal action with the university over his retirement benefits.
Rehman's position and salary were frozen at a fixed level from 1952-67.
Because of this low salary ($6,500 from 1957-67), his annual retirement benefits totaled only $8,200. Following a Tenure and Faculty Privileges Committee hearing in June 1977 a settlement was offered which Rehman considered inadequate.
The final resolution of the meeting was an attempt to classify what settlement would be sufficient.
Donald Yett. a professor of economics, suggested the Faculty Senate establish a special ad hoc hearing panel. The committee, to be appointed by the president of the Faculty Senate, would recommend a settlement to President John R. Hubbard.
Richard Davis, cochairman of the Faculty Rights and Responsibilities committee, authored the other resolution considered by the senate. It stated “that a financial settlement be made to Professor Rehman to assist him in his retirement — the settlement to reflect his loss of income during the lengthy period of the agreement to deny him prospective financial benefits.
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University of Southern California
Volume LXXIII, Number 44	Los	Angeles, Californio	Thursday, April 20, 7978
By Carole Long
Staff Writer
A proposal before the Los Angeles City Council would designate the university neighborhood as a historical district to preserve the area’s tum-of-the-century homes.
The proposal, presented to the council by Keep Old Los Angeles, a citizens’ group, asks the city to initiate an aggressive policy of historic landmark recognition and preservation. The policy would include the designation of historical districts.
“With the Olympics coming here in 1980 and the Los Angeles Bicentennial in 1981, we would like to see all these old houses fixed up so people can appreciate the city’s historic resources," said Doug Carlton, director of the citizens' group.
“We don’t want these homes destroyed like the Childs mansion. If the city council approves the historical districts then the homes will be protected from demolition." he said.
The council has 60 days to respond to the proposal, and Carlton is optimistic about its chances for approval.
"Councilman Farrell in our district was strongly opposed to the demolition of the Childs House, so hopefully he will be in favor of this proposal," Carlton said.
No definite lines have been drawn to designate the histor-
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ROSENHEIM MANSION
DT phofos by Sue Adams.
University leasing local apartment
complexes to provide fall housing
RIVES MANSION
The university will lease several apartment complexes in the surrounding neighborhood in order to provide adequate student housing for Fall 1978.
Randy Rice, director of residence halls, said a lease has been obtained for the Mardi Gras Apartments on West 27th
Street and the use of two other apartments is currently under negotiation.
“We have a commitment to fill a minimum of 845 additional spaces in the fall and we are doing everything we can to meet this demand,” Rice said.
“The Century apartments, the two new apartments we are building on Portland and Adams and Severance and Adams, and the Mardi Gras apartments will account for 725 spaces.”
The Office of Residential Life has received 2,400 housing applications for the fall, not including renewals.
These figures are twice the amount received by this time last year, a spokesman for the office said.
Rice does not expect all of the 2,400 applicants will take spaces in the fall.
“If there are a large amount of students over the 845 minimum we have set, we will certainly try to provide housing for them too,” Rice said.
Students currently living in the apartments will be given first priority. Rice said, and will not be asked to move out if they agree to sign a university housing contract.
“The contract only requires them to abide by university rules and regulations that gpvem all other university housing,” Rice said.
“For example, if only one student is living in a three-bedroom apartment, the contract will require him to find two other roommates. Our goal is to maximize space availability,” Rice said.
Residents who are seeking residence in the fall have until June 1 to file their housing applications, June 15 is the deadline for eviction for ail those not seeking housing.
Rice said the apartment rent would increase, but the specific amounts are not available yet
Some of the reasons he cited for the increase were the costs of programming and providing additional student staff.