Daily § Trojan
University of Southern California
Reduction of bookstore prices in last 3 years due to quantity buying
Volume LXXIII, Number 59
Los Angeles, California
Friday, May 12, 1978
DIA DEL BAILE — Swirling and stomping dlong the steps of Von KleinSmid Center, members of the Mexican Dance Theater perform various folklorico dances to a mariachi band Thursday. The performance was
part of Semana de la Roza sponsored by MEChA, the Chicano students' organization. DT photo by Marsha Traeger.
Fund-raising drive generates more money for university landscaping
The recent meeting of the university Board of Trustees has resulted in an increase in the number of donations for campus landscaping.
Michael J. Bocchicchio, university architect, presented the plans for the project at the meeting. Paul Trousdale, a university trustee, led the fundraising drive for the multimillion dollar project and donated much of the money himself.
Bocchicchio said the project was an attempt to give the campus a unified identity. The old city streets and sidewalks divide the campus into sections and are barriers to visualizing the campus as a single unit, he said.
The next step of the project is to rebuild the automobile entrance to campus at Exposition Boulevard and Hoover street. Bocchicchio said this construc-
tion will begin in about three weeks. The plan calls for one entrance to the campus to be constructed each year for the next three years.
The pedestrian entrance at University Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard will be converted into a pedestrian mall in thg next stage of the project, Bocchicchio said.
The plans also include converting parts of University Avenue, Hoover Boulevard and Childs Way into pedestrian malls.
Bocchicchio stressed that each of these malls would be well-lit and safe.
He said the entrances to the campus were being renovated because it has always been difficult to see the boundaries of the campus.
The landscaping has been going on for the last four years. The new parks, plazas and re-
creation areas being built on campus have all been a part of the project, Bocchicchio said.
The landscape project has received a higher priority now (continued on page 2)
By David Watson
SUIT Writer
Average prices of school supply items in the university bookstore are lower today than they were three years ago.
This was the finding of a three-year study conducted by bookstore management to determine how increased volume purchasing and efforts to improve staff efficiency have affected prices.
Jack Arnold, university manager of school supplies, said large volume purchasing began in 1976. Before this time the bookstore bought school supplies only when needed.
Arnold said he decided to order supplies directly from the manufacturers instead of ordering through wholesalers. He actively sought bids for quantity, quality and pricing.
Items were purchased in large quantity only if substantial price savings resulted, Arnold said. Lower prices were not accepted from the manufacturers if this meant a reduction in quality, he said.
The bookstore also instituted a program aimed at selling supplies to departments at net prices.
The university purchased a warehouse near campus with four floors for bookstore storage.
Arnold said this increase in purchasing power led to a 40-50% decrease in supply prices, which the bookstore passed on to the retail customer.
For example, a pack of 100 sheets of typing paper cost $1.69 in 1975. Now this paper sells for $1.19 in the bookstore.
The lowering of prices has gradually increased the volume of supplies sold in the bookstore, Arnold said. The
bookstore is just now approaching its full sales potential, he said.
For example, in 1976, the bookstore ordered 24.000 reams of Xerox paper for use in various departments. Arnold said he had just ordered 80,000 reams of paper for use next year.
He has also ordered 105.000 spiral notebooks to be used next fall. This number was ordered to offset the expected increase of manufacturers prices due in July and September.
Because of this purchase, the bookstore will be able to hold down the price of spiral notebooks to what it was in 1969. This price of 69 cents is lower than it was in 1975.
The bookstore has no control over the prices of text and trade books. Arnold said the bookstore was previously purchasing texts in such large numbers, that it was not possible to increase orders to lower prices.
He said the problem also exists in the sales of shirts, hats, and other soft goods. There is such a' steady increase in the demand for these items, that the prices can rise steadily each year.
Therefore, the bookstore has focused its fight against inflation in the area of school supplies. As a result of the increased purchases by students and faculty, the bookstore has been given the opportunity to increase its volume purchasing even more, Arnold said.
“With the tremendous increase in inflation, if there’s any way to hold down prices, the philosophy of the bookstore is to do that," Arnold said.
"We will try to save the university as much money as we can in the process," he said.
Health services offered to spouses of students
The Student Health Center will make services available on a trial basis to 500 spouses of students for care at the on-campus facility at the regular student price per semester.
Addie L. Klotz, director of the student health and counseling services center, said the experimental program, which will begin next semester, will be run on a first come, first served basis. No children or other dependents will be eligible for care.
“In the past, the health center service was-available only to sponsors of on-campus students who paid the student health fee.”
Klotz said concern was raised regarding the possibility of health care for spouses living off campus and the move to include married spouses was a response to that concern.
The procedure for eligible students will be to bring their current (fall 1978) identification card and spouse to the health center cashier to pay the $37 se'mester fee.
A student Health Center identification card will be issued to the spouse who will then be eligible for the full range of services offered on campus.
"These services will include ambulance service, emergency equipment, x-ray examinations and eligibility for health insurance," Klotz said.
Klotz stressed that even though children of students will not be eligible for care, they can still be covered under the students’ Blue Cross Insurance plans.
(continued on page 2)
CENTURY APARTMENTS
Residents lack communication
By Robin Oto
SUIT Writer
“It’s low-income families that are very proud and want things to stay nice. They’re happy, they see themselves going up," said Barbara Williams, assistant manager of Century apartments.
The apartments opened in February and are divided into three sections. One complex houses senior citizens and is separately managed by federal programs. The other two complexes are run by the university. One complex houses students, while the other houses both community residents and students, who live in separate sections of the building.
The apartments’ community residents are usually welfare or Social Security recipients, while others are employed by the university. The monthly rent is subsidized by the government, depending upon the number of dependents and income. Rent varies from as much as $198 to $31 a month.
Although community residents live in the same building with students, there is relatively little interaction between the two groups under normal circumstances.
“You don’t see many people during the day, the halls are empty. The only time we come in contact with the students is in the elevator, said Marietta .Jackson, whose husband works in parking control at the university.
“There is no communications problem because there is no communication. How can you conflict when you don’t talk?” a student said.
Williams said there is a council made up of community residents to raise funds for activities and student community coordinators also attend these community meetings.
“There hasn’t been any problem between the community and students. The students have accepted them very well,” she said.
Students have held some activities including community residents and both groups use a food cooperative together.
“They don’t bother us and we don’t bother them. They just run around in their own wing.
The only problem would be if you were prejudiced." said Jeff Calamusa. a student.
Calamusa and other stuifants said prejudice against the community residents, who are mostly black or members of other minority groups, is fairly common among the students.
"There’s a lot of students who would rather live on the other side, in the students’ complex instead of with the community people," another student said.
Most community residents have children since a federal regulation requires family dependents in order to qualify for low income housing. But there are relatively few complaints about the children from either the community members or students.
"Your apartment is your own world, and we never see the kids unless it’s in the elevator. They’re kind of a hassle, but not bad. Some of the guys living in this student section are probably more destructive,” a student said.
"I don’t like the rumors about the kids that get around. They play well and get along together, they do what I say. They’re children doing what normal children do,” Williams said.
“Some people are studying and concentrating, so I don’t play in the hall because it’s not a play area, it’s where you live,” said seven-year-old Saudia Walker, whose mother works for the university.
Walker said children from outside the apartments come and occasionally harrass the residents.
“I don’t like the bad kids, they tear down the pretty trees. I’m afraid to go outside because they tear things up. They broke the gate a lot of times and they make a lot of noise but the lady downstairs tries to be nice,” she said, referring to Williams.
Residents said crime in the apartments was minimal with only a few incidents since the apartments opened. Although some students felt Campus Security patrolled the area more closely because of the community residents, Williams said Campus Security patrols the area the same as any other on campus.