Jane Fonda conies home to ‘alma mater’
By Mark Thompson
AukIiK (. ampul Editor
Returning to what she called her "alma mater,'' Jane Fonda acknowledged "times have changed" to a standing-room-only audience in Bovard Auditorium Wednesday.
She said the university felt like her alma mater because she has made so many appearances here.
Fonda reacted to the crowd's first standing ovation by saying, "I thought it was square here, but none of you were here then."
It was four years ago when Fonda was hanged in effigy near Tommy Trojan and Robert K. Dornan, "ran on stage, foaming at the mouth and pulled the microphone out of my hand," she said.
Dornan was president of the Young Americans for Freedom at the time. He is now the U.S. representative from the 27th District.
At that time she was urging students to uncover facts about the Vietnam War and the political interests of President Nixon.
During her speech Wednesday, Fonda's goal was not to challenge the practices of the government but rather the role of large corporations on American people.
“These men (the corporate leaders) have more power over your lives than
the people you elect,” she said.
Fonda said the corporations, which have a monopoly over economics in the United States and abroad, are responsible for inflation. She said the experts are calling the situation, “stagflation,” inflation and unemployment increasing simultaneously.
She said the nation needs a central purpose and spoke for economic democracy. To achieve this goal crowds have to voice their frustrations like the crowds screaming “we’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore,” out of their apartment windows in the film Network.
“What do you do after you close the window?" Fonda asked.
Instead of returning to the usual state
of “hopelessness and helplessness,” Fonda suggested students become involved in reshaping the economy.
She said Tom Hayden, her husband, asked President Carter, "How does it feel to be the highest-elected official in the most powerful country in the world and have less power than corporate executives?"
“Carter looked out the window and replied, ‘You’re right. I’ve learned that these last few months,’ ” Fonda said.
The first step toward what she termed an “economic democracy” would be tu transform the base of industry from war time to peace time. Rather than buying tanks and bombers, workers could be (rained to produce public transporta
tion, housing and solar energy.
Fonda was pleased with Gov. Jerry Brown’s establishment of SolarCal, a state agency that plans to install solar energy as the main resource in California by 1990.
She has spent the last 12 months lobbying for SolarCal.
“We told Jerry Brown he had to put action behind his words. More had to be done than baking cookies in a solar energy oven on the lawn of the White House in Sacramento," she said.
Fonda said it suits the establishment if we fight among ourselves. “We have to stop fighting among ourselves. We have to come together, make demands and share a vision."
Senate votes to pay emergency loan debt
By Charles Swenson
SUIT Writer
The Student Senate voted Wednesday to pay a $1,956 outstanding debt in the student emergency loan fund. The money will be taken from the student programming fee fund.
The emergency loan fund provides short-term, no-interest loans to students who exhibit an immediate need. A maximum of $100 can be allocated to a student.
The decision to pay the fund’s debt, which has accrued through unpaid loans over a period of ten years, was made by last year’s senate. In Wednesday’s vote, the senate specified that it will only make up the fund’s deficit this year.
“The loan fund should be self-sufficient," said Mark Kaufman, a senator.
A task force was established by the senate to examine the loan fund more closely and make recommendations for more student control over the money. “Students are paying for the fund, yet they have no vote in the administration of the money,” Kaufman said. The loan fund is presently administered by Robert Mannes, dean for student life, and Joan Schaefer, dean of women.
The task force is likely to consider whether the fund should be continued, said Suzanne Nora, chairman of the Student Senate. “Some people feel that it is not proper to use student programming fees for loans,” she said.
Glenn Sonnenberg, chairman of the Student Affairs Committee of the President’s Advisory Council, recommended the senate support the fund for ten years. This appears to be consistent with traditional time limits, he said.
A report by the Student Affairs Committee recommended the university take a greater interest in the loan fund. The report described the emergency loan fund as, “a symbol of the university’s concern for the personal well-being of the students.
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PARTICIPANTS NUMBER 2,000
Daily f Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXXIII, Number 58
Los Angeles, California
Thursday, May 11, 1978
Ex-student who committed suicide involved in record card changes
© Copyright 1978, USC Daily Trojan
By Amy Alpern
AuisUX City EdlUr
An investigation by the Daily Trojan has disclosed that Thomas Simmons, a former university employee and student who committed suicide, was one of five students found to have an illegally altered record card.
University administrators also suspect Simmons had been involved in receiving money for making the alterations.
Simmons went to the roof of the Bunker Hill Towers apartment building where he lived, threatening to kill himself March 16. Seconds after agree-
Institutional studies conducts survey to determine costs of university attendance
By Michael Schroeder
Staff Writer
Two thousand students are participating in a survey to determine the total costs of attending the university.
The survey, conducted by the Office of Institutional Studies for Student Administrative Services, is designed to give the financial aid office a better idea of how much students must pay to stay here, said Veronica Tincher, head of informational services.
Living, transportation and incidental costs, along with tuition and fee expenses, are a major part of the survey.
In order to give the College Scholarship Service an accurate model budget that it can use to analyze students’ financial need, the university is required to gather data. The survey will supply this data, Tincher said.
The survey will be distributed to students in selected classrooms on campus to supply the study with a cross-section of the campus community.
The students filling out the survey forms will be
evenly divided between graduates and undergraduates.
One of the reasons for the expanded survey is a need for information on costs affecting special students, who are faced with spending more money than those more general categories that have been surveyed in the past, Tincher said.
“We want to get information on more student types,” she said.
The new data will allow the university, and the College Scholarship Service to analyze special groups of students with special financial needs, Tincher added.
The financial aid office divides student groups into six major categories, ranging from a single dependent student living on campus to a married student living off campus.
Annual living costs in these categories range from $7,440 for the single dependent student to $11,260 for the married student.
The survey is part of an ongoing study by the Office of Institutional Studies to determine “where money comes from and how they (the students) spend it,” Tincher said.
ing to come off the ledge and talk to police psychologists, he shot himself in the head and fell 32 stories. Three days earlier he was talked out of committing suicide from the roof.
The week of Simmons’ death, the Daily Trojan received information from an anonymous caller who said that students were bribing university employees to alter their records. The Daily Trojan tape recorded this conversation.
Simmons was linked to the record card alterations after the Daily Trojan learned he had worked for the university’s American Language Institute and also worked downtown as a computer operator at night.
Of the five instances of changes in grade cards, four were known to involve international students’ records. Simmons worked with international students on a daily basis at the institute, where these students can seek help in learning English.
Since the alterations were made with computer printing materials, his job could have provided the opportunity to make the alterations.
Robert L. Mannes, dean for student life, would not confirm Simmons was the fifth student with an altered record card or that Simmons was involved in making the alterations. He said he was forbidden by law to divulge such information.
The four international students have appeared before University Judicial Council for discussion of changes in their grade cards. When asked why hearings were not held for the fifth student, Mannes explained the person was no longer alive.
In the tape-recorded phone call, names of four of the five
students whose record cards had been altered were disclosed. Simmons was not mentioned.
When this call came, the registrar's office had not yet found all five of the alterations.
"Whoever made that phone call had to be involved in the alterations, because the information disclosed in that conversation was not known by anybody else yet,” said Steve Hirsch, academic probation counselor in the registrar's office.
After further investigation, the Daily Trojan played the tape to three people who had been in contact with Simmons on a daily basis while he attended the university.
All three agreed the voice sounded like that of Simmons.
“We would have to say that as far as we can tell after listening to the tape, that that is Tom’s voice,” one of the persons who identified the tape said.
“He has speech patterns that are similar to Tom’s. He has that same low, slow tone, and has the same slight Southern dialect on certain words. His mother was from Tennessee, you know," said another person identifying the tape.
Simmons had quit working at the university the 12th week of the spring 1977 semester, when he dropped out. He had completed work on a bachelor’s degree in business, and was working towards a master’s degree.
Simmons was living in a $485-a-month apartment.
He spoke of financial problems to Martin Riser, an LAPD psychologist, during a conversation between Riser and Simmons on the ledge moments before Simmons killed himself.
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