'Daily @ Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXXIII, Number 51	Los Angeles, California	Monday, May 1, 1978
----------------------PRODUCT OF STUDENT DEMAND-------------------
Ethnic Studies Program joins culture with courses
By Diane Kessler
Ethnic studies programs were established nationwide in the late 1960s as a result of student demand for more relevant classes.
Majors in the program here, which began in 1969, concentrate in one of three areas: Asian-American studies, black studies or chicano studies.
To provide a link with other courses, all faculty appointments to ethnic studies are made jointly with their established departments.
This has created controversy among faculty and students because most of the instructors are appointed to the program on a temporary basis.
Joint appointments are the only way of making sure the ethnic contribution will be integrated into the total academic program, said David Malone, dean of the humanities division of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Four full-time faculty members serve as directors of the individual ethnic components and 13 part-time instructors teach in the program.
Changsoo Lee, director of Asian-American studies, was appointed to
Mantovani said. She attributed this to the job consciousness of the students today.
“The question of‘what am I going to do with this degree once 1 get out of college?’ would have never been asked 10 years ago,” she said. Today this is on the students’ minds.”
Nathaniel Mackey, director of black studies, said career goals are foremost in students’ minds.
“Students in the 70s are more concerned with trying to get into law and professional schools and by and large they don’t see ethnic studies as particularly relating to those kinds of interests.”
Higher enrollments in ethnic studies courses in the past two years indicate a resurgence of student interest, Mantovani said.
Diane Kessler, a Daily Trojan staff writer, is a sophomore in political science. Additional research was provided by Pamela Samuels, a Daily Trojan staff writer.
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but preserves charm of old LA
Lee and Johnson are the only faculty members in ethnic studies who are eligible for tenure.
MEChA, the Chicano students organizations views the temporary status of faculty members as a lack of commitment by the administration to the program.
“What is needed is a commitment by the administration to push the classes,” said Jaime Sanchez, a senior in political science and a member of MEChA.
The joint appointment status of the faculty members is viewed as a benefit of the program by the administration.
“The split appointment status of the faculty from their home departments to ethnic studies is fertile ground for more broad-reaching research," said Juanita Mantovani, assistant dean of student affairs.
Student enrollment in ethnic studies classes is a key factor in the continuation of the program.
Approximately 600 students are enrolled in ethnic studies classes.
Student interest in the program has fluctuated over the past several years,
GOOD THINGS NEVER CHANGE — The Pantry Cafe, located at the corner of 9th and Figueroa Streets, retains its original flavor in the midst of a changing city. As pictured here, the restaurant pauses in anticipation of the
3,000	persons served daily. Around meal times, lines form down the sidewalk and dedicated customers often have to wait an hour just for a seat. The cafe is open 24 hours a day and is a favorite munchie spot for students pulling all-nighters. DT photo by Paul Rodriguez.
Pantry no longer pours 50 coffee
and cheese omelettes or beef stew, while others will say it is the steaks that lure them back week after week.
Bernie Spitz, a 40-year-old businessman, has been eating breakfast at the Pantry Cafe almost every morning for three years.
“There’s no other place like it The food’s the best. I could eat the buckwheat pancakes here every morning.”
But no matter what the dish, most customers agree on the main ingredient that keeps bringing them back to the cafe nostalgia^ A meal at the Pantry cafe is like the great-American nickel cup of coffee — a part of American life gone by.
“People come here because it’s old fashioned, funky,” said Paul Leuenberger, the owner. “It’s not all plastic, like some fast food place.” Leuenberger, who bought the Pantry Cafe in 1972 after the death of the original owner, Louie Logan, said that over the years very little at the cafe has changed.
“We don’t have modern machinery here at all. I installed an icemaker when I came, but that’s all the changes I’ve made. We don’t even have a dishwashing machine. We have dishwashers. And there’s no garbage disposal. We send our leftovers to a pig farm in San Fernando.”
Few changes have been made in the dining room. The plain wooden tables are the same used when the Pantry first opened, although the tops have been replaced with formica. The pale yellow walls could use a fresh coat of paint.
“When I’m here,” said one customer, “I feel like I’m in someplace out of the 1920s or 30s — like maybe someplace where the tough guys used to go.” As an outgrowth of that atmosphere, rumors circulate that all of the waiters there are ex-convicts. The waiters don’t seem to mind the rumors — some of them, like Charles, seem to enjoy them.
Charles has been working at the Pantry Cafe all his life, two weeks or three years — depending on the mood he’s in when you ask him. He said being an ex-convict and working off your term at the Pantry isn’t such a bad deal, “except you gotta be in by 10 every night”
Joe Scarpella, a manager at the Pantry for 40 years, said there’s no truth to those rumors.
“Some of these guys have been here 20 or 30 years. They got families and homes. When are they going to find time to be in prison?”
Atmosphere is only part of what draws customers to the Pantry Cafe.
“People can get the kind of meal here they used to get in the good old days,” Leuenberger said. “Everything is cooked from scratch. Nothing is frozen. We don’t even own a freezer. You can eat here and not worry about preservatives or additives.”
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the program in 1973 as a visiting professor. He was placed in a nontenure tract (no opportunity for tenure) for three years. He now holds a tenure tract joint appointment in the School of Public Administration in addition to his position in ethnic studies.
Ken Johnson, director of the Ethnic
Studies Program, views joint appoint ments as an advantage.
“The strength of this program is that in its structure, it is not isolated from the traditional departments,” he said.
Johnson holds a joint appointment in the School of Education.
Johnson is expected to receive tenure here next fall. He will be the first full-tenured director of the program.
“Ethnic studies has no legitimacy in academic disciplines as do traditional departments because so far none of the faculty members have been granted tenure,” Lee said.
By Niki Cervantes
Back in the 1940s, Clark Gable made a regular habit of hopping a back wall, sneaking in a side door and then sliding into a secluded booth just to eat the beef stew there.
And more recently, Jerry Brown managed to forsake his brown bag and wait in line an hour and a half just to be seated there..
“There” is the Original Pantry Cafe on the corner of 9th and Figueroa Streets.
When it first opened in 1924, in the days when men wore suits with padded shoulders and wide lapels, it was a 1-room diner with a 15-stool counter, a small grill, a hot plate and a sink.
Today, its something of an enigma in the Southland. Located downtown, it is not in the most glamorous of neighborhoods and as for the interior decor — well, there is none to speak of.
Yet this cafe, which now seats 84, serves an average of 2,500 to 3,000 persons daily. It has never closed its doors or been without a customer in its 54 year history. It is open 24 hours and has plenty of customers even in the wee hours of the morning. On any given Saturday or Sunday about midmorning the waiting line stretches along the side of the building. Customers drive in from places like Downey, Pasadena, San Fernando, the university—and they will usually wait from 40 minutes to an hour and a half to be seated. But they don’t seem to mind enduring the extra inconvenience for a meal at this cafe.
“I come here mostly on weekends for breakfast,” said Michita Laurchen, a junior in education. “There’s always a line...everybody comes here — students, businessmen, families.”
What is it about the Pantry Cafe that inspires such loyalty? Some customers will tell you it is the ham