Committee passes coed housing plan
SLUWLY RUSTING—With the recent rains that hit campus, students have been forced to return to foot power, leaving their bicycles at home in the rain. Wet
seats, slippery brakes and large puddles posed hazards for those few students who chose to ride in the rain. DT photo by Mark Kariya.
Daily § Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXXIII, Number 15 Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, March 1, 1978
Poor attendance, publicity blamed for dorm production’s $6,000 loss
The residence halls’ production of Two Gentlemen of Verona fell about $6,000 short of breaking even.
“I really don’t have an exact amount of money that was lost in the production and I probably won’t have until we total all the receipts and expenses,” said Larry Germain, producer and director of the play.
“I geared the show to a 65% attendance mark as a break-even point and in my estimation, our percentile was only in the twenties,” he said.
“The Campus Activities Allocations Board (CAAB) allocated $3,000 towards the production and it’s too bad more students were unable to see it," said Kyle Walls, a member of CAAB.
Germain attributed the poor attendance to lack of publicity and the three-day holiday weekend.
The production was sponsored by the Office of Residential Life, the Residence Halls Coordinating Council and CAAB.
“The biggest success we had was that the show finally got on stage and those who did attend liked it,” he said.
Because of the success of Godspell, last year’s production, many people have forgotten that these productions are still just a learning experience for everyone involved, he said. Germain also directed the residence halls’ production of Godspell.
“We still averaged about 50 people a night although we were hoping for twice that,” Germain said.
“The only problem we had was the sound system on opening night, but we were able to fix that. What added to this was that Bovard (Auditorium) is not
acoustically made for plays,” Germain said.
Last year there were only 10 students in the cast and the main prop was a small fence, Germain said. “This year’s show took 30 people on stage, 20 to 30 ushers and a 10-piece band.
Germain said that in addition (continued on page 2)
By Lynn Sprenger
Staff Writer
Men’s Residence West would become a coed facility in the fall, with spaces divided equally between men and women, under a ' proposal approved by the Student Affairs Committee of the President’s Advisory Council.
The housing proposal will now go before the Board of Trustees. Glenn Sonnenberg, chairman of the Student Affairs Committee, feels the proposal will be approved because of positive experiences in the past with coeducational facilities at the university.
The plan, submitted by the Housing and Assignment Patterns Task Force, calls for Birnkrant Residence Hall to be converted from a coed to an all-male facility. The First floor of College-University Residence Hall would also be assigned to men.
In addition, the facility for handicapped women would be moved from College-University Residence Hall to the second floor of Marks Tower. Thirty spaces in university apartments now assigned to men would be allotted to women.
James R. Appleton, vice-president for student affairs, said the changes reflect a commitment to preserve a diversity of choices for student housing, from single-sex facilities with a no visitation policy to apartment-style living.
The changes also meet one of the task force’s objectives — to bring the ratio of spaces allotted to men and women in line with the increased number of male applicants this year.
Appleton said the residents of Men’s Residence West unanimously support the proposal to make their facility coed., although Birnkrant residents have mixed opinions about allotting
all of their spaces to men.
The 400 spaces in the university’s new Century Apartments on Jefferson Boulevard and plans to construct 300 spaces for the fall semester of 1979 are also helping to “chip away at the housing problem,” Appleton said.
The Student Affairs Committee also considered a report submitted by its programming fee subcommittee. The committee voted to withhold any final decision on the report until its next meeting.
Sonnenberg will present the committee’s recommendations to the Student Senate for consideration at its meeting today.
The report lists a number of proposals concerning funding procedures for student programming. One suggestion is that student programming requests be submitted to the Campus Activities Allocations Board (CAAB) by early September for first semester and year-long programs and by mid-January for second semester programming.
Allocations are now made based on weekly requests by student groups, and the process doesn’t allow for long-range planning by the board. Under the plan, 15% of the budget would serve as a contingency fund for programs that might be developed during a semester.
The report recommended funding requests be separated into distinct categories, such as recreation, cultural, entertainment and graduate programs. Some groups, such as the Student Committee on Popular Entertainment and the University Speakers Committee, may receive their money before other groups in order to plan programming for the first few weeks of school.
HEW seeks recovery of student loan funds
By Bill Froloff
Assistant News EdIUr
The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) announced it will institute a policy to recover an estimated $900 million in defaulted student loans and to curtail abuse of federal student assistance programs.
The announcement, made by Joseph A Califano, Jr., HEW Secretary, included the National Direct Student Loan program (NDSL), which has a national default rate of 20%. More than 700,000 defaulted loans worth about $600 million, are involved.
Jack Wagner, director of student accounting services, said the default rate for the NDSL program at the university is 2.6%, which is low compared to the national average.
“At USC we have one of the lowest delinquency rates, probably the lowest in the country,” Wagner said. “That is comparable to banks and other lending institutions.”
A total of 13,427 students currently owe the university NDSL money, and $13.3 million remain outstanding.
In contrast to the situation here, Wagner cited Loma Linda University, which he said has a 60% delinquency rate.
Wagner said proprietary or trade schools usually have the highest default rates among educational institutions, followed by community colleges and finally four-year institutions.
Califano said federal officials and educational institutions are as much to blame for the large number of defaulted loans as are the borrowers themselves. He said both parties are guilty of conducting “negligent management” procedures.
He said lax administration policies by the government, colleges and universities have resulted in federal repayment of millions of dollars
(continued on page 2)
Living together: university policy parental values challenge couples
By Gail Asayama
Staff Writer
Her parents are paying for a Birnkrant dormitory room that she doesn’t live in. Ellen lives in an apartment with her boyfriend.
“My friends all know about it, but hopefully they won’t ever slip,” Ellen said.
Ellen and her boyfriend, Carl, are one of number of student couples who have found it more convenient, necessary or desirable to live together. They are both seniors and have been living together since they were freshmen.
“It’s something that just happened. We spent more time together and I eventually started sleeping over,” Ellen said. “It was just more convenient since I cook and he doesn’t.”
Ellen and Carl live in an apartment in the Wilshire area. Office of Residential Life policies prohibit unmarried couples from living together in any university housing, including the Married Student Complex.
He pays the rent, but whenever she gets an allowance from home they put it into a joint checking account.
“I used to worry about my parents finding out about it, but not anymore.
“One time I was at my boyfriend’s apartment at around ten o’clock at night. My mom called and I answered the phone,” Ellen explained. “My Mom said, ‘Ellen, what are you doing there?’ Stuttering, I explained that some friends and I had gone over to his apartment for dinner. She told me that it was a school night so I should be sleeping or studying at my dorm.”
Ellen believes her parents suspected something at one time, but after reaching her at the dormitory a couple of times, the suspicions ceased.
“Now I have night classes so it’s easier. If my parents call I can just tell them I was in class or after class I went to the library. My roommate also tells little white lies.”
The situation is different with Carl. Both his parents are dead and his brother and sisters don’t object at all.
The couple plan to get married in two to five years, but Ellen said she would never tell her parents about it. “Not even after ten kids, I don’t think I’ll ever tell them because then they’d have
(continued on page 2)