Budget deficits force university hiring freeze
By Merilynne Cohen
Assistant City Editor
Budget deficits have forced the university to impose a hiring freeze until July 1, said Zohrab Kaprielian, executive vice-president of the university.
The freeze, imposed April 3 by Kaprielian, will prohibit the hiring of full-time personnel in both academic and nonacademic areas of the university.
The freeze was enacted in an effort to slow down the university’s expenditures, which have exceeded the projected budget for 1977-78, Kaprielian said.
University expenditures are growing at a higher rate than the university’s revenues, he said. Adding to the problem is the fact that fee bills for the spring semester are being settled at a slower rate than in previous years, making it hard for departments to meet their expenses, Kaprielian said.
The freeze will not permit the hiring of either personnel for new positions or for the replacement of vacant positions. The university will fire employees if necessary, even though the budget may not warrant a replacement for the fired employee, Kaprielian said.
Because a three-month hiring freeze could cause operational difficulties, requests for exceptions to the policy will be heard by an ad hoc Hiring Committee.
The committee will review requests for additional hiring of personnel. Any department that needs to add employees must demonstrate the consequences
that could arise if further personnel are not hired, Kaprielian said. The committee will only approve requests that are critical to the smooth operation of the university, he said.
The request will then be approved by the vice-presidents of the appropriate area of the university and sent to Kaprielian for final approval.
The hiring freeze will hopefully enable the university to finish the fiscal year without a deficit, Kaprielian said.
The financial pressures causing the freeze are being accounted for in next year’s fiscal budget, which could make a hiring freeze for next year unnecessary, he said.
Kaprielian said since the hiring freeze went into effect, he has not received any complaints about its enactment. “People look at the budget and the problems we have balancing it, and they realize this is a way to solve the problem, and want to help us out.”
Hiring freezes are not a new procedure to the university. In the past they have been put into effect, but usually for a shorter period, he said.
Enacting a hiring freeze in the past has proven to be an effective means of controlling budget deficits, Kaprielian said. Such action helps prevent further deficits by making the employees aware of the need to cut down excess expenditures, he said.
Medical schools show 10% application decline
There has been a 10% decline in applications to medical schools, the Assn. of American Medical Colleges reported. The association feels this decline could become greater in the future.
Unofficial figures from the university’s School of Medicine show a decrease in applications, from 4.000 received in 1977 to 3,300 received this year. William Nerlich, associate dean for admissions, was not available for comment.
“By 1980, there could be a precipitous drop,” said Robert Bourner, director of the association’s division of student programs, in an interview reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In the same article it was reported that despite the findings ofthe association, many premedical advisers are confident that as soon as students learn it is easier to get into medical school, more will apply.
The decline in medical school applications is not paralleled in other health-related fields at the university.
At the School of Pharmacy, John Bulgin, director of admissions, said he was aware of a national trend toward smaller enrollments. The school received 600 applications last year.
“We expect to have the same number of applicants this year,” Bulgin said.
The dental school had 1,600 applications for Fall 1978, a smaller number than last year, a spokesman from the dental school said.
The only health-related field to show an increase in applications was health administration, which had 54 applicants in 1977 and has received 60 applications this year.
University of Southern California
Volume LXXIII, Number 34	Los	Angeles, California	Thursday,	April	6,	1978
HUMAN RIGHTS—Students protested on campus	ion. The demonstration was one of many that occurred
Wednesday in support of Anatoly Shcharansky, a	on campuses locally and internationally. See story on
Jewish political activist held prisoner in the Soviet Un-	page 2. DT photo by Marc Corman.
Research-fund loss of $1-2 million could occur if federal bill passes
By Carole Long
SUIT Writer
The university could lose from $1 - $2 million in research funds if a federal budget proposal is approved later this year, said Dan Hamlin, director of cost analysis.
The proposal would affect the way universities figure the direct costs of paying salaries and purchasing materials under'federal grants and contracts. It may also influence the indirect expenses of conducting that research, such as utilities, janitorial services, library depreciation and general university administration, a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education said.
The regulation of indirect expenses is considered by most university officials to be the major concern, the Chronicle said.
Hamlin agreed that the proposal will have a significant impact on research costs at the university.
“By making cost and accounting practices more restrictive, it will eliminate the possibility of colleges and universities recovering the full cost of their organized research projects,” Hamlin said.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which initiated the proposal, has given colleges and universities until May 1 to respond.
In mid-April, representatives from institutions nationwide, including the university, will meet to formulate a document of position to send to the office, Hamlin said.
There are several provisions within the proposal that university officials are concerned with.
“One of the major problems in the proposal is the new regulation that requires institutions to pro-
vide specific documentation for how much space is utilized in buildings by researchers. And just to show you how picky they are getting, they even want us to account for the use of machines and equipment. In other words, we must specify how much of the day a machine was used for research and how much it was not.
“Can you imagine in a university of our size, that is so multifaceted, how we are going to keep track of everything? It’s almost an impossible task, and certainly will cost the university a lot of money,” Hamlin said.
Other provisions deal with changing how institutions account for the cost of library services for researchers and the exclusion of graduate students participating in research from cost accounting.
The proposal was initiated because of criticism the office received from Congress in 1975, the Chronicle said. Lawmakers claimed that indirect-cost rates had grown out of control.
Advocates of the proposal also contend institutions are responsible for inflating the costs of government research by charging for activities and services that would have been provided regardless of whether federal projects were being conducted on their campuses, the Chronicle article stated.
Hamlin feels these criticisms are misconceptions the lawmakers have about university research projects.
“You have to ask yourself, would the university provide all this research without government funding? No. We are simply accomplishing the task the government is asking us to,” Hamlin said.
Philosophy school’s top-10 rating attributed to staff improvements
By Sharon Kilmer
SUIT Writer
The philosophy department is now among the top ten in the country, said Martin Lean, director of the School of Philosophy.
Since Lean became director in February, 1974, many changes have been made to upgrade the department’s curriculum and faculty.
Lean cited the philosophy school’s need for an improved format at the time and added that the university is willing to financially assist any department that shows an indication of “a move towards excellence.”
With the university’s backing, the department was able to hire four nationally and internationally distinguished philosophers within a two-year period.
“The hiring of Stephen Schiffer in 1975 had a snowball effect,” Lean said. “Other well-known philosophers were attracted to the department because of it.
“The department had a good solid core from which to build on, but it was not good enough to establish national
prominence by itself — we needed these four philosophers to accent the core.”
With the addition of Schiffer and Hartry Field from Harvard University, Brian Loar from Oxford and Bas Van Fraassen from Pittsburgh University, the department has strengthened itself in logic, linguistic philosophy and in the philosophy of science. Lean said.
He added that since the arrival of these four, there has been an increase in the size of graduate and undergraduate classes and marked improvement in the quality of graduate applications.
In 1975, the department also revised its undergraduate and graduate curriculum. An honors degree for undergraduates was added and the requirements for philosophy majors were upgraded.
Courses were oriented towards traditional humanistic philosophy such as ethics, aesthetics and legal and social philosophy.
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