EMPLOYEES MAY HAVE TAKEN BRIBES
Four students charged with altering transcripts
By Amy Alpern
Assistant City Editor
The registrar’s office has formally charged four international students with having their official transcripts of work completed at the university illegallychanged.
Three of the transcripts in-
volved grade changes while the fourth was an attempt to show the student had completed the required number of units to graduate.
A two-week investigation by the Daily Trojan began after an anonymous phone caller claimed university employees had been paid up to $2,000 to
alter transcripts.
The students’ names were sent to Robert Mannes, dean for student life, who is in charge of the University Judicial Council. Mannes said a hearing will be held as soon as the council gathers more information. The official charges were not made
available to the Daily Trojan.
University officials are now looking into the possibility that the four students charged may only be a fraction of the students involved.
“Everybody agrees that an investigation is necessary. We are attempting to go through a series of files to find out if more
students are involved,” said James Jones, executive director of Student Administrative Services, in a meeting with the Daily Trojan March 14.
At the meeting, attended by Jones, Mannes and William Hall, registrar, the probability that university employees were involved in the alterations was established.
Two of the transcripts were changed in early March and the others may have been changed as long as six months ago.
The situation was brought to the attention of Hall after a student came to the transcript counter in Student Administrative Services and asked for a copy of his transcript. The transcript could not be found.
“They finally showed up some days later in their proper place but didn’t look right, so I called the department that the student was in,” Hall said.
Hall learned that the student had not met graduation re-
quirements. When he tried to contact the student to question him, however, the student could not be found.
The Daily Trojan also tried to contact the student but learned that he may no longer be in the United States.
“Several days later I got a call
from the student’s sponsor, asking if the student could participate in a ceremony for June graduates.
“I said by no means will this person be graduating from USC,” Hall said.
Hall believes the student may have returned to his country and presented his sponsor with
a falsified graduation form.
The document was a reproduction of a temporary graduation certificate, which is given to graduating seniors and is used until official diplomas are processed.
“The certificate of graduation had the student’s name on
it but was apparently cut off of a temporary graduation certificate. It contained the student’s major and other information typed onto a piece of paper with a ‘Certificate of Graduation’ heading,” Hall said.
But the certificate was easily detected as fraudulent by Hall.
(continued on page 2)
"The contact person would have to be an expert in the university's requirements for graduation, so that he or she could advise the students on what courses they needed added to their transcripts or what grades they needed improved."
"We condemn what has happened. We want to help solve this because all of the Arab students should not be discriminated against for what four or five students did. We don't want anyone to hurt our reputation."
Daily @ Trojan
Volume LXXIII, Number 28
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, March 29, 1978
AN EYE ON CAMPUS
Students ‘skip and go naked’ at 901
Financial aid application deadline nears; notification will be made during summer
By Jim Saenz
SUCf Writer
Continuing students are interested in applying for financial aid for the 1978-79 academic year have until April 20 to submit their applications to the Office of Financial Aid.
Nancy Zubair, assistant director of Student Aid Programs, said there are two new basic procedures for applicants.
The university will not be accepting the financial aid applications unless they are returned with either the student’s or his parent’s 1977 IRS 1040 Form, Zubair
said.
The only other change involves the Financial Aid Form (FAF) on which students will be able to designate if they wish to apply for a Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG).
Rather than making a separate -application for the BEOG, students wishing or needing to apply for the BEOG can simply check “yes” on section 83 on the FAF
and it will automatically be used as their application.
“There are three major parts to this year’s application,” a spokesman for the financial aid office said. “These include the application itself, the IRS Form 1040 and a completed Financial Aid Form.”
Even though the deadline for university financial aid is not until next month, students should send in the FAF to the California Scholarship Service as it takes about three to four weeks to process each applicant’s form.
The university determines a student’s eligibility by taking into account what the student is able to earn during school vacations and recesses.
An exact amount of financial aid that will be awarded to students for the upcoming year hasn’t been confirmed and probably will not be for a while, the spokesman said.
The Office of Student Aid will begin notifying students of their awards during the summer recess.
By Devra Lieb
Stair Writer
Thursday nights at the 901 Club on Figueroa Street can get pretty wild. But that’s not surprising considering Thursdays are the most crowded nights at the popular spot.
Undoubtedly the crowds gather to lap up the official house concoction called “skip and go naked.” A “skip and go naked” is a mixture of gin, sweet-and-sour mix and beer.
A spokesman for the bar said he thought the student crowds that frequent the spot were “super.” But certainly they’d have to be in order to down a “skip and go naked.”
★ ★ ★
King Tut T-shirts and jewelry are not the only items the public has been craving since the king hit Los Angeles.
The Student Travel Bureau reports that excursions to Egypt are more popular than ever. A spokesman for the bureau said students have grown tired of simply traveling to Europe and are now adding Egypt to their itinerary.
For those bored with Egypt, the People’s Republic of China has recently opened up to individual student travelers. For $350, a student can tour Peking with meals and accomodations included.
* ★ ★
The university’s campus directory lists a telephone
number for the Image Processing Institute. A call to its number really did not help to shed light on just what the institute does. A woman, who answered the phone, began a long explanation about how images (pictures, graphics and aerial photos) are fed into a computer. But midway through the conversation she said laughingly, “You know, I really don’t know what it’s about.” She must be an important university official. ..
★ * ★
No, “muffettes,” does not refer to Little Miss Muf-fet’s children. “Muffettes” are the latest proposed addition to the campus fast food menu. In answer to McDonald’s Egg McMuffin, food services has created a breakfast dish that combines ham and cheese on an English muffin with an egg on top. Food services denied the rumor that it is also planning to erect golden arches and serve shamrock shakes.
★ ★ ★
Imagine the joy in Elisabeth von KleinSmid and Birnkrant dormitories when a tentative “Brown Derby Night” was announced. Like other special events sponsored by the residence hall cafeterias, “Brown Derby Night” features a reprieve from typical residence hall food. Chefs and management officials from the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood will organize and prepare a meal from the restaurant’s menu.
“Brown Derby Night” — a relief for many dorm
members? Well, at least a change.
NO IVY LEAGUER—This sturrit turns his back on the vine-covered halls of knowitv^ faking to the sidewalk with only hft board and balance, skimming the pavement instead of his books. DT photo by Mark Kariya.