University of Southern California
Volume LXVII, No. 129_Los Angeles, California_Thursday, May 15, 1975
Panel will demand aid office changes
Student Affairs Division to be reorganized
BY SHERIE STARK
A major reorganization ofthe Student Affairs Division will be put into effect this fall, James R. Appleton, vice-president for student affairs, said Wednesday.
One of the changes Appleton hopes to see is the incorporation ofthe Student Services Center into the Counseling Department. The center, which has been in operation for five years, serves minority and low-income students with counseling, tutoring and learning skills programs.
“We’re going to attempt to bring together a number of counseling services under a single umbrella,” Appleton said. “With the limited resources we have, the task force ' studying the area decided that we could better serve the students with the departments working together. As it is now. the offices are generally understaffed and underpaid.”
The task force, under the direction of Addie L. Klotz, associate vice-president for student affairs, was initially going to examine only the Student Services Center, but was broadened to include all services Appleton has jurisdiction over.
These include the Student Health Center, the Counseling Center, the Career Resource Center, the Student Activities Office, Student Services, the Residential Life Of-
fice, the University Recreation Association and the Office for International Students and Scholars.
Appleton said other changes that he hopes to implement are an increase in student health services (assuming there will be an increase in the Student Health fee), more commuter and married student counselors, and a closer association between the recreation and activities staffs.
He said that he will be making his final decisions about the changes in June and that he will be conferring with the Student Senate about the matter before any final decisions are made.
Appleton said the advantages of combining the Student Services Center with the Counseling Center are that duplications in effort will be minimized for the two departments, innovative counseling improvements can develop more easily with the counselors working together and a more efficient use of staff resources can be made.
Whenever staff openings occur, all those involved with the departments will be able to be aware and participate in the decisions that will insure wiser staff choices, Appleton said. Also the expertise of highly trained persons can be shared and it will be possible for personnel from different staffs to help each other more effectively during
peak times, Appleton said.
“Any new organizational changes are always subject to a process of evolution, but I'm hoping to have the changes at least initiated in the fall,” he said.
“Of course we still will have to recognize the constituents’ individual needs, and maintain an identity for the specific services even though they will be a part of a larger advisement base.
“W'hat we want to have is a system where the staff members are organized in a larger cluster of authority, all working and coordinating their functions with a common department.”
Willis Edwards, assistant director of Student Services, said he is not exactly sure what the implications of the change will be, but that he does not see what improvements will be effected by combining the services. Aside from the counseling and tutoring programs, the center’s activities have included participation in Career day, summer orientation, Black History Week and USCaleidoseope.
Willis said that under the change, the Student Services Center will have less authority, and will not have direct access to the associate vice-president, because it will be working through the director of the Counseling Center.
Few administrators offer to comment on reorganization
Daily
Trojan
SECOND BILUNG—You're right. It's not the Tower of Power playing on the Student Activities Center Patio. It's American Beauty, the rock group who provided a noon concert Wednesday, fhe group that got the banner will appear today at noon. DT photo by -eith Ramsey.
BY LINDA CIRIGLIANO
City Editor
A group of students will meet with administrators today to demand sweeping changes in the Financial Aid Office’s staff and the office’s methods of allocating money.
The students will call for the removal of Richard Dolen from his position as assistant director of Student Administrative Services and an investigation into the administration of the Financial Aid Office under Pamela H. Walbom, its director.
A report listing 23 demands will be presented to administrators by a panel of students who presided over a financial aid hearing held on campus April 25. The report details the testimony of approximately 200 students who testified at the hearing or who submitted written statements.
Seven administrators—Zohrab A. Kaprielian, vice-president for academic administration and research; William G. Wagner, special assistant for academic record services; Dolen; Walbom; Mabel E. Hayes, director of the Financial Aid
Commission; Clarke T. Howatt, assistant dean of alumni and student affairs; and James R. Appleton, vice-president for student affairs—have been invited to the meeting.
The students also plan to request a meeting with President John R. Hubbard, said Robert L. Robinson, a junior in electrical engineering and one of the organizers of the financial aid hearing.
“We’re submitting a copy of the report and our demands to Wagner (whose position gives him jurisdiction over the Financial Aid Office) and to the president,” Robinson said.
Many ofthe demands call for changes in the way money is appropriated by the Financial Aid Office.
One demand will call for a new policy of awarding the same amount of aid money to students each year if their financial needs do not change. From testimony given by students, the report concludes that at present, a freshman who receives 100% aid will generally receive 70% aid as a sophomore, 55% aid as a junior and 35% aid as a senior—“all this with zero change in the student’s financial status.”
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BY MARJIE LAMBERT and LINDA CIRIGLIANO
Few administrators have been willing to comment on the proposal for a new administrative structure that was presented to the President’s Advisory Council last week.
Most defer to President John R. Hubbard, saying he asked for the report and he is the man who should comment on it, while others say they know too little to make a judgment.
It is a touchy subject, for the report by the Task Force on Academic Administration recommends that the university reduce the number of vice-presidential positions from eight to three.
Under Affirmative Action guidelines, a search committee must be formed to find each of the administrators to fill new posts, so a number of top university policy-makers could be out of jobs if and when the proposal is implemented.
The task force was told to study the administrative structure and to make recommendations concerning needed changes.
Although the task force recognized the importance ofthe impact ofthe personal-
ity holding the office, it did not make any recommendations concerning specific people and will not make such recommendations, even in a confidential report to the president, said Jackson I. Cope, Bing professor of English, who headed the group.
The report recommends that the number of key policy-making positions—other than the president—be reduced from eight to five—an executive vice-president, a provost a vice-president for health affairs, a vice-president for administrative services and a vice-president for university affairs.
Basically this calls for the creation of one new position—provost—and the dissolution ofthe positions of vice-presidents for student affairs, legal affairs, undergraduate studies and the academic vice-president.
The responsibilities of the vice-president for legal affairs would be added to the duties ofthe vice-president for business affairs, along with responsibility for personnel, the university computing facilities and related support services. The new position would be called the
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COTTON CANDY MAN (AND WOMAN)—Glen Gummess and Rosemary O'Brien got some practice in the culinary art of making cotton candy during the sale sponsored Wednesday by Alpha Epsilon Rho, a broadcasting society. The sale is scheduled to continue today. DT photo by Shuji Ito.