Daily i§ Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXVIII, No. 1	Los Angeles, California	Thursday, April 29, 1976
LET'S GO SURFIN'—Papa Doo Run Run, a band specializing in surf music of the '60s, played to a large crowd on the Student Activities Center patio Wednesday. Joining the band was Dean Torrance, (right) formerly of Jan and Dean. DT photo by Paula Daniels.
Fewer ’75 grads would have received honors under new requirements
By Don LaPlante
Associate Editor
Based on the recently adopted requirements for graduation with honors, a student in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences would have needed a grade-point average about 3.65 in order to receive honors last June.
The Testing Bureau compiled the figures based on the grade-point averages of the seniors who graduated last June.
The new requirements, approved earlier this month by the Academic Standards Commission. will allow honors to be
awarded only to the top 15% of the class in each of nine divisions of the university. The top 1% could receive summa cum laude and the top 6% summa or magna cum laude.
The divisions are the School of Architecture and Fine Arts, the School of Business Administration, the School of Education, the School of Engineering, the School of Public Administration, the School of Performing Arts (only those students receiving a B.M. in music or bachelor of fine arts in drama, those receiving an A.B. in cinema, music or
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Hubbard approves report calling
for major changes in aid office
By Cathy Taylor
Assistant City Editor
A special task force of the President’s Advisory Council has issued a report calling for major changes in the administration of the Financial Aid Office and Student Administrative Services.
President John R. Hubbard announced his approval of the recommendations and asked for immediate and humane implementation of them.
The report advised that Richard Dolen, interim director of Student Administrative Services, be reassigned to his former position as assistant to the dean of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.The task force also recommended that William G. Wagner, special assistant to the president for academic record services and dean of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, concentrate his work on the computer system of the aid office during the search for a new director.
Timetable established
The task force also established a timetable to end the “interim” situation and stabilize the organization of Student Administrative Services, to be completed by Aug. 31, 1977.
The report has already been unanimously approved by the executive committee of the President’s Advisory Council and the task force, which released its findings at a press conference Wednesday.
The task force advised that Wagner be temporarily relieved of his other responsibilities on campus so that he may give first priority to dealing directly with the technical problems of financial aid.
While a search is underway to find a new director of Student Administrative Services, the report recommends that Waener deal directly with the problems of coordinating the fiscal policies and developing the data-based system for financial aid.
Wagner will serve in a consult-
12 students elected to senate positions
Results from the election for
12	undergraduate representatives from the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences to the Student Senate follow:
The winners from the sorority/fraternity constituency are Jose Cunningham, a sophomore in biology and German; Andy Proctor, a junior in oceanography and Tom Murrin, a junior in public relations.
The winners from the residence hall constituency are Glenn Sonnenberg, a junior in history and social sciences;
Terry Ann Hillis, a senior in English and economics and Alan Friedenthal, a junior inpolitical science and journalism.
The winners from the commuter/independent constituency are Philip Chao, a sophomore in biology; Hellen Rodriguez, a sophomore in chemistry; Dale Head, a freshman in sociology; Robin Holland, a junior in public relations; John Pineda, a sophomore in biology and psychology and Diego Galindo, a freshman in international relations.
ing role until the end of the transition period in August, 1977, after a new director of Student Administrative Services has been hired.
During this interim phase, Robert Johnson, interim director of financial aid, will still report to Wagner, but Johnson will be fully in charge of the office, said John Beeston, chairman of the Special Task Force on Student Financial Aid.
After the August, 1977 deadline, the special assistant to the president for academic record services will act in an advisory role to the director of Student Administrative Services. The adviser will not have responsibility for managerial control, including personnel recruitment, hiring and firing.
Hiring policy
Another point included in the report emphasizes that the dubious interpretation and implementation of USC policy on the hiring of relatives in and around Student Administrative Services be terminated immediately and appropriate staff transfers be arranged as soon as possible. Janet Wagner, William Wagner’s wife, worked in the aid office.
“There was a lot of goodwill on all sides to try to resolve this
WILUAM G. WAGNER
port stresses is the dedication of Wagner and his staff to attack the problem at the disaster stage in fire-fighting action.”
Beeston described that disaster point as occurring last year after an attempt to computerize the financial aid award system.
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problem to achieve what is best for the university,” Beeston said.
He said the story of the office was one of enormous growth in short period of time—mostly in the last five years.
“One emerging factor the re-
Smog converted into fertilizer by chem professor
By Dorothy Reinhold
Assistant City Editor
A method of cleaning several important elements of smog and converting them into usable fertilizers from industrial smoke stack emissions has been developed by Sidney W. Benson, a professor of chemistry.
Benson said he thinks the method, whether it is patentable or not, has more commercial promise than anything else that has been suggested to solve the industrial emission problem. It uses an inexpensive, regenerating chemical to remove both sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides.
Benson said his method involves running an electrical current through seawater, which creates hypochlorite, commonly known as the active chemical in household bleach. The hypochlorite, reacts rapidly with oxides that are emitted in industrial waste and converts them to nitrates and sulfates. The hypochlorite then returns to the seawater state and can be recycled into the scrubbing process again. The nitrate could be then sold as fertilizer.
Benson developed this idea with several other researchers when he was chairman of Stanford Research Institute’s department of thermochemistry and chemical kinetics. He came to the university to teach two and one-half months ago.
The institute does not believe the hypochlorite method is patentable because of similar prior patents, so the findings are being offered to the power indutry.
Benson said he thought cities with heavy smog and power plants will be most interested in the process.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Mayor Tom Bradley’s office have corresponded with Benson about the process, but no definite plans for imnlementation have been discussed, he said.
Benson said the light-catalyzed reaction between hydrocarbons and nitric oxides is responsible for the formation of photochemical smog. Until recently, the hydrocarbons contributed equally by automobiles and industry, but catalytic converters have reduced the cars’ contribution. Hydrocarbons are emitted by refineries and industry, evaporation of paint and solvent, and by dry-cleaning establishments, among others, Benson said.
Nitric oxides, are contributed mostly by industrial plants, he said.
“Industrial smokestacks are a big problem. They put out some hydrocarbons and lots of nitric oxides. My invention would remove the nitric oxides from the smoke and make it usable as a soluble fertilizer,” Benson said.
Sulfur oxides, created by burning coal and con tained in many aerosol products, go through the same process to be cleaned from industrial emissions, eventually ending up as dissolved sulfate.
Benson said if any one of the three—sunlight, nitric oxide, or sulfur oxide—were not present, there would be no creation of smog from emissions.
When power plant standards were proposed in 1971, Environmental Protection Agency studies showed that nitric oxide emissions could be lowered by altering the emission process, but it would result in a higher emission of hydrocarbons.