If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill
Be a scrub in the valley—but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill
Be a bush if you can't be a tree
—Douglas Malloch
Deficit almost forces
$15 state award cut DflilV TfOlflJl
By Don La Plante
By Don La Plante
Associate Editor
SACRAMENTO—State scholarships for this year were almost cutback by $15 each to cover a deficit in the program.
The Student Aid Commission had letters printed and ready to mail to students last month, but were able to avoid the cutback when less students actually enrolled and received its funds than preliminary reports from schools indicated, said Arthur S. Marmaduke, the commission’s director.
He made the statement before the education subcommittee of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee in response to a question by Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose) about commission planning for possible deficits.
Marmaduke said the commission plans to include statements with award letters this year, the same as last year, indicating that cutbacks of up to $50 in awards are possible if deficits develop in the program.
Later this month, the ways and means subcommittee will consider the budget requests of the Student Aid Commission, which includes California State Scholarships, Graduate Fellowships and California Opportunity Grants.
The commission has requested that an inflation allowance be included in the budget. The budget proposed by Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. provides for an average award increase of $43. It is based on more students attending private colleges and an increase in the maximum level for state scholarships from $2,500 to $2,700.
The budget proposal does not allow for increases in student need because of the increase in tuition and fees. Marmaduke said that unless an inflation allowance is placed in the budget, awards could be up to $50 less than the need would indicate.
The State Senate Finance Committee has included an inflation allowance of 8.5%. Marmaduke said he could not predict the chances for getting the inflation allowance because it still has to be approved by both the senate and the assembly, and receive the governor’s approval.
The subcommittee is also scheduled to debate a number of proposals made in the analysis of the budget by A. Alan Post, legislative analyst.
The report recommends that graduate fellowships be limited to only the first two years of graduate study. Presently, they may be awarded only during the first two years, but they may be renewed for up to three additional years.
The report also recommends leaving the number of new College Opportunity Grants at 4,550 instead of increasing it to 6,825 as proposed by the governor. The proposal would not affect anyone presently receiving the grants but would keep the number of new grants at its present rate.
Another revision that would affect the universty is the proposed elimination ofthe Medical Contract Program. The program provided about $10,200 a year per student over the 1970-71 enrollment to facilitate medical school expansion. The Legislative Counsel has indicated that the program is unconstitutional, and the report states that no payments were made this year and recommends none in the future.
Questionnaires to measure vacation housing demand
Students living in the residence halls will be sent questionnaires this week to indicate whether there is a demand for residence hall housing over Christmas and Easter vacations, said Hans Reichl, director of residential life.
The proposal to keep the residence halls open over vacations would affect every residence hall and would be financed through a direct rate increase that would be paid by every resident.
Students will be able to choose whether they want the halls open for either Christmas or Easter breaks or both, and whether they want board included.
Residence hall rates would increase $67 per student to keep the halls open for both Christmas and Easter. The breakdown
would be $42 for Christmas and $25 for Easter.
Board for both vacations would total $115—$73 for Christmas vacation and $41.25 for Easter break.
Room and board for both vacations would mean a total increase of $181.25 per resident.
Reichl said the proposal is an attempt to solve the ongoing problem that international students and out-of-state students have in finding housing over vacation.
He said that the proposal will be decided upon as a total system rather than by individual halls.
Two-tnirds of all dormitory residents must vote on the proposal and there must be a majority to put the proposal into ef-* feet.
University of Southern California
Volume LXVIII, Number 122
Los Angeles, California
Tuesday, May 4, 1976
Newly elected Student Senate meets; chooses officers, chairman
By Peter Fletcher
Staff Writer
Glenn Sonnenberg was elected chairman ofthe Student Senate at a meeting Monday. He ran unopposed.
The newly elected senate met unofficially for the first time to elect the chairman and officers and discuss problems in the election.
The graduate students on the senate asked to have the senate’s by-laws suspended so that they could elect their officers. Only five of the 13 graduate senators were present, and the by-laws require that Vz of the graduate senators be present for an elec^ tion.
Dave Blackmar, the chairman of last year’s senate and a re-
elected senator, asked that the election be held Monday because the new chairman of the President’s Advisory Council will be nominated on Wednesday. If the Student Senate wanted to have a voice in the PAC nomination, the officers needed to be elected.
The senate decided to vote for interim graduate representatives until a meeting of a majority of the graduate students could be arranged to vote for permanent representatives. The senate voted to suspend the bylaws.
Dave Blackmar was elected interim graduate vice-chairman for the senate and James Lamb was elected imterim graduate representative of the senate.
The undergraduates elected Terri Hillis as undergraduate vice-chairman and a runoff will be held between Dale Head and Ann Marie Crisalli to select the undergraduate representative.
The chairman and both vice-chairmen will serve on the executive committee of the President’s Advisory Council.
The officers were elected through a process that included self-nomination, an opportunity to speak and answer questions and secret ballots.
In other action, the senate questioned the validity of the credentials of two of the graduate student senators who were elected.
(continued on page 6)
Panel discusses gay problems: self-identity, alcohol, drug abuse
By Dorothy Reinhold
Assistant City Editor
Many conditions in today’s society complicate life for a gay person. It is not always popular or even safe to “come out” and publicly announce one’s gayness. It is hardly ever easy to find a political candidate who publicly supports gay rights. And it is all too easy for gays to drift into a life of alcoholism and drug abuse.
Some of these conditions are changing, through education and counseling in the gay community, according to a panel of six leaders in California’s gay community who spoke to a predominantly gay audience of about 45 people on campus Saturday night.
The panel discussed problems relating to gay men and women and the' spiritual, social, psychological and political aspects of their lives.
Martin Rogers, a psychologist, teacher and gay activist, spoke about “coming out”—facing one’s gay identity.
“Coming out is a process, an unfolding. Prior to the gay liberation movement, coming out'was one hell of a horrendous process. The average time between when a man would be attracted to other men and when he would admit hisgayness was six years. That’s six years of not being true to yourself,” he said.
Rogers said there is no parallel to coming out in the nongay world. “You don’t ask yourself, ‘When was the first time you realized that you were heterosexual,’ ” he said.
He said the word “homosexual’ represents a sexual position in life, but the word gay represented an existential position, a style of how one lives his life. “Calling yourself gay means that you love, are held in esteem, and are self-actualized. It is an affirmative statement about the way you live,” he said.
As a therapist, Rogers said he triesto cut down on the anxiety, depression, loneliness, and self-
improvement schemes that gay people go through.
“First I provide them with information—books and resources. There is no demand on them to respond. They can utilize the information when they want to.
“Then I give them support. When a person is coming out he has a sense of alienation. I try to show that the stereotypes are not the reality of the gay world.
“Then I provide role models. I show a person other gay people that he can look up to,” he said.
Rogers said coming out is a never ending process that must be repeated anew each time it is necesary to tell a new acquaintance.
“Sometimes I get so damn tired of coming out. Just when I think I’ve told everyone—employers, family, friends—along comes a new person asking questions and wanting to know. I don’t like announcements so I just act gay. I talk about my lover and I say ‘he,’ ” Rogers said.
The product of a successful coming out is a person who is integrated and can use his energy to live and grow, not to hide, he said.
Pam Marks, a counselor for gay women, spoke about using the concept of homosexuality as a diversion.
Marks said she tries to provide an atmosphere in a therapy session that will encourage role playing and the freedom to explore any masculine or feminine feelings that come to mind.
“The woman who says she doesn’t want to come out because she will feel like a man doesn’t like herself as a woman. It is very necessary to feel comfortable with yourself,” she said.
“I work with my clients to explore both their feminine and masculine sides. It is my responsibility as a counselor to aid a person in bringing that out because it makes for healthier personal relationships,” she said.
(continued on page 6)