Daily ip Trojan
Volume LXX, Number 14
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Thursday, October 7, 1976
University finalizes preparations for President Ford’s appearance
PREPARATIONS—Although Ernestine was not on hand to supervise, Pacific Telephone employees installed numerous temporary lines Wednesday for the press to use in covering President Ford's speech today. DT photo by Mark Kariya.
BY TOM ROSA
Managing Editor
The university and Secret Service are making final preparations for President Gerald R. Ford’s speech today.	*
. The program is expected to begin at noon as President John R. Hubbard welcomes the nation’s Chief Executive to the university.
Glenn Sonnenberg, chairman of the Student Senate, will introduce Ford to an expected crowd of several thousand, including a number ofVIPs and a large contingent of reporters from across the country.
Ford will make his speech from the steps of Doheny Library. It will be directed to a convocation of first-time voters.
Seated on the stage with Ford will be Hubbard; Sonnenberg; Ricky Bell, all-American football player; J. Robert Fluor, chairman of the Board of Trustees; Houston Flournoy, ch<yrman of the Council of Deans; Benedetto P. Greco, chairman of the Staff Caucus; Solomon Golomb, president ofthe Faculty Senate; Robin Holland, chairman of the Speaker’s Bureau; John Naber, Olympic champion; and Jay Savage, chairman of the President’s Advisory Council.
The Board of Trustees and other invited university guests will be seated in front and on either side of Ford.
The Trojan Marching Band and student leaders will be seated between the hedges leading away
from the steps of Doheny to the fountain.
The press will have its own platform to the left of the President and room has been made available to accommodate camera equipment from the three major television networks.
Barricades have been set up by the Secret Service to control the crowd and provide maximum security for the President.
After the speech, Ford will be the guest of the university at a private reception with the Board of Trustees, administrators, student leaders and other VIPs.
He will later travel to the Beverly Hilton Hotel for a fund-raising dinner.
Security will be very tight for those people who will be sitting around the President.
Jack LeCovey, White House advance press officer, said he didn’t want the same problems here that occurred when the President spoke at the University of Michigan.
The crowd at Michigan was squeezed into too small an auditorium and there were too many demonstrators who made it impossible for Ford to be heard at some places in his speech, LeCovey said.
Someone in the crowd threw a cherry bomb and the entire went into a slight panic but no one was hurt, he said.
LeCovey doesn’t expect any large demonstrations or other interruptions here, although some student groups have said they might protest Ford’s appearance.
QUALIFICATIONS, CONSIDERATIONS VARY
Some banks continue federally insured loan program
BY JAC:v WEBER
Students who want to apply for student loans and have been discouraged by reports that many banks have discontinued the program may be happy to know there are still banks taking applications.
Bank of America, United California Bank and Crocker Bank are still offering federally insured student loans to those who qualify.
There are, however, several limitations. Jamie Blake, student loan officer at the University Village branch of Bank of America, said students who failed to take a full course load (24 units) last year, will not be eligible to reapply.
“Some students received the loan and then got lazy and dropped out of school,” Blake said. “We want to discourage that sort of thing from happening again.”
Blake said, however, that anyone with an adequate excuse for leaving school would be given consideration.
United California Bank also offers loans, but only to students already enrolled in the federal loan program. But Sally Gilbert, manager of the student loan departments, said USC students are being given special consideration. Gilbert said any USC student, regardless of status, is eligible.
First- and second-year students can receive up to $1,000 while juniors and seniors may receive up to $1,500. Graduate students in the medical and dental schools can apply for as much as $2,500.
Gilbert said USC students are being given extra consideration because of the tremendous expense involved in attending the university, and because so many USC students have accounts with the bank.
Crocker Bank offers the maximum loan possible, $2,500, to any student who qualifies. Wells Fargo was offeringthe same amount until last month, when the $10 million it had allocated for the program ran out.
Security Pacific Bank, while not completely dropping the program, will only grant loans to those who have previously received them.
There had been great concern among students that the federal loans were being discontinued by some banks. In addition to Security Pacific, United California Bank is accepting no new applications.
Lu Steiner, assistant cashier at Bank of America headquarters, cited several reasons why some banks have cancelled the program.
“Basically, banks are losing money,” Steiner said.
“Here at Bank of America, we have been losing, on the average, over $2.5 million a year on federal loans.”
She also said banks were having a difficult time being reimbursed for those students who default on their payments. “The government is supposed to repay us within 60 to 90 days. The past couple of years, it has sometimes taken as long as a year.”
If a student is interested in applying for a loan, Jamie Blake at Bank of America offered a few suggestions. First, a student should go to the bank and see if he qualifies. At the Bank of America, a student must be a resident of California for a least one year. He must be enrolled for at least 12 units per semester. And he must be at least of sophomore standing.
If a student is eligible, he should then go to the Financial Aid Office and fill out a Federally Insured Student Loan application. It will take about four to six weeks for the application to be processed.
The student should then go back to the bank and a credit check will be run before final approval. Blake made it clear, however, that each bank has its own procedures and a student should find out what the particular procedures at his bank are.
‘Gerald was a fun kid’
BY CLARA GERMANI
SUIT Writer
Gerald Ford, President of the United States?
“Are you kidding? I just couldn’t believe our Gerald got to be President,” said Minnie Kugel, a food services employee at the university who knew Ford when he was an aproned teenager washing dishes for extra spending money.
Kugel said she and Ford both worked for the Home Candy Works in 1931. The Works, a lunchroom that Kugel’s sister owned, was across the street from Ford’s school, South High in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Now a secretary to the university’s Food Service director, Paul A. Copeland, Kugel remembers the lunchroom as a fun place to work. “That’s why I went over there after I graduated from high school in Muskegon, Mich, in 1931,” she said.
“Gerald was a fun kid,” she said. And true to his critics’ opinions, Kugel said, “I wouldn’t say he was a dynamic personality, but he was very popular with students. Everyone knew him.
“Not all the kids worked in those days,” she said. “He didn’t come from a poor family; I think he was just trying to earn some spending money.”
Kugel has not followed Ford’s career. In 1974 when she learned of his executive position, she was surprised.
“You’d better believe I was surprised. To think that Gerald was President,” she said, “Just to think that I had known him working there in Michigan. He showed no signs of that (becoming President).”
Kugel has been invited to sit in the VIP section for the President’s speech today. She will also attend a reception for distinguished guests afterwards.
She has accepted the invitation. “I like the idea,” she said, “I think it’s kinda nice.”
Although she doesn’t follow politics closely, she said, “I do think he’s doing a good job, but I think he’s probably in a close race in this campaign.”
Would she vote for Gerald Ford for President?
“Naturally,” she said.
MINNIE KUGEL