Daily w Trojan
University of Southern California
Vol. LXVII, No. 9
Los Angeles, California
Thursday, September 26, 1974
Voluntary fees get caucus’ OK
BY MARJIE LAMBERT
Assistant Editor
The Student Caucus voted Wednesday to recommend to the Board of Trustees that a system of voluntary fees be implemented and to recommend to the Commission on Elections and Credentials that new elections for 12 representatives from the Colleges of Letters, Arts and
Sciences be held.
The fee recommendation includes provisions that the fee be collected by the administration on a voluntary basis is at the time of registration and that the fees be administered by a panel to be appointed by the Caucus.
A check-off system distributed to students paying the fee would indicate to the panel which programs students wanted funded, and the panel would be bound to allocate 75% of the funds to those programs, with the remaining 25% being discretionary.
The caucus also voted to recommend that the Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy be considered separately since they are not on the main campus. Student governments of both schools had expressed an opinion in a vote that mandatory fees should be continued there.
The Board of Trustees is expected to approve the recommendations at its October meeting.
Several students with dual membership on the Caucus and the Programming Board submitted a proposal that a committee be set up to investigate the options of a programming system rather than involve the full caucus.
The proposal suggested that public hearings be held in order to give all interested students a voice.
The caucus voted down the recommendation in favor of mak-ingthe decisions at that meeting.
Although some caucus members pointed out that the spring referendum was only a vote on a mandatory fee and nothing on the ballot said anything about a voluntary association, the vote was 9-5 for recommendation of a voluntary fee system.
“We cannot go against the voice of the students,” said one member.
There had been discussion that programming fees could be (Continued on page 9)
Employee recruiting to begin Oct. 7
Representatives of business and industry will be on campus from Oct. 7 to Nov. 30 to recruit future employees.
“This is a good opportunity for students to be in a job-interview situation and to take a look at a variety of jobs,” said Carl Her-ringer, director of the university’s Career Planning and Placement Center. Most interviews will be held in the career center on the first floor of Bruce Hall.
About 200 companies are scheduled to participate in oncampus recruitment. Some companies have cancelled because of worsening economic conditions and cutbacks in manpower. However, many more companies have signed up for recruitment to offset the loss, Herringer said.
Career-oriented programs
Recruiting by business and industry is one of many career-oriented programs operated by the center. Others include placement in part-time and permanent work, volunteer experience related to a student’s major field of study and preparation of resumes.
“We try to give the students the tools to find their own job,” Herringer said. “We try to tell them how to equip themselves so that when they accept a job they know what they want.”
The number of students who
(Continued on page 3)
JOHN BARBOUR
DT photo by Mike Martinez
Critic jokes about L.A., Nixon
John Barbour, critic-at-large for KNBC. wrote for My Mother the Car. but no one seems to hold it against him.
In fact, it was good for a round of applause when Barbour spoke in Bovard Auditorium Wednesday.
The applause and laughter continued as Barbour joked about politics, Los Angeles and the entertainment business.
Before joining KNBC, Barbour hosted talk shows on KABC, KTTV, and KNXT. He won the Emmy and Golden Mike awards for his television work. He has also written for situation comedies and reviews films for Los Angeles Magazine.
“I dropped out of school at 14 to continue my education,” Barbour said. Originally he wanted to be an actor, but eventually became a critic because “I think you should enjoy what you do—and I enjoy doing nothing.”
This outlook is in keeping with his philosophy of life: “The good things that happen to you happen by accident; the bad things are well-planned.”
As evidence of his statement, he claimed the discovery ofthe Watergate break-in and the related tapes, and the fact that All in the Family got on television, were accidents.
On the other hand, he believes a great deal of planning went into the new television season, the movie The Great Gatsby. and the Committee to Reelect the President.
Barbour had a lot to say about Richard Nixon. For instance: “Richard Nixon has a clot in his lung the shape of a subpoena. This came as a surprise to a lot of people, because they didn’t think ice water would congeal.
“Nixon said that if he went into Long Beach Hospital he wouldn’t come out alive. It looks like he's going to lie about that, too.
“Nixon wasn’t the first President to have a dishonest vice-president. Eisenhower had one too.”
Los Angeles will be center city ofthe world in
20 years, Barbour predicted. “L.A. is to the United States what the United States was to the world a hundred years ago. We are the refugee center of America.
“You can see all the great changes that will take place in America bv reading L.A.’s two great newspapers: The Valley Green Sheet and The
Watchtower.”
Barbour said he liked doing TV news, but criticized the industry for its lack of interest in investigative reporting.
He noted that news programs are the most profitable kind of shows for local stations, and are designed more for appearance than for content.
“They hire personalities they feel will be attractive to the public. If they acquire some talent along the way, that’s a plus,” he said.
Barbour gave TV news credit for helping remove Nixon from office with its coverage of the Watergate investigation. “The country has become accustomed to the sound of honesty,” he said.
He spoke of two of his fellow broadcasters at KNBC. “Jess Marlow gives you the impression that he’s competent and he’s there to give you the news. Tom Snyder gives you the impression the news is there to give you him.”
He called Charles Champlin, a Los Angeles Times critic, “the Will Rogers of reviewing —never met a movie he didn’t like.”
He said many critics write for the people whose work they review, rather than for the public.
Barbour has been barred from three major studios for reviews like the one he wrote about The Great Gatsby and another in which he called Jesus Christ Superstar “Fiddler on the Cross.” He said he liked a lot of movies, though. The Exorcist was one.
“Linda Blair has done one movie and already she’s going to be immortalized in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. She’s going to throw up in the cement,” he said.
Lack of funds may cancel noon concerts
BY NANCY SHINABARGAR
Noon concerts may be discontinued next semester in favor of paid admission concerts in Bovard Auditorium.
“The way the vote went against mandatory fees, this is the last semester of noon concerts,” said Richard Morantz, Student Activities Center entertainment coordinator.
Morantz hopes to make student entertainment self-sufficient before concert funds run out at the end of the semester.
“Right now we’re oriented toward putting money back in the entertainment budget,” he said “We’re going to try a concert in Bovard Auditorium in mid-October to see if it’s feasible on a balancing-the-books basis.”
A top comedy group such as The Committee or the Ace Trucking Company will headline the concert.
“Anything really large, though, is out of the question, since we don’t know what the situation will be next semester,” Morantz said.
About $8,000 is left in the entertainment budget. Two noon concerts a month are planned through the end ofthe semester.
Morantz said the noon concerts were successful. Attendance varied from about 300 to as many as 700 students.
“One of the concerts was the best-attended event I’d ever seen here outside of football games. The patio was just packed with students standing shoulder to shoulder,” he said.
Groups for the paid-admission concerts in Bovard Auditorium may not have the drawing power he would like them to have, Morantz said.
“I’m trying to find groups that are good without being costly—anywhere up to $3,000. But $3,000 still won’t pay for a very
good group,” he said.
“All the past indications are that unless we had a place that holds 4,000 to 5,000 people and is acoustic My sound, like UCLA’s Royce Hall. I don’t see how a big-name band concert would succeed.”
One of the main problems of holding expensive concerts at the university is the limited 1,500-seat capacity of Bovard, Morantz said. Another is the saturation of entertainment in the Los Angeles area.
“The Linda Ronstadt concert last semester was an attempt to compete with the independent concert promoters, and financially it was a bust,” he said.
Students may also be reluctant to attend a concert in Bovard Auditorium, Morantz said.
When the Jefferson Airplane, Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell played there in I he late W)s. none of three concerts
broke even, he said.
Coffeehouse concerts at the Grill never faired much better, Morantz said. The seating capacity was so small that little money was made from ticket sales to pay groups.
Ticket sales for some ofthe major concerts at the university were good, he said. But even a complete sellout would have made very little money, he added.
“For a successful concert you have to coordinate the variables of the facility, the publicity, the name draw ofthe group and their price,” Morantz said.
If the October concert is successful, another concert may be scheduled in November or December.
"Even if we lose a little, we'll try again.” Morantz said “And were keeping the price of tickets very low. just to see if people will come.”