THE LOS ANGELES
Volume 62 Issue 5
Loyola Marymount University
October 15, 1984
Students Challenge
$10,000 Deductible
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Loyolan photo by Bob Sanregret
The LMU Lion resembles MGM’s Technicolor mascot after a recent midnight paint¬
ing. Students must bear costs of repeated vandalism, despite humorous intent.
By KRIS GIANNINI
Loyolan News Editor
How easy it is to criticize a shortcom¬
ing, recognize the need for change
and step back to let someone else take care
of it. There comes a time, however, when
the problem has advanced so greatly that
action must be taken.
Such is the case in the Communication
Arts Department. Student complaints
have piled up in suggestion boxes and
faculty board rooms, but they have not
been acted upon.
The Communication Arts Society has
roused itself to action for the good of the
department, as well as the students. The
group is composed of both CA and FCA
majors and anyone else with an interest in
the film and television industry. While it
has become known for previewing
movies, throwing screening parties, and
bringing celebrity speakers to campus, the
Society’s inherent purpose runs much
deeper than this . v p
Originally instituted by students who
found a need for change and improve¬
ment in the department, the Society’s in¬
tention is to be a unifying force. By pro¬
viding a forum for students to voice con¬
cerns and complaints, it serves as a com¬
mon meeting ground for the different em¬
phases within the diversified program.
As the department stabilized and
modernized — allowing students a certain
satisfaction with the results — the urgency
of the cause which gave birth to the Socie¬
ty began to recede.
Last year, however, sparks started to fly
again over the general condition of equip¬
ment and facilities. A report evaluating
the state of all aspects of the department
was compiled and student interest was ig¬
nited once more.
Yet, it has only been in the past weeks
that definite action has been taken. Irate
over both the condition and lack of equip¬
ment, CA students turned to the Society
for quantitative support.
One of their biggest concerns deals with
the University’s insurance policy as it
relates to film, video and sound equip¬
ment.
The deductible, previously $250, has
risen to $1000. While this is a low figure
for the University as a whole, it is an
amount almost completely out of fiscal
reach for most individual students. In re¬
cent months, the deductible jumped to an
impossible $10,000.
Their concern is understandable. They
must use department equipment for pro¬
duction classes, or purchase their own, an
option which is, for 9.9 out of 10 students,
a financial impossibility _
Faced with full financial responsibility,
students are nervous. Much of the equip¬
ment is in disrepair and damage can and
does occur, regardless of safety precau¬
tions.
Attempting to remedy the situation,
CA students have been meeting to devise a
proposal that would lower the deductible.
A student committee, chaired by Alice
Celia (a junior TV writing major) has been
formed with that intent, as well as the up¬
dating and improvement of the equipment
and facilities.
Acting Associate Vice-President for
(Continued on page 3)
LMU Students Falsifying Timecards
By KELLY TOBIN
Loyolan News Writer
Forged and falsified timecards have
always been a concern of Loyola
Marymount’s Work Study office, as well
as to the rest of the campus community.
Many work study students often confuse
their work study with other grants and
scholarships they are awarded as financial
aid.
an opportunity for students to earn their
education, rather than having to repay a
compiled mass of exorbitant loan
payments after graduation.
When a studeni is suspected of cheating
on his or her timecard, he or she is called
into the Work Study office and is asked
directly if the timecard has been falsified.
The office contacts the student’s super¬
visor to learn more information about the
particular case. Then, the case is reviewed
"„this multi-million dollar University isn't going
to miss a few dollars on my account"
The allotted work study funds can seem
like money in the bank and, unfortunate¬
ly, the jobs are sometimes viewed as not
being “real” jobs. It is this mentality that
promotes cheating on time cards.
When asked why she adds unearned
hours on her timecard, one work study
student replied, “The money has already
been awarded to me, even if I don’t work
all the hours.” This is a problem. The
philosophy behind work study is that it is
by an impartial person who decides
whether disciplinary steps should be
taken.
According to Work Study Director
Mary Morgan McCarthy, punishment is
not the idea behind disciplinary pro¬
cedures. The Work Study office would
rather have the student undo the damage
through repayment of the money that was
not actually earned. The next step is to
have the student receive counselling, a
positive way of fostering the appropriate
values.
Since the money for work study is
granted to the University by the govern¬
ment, falisifed timecards could be con¬
sidered a federal offense. However, the
Work Study office prefers to handle the
cases without governement intervention.
In extreme cases, students have been
suspended from school and work study
awards have been revoked.
There are certain preventative measures
that can be taken to help curb the amount
of cheating on timecards. One student
commented, “Many people get away with
it. Some professors don’t even keep track
of their worker’s hours.”
Undoubtedly, steps should be taken by
the supervisors to make sure their workers
are, indeed, working. Their roles as super¬
visors demands this of them. Also, copies
of the timecards could be made and
students could be asked to sign a log in the
office that would record the exact hours
worked. And yet another way to verify
time cards is to have other employees of a
given department or office check to make
sure the student is working the hours he or
she is recording.
One work study student feels that “this
multi-million dollar University isn’t going
to miss a few dollars each semester on my
account.” But such an attitude is not
feasible; it is the integrity of the individual
student that makes work study a viable
financial aid program.
If everyone felt that the University
would not “miss a few dollars,” the work
study program could not exist. Unfor¬
tunately, these students might not ap¬
preciate the benefits of this program until
after graduation — when they realize that
they do not have another $4,000 loan to
repay.
■
Inside:
Just You Weight
p.3
Readers write in
P-4
Bad Poetry
p.15