The Los Angeles Loyolan, Volume 64, Issue 9 - November 12, 1986

Los Angeles Loyolan Loyola Marymount University Volume 64 Issue 9 November 12, 1986 Communications students fight to regain ‘Arts* By TERRY KRUTILEK, Staff Writer ■ pproximately a year and a half ago the speech department was added as a sixth track to the communications division of the CA (Communication Arts) department. The department’s name was changed from CA to the pre¬ sent CC (Communications). The change came about last year when a group formed by the academic vice president decided to examine the department of fine and communication arts. A univer¬ sity committee met to examine the dif¬ ferent departments within the college and made specific recommendations. It was decided that there would be two divisions within the college: a division of communications and a division of fine arts. Each division was to have a divi¬ sion head and under those division heads would be, at that particular time, pro¬ gram coordinators. As of this year they have been either changed or renamed to By MICHAEL GATBUNTON, Senior Writer On November 25, 1986 Life is sponsoring a Comedy Night in conjunction with Sigma Pi Fraternity to raise money and collect food for the hungry in the Los Angeles area. The evening will feature Hollywood’s fun¬ niest comedians and feature celebrity emcee and guest speakers. All day long actors and actresses will be on campus tri pass out information, sign autographs and most importantly collect food. There are an estimated 35 to 44 million Americans who are known to be hungry. Life (Love Is Feeding Everyone) is an organization which was created to respond to their needs. Life originated here in Los Angeles where there are an estimated 1.3 million needy citizens in Los Angeles and the surrounding area. Life was founded by a group of con¬ cerned individuals from the entertain¬ ment and business community including actor Dennis Weaver, actress Valerie Harper, Economists Dr. David Sternlight and Jack Cohen, Yoplait USA manager Lee Green, Loeb and Loeb attorney Phillip Grosz, CPA Michael Mesnich, author and producer Tony Cacciotti, Joanne Parrent, and Executive Director Sandy Mullins (see interview pg. ). Recently Sigma Pi Fraternity has join¬ ed Life in their effort to reduce the hunger problem in and around L.A. Recently Life volunteer and former Miss America, Debbie Maffet spoke to Sigma Pi about Life and its goals. Maffet who became involved through P.M. Magazine said that, “ Life works to br¬ ing food to the hungry people at a grass roots level, and is currently feeding 30,000 families per week and are taking on more every week.” Life uses a food recovery system to collect perishable foods such as high program directors under the division heads. “The name changed from com¬ munication arts department to the com¬ munications division as a recommenda¬ tion of that committee,” commented Don Zirpola, CA division head. He went on to say, “The speech department, the speech part of theatre, speech, and dance, was not part of this newly formed division of last year. It really wasn’t un¬ til the later part of the spring semester after a number of consultations with the speech faculty about where they would like to go ahead and have their cur¬ riculum and faculty base, whether it re¬ main with theatre, speech, and dance, or to come to the communications division, and essentially be able to work within this area.” Ever since the name change from communication arts to communications, students within the department have been outraged at the dropping of arts from their departmental name. Most recently, in an article in the CA Chatter, Debbie Maffet t, former Miss America . quality dairy, deli, bakery and produce items, that while still edible, are no longer saleable due to dating. Life vans pick up the food daily and distribute it to the needy. In addition to the super¬ markets, food from Certified Grocers and the Carnation Company. Life also collects food through food drives at Supermarkets, asking caring shoppers to purchase one or more food items and contribute them to Life volunteers outside the market entrance. In its short existence, Life — by con¬ sulting specialists from various in¬ dustries involved — has been able to research, develop, implement and operate an extremely cost-effetive food distribution program. They have shown that it is possible to alleviate hunger by using the current system “near- outdated” and “surplus food” as basic sources of supply and support. That, coupled with the food drive programs allows them to provide well-rounded they expressed anger because many students feel that their writing and pro¬ ductions are in their own right an “art form.” Zirpola commented, “I am aware that those the problems exist, but I’ve never had anything concrete pro¬ posed to me, or anyone else.” The Chat¬ ter went on to say in its article that students need to write letters and sign petitions to have the name changed back from Communications to the original Communication Arts. Zirpola com¬ mented, “It’s very hard sometimes to go ahead and react in a vacuum.” He went on to say, “I feel that I can go ahead and represent the constituency whether they be faculty or students, but indeed that just people are voicing their discontent is not enough to go ahead and articulate. What the response should be is a little more formal.” The CA Society plans on taking up the issue to change the name back to CA in upcoming meetings. Although the communications building is currently at capacity, it was speaks to Sigma Pi about Life., and nutritional food on a consistent, dependable basis. Today, Life is recovering food from .23 supermarkets, 15 produce outlets, and 3 bakeries. As Debbie Maffet told Sigma Pi, “ Life works to become an on-going event involving the surrounding com¬ munities.” By working with existing parishes, temples and community organizations, the hungry are more easily identified and provided for. Life's important contribu¬ tion is its ability to raise start-up money, create relationships with business and government leaders, especially food in¬ dustry representatives, and to provide the technical aid and training assistance needed to implement and maintain the operation of the food distribuion centers. Once an agency, parish or temple joins the Life program, it is given a specific geographic area for which it is responsible. continued on page 12 able to accomodate the speech faculty when they joined as a division explained Zirpola. “The speech department has not been autonomous for a number of years and what we have provided is an opportunity for them to go ahead and develop some course work that will lead to a track,” commented Zirpola. The present tracks in the communications department are film, production, television production, writing, media studies, and media management. “The speech track will ac¬ comodate interested students in some aspect of speech and thats being developed at the present time with the rest of the communications faculty,” concluded Zirpola. ■ Irving speaks this weekend Best selling author John Irving will make a rare West Coast appearance with cartoonist B. Kliban and 30 other successful writes at Loyola Marymount University’s annual writing conference Saturday, November 15, and Sunday, November 16. The conference, titled “Writing For Your Life VII,” is a celebration of professional oppor¬ tunities in writing, including lectures, readings, workshops, screenings, a champagne brunch, and a student writing contest. John Irving, author of six novels in¬ cluding The World According To Garp , The Hotel New Hampshire and the cur¬ rent best-seller The Cider House Rules, will offer a lecture and attend a special reception and book-signing session for attendees during the conference. B. Kliban wacky books, such as Never continued on page 12 Faculty vote to reinstate convocation By PATRICK O’HANNIGAN, Editor-in-chief In a vote whose ramifications will first be felt next year, the faculty senate last Thursday accepted an ASLMU pro¬ posal to reinstate a university- wide con¬ vocation hour. Twenty voting faculty members approved by a large margin a plan to designate the time between 12:05 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays as the convocation hour. The vote by the faculty senate was confirmed by Dr. Bill Fitzgerald Its chairman. ASLMU President Xon Hodges, who had lobbied for passage of the convocation proposal, hailed the vote as a victory for students and aii asset to the whole university community. It means that, beginning next fall, no classes will be scheduled between 12:05 and 1:05 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Life , Sigma Pi join to feed hungry in L.A.