This Week In The SGA
This week's meeting of the
Student Government
Association was an abbreviated
session in the wake of the
attempted assassination of Gov.
George C. Wallace. The SGA
convened at 6:00 p.m. in the
T.V. Lounge as members
anxiously awaited bulletins on
Wallace's condition.
Pres. Terry Wimmer
announced there would be a
farewell party for Mr. Herpel,
who is retiring. Tomorrow is his
last day on campus. The
reception took place in the
Gallery Lounge on Tuesday.
Three organizations were
involved in the report of the
Charter Review Committee. The
University Apartments Resident
Council was recommended as an
organization to be included in
the constitution. A campus
Republican Club is also in the
offing. PSPE is undergoing
revision and expansion. The
engineers announced that the
Bathtub Race, scheduled for
Wednesday, will take place as
scheduled.
Only 11 students obtained
absentee ballots for the May 18
General Election as of Monday
Anxiety --
If Transferring to UP
UNIVERSITY PARK (APS)
A majority of transfer
students from the
Commonwealth Campuses feel
University Park is more
anxiety-producing than the
campuses, according to a survey
taken before and after transfer.
The report, compiled by the
Office of Student Affairs
Committee on Articulation
Studies, concluded that this may
be because many
Commonwealth Campus
students live at home or in the
vicinity of their home towns.
"There may be fewer stresses
upon most of them (the
Commonwealth Campus
students) to adapt to the
environment at the
Commonwealth Campuses," the
report said.
The students also felt that
family values tend to have a
stronger effect on
Commonwealth Campus student
behavior than it does on student
Commonwealth Campus Transfer Students
General Attitudes Toward University Park
Attitudes
CC less anxiety-provoking than UP 66 (63)
More fun facilities at UP 95 (93)
Adequate time for sponsored events
at UP
There is•less free time at UP
Disadvantaged students are more
catered to at CC
Dorm living is noisy at UP
Found greater acceptance of values
and new ideas at UP
CC students less affluent than UP
students
Family shapes behavior more with
CC students
More social and political involvement
at UP than CC
UP campus is a world in itself
The first percentage reflects the expectations of students before
transferring to University Park: the figure in parentheses reflects the
attitude after that student has transferred to University Park. 871
students responded to the survey. SOURCE: Table 7, Committee on
Articulation Studies, Office of Student Affairs, June 1,1971.
night. The absentee ballot
concept was established
especially for education students
who are student-teaching and
observing. The Teaching Award
Committee may send a letter of
explanation to program
chairmen, on the purpose of the
award.
The Committee on Teacher
and Course Evaluations has
received some suggestions from a
few faculty members on how to
improve the survey. Among the
suggestions were the rewording
of questions 16 and 27, to make
the meaning clear. The
Committee is considering the
suggestions.
A representative of the Meade
Heights Board of Governors put
in a request before the Senate,
asking for $lBO for
air-conditioning for the New
Birth, coffee house. The SGA
rejected the request, stating that
such fund . " should come from
the University Task Force on the
permanent physical plant. The
Senate plans a bus trip to
Philadelphia to see a baseball
game. In .a final- action, the
Senate rejected a request by ITE
for $lOO for a picnic.
behavior at University Park.
Other general attitudes
concerning University Park
include the feeling that there is
more social and political
involvement at University Park,
and that University Park is a
"world in•itself' when compared
to the campuses.
After transfer to University
Park, most students felt that
there are more "fun" activities
at University Park, that they
have adequate time to attend
activities at University Park, that
there is not less free time at
University Park than at the
campuses and that
Commonwealth Campus
student's families are not less
affluent than at University Park.
They • also felt the needs of
disadvantaged students are
catered to more at University
Park, but by a smaller
percentage than while surveyed
at the campuses.
Percentage
NC-ither Disagree
18 (12)
1 ( 2)
76 (67)
18 (24)
13( 8)
13 (14)
39 (20)
37 (23)
41 (38)
34 (43)
23 (19)
63 (63)
22 (29)
22 (21)
19 (18)
64 (63)
17(16)
15(11)
79 (74)
69 (77)
*Mr. •Gellen is financial
correspondent for Pacific News.
Author of numerous articles for
Nation and other periodicals, he
is currently completing a book
on the California Defense
industries.
WASHINGTON
The present scandal over
supposed "deals" made between
the International Telephone and
Telegraph Corporation and high
officials of the Nixon
Administration offers a glimpse
into the way that Government
and big business intermesh on an
everyday basis.
The private meetings
conducted by ITT officials with
Deputy Attorney General
Richard Kleindienst and
Attorney General John Mitchell
are, by Kleindienst's own
confession, "not unusual at all."
Kleindienst, awaiting
confirmation as head of the
Department of Justice, claims
"it's a very common occurance"
for members of Congress to
telephcfne or to write the
Department on behalf of
corporate constituents, adding
"We have a responsibility to
permit that kind of thing to
occur."
• Large corporations like ITT
depend on the federal
goverhment for a wide variety of
"services" in order to keep their
profits growing. Ranked among
the top 25 defense contractors
in the country, ITT has pulled in
an average of $240,000,000 a
year in military contracts over
the past four years. It's
subsidiary, Levitt & Sons has
received multi-million dollar
research and development
contracts from the Department
of Housing and Urban
Development which are aiding
the company in creating a
commercial market for its
mass-produced homes.
ITT controls foreign
investments of more than $2.2
Billion through more than 200
subsidiaries in Europe, Latin
America, the Middle East and
Asia, and as a result, depends on
the US government for military
and financial aid. The US
Agency for International
Development currently insures
up to 70% of ITT's investments
in telephone companies
throughout Latin America, Iran,
and Southeast Asia (mainly in
Thailand). In the past, ITT has
filed claims against the Federal
government for the - loss of
telephone companies seized by
nationalist and socialist regimes
in Peru, Cuba, Ecuador, Chile,
and even in the People's
Republic of China.
One of the biggest corporate
constituents of American
government, ITT is also one of
the largest of the new giant
"conglomerates". Conglomerates
are corporations engaged in
business activities covering many
distinct markets unrelated to
one another, and ITT thus now
extends far beyond
tele-communications into paper
processing, rental and leasing
services, automotive parts, life
insurance, food services, housing
16 (25)
4 ( 5)
11 (25)
69 (62)
20 (42)
29 (34)
14(18)
. . . the list includes diverse
activities in 67 countries on 6
continents. Most large
corporations in the US are
conglomerates in some degree,
but "pure" conglomerates like
ITT have risen to the stature of
super-corporations on the crest
of a $3O Billion wave of mergers
which made the 1960's the
greatest of all periods of business
consolidation in American
history.
57 (50)
17(19)
13(10)
16(12)
Between I 9W) and 1970,
example, ITT increased its assets
THE ITT CONGLOMERATE
by Martin Gellen*
through mergers from $811.4
Milion to almost $6.5 Billion.
This phenomenal growth gave
ITT the distinction of acquiring
far more capital assets than any
other conglomerate corporation
during that period. In addition,
its profits rose from $3O Million
in 1960 to over $350 Million in
1970, making it the eighth
largest corporation in the United
States.
Like other conglomera.tes,
ITT achieved this fantastic rate
of growth not through
investment in new productive
plant and equipment facilities,
but through buying up leading
companies of different
industries. The most lucrative of
these ITT acquisitions were:
Federal Electric and Gillifan,
Co., (large defense contractors in
California); The Continental
Baking Co., (the leading
producer of bakery goods in the
US, makers of Wonder Bread,
Hostess Twinkies, etc.); Levitt &
Sons (the largest home builder in
the nation); Avis (the 2nd largest
rent-a-car service in the US);
Hartford Fire and Casualty
Insurance Company (one of the
country's leading insurance
companies); and The Sheraton
Corporation of America (the
largest owner and operator of
guest rooms in the US and
Canada). ITT also owns and
operates the Airport Parking
Company of America, "one of
the world's largest parking
companies", with more than 200
facilities at major airports and
downtown locations, including
hotels and hospitals. And of
course, ITT is one of the world's
largest manufacturers of
tele-communications equipment
most of it made now in
Europe and owns telephone
companies and wire services
around the world. Along with
AT&T, ITT holds a big chunk of
stock in INTELSAT, the
international communications
satellite system.
Nixon's election in 1968
generated a dramatic increase in
mergers, pushing the annual rate
up to its all-time peak in early
1969. American business
apparently believed that the new
Administration would be more
tolerant toward business. When
Spring arrived, however, the
Administration sensed that there
was a good deal of public
anxiety over the growing
concentration of economic
power in fewer and fewer hands,
so it launched a campaign to
stem the rate of mergers and
challenged recent acquisitions by
conglomerates life Gulf &
Western, Ling-Tempco-Vought,
and Litton Industries. The ITT
merger with Hart ford 'Fire
Insurance was likewise
contested.
Since buying up companies is
vital to maintaining the annual
10 percent growth rate in profits
which distinguishes ITT, its
executives have tried to pull
every string available in order to
B.S.U. Choir
At U
by Debra Young
The Black Student Union
Choir, directed by Carolyn Sinis,
sang at the Black Arts Festival at
University Park on Saturday,
May 6, 1972.
Traveling to llnivcisity Pat k
were 32 students and the faculty
advisor, Dr. Winst tin RI ds
The progiain consisted nl
songs. poen y tind Mikan itti l Le , „
given by members of the Capitol
get their biggest of all
acquisitions, Hartford Fire,
approved in Washington. It was
Felix G. Rohatyn, at ITT
Director and investment banker,
who arranged the meeting of
ITT officials with Kleindienst
and McLaren of the Department
of Justice's Anti-trust Division.
Rohatyn explained that Harold
Geneen, President and Board
Chairman of ITT, believed that
the Anti-trust people in the
Justice Department were "out to
destroy the company, • the
economy, and the nation" and
that, therefore, the ITT citief
would have to contact "every
government official he could
talk to."
What resulted was a more
than favorable settlement for
ITT from the Justice
Department. ITT was allowed to
keep Hartford Insurance only if
it divested itself within two
years of the Canteen Company
(a national operator of vending
machines), and the Fire
Protection . Division of the
Grinell Corporation (a major
manufacturer of water sprinkling
systems). In addition ITT must
also sell off four of its other
holdings within the next three
years: Avis, Levitt & Sons,
Hamilton Life Inurance, and
ITT Life Insurance. According
to a group of Wall Street
analysts, "We arc cbnvinced that
ITT will be able to accomplish
its grOwth objectives (10-12
percent annually) with Hartford
Fire, which already has profits
three times that of all the areas
being divested combined.
(Currently, Hartford Fire
provides ITT with $BB Million
profits a year, 25% of ITT's total
profits.) As for limitations on
future acquisitions, it should he
noted that ITT has really not
made any major acquisitions for
the past couple of years and ...
acquisitions can still be made
abroad."
In the past, ITT has not been
so successful hi getting its own
way, which may explain why it
dealt directly with Attorney
General Mitchell and Deputy
Attorney General Kleindienst
over the anti-trust charges about
the Hartford Fire acquisition. In
1968, ITT tried to merge with
American Broadcasting
Company. Although approved
by the FCC, both the Anti-trust
Division of Justice and several
congressional committees
contested the merger. Senator
Gaylord Nelson, Chairman of
the Senate Monopoly
Subcommittee, questioned the
political implications of allowing
the expansion of a company like
ITT into broadcasting.
"Is it possible," asked Nelson,
"that ITT, in view of its large
foreign investments in so many
nations, will tailor its news
commentary and reporting so as
to minimize any conflict with
local governments?" Given
recent events, the answer is
probably yes.
niversity Park
Campus 13.5. U. The choir had a
guest pianist, Harold Sins, and
two guest singers.
Some of the songs were, "I
Believe", "Let's Stay together"
"Walk Right Up io the Sun'',
and "I o ie Young, (tilled and
Black".
7he 8.5.0
Cl!a hide! ul Ili
Iliiivci;ily Park and cliHy LAI a
- Soul T(,ily )1 ed by the
13.( .('.at Inivel sit y k.
Tent the
• day at