Education: Rufus Rex, Ex

Behind his back, some of the faculty call him “Rufus Rex.” Last week Rufus Rex—Rufus Bernhard von KleinSmid, 70 —quit after 24 years as president of the University of Southern California. In U.S.C.’s official handout, he struck out the word “resigned,” left it reading that he had been “elevated” to chancellor, an advisory post. Three days before, a committee that claimed to represent 90% of the faculty had appealed to U.S.C.’s trustees to investigate the “indefensible, inequitable” salaries imposed by Rufus Rex.

Said the committee: “Salaries have been determined by private treaty rather than in accordance with any recognizable plan. Under such a system, it is inevitable that the bargaining power of the individual (by no means a sure gauge of his value to the university), favoritism, brass and sheer luck would be important factors in salary determination. . . .”

Four months ago, Von KleinSmid reported to California’s Board of Education that the “scale” for full professors was from $4,200 to $7,500. Comparing their salary figures at a January protest meeting, 200 faculty members discovered that full professors averaged only $3,600, and that one (a woman) made only $2,600. Von KleinSmid thereupon granted some raises, which the faculty committee calls “utterly inadequate.”

During Von KleinSmid’s era, U.S.C. had a crack football team which made the Rose Bowl nine times, a campus which expanded from five acres to 50, and a plant which grew from three to 22 buildings, costing $16 million. Said the committee tartly: “The university’s future … is more dependent upon the dignity, respect and morale of its faculty than it is upon buildings. . . .” The U.S.C. trustees would see what could be done.