By Todd Belie
Daily Bruin Contributor
With minds focused on the approaching November elections, the
volatile stock market, and ever-changing race relations, educators,
businessmen and analysts from around the nation are gathering at
UCLA to answer one question that is facing the 21st century and
beyond, “Who holds the power in society?”
This question is being discussed as part of the two-day
conference, “Power in America: The Big Issues”
sponsored by the UCLA LeRoy Neiman Center for the Study of American
Society and Culture.
“The educational world doesn’t have the same
concerns and fears that influence corporate America ““ faculty
and students are looking for the truth, and they welcome new
interpretations of facts and opinions,” said LeRoy Neiman,
founder of the center, in a statement. “I find that very
healthy.”
The conference on power will cover issues as wide-ranging as
education, non-traditional family structures, the growth of the
Internet, affirmative action, politics, sports and art.
Among those speaking in the session on the family was Cynthia
Epstein, a sociology professor from the City University of New
York. In her closing remarks, Epstein noted the problems of today
should be viewed as a challenge to future generations.
“Young people have to take charge in a society where they
will have more and more power” said Epstein.
Consumer power and customer satisfaction were also topics of
discussion Thursday afternoon. Eric Leeds, Director of G.A. Kraut
Co., gave a short lecture on how consumers have been affected by
the growth of technology and an increased focus on shareholders and
board members rather than customer satisfaction.
Leeds discussed constant frustration consumers face while
traveling on overcrowded airlines, dealing with unreliable cellular
phone service and trying to deal with medical insurance
agencies.
“The customer is almost never No. 1,” said Leeds.
“Customers are often considered a means to an end and not an
end in themselves.”
The rapid growth of the technology sector was also a topic of
discussion at the conference.
“A whole new class of computer problems are developing and
they are essentially social,” said Marc Smith, a UCLA
graduate and employee of Microsoft.
Smith gave a brief overview of the usefulness of the Internet in
the next few years and how it will affect the way people
interact.
“Right now the Internet is bound to computers and that is
about to change” Smith said.
“We are about to become much more cybernetic” he
added.
Smith discussed the potential widespread use of hand-held
devices that, through bar-coding and wireless access to the
Internet, can do anything from provide on-the-spot directions, to
set up carpools, to analyze the origin and mineral content of
office drinking water.
Smith talked of the relative low cost and ease in which new
technologies will soon become used in everyday applications.
“Everything can be bar-coded for less than a penny”
Smith said.
Pressed for time, Smith concluded his lecture with the promise,
“The future is going to be interesting.”
Friday’s segment of the conference will begin at 9:00 a.m.
in the California Room of the Faculty Center with a session on
politics and elections. The conference will conclude Friday evening
with a discussion chaired by former L.A. Laker Tommy Hawkins, who
is currently the director of communications for the L.A
.Dodgers.
The final forum will involve all the speakers from the
conference in a roundtable talk on the makeup of power structures
in America.