Seventy-Fifth Year of Publication
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Volume C, Number 51
University of Southern California
1912 — 1986
Wednesday, November 12, 1986
Feature.
Debate team tests arguing abilities, mental sharpness
By Cathy Anaya
Staff Writer
For the student interested in brain-stimulating challenges, the university debate team offers a chance to test one's knowledge, as well as one's ability to argue for or against various issues.
The team presently consists of 40 members from all class standings. According to Alan Law-head, captain of the debate team, most of the members are communications and political science majors with backgrounds in debate from high school.
"We meet twice a week and we have two student-elected offices, captain and librarian. We are coached by faculty members. We have a director in charge of the whole thing, a director of debate, and six assistant coaches who are teaching assistants," Lawhead said.
The debate team is divided into three sections: on-topic debate, off-topic debate and individual speaking events.
In each debate, one team is affirmative, supporting the issue, and one negative, arguing against.
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Student shot on Row; assailant unknown
JOEL ORDESKY DAILY TROJAN
A blood stain mars the sidewalk in front of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, where Jeff Gehl, a university student, was shot in the foot last night.
Earthquake shakes campus
October temblor damaged University of El Salvador
By Bryon Okada
Staff Writer
A destructive earthquake and a civil war have left the University of El Salvador in need of S24 million to repair its campus.
Jose Luis Galvez, a professor of sociology and philosophy at the University of El Salvador, told the story of the financial and political difficulties his university faced to a small group at El Centro Chicano Tuesday.
Galvez, who is also the founder of Friends of the University of El Salvador, said, through an interpreter, that during the military takeover in 1980, equipment indispensable to the university's work was stolen, making further education nearly impossible. The dentistry, chemistry and medical departments were especially hurt by the takeover, he said.
The University of El Salvador is the only state institution in the country, and over 20,000 students attend it.
Education has continued there, despite the takeover, Galvez said.
Classes' were held off campus, often in hotel rooms near the campus, and between 1980 and 1984, when the university was closed, almost 3,000 students graduated.
Galvez said that the principle objective of his visit to the university was to "relate the situation at the university and establish solidarity" between North American institutions and the University of El Salvador.
He said he has visited about 50 colleges in six different states, and that after one more speech, he will be returning to El Salvador on Sunday.
Galvez said that a current project to reconstruct the university, which was damaged further in an earthquake last month, would cost S120 million over the next three years.
"This may look pretty big for you, but it is not for a country that spends money on a war against its own people," Galvez said.
He said that if the war were stopped for a week, all of their operating costs could be taken care of with the money saved.
At present, however, he said that all government grants and private donations are going to buy lab equipment which is necessary for the continued education of their students.
Temporary buildings may be constructed in December, he said.
Galvez said that for now, permanent reconstruction will have to wait.
The Salvadoran government has agreed to give $11 million to the university for 1987, 56 million short of what Galvez said is absolutely necessary to keep the university functioning.
When asked whether the takeover or the earthquake affected the university more, he said that the "military intervention was worse."
"The earthquake only destroyed buildings," he said. "The military intervention destroyed our educational process."
Besides the physical takeover of the university and the economic repression, Galvez said that the government uses psychological repression against the members of the university community.
Numerous university officials were kidnapped, and Galvez said that government officials waited outside the university for them to come out.
Repeated threats to have the university closed have been made, he said.
Galvez described the university as "sunk in waves of repression. When the waves get really high, the repression is too strong," he said.
Galvez said through his visits to the North American universities, a "process of cooperation" to improve the situation can be developed between these schools and the University of El Salvador.
Life for the Salvadoran people is hard, Galvez said, and the confrontations with the government have made it even harder. However, if they maintain their university, even without buildings, he said he'll be proud.
The takeover by the government left all the computers and microscopes destroyed or stolen, Galvez said. A running joke at the university was that "the soldiers didn't steal the building because they didn't have the technology for it."
"Imagine a university like (USC), and coming back years later and seeing it destroyed," he said.
Nevertheless, Galvez said, the university has continued to operate.
"The concept of a university is not just building and walls," Galvez said. "If a university is not connected to its people, it's not really a university. For that reason we have been able to survive."
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By Karen Martinez
Staff Writer
A 19-year-old university student was shot in the foot last night as he was walking home with a friend on the Row.
Jeff Gehl, a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, said he didn't even realize he'd been shot until he looked down and saw blood on his foot.
Gehl was walking near the Alpha Chi Omega sorority on 28th Street, just past University Avenue when he was hit by the bullet.
"I was just walking home from my econ class. All of a sudden I went to the ground with a lot of pain," Gehl said.
Christie Gaskin, a sophomore, was outside the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house when the shooting occurred. Gaskin said she overheard a Los Angeles Police Department officer say the shot came from across the street near the Alpha Delta Pi house.
However, LAPD officers at the scene would not comment on where the shots came from, or whether there are any suspects.
Two Los Angeles police officers on motorcycles, who were parked on the street when the incident occurred, said they thought the shots must have been fired from either a pellet gun or from quite a distance because they didn't hear a sound, said Steve Ward, chief of university security.
Sgt. John Lewis, also of university security, said the two police officers were ticketing cars at the time and didn't realize anything had happened until they saw Gehl sitting on a wall in front of the Alpha Chi Omega house near a trail of blood.
After the incident, a Los Angeles Fire Department rescue ambulance transported Gehl to Linda Vista Hospital, and "they gave anesthesia to my foot, and then bandaged it with an Ace bandage," Gehl said.
At first, the ambulance began to take Gehl to the California Hospital at 1414 S. Hope. But Gehl said the drivers realized on the way that that is a surgical hospital, and they took him to Linda Vista Hospital instead.
The bullet either ricocheted off of his ankle bone or is lodged within his foot, Gehl said. He will return to the hospital today to have his foot examined.
He said he will hobble around for now, because "crutches hurt my underarms."
(Continued on page 6)
Parking requirements halt new fraternity house plans
By Karen Kuettel
Staff Writer
Plans for the construction of a new Phi Gamma Delta house are on hold while the Community Redevelopment Agencv determines whether the Fijis can be exempted from meeting city’ parking space requirements.
Representatives of the fraternity went to City Hall Mondav to try to persuade the agency to allow the Fiji house to provide only 14 parking spaces, instead of the required 28, one per every 100 feet of living space, said Tom Bergerson> a member of the fraternity.
"There is not enough room to build 14 more parking spaces," Bergerson said.
John Cameron, a Fiji member, said the city of Los Angeles passed a law several years ago implying that if a new house on 28th Street was built, it must provide at least two parking spaces for every bedroom in the house. Cameron, a senior majoring in architecture, said his father's contracting company, FCC Enterprises, is working on the project.
Members of the fraternity went to City Hall asking for variance, a license to do something contrary to the usual rule.
"It's kind of ridiculous in the fact that the whole USC area has insufficient parking," Cameron said regarding the law's restrictions.
Although a parking area east of the Fiji's sand lot provides approximately 32 additional parking spaces for Fiji members, it is owned by the university and is only leased to the Fijis. Therefore, the Community Redevelopment Agency claims the Fiji house must provide the required number of parking spaces on the land they own.
"Our ratio of members and parking spaces is higher than most other fraternities," Bergerson said.
In June, the old and deteriorating Fiji house was tom down, and plans to rebuild were drawn up immediately.
But houses built prior to the implementation of the law, and houses undergoing only partial reconstruction, such as the Kappa Sigma house, are not subject to the law.
"I'm sure the university would sell (the parking area) to us, but that would be about $100,000," Bergerson added.
An estimated $500,000 will go toward rebuilding the Fiji house. Half of the money has come from fund raisers, and the other half has been acquired through loans.
Bergerson said City Councilman Robert Farrell was present at the hearing on Monday and approves of building only 14 parking spaces on the small Fiji lot. Farrell was not available for comment, since his office was closed on Tuesday, Veterans Day.
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