trojan
Volume XCI Number 21	University of Southern California	Wednesday, September 30, 1981
Neighborhood committee faces Olympic challenge
By David Wharton
Staff Writer
The Commission on University-Neighborhood Relations faces a difficult task in working with the community to plan for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
One of the most important problems the commission must deal with is the possible lack of grass roots representation from the community.
“I really think everyone in the university is doing their dead-level best to be a part of the community and support the community’s concerns, but it really is a problem,” said Dallas Willard, chairman of the commission and an associate professor of philosophy at the university.
Willard, who became chairman last April, said he feels there is a need to closely examine the commission’s membership. As a result, he said, the commission is going through a period of re-evaluation to determine if the membership adequately represents the community.
"I have called for the community to be taken into consideration and to be talked with about the Olympics, especially in regards to jobs and to the ways the community may be disrupted by the closing of streets, the heavy traffic and housing of the persons who are participating in the Olympics. So 1 have those concerns and I hope that they will be addressed,” said Marnesba Tackett, a member of the commission and as a representative of congresswoman Yvonne Burke.
Tackett said she believes "there is not a dearth of representation from the community” and suggested to the commission that members from the immediate community be given a seat on the commission.
The board is presently composed mostly of university officials, students and representatives from local government leaders, Willard said. Of the other members of the commission, none live in the immediate university area.
The commission members were selected by local politicians, such as mayor Tom Bradley, councilman Robert Farrell, assemblywoman Teresa Hughes and by university President James H. Zumberge and his advisers, Willard explained.
“You can easily see, I think, that (the selection process) does not represent many important constituencies right around the neighborhood because, after all, there is quite a gap between the political leadership and the people on the street,” the chairman said.
Representation is needed from people who work and live in the community, people who know the concerns of the community better than government officials, said Helen Ketch, principal of Weemes Elementary School and a community leader.
Thomas Kilgore, an important community member and leader of a local congregation, is a member of the commission but also serves as Zumberge’s adviser for special community affairs. He was unavailable for comment.
Pastor Brian Eklund, leader of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, said the commission should include not only community leaders, but also private citizens from the university area.
Government representatives on the commission provide adequate representation for the community, argued Jean Lawrence, an administrative assistant to assemblywoman Hughes and a commission member.
(Continued on page 13)
Staff photo by Rob Potter
MARCHING HOARDS - Drum major Mike Edney leads the Trojan marching Band into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before the football team stormed over the Oklahoma Sooners Saturday.
Incoming foreign students unaware of dangers
Increased concern necessary in facing security, housing issues
By Laura Rodriguez
Assistant City Editor
Problems with crime and living accommodations confront university students each semester. But for international students, such problems can spoil an anticipated welcome.
According to representatives of the International Student Association (ISA), foreign students are not completely familiar with the crime rate in the campus area, and resident safety programs are not enforced enough to make them realize the dangerous circumstances that surround the university.
Juan Echanojauregui, an international peer advocate, said, “There’s a double misunderstanding with the city and with the U.S., I guess, that people don’t comprehend. If you engage in similar activities like jogging or walking after hours as you do in your home country, you can continue to do so up to a certain point as long as you adopt a different attitude.
“You have to keep your eyes open much more than you do at home. If you’re walking around carelessly and not heeding what’s around you, then your chances of getting attacked are much greater.”
“International students also don’t realize that this particu-
lar part of L.A. is not necessarily the worst,” Echanojauregui said.
Although Echanojauregui had heard that the university’s location was not safe, he said it was not until his second year here from Spain that he discovered the area west of Vermont to be especially dangerous. Whenever he is assigned a new group of incom-
situation.
Bea von Allmen, director of ISA, said that although the service to foreign students during orientation includes crime awareness, not all students attend the program. She went on to say that some type of verbal information should be offered through the housing programs.
Echanojauregui wanted to make other students aware that
don’t have prearranged housing,” said Ellen Tutsch, president of ISA.
“Most of them wish to live in dorms or university housing. But in many situations they miss the deadline to apply for housing. They come here not knowing anything about the class situation, and they're out there looking for housing.
7 think another concern that comes up with this issue is that every fall semester from 600 to 1,000 students arrive from all over the world to USC, and they come two weeks prior to the classes actually starting. Most of them don’t have prearranged housing’
ing students, the counselor stresses that area as off limits.
“You might try to lead a sort of normal life east of Vermont, . . . paying very close attention to where you’re going and what’s around you,” he said.
When he first arrived at the university, Echanojauregui received no orientation to safety measures through the dormitory where he lived. He feels the reason for this was that the majority of dorm residents were Americans who were perhaps more familiar with the
University Security operates only within a certain area; security does not patrol beyond Adams, Vermont and Figueroa boulevards.
The concern for living in safe surroundings is often secondary to the foreign students’ problem of housing availability-
"I think another concern that comes up ... is that every fall semester from 600 to 1,000 students arrive from all over the world to USC, and they come two weeks prior to the classes actually starting. Most of them
“I think that there’s a lot of danger in that situation, and the university holds a responsibility to these students to try to accommodate them at their time of arrival,” she said.
Tutsch said that although the university does allow students to live in the dorms for a certain period of time before classes begin, about one week still remains before the dorms open when students are roaming around trying to find hotels in the area and downtown. The situation remains critical because international students
don’t know the danger they could confront.
Von Allmen said that by the time an international student receives his acceptance to the university, the deadline for housing reservations has passed and the student cannot be guaranteed living space.
She said that attempts each semester to reserve space for these students through the Housing Office have not been successful and feels some responsibility should be borne by the administration in extreme cases.
Von Allmen described one case in which a student was left at the last minute without a place to spend the night and was asked to move from his temporary residence. After walking around for a few hours, the student appealed to the night clerk to let him stay.
Some students have gone to hotels in the neighborhood when their temporary housing facilities are no longer available. But von Allmen said this is not always a solution, since the closest hotels fill quickly and the possibility of conventions taking place at the same time always exists.
Echanojauregui found him-
(Continued on page 14)