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Volume XCI1, Number 54_ University of Southern California_Monday, November 22, 1982
Staff photo by Larry Gund
ONE FLAG OVER USC — The American flag flies high from its port on University Avenue between Doheny Memorial Library and Bovard Administration Building. The Von KleinSmid Center tower, which symbolizes global studies on this campus, stands in the background.
Security catches suspect linked to numerous thefts
By Marc Igler
Assistant City Editor
After a heated footchase Thursday afternoon through off-campus alleys and backyards, University Security caught a burglary suspect who was seen moments earlier breaking into a car.
The suspect, 19-year-old Steven Smith of Los Angeles, is well known to University Security as an individual who has reportedly been linked to numerous burglaries and robberies. He has never been arrested because his victims have been afraid to press charges.
“He has quite a reputation,” said Sgt. Hermin Aviles of University Security. “His witnesses are the type who are afraid to turn him in. They were very glad to see him go to jail.”
Aviles, who was on the scene at 36th Street and Budlong Avenue when Smith was captured, said that people who live on the area crowded around to see the arrest and shouted encouragement to the officers and ridiculed Smith.
Smith was booked into County Jail for burglary and is being held in lieu of $2,500 bail.
A postal carrier first spotted Smith shortly after noon while he was allegedly breaking into a Ford Mustang at 36th Street and Vermont Avenue, Sgt Art Blair said. The postal worker flagged down a University Security patrol car
that was traveling north on Vermont Avenue.
Officer Dexter Thomas approached Smith, who was reportedly in the process of breaking into a second car, a maroon Honda, by using a brick to smash the window, Blair said. Upon seeing Thomas, Smith fled west and entered an alley, Blair said.
Thomas ran after Smith, eventually catching him w’hen the suspect attempted to scale the w'all. Still holding the car stereo he had taken from the Honda, Smith kicked Thomas in the head while on top of the wall and the officer responded by -hitting him in the shin w'ith a nightstick.
The suspect managed to climb over the wall and continued running through several backyards. Moments later Smith surrendered to Thomas when he became cornered in a backyard.
Burglary
A burglar stole over $4,700 worth of jewelry from a female student living in the College-Uni-versity dormitory Thursday evening, after the student left her room but left the door unlocked.
Sgt Art Blair said the theft occurred between 6 and 6:30 p.m. and included a gold and diamond wristwatch valued at S4.000. a diamond ring and four neck charms.
Privately funded work-study jobs at Cornell get national attention
By Carmen Chandler
Staff Writer
Cornell University has developed a new financial aid program to help its students repay their loans. The program has drawn the attention of universities around the country, including this one.
The first of its kind, the program, called the Cornell Tradition, is designed to provide work-study fellowships to help students reduce the amount of loan money they have to take out before they graduate. Because the Tradition funds are provided by private sources, instead of the federal government, Cornell will have more of a say in its financial aid program.
Alumni and friends of Cornell have established a fund of more than $1.5 million for each of the next five years to develop work opportunities for students who are willing to w'ork more than 10 to 12 hours a week to pay for college expenses.
“It has always been a Cornell tradition of students working to put themselves through school and a tradition of alumni helping students,” said Emily Newton, assistant director of student employment and coordinator of the Cornell Tradition.
Qualifications for the program are based on a student's past efforts to finance his college education, academic standing and past leadership experience.
“I think it’s a great idea but from our standpoint our needs are more in the area of grants,” said Michael Halloran, assistant director of admission and financial aid.
“The problem is that most USC students who have high
needs will have both w'ork-study and loans, and in general, those who have work-study would be helped less with additional work-study because there is a limit of how much you can work while you go to school,” he said.
“Students who do qualify for work-study, and if they have the maximum award, have to wrork 20 hours a week I would
be reluctant to have students work more than 20 hours if they are taking a full load, in most cases.”
Halloran said that Cornell’s endowment is substantially higher for its size than this university’s and that in past years its financial aid package has limited the amount of student self-help.
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Professor studying 5-year contraceptive
By Brenda Wong
Assistant City Editor
Within the next six years, contraceptives lasting as long as five years and taking only five minutes to implant may be available to the public.
Daniel Mishell Jr., a professor and chairman of the department of obstretrics and gynecology at the university's school of medicine, is studying the effectiveness and effects of this different method of birth control. He is the only person in the United States doing so.
Norplant, the contraceptive, consisting of six capsules 3 centimeters long and 2.4 millimeters in diameter, is implanted under the skin of the upper arm while the woman is under a local anesthesia.
The device has proven more effective than oral contraceptives in seven years of clinical trials. “In women who have worn them for five years, the pregnancy rate is still very low, about 1 percent” Mishell said.
Small amounts of a synethetic progestin hormone called levon-orgestrel are continuously released, so women do not have to take a pill every day as with an oral contraceptive, Mishell said.
Harold Nash, associate director of the center for biomedical research of the Population Council (which is sponsoring Mishell’s research), said the contraceptive takes effect quickly. Upon implantation, the levonorgestrel is released and fertility is immediately restored when Norplant is removed.
“It interferes with ovulation but it doesn't interfere with all cycles of ovulation,” he said. "It helps maintain a thick mucus in the cervix so the sperm penetrate it with difficulty.”
Mishell said the drug is good for five years. At that time, new implants can replace the old ones. “They can come in and get the capsules taken out and get a new set implanted. We're testing right now to see how much of the drug is left (at the end of five years),” Mishell said.
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