By Brad Hollingsworth and Carmen Chandler
Staff Writers
University offidals and arson investigators strongly suspect that the four fires that struck Residence West dormitory over the weekend are the work of a student arsonist who lives in the building.
“At this time the person setting the fires must be a student within the building/' said John Holloway, an arson investigator with the Los Angeles Fire Department.
He added that the LAFD, along with representatives from a university insurance company will conduct a full investigation of the fires, which caused 5150,000 damage to the
11-story structure.
"The person who's caught setting these fires could face either a three-, five-, or seven-year sentence," Holloway said. "The lesser sentence would be for a first offender. The last for a previous arson incident."
Jim Gates, complex manager at Residence West, supported Holloway's assumption that a
History department film nears finish
By Michael Molinski
Assistant City Editor
The history department is nearing completion on the production of a two-hour documentary film detailing life in the United States during World War II.
The film, entitled The Homefront, has a budget of over $300,000 from various sources and should be completed by mid-summer for viewing on PBS.
Working closely with the cinema department, the film is the second attempt by the history department, under the chairmanship of Brendan Nagles, to bring together the talents of historians and filmmakers under their "history and media" program, which includes a class of the same title.
The first effort was a 22-minute documentary on the History of Medicine.
The Homefront, to be narrated by author Studs Turkel, is the "story of what happened to ordinary people and the nation that mobilized for war," said Mark Harris, co-producer of the film and a senior lecturer in the cinema department.
It deals with such themes as the conversion of civilian industries to production for war goods; the relocation of over 15 percent of American civilians during the war; the recruitment of women into the work force, particularly in the defense industries; the experiences and advances of minorities during the period; the relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans by the United States government; and the return of prosperin' to America after the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The film includes footage taken during the war years and 22 live interviews of people with "interesting" memories of their experiences in the United States from about 1941-45.
"The people that were on the homefront . . . look at it as an exciting, exhilarating time," said Frank Mitchell, director of the documentary. "The question for this generation is why .... Why was World War II the good war? The film answers this question."
The film not only attempts to recreate for its viewers the American experience during the war, but also "examines the social and economic impact of the war," Harris said.
Steven Schechter, the producer of the film, and a former student of the cinema school, is currently doing research and gathering footage for the film in Washington D.C. and New York.
The film is operating on a budget of over S320,000. The university is providing only the indirect costs, such as office space, materials and utilities. Most of the funds come from grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the California Council for the Humanities. Additional funds were acquired through KOCE-TV of Huntington Beach, from the Pew Memorial Trust and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
KOCE (channel 50), an affiliate of PBS, will prepare the film for television viewing. It will be aired nationally from that station.
Over a dozen students, from cinema and other departments, have helped in the making of the film as research, editing and production assistants, Harris said.
Production of the film began in May of last year when the first grant was received. The writing of the script, however, began in 1980.
A nationwide search of over 1200 people was conducted before the 22 people that are interviewed in the film were chosen.
The people interviewed were not "the decision makers," Harris said. They were ordinary people. One woman was a crane operator in a steel mill. One man was the first black trolley car driver in San Francisco, and another was an air raid warden.
(Continued on page 3)
trojan
Volume XCIII, Number 66	University of Southern California	Tuesday, April 26, 1983
active Hty s chapter useum fn'Exsearch
etermined, Alliance su
to
or at least to ccornpanying
But st -
it-'JPiiHS
After 30 minutes of looking
aroarid ihe exhibits featuring such ftiirlgs as the San Frandsco harbor, the modem automobile and a cross-section of the Alaska Pipeline, the three dedded to ask for help. Todd Riebe, the chapter president, went to the in-house phones in hopes of talking to someone in the main office.
He reached Mark Salizar, who said the nuflear fission exhibit had been takpn down about a month ago because it was malfunctioning.
Immediately after Riebe hung up the phone it -ft'as ctear that a small battle had b**;n won. The irony was perfect: "Maybe thev had a	in the ex-
hibit," he said. "The alann kept gying off. and — - -But nuclear power itself is perfectly harmless,'' Cheryl Gaffordr*an i Alliance intern, added with a broad smile.
The replacement fission exhibit, it turns out, simply explains the reactor process without political commehf.
Evidently the deposed exhibit's problems were more than mechanical. The three had complained — and they were not klone — about its text on nuclear waste, which said: "Despite the large inventories of radioactive materials in solid, liquid or gaseous forms in nu-dear power, no serious accidents and no overexposure of the general public has occurred in over 100 reactor years of commerdal, conventional reactor operation."
The sponsor. Southern California Edison, apparently had not heard of Three Mile Island.
"I can understand the corporation's point of view," said Dan Canales, the third active member. "They wouldn't want it to be anti-nuclear power. But
I	just want them to put the facts in."
Gafford was a little more emphatic about itr -"I was never really concerned so much with nuclear power, just with the arms race. But after 1 read that
I	got so incensed that i dedded that's what I'd do (in spring semester)/^ She sent photocopies of the statepient to authorities and experts asking (.unsuccessfully, it->tums out) for responses.
But the point is that this mi-~ nonty (in terms oi tize and *' terest) had handedly, a large
poration.^
Tiny and they are Still fig$tS
ers. f . Ja
Just what is.
Survival, what to survive, and- Hb\ are thev preparing towaiiij^fcat end?
Riebe foun^^^^F chapter at the beginning 0#flk> academic year, contacting the Los Angeles offices of the Alliance in Hollywood and’fthen the university's office of student affairs. He drafteSI a constitution, j agreed to abide ,bv the laws governing all student organizations and waited for a re-
sponse. "They read constitution pretty roughly," Riebe said, bu end his Alliance chap recognized.
Initially the group set up a table at Tommy Trojan, usually three days a week, to answer questions and attract interest. "It proved to be a waste ot time," Riebe said "It is exposure, but getting people to become active after putting dowr.
ite another
a senior hi
that. -"I
lole list of people up but were never and there are a couple names on it," she ' t at this campus the j works "in the world of the apathetic and uninformed."
She worked with the group last semester, but has since left j because of the pressures of i commitments she has made to j being a resident adviser and to "other things that fulfill the need for me of trving to improve the world.''
She did add, however, that there is not a lack of interest in (Continued on page71
KATHLEEN TOMOAILY TROJAN
Debris was removed yesterday from this room on the 10th floor of Residence West dormitory, which was hit by fire Saturday morning.
Student arsonist suspected in four Residence West fires
student resident is responsible for the fires, saying, "It's got to be a student, it's got to be."
Sunday night was the third night in a row that a fire broke out in the dormitory, this time in the laundry room on the 11th floor, causing the building to be evacuated for the third successive night.
Saturday morning's blaze gutted the 10th floor study lounge and caused extensive smoke damage to the hallway. The fire Sunday morning on the fifth floor was confined to the study lounge, severely burning the furniture.
A small fire was reported Friday afternoon when one resident returned to his room and found a stack of newspapers ablaze on top of a stove after someone had turned on the burners.
Arson investigators said the fire Sunday morning was set with a flammable liquid. However, they do not know now the other twro fires were started .
As a result of the fires, 34 of the 324 students in the residence hall have been relocated in various university housing complexes on campus and have been given free Validine meal cards if they do not alreadv have one.
The university has increased security in the building by assigning a security officer to each floor 24 hours a day and by having students show picture identification when they enter.
Students can only use one of the two elevators in the building because the other is being used to bring down debris from the 10th floor.
After the first two fires, university security stationed four patrols in the building all day Sunday. The officers were preparing to go on the night-shift when Sunday's fire broke out at 7:50 p.m.
Residents Ken Dalleria, a sophomore majoring in engi-(Continued on page 9)