dld% trojan
Volume XCII, Number 15	University of Southern California	Monday, September 27, 1982
‘Suspicious’ fire causes $20,000
damage in
By Mark Gill
Editorial Director
and Mark Igler
Assistant City Editor
Fire gutted a second-floor apartment three blocks away from campus early Friday morning, resulting in one injury and causing an estimated $20,000 damage.
Ray Walker, public service officer for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said the cause has yet to be determined but called the circumstances “suspicious.”
Five fire trucks from three
off-campu
stations responded to the blaze at 2701 Severance St. shortly after midnight and had the fire under control within 20 minutes.
The privately owned apartment building houses 30 to 40 people, most of whom are university students.
Fire department officials credited officers from the university’s housing protection office for a speedy evacuation of the building. None of the residents were injured, but a university student suffered minor cuts and burns to his
apartment
left hand while helping residents out of the building.
One of two housing protection officers who -were patrolling the area, Larry Euen, saw the fire and radioed for help. The other officer responded immediately, and the two headed into the burning building.
"I w'ent up the front stairs, and boy, we were banging on those doors,” Euen said. “We figured out where the fire was (apartment No. 7) and decided to kick in the door. We knew (Continued on page 3)
Grad students form group
to protect their interests
Armed man robs student of $200
Eighth night-teller robbery attempt
By Alan Grossman
Assistant City Editor
The seventh holdup in a string of eight attempted at automated teller machines in University Village this semester was one of three robberies University Security responded to Thursday.
The victim of the robbery (a student), which occurred at Security Pacific’s machine, told security that a man approached him at about 9:45 Thursday. The man demanded that the victim withdraw the maximum $200 from the machine and told him, “Don’t look at me or I’m going to put a boUet through your stomach and run faster than you can catch me."
The thief, described by University Security's
both has made it clear that such an organization is needed to protect the interests of all graduate students on this campus so long as their status remains largely undefined,” the statement said.
“It is evident that many grievances and concerns are shared by every one of us and that these can best be dealt with in a larger, more cohesive body which speaks for all,” the statement cpntinued.
Some of the grievances and concerns the graduate students share include the varying procedures each department has (Continued on page 9)
report as a six-foot-tall, 165-pound, black male, then reportedly showed the gun to the victim and said. “I’m not messing around.”
Sgt. Art Blair of security said his department is investigating the cases involving holdups at Bank of America and Security Pacific automated tellers. A common suspect is not linked to all the robberies, he said.
Blair said three of the seven robberies occurred in daylight.
He offered an explanation for the sudden popularity of robberies at automated tellers.
“Before, it was a hit-or-miss for the criminals: they didn’t know what they were going to come up w'ith in a regular street robbery. Now they
(Continued on page 3)
READILY ROBBED — Seven people have already been victims of robberies while attempting to use automated tellers like this Ready Teller at Security Pacific Bank. These individuals play it safe by using the tellers during high-traffic hours.
By Brenda Wong
Assistant City Editor
University graduate students are banding together under a newly formed organization, the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), to make sure their interests are protected.
“There are no organizations (which represent all the graduate students), just ones that look after interests in individual departments,” said John Moyle, interim president of the association.
A statement released by the GSA outlined reasons for the group’s formulation.
“Past and recent experience
Photo by David Phillips
FINISHING UP — A Los Angeles firefigher empties out a hose outside an apartment building on Severance Street, where a fire caused 520,000 damage early Friday morning.
University overdoses on last Thursday’s commotion
By Casey Wian
Editor
Thursdays at the university have always had a reputation for being a bit wild. This past Thursday may have been the wildest yet.
One could almost see the veins bulging out on Tommy Trojan's arms as he gripped his long-lost sword, anticipating wrhat was in store for the university community.
The first clue that this was not to be just another ordinary Thursday came at about 2:50 p.m., when the advertising office of the Daily Trojan received an anonymous phone call. It came from a man saying he had planted a bomb in the Seeley G. Mudd building. The caller said the bomb was scheduled to explode at 3:15 p.m.. and then proceeded to hang up without even buying so much as a classified ad.
The real fun started Thursday evening at the Sparks/Josie Cotton concert, which was held at the automobile club parking lot. Many of the fans began slam-dancing to the new wave music. causing tempers to flare. A few fights erupted and were promptly stopped by the concert’s bouncers. After it was all over, one young man was left lying on the ground nearby, his thigh split open and bleeding.
Hold on, it gets worse.
Approximately 20 students were seen chasing a man down 28th Street, apparently because he had been causing trouble at their fraternity. Paramedics reportedly had to take away another man who was injured by members of a different fraternity. Members of a third fraternity beat up a university student in front their house because he had been obnoxious and had refused to leave the
house.
In the meantime, two university students were robbed at gunpoint in separate incidents Thursday night. One of them was beat up at a bus station at the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The robbers even took his groceries and backpack.
The local one-stop robbery headquarters— Security Pacific Bank's Ready-Teller— was hit for S200. This was the seventh automated teller robbery in eight attempts at a local bank this semester.
Two automobiles were stolen, adding to the chaos.
Wait, there’s more.
A fire broke out in a Severance Street apartment building, forcing the evacuation of the building. It also provided an opportunity for a group of students to steal 50 feet of fire hose and a fire
extinguisher from one of the trucks on the scene.
In an apparently unrelated incident, someone broke the glass covering a fire hose in the Embassy Apartments, flooding much of the second floor hallway.
The furniture was stolen out of a secretary’s office in Hoffman Hall. To add insult to injury, the thief also ransacked the office.
As a fitting end to the day, about 15 bicycles were “sacrificed to the pool god." as one resident put it. at the Car-ribean Apartments.
And they say this is a conservative university. It makes one wonder what they're doing for fun up at University of California. Berkeley.
All the while. Tommy Trojan stood there, sword poised, muscles flexed, unable to do a damn thing about any of it.