Seventy-Fifth Year of Publication
trojan
Volume Cll, Number 56
University of Southern California
1912 — 1986
Wednesday, November 19, 1986
Feature
Gliders built by engineering students fly the friendly skies in laboratory test
PETER ZAKHARY / DAILY TROJAN
Aerospace engineering students prepare to send their model aircraft up into the proverbial wild blue yonder.
By Linda Chong
Staff Writer
A student may remember spending painstaking hours as a child with sticky hands, building his very own model airplane.
But one need not be a kid to enjoy seeing his project go up into the infinite skies.
In fact, the project of constructing and flying model airplanes has been a traditional laboratory exercise in the aerospace engineering department for close to 10 years.
So up, up and away into the wild blue yonder went the gliders belonging to some 145 aerospace engineering students last Friday from 8:30 a.m.to 2 p.m., as they launched their crafts at Dedeaux Baseball Field.
Students purchased glider model kits, built them and flew them as part of the laboratory assignment in the AE 105 freshmen-oriented introductory course to aerospace engineering.
Models were cast from mechanical launchers and were thrown at various speeds.
Students then measured the performance of the flight and its related data, including the glider's speed and distance.
They now have three weeks to analyze their data and turn in written reports with the aerodynamic information.
This semester project sets the stage for all future aerospace engineering classes and is innovative because no other universities' departments assign the same project, said Professor Larry Redekopp, who coordinates the event.
Redekopp said the students must find out what type of engine is needed to fly an airplane such as the ones they each construct. They should determine the engine size and its efficiency.
“It's a very instructive project. How far you fly is not going to make the better grade. The grade is based on how well the students demonstrate their knowledge of aerodynamics," Redekopp said.
“This (project) was the best we've ever had. We had a new kit, a very good one. We also have a
(Continued on page 8)
Shirt sales halted
University fears name misused
By Jim Logan
Staff Writer
For the second time in a week, the university has put a halt to the sale of a product that bears its name.
With the UCLA game coming up on Saturday, members of the Sigma Chi fraternity thought they'd make a little money. So they made up T-shirts with "Utopia of Social Contacts" on the front, and something less complimentary using the initials "UCLA" on the back.
Setting up a card table in front of Tommy Trojan on Tuesday, they had sold a few of the shirts when Jack Arnold, director of the bookstore, visited them. Politely but firmly, he informed them they would have to stop selling the shirts. After some discussion, the Sigma Chi's packed up and left.
Last week. Traditions, the university's pub, suspended sales of Trojan Classic Beer after one day. The university considers it a violation of its trademark, and does not want it to be associated with a beer.
Both actions represent an ongoing effort by the university to protect its trademark and image, and Arnold's hand in the latest incident is simply a continuation of his role in those efforts.
As bookstore director, Arnold is responsible for seeing that only licensed products bearing the university's registered trademarks — the seal, the initials "USC," Tommy Trojan and the Trojan head — are manufactured and sold.
The university's name and status make it a prime target for the manufacturers of everything from beer to beach towels to use those trademarks to make money.
To regulate such products, the university licenses manufacturers so that only they can legally produce goods with trademarked features as part of them. This is done not simply to protect bookstore profits, but the university's image as well.
"We're trying to make sure the university's image is not tarnished by unlicensed products, which have "no respect for the university or its trademark," Arnold said.
The university does not want to be associated with unseemly or negative things, and the licensing of products serves to regulate them.
In the case of Sigma Chi's T-shirts, a bottle of Corona beer pictured on the front caused their censure. According to Arnold, the university is "trying to de-emphasize alcohol use on campus." A beer next to the letters "USC" would imply the university's endorsement of drinking, he said.
Furthermore, the fraternity had not obtained the necessary license for the manufacture of the shirts.
The present trademark vigilance began in 1976, Arnold said, after the university became aware of "low-grade" office and school supplies with "USC" on them being sold in dime stores and supermarkets.
They were, Arnold said, "just not of the quality the university wanted associated with its name." Since then, the university has aggressively guarded its name and image.
Last year, with the university and UCLA as principal organizers, the National College Licensing Administration was set up as a national watchdog and regulatory agency.
Arnold, who travels frequently, said the appearance of unlicensed products is widespread. He said he once found unauthorized items in a gift shop at the MGM Grand Hotel in Reno.
Journalists protest drug testing
By Bryon Okada
Staff Writer
Faculty members at the School of Journalism have spoken out against the drug testing policies at the Los Angeles Times in a letter to the chairman of the Times-Mirror Corp.
Eleven faculty members from the School, including its director, Bryce Nelson, signed a letter to Chairman Robert Erburu protesting the mandatory drug testing of Times staff members.
These tests, which were put into effect less than a year ago, are administered to the students who work at the newspaper as interns in addition to full-time workers. Nelson said.
Citing the inaccuracy of drug tests, as well as the inherent invasion of privacy involved in such actions, Nelson said that he felt these tests could not be used for a basis of employment.
"We can't see the utility of having it," Nelson said. After all, he said, interns don't run dangerous machinery and are not even full-time employees.
Nelson said that the results of the testing could be used by the newspaper's management to effect changes that otherwise might not occur.
The sheer ambiguity of a drug test could encourage blacklisting of journalists who deserve a job but don't get it for one reason or another, he said.
Nelson said a report in the LA Weekly last week that " 'clean' urine samples were being offered for sale in the halls of the journalism department" was false and that, contrary to the article, this is not what prompted journalism professors to speak out against the tests.
He said he has never heard of any such incidents, and that there was no indication that drug samples given to the Times had been tampered with.
The protest to the testing stands on the unethical nature of the tests and the possibilities for corruption that it offers. Nelson said.
Jack Langguth, one of the journalism professors who signed the letter, said it's "a repellent invasion of privacy to require that sort of testing to anyone."
He said neither full-time staff members nor interns should be tested.
"I am disturbed that a news organization, which should be looking out for our rights, should cave in so quickly," he said.
However, both Langguth and Nelson agree that the focus of the journalism school's protest is on the interns from the university. The other staff members of the newspaper will have to effect changes without the support of the university, they said.
Nelson said he could not see rny plausible (Continued on page 6)
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