Seventy-Fifth Year of Publication
trojan
Volume Cll, Number 39
University of Southern California
1912 — 1986
Friday, October 24, 1986
Denies charge ofshowboating’
Senate parliamentarian takes heat for remarks
By Terry Allen
Staff Writer
While admitting fault in his handling of the Student Senate's debate on divestment last month, Marcus Frishman, senate parliamentarian, declared his impartiality at Wednesday evening's senate meeting by saying, "I tiy to remove politics from the rules."
Frishman has been the subject of heated debate at the senate for what one senator called “showboating," a reference to Frishman's statement to the Daily Trojan that the senate's decision to urge university divestment had been reached unconstitutionally.
“If the things we did in the senate weren't constitutional, then we should have been told first," said Steve Berens, a graduate senator from the School of Business Administration, to Frishman. "It appeared you used your position to get across your own opinion on the issue. I'm not saying it's true, but that's what it appeared to me.
"What we don't need is someone who is a part of our team going out on his own," he said. "When you do that, you have to remember that you take the responsibility of the senate with you."
Frishman defended his assessment of the senate's proceedings on divestment but told his colleagues he saw his mistake in announcing it to the public without first informing the senate.
"My opinion is my opinion," he said. “You can't take that away from me. But I realize (going to the press) was totally inappropriate. I made an error, and it will not happen again."
Frishman also assured senators that his involvement as president of the controversially exclusive Junior Bohemian Club "will have no impact on my position here."
No action was taken against Frishman at the meeting, and exchanges between him and his colleagues ended with one senator' s positive overview of the incident.
"I think it's admirable that Marcus can stand up there and say he made a mistake," said Leslie Tamimura, a senator representing the Dental School. "We have to remember to take criticism, not just because it's criticism, but because it's a learning opportunity."
Berens told Frishman, "We don't question your credentials as a parliamentarian. I think we question the way you present your opinion to the public."
The senate meeting was held at the university's health sciences campus, for the first time, and the graduate senator from the School of Medicine, Mark Halikis, gave a presentation about the school.
Tom Watson, a third-year medical student who was at the meeting, said the decision for the senate to convene on the health sciences campus was "a good way to open up communications between the two campuses."
"There has been the feeling that we are too separate from each other," he said of the university's geographically isolated campuses. "It's good that we are meeting here tonight."
Specialists discuss use, implications of drug tests for sports, public safety
By Karen Kuettel
Staff Writer
Whether or not drug testing is a violation of one's rights was discussed by a select panel of university representatives, Thursday afternoon in Seeley G. Mudd Building.
"Drug testing will give students a reason not to use it, to get out of peer pressure," said Brian Furlong, the president of the Interfratemity Council.
Besides Furlong, among the panelists were Dr. Schumarry Chao, medical director at the Student Health Center; Robert Yoder, men's varsity volleyball coach; Ron Orr, assistant athletic director and former All-American swimmer; and Valerie Paton, assistant vice president of student affairs.
"We're providing services to (athletes), and we want to know what we're getting in return. . .and as one of our demands, we want them to be drug-free," Yoder said. With regard to testing the men's volleyball team, Yoder said, "It has impacted us rather favorably."
University athletes must consent to four drug tests per year in which the subjects are randomly selected by a computer, said Marvin Cobb, the assistant athletic director.
The computer chooses 30 percent of each team to take urine tests designed to detect illegal drugs, such as cocaine and marijuana.
When an athlete tests positive, he is not immediately withdrawn from his team.
"The first time (an athlete) tests positive, he is given couseling. By the third time, you're out," Yoder said.
Chao said the goal of the drug-testing program “is to make people aware of the program and open the door to educating (students about their problem)."
BRUCE LE / DAILY TROJAN
Ron Orr, Schumarry Chao and Cece Freeman (left to right) discuss the ramifications of drug testing.
Orr said he was addicted to drugs and alcohol when he was in college. During that period, "I felt very lonely and weak like I couldn't control it," he said.
"We might not see results, right away, but it is
(Continued on page 3)
Opposing sides debate Prop. 64
AIDS initiative called sly plan by some, vita! by others
By Jim Logan
Staff Writer
Depending on who was speaking Thursday at the university's Law Center, Proposition 64 is either a veiled attempt to give right-wing extremist Lyndon LaRouche political credibility or an effort to protect the health of Californians.
Feature
Weekend cultural art festival celebrates traditional, contemporary mask making
By Linda Chong
Staff Writer
In celebration of the art of mask making, the 10th Festival of Masks will be held Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. at Hancock Park, with a Parade of Masks scheduled for Sunday morning.
Fifty parade groups will march down the one-mile route, from Wilshire Boulevard in Crescent Heights to Hancock County Park at Curson Avenue, where the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is located. Janet Lubkin, press officer for the Craft and Folk Art Museum, which hosts the event, said more than 2,000 people are expected to participate in the parade.
Participants are groups or individuals interested in making and wearing masks. All paraders are required to wear masks, preferably innovative and handmade ones, to represent cultural and ethnic traditions or simply individual expression.
The parade will begin Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and the public is invited to attend. Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro is the grand marshal of the parade, which will include several floats made by entrants ranging from community groups and members of art centers to private individuals, Lubkin said. Some cars will also be driven along the parade route.
"People from all over the Los Angeles area come," said Lubkin. "It's usually a big event."
A free mask making workshop will be held on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. in Hancock County Park at the 5800 block of Wilshire Boulevard. This is offered through the education department of the Craft and Folk Art Museum, in conjunction with the festival.
Tables will be set up with materials on mask making and instructors will assist people in creating outrageous masks, Lubkin said. Workshop participants are invited to march in the Parade of Masks on Sunday.
Two stages will be set for live dance performances at the park. Dancers will wear traditional and continental masks in their shows.
Over 40 booths will be set up to sell and display masks. Mask making demonstrations and exhibitions will continue throughout the weekend.
"Some masks have come from Mexico, Bali, Italy, Africa. . .from different religious traditions, and from all over," Lubkin said.
Food booths manned by members of various non-profit / community organizations will also be on hand.
Lubkin said there is a $5 processing fee to enter the parade. Booth participants are charged a rental fee, but overall the festival is a non-profit one.
No late registration will be taken to participate in the parade.
(Continued on page 3)
A debate on the AIDS initiative, sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Student Assembly and the Gay and Lesbian Law Union, drew more than 100 spectators as pro- and anti-Prop-osition 64 forces presented their sides of the AIDS initiative.
Jim Hollis, of the LaRouche-backed Prevent AIDS Now In-tiative Committee (PANIC), said that the proposition is simply an attempt to force the state to admit that the often-fatal AIDS is a communicable disease on the order of tuberculosis or measles.
He claimed that contrary to published medical consensus, AIDS is transmitted by casual contact. This makes it critical, he said, that carriers of the disease be identified and likely victims tested, as the proposition would mandate.
But John Heilman, an attorney and West Hollywood city councilman, told the crowd that the proposition is a "very craftily written" attempt to work on the fears of people who have little understanding of AIDS.
Heilman said that it was "actually generous" to say that the initiative is anti-gay or done out of a fear of homosexuals as some have charged. Rather, it is an attempt to give LaRouche's National Democratic Party credibility.
"This is not the reaction of people who overeact with gut fear," Heilman said of the initiative after the debate. It is "deliberately designed to play on people's fears" and make LaR-ouche a "political powerhouse," he added.
Hollis stuck to the contention that AIDS is transmitted by ca-
sual contact. He called AIDS "a disease that has its own lobby," and claimed that there has been a conspiracy between the federal government and certain political groups to keep the true scientific facts of AIDS hidden.
"We have got to defeat the political pressure the gay and lesbian alliance has applied" on the government, he said after the debate.
Heilman strongly disagreed.
"That offends me, because nothing could be further from the truth," he said, adding that the gay community has been clamoring for attention to get more medical research for AIDS.
"He (LaRouche) accuses. . .e-veryone of trying to cover up the disease."
Heilman, an assistant secretary with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that beyond the covert political intentions of Proposition 64, it also walks a shaky legal line.
Provisions in the initiative for the reporting of AIDS virus carriers and mandatory testing for potential carriers would invite widespread discrimination against disease victims and those in the high-risk groups, particularly homosexual males, he said.
Heilman said the hysteria the proposition generates could mean that any "young gay male who misses two days of work" could be fired for fear that he is an AIDS version of Typhoid Mary.
But Hollis said there is nothing discriminatory about the initiative. Media hype has made it appear that AIDS victims would (Continued on page 3)