dlaSHy trojan
Volume XCVII, Number 36
University of Southern California
Tuesday, October 23, 1984
Fraternity repairs house following last week’s fire
~‘LrJT
SUZANNE DENEBE1M DAILY TROJAN
After another day of introducing university students to their way of life, these Hare Krishnas pack up their life cycle model (box) and continue upon their eternal quest.
report not implemented
Delta Chi faces $100,000 damages
By Dana Glad
Staff Writer
The only fire-engine red that could be found near the first floor of the Delta Chi fraternity house Monday was in the hands of a painter who was putting the last touches on a fire safety box in the kitchen.
Repairs that could take five to six weeks had begun after a fire raged through the downstairs floor of the house last Wednesday morning, causing an estimated $100,000 damage.
Dereck Andrade, Delta Chi's president, stood in the front room where a burnt piano, pool table and stereo lay covered by a plastic sheet, soon to be discarded. The ceiling had become a multitude of blackened chips on the floor.
Andrade seemed pensive when asked about the fire, sa\ ing, "Just think that the san’i time last week that this was actually rooms and there was life in here, and people having fun.
"I just cannot imagine a fire of that magnitude being started by a cigarette, especially when I was in this room an hour before," Andrade said.
Although the official cause of the fire is yet to be determined, firemen have said it was caused by someone who was careless with a cigarette in the downstairs TV room. Andrade said the fraternity is voting on a new no-smoking policy for the house.
"I don't think the guys really want to believe that it started that way because it would have been almost, in essence, a guilt upon us. There's an embarrass-
ment clause in there saying that 'No, we couldn't have done this to ourselves,' " Andrade said.
"I tell you 100 percent that (the no-smoking rule) will go through, there will be no problem. The guys obviously know what fire can do and eliminating that risk factor has a lot to do with it."
The president said the house now plans to hold fire drills, which it had not done before. Although all of the members made it out of the house safely, one actually slept through the entire incident, Andrade said.
Andrade and Ken Klein, a fraternity member, were also concerned because a red BMW was parked in front of the fire hydrant near the Delta Delta Delta house, they said.
"Whoever owns that car owes Delta Chi an apology because they did contribute to a couple minutes of our fire," Andrade said.
Klein said firemen were forced to string their hose through the car after breaking its windows, but this still caused a delay.
"It's really stupid to park a car in front of a hydrant. There's no excuse," Andrade said. "I don't care who the heck they are, you don't do stupid things like that."
The Los Angeles Police Department now plans to patrol the Row more frequently and tow away cars parked in front of hydrants, he said.
"There's a feeling inside all of us right now," Andrade said. "It's a hurt feeling. It's a feeling that 'Why did this happen to us?' We've had people jokingly say 'Oh, wow, you guys get all kinds of new stuff,' but it will never be the same. No matter how rosy you paint the picture it (Continued on page 2)
Community
By Ted Carroll
Staff Writer
The recommendations of a university task force on community relations have not been implemented 10 months after they were given to President James Zumberge.
The report, issued by the Task Force on the University Community has been accepted as policy by the administration, said George Abdo, executive assistant to the president, though no action has been taken.
But the university administration has said it will follow the recommendations: "We have been taking steps for the last month to put the machinery in place to create an office of civil and community affairs," Abdo said.
The office, which the report suggested, would allow the university to speak as one voice to the surrounding communities, according to the task force report. It would be the first action by the president on the policies he said were adopted "in principle" in April.
Zumberge created the task force in July 1983 so that university policy could be "well formulated as quickly as possible." The report details ways to communicate and improve relations with the community.
The report made seven recommendations, including university support for a Metro Rail route through the area, building faculty housing near campus, and appointing a high-ranking
administrator for community relations.
It also said the university must make sure the community understands university intentions. But in the opinion of community leaders, the pattern of "suspicion and mistrust between the university and the community," as described by the task force, has not been improving.
"The community feels at this point that the task force that was created in relation to the community was pure tokenism," said Bob Byers, chairman of the North University Park Community Association.
"The community has not seen the report of the task force or the president's response," he said.
At the same time that the university is seeking to improve its relations with surrounding communities, those communities have said the university is a "walled compound" and "isolated."
Community leaders have clashed with the university before on its methods of development in the community, the use of the university's right of eminent domain and most recently the design of university housing in the community.
In a recent controversy, the university purchased the kerckhoff Estate, a mansion just off campus, planning to surround it with condominiums for faculty (Continued on page 2)
Clarification
The Daily Trojan would like to clarify a headline in Monday's newspaper concerning an alleged rape at the Theta Xi fraternity house ("Rape occurs at Theta Xi house," Oct. 22,
1984,	page one). The headline neglected to attribute the charge to the Los Angeles Police Department, who in the story said the rape had taken place at the house.
Profits instead of stability called costly
By Tom Fitzsimmons
Staff Writer
Corporate managers need to focus less attention on annual profits and more attention on long-term corporate stability, says a report coauthored by John Graham, an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business.
Graham's report, entitled "Volatility of Derived Demand in Industrial Markets and Its Management Implications," will be published in the fall 1984 issue of The Journal of Marketing.
"Faced with volatile demand, American firms tend to lay off workers and cut production to protect profits," Graham said.
"Japanese firms value profits too, but they also value stability. Their primary goal is slow, steady growth. So in a slump they tend to sacrifice short term profits and slash prices to stimulate demand."
Culturally, Americans generally believe everyone must fend for himself, unions are concerned solely with the well-being of workers, and management is only interested in what will benefit it, Graham said. He said this is the reason for the generally adversarial relationship between unions and management.
"In Japan, lay-offs are far less frequent and the labor unions are more cooperative as a result. There's a sort of paternalistic attitude on the part of management, a sense that it's a part of management's job to take care of the workers," he said.
"The first point is to anticipate," Graham said. "For many managers it is hard to imagine things can get as bad as they are good. It's important to anticipate both down- and upswings."
Graham said he thinks a company often goes through equally good and bad times. He described this as being similar to Newton's Law of Action and its equal but opposite reaction.
As an example of poor long term planning, Graham cited the decision of several gas turbine companies to build new plants in 1975, when their profits were high. He said profits for these companies
took a substatial nose dive in the late 1970s and went down again in the early 1980s.
Graham also disagrees with the way many corporations increase their advertising budgets when profits are up and cut their advertising budgets when profits are down. He suggests companies do just the opposite.
Another of his suggestions is that companies diversity by having either a broader product line or compete in a broader choice of markets. This, he said, will tend to diminish volatility.
The report also suggests companies be more responsive to the market when it comes to pricing, quickly lowering prices during slumps and raising them in boom periods.
"American companies often don't react quickly enough. Part of the reason has to do with finance-oriented managers who often argue for price hikes to make up for lost sales revenues.
"In contrast, market-oriented managers are quick to point out that raising prices will only further reduce sales, revenues and profits," he said.
Graham's report makes suggestions in the areas of marketing research, product market strategy, promotional strategy, pricing and distribution.
The report was also written by William Bishop, of managerial marketing research and analysis at Solar Turbines Inc., a division of the Caterpillar Tractor Co., and by Michael Jones, a mangerial economic analysis at the same firm.
Graham said he chose to do his study with people from Solar Turbines Inc. because he formerly worked at the firm.
The research was begun about two years ago and the research for the paper was completed about one year ago. He said, however, that research is ongoing, and that he is already working on his next paper.
The study sample was based on sales data from eight industrial gas turbine firms over the last 15 to 20 years.