First-place Troy wins 5th in a row — see page 12
Friday, February 15, 1985
UCLA claims lead in food fundraiser
Volume XCVIII, Number 26
Kids trespass; play in student housing pool
By Aaron Van Curen
Assistant City Editor
For many, a swimming pool is the best answer to the recent warm weather, and a group of neighborhood children Wednesday tried to cool off in the swimming pool of a university-owned apartment complex.
The pool is between the Pacific, Manor and Embassy apartments, located on Severance Street, and is intended only for the use of residents of those apartments and their guests, said Nancy Prangley, coordinator of community housing.
Although a sign near the pool states this policy and warns against trespassing, it went unheeded by a group of children who found a wav into the well-fenced pool area Wednesday.
Doreen Guarino, a senior majoring in journalism and a resident of Pacific Apartments, said this was not the first time non-residents had used the pool.
Neighborhood children regularly used the pool last summer, and also occasionally swam there during the beginning of the fall semester, Guarino said.
Guarino's apartment on the second floor of Pacific Apartments overlooks the pool, and she said the noise from the frolicking children can sometimes be bothersome.
She said she also worried that the university might be liable if one of the children were to injure himself because there is no lifeguard at the pool.
Guarino said she called the complex office at Embassy Apartments, and it rousted the kids at once. But when the (Continued on page 3)
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The Von KleinSmid bell tower rises high above a bust of the past university president.
Chicago professor to address libel issues
By Pablo Lopez
Staff Writer
Does the First Amendment give the press immunities it cannot control?
Have the recent libel cases involving public officials and the media shown this to be true?
Richard Epstein, a professor from the University of Chicago Law School, will address these questions in a speech this afternoon at 12:30 on the topic of "Defamation: Was New York Times v. Sullivan Wrong?"
Sponsored by the USC Federalist Society, the discussion will be held in Room 1 at the Law Center. Admission is free.
"The Times v. Sullivan case was incorrectly interpreted," said Noel Macaulay, a third-year law student at the university and president of the USC Federalist Society.
"The First Amendment has construed historical evidence that did not lead to the decision," Macaulay said.
In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court drastically altered libel
law as it pertains to public officials with its decision in the N.Y. Times v. Sullivan case.
The unanimous decision opposed nearly 200 years of libel theory, which said the First Amendment would not protect against false and defamatory speech. However, the traditional defenses of truth, qualified privilege, and fair comment and criticism remained.
But the Supreme Court in its 1964 decision gave a broader interpretation of the First Amendment, allowing the press to safely publish stories and comments about public officials as long as the stories and comments do not contain knowing or reckless falsehoods.
This protection was later extended to stories and comments about public figures who voluntarily thrust themselves into the limelight.
The landmark decision, written by Justice William Brennan Jr., said a public official can succeed with a libel action only if he or she can show that a "defamatory falsehood relating to official conduct . . . was made with actual malice — that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."
Epstein, who graduated from Yale Law School in 1968 and taught at USC from 1968 to 1973, will argue in his speech today for a radical restructuring of the constitutional protection afforded to the media in its treatment
of public officials or figures, Macaulay said.
Macaulay said Epstein believes public officials or figures should have the same constitutional rights as ordinary citizens, thus abolishing the actual malice clause.
Citing the recent Ariel Sharon v. Time magazine libel case and the Gen. Westmoreland v. CBS
law suit as examples, Epstein will argue the media has disregarded its obligation as an objective press. Epstein also will suggest tighter restrictions on the media, Macaulay said.
"There's no question that the decision was interpreted wrong," Macaulay said.
"There's a trend among (Continued on page 3)
By Owen Gross
Staff Writer
It has been labled the "USC / UCLA Feed the World Super Bowl" bv UCLA, but someone forgot to tell USC the game had started until the first half was already over.
UCLA boasts that it is competing against USC in an effort to raise funds to aid the famine-stricken people of Ethiopia.
The university, however, has not recognized this informal competition.
Fliers distributed on the UCLA campus contend that UCLA led USC $4,000 to SO after the first half. However, the USC Student Senate was onlv made aware of the program at the beginning of the spring semester.
The UCLA program, which was organized at the beginning of their fall quarter in October, acquired most of its monev through a series of three free concerts designed to raise funds. Most of the donations have been made by students and faculty.
Mike Singer Student Senate president, said USC is not going to promote the competitive aspect of the project, which the senate has dubbed the "Ethiopian Airlift." Instead, he said, the university wants to work jointly on the project with UCLA to benefit society.
Singer said the competition — while it is a good wav to get people to participate — might make people lose sight of the real issue.
Publicity for the project on the USC campus has been slight, compared to that on the UCLA campus.
Part of the reason for the slow start is that — until recently — no campus organization or group took the responsibility of promoting the project.
The senate originally planned to set up a committee to orga-(Contmued on page 7)
No DT Monday or Tuesday
Because of the Presidents' Birthday holiday, there will be no Daily Trojan Monday or Tuesday. The DT will resume publication next Wednesday.
Indicted activist to discuss Central American refugees
By Richard Hatem
Staff Writer
On Jan. 10, 16 people were indicted on charges of smuggling Central American refugees into the United States. Phil Willis-Conqer, one of those indicted, will speak at 3:30 p.m. today at the University Religious Center, room 103.
Conqer, director of the Tucson Ecumenical Council's task force on Central American activity, said that despite the charges brought against him and some of the nuns and priests at the Ecumenical Council, he will continue his efforts to aid Central American refugees.
"I will continue to work with immigrants under the auspices of the Tucson Ecumenical Council and under the guidance of my conscience," he said.
The sanctuary effort provides asylum to people who flee from violence in Central American countries, and Conqer said he was pleased with the avowed support of several California universities.
A recent meeting at the University of California at Riverside — where teachers and students from 14 universities pledged to expand campus involvement in the sheltering of Central American illegal
immigrants — is a "positive sign," he said.
"Students recognize the problems of refugees in need, and they are responding," Conqer said. "Whether it is a religious or humanitarian incentive, it's important that help be given to these peole who would otherwise be sent back to their countries to face torture and death."
Conqer is well aware of the dangers involved in such work. Last year, charges were brought against him and then dropped when a federal judge found lack of probable cause. Law enforcement agents had stopped the car Conqer was allegedly using to smuggle refugees.
"It was an illegal arrest," Conqer said.
At today's gathering, Conqer said, he plans to talk about "ways to educate people" on the "true issues" of the problems in Central America and the immigrants from those nations.
"I plan to update people on the (refugee) situation in Arizona. People's consciences are responding to the needs of the immigrants,", he said.
"There would be no conflict between church and state on this issue if the state would merely obey its own laws regarding these people," Conqer said.