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Volume XCVII, Number 67	University of Southern California	Tuesday, December 11, 1984
University security officer takes calls at his headquarters in Parking Structure A. Over the last 10 years the program has been extensively revamped and now offers job opportunities to both minorities and women.
University security has hired more minorities over the past ten years
By Carmen Ramos Chandler
Investigations Editor
This is the final article in a three-part series looking at the security department, where it was 10 years ago, what was done to change it and where it is now.
Ten years ago, the hiring and firing done at University Security depended on if the captain or chief liked you. Minorities had virtually no chance of being hired, and women wouldn't even be considered for an officer's position.
As a result, there were only three minorities and no women on the 34-member university security force.
Today, things are different. Minorities now make up nearly 50 percent of the department. Out of 51 gun-carrving officers there are 21 blacks, four Hispanics and three women.
The selection of security officers is now based on the qualifications of the applicants.
Several additional changes have been made in the security department in the past 10 years, including required training for the officers and having official security policy written down.
Most of the changes were prompted by a series of demands the security officers made in 1977.
Although most of the changes that were asked for have been implemented, some demands still remain — and new problems have developed.
Only six officers who were working for security in 1977 are working for the department now. One of them is Art Blair, now a lieutenant.
"(Of) the officers that are here now, very few of them really know about what was going on back then (in 1977)," Blair said.
"In any labor / management situation, the highest level that you achieved at the end of your bargaining becomes the lowest level the next time you bargain," Blair said.
"So, all the things we fought for and that we now have, well that's expected ... So they don't see that we've already gained a lot of things. They just see that that's natural, that's to be expected. (They're asking) 'Where do we go from here? What's next?' "
Some of the new problems are some of the old ones. For instance, the officers want a formal disciplinary board for security ____________________________________________(Continued on page 5)
Student dies from gunshot
Police suspect suicide in ROTC woman’s death
By Karen Castro
Assistant City Editor
A university student died from a gunshot wound Friday, in an alleged suicide at her father's home in San Pedro.
Donna Bacon, a junior transfer student and Navy ROTC midshipman, was found in a locked room with a gunshot wound in her head from a shotgun, police said.
"We had no idea something like this would happen. We're all shocked,” said Col. C.J. Horn, commanding officer for the university Navy ROTC unit.
Logan Hazen, director of Residential Life, called Bacon's death a "sad, tragic situation" that "comes as a shock."
Horn said the unit would ask Bacon's parents if they could participate in her funeral. He said they "would appear in some way for a military style burial."
Having fellow uniformed midshipmen act as pallbearers, presenting an American flag and bugle playing might be part of the ceremony, Horn said.
Officer Kim Wierman of the homicide department of the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division said Bacon died sometime between 2:30 and 5 p.m. Friday.
"It's listed as a suicide, but any findings by the coroner's office may change that," Wierman said.
Horn said, "Her mother is calling it an accident . . . saying she wasn't the type of girl who would do that sort of thing."
Horn described Bacon, one of seven women in the 200-member ROTC unit, as a "fine person" in "good standing" with the unit.
He said she was "somewhat quiet but did not look depressed or like she had significant problems."
But Hazen said Bacon "apparently had a lot of pressures."
Bacon transferred from Spellman College, in Georgia, where she was a midshipman with the
Navy ROTC program there, to the university this semester.
She transferred her scholarship to be nearer home, Horn said.
Horn said "relatively few women are accepted" to the ROTC program and those that are accepted are obviously skilled .
Dexter Thomas, senior officer of campus security, said security “didn't take a report" of the incident, since it happened "way out of our area."
"We don't have any information other than it happened," Thomas said.
The Office of Residential Life learned of her death when it "received a request to assist LAPD to locate roommates,'' Hazen said.
Hazen said in the event of a student's death the office's "primary concern is to notify parents then to work with students" who may have known the victim.
The School of International Relations, where Bacon majored, had "no comment" about her or her death.
Lakers — Bullets game will assist scholarship for non-athlete blacks
By Azniv Ketenchian
Staff Writer
When the Los Angeles Lakers play the Washington Bullets on Dec. 16, the basketball game will not only entertain fans, but also raise funds for a scholarship for non-athlete blacks entering the university.
Black Student Services, an organization within the university division of student affairs, approached the Lakers and owner Jerry Buss to donate tickets to the department so a scholarship fund could be established.
Pamela Porter, director of Black Student Services, said Buss' athletic organization was "enthusiastic" and supportive about funding the program.
"They were very sensitive and understanding to the prior history of blacks doing so well in the arena, and many people having such negative images of black artists getting lucrative contracts in sports," she said.
Porter said people often stereotype blacks, saying they succeed in sports, yet do poorly in academics.
The "Athletes for Scholarship" fund will be named after Rod Williams, a recent graduate of this school, who, aside from being a football player, maintained a very high grade point average.
Every year the scholarship will be named after an outstanding black athlete who, like Williams, is outstanding in academics as well, Porter said.
Whether the scholarship will be a full or partial one is still to be announced, depending on how successful the ticket sales are, she added. A total of 750 tickets were donated, and according to the BSS, the sales so far have been very good.
Money for the scholarship will be made up of proceeds
from ticket sales, matched by the university.
After the 7:30 p.m. game at the Forum, some of the players from the Lakers and Bullets teams are expected to attend a post-game reception at the Forum Club.
The benefit tickets will sell for $25, including the reception; $10 for higher level seats and not including the reception; and $5 student-rate tickets with no reception. The tickets can be pur-
chased at the BSS Office.
The fund will not only supply a scholarship for entering students, but will also be used for the funding of academic programs for all black students.
The department intends to establish similar fund-raising events annually, linking professional sports to college academics as a source for the development and continued operation of the scholarship.
Medical dean resigns post, accepts executive position
By Dana Glad
Staff Writer
Dr. Allen Mathies, dean of the university Medical School for nearly 10 years, has resigned his post and will join Huntington Hospital as president and chief executive officer in July, 1985.
Mathies cited "appropriate timing" and his long association with the hospital as his reasons for the decision.
His new duties at the hospital, where he has served as a board member for six years, will include development and "looking to the future," he said.
Robert Biller, executive vice provost, said he felt the new position "offered a challenge" to Mathies, who will be joining "one of the strongest hospitals in Southern California." He added that Mathies is also a resident of the Pasadena area.
Although some faculty members had speculated that the dean's resignation was related to the proposed building of a new university hospital, Mathies said his decision was "not at all influenced" by the proposal.
In fact, Mathies is reported to have said in a regular weekly meeting that he will not oppose the hospital even after he has begun working in his new, and possibly competitive, capacity.
Mathies, a cum laude graduate of the Vermont College of Medicine, served his internship and had begun his residency at the County-USC Medical Center when he joined the university as a researcher in 1962 and an associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical School in 1964.
In 1971, Mathies, who is a specialist in infectious diseases and parasitology, became a full professor. After spending four years as associate dean and one year as interim dean, Mathies became dean in the spring of 1975.