Student activities director defects to UCLA — see page 3
trojan
Volume XCVIII, Number 21
University of Southern California
Friday, February 8, 1985
ANDREI ZINC A/DAILY TROJAN
This French horn player found an interested audience Thursday by the Bing Theatre.
Professor stabbed to death; murder shocks colleagues
By Owen Cross
Staff Writer
The death of Dr. Robert Peters, chief pathologist at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center and a professor at the USC School of Medicine, was attributed to "multiple stab wounds to the upper body," said Bill Gold, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office.
The coroner's report also ruled the death was a homicide.
Peters was found on the driveway of his home in Pasadena by his wife shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Lt. Robert Montoya of the Pasadena Police Department said the coroner's investigation revealed the time of death was approximately midnight.
Montoya said robbery was definitely a motive, hut he could not disclose what evidence led
him to that conclusion. The investigation into Peters' death has produced "nothing to get excited about," Montoya added.
The investigation has not included the university thus far. Montoya said his department is instead talking to people at Rancho Los Amigos in an attempt to "ascertain (Peters') activities the day of the murder and in the recent past."
Montoya said that because Peters was chief pathologist, he may have been forced to make some unpopular decisions that could have upset some people, but whether or not these decisions led to his homicide is not known.
Peters' activities before his death are also being investigated, Montoya said.
Among the many projects Peters was working on was a near-
ly finished book on the interpretation of liver biopsy.
He had also just received a large grant from the govem-
(Continued on page 11)
Coming March 4:
May be decade's lowest
1985-86 Housing rate increase is proposed
By Charisse Jones
Staff Writer
Housing rates will probably increase for the 1985-86 school year — but it will be the smallest increase since the 1970s — and residence hall food service rates will not increase at all, said William Thompson, director of housing and residence halls.
"We are proposing a 2 to 2 1 / 2 percent increase in the housing rate," Thompson said, adding, "there will be no increase in the dining mandatory contract."
Thompson also said the proposed rate increase still must be approved by the budget advisory committee, but he does not think it will have any trouble passing since the increase is significantly less than last year's 8 percent increase.
Thompson said he hoped students would not be upset either.
Because the increase is averaged throughout all student housing, Thompson said all campus-owned living facilities would increase at the same rate, rather than the rental rate for one particular dormitory or apartment building increasing more than another.
"Last year it was 8 percent, the year before that it was 11, and the year before that it was 12 or 13, so there has been a significant decrease," he said. "It's lower than the inflation rate, and that's important."
Mandatory dining contract rates have gone up 6 percent over the previous year. Eugene Lawless, director of Dining Services, said "the reason we can come up with a 0 (percent rate increase this year), and Bill (Thompson) comes up with a 2 is we're affected by two totally different sets of market factors."
One important factor for dining services was the stabilization of food prices during 1984.
(Continued on page 11)
New medical center aims to lure faculty
By Lisa Lapin
Staff Writer
The $100-million medical complex and hospital approved Wednesday by the Board of Trustees will be a "first-class" facility aimed at attracting and retaining prominent medical faculty, university officials reported at a press conference yesterday.
"We think (the new hospital) is a neccessity to maintain ouj medical school," said Dr. Joseph Van Der Meulen, vice presiden for health affairs.
"We have a major problem in trying to recruit and retain faculty," Van Der Meulen said. "We cannot compete with other medical institutions — even those in our own area — without having facilities available."
University President James Zumberge introduced the facility proposal, which was unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees, as "first-class."
Zumberge noted that the proposal, which is expected to revitalize a waning faculty retention rate, coincides with the Medica School's 100th anniversary.
The new complex, when built, will rival Stanford's medical facilities, Van Der Meulen said.
The approved plan includes a 275-bed teaching hospital; a medical office building; a diagnostic and treatment center; a 75-roorr hotel and a parking structure.
The hospital will be a tertiary facility, which will provide medical research, newly developed treatments, drug therapies and recent clinical advances.
Officials stressed that the complex would not be used to "woo
(Continued on page 10)
By Catherine Baldwin
Staff Writer
Imagine a university dining hall with palm trees in its foyer, booths in subtle shades of gray and peach, and fare consisting of such delicacies as lobster thermidor.
This facility is Cafe Eighty- Four, better known as West Dining Hall, or the Frank L. King Olympic Hall of Champions, which is scheduled to open March 4, said Eugene Lawless, director of Dining Services.
Cafe Eighty-Four was so named partly because the dining hall was used to feed athletes during the 1984 Olympics, Lawless said. The West Dining Hall was supposed to open for the academic year after the Olympics, but was redesigned to offer students a non-cafeteria facility.
Four "restaurants" will be housed in Cafe Eighty-Four, which cost $200,000 to construct. Pri-mero's will offer pizza, La Tortilla will serve Mexican food, Fancy Pattys will specialize in gourmet hamburgers and Chopsticks will serve oriental food.
Soups, salads, beverages and desserts will also be offered. These specialty foods and gourmet hamburgers will be the only foods available at Cafe Eighty-Four's opening.
Rather than waiting and opening all facilities at once, Dining Services decided to open early and stagger the opening of the shops, Lawless said. The other restaurants will open in the following weeks, with all of them open six to seven weeks before the end of the semester.
Dining Services is trying to keep the cafe's prices competitive, or at least in line with those of local restaurants and fast food places. For example, five ounce "gourmet" hamburgers will cost approximately $2 and medium pizzas will be in the $7 to $8 range.
The dining room will hold 350 people, and have booths in its center that can accomodate parties of six. An outdoor patio will have seating for 50 people.
West dining hall to finally open
Lawless said he expects 1,700 to 2,400 customers per day at Cafe Eighty-Four, which will have the capacity to serve 5,000 customers each day.
Cafe Eighty-Four will only serve lunch and early dinner when it first opens, but the facility will later be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. or midnight, Lawless said. The dining hall will also be open on weekends, although services may be limited.
"USC is a residential campus, and we have a need to fill," Lawless said.
Dining Services has also applied for a beer and wine license for the new facility, and hopes to serve a wide selection of spirits during the fall 1985 semester. Also, Lawless said everything will be prepared in the dining hall, including pizza sauce and dough.
"We are interested in wholesomeness," he said. "We will not reduce quality to match competitors' prices."
Primero's will have a pizza call system, since Lawless said the fastest pizza can be made to order in seven minutes. Customers' names will appear on a screen when their pizzas are ready.
Pizza will be delivered starting in September. "Pizza in the raw" will also be offered at that time, providing people with pizzas that are ready to be cooked.
Fancy Pattys will serve hamburgers made to order and a barbequed chicken sandwich that will be "the best around," Lawless said.
La Tortilla will offer tostadas, burritos and taco salad. Lawless said the university's Mexican food is as good as any Mexican food around, and he did not see how Cafe Eighty-Four could improve it.
Oriental food will be prepared in front of customers in three woks in Chopsticks' counter.
Salads will be sold by the ounce and by the plate. Lawless said Dining Services wants to experiment by offering salads like lobster thermidor and desserts like tortes and pastries.
The dining hall will have 14 full-time professional employees and 75 to 120 student employees.
(Continued on page 12)