Bounce through 79 years of USC basketball — see page 10
STEVE CHURCH/DAILY TROJAN
Free food and live entertainment are part of the "Festival of India’’ exhibit presented in Alumni Park Tuesday and today by the Hare Krsna Yoga Society.
Volume XCVIII, Number 27	University	of	Southern	California	Wednesday,	February	20,	1985
Ng said, but stressed that these rights are not always enforced properly.
The problems that handicapped students face first came to the attention of the senate last summer when Michael-Jon Martinez, chairman of the Environmental and External Affairs Committee, stated his concern for these students.
He assigned Ng, head of the senate's Security and Safety Committee, to work on a resolution requesting increased funding for disabled students and their particular needs.
Isa said campus facilities for the handicapped have changed drastically since the Olympics were held here last summer.
“During the Olympics, temporary facilities were set up, and they were really nice. But as
soon as the Olympics were over, they were taken down.
"It doesn't seem quite right that when the school was being showcased, we had plenty of facilities, but now the students of this school don't get the same consideration,” he said.
Bejoian and Ng said the university has done a good job servicing the handicapped, considering the time and money that is required to bring something from the developmental stages to reality.
But both insist the administration must be constantly reminded there is always more to be done.
A previous resolution, submitted to university President James Zumberge in December 1984, asked for increased funding for handicapped students.
Man practices law without a degree
May have handled 300 cases
By James Jones
Assistant City Editor
A man who has been practicing law for over a year without membership in the State Bar Association or without a law degree he claimed to have from USC may have handled nearly 300 criminal cases.
No criminal charges have been filed yet against John Vescera, 28, said Jan Nolan, Deputy District Attorney for Orange County- However, she added, there are plans to charge Vescera with conspiracy to commit grand theft.
Nolan said a search warrant for Vescera's office and safety deposit box turned up a complete file on his clients and $26,000 cash, which was assumed to be the retainers from his court fees.
Vescera apparently handled cases ranging from narcotics and shoplifting to drunk driving charges.
About 50 Orange County lawyers have volunteered their services to Vescera's former clients for free, according to Municipal Judge Jacquelyn Thomason.
Lawrence Raful, assistant dean for student affairs at the Law Center, said, "It's the first time I've ever heard of anything like that. We get calls all the time from people checking to see if so and so is a graduate from here and they're not.
"It could be an isolated incident but I suspect it is not. It probably happens all the time," Raful said.
"California is one of the few states where you can read for the bar and not have gone to law school. I'm not shocked or surprised it could happen.
"If you had asked me two weeks ago if it were possible that there were people out there practicing law without a degree I'd say 'yes.' "
trojan
Disability Awareness Day
Senate seeks support for disabled students
Professor questions prosecution of those harboring illegal aliens
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By Richard Hatem
Staff Writer
"Being disabled does not mean being unable."
This is the message that will be brought to students Monday, Feb. 25, which has been designated as University Disability Awareness Day , through a resolution passed by Student Senate earlier this month.
The day is planned to make students aware of problems handicapped people encounter on a daily basis that most people do not give a second thought to.
"They (the disabled) need people to be aware of accessibility problems to many buildings on campus," said Lynne Bejoian, director of the Office for Students with Disabilities.
"This campus is about 88 percent accessible, but there are still a lot of problems that the administration must be aware of," she said.
Disability Awareness Day is being planned by Bejoian and the Student Senate.
On Monday at noon in front of Tommy Trojan, students and faculty members will be put in wheelchairs or blind folded, and
will simulate what it would be like to attend classes with the handicaps that other students have.
"The whole message is to rally support behind these students just to help them gain accessibility to their own classrooms," said Pauline Ng, a student senator and co-author of the resolution.
"We want students to be aware of the problems they have, and we also want them to realize and see that being disabled does not mean being unable. The university likes to promote the idea of the Trojan Family, but very often this particular member of the family is forgotten," said Derrick Isa, a student senator and co-author of the resolution.
"These students have to put up with ridiculous problems," Ng added. "They can't even get into the Student Union building unless they go around to the back entrance. It takes about 15 minutes."
Other key areas that pose accessibility problems for the handicapped include the upstairs Commons Restaurant,
Heritage Hall, the School of Education library, the second floor of the Religious Center, Hoffman Hall and Edison Auditorium, as well as many campus bathrooms whose sinks are too high.
"They have rights that every other student would expect,"
cago Religious Task Force on Central America.
Phillip Willis-Conqer, one of the 16 people indicted in Arizona, told the newsletter that Congress, in the Refugee Act of 1980, adopted the "convention and protocol of the United Nations concerning refugees."
This means the United States is legally obligated to give refugee status to people who cannot return to their countries because of possible persecution for their race, sex, religion or other reasons except economic status.
According to Willis-Conqer, the U.N. high commissioner said Central American people "qualify" as refugees.
Wolpin said if the minister, two priests, three nuns and 10 other citizens in Tucson, Ariz. are convicted, they will face a $2,000 fine and / or a five-year prison term for each person they have offered sanctuary.
The church in Arizona is not the only place offering sanctuary to refugees, Wolpin said. There are over 150 churches and organizations doing the same, including the United University Church at USC.
Even though it is located on the university, the church is an independent standing body, Wolpin quickly added.
"I think the university should get into discussion and see what is possible for the university to do-. . . Make students, faculty, and staff aware of what is going on, " he said.
Wolpin said the university has taken "a political, ethical position" before, as he recalled the "days of concern" in 1970 when the university, like many others, closed down temporarily to protest the Vietnam War.
The university made another step in that direction this year on Feb. 9, when representatives attended a meeting on sanctuaries with delegates from 13 other colleges at the University of California- Riverside.
An article in the Los Angeles Times said the "convention" was held "to expand campus involvement," and it was attended by students and faculty from the UC campuses, as well as various state and private universities.
(Continued on page 6)
By Charisse Jones
Staff Writer
Last month, 16 people were indicted in Arizona for harboring illegal aliens from Central America. But according to an act passed by Congress in 1980, the United States is obligated to grant "refugee status" to people risking persecution upon return to their countries.
"So, who is acting illegally?" asked Milt Wolpin, associate professor of psychology, during a Roundtable Conversation on Wednesday at the Faculty Center.
"Is it the people offering sanctuary, who are about to be prosecuted by the United States government? Or is it the United States govemment-. . . who is not in compliance with its own laws?" Wolpin said.
Wolpin questioned the government's actions by quoting Basta, a newsletter published by the Chi-
STEVE CHURCH DAILY TROJAN
MILT WOLPIN