Volume XCVII, Number 23
University of Southern California
Thursday, October 4, 1984
Aid backlog leaves 10 percent grasping at financial straws
By Melanie Demont
Staff Writer
Five weeks into the school year, 10 percent of all full-time university students are still waiting for the Office of Financial Aid to finish packaging aid entidements, leaving some undergraduates without the money they need to live on.
Michael Halloran, dean of Admission and Financial Aid, and Cecilia'Vielma, acting director of financial aid, said a problem developed this summer when the director of the department and some experienced employees quit.
While the remaining staff began to train new employees, a backlog developed in the processing of applications. At the same time, all employees were struggling to leam a new computer software program designed to facilitate the evaluation process.
That program was introduced in the spring and is expected to ultimately make the whole process a lot simpler.
"Right now it is (actually) delaying things a bit,” Vielma said. "It's difficult for staff to work through all those changes."
Aid packages include scholarships, loans, grants and college work-study funds. Packages are available when the student receives a letter of offer, which
outlines the amount of money he will receive and the types of programs the funds will come from.
Approximately 8,775 students — out of 13,500 undergraduates enrolled this year — receive some form of financial aid, Hal-
‘I'm here on scholarship/ said Laura Tomlin, a graduate student in music. 7 can't pay my rent or buy materials. If I don't get my money, I have to leave (school).'
loran said. Many students would not be able to attend this university without the aid.
The funds help pay for tuition and fees, which are deferred by the university so students can register, he said. But sometimes the financial aid helps with living expenses, which cannot be deferred.
"The only reason I am able to work and begin using my work-study allotment is the depart-
Coliseum recognized as state, national landmark
By Ted Carroll
Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home of the Raiders and Trojan football teams and site of two Olympics, was dedicated a state and national historical landmark Wednesday.
Robert Harris, dean of the School of Architecture — which started the drive to have the Coliseum dedicated — described the stadium as "a cultural as well as an architectural landmark."
Guests at the ceremony included Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley, Sen. William Campbell, president of the Coliseum Commission, as well as athletes from previous Olympic games.
Jean Shiley, who won a gold medal in the high jump during the 1932 Los Angeles Games, also attended the ceremony. The 1932 Olympics were the first Games where women were allowed to compete.
Bradley also jokingly said he was also present at the 1932 Olympics with Shiley, reiterating an anecdote he told during the 1984 Games.
"Tom Bradley also won a high jump competition in 1932 in this Coliseum," he said. "I high-jumped the fence here so I could get in to see the competition, because I didn't have any money."
Bradley said the main reason the Coliseum was recognized is that it is "the only stadium in the world that has served as the principle venue for two Olympic Games.”
"Back then the only way you could get to Los Angeles was by train or boat, but we put on a good show," said Shiley about the 1932 Olympic Games.
This university and the Coliseum have always been close, and the ties are more than just proximity. Before the Coliseum was built in 1923, the university made a pledge to play its football games at the stadium.
Because of that promise, the bonds to fund construction were sold, solving what Harris said had been a problem of "if we are going to throw a party, who is going to come?"
The Coliseum was designed by John and Donald Parkinson, a father and son team that donated its services as a contribution. The Parkinsons felt that the Panathenean stadium in Athens was the dominant symbol of the Olympic Games, and modeled the Coliseum after it.
The Parkinsons have also designed many other prominent buildings in Los Angeles, including City Hall and the art deco Bullocks Wilshire department store.
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ment is paying me out of their own funds, in anticipation of receiving my funds when they are ready." said Joseph Diaz, a senior majoring in interdisciplinary studies.
"I'm here on scholarship,” said Laura Tomlin, a graduate student in music. "I can't pay my rent or buy materials. I don't even know what I'm eligible to recieve. If I don't get my money, I have to leave (school). It's a problem."
Jaimi Nelson, a junior majoring in cinema, said, "It's a strain not knowing whether or not I can continue in school. Only having my tuition covered is assured at this point. I could use the money to live on."
Some students are distressed even more because they applied for aid as early as Jan. 1, the first day of acceptance for aid applications, and are still not packaged. Most freshmen have already been processed because (Continued on page 3.)
LEE-ANNE LEONG DAILY TROJAN
Wednesday on campus brings with it the usual throng of fundamentalist street evangelists. This sign-toting preacher delivers his message in front of the Student Union.
Grant to aid study of aging disease
By James Jones
Staff Writer
The university has been selected by the National Institute on Aging to be one of five institutions in the United States to conduct research on Alzheimer's disease.
The University of California at San Diego, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan were the other designated sites for research centers.
A consortium of researchers from USC, UC Irvine, the California Institute of Technology and the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope will comprise the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Consortium of Southern California, to be based at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center on this campus.
The center will receive $3.2 million over the next five years from the National Institute on Aging.
Caleb Finch, university professor of gerontology and director of the center, said the consortium will be a unique and collaborative effort to try to leam about the little understood and so far incurable disease, to find its causes and ultimately to discover a cure.
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by increasing loss of memory, inability to leam new things and problems with speech.
For the most part, the money will be spent on processing all the patients' records at the various clinics and accumulating and organizing the data.
The center is concentrating its efforts on organizing panels of Alzheimer's patients and, through continuous observation and testing, identifying the different stages of the disease. The information from this project will help in early diagnosis of the disease, Finch said.
"It is extremely difficult to diagnose early/' Finch said.
The disease afflicts about 5 percent of Americans over 65 and nearly 15 percent of those over 80, said Carol Miller, university associate professor of pathology and co-director of the center.
Victims typically die within 15 years and some of those afflicted have been in their 20s.
Although the money is only for five years of study. Miller said it is just a start. She said the program will continue for many years.
Finch also said other important information can be obtained through postmortem examination of the brain and review of the patient's medical records.
The purpose is to identify the boundaries of the normal aging process and those of the disease, he said.
"After 10 years of research we expect scientists will understand the various stages of the disease and will find various sub-types. It's similar to the different types of cancers that have been discovered," Finch said.
Finch said there could be a few legal problems, such as certifying a patient legally dead and getting permission to do an autopsy, but those are to be expected.
He also said there could be some difficulty with interaction and sharing of information between the consortium members, but he hopes to avoid any problems.
Lecturer says Israeli army strains academic freedom
By Aaron Van Curen
Staff Writer
The Israeli army has severely strained academic freedom on the West Bank, declared Albert Aghajarian, a lecturer from Beir Zeit University in the West Bank, in a speech on campus Wednesday.
Aghajarian said the Israelis believe "being Palestinian is subversive."
Because his university is oriented toward the Palestinian community and culture, he said it is the subject of continued harassment by the Israeli military, in its efforts to uproot the "subversive" Palestinian culture.
The most blatant harassments are the frequent closures of universities. All displays of Palestinian culture can be considered subversive, under laws set forth by the Israeli military' governor of the West Bank, and Aghajarian said whenever a universitv'
conducts any type of cultural display, it faces the possibility of closure.
One student complained a semester's education can often take up to a year, because of the closures.
Palestinians and Israelis have argued for years over who should control the West Bank, w-hich is currently Israeli-occupied but inhabited by Palestinians.
Aghajarian also said the Israeli army raids student dormitories late at night, looking for some of the 5,000 books and magazines that are banned from the West Bank which, according to Aghajarian, include famous works such as Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
In these raids, Aghajarian said, the army often arrests students who they have labeled "fanatics."
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