Men go for Pac-10 championship tonight — be there!
(okfiRw trojan
Volume XCVIII, Number 38
University of Southern California
Thursday, March 7, 1985
Trojan marching band disrupts noontime Asian Pacific concert
JUUE M. SEIDEL DAILY TROJAN
Stan Morrison, the university men s basketabll coach and Pac-10 Coach of the Year, addresses a pep rally outside of Heritage Hall Wednesday. The men’s basketball team still must face Oregon and Oregon State to claim the Pac-10 championship.
By Leslie Cole
Staff Writer
A pep rally promoting spirit for the university's basketball team Wednesday sparked feelings of discontent among members of an Asian Pacific band who were forced to stop playing when the Trojan Marching Band — a participant in the basketball rally — marched by.
"They basically interrupted our show," said Marcia Furu-tani, lead singer of the band Visions, which played at noon at Tommy Trojan in conjunction with the Asian Pacific Heritage Festival.
The Trojan band, marching
from Booth Hall to Heritage Hall where the Student Senate-sponsored pep rally took place, stopped at Tommy Trojan "to bring a crowd over for the team," said Art Bartner, band director.
Although the Trojan band had requested to play at Tommy Trojan Wednesday, the Asian Pacific Student Outreach Program had the space reserved for the festival since last semester.
The Trojan band then requested to share the playing time, but the Asian Pacific group denied that request as well, said Barry Nelson, assistant director of Campus Life.
As a result, the Trojan band was then directed to play at Heritage Hall.
Stuart Fujiyama, co-chairman of the Asian Pacific Heritage Festival, said, "I suspect they did it in place of the period they requested, but we denied to promote their basketball rally."
Bartner said, "I admit that it was very bad etiquette. I feel badly if they're upset."
He added he did not mean to offend anyone and, as far as he could see, the band members did not appear to be upset.
While not expressly upset, Furutani said, "We wouldn't like to see it happen again."
Campus elevators: fast, slow — they have their ups and downs
By Lisa Lapin
Staff Writer
Elevators, those little rooms that transport us up and down, are a part of the daily campus experience that few students give much thought to. Unless, of course, they create a personal inconvenience.
This is the first of a hvo-part series on elevators on campus.
At this university, almost 140 elevators are responsible for safely transporting thousands of people daily, at an annual cost of nearly $250,000 dollars.
Some elevators on campus move ever so slowly, but others give riders a feeling of motion sickness. Most of them — more often than not — seem to be broken.
There have been elevator stuffing contests, jammed elevators and broken elevators. Nearly everyone has some gripe. And everyone — it seems
—	has an elevator tale to tell.
The nine floors of Doheny Library are served by two small, stuffy Westinghouse elevators. At least one of which is inoperable most of the time.
"One of them breaks every two weeks," said
Jeda Taylor, a student employee at Doheny. "It only takes half a day to fix, but it's inconvenient when everyone uses the same elevator and no one wants to take the stairs."
"USC has the slowest elevator in the world," said Joachim Engel, a German student who claims he has ridden elevators throughout the world.
Two elevators in the Denny Research Building are so slow that Engel suggests the university should "put some bookshelves with some books (inside) so that people have something to do."
But perhaps the best elevator stories — as told by officials at the Physical Plant — are those concerning vandalism.
The main reason for all of the breakdowns and delays that so many people complain about is, simply, abuse.
Gary Pitassi, associate director in charge of elevator operations, got a call one morning from Fluor Tower. "It was the worst thing I've seen. Someone had dissassembled the entire cab," he recalled. All that remained of the elevator was a platform — and a dangerous 50 foot drop.
(Continued on page 8)
Rebellion defended
Two Contras discuss Nicaraguan crusade
By Charisse Jones
Staff Writer
Two self-proclaimed Indian contras from the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua voiced their reasons for fighting against the Sandinista government during a meeting of the Trojan College Republicans Tuesday night.
The question/answer session, held at the Topping Student Center, lasted nearly two hours as the two members of Misura — an Atlantic coast-based contra group — told their stories of life in Nicaragua.
Speaking through Eloy Martin Suarez, a student translator, Osomo Coleman, a Miskito Indian, and Charly Morales, a Sumo Indian, said they were "very thankful to be here among us tonight."
Coleman, wearing a cardinal and gold USC sweatshirt, began by saying "we're not violent people, nor are we aggressive . . . we are waiting for the government to give us health, education and a good life.
"We expected a special offer from the Sandinistas because they promised us," Coleman continued. However, "everything to the contrary (has) happened."
In 1980, the Sandinistas came to the Indians' land on the Atlantic Coast to organize the Indians into "Sandinista groups based on Leninist and Marxist ideas," he said.
The Indians refused, Coleman said, because they "are against ali exploiting governments," including capitalism.
Coleman went on to say that "the Sandinistas made us prisoners. They took us out of school and took us to jail because we did ribt participate."
In late-1981, Coleman said the Sandinistas burned dowTi 40 indigenous communities and forced the inhabitants to walk 800 miles to concentration camps.
"The elderly and pregnant women were assassinated if they couldn't make it to the concentration camps," Coleman said.
The Sandinista government, he said, does not "allow us to go to church and listen to the word of God .... This motivated us to take a gun."
Coleman also said the Indian people work anywhere from 12 to 14 hours a day, with all their earnings going to the government. And the people in concentration camps are "obliged by the soldiers to fight against us (the Indian contras).”
A total of 17 Atlantic coast communities are "totally alienated right now," according to Coleman, who then proceeded to name all of them. He said "It's been 16 months that the school has been closed down and doctors have not been visiting."
Coleman added that people cannot go into the cities for medical help because, if they do, they risk being arrested by the Sandinistas.
Morales agreed with many of the points raised by Coleman, saying "those promises the Sandinistas made to us are all false."
Morales said his people were also without medicine and clothing and "many times they (the Sandinistas) bury our people alive."
There were, however, contradictions in the contras' explanations for fighting.
For example, Coleman said "We (the Indians) prefer death before exile, or to be under the slavery of a Communist govemment-. . . because the Communists have no respect for human life."
"We don't want another Somoza," Coleman said. "We don't want a Fidel (Castro) in Nicaragua."
However, he later said, "We'll take any help from any government ... If Fidel Castro offers help, we'll take it. If Chernenko offers help, we'll take it. We need medicine, boots and uniforms."
(Continued on page 6)
MIKE NELSON/DAILY TROJAN
Osomo Coleman and Charly Morales, Indian contras, spoke Tuesday on their lives in Nicaragua.