Redbirds end Trojans’ season in Tulsa — see page 16
dMDy trojan
Volume XCVIIf, Number 44
University of Southern California
Friday, March 15, 1985
40 students now suspect in campus grade scam
Number could still grow, vice provost soys
Star Trek veteran encourages Asians to seek media jobs
By Lisa Lapin
Staff Writer
At one point, the line of autograph seekers in dimly lit Hancock Auditorium was nine people deep around the cordial Oriental man.
Some had brought “Star Trek" books, others brought Daily Trojan advertisements and still others had onlv binder paper for him to sign.
But George Takei — better known as Mr. Sulu of "Star Trek" fame — happily obliged such disparate fans as an ROTC cadet in uniform, a bearded man who admitted he was a fan and not a student, and a female student in preppy garb.
"How about 'Greetings from the U.S.S. Enterprise?' " Takei asked one fan.
Dozens of diehard "Trekkies," as well as interested students, gathered in the lecture hall Thursday to hear Takei speak on Asians in the media, in a speech sponsored by the Asian Pacific Outreach as part of the Asian Pacific Heritage Festival.
Before he could even begin, Takei was mobbed with autograph requests and bv students who just wanted to shake his hand.
"I didn't know it was going to be a 'Star Trek' convention," he said.
Takei, the final speaker in the series,
CRAIG ARAKAKI DAILY TROJAN
GEORGE TAKEI
received a hearty welcome after his introduction. Out of his slick "Star Trek" uniform, and wearing conservative slacks and a sweater, Takei still resembled his television character — only the laugh lines around his eyes are a little bit deeper.
While many were interested in Takei's personal career, he limited his talk to the role of Asians and other minorities in the media today.
(Continued on page 2)
By Jennifer Cray
Assistant City Editor
At least 10 more students are now being investigated in connection with grade tampering, bringing the total to 40, said Sylvia Manning, vice provost.
"Until the investigation is over (the number of students) could still grow," Manning said.
Manning said she had hoped the investigation would be completed within the next month, but now thinks it could take until the end of the semester to finish.
Manning said it appears that there is some concentration of grade changes in lower division classes that are prerequisites to more advanced classes. She also said there are more instances of grade altering in certain majors, but would not say which majors these were.
The grade tampering scam was uncovered last semester, and the Task Force on Academic Integrity was organized in December by the Provost's Office to start an investigation.
Last June, an employee in the Office of Registration and Records was fired in the
midst of a university investigation into the falsification of grades by computer.
The female employee reportedly admitted to university officials that she was paid $1,500 to falsify the grades of five students.
The university also suspects another employee — who had been fired in 1983, a year before the grade tampering was first discovered — of taking bribes to alter about 25 students' transcripts.
The students being investigated for possible grade fixing have been sent letters charging them with unauthorized discrepancies in their transcripts. They will face a conduct review board to determine the extent of their involvement in the incident.
All the information uncovered by the task force is being turned over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, which is conducting its own investigation of grade fixing. Students involved could face criminal charges of maliciously tampering with a computer, punishable by a maximum sentence of three years in a state penitentiary.
Journalist speaks out
Foreign debt and regulation burden Central America
By Lynn Balsamo
Staff Writer
An American misunderstanding of the debt crises in Third World countries is "largely the result of not being able to see the situation from their side/' said Jeff Herman Gutierrez, a Central American journalist, during a lecture Wednesday in Hancock Auditorium.
Gutierrez resides in Villa Colon, Costa Rica where he is a journalist, in addition to being a representative of the United Nations. The problems of his own country are typical of its Central American neighbors, Gutierrez said.
Costa Rica operates under a fixed exchange rate, as does Nicaragua, and Gutierrez called this "the dumbest thing that a country can do."
Over the last 20 years, the combined debt of all Third World countries to the developed world has climbed to $650 billion. Costa Rica's national debt in 1984 was S3.5 billion.
Despite what is being reported in Third World newspapers, Guiter-rez said, national debt payments are not being met; the debts are only increasing.
Fixed exchange rates have caused the economies of Third World countries to collapse, Gutierrez said, adding that they have led to economic disaster by creating imbalances between supply and demand.
He compared exchange rates to a water faucet. When a faucet is open, all the water that's needed is available, and when the exchange rate is open, money will flow into the country, Gutierrez said.
On the other hand, if the faucet is closed, the flow of water will stop, just as the flow of money stops when there is a fixed exchange rate.
People have no desire to invest in Costa Rica, he said, because its government has complete control over how much an investor's currency is worth.
In Costa Rica, all currency' must flow through the central bank. When an exporter sells his product, the buyer must send his payment to the central bank, which then pays the exporter at the fixed exchange rate.
The result, Gutierrez said, is that the government pays the exporter far less than what he would receive if he were paid directly by the buyer.
Because of this, Costa Ricans "have to leam to cheat in order to stay alive . . . they have to go to the black market," Gutierrez said. "It (the fixed exchange rate) institutionalizes corruption."
Gutierrez did not say the use of the black market is necessarily corrupt, but said the practices of the government that force citizens to participate in the black market — such as fixed exchange rates — are corrupt.
When the Costa Rican government takes in a dollar at the fixed rate of exchange, it uses the money to pay government bills.
(Continued on page 6)
$500,000 grant assists growth of Law Center
By Nancie Mack
Staff Writer
A recent $500,000 grant from the John Stauffer Charitable Trust will help pay for the construction of an addition to the university's Law Center.
The 40,000-square-foot addition to the Musick Law Building will allow more space for classrooms, faculty offices and computer facilities for the law library.
To date, $6.5 million has been raised for the $9.5 million project.
Stauffer's most recent contribution — to be paid in yearly installments of $125,000 — brings the amount of the trust's gifts to the university to a total of $1.8 million, said Carl Franklin, a university vice president and officer of the trust.
The trust was established in 1974 as part of the will of John Stauffer, chairman of the Stauffer Chemical Company. About $700,000 a year is donated through the trust to private hospitals, colleges and universities, Franklin said.
Past Stauffer donations have been given to the university's Hydrocarbon Institute, and Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, Franklin said. The most recent gift was given to the Law Center because the addition is "an excellent project," he said.
Although the addition will be connected to the Musick Building, it is "basically a separate building," said Scott Bice, dean of the Law Center.
Additional funding for the annex came from grants and gifts from foundations, estates and alumni, Bice said.
CRAIG ARAKAKI DAILY TROJAN
Bovard Auditorium is reflected in the big windows of the doors to Doheny Library.
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