New parking crunch for dorm residents — see page 5
dMBy trojan
Volume XCVIII, Number 16
University of Southern California
Friday, February 1, 1985
Parties of Asian clubs halted due to violence
Many choruses of the school fight song will resonate from the Sports Arena tonight as the Trojans meets archrival UCLA on the basketball court. Game preview on page 12, related story on page 8.
By Pablo Lopez
Staff Writer
A number of Asian Pacific student organizations have been told they cannot sponsor parties on campus until the problem of violence at some of these functions is solved.
Nadine Felix-Olmsted, director of the Office of Student Activities, said she has already talked to two organizations that belong to the Asian Pacific American Student Services regarding the moratorium.
Also, two memos have been sent from the Office of Student Activities to three Asian Pacific organizations, denying them party privileges on campus.
The Chinese Student Association was sent a memo last November revoking the group's right to sponsor parties until fall 1985. The action was taken because a CSA party in September — and another in November — ended with fighting among members of the crowd.
Another memo, dated Jan. 18, was sent to the Chinese Business Student Association and the Chinese Student Science Association, placing an "indefinite moratorium" on all dances scheduled by the two groups.
Felix-Olmsted said the moratorium would be lifted once she has met with authorities both on- and off-campus regarding the student organizations.
She added that the university has already contacted the Los Angeles Police Department's Asian Task Force; University Security; J.D Hokoyama, director of Asian Pacific American Student Services; and Dan Avila, scheduling coordinator of Campus Life.
"I want to emphasize that the Office of Student Activities, which represents the university, is acting to help the students," Felix-Olmsted said.
"I believe it's possible to have social events on campus, but we have to protect the students while we investigate the problem," she said.
But, she added, "It's scary."
Felix-Olmsted said there is no date set for the meetings with the student groups. She said she hopes to have the issue resolved by the end of February.
Fist-fights led to the cancellation of a campus dance Jan. 12, which was sponsored by the Chinese Business Student Association and held in Topping Student Center.
The party was scheduled to last until 2 a.m., but was broken up by campus security at 11:15 p.m. because of a fight on the dance floor and marijuana smoking among the crowd, which violated Health and Safety Code 11377.
University Security later found .25-ca-liber and .45-caliber automatic pistols,
wrapped in jackets and thrown under a car parked near 36th and Hoover streets.
"We would say it was related," said Dexter Thomas, senior officer for University Security, regarding the weapons and the disturbances at the dance.
The weapons are being held by the Los Angeles Police Department for further investigation. No one was taken into custody for the incident.
"We couldn't tell who was causing the problems, but it wasn't students from the university," Thomas said.
"The problem is (the student organiza-
tions) are advertising and letting high school students into the parties," he said.
Bob Lin, president of the Chinese Business Student Association, allegedly handed out fliers off-campus, advertising the group's party, Avila said.
The Chinese Student Science Association never had a chance to sponsor its party because of the memo. The group was forced to cancel its Jan. 18 party, scheduled to be held at Topping Student Center, even though fliers were posted and handed out throughout the campus.
(Continued on page 8)
And you thought you had a bad day
RICH LEVINE
____Cheer up, it’s Friday!
Freshman Writing Program gets mixed reviews
By Leslie Ann White
Staff Writer
An evaluation of the university's general education program by three outside sources gave the Freshman Writing Program mixed reviews, but found Math 107x to be "clearly remedial."
The report, commissioned last fall by the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, contended that the Freshman Writing Program, for the most part, is "a well-conceived program."
The evaluators were from the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas at Austin, and Washington University in St. Louis.
"From what we were told, the freshman composition program seems well-conceived and well-run," said Irwin Schulman, dean of Letters, Arts and Sciences. "We did not, of course have an opportunity to observe the program in action."
Schulman also feels, however, that a freshman writing requirement is not enough.
He said many colleges — including his own — have adopted a scheme that requires students in their sophomore, junior and senior years to take a minimum number
of courses that feature a considerable amount of writing.
Schulman added that the university does not "track" its students. That is, any given section may include students with a wide range of writing abilities.
Schulman said he cannot help feeling that tracking is more efficient, and that its drawbacks have been exaggerated.
Schulman recommended in his report that incoming freshman be given a writing placement test.
"We do this, and find the test results useful not only in placing students in the right sort of composition course, but also in advising students on what other courses they should take — or not take," Schulman said.
Schulman also recommended that something be done to ensure that a "real" course — a valuable and memorable course — be incorporated into the general education program.
"One can imagine a student whose freshman year consisted of skills courses in composition, math, and foreign language — and one 'real' course. What a dismal freshman year!" Schulman said.
Among a few of his suggestions for a "real" course was a system of freshman seminars, such as those offered at
Harvard University. He also suggested experimenting with combining freshman composition with general education courses.
Schulman also mentioned in his report that two weeks of training for the the program's 149 teaching assistants is not sufficient.
However, Alan Casson, chairman of the general education committee, said the year-round training program for the TAs is very good.
He said there is a fairly large number of new TAs every year, and, just as with instructors, the TAs' first-year teaching is not as good as their second or third years.
But Casson said the TAs are always being trained.
Austin Gleeson, dean of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas in Austin, noted a grade evaluation problem with FWP, and said it appeared to be more remedial than legitimate college level work.
Linda Salamon, dean of LAS at Washington University in St. Louis, said she found the idea of holistic scoring of the final exam rather disconcerting, and said student complaints give reason for concern about it.
(Continued on page 7)
Cinema student lodges complaint in order to have her script filmed
By Steven Church
Staff Writer
Jan Ferris has gone to war with the School of Cinema in an attempt to make a film.
She began her battle by trying to become one of the five or six directors chosen to be a part of the Cinema 480 class in fall 1983. At that time, Ferris "pitched" her script to a five-man review board, hoping her work would be chosen as one of the films the Cinema School would fund for the class.
When her work was not chosen, she decided to re-submit her script and try again during spring
1984	when the Cinema School would be selecting scripts and directors for the fall 1984 class.
This time, when Ferris was turned down again, she tried to do it another way.
"I found out that someone who worked in the stockroom had gotten permission to use the school's equipment over the summer to make a movie," Ferris said. "So, I said, 'Hey, if he can do this, why can't I?' But when I asked Mel Sloan (a professor at the Cinema School) for permission, he
said that it wasn't possible."
When this happened, Ferris decided to stop her graduation at the end of the fall 1984 semester in an effort to force the Cinema School to let her make her film.
In October, Ferris sent a letter to Russell McGregor, director of the School of Cinema-Television, saying that she wanted him to reconsider her request and allow her to make a film using the school's facilities and equipment.
Ferris never received a reply from McGregor.
At this point in late November, Ferris filed a formal grievance against those involved in the decision-making process of the 480 class: Melvin Sloan, David Johnson, Jon Howe, Ken Miura and Gene Polito.
Although he was not directly involved with the decision, she also included McGregor's name at the top of the list.
In the grievance, Ferris charged the committee of Sloan, Johnson, Miura, Howe and Polito, with per-
(Continued on page 7)