■emmm? trojan
Volume XCVIV, Number 5
University of Southern California
Wednesday, June 19, 1985
Substance Awareness Committee wants USC students to think before they drink
By Stacey Schmeidel
Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker — or so the saying goes. But Cece Freeman wants to help students take a closer look at sayings like this that perpetuate the myths surrounding alcohol and drugs.
Last year Freeman chaired USC's Substance Awareness Committee, a group of faculty, administrators and students whose goal, Freeman says, is to help people make educated choices about drinking.
Freeman points out that most liquor ads equate drinking with glamour, power and excitement.
"That's not what alcohol is," she says. "That's not what drugs are."
Freeman says that the Substance Awareness Committee is not trying to prevent people from drinking. "We're trying to promote the idea that people have a choice," she says.
Freeman, a program director in the Office of Residential Life, came to USC three years ago and joined what wras then called the Alcohol Awareness Committee. (The group's name was changed last year, Freeman says, "because we were aware that alcohol w'asn't the onlv harmful substance being used on campus.") She says that involvement with the program has caused her to change her own socializing habits.
"When I have parties now," Freeman says, "I no longer invite people in and automatically offer them a drink. You know, the standard thing is to have a well-stocked liquor cabinet. I don't do that anymore."
Freeman maintains that the problem of substance abuse is no better or worse at USC than it is at any other university.
"People call me on the phone all the time and ask, 'What are drinking habits like these days on college campuses? What are students' drinking habits at USC?' But our problem is just like that of other college campuses," Freeman says.
It is for that reason that USC's Substance Awareness Committee meets regularly with members of similar organizations from other
campuses. Administrators, counselors, deans and students (residential advisors and head residents, Interfraternity Council representatives and student government leaders, for example) meet once a month to share ideas and brainstorm about common problems, Freeman says.
"There's power behind us as a unified group," she adds.
Taking this concept one step further, this Friday USC's Substance Awareness Committee will host a day-long meeting for representatives from almost all the colleges and universities in Southern California. Freeman says that Friday's meeting, like the regular large group meetings, will give the representatives a chance to talk about alcohol and drug issues common to college campuses. The group will also "identify the direction it wants to go," Freeman says.
In addition, USC's Substance Awareness Committee will meet on its own several times this summer. Freeman says, to "identify its direction" and "set up a plan of action before Fall."
But changes have already been made in USC's substance control program. On July 1, Freeman will assume the position of Alcohol and Drug Program Coordinator and begin to set up a treatment program that involves outreach to student groups, on- and off-campus counseling for students with drug or alcohol problems, and working with the athletic departments in their new drug testing programs <See related story in "Trojan Sports," page 4).
Freeman hopes that students with problems will see her new office as a place they can call for help. She also hopes that students will get involved in the existing Substance Awareness Committee and help to expand and improve the program.
"Student involvement," Freeman says, "is crucial. Students know best what's going to work with other students."
For more information on the Substance Awareness Committee, contact Cece Freeman in Parkview 302, 743-7093.
Daily Trojan writer wins Art Buchwald Scholarship
By Tracy Gentry
John Kirby, an essayist and former editorial director of the Daily Trojan, has been named the first recipient of the Art Buchwald Scholarship, a $1,000 annual award that was established last spring.
Kirby, a senior, is a journalism major. His winning piece, a Daily Trojan editorial on U.S. aid to contras, was chosen from among a dozen contenders by a committee of faculty members.
Buchwald, a syndicated columnist and former USC student, wrote for the Daily Trojan during his three year career here. In establishing the scholarship, he said, "1 have a soft spot in my heart for any place that would take me as a student."
When he announced the establishment of the scholarship last spring, Buchwald warned Bryce Nelson, director of the School of Journalism, that the guidelines for choosing the scholarship recipient were somewhat unorthodox.
'The student should be anti-establishment and contemptuous of the scholarship he or she is receiving. He should be willing to bite the hand that feeds him.' — Art Buchwald, on the recipient of his newly established scholarship
"The student should be anti-establishment and contemptuous of the scholarship he or she is receiving," Buchwald wrote in a letter to Nelson. "He or she should be willing to bite the hand that feeds him.
"If the person is on probation for something he or she wrote, that should be considered a plus," Buchwald continued.
"He or she doesn't even have to say thank you," Buchwald added.
Kirby reports that he hasn't thanked his benefactor vet.
"I've been waiting to see if the financial aid office was going to give me the money," Kirby said. "Now that I've got it, I might write him a thank you note or something."
Buchwald hsan't made any attempts to contact Kirby, either. But Kirby said he didn't expect him to, since in his letter to Nelson Buchwald warned, "I'm not responsible for the student getting a job, getting published — or even for talking to him if I don't want to."
Kirby said that perhaps the funniest thing about receiving the first Art Buchwald Scholarship is that even though he thinks he is "pretty much in line with him politically, I don't think Art Buchwald is particularly funny.
"But," Kirby continued, "I can really use this money. It means I won't be eating peanut butter all next year. And I'm glad just to be associated with his name, whether I think he's funny or not."
USC professor wants to make ‘Nagel’ a household word
By Stacey Schmeidel
His portrait of Joan Collins is the actress' favorite painting. He did an album cover for Duran Duran and was planning to do one for Mick Jagger. From 1976 until 1984, his drawings were a regular part of every issue of Playboy.
Most people recognize Patrick Nagel's work, but are unable to name the artist responsible for them. But Steven Meltzer, an assistant professor of design in USC's School of Fine Arts, is on his way to changing that. Meltzer is designing a 160-page book which wall include dozens of Nagel's drawings, a catalogue listing of all of Nagel's work, and a brief biographical text with commentary by Joan Collins and Hugh Hefner.
"Approximately five years ago," Meltzer says, " when Patrick was already established as a well-known illustrator through his work in Playboy, there was discussion of several books on Patrick's work. But then when he died (of a heart attack in February 1984), they had to refigure all that."
Alfred Van der Marck Publishing (publishers of last year's The Red Couch, the company is distributed through Harper & Row) began looking for a de-
signer who knew Nagel's work to come up with the "quintessential Nagel book," Meltzer says.
"They chose me because I had known Patrick both professionally and socially. The fact that I was here in California helped a lot, too, because it meant that I could keep in close contact with those involved with the project," he adds.
Meltzer's work on the project began three months ago with a meeting with both the publishers of the book and the publishers of Nagel's works to review all of Nagel's drawings, paintings, and prints — over
1,000	pieces in all — to decide what was to be included in the book.
"It was a matter of distilling all of his work into works that accurately represent his career and works that were his most popular," Meltzer says.
After that initial meeting, Meltzer says, his job was to "decide the flow of the book — whether it was to be chronological or thematic. ... As it was, I decided to mix it up. So now we've got a bold picture facing a delicate picture, a full figure opposite a head shot."
Meltzer says that his work on the book did not detract from
his teaching at all; he insists that the fact that he was working on the book while carrying out his academic duties enhanced his classroom performance.
"Since I do teach design, it's important for me as a professor to get work like this, bring it into the classroom, and show students that I do deal wath the business, the pressure of being a designer," Meltzer says.
"Depending on the timing of the semester," he adds, "I try to let them see the development of the project. And if something doesn't turn out, I show them that, too."
Meltzer says he was surprised by his students' reactions to the Nagel book.
"I was amazed to find out that a number of them had actually bought prints of his work," Meltzer says. "I was interested by their choices — by which ones they bought and which ones they liked."
On the other hand, Meltzer is not surprised at the appeal of Nagel's work. He is one of the best-selling graphic artists in history, Meltzer says, because his images — mostly women — are the "women of the '80s" — elegant and sophisticated, alluring but cool, stark but sensual, (Continued on page 3)
BENILDA SANDAN SUMMER TROJAN
USC professor Steven Meltzer, designer of a new book about artist Patrick Nagel.