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viewpoint
Beauty pageants present women in a demeaning light. See page 3.
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sports
Oklahoma prepares for USC by defeating Arizona, 28-10. See page 28.
viewpoint
South Korea provides a safe environment for 24th Olympiad. See page 4.
trojan
Volume CVII, Number 9
University of Southern California
Monday, September 19, 1988
R.V. FIRE
PHOTOS BY KEVIN DAVIS / DAILY TROJAN
A Are broke out In the northeast comer of the University Village parking lot at about 2:15 p.m. last Friday, scorching a Winnebago and two cars parked adjacent to the camper.
Los Angeles Fire Department Capt Gil Mahlmeister said the blaze began when the R.V.’s electric fuel pump shorted, ruptured and burst into flames upon contact with the warm engine. Mahlmeister said it took firefighters about 10 minutes to extinguish the flames.
The camper’s owner, Calvin McDaniel, said he had parked the vehicle in the lot Just minutes before to do his weekly shopping at 32nd Street Market
Gangs’ role in drugs inflated, study finds
By Chris Eftychiou
Staff Writer
The involvement of gangs in, cocaine trafficking in South Central Los Angeles has been overstated by police, according to a study by two university sociology professors.
The study, conducted by Malcolm Klein and Cheryl Maxson, suggests that gang members are no more likely to participate in coke-trafficking than non-gang members.
Of the 741 cocaine-sale arrests examined in the study, only 25 percent were found to involve gang members.
The period of 1983-85, which the study targets as "the initial and major growth period for rock cocaine sales in Los Angeles," was the focus of the report that concluded "the purported gang connection
seems in most respects to have been considerably overstated."
Klein, who co-authored the study, said in a telephone interview that he could not assess the current relationship between crack and gangs because his data is only for the years 1983 through 1985.
But he said the study suggests that police should not attack the coke problem as primarily a gang problem, because it is larger than that.
"Gangs have been in existence for decades and decades. You can't blame the gang problem on the coke," said Klein, who has studied gangs since 1962.
He noted that last year's county-wide gang homicide rate was "just about the same as in 1980," before the crack explosion.
(See Cocaine, page 9)
Dance policy criticized
Minority student leaders clash again with officials
By Ken Press
Staff Writer
Minority students and university officials clashed for the second time last Friday over a new dance policy that would require increased security and identification checks for campus events.
The dance policy, which is re-examined annually, states that a group is required "to check identification at the entrance to an event ... to ensure that those under 18, who are not USC students, will not attend."
Many student leaders said checking identification specifically targets events held by minority organizations.
"The administration policy is hindering minority programs to socially interact on campus," said Mark Forte, chairman of the Black Student Assembly. "It leaves to question whether or not minorities are welcome after hours on campus.
'The administration policy is hindering minority programs.’
— Mark Forte, Black Student Assembly
(See Policy, page 14)
chairman
Hospital costing $110 million to be built at medical school
By Karen Denne
Staff Writer
A private hospital costing an estimated $110 million will be built on the Health Sciences campus by a private multi-hospital corporation.
The 275-bed hospital will be a general medical and surgical facility, said Robert Tranquada, dean of medicine.
The hospital will be built, owned and operated by National Medical Enterprises Inc., the second largest private health care corporation in the country.
Tranquada emphasized that the Health Sciences campus would not disassociate
from County-USC Medical Center.
"This is an addition, not a substitution," he said.
The Health Sciences campus currently has no provision for private patients in general medical and surgical care, he said.
The hospital is slated for completion in November 1990, and will be ready for patients early the following year, Tranquada said.
The hospital is part of the Richard K. Earner Medical Plaza that NME will build, which also includes a USC health care
(See Hospital, page 9)