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Volume CV, Number 32	University of Southern California	Monday, October 19, 1987
BUREAUCRACY — Gail Walenga, director of nursing services, said the delay in processing students' money for the health center’s Student Health Plan was “typical.'’
$7,000 Chevron grant to benefit community children and teens
By Yamil Berard
Staff Writer
A $7,000 grant from Chevron's California Community Foundation has been awarded to the university's Community Outreach Project, which provides services to children and teen-agers in Southwest Los Angeles.
The project gives people between the ages of 7 and 16 "a safe and positive place to go after school" where they can develop independence and leadership qualities, said Barbara Gardner, director of urban affairs.
Now in its third year, Community Outreach, a branch of the urban affairs office, consists of three parent1coordinated programs that provide services to children and teen-agers similar to services offered by the YMCA or scouting organizations.
Chevron's grant, in conjunction with support from the university's Rotary Club and other local businesses, is making Community Outreach a model for communities interested in helping young people, Gardner said.
Gardner, who allocates money for the project, said the funds will be used to provide program sites and to .settle administrative and staffing stipends.
The programs, which have more than 30,000 urban kids enrolled, assist students with homework.
teach basic exercise and nutrition, provide drug prevention information and offer swimming, wilderness survival, arts and crafts, cooking and folk dancing classes.
Community Outreach's program differs from others because "it actively gives kids appropriate age responsibilities," and parent volunteers, not local agencies, are principally involved in conducting the workshops, Gardner said.
"For the past two years, we have tried to put this multilateral partnership together. . .getting the parents in charge as much as possible. It's now coming into focus with the help of university students and staffers," she said.
Although local schools act as. main bases to hold the after school sessions, the entire neighborhood cooperates in finding alternate sites in museums and parks, Gardner said.
This neighborhood project will give young people an alternative to using drugs or resorting to violence, she said.
'It's not adequate enough to say these programs keep the kids off the streets," she added. They allow kids to enforce their own rules, tutor each other and "provide positive peer influence."
Due to the budget cuts caused by Proposition 13, Los Angeles is in desperate need of "accessible and affordable" organizations for children and teenagers, Gardner said.
Hundreds uninsured after university delay
By Shawn Pogatchnik
Assistant Citv Editor
Despite paying their insurance premiums during fall registration, hundreds of students who paid for coverage in the Student Health Center's Student Health Plan remain techrucally umnsured because of administrative delays in processing the students' money.
About 425 students who paid for the health insurance directly as part of their fee bill still have not received confirmation from the health plan's insurer. United Insurance Company, because the university has not sent the students' money to United, said David Goldstein, who handles the health plan for Uruted.
"We're hoping soon we will receive the money." said Goldstein, whose company is backing the university's health plan for the first time "We really cannot say these people are insured until we get the money from USC. I don't think anybody (at United) expected it to be like this ... to take this long."
However, the insurance company is honoring claims made by students who	and
paid for the insurance, even though the university has not sent the money. Goldstein said "a few" claims had been filed by students since Sept. 1, when the insurance took effect.
"Everything in insurance is . really handled in good faith." he said. "We have been processing claims . in most cases." However, students currently must "pay out of their own pockets" for medical expenses and be reimbursed by United, an inconvenient arrangement, Goldstein said.
Gail Walenga, the health center's director of nursing services, said the delays were "typical" and necessary because the university had to make certain the students' checks cleared
before university could send funds to United.
Walenga said the health center had received a bill from United, and she was working on processing the orders "as quickly as possible. As soon as I'm off the phone. 1 can get back to it." She said she wasn't sure hem long the process would take "We certainly don't intend to file them in a desk drawer and forget about it." she added The health center received the bill from United in nud-Septem-ber. Goldstein said
Students who purchased the pobcy in late August and earfy September said thev were dts-
(The university) charges enough money where we shouldn’t hazye to deal with this stuff ... all this hassle/
—	Smmdra Bmdummm
gusted with how long it take* for their money to. as one student put it, "go nowhere through the university's bureaucracy .**
"It's just a matter of being frustrated. ** said senior accounting major Sandra Buchanan, who said she paid S48b for a year's coverage Aug. 28 — and has since been waiting for her insurance identification card in the mail.
'Tm nght in the middle of midterms and the last thing I want to do is hunt down impolicy," said Buchanan, who said she wasn't sure if her policy was currently honored by United. "(The university) charges enough money where we shouldn't have to deal with this stuff ... all this hassle."
United had over 1,000 students apply for the insurance the majority of whom paid the premium directly to the insurance company. However, the (Continued on page 2)
This week dedicated to alcohol awareness
By Catherine Habel
Staff Writer
National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week begins today, along with several programs designed to teach students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
"The purpose of the week is to make people take the time to think about the problem of drugs and alcohol," said Cece Freeman, alcohol / drug program coordinator of the Student Health Center.
Buttons, balloons and posters about alcohol and drugs will be given away on campus from today until Thursday.
A program titled "Calling the Shots," which deals with the relationship between alcohol acceptance and advertising, will be held for university faculty and staff at Davidson Conference Center Tuesday at 5 p.m.
A recovering cocaine addict and former USC student will speak about her bout with drugs and alcohol at the lounge of Century Apartments Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
At noon Wednesday, another program emphasizing advertising's impact on drinking is scheduled for faculty and staff in Andrus Gerontology Center, Room 308.
Screening employees for drug use will be the focus of a panel discussion at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Topping Student Center,
(Continued on page 14)
Ninth annual trip
Death Valley Halloween outing will scare up ghostly good time
By Kevin Davis
Staff Writer
The university's Adventure Center has come up with perhaps the ultimate site for a Halloween weekend — Death Valley.
For the ninth straight year, the center is hosting a camping trip that will include visits to a ghost towm, the Funeral Mountains, the Devil's Golf Course and Badwater, all culminating with a Halloween night party.
"It's a very interesting place for a party," said Rick Agnelli, assistant program coordinator at the center and one of the trip's leaders. "The sky will be totally black, and we'll be able to see the stars, something we don't see in Los Angeles.
"Aside from the corny aspect of being in Death Valley on Halloween, the trip is a great way to go through Death Valley and see it as it should be seen —up dose and in person," Agnelli said "Not with mom and dad as you drive by in the Winnebago."
But the timeliness of the tnp is more than fust coincidental
'This happens to be the time of year when it cools off there." said Dave Wyman, coordinator of the Adventure Center "It makes it a lot more comfortable to see."
Wyman said temperatures during the summer are consistently above 100 degrees, whereas temperatures on the trip can be expected to be in the nrud-70s with lows at night perhaps plummeting to the 40-degree mark.
"Last year, we camped in the mountains and got snowed on, believe it or not," Agnelli said "So this vear, we'll go back to camping in the vallev itself**
Cost of the trip is S35 and indudes guided tours, campsite reservations, car-pooling and three meals. Tents and other camping equipment are available at discount rates for students. Wyman said.
One of the center's most popular trips the Hal-
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