Volume CVI, Number 4	University	of	Southern	California	Wednesday,	January	13,	1988
trojan
Embassy students form escort plan
By Kevin Ota
Staff Writer
Although University Security officers say existing security measures at Embassy Residential College are adequate, 11 Embassy men have taken their fellow residents' security into their own hands and formed a voluntary escort service for female residents — without security's approval.
The group of concerned residents, responding to two separate attacks on women near the downtown residential college last weekend, began advertising their informal escort service Monday in the Embassy lobby on a handwritten flier simply titled "Voluntary Escorts."
Sgt. Peter Wittingham, the security supervisor at Embassy, said he was unaware the voluntary escort service had been organized and believed the
Embassy students' action, if well-intentioned,	was
inappropriate.
"Although it may sound like a good gesture on the part of the students, I think that it should be left for the security," he said. "We are doing what we can and, in fact, more."
Wittingham said there will be no physical changes in the operation of his staff, which has two full-time officers and two unarmed community service officers. He plans instead to make a greater effort to inform residents about the services the staff provides.
"It's not that there is a need for much more changes in security," he said. "I think we have to make students more aware of the resources that they have as far as security goes."
Eddie Gonzales, an Embassy resident and one of the escort (Continued on page 17)
BRUCE LE / DAILY TROJAN
Sonny Rosales, a University Security officer who oversees Embassy Residential College’s student parking lot, stands guard at the lot’s east gate, which is more than 100 yards from Embassy’s front entrance. Students now say they will escort- fellow residents to and from the lot at night.
LAPD finds annual crime fell 8 percent in USC community
By Michael Lambert
Staff Writer
Crimes reported in the Southwest Division of the Los Angeles Police Department decreased 8.1 percent in 1987, the LAPD reported in its annual report on city-wide crime.
The declining crime statistics for the Southwest Division — a 10.5-square-mile area that includes the university at its southeast comer — were consistent with the entire Los Angeles area, LAPD officials said.
"The statistics show that overall, part-one offenses were down about 8.1 percent," said Alvema Ray, an administrative assistant at the South Bureau. 'Part-one crimes for the entire city are down 7.2 percent, so the Southwest Division is just consistent with the trend."
Part-one crimes include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, robbery and auto theft.
Although overall crime statistics fell at almost all of the LAPD's 18 divisions, the 1987 report highlighted one crime area that grew increasingly violent in 1987: the number of gang-related murders. Last year, 205 homocides were linked to L.A. gangs, a record figure, said an LAPD spokesman.
Police spokesmen would not comment on how
much of that gang violence was connected with the Southwest Division-USC area, where University Security officers say several gangs are thriving and competing for "control" of the area.
Sgt. John Lewis, who is in charge of records and communications for University Security, refused to comment directly on the Southwest Division statistics, saying his office should have its year-end crime report available by the end of next week.
Commenting on that report, Lewis noted that vehicle crimes on campus fell 30 percent between September and November of 1987 when compared with the same time period in 1986.
Some LAPD officials down-played the significance of the annual report, suggesting that many crimes went unreported in 1987. Ray, the South Bureau assistant, said the city-wide statistics only reflected crimes that were reported, and crime levels may be considerably higher.
"At least reported crimes are down," she said. "We have no way of speculating how many unreported crimes occur."
Margie Reid, an LAPD press relations officer, cited several reasons why reported crime rates in the city of Los Angeles may be on the decline.
"We've gotten an effort from elected officials
(Continued on page 16)
Slam civil rights leader^ honored^
King’s daughter speaks at today’s annual event
By Chris Eftychiou
Staff Writer
The Seventh Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration, scheduled for noon today at Hahn Plaza adjacent to Tommy Trojan, features keynote speaker Bernice King, youngest daughter of the assassinated civil rights leader.
The progra’m, which is sponsored by the USC Black Staff and Faculty Caucus and the Office of Civic and Community Relations, also includes Thomas Kilgore Jr., senior adviser to university President James Zumberge. Kilgore, who said he was a close childhood friend of Dr. King, will introduce Bernice King.
Other speakers include University Chaplain Alvin Rudisill and S. Kelly Looking Horse, a representative of the United American Indian Involvement.
Looking Horse's participation helps develop an overall theme of multiethnicity because King's achievements benefited not only blacks, but other minorities, said Barbara Ann Bramwell, chairwoman of the university's Martin Luther King Committee.
In addition, an ethnically diverse choir, composed of university faculty and students, will perform. The choir will be conducted by the Rev. Eric Law, a university Episcopal chaplain.
Also scheduled to perform is Spice, a group of local musicians.
Mr. and Miss USC, Derenik Najarian and Sheryl Walker, will present Bernice King with a certificate of recognition for her appearance
(Continued on page 16)
Registration problems: A tale of two semesters
By Bryon Okada
Staff Writer
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Time is of the essence. Only time will tell.
All of these phrases could describe the past year in the Office of Admissions, Registration and Financial Aid.
A revamped, but not fully operational Student Information System, the university's computer system, promised a new, more efficient era — but then was unable to handle the work load during last fall's registration week.
The same Student Information System does not yet have a statistics-gathering module, forcing admissions to gather statistics by hand.
The subsequent lack of information created unrest in the university community, prompting Lyn Hutton, senior ’/ice president of administration, to issue a memo-
Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part, in-depth look into the Office of Admissions, Registration and Financial Aid. Today, the Daily Trojan looks at admissions and registration. Thursday, the DT examines the financial aid office.'
randum on Dec. 22 to all deans, directors and vice presidents. The memo reassured everyone that all was not lost in the admissions arena and, in fact, things might be improving.
Then the strangest thing yet happened with the Student Information System during spring 1988 registration.
It worked.
It was the best of times
Lines that were two hours long last semester were one hour long this semester. And though registration still seemed like Disneyland to some students, it was generally considered to be much more effi-
cient than in the past.
"We worked really hard on planning," Hutton said. "There's so much time, energy and money that's been devoted to this registration to make sure we didn't experience any of the same problems of last spring. Last spring, we had difficulties — that was on the old system — and certainly we did not want to relive last fall."
That was a dream that seemed like a nightmare.
It was the worst of times
"There were some hardware things in our operating system during last fall's
registration that didn't work that hurt the response time of our system and made it look like it wasn't working," Hutton said. "Well, the operating systems — not the software, but the nuts and bolts operating system — didn't work at a certain load."
Hutton said about registration week, "If you lose half the day, it's almost impossible to make up."
To compound the problems involved with fall 1987 registration, admissions data was lacking because the new information system did not, as yet, have a statistics-gathering module.
Under the old system a STATNEW report was issued, which let the university community know where it stood each week in such areas as number of applications, number of admissions and number of certifications by each school.
This is no longer the case.
(Continued on page 6)