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Volume CV, Number 39
University of Southern California
Wednesday. October 28. 1987
Process has brought ‘chaos'
Brown blasts initiative process
By Tommy Li
Assistant Copy Editor
AARON BWENBOtM DAILY TROJAN
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN — Camaraderie and protection from the elements.
California SU te Assembly Speaker Willie Brown Jr. criticized the state's initiative process and voiced opposition to a campaign reform initiative in a speech to a political science class Tuesday night.
"The initiative process has brought us so much chaos in this state that I for one would like to abolish the initiative process," Brown said in front of about 90 people at Waite Phillips Hall.
"I know that's an unholy thing to say to a whole lot of people, but direct democracy has proven to be terribly destructive," he said. "There are people out there who believe that the initiative process is preferable to the legislative process.
"It is far preferable to have a representative form of government, where you have deliberations, where you have people with complete knowledge and complete information or at least the opportunity for complete knowledge and complete information, doing an evaluation and casting, what hopefully is an intelligent vote in an environment that allows for intelligent voting."
In support of his criticism toward the initiative process. Brown said such measures as Proposition 13 have caused "chaos" to the state.
Proposition 13 was an initiative passed in 1978 that mainly affected taxation in the state. "Prop. 13 said a certain level of taxation on real property is hereby limited and it's set at an appropriate level."
He explained how someone who buys a house now has to pay more property tax than someone
living next door who had owned a house since 1978.
Brown said that the property tax rate is unequal in that case because the house's value has gone up because of previous sales, increasing its propertv tax rate.
"You know how that happened, because of the stupidity of that damned initiative." Brown said.
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Assembly Speaker
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Speculation on Dow crash continues
By Julia Kirkendall
Staff Writer
After the recent 508-point stock market crash and its subsequent erratic ups and downs, stock market experts can only speculate on what it all really means.
The cause of the market's recent volatility is unknown, but experts "can make some guesses," said Lawrence Harris, assistant professor of finance and business economics.
Opinions of university experts differ about what caused the crash.
Harris conjectured that the crash was caused by a concern among investors about the "long-term debt situation in the United States." The national debt, trade deficit and concerns about the strength of the dollar may have been the "trigger," he said.
Once concern among investors forced stock prices down, a second factor, portfolio insurance, intensified the situation and caused investors to sell stocks "blindly," Harris said.
Portfolio insurance is a strategy whereby investors try to protect the value of their stock portfolios
Central America focus of peace discussions
By Brad Bowlin
Staff Writer
"Alternatives for world peace" will be the theme of the third annual Human Rights Awareness Week which begins Nov. 2.
The 12-day event boasts several prominent speakers who will discuss peace issues related to Central America, said Bob Taylor,
director of the USC Peace Center.
"This campus is going to have a unique opportunity .... These are not your usual people you hear talking about Central America," Taylor said. "They need to be heard and
_ they need to be held along with
what you read in the L.A. Times to get a fair picture of what's going on down there."
"Children of War," a group of mostly college-age people who spent their childhoods in war-torn countries of Central America, will open the week by speaking about their experiences.
David Linder, whose son, Ben, was reportedly killed by Contra rebels in Nicaragua earlier this year, will tell "an alarming story you
and "guarantee a minimum return on their portfolio," he said.
In order to do this, investors sell stocks blindly when prices go down according to certain "mechanical rules," Harris said.
Portfolio insurance "makes the market more unstable," he said, adding that it is a "hedging strategy" designed to react to trouble,, not to cause it.
Because the instability is caused by fear and uncertainty on the part of investors, Harris expects "to see continued volatility."
Another professor, Gary Dymski, assistant professor of economics, interpreted the market crash differently. The crash was caused by "incredible proliferation of new instruments in the market," Dymski said.
"There really wasn't any news that you could point to to explain the crash," he said.
Dymski pinpointed financial futures as a primary "instrument" that influenced the crash. Financial futures allow an investor to buy and sell a piece of paper based on what the Dow Jones will be in the future, he said.
(Continued on page 8)
Peer review process undergoes changes
By Kevin Davis
Staff Writer
The numbers 666 mav be the sign of the devil, but add another 6 and you've got a beast of a different kind — the Office of Student Conduct.
The office, which was former-
This is the second of a three-part series of articles dealing wtth the university's student conduct system. its structure and failures.
ly a part of the Office of Greek and Residential Life, is now its own entity, with its own phone (743-6666), trying to shed its ineffectual image of the past.
Many thought the split would create newfound expediency in the student conduct system Others felt the conduct poticv would have to be revised before the process would improve Now that both have been done, many administrators are confident that the peer review process has finally untangled its bureaucratic red tape.
The revisions to the process, effective July 1, 1987, feature a significant expansion in the number of conduct review panels. In addition, two appeals panels have been added to lighten the load on a svstem that in past years has been plagued bv a backlog of cases.
(Continued on page 51
HUMAN
RIGHTS
WEEK
don't read in the newspapers,” Taylor said.
(Continued on page 6)
DAM
CAUSE FOR ALARM — The fire alarms sounded in Taper Hall of Humanities some teachers to evacuate their classrooms.