dy% bojan
Volume CV, Number 38	University of Southern California	Tuesday. October 27, 1987
Student attacker goes unpunished
Former RA calls peer review badly ‘flawed’
By Kevin Davis
Staff Writer
Principles can be expensive. Just ask Stark Sami.
Four months ago, Sami resigned from his lucrative resident adviser manager position after a resident attacked him and was suspended from housing for only one day.
Sami, however, sees himself as more than a rebel with a cause; he sees himself as the victim of an ailing system of iustice — the university's peer review process.
"The whole thing is just one big fat joke," said Sami, a senior business administration major in his final semester at USC. "The notion (of peer review) is a good one; to have students decide what would be an appropriate way to correct what otherwise is a verv- bad situation. But in practice it is hopelessly flawed."
This is the firsi of a three-part series of articles dealing with the unwerstty's student conduct system, its structure and failures.
PETER ZAKHARY DAILY TROJAN
JOB EXPO ’87 — Sponsored by the National Council on the Aging, the expo was intended to put older workers into jobs.
Dental school fears allayed by dean
By Kevin Ota
Staff Writer
Despite an article in the Los Angeles Times yesterday that questioned the future of the dental education community, the dean of the university's School of Dentistry said the school is strong and has nothing to worry about.
"I'm not worried about this school at all," said William Crawford, dean of the School of Dentistry. "We're a highly thought of dental school, and we always attract very good students."
The Times quoted Crawford as saying, there is a "panic" in the dental education community that has "created a very demoralized environment." He said the quote was slightly out of context.
"The quote in the Times was in the context of 1 don't understand the panic/ " Crawford said. "What I actually meant is that in my travels around the country and being associated with deans of other schools, there seems to be a kind of panic situation that isn't justified.
"I suspect that the danger in dental schools is a question of whether or not the schools are keeping up with the university," he said. "Universities like USC are beginning to become very prominent in research circles, and if a dental school gets out of phase with that research type of university, there could be difficulties."
Crawford said the school's faculty has been looking at the university and its environment for about
(Continued on page 5)
Sami's criticisms aren't just rantmgs and ravings from a disgruntled former employee. Thev are the concerns of a former model employee who was physically attacked by one of his residents one winter night eight months ago while working as an RAM at LaSor-bonne Apartments.
As an RAM, Sami was responsible for the needs of the building itself as well as the needs of students.
"Mark (Sami) had all the characteristics of a good RA," said Michael Wolbach, a graduate student who was Sami's supervisor at the time." (He) was not only very efficient, but very effective.
"He knew his residents quite well ... he was a resource for students," Wolbach said. "He did his job just like he was supposed to."
But doing a good job didn't keep a drunken and angry student from attacking him as Sami unlocked the students door on Feb. 27, "Because he was so drunk he didn't know where his apartment was."
Slammed against a wall
"He had actually been trying to break into somebody else's apartment by ramming on the door," Sami said. "So that person (Francisco Rosario) asked if I could let him into his own apartment. My response was, 'Sure, I'll let him in,' because obviously he was posing
(Continued on page 3)
Computer education conference planned
Faculty Center remodeling is underway
By Yamil Berard
Staff Writer
Over 400 colleges and universities will participate in EDUCOM '87
—	a conference that will include workshops and lectures about Los Angeles' growing high-tech metropolis of innovative computer education programs.
The program, which will take place at various downtown hotels, will center around the theme, "Toward a Global Information Culture: Education, Libraries, and Technology." It will focus on the promotion of the advancement of technology for educational purposes in Los Angeles and abroad.
EDUCOM, which took more than half a year to plan, "expects 2,000 people from Canada and other parts of the world" to participate in "the gathering of educators," said Tom King, EDUCOM project manager and university director of academic user services.
"State of the art software," including sessions discussing computer networking, educational software, computerized libraries funneling information, cost effective strategies and international perspectives are the general topics under discussion during the sessions this week, said Richard Kaplan, vice provost for academic computing.
"The conference proposes to explore a wide spectrum of issues related to the information culture," Kaplan said. "We will consider questions ranging from local concerns of community colleges to strategies for maintaining international competitiveness; from local, national and international networking strategies for our computer centers to the use of the human brain as a model for future directions in computing; from the evolution of the library as the repository of printed information to its emerging role as the new storehouse of information in its purest form."
The first day of the event will feature Peter Clarke, dean of the university's Annenberg School of Communications on "Interactive Videodiscs in Education" at 12:30 p.m. in the Los Angeles Hilton Hotel. Seven leading videodiscs will be shown by their developers and an arena for entertaining questions will follow.
Wednesday's workshop includes an introduction by EDUCOM president Kenneth King to be followed by a speech from President James Zumberge on "Education Technology and the Pacific
Century.	(Continued on page 6)
SHAWNA PANCZNER DMLV TROJAN
FACULTY CENTER IMPROVEMENTS — Phase one of the remodeling of the Edmonson Faculty Center was recantty completed.
By Stacv Stringer
Staff Writer
After five years of planning, the first phase of Edmondson Faculty Center remodeling has been completed
The faoiiltv center, located behind the Alumni House, has provided dining, social and meeting facilities for faculty and administration for over 20 vears The new construction was "undertaken to respond to changing needs resulting from rapid growth of this ma>or urban university," said A. Roy Wenzies, former president of the faculty- center.
A pub, three pnvate meeting rooms and a banquet room have been added to already existing dining areas, constructed around an open-air courtyard.
Complete project costs totaled $1,864,344. including contract fees for R. Meskell and Sons and architect fees for Cigolle and Coleman Funding for the construction came from a Bank of America loan, faculty center reserve funds and gifts and pledges designated for the construction.
Mark Qgotte. architect for the remodeling project and prolessor in the university's architecture school said he was excited (Continued on page 51