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viewpoint		feature
Predictions of who will win		The impact of political ties:
the battle to gain control of		A variety of views.
the U.S. Senate. See page 5.		See page 9.
sports
USC football’s offensive linemen are unknown heroes. See page 24.
Volume CVII, Number 44
University of Southern California
Tuesday, November 8, 1988
Armed abductor rapes, robs student
Second incident in eight days causes fear among students
By Brad Bowlin
Assistant City Editor
REED SICHERMAN / DAILY TROJAN
Regal Trojan apartments, at 870 W. Adams Blvd., on Saturday became the site of the second abduction and sexual assault at the university in eight days. A woman reported she was forced into her car at gunpoint, driven to a remote location, robbed and raped.
The second sexual assault at the university in eight days occurred Saturday afternoon when a female student was kidnapped from the parking garage beneath Regal Trojan Apartments and raped, University Security reported Monday.
Like the assault that happened exactly one week before on Saturday, Oct. 29, a man approached the victim with a gun as she was leaving her car, said Sgt. John Lewis of University Security. He forced the woman into the back of the car and drove to a deserted area, Lewis said.
The first attack occurred at Hillview Apartments, just around the comer from Regal Trojan.
In the latest incident, the woman was raped and robbed
before being released, Lewis said. Her attacker took her car, and it was still missing on Monday.
The victim in the earlier attack was sexually assaulted and robbed before the suspect drove back to the USC area and fled on foot.
"I think it's safe to say it's the same guy, based on the . . . mode of operation," Lewis said.
Both victims gave similar descriptions of their attacker, and a composite drawing was made based on the first incident, Lewis said.
The drawing, however, is still too vague to prompt officials to release it, he said.
The description — a black male, 20 to 25 years old, 150 pounds, 5-foot-7-inches or 5-foot-8-inches — "could be almost anybody," Lewis said.
He said officers will interview (See Rape, page 8)
Counting up the votes
Electoral college: Efficient standard or outdated idea?
By Carole Cleveland
Staff Writer
Voters casting their presidential ballots today should keep in mind that their vote is not the final vote.
Americans have never voted directly for a president. Instead, they vote for electors who will make up the electoral college — many of whom are not listed on the ballot.
The number of electors per state is determined by the total of its Congressional delegation. For example, California has two senators and 45 representatives. Delaware, on the other hand, has two senators and only one representative.
Therefore, California has many more electoral votes (47) than Delaware (3). Proportionally speaking, though, the votes of citizens in smaller states carry more weight than those in larger ones.
"If you look at all 270 necessary votes for election, small states have an advantage under the electoral college system because there are less people, but proportionally more electoral votes," said Herbert Alexander, professor of political science at the university.
Another kind of inequality seems to plague the electoral college system. In 49 states and the District of Columbia, the candidate with the most votes takes all of the states' electoral votes, whether he won by a wide margin or by one vote.
"The electoral college is outdated and we're probably in a period where a popu-(See Electors, page 3)
WHERE TO VOTE
- ■■/
TERRI NISHIMOTO
The flags indicate the location of polling places in the university neighborhood. Voting facilities are open today from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
University’s system infected by nation's worst computer virus
By Alan Hoffman
For the Daily Trojan
University computers came to a halt last Thursday when they were infected by a nationwide computer "virus," being called the "largest assault on the nation's computer systems ever."
The virus, a small program that replicates itself thousands of times and slows infected computers, originated at Cornell University.
Robert T. Morris Jr., 23, a computer science graduate student and the son of a government computer security expert, allegedly wrote the program as an experiment, but allowed it to grow out of control.
The bug came to USC at 10:50 p.m. Wednesday over the ARPAnet, a nationwide network of university, government and military computers.
"I noticed the increasing slowness. At first, I thought it was just one system, because there is a class in which they use 'finger/ " said Mike Walker, university computing services computer operator.
"Finger" is a program that searches for information about users and is a part of the UNIX operat-
(See Virus, page 8)
Endowment will fund football positions
Donations to help athletics ‘stand on its own two feet’
By Karen Denne
Staff Writer
The Trojan football team is the first in the nation to have its starting positions endowed — a fund-raising effort that could catapult the athletics department into the next century, said a development official.
Endowments of $250,000 for the starting lineup will support scholarships for those positions "virtually forever," said Don Winston, associate director of development for athletics.
"There are 22 starting positions and we've endowed a punter and a placekick-er and also a special team player who will
represent all our reserves," Winston said. 'Twenty-three of the 25 are spoken for.
"That money is invested by the university, and a portion of that income goes to pay the scholarship for that athlete," he said.
Because the income earned from the endowment interest is deposited into the endowment fund, the university doesn't
(See Endowments, page 7)