was regularly invested in infrastructure, Raimundo said.
Student newspaper of the University of Southern California
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MONDAY
II,	2003
Of interest...
The No. 2 USC men’s water polo team starts season with wins, against two top-10 teams /13
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News Digest X	Calendar	2
Opinions 4	Staff ^	4
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Crossword
vol. CXLIV, no. 14 www.daitytroJan.com
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End of clase. Sayantan Mitra, a first year graduate student studying chemistry, emerges from the Loker
Hydrocarbon research institute. More students are applying to graduate school, statistics show. Many point to the
struggling economy and lack of job security as a reason.
Is grad school the best bet?
Some advisers urge students to work before going to graduate school
BY GREG DAMIANO
Staff Writer
T 1 Then students visit Eileen \l\l Kohan to ask about gradu-V V ate school, they typically bring a familiar assumption to her desk: “If the job markets bad. we’ll go to graduate school,” she said.
Kohan, the executive director of Career Planning, is quick to dispel this myth.
"I’m very much supportive of graduate study, but it should be alternated with work experience,” she said.
Comparisons of undergraduate and graduate starting salaries typically reveal a $1,000 or $2,000 difference, Kohan said. These numbers differed more dramatically when
*	graduate study Was pursued later in ones career.
She said students should watch for the “opportunity cost” involved with graduate study — a graduate degree still costs from two to five years of both tuition money and time that could be concentrated elsewhere.
“That’s a lot of debt to incur,” she said. "Unless you’re moving to a career goal, get out (of school) and get a job first’’
Peter Stokes, an undergraduate adviser, has met with students who seek guidance about graduate
school.
“A lot of seniors are coming in who are unsure, many juniors who want to know what they should be doing now,” he said. “1 see even one or two alumni, maybe some who are making career changes.”
Stokes has talked with the various groups and department advisers with hopes of spreading by word of mouth to students about researching graduate schools junior year, he said.
"My sense is that graduate school is more competitive more recently because of the economic climate,” he said.
kohan and Stokes said graduate study should be driven more by passion and personal direction than
I see trade, page 111
Issues relating to budget
‘ / . ' i, *
needs are bulk of Prop. 53 set for Oct 7 ballot
By UWREN BONIFACIO
Staff Writer
Some California voters may be unaware of a proposal to earmark up to several billion dollars of the state’s budget annually for what proponents say are sorely needed highway, park and water system improvements.
Proposition 53, officially added to the Oct. 7 ballot about two weeks ago following U.S. Justice Dept approval, would dedicate a percentage of the states General Fund revenue to infrastructure projects each year. The money would be divided evenly between local and state projects.
Few people may know about the proposition because it is "just not as sexy” as the controversial racial initiative Proposition 54 or the star-studded recall campaign, said Jeff Raimundo, Proposition 53 campaign spokesperson. . * k : If passed by a majority of voters, the measure would dedicate 1 percent of th^ General Fund to infrastructure beginning in the 2006-07 fiscal year. The percentage Would rise gradually each year to a maximum of
3	percent provided the General Fund itself grows by at least 4 percent with inflation from the previous year.
The initiative also contains triggers designed to protect the General Fund from revenue shortfalls.
With the state identifying more than $54 billion in infrastructure needs over the next five years, supporters of the ballot measure say the Legislature has ignored California's prisons, hospitals, water treatment plants and state universities for too. long.	'	"
“The golden state is quickly becoming the ‘olden’ state,” Raimundo said. “Literally, Califorhia is falling apart right now"	& A
The state has done little to main-tain or update an infrastructure system built 30 years ago, when ihore than 15 percent of the General Fund
Vr*MlS ■
Campaigns on both sides
initiative agree it will reduce the flex ibility of the legislature to make fiscal decisions; they disagree on whether taking part of the budget out of legislators hands is a good or bad thing.
Opponents of Proposition 53 said allotting General Fund money to infrastructure would decrease fond ing available for other services.
“This isn't new money, it comes from existing funds — funds that we use to pay for vital services,” said David Kersten, coordinator of the No on 53 campaign. "It will take money out of our real priorities and put it into a pot (to be spent on) things that might not be our real priorities.”
Local education, for example, is guaranteed a minimum amount of funding by Proposition 98 but also traditionally receives some of the General Fund money left over at'the end of the budget process — a practice called “overfunding,” Kersten said. But if the initiative is passed, there might not be any money left over.
And since a provision in Proposition 53 bars the infrastruc ture funds from being speift on the K-12 schools and community colleges already covered by Proposition 98, children lose out, Kersten said.
However, state Assemblyman Keith Richman of Northridge, a Republican who authored the proposition, called the oppositions claims “bogus,” repeating that the measure would be funded by increases in the states revenue, and would not heavily impact education funding.
"(Proposition 53) takes very small increments in the growth of the General Fund to pay for the infrastructure projects,” Richman said.
Voters cannot rely on the Legislature to “make the necessary investments" in future years without approving Proposition 55, Richman added.	,•
But Thomas Griffith, USC professor of law and holder of the John B. Miliken Professorship in Taxation, said he is hesitant to identify any one area of the budget as a permanent spending need.
"While it might be true that we need to spend more on infrastructure, it might (also) be true that in I see Pro*. 53, page 111
Study shows childhood development factors may correlate to disease
By JACQUELINE LEE
Contributing Writer
Children with better nutrition, regulated exercise and a more nurturing educational experience are less likely to develop schizotypal personality disorder, a disorder that marks the stage before schizophrenia, according to a 20-year study led by a USC professor.
The study, conducted by Adrian Raine,. a professor of psychology and neuroscience, was the first ever to research how to prevent the disorder rather than just treat it The results were published in the September issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry.	■"	1
“I’ve had some cases of mental illness in my family," said Sarnoff A. Mednick, director of the social science research institute and a professor in psychology. "Schizophrenia is a major problem in the world. We started this study 20 years ago to determine earlier characteristics of this disorder so that we could pre-
vent it from happening to people."
Mednick and Veter Venables, another professor, started the research Study in 1971 Raine took over the project in 1987 because he was interested in narrowing down the research and testing specific components as causes of the disorder
In the study, a group of 438 children from the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, ranging in ages three to five, were volunteered to participate in the study.
"Mauritius is the ideal location because of its geographical and social advantage,” Raine said. "Very
few people come and leave from Mauritius, which is good for our research purposes. Imagine keeping track of 400 3-year-olds in Los Angeles, and try to see where they are a decade or two later It would be impossible.”
The children were randomly divided into two groups: 83 children were assigned to be in the environmental-enriched group, while 355 children were designated the control group.	:	'
For two years, the enviromnen-tal-enriched group received better nutrition, regulated exercise and a more nurturing educational experi-
ence. The. group was given regular hot meals consisting of fish, mutton or chicken, a green salad, and milk. The control group ate the typical island meal of bread and rice.
The environmental-enriched group exercised for two and a half hours, while the control group did not have exercise as a part of their school life besides regular free play.
The type of education received by the two groups also differed greatly. The tested group had an emphasis on verbal skills, building a stronger memory, concepts of love and basic behavior of society.
I see Study, page 2 I
(JSC wins 11 th in row
The Nu. 4 Trojans overpower Hawaii Warriors behind strength of newfound running
attack /16