Sports, page 20
Studying versus socializing at ’SC
Viewpoint, page 5
McLachlan talks music
Life / Arts, page 7
on
C_J
trojan
Volume CXVI, Number 30
University of Southern California
Monday, October 14, 1991
L,A,ttitude
Salvadoran group aids compatriots ousted by war
By Paul Malcolm
Staff Writer
As the hot afternoon becomes a hot evening, families lay on shaded blankets and bare-chested men play volleyball at a corner park in the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles.
But across the street, away from the blare of the ice-cream truck circling the park, the staff of El Rescate, an international social and legal service center for Central American refugees, is still hard at work.
Founded in 1981 by Salvadorans in exile in Los Angeles, El Rescate has come to play a multifaceted role in a community of more than 500,000 Central American refugees, most from El Salvador, who have fled their countries to escape political oppression and civil war.
Providing free legal services in immigration cases as well as health care, housing and job placement, El Rescate has helped to foster a strong sense of identity and solidarity for these uprooted people.
"The question of adjustment to this society is a difficult one," said Dr. Guillermo Rodenzo, former executive director of El Rescate.
"A lot of cases we represent deal with people who have suffered persecution, have been tortured or had family members killed,” he said. "Now they also confront a new society and a new country that is not necessarily all that friendly to them."
Rodenzo interrupted his medical studies when he fled El Salvador in the early '80s.
In his office stands a large, dark oil painting of a woman crying over a slain loved one.
He said that the painting serves as a reminder of the suffering he has escaped, but also of the guilt he feels, which played a significant role in El Rescate's founding.
"You get into a guilt trip because you have left a situation of danger where you feel like you have abandoned your compatriots in a bad situation," he said. "So you try to make up for it somehow."
Though El Rescate is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Rodenzo has mixed feelings about the original hope that the need for such a center would only be temporary.
"At the beginning we thought that as soon as the conflicts in El Salvador and Guatemala were over, people would return," he said. "We thought those conflicts would last one year or a couple years. It has been 10 years now."
Over the course of those 10 years, Los Angeles has seen the flow of more than a million Salvadorans alone into (See Rescate, page 6)
Sack dance
Edward Siegel/Dally Trojan
USC junior defensive guard David Webb had a key fourth-quarter sack. USC beat WSU, 34-27. Please see related story on page 20.
Cobb faces harsh words from former colleague
By Robert Moran
Staff Writer
Since Marvin Cobb filed a lawsuit against the university alleging racial discrimination, he and athletic department officials have traded barbs in the media.
Each side has appeared on ESPN, in Sports Illustrated and in several local newspapers. The latest exchange comes from Riverside, Cobb's hometown.
In an extensive profile of the former assistant athletic director published Thursday in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Mike Garrett, an associate athletic director, stated the university's eagerness to meet Cobb in court.
Speaking as if he were talking to Cobb directly, Garrett said in the article, "Let's go to court and solve this. Why do we have to keep playing this out in public? Because it's just name calling."
Garrett continued, "Marvin, shut up and go to court. If you win, we'll pay you the money. But we don't have any fear of paying you any money, Marvin, because you're lying. That's how we feel about it, and that's my position."
The Press-Enterprise article described new details offered by Cobb and his attorney about the lawsuit, which
(See Cobb, page 2)
Hilton towel theft investigated
Possible fraternity connection probed
By Robert Moran
Staff Writer
Two Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledges were arrested Thursday at the University Hilton for attempting to steal hotel towels and linen, police said Sunday.
In what may be a related incident, two students were taken in handcuffs Friday afternoon to the Office of Student Affairs by Los Angeles Police Department officers.
Sgt. John Lewis of University Security said the students, who have not been identified, were picked up Friday at the hotel for stealing towels and linen. There was no police report made Friday. Student Affairs officials did not return phone calls over the weekend.
In the Thursday incident, Mark Foster, 18, and Christopher G. Muller, 20, were arrested by police after Hilton security found the two allegedly trying to steal
towels and linen, police said.
Foster and Muller were booked and released. Hilton officials will pursue prosecution of both students, police said.
Police said one of the students said the towels and linen were for a." '60s party."
A member of SAE confirmed that Foster and Muller were pledges and that the fraternity did have a " '60s party" Saturday.
"We didn't tell them to do anything," the member said.
Greek reforms under scrutiny
Student Affairs still ‘working out kinks’
By Julie Yamamoto
Staff Writer
Since the university released its 14-point Greek reforms package in August, designed to set new standards for fraternity and sorority houses, the policies have been closely scrutinized by both Greek and non-Greek organizations on campus.
The university has been careful in its application of the reforms, meeting with campus groups individually to explain the new policies, and has yet to prosecute offenses directly under the new rules.
"We're in the process of working out the kinks," said James Dennis, vice presi-
News Analysis
dent for Student Affairs and author of the reforms, in a Sept. 10 interview.
The reforms were originally released as rules applying to the Greek system only. But in mid-September, university officials announced that modified versions of the reforms would apply to all student groups.
"It was the intent of Student Affairs originally to apply (the new standards) throughout all (campus groups)," Dennis said in September.
But as the university proceeds cautiously, several student groups have come forth to announce their interpretation of the reforms.
The Student Senate responded by passing a resolution condemning the reforms, especially a policy allowing university officials 24-hour access to Greek houses, as unfair and unenforceable.
Senate members faced an official "chiding" from Dennis a week later for denouncing an act of the administration.
In a letter dated Sept. 18, leaders within the Greek system voiced objections to a reform policy setting a minimum GPA requirement for Greek houses, the 24-hour access policy and a policy that established a mandatory escrow account.
The escrow account has since been dropped by the university as a requirement.
"We want to work with the university to make USC's Greek system the best in (See Reforms, page 2)