ite
Spikers reach second round
Sports, page 20
Japanese camps unjustified in war
Viewpoint, page 4
ilm students nimate 480
Life / Arts, page 7
trojan
Volume CXVI, Number 64
University of Southern California
Monday, December 9, 1991
L.A.ttitude
V34
Rain strips dirty sheen and exposes L.A. ’s glow
By Paul Malcolm
Staff Writer
When the rain and wind come to slick the streets and clear the sky of the brown haze we have grown used to, and downtown Los Angeles is graced with the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains, this city is trying to tell us something.
Los Angeles shows something of itself on these pure days that we rarely see or pay attention to as we crawl along the congested freeways, fixated on the bumper of the car ahead of us.
The blue sky, the mountains and the palm trees are intrinsically tied to Hollywood and the movie industry, the constant ebb and flow of people and cultures and the shaky ground we all live on.
One of the most unsettling or maybe most charming aspects of Los Angeles is its tendency to make its residents feel like they live'somewhere else.
Whether it's New York, when you're walking through L.A.'s crowded garment district, Korea, when you're driving down Olympic Boulevard or Mexico City, when you're on the East side, Los Angeles is in constant cultural flux.
But like each of us, a city becomes restless, anxious and despondent when it doesn't have a permanent identity, a way to present itself and relate to the world.
Los Angeles is trying to tell us what it wants to be.
It wants to be a great city, an international, cosmopolitan, passionate and compassionate place to live, and it seems as though everyone, including many Angelenos, is dead set against it.
The Rodney King beating, the sheriffs department, the cannibalization of | cultural icons, gang wars, smog, snobbery and traffic are all locked in a tug-of-war for what the pristine city Los Angeles is destined to be.
Throughout the semester, this column was an attempt to counter that,
(See Angelenos, page 3)
WEATHER
TODAY:
Mostly clear, 49/75
TOMORROW:
Mostly clear, 50/74
Sample gets ‘thumbs up’
Track record good, administrators say
By Ray Delgado
Staff Writer
As Steven B. Sample approaches his first 100 days in office following his inauguration as USC's 10th president, he has enjoyed the support of top administrators and key faculty, despite the tight fiscal stringency he has brought to the university.
Administrators say the 50-year-old professor of electrical engineering is well on
News Analysis
his way to fulfilling his goal to lift the university into the ranks of the most prestigious schools in the nation within the next decade.
"I think he has set the focus of the university through his inaugyral address," said John Curry, vice president of Budget and Planning. "Those of us working here
are looking at the inaugural address and seeing how we are going to plan our next decade."
Faced with budget cuts and a recession economy, Sample arrived at the university waving the banner of a five-point plan that would save money for the university, and at the same time, catapult the school into the ranks of universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Princeton.
"Everything I've seen has made me very optimistic that USC will move within the ranks of the top universities in the nation," Sample said in an interview last
(See Sample, page 3)
Holiday jest deemed offensive
Kri* Chun / Dally Trojan
By Glen Justice
City Editor
Several students who spelled out "EAT ME" in Christmas lights outside their balcony in Century Apartments last week have been asked by building management to remove their holiday message, which one Resident Coordinator said violates the university's Principles of Community.
The message — which prompted a response from neighbors who spelled out "YUM" — was a joke, said Dave Thomas, a junior majoring in communications.
Thomas put up the lights with roommates Andrew Apfelberg and Ray Klostermann, both juniors majoring in business, and Adam Wallace, a junior majoring in biology.
"It was kind of a random thing,"
Christmas light message said to violate Principles of Community
Thomas said. "We put them up as a joke, figuring everyone would laugh. No one feels we should take them down. Eighty percent (of the people on the floor) think it's funny and like it. The other 20 percent say 'I can't believe you did this,' but it did not offend them.
"No one came to us and said they don't like it, that it offends them," he said.
The four roommates who replied to the message by spelling "Yum" in their apartment directly across the way said nobody has taken any offense.
"I think (the university's reaction) is a bit ridiculous," said Nisha Shah, a sophomore majoring in psychology. "It's all in fun. In the middle of finals, you need some sort of fun. None of
the students are put out by it. I don't think the students care."
Shah said neither she nor her roommates — sophomore Ceci Carter and freshmen Karen Rolls and Daceia Malone — have been contacted to remove or change their lights.
Thomas said Resident Coordinator Mellissa Lewis received orders from a staff member in the university's Office of Greek and Residential Life that the message on his apartment was in violation of university's Principles of Community.
"We didn't ask them to take the lights down, just change the message," she said. "I know Andrew and Dave and that it was meant in fun. To a lot of college students, it would be funny. But there are people who could (See Lights, page 14)
Fires may be racially motivated
By Arwen Adams
Assistant City Editor
University officials said last week that the rash of arsons on Fluor Tower's Latino Floor may have been racially motivated, but have found little evidence to support the allegations.
Bob Bell, assistant director of the Office of Greek and Residential Life, said his office had little information to show the arsons were racially motivated.
"As far as racism goes, I've only heard a couple of rumors," Bell said. "There hasn't been a lot of supporting evidence."
Joseph Lianoz, the residential adviser for the seventh floor of Fluor Tower, said the fact that all the fires were set on the Latino Floor lends credence to that suspicion.
"Our basis for that idea is that all the fires were on this floor," he said. "It's nothing we can prove definitely, but the fact that this is a Latino floor and all the fires were set here could be an indication of racial motivation."
Lianoz, a junior majoring in history, said three fires were set on the seventh floor of Fluor Tower within a seven-day
(See Arsons, page 14)
Paul Howard / Dally Trojan
Recent fires at Fluor Tower were set on the building's Latino floor.