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Life / Arts, page 7
Volume CXI, Number 33	University of Southern California	Thursday, March 1, 1990
Earthquake rocks Los Angeles
Southern California escapes 5.5 temblor with minor damage
By Michael Utley and Thomas Chan
Staff Writers
shakes in 3-2 win
Sports, page 20
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Hardlp Singh / Daily Troian
A seismograph records yesterday’s 5.5 magnitude earthquake in the seismic labs of the Science Building.
Tremor reaction ranges from fear to indifference
By Bill Swindell
Senior Staff Writer
Reaction among the campus community to Wednesday's 5.5 temblor was varied between fear of "The Big One," and nonchalance because it was not the 6.1 magnitude of the Oct. 1, 1987 Whittier earthquake.
"We were fighting over space (under) the desk," said Pearl Coleman, an information specialist at the Office for
International Students and Scholars.
"I was about to go under a desk when my friend was trying to get under one too," Coleman said.
For one staff member, the tremor was the first one she had experienced.
"At first, I didn't know anything was happening, then the floor (of the third story of the Student Union) began feeling like a roller coaster," said Cheryl Van Swol, an international stu-
dent adviser.
"I wanted to go back home (when the quake struck). I didn't think I would be scared when one would hit, but I was really scared," Van Swol said.
Some students did not feel the earthquake.
"I think I was riding to campus, but I didn't notice it," said Mike Murray, a (See Reaction, page 15)
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake rolled across Southern California at 3:43 p.m. Wednesday, leaving the Los Angeles area virtually undamaged while raising concern about the university's overall earthquake preparedness.
The quake, centered in Upland, was felt in a 100-mile radius from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
"The quake didn't hit hard because it was (centered) far away from campus,” said geological science professor Ta-Liang Teng. "If it was close by, there would have been a lot more shaking.”
Early reports placed the temblor's epicenter on the Sierra Madre fault. But because the Upland area is riddled with faults — from the San Gabriel fault zone to the San Andreas fault — university geologists said it would be difficult to pinpoint.
Joe Jackson, a geophysics graduate student, was on a campus phone talking to a person in Arcadia when the quake hit. The person on the other end told him about the quake a few seconds before Jackson actually felt it.
"This is the first time I've ever known about an earthquake before it actually happened," he said.
Fifteen minor aftershocks were recorded by the university's seismology lab in the first hour following the quake.
It was determined that a 3.5 magnitute quake, which struck at 12:45 p.m., was actually a foreshock along the same fault, the United States Geological Survey reported.
There were no reports of structural damage on the main campus. But two elevators were reported stuck at the Health Sciences facility in East Los Angeles, said William Regensburger, the university's emergency planning coordinator.
ABC "Eyewitness" News originally reported that Harris Hall had collapsed. But that story was
(See Quake, page 15)
In Brief
Soviet legislators pass bill allowing land acquisition
MOSCOW — Legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that allows Soviets to acquire land and bequeath it to their children, a major modification of decades of state control of land.
The law, however, stops short of legalizing full private ownership of property by strictly forbidding the sale of land. Under the new law, plots only can be leased, and the lease prices will be set by the state.
From the Associated Press
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Progress of civil rights discussed
By Dave Hernandez
Staff Writer
The university's Black Student Union held a forum last night to share views on the dvil rights movement's past, present and future.
Speakers at the forum included representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), City of Los Angeles officials and the university.
The forum coincides with the 25th anniversary of many of the dvil rights movement's most important events, such as the Civil Rights Act and the march through Selma, said Kevin Spears of the SCLC.
"We are at a turning point in our struggle/' he said.
"The whole spirit of the movement is moving to the right, after the Reagan and Bush Administrations. It is time to examine what that means to us as African-Americans," Spears told his audience of (See Forum, page 14)
, .I,	nia
Thomas Chan
Student Senate is drive to boost the ranks of students— registered to vote in local, state and national elections.
In contrast to local political parties that staff registration booths on campus, senate's effort is by students, for students.
Since Monday, and for the next two weeks, a Student Senate registration booth can "be found near Tommy Troian, and all students are invited to said Sarita Ordonez, Govem-chairperson for the Student Senate.
Republican and Democratic will pay $1.50 and $2, tne senate tor eacn
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ets disseminated to incoming students, graduate students, honors students and others.
Together, the programs promise to make registration easily available for university students and to increase voter turnout come election time.
“Few students know what their vote is, and getting people to register is the first step," Ordonez said.
More than 100 students have registered at the booth this week, she said. "(Setting up the program) was so easy to do. The people that helped put it hadnoprob| done this in _ to
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