Fast
Forward
Wednesday March 25, 1992 Vol. CXVII, No. 48
Weather
Mostly cloudy Wednesday with a 40 percent chance of rain. Highs in the 70s, lows in the mid-50s. Cloudier and cooler Thursday, increasing chance of rain. Highs in the mid-60s.
Inside
Writers uncover Oscar predictions
The Academy Awards will air Monday, and we've provided our own picks for the ceremony. Also included is a preview of the Black Sudent Union's upcoming talent show.
Diversions, page 7
Men hoopsters season in review
The USC men's basketball team completed one of its most successful seasons ever. The Trojans were ranked No. 8 and came within one game of winning the Pac-10 Conference.
Sports, page 16
Separation carried too far
The constitutional separation of church and state has evolved into an extreme negation of any religious presence on public functions, headed by the liberal factions of society.
Viewpoint, page 4
Headlines
Senate president elections today
The campaign for senate president has been accusatory on the sides of both candidates. Inside, Michelle Inouye and Derrick Pedranti explain why they want to be president.
See story, page 3
Newspaper of the University of Southern California
Weber wins civil suit
Jury awards plaintiff $2.7 million in damages
By Liz Washburn
Assistant City Editor
A jury awarded $2.7 million in compensatory damages to a former resident of Embassy Residential College late Tuesday afternoon in her negligence and fraud suit against the university, court sources said.
The jury found that the university was 60 percent responsible and the plaintiff was 40 percent to blame for the Jan. 10, 1988 rape of the plaintiff.
The plaintiff sued the university for damages for negligence and fraud stemming from her being raped at knifepoint two days after a visitor to Embassy was raped by the same suspect in a nearby parking lot. The suspect was also seen stalking the residential college one day prior to the plaintiff's rape.
The plaintiff contended that the university
failed to warn and protect residents of the building about the incidents prior to her rape.
The plaintiff also filed a fraud charge, saying the university misrepresented Embassy as being a safe building in a safe neighborhood.
More evidence is scheduled to be presented Wednesday to determine the university's worth and the amount of punitive damages, if any, the university should pay to the plaintiff.
Natasha Roit, attorney for the plaintiff, had asked the jury in her closing arguments to award $3 million.
The jury had reached the verdict earlier Tuesday, but after open court questioning of the jurors, it was determined that some were confused about the decisions they had made. The judge ordered the jury to return to deliberations until 4 p.m., at which time the verdict was reached.
Professional schools rate among top 25
By Lisa Braverman
Staff Writer
The university's Schools of Business, Law and Engineering are ranked among the top 25 in the nation, according to the annual analysis of graduate schools published by U.S. News and World Rfporf released March 14.
But reaction throughout the university community was mixed.
"We're better than we rated,” said Cornelius Pings, university provost.
The report, "America's Best Graduate Schools," was based on two surveys of school reputations and statistics on student selectivity, placement success and graduation rate.
(See Ranking, page 2)
Anti-abortion rally features two speakers
Jeff Yakublk / Dally Trojan
Melissa Thomas, a freshman majoring in psychology, took a pro-choice stance in an abortion rally at the Hahn Plaza on Tuesday.
By Julie Yamamoto
Assistant City Editor
Two anti-abortion speakers came to campus Tuesday to offer the "real facts (and) hard truth about abortion" in an effort to sway women from seeking the procedure.
The afternoon event was sponsored by USC Trojans for Life. About 30 spectators listened to the two 10-minute speeches, and six Trojans for Choice held up protest signs.
Lakita Garth, USC alumna and former song girl, spoke on "Sex, Love and Choices." She said abortion, specifically with the participation of Planned Parenthood clinics, has become a worldwide multi-billion dollar industry.
"A lot of people don't know what the purpose and target (of abortion) is," Garth said. "A lot of people have been misled to say that it was to help poor, underprivileged women ... to make it look like it's some philanthropic idea or community service."
Garth referred to Margaret Sanger's influence on the eugenics movement of the 1920s in Brooklyn. Abortion as a method of birth control became social policy for controlling minority populations, she said.
"Her whole theory was 'more children from the fit and less from the unfit,' " Garth said.
The unfit included African Americans, Jews, Puerto Ricans and the urban poor, she said.
Garth concluded by criticizing pro-choice reasoning.
"(They say) 'the government has no right to decide what I do with my body,' " she said. "Everytime you stop at a stoplight, you are letting someone tell you what to do with your body. That's how silly pro-choice hag become.
"I'm pro-choice too," she said. "Because you had the choice to say 'no' to the jerk who got you pregnant. That's when you have your choice. You give up your choice when you lay down."
(See Abortion, page 2)
Group faces discrimination on campus
Asian Pacific American students hit by both blatant racism, unwitting biases
By Kim Wilner
Staff Writer
Last weekend, Alden Villaverde, a Filipino American freshman majoring in prebusiness, noticed that the wall next to his room in College University was covered with graffiti.
When he looked closer at the wall, he saw it had the words "Fuck You Nippers" scribbled on it with a marker or a paint pen.
For Villaverde, his Thai American roommate, Don Smithivas, and the six other Asian Pacific Americans living in his hall, it was just another of the anti-Asian incidents they have dealt with in the past year.
Prejudice on campus
3 in a 4-part series
Villaverde and Smithivas declined to discuss the other incidents, but Villaverde said there have been enough of them to distract him from his school work.
While Villaverde has experienced his own share of racial incidents, he believes the graffiti incident was directed against Smithi-
vas, a freshman majoring in pre-business and minoring in music recording.
"Nippers" is a derogatory term derived from "Nip," an expression that was used against the Japanese. Smithivas is Thai American.
"With Japan-bashing on the rise, it doesn't matter what you are, as long as you are Asian, they will call you any name in the book," Villaverde said. "We are not all the same and I am sick of being clumped together."
Villaverde, who graduated from Pomona Unified High School, which he described as (See Discrimination, page 10)