Thursday October 28,1993 Vol. CXXI, No. 42
Weather
Today will be another blissfully warm day in the life of Southern Cal, with morning clouds giving way to clear, sunny skies. Expect a high in the 90s and a low in the 60s.
Inside
A sneak peek at the ‘Scary Farm’
This year's Knott's Scary Farm treated one editor to a behind-the-scenes look at the biggest haunt in town where she found being scary requires more than a wicked disguise.
Diversion*, page 8
McGinest a force on USC’s defense
Defensive end Willie McGinest could have been drafted by the NFL in the first round last year. He chose to stay at USC, though Pac-10 opponents are wishing he left.
Sports, page 16
Mortuaries dig for profits, not graves
A monopoly has been created in the death industry, allowing mortuaries to not only charge exorbitant prices for burial or cremation, but also charge for services never performed.
Viewpoint, page 4
F.Y.I.
Hands Across SC slated for Nov. 6
The Interfratemity Council will be holding the first annual ''Hands Across 'SC."
Students, school children and Trojan friends and families will create a human chain stretching through campus.
The event will take place before the USC vs. Stanford football game.
Students may participate in this event for $1. Tne charge allows students to enter a raffle for a plane ticket to any destination in the continental U.S. and to drink discounts at Julie's and 29th Street Cafe.
All proceeds will be going to "Youths at Risk."
Wristbands to participate can be purchased in front of Tommy Trojan a week before the game, scheduled for Nov. 6.
Newspaper
the University
Southern California
MAi.
Rampant fires turn L.A. area into inferno
By Liz Washburn
Managing Editor
While soot floated through the air at the university, falling on bikes and cars and irritating eyes, some students, faculty and staff spent the day in homes located near one of the 17 fires that have ravaged California.
"We watched people's houses bum down right down the block. Think what they've lost — 1 don't know what I'd take," said Susan Moore, a staff member who stayed at her family's Altadena home Wednesday.
In Altadena, where fires raced through Eaton Canyon near the San Gabriel mountain foothills, approximately 50 homes had been damaged or destroyed as of 6 p.m. Wednesday and about 30 minor injuries reported to firefighters and two police officers had been reported, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Mark Savage.
The 5,000-acre fire was still out of control, and fire engines were standing by to protect the residential area.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arrested Andres Huang, 35, a transient, in connection with the Altadena fire, according to Associated
(See Fires, page 2)
Sample launches series on community relations
By Michelle Ladd
Assistant City Editor
University President Steven Sample introduced a lecture yesterday, one in a series on rethinking Los Angeles, telling over 200 audience members that USC is committed to the community.
"USC is deeply and intimately connected with Los Angeles and our surrounding neighborhoods, and has been for over 113 years," Sample said.
The series, Sample said, "is a part of our on-going commitment at USC to the city of which we are inextricably a part."
Yesterday's panel, moderated by interim vice-provost for minority affairs Barbara Solomon, included Michael Dear, professor of geography; Jackie Dupont-Walker, a community-based developer; Kevin Starr, professor of urban and regional planning; and Abby Liebman, an attorney at the California Women's Law Center.
Solomon said, "When I am away from here and someone says, 'I love Los Angeles' or 'I hate Los Angeles,' I
have to find out what is your Los Angeles.'
Dear has recently completed a book lign Neglect: Hot an American City.
entitled Malign Neglect: Homelessness in
So
e said L.A.'s population is expected to be 40 million by the year 2000, and that it is the sixth largest dty in the world.
But ". . .people have trouble taking Los Angeles seriously," he said.
Dear mocked a Time magazine cover story last spring which was entitled "Is the dty of the angels going to hell?"
Dear faulted L.A. for its lack of a sodal welfare system, noting that programs like health care and public education have been abandoned.
The next speaker was Dupont-Walk-er, who has been president of the Affordable Housing Committee in Los Angeles, works for Ward Economic Development Corporation and currently serves with Rebuild L.A.
(See Community, page 2)
By Philip Dunn And Trade Tso
Staff Writers
Second, third and fourth graders from 32nd Street Elementary school were all smiles yesterday as Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Chi fraternities helped students celebrate Halloween, treating them to a carnival and pumpkin carving, in an effort to reach out to tne local community.
Approximately 160 children romped around the ATO house, enjoying a morning of sponge throwing, water fights, face
painting, frisbee, musical chairs and even a magic booth.
Delta Delta Delta sorority helped manage the fun and frolic this year, sending 20 members to the event to assist the 25 ATO members who ran the show. "Even though the kids beat up on us, we still had a great time -I know that overall it was a blast," said Heather Reed, Delta Delta Delta philanthropy chairwoman and a senior majoring in public relations.
John Song, ATO philanthropy chairman, said the highlight of the morning was when cos-
tumed members came to escort the children, in groups of 80, to the house.
Members dressed as Ninja Turtles, devils, army soldiers and even as Robin ,Hood, who played with the students.
"The teachers and the students look forward to this every year," said Song, a senior majoring in business.
ATO funded and sponsored the event, in its eighteenth year.
Members of Delta Delta Delta helped set up and decorate the
(See Halloween, page 6)
Officials warn students to be responsible in San Francisco
By Allison Vana
Staff Writer
With Weekender festivities in the back of Trojan minds, coupled with students' thoughts of cutting loose, students need to be reminded to take responsibility for their conduct, stress university offidals.
"Above and beyond all else we want students to have a ood time on the weekender, ut they still have to remember that they are representing the university, themselves and their families," Don Ludwig, director of intramurals and recreation, said.
Ludwig said about five or six years ago the school received several reports about student misconduct from the San Fran-dsco Police Department.
"Most of the reports of problems occurred on one comer in San Frandsco where three or four bars form a triangle," he said. "Students congregate at these bars and sometimes spill out onto the streets when they can't get in. There used to be a lot of fights, disrespect for other police officers, disorderly conduct in general outside the bars."
He also said over the past three or four years, to the best of his knowledge, there have been no reports of disorderly conduct among USC students in San Frandsco.
"I haven't received any referrals concerning problems at the weekender in the two years that I've worked here. Basically, I can predict that the major prob-
(See Weekender, page 2)
ftogkw Tao / Datty Trojan
Sigma Chi member Christian Fantlcola carves pumpkin for three eager fourth-graders at the 32nd Street Elementary School.
Two USC fraternities provide children with Halloween treat