Friday
September 24,1993 Vol. CXXI, No. 18
Weather
A warming trend begins this weekend. Look forward to more sunny skies and highs in the 80s. Today's high should be 78 degrees, while the overnight low is 64 degrees.
Inside
Washington State is next for USC
The Trojans face the Cougars on Saturday night at 7 at the Coliseum in their first Pacific 10 Conference game. Drew Bledsoe may Be gone, but the Cougars can still score points.
Sports, page 5
Peering back into hazy 70s days
Writer / director Richard Linklater has made another film about directionless youths, "Dazed and Confused." It's filled with drugs, but more real than most teen films, he says.
Diversions, page 12
It’s time to draw the lines of race
Although it is important to recognize our cultural and biological differences, it is necessary for us to realize we are all Americans. Either united we stand or divided we fall. It is high time for us to come together and live as proud citizens.
Viewpoint, page 4
F.Y.I.
SNL comedian to play Bovard
Chris Rock, cast member of NBC's"5aturday Night Live,"will be coming to USC next week.
Rock is looking for someone to open for him for his appearance at Bovard Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Monday Sept. 27.
Students interested in performing can contact Jennifer Reed at (213) 740-5620 or can come to Student Union 106 by Friday Sept. 24.
The performance is sponsored by the Performing Arts Committee, a division of the Student Senate.
Admission is free.
Newspaper of the University of Southern California
Watching the wheels
Gang rumors unsubstantiated
Chrta Whiting / Dally Tro|*n
A solitary student watches over bicycles outside of Taper Hall.
By Tracie Tso
City Editor Reacting to facsimiles that the university received yesterday claiming this weekend is "Blood Initiation Weekend,'' USC Department of Public Safety officials maintained that the information is an unsubstantiated rumor.
Deputy Chief Robert Taylor of the Department of Public Safety said a fax sent to the Office of Student Affairs indicated, "It's
Oto be National Initiation end for the Bloods. Everybody should be aware of that this Saturday and Sunday. People are going to be driving in the
Mentor program initiates student-facuity interaction
By Philip Dunn
Staff Writer
Freshmen tired of being just another face in a crowded lecture hall can take advantage of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' new faculty-stu-dent mentor program.
The program begins in what former LAS Dean Gerald Segal called "a time of real examination and possible change in undergraduate education" before leaving on sabbatical this summer.
One change that has taken place in Segal's absence is a new advisement program which pairs students and faculty members.
"It's an effective way to convince students that administration and faculty care
X
about them," said Sherry Banks, director of the LAS advisement office and LAS om-
budsman. She added that, while an optional program has been in place for two years, the new program assigns all freshmen to a faculty mentor.
Diane MacGillivray, director of the academic relations office for LAS, said incoming freshmen were assigned faculty mentors based on intended majors, or randomly for undeclared students. In late July and early August the students were sent letters indicating their mentor assignments. Professors were sent lists of their mentees. Efforts continue to encourage use of the program.
Tnomas Gustafson, LAS advisement chair and associate professor of English, said the plan stemmed from President Steven Sample's initiative to further improve exchange be-
tween professors and students and to increase retention rates at USC.
At the end of the fall 1991 term, 6,494 undergraduates were enrolled in LAS, said Deborah Kac, project assistant in budget and planning. Though the decrease can be explained by many factors, the same measure in 1992 showed undergraduate enrollment at 6,109.
Larry Singer, associate dean for undergraduate studies at LAS and professor of chemistry, said that student-facuity links benefit the professor, the student and academic life.
Singer remarked that some students have taken advantage of the mentor program already, but LAS should actively encourage more students to make contact with (See Mentor, page 3)
daytime with their lights on, and at nighttime with their headlights off, and whenever a driver signals them whether their headlights are on or off, depending on what time of the day it is then that'll be a signal to take some kind of action in the way of getting initiated."
He said yesterday the department has been fielding phone calls from parents, faculty, students and campus organizations and leadership with questions about the information.
Taylor said that the information is unsubstantiated and cannot be verified as indicated on (See Blood, page 3)
Security sweep to deter ticket scalping and harassment
By Scott Arenson
Staff Writer
The USC Department of Public Safety will make a security sweep around the Coliseum for
ingt
effoi
Saturday night's USC vs. Wash-
0	State football game in an Tort to discourage ticket scalpers and transients from harassing spectators on their way to the game.
The DPS wants to make it easy for alumni, faculty, students and staff to get from campus to the Coliseum.
"It's like running the gauntlet to get to the football game," said Lt. David Ritch of the Department of Public Safety.
The DPS officials said they will continue the security sweeps for every USC home football game.
In addition to more police officers, the DPS will have portable lights placed at either end of the Rose Garden so people will not
(See Safety, page 2)
Defense team rests in Denny beating trial
Lawyers confident of acquittal, final arguments slated to begin Tuesday
By Christopher Grove
Staff Writer
After four days of defense testimony from nine witnesses, the defense team for Damian Monroe Williams and Henry Keith Watson rested its case late yesterday morning in the Reginald Denny beating trial.
"I am very confident that there will be no convictions on the two most serious charges," said Edi M.O. Faal, one of the attorneys representing Williams.
Williams, 20, and Watson, 29, could face life in prison if convicted of attempted murder in the videotaped beating of Reginald Denny during last year's riots. Williams is also charged with aggravated mayhem, another life-sentence charge.
Faal said the prosecution has failed to prove that it was Williams in the videotape filmed from a news helicopter on April 29, 1992.
But Robert Pugsley, a professor at the
Southwestern University School of Law, who has been closely following the trial, disagreed.
"I think the prosecution presented a thoroughly convincing case," Pugsley said. "They did a good job on identifying Williams and Watson as the two men who took part in the beating."
Prosecutors, who rested their case last Friday, said they have assembled the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle showing that "these young men are guilty as charged."
Prosecution testimony focused on the issues of identity and intent. Prosecutors called 36 witnesses in 16 days of testimony
—	including three eyewitnesses who identified Williams and Watson as the men who attacked Denny.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence C. Morrison said last week that his co-prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore, will more fully present the prosecution's case showing in-
tent in final arguments which are expected to start early next week.
Pugsley disputed claims by Watson's lawyers that their client will be found innocent by the mixed-race jury.
"Watson will be found guilty on the ag-vated mayhem charge and I'm reasonba-confident he'll be found guilty on the attempted murder charge," Pugsley said.
Yesterday, Faal said the defense had planted enough doubt in the jury's mind to avoid convictions.
"I think he'd like to believe that," said Pugsley, "But I think he's too smart to know that’s true."
The trial entered its rebuttal phase yesterday afternoon and final arguments are ex-perted to start on Tuesday.
Georgiana Williams, Damian Williams' mother, said she doesn't think the situation is so cut and dried for the jury.
(See Denny, page 2)