Tuesday February 1,1994 Vol. CXXII, No. 14
Weather
The sun will emerge today, but the air will remain icy cool, only slightly warmer than yesterday. Today's high will be in the low 60s, and the low will be in the 40s after sunset.
Freshman playing like All-American
Tina Thompson, USC's 6-foot-3 freshman center, is one of the top first-year
E layers in the nation. She ails from the same high school as one of USC’s other pretty good players. Sports, page 20
Scripter Awards honor ‘Schindler’s’
In a Saturday evening ceremony at Doheny, author Thomas Keneally and screenwriter Steven Zaillian were formally praised for their written contributions to "Schindler's List." Diversions, page 7
Barbie doll for a Magnum?
Gun exchange programs are attracting plenty of attention nationwide, but are they really working? What happened to protecting the lawful and punishing the law-breaker?
Viewpoint, page 4
F.Y.I.
Pro-life rally at Tommy Trojan
In recognition of Black History Month, USC Students for Life is sponsoring a pro-life rally today, from 12 to 1 p.m. at Tommy Trojan.
The program is titled "The Systematic Genocide of the African-American Race."
Lakita Garth, a 1990 graduate of USC and a national speaker for the pro-life cause, will be the first speaker. Laveme Tolbert, currently the president of Black Californians for Life, will also be speaking.
Blaze damages off-campus home
Undergraduate vice provost appointed
By Nicole Simonsen
Staff Writer
Richard Ide, interim dean of Humanities of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, was appointed the new vice provost of undergraduate studies by university Provost Lloyd Armstrong Jr. last week.
Ide expressed surprise at being chosen, as he had just completed his first semester as interim dean. He will switch positions at the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1.
"I was a little overwhelmed because the job as it has been defined is expansive," Ide said. "I will have to shape the job according to priorities and pick areas of interest to get going on right away."
As vice provost for undergraduate studies, Ide will be responsible for the coordina-
tion of the university's policies on undergraduate education.
"In the short term I will emphasize university priorities, one of which is to bring undergraduate education more closely in line with the resources of the university," he said.
"The provost has said he would like better articulation among curriculum," Ide said, "My job is to facilitate discussions between units so that students will get something unique in their general education."
Ide said that university departments are working to create a core of liberal arts courses with either general education or area studies that will be appealing to students.
"There are a lot of students who don't see GEs as a creative opportunity to explore oth-
er majors, but as necessary requirements," he saM. "We're going to try and break down that mindset completely so that GEs become attractive."
He cited the business program as an example of what the university hopes to accomplish. "A business student should have not only a first-rate education in business but also a strong general education in liberal arts," Ide said. "It's the difference between producing a person with a B.S. in business and a leader for tomorrow."
The goal is the same for liberal arts majors. Exposure to professional schooling will help prepare students for the workplace.
"There's no reason why those students shouldn't experiment in other professional (See Ide, page 13)
Quake is boon to Metrolink
Commuters avoid congestion by using system in record numbers
Raglna Tao/Dally Trojan
A Sunday night fire charred several students’ off-campus home.
Students try to extinguish living-room fire
By Kim Smith
Staff Writer
Residents of an off-campus house became firefighters late Sunday night, when part of their front living room went up in smoke.
Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department, said the blaze started in a trash container placed on a floor heater. He said the fire spread to one wall and an adjoining desk before the residents contained it.
The seven of the nine residents who were home said they were slow to respond to the alarms because the house had already been filled with smoke once that night, from a fog machine.
"We built a set this weekend and for part of the shoot we were using a fog machine," said
Alex Buono, a junior majoring in cinema. "We were playing around with it, sort of smoking the house up for fun. Twenty minutes later, the house was on fire."
Chris Klonecke, who was in the next room, separated from the fire by sliding doors, said he initially ignored the smoke alarms.
"We have temperamental fire alarms and in the past we just ignored them," he said, adding that he got up when he heard a housemate yelling.
"All I heard was people shouting and I jumped up and all I could see was flames," Klonecke said.
"I opened my door and the place was filled with smoke," said Chad Larkin, another resident. "I grabbed my computer and my skis and took them outside. My entire life is on my computer."
Two of the residents, and a third who ran upstairs to warn them, were trapped on the sec-
(See Fire, page 13)
By Angela Link and Roger D. Sequeira
Staff Writers
At first glance, the recent 6.6
!|uake seems to have done little or Los Angeles' traffic congestion, but it may have given public transportation the chance it needed to rid the city of those long lines of brake lights.
TTie California Department of Transportation is currently demolishing damaged parts of freeways and removing debris in preparation for reconstruction, said Rick Holland, a Caltrans spokesman.
Repairs on most highways will take about six months to complete, while repairs on the
more complex Golden State Freeway and Antelope Valley Freeway interchange may require as much as a year, said Holland.
Meanwhile, the Metrolink Train System's business has taken up the slack from commuters who find themselves needing a ride to work. Business reached an all-time high of 25,000 commuters last Monday, up from a pre-quake high of 10,000, said Tony Aguilar of the Metrolink Information Service.
Much of the influx comes from the Santa Clarita Valley, located northwest of the quake's
(See Freeways, page 3)
Roy Nwaliaar / Dally Tro|an
Construction workers make repairs on the 10 Freeway, one of many that sustained major damage during the Jan. 17 earthquake.