STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SINCE 1912 I VOL. 160, NO. 9 I WWW.DAILYTROJAN.COM
« RAIDERS HIRE KIFFIN
USC OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR AGREED TO BECOME THE HEAD COACH OF THE OAKLAND RAIDERS ON MONDAY NIGHT.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2007
« NEWBIE
TYRONE WELLS GOES FROM NOBODY TO SOMEBODY ON THE _ CONCERT TOUR.
The child inside »
Feral children show man can always revert to his primitive state if things get tough.
New center aims to advance research
OPINION, PAGE 4
m*-'
•	4*1
Ci;
m
Crowning Glory »
The Tiara Cafe creates a whole new vocabulary for lunchtime.
LIFESTYLE, PAGE 8
Keck CEO »
Minor Anderson hired to fill newly defined CEO position for the USC Care Medical Group.
NEWS, PAGE 3
Hard work rewarded »
USC sophomore forward Keith Wilkinson earned a four-year scholarship this season, after playing the past two seasons on a year-by-year scholarship
SPORTS, PAGE 16
The Center for Excellence in Research encourages faculty members and students to work together.
By ELLY WONG
Daily Troian
The University Research Community, in conjunction with the Academic Senate, announced a new initiative on Jan. 17 to advance research excellence across the university's many different fields.
The new Center for Excellence in Research, first publicized to faculty in late December, is based on the Center for Excellence in Teaching that started in 1996 to improve effective teaching methods.
From financial grants to scholarly workshops. theCET includes a wide array of programs to network faculty members for the purpose of enhancing the craft of teaching. In the same manner, the CER is designed to create training resources for faculty to engage specifically in new and effective ways of research
Maja Mataric'. the president of Academic Senate, the organization that governs the entire fanilty, and professor of computer science and neuroscience, came up with the idea last war when she served as vice president of the Senate.
Mataric said she discovered there was a need for mentonng and support h»r facility
in the area of research, which the CET was not particularly made to do.
As a result, the new center is specifically intended to foster a culture of research excellence for the university community "Research is different,” Mataric' said. "It's from identifying a truly interesting and deep research problem, to obtaining funding for it, to mentonng students in how to do research, to understanding how to guide a research project... and I could go on."
Because the program focuses on faniltv members learning from their experienced colleagues, a selection committee will choose a small group of faculty fellows in March to become important leaders tor CER through an application process.
The fellows will be selected based on what the\' have accomplished, their proposals and their desire to work with other faculty in sharing their knowledge and ideas for how to conduct research.
“The beaut}' of it is that this will all continue to be the brainchild of the faculty," Mataric' said Once the CER fellows have been selected. they will decide among themselves which types ot programs to establish so all facultv can successfully partake in the field of research
Other plans include starting a seminar series and "research salons" where faculty members may gather and discuss ways to cultivate research
Randolph Hall, vice provost of research
advancement, has committed to supporting these future programs
“To be successful as a university, we need to not just be great thinkers in our own field, but we need to be great thinkers in the process of research." he said.
Along with connecting experts to each other, the CER is designed to train faculty in especially connecting with students. The goal is not just to allow graduate students to be involved in research, but to link undergraduate students with faculty as well Upperdassmen and doctoral candidates arc often involved in research, but the goal is to have more student engagement, whether from freshmen or third-year graduate students. Hall said
In order to get there, “it's very important to get our facultv at the comfort level where they reallv know how to work effectively | se- CENTER page 10
QUICK FACTS
❖	A goaf of the new center is to foster a culture o* researcn excellence for tne ty.
❖	A se*ectw oommrttee dTccsetecirffy «to ead tre «^ter in
DPS officer threatened in Row rumble
Four students turn on DPS officers in an early Sunday morning fight outside of the Beta Omega Phi fraternity house.
By NANCY CHEN
Daily Trojan
A DPS officer was challenged to a fight following an altercation involving “chairs, pipes and other objects” and approximately 60 people outside the Beta ()mega Phi fraternity house early Sunday morning.
An unnamed DPS officer was flagged down around 2:30 a.m. by Jae Chang, vice president of Beta Omega Phi, an Asian Greek Council fraternity located on The Row.
According to crime reports, the officer arrived on the scene to find “several large groups of males” in an altercation apparently initiated by two females at a party hosted by Beta Omega Phi.
“There was a slight conflict of interest and they were at each other's throats tor a while," said Kent Saitoh, former president of Beta Omega Phi, who declined to name the females.
“It escalated into a catfight, and that's when the boys got involved," he said.
Saitoh emphasized that the males involved in the altercation were not members of die Beta Omega Phi fraternity and that the)' had been brought in by the females; only a valid college ID was required for admission into the party.
| see BRIEF, page 2 |
Tempting fate | Is USC ready for the big one?
9	Photo courtesy of Mark Benthien
Be prepared | A Jan. 9 event marking the 150th anniversary of an earthquake in Southern California informs listeners about how to prepare for the next major earthquake. See page 10»