Thursday January 26,1995 Vol. CXXIV, No. 9
Headlines
Men’s basketball hosts California
The Trojans will look to rebound from last weekend's two Pacific 10 Conference losses in Arizona when they meet the Golden Bears tonight at the Sports Arena at 7 p.m.
Sports, page 20
Unsane invades Whisky A-Go Go
Unsane brings their hardcore sound back to Los Angeles this Sunday. Eric Sorenson gives us an insight of the band's torrid past and future as well as a review of their last explosive show. Diversions, page 7
Comic heroes like today’s ‘illegals’
Captain America, Superman and Wonder Woman all dropped into the country without their green cards, yet were not deemed "illegals.'' Sharon M. Parker questions our villains and heroes.
Viewpoint, page 4
F.Y.I.
Philanthropy fellows sought
The Indiana University Center on Philanthropy is seeking applicants for its Jane Addams Fellowships in Philanthropy program. The program awards each fellow $15,000 for the year and 12 credits toward a graduate degree.
To qualify, applicants must be recent graduates with a bachelor's degree or graduating seniors. Applicants must demonstrate lea-derhip potential, special interest in some aspect of community service, and academic stability. Students will engage in guided study and will select an internship with a nonprofit organization in the Indianapolis community.
The application deadline is Feb. 17. For applications and information, contact the IU Center on Philanthropy, 550 W. North St., Suite 301, Indianapolis, IN 46202, (317) 274-4200.
Elimination of financial aid possible
GOP’s Contract with America cuts could spell the end of student loans
By Tamra Fitzpatrick
Staff Writer
Campus-based financial aid may be cut by the year 2002 if the Republican party's Contract With America and the Balanced Budget Amendment become law.
Republicans haven't said ex-
actly what they hope will be cut between now and 2002 to help balance the budget, but speculations are surfacing,
"They're (Republicans) not going to touch on social security, interest of the national debt or increase of defense spending," said Greg Marchildon,
Laura Lanchaatar / Dally Tro|an
Graduate student Michael Gibbs makes use of a public phone.
Phone calling cards tailored to students
By Tara Nakashima
Staff Writer
Students on a limited budget are now being targeted by vendors of pre-paid calling cards, the latest phenomenon in calling-card services.
Almost all major phone companies are testing or now offer a pre-paid phone card, and independent companies
offering the cards have also emerged. Some of the benefits pre-paid card vendors cite are convenience and security.
"For convenience, it's already paid for and you don't need change," said Ben Joseph, president of College Telecom Services, which offers the Poor Student Phone Card. "If you lose the (calling) card, it can be used and people can charge and charge. If you purchase the (pre-paid) phone card, you have a set limit.
Joseph said his company uses LDDS as its long-distance service provider. He said the use of alternative phone companies will cause increased competition and possibly lead to lower rates.
"The debit cards cost 45 cents but this is a way people will save money," he said. "It
was just a matter of time for this country to bring this out there."
The Poor Student Phone Card may be purchased with 60 minutes of long distance calling time for $20. Calls cost 25 cents per minute anytime and anywhere in the United States. When additional time is needed, cards can be recharged.
"They can have up to $50 a month on credit card and send us a check and get as much time," Joseph said.
To renew the card, owners send in a check with their PIN number on it. The renewal is done when the check is received, he said.
Customers with credit cards may call the customer service 800 number to recharge prepaid calling cards.
While the Poor Student Phone Card will not be sold at USC until Tuesday, Joseph hopes to expand business throughout the country.
"Honestly, this is brand new," Joseph said. "USC and UCLA are the first campuses to be receiving it. The next few schools are Cal State (See Cards, page 12)
spokesman for Families USA, a non-profit, non-partisan consumer advocacy group.
"The three programs hardest hit will most likely be student loans, Medicare and veteran benefits," he said.
Although these are assumptions, Marchildon said there is evidence to support his claims.
"If they're (Republicans) not going to tell us what they're going to cut, we're going to estimate," he said. "We feel it is our
obligation to do so."
Marchildon said California will be hit hardest by the cuts. Students in the state could lose $85 million in aid, according to Families USA estimates.
Federal student loan aid is provided through the Stafford loan program and the Parent Loans to Undergraduate Students (PLUS) program, according to Families USA.
These loans are federally (See Loans, page 3)
Change to GRE met with much criticism
By Jeremy Zink
Staff Writer
Radical changes have taken place in the cost and method of taking the Graduate Record Exam within the last few months, creating controversy nationwide over the actual effectiveness and fairness of the new computerized test.
"The bottom line is that students are being hurt by this," said Andy Lutz, director of Research and Development for the Princeton Review. "It's the worst time of year for these changes to happen."
Educational Testing Services initiated the Computer-Adap-tive Test program in 1993, hoping to eliminate the current paper-and-pencil GRE by 1997.
The CAT's main feature is that the test adjusts itself to an individual's test performance level. The computer exam changes with each question, making questions easier or harder depending upon how the question before it was answered.
The stated advantages of the computerized system are that both students and schools receive scores much faster, stu-
dents may schedule a test during any day of the week during regular business hours and students are provided with limitless scratch paper (on the pa-per-and-f>encii GRE, the student must do all work in the test booklet, often providing too little work space.)
The disadvantages include a $40 price hike, staring at a com-
Euter screen for four hours, the ick of a test booklet in which to mark on problems directly, only being able to take the test twice a year, scarce practice material and disclosure — a student's right to take a look at the test questions along with the answers when scores are received
—	is non-existent for the CAT, according to The Princeton Review's "No Stress Guide to the Computerized GRE."
However, these and other differences between the paper-and-pencil GRE and the CAT have caused test preparation services such as the Princeton Review and Kaplan Educational Centers to investigate a nebulous array of possible security risks and problems with the new format.
(See Exam, page 13)
Escort expected to be fully operational soon
Rain, lack of cars cause delays in improving service
By Kamron Barron
Staff Writer
Administrators from transportation services and customer services responded Wednesday to the problems with escort and tram services cited in an article in that day's Daily Trojan.
Jim Richardson, director of transportation services, said unavoidable problems caused the delay in expanding escort services.
He said plans to have escort cars wait outside the Leavey Library facility until 7 a.m. were stalled due to lack of cars.
"We simply couldn't (provide the service) for a number of reasons, the biggest number of which involve vehicles," said
Richardson. "We simply couldn't get the coverage going quickly enough. It simply hasn't ;one as smoothly as we would ve liked, but that's not indicative of our intent and that's certainly not indicative of where we intended to finish."
The escort service is receiving 25 cars from the Saturn Company, but only nine have arrived and this has delayed services, Richardson said. Also, plans to have gold-colored cars with anti-lock brakes, both of which are special requests requiring a longer period of time, have delayed the process, he said.
"We're in the midst of acquiring new vehicles for the escort program and we just got the shipment yesterday," Richardson said. "We're in the process of working through the insurance issues and things like that.''
(See Transportation, page 2)
Newspaper of the University of Southern California