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FOUR MEMBERS OF THE USC WOMEN’S WATER POLO TEAM ARE MEMBERS OF THE U.S. TEAM	24
HI FIVE »
SAV HI TO YOUR MOM BRINGS A POP CULTURE SENSIBILITY TO •J ITS INDIE MUSIC 7
LETTERS » ONE WRITER SAYS USC VIOLATED PROTESTERS' RIGHTS. ONE FINDS THEIR TACTICS DISRUPTIVE 5
Made up »
The Fracas! Improv Festival brings college improv troupes and famous comedians to campus.
LIFESTYLE, PAGE 10
Landlords, students worry about homeless
QUICK
FACT
Property owners say it is the city’s responsibility to combat rise in homeless.
By ERICA McNAMARA
Daily Troian
Some landlords and property managers around USC have expressed concern at the number of homeless people found digging through Dumpsters and begging students for food.
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's 2005 homeless count reported that there are 35.000 chronically homeless people living in Los Angeles County.
Chronically homeless people are people who have been homeless for more than a vear or who have ex-
perienced four or more instances of homeless in the past three years, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Though some students complain that landlords should do more to keep residences near campus homeless-free, many landlords say homelessness is a problem the city
—	not business owners — needs to address.
"That's why we pay taxes,” said Awais Mazhar, an office assistant who works for Nupac Apartments. "If landlords take care of the homeless, who will take care of the students? Nobody Around here. stu-. dents take priority*
Alan Smolinisky. owner of Conquest Student Housing, recently wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Times advocating the need for a
“real citvwide plan for reducing homelessness. ”
According to Smolinisky. ever since the Los Angeles Police Department began to crack down on the number of people found sleeping on downtown streets, the homeless increasingly have been moving into areas south of the city, chased by police into “nearby areas that lack the services to handle them"
"As the largest owner/developer of student housing around the USC campus, on the edge of downtown, I have seen an increase in homeless people moving into South L A since the police crackdown began." he wrote "The homeless are not going home ... because they have no homes to go to *
Mazhar said the homeless are
I see HOMELESS cage U I
A look back »
Kevin Merfeld reflects on all of the great moments covering the USC football team.
SPORTS, PAGE 20
Dress code prank bugs students
Skull and Dagger’s annual prank had students take off their sunglasses, hats.
By COURTNEY WILLIS
Daily Trojan
Security guards dressed in black stood outside Commons Tuesday afternoon, asking students to take off their sunglasses and hats and to turn their cell phones off before stepping into the building.
Confused and unaware that it was a prank, many students obliged after reading the flyers that read USC was enforcing a campuswide dress code policy that had been on the books since 1913. But no such dress code exists.
The annual prank was part of the initiation process for graduating seniors and graduate students of Skull and Dagger, an all-university secret honor society at USC, similar to Yale's Skull and Bones. Students and faculty compose the society.
"They made me take off my sunglasses. I was like, Are you kidding?'” said Sarah White-Stern, a junior majoring in theater. She said she complied because she “didn't want to fight.”
Greta McAnany. a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism and theater, was walking out of Commons when she noticed the ordeal.
“(The security guards) were kind of being aggressive but they were (not) hurting anybody," she said. “It was kind of pandemonium because people didn’t know what was going on. I was really confused and annoyed at the manner in which they were doing it.”
Some students weren’t bothered by Skull and Daggers' mse.
"I suppose it was kind of weird. I had my hat on, and they made me take it off,” said Michael Pierce, a sophomore majoring in music industry.
1 le put his hat back on when he got inside. Pierce said he didn't believe the joke because the guards “looked kind of sketchy. I could've understood if it was students.”
I see PRANK, page 3 |
Safety time | Eduardo Xol, host of ABC’s "Extreme Home Makeover," puts an "Amber Watch" on a child from the Ketchum-Downtown YMCA at an event sponsored by Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority Wednesday afternoon
Protecting children in the nick of time
Greeks give local children watches designed to protect them from being kidnapped.
By ALEXANDER COMISAR
Daily Troian
Forty-three inner-city children gathered around the front of the Kappa Kappa Gamma house to receive “Amber Watch-
es” on Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to protect children from abduction and sexual predators.
The presidents of Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Kappa Alpha, in partnership with the Amber Watch Foundation, presented the safety watches to the children of the Ketchum-Downtown YMCA.
"Amber Watch's mission is to educate children and their parents about how to stay safe from sexual predators," said
Keith Jarrett. executive director of the Amber Watch Foundation The watches are designed to protect children from abductors by emitting a loud, high frequency alarm at the touch of a button on its face.
Lawrence Manion, chief of the Los Angeles School District Police Department, thinks that the alarm, in addition to its preventative benefits, will also serve a valu-| see AMBER oage 3 I
With as many as 35,000 chronically homeless people living on the streets, Los Angeles county has the nation’s largest homeless population.