Newspaper of the University of Southern California
Wednesday April 22,1998 Vol. CXXXm, No. 64
Trojans use late rally to cap victory
The No. 5 USC baseball team scored one run in the eighth inning and four more in the ninth to pull away from San Diego State, 9-4, Tuesday at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Jason Lane earned the win in relief.
Sports, page 20
New album by Davies is pop hit
Shifting his focus from song arranging to composing melodies, singer/songwriter Richard Davies' latest album Telegraph is a wonderful second installment of his immense talents.
Diversions, page 7
Uncle Sam as a big brother
With th«? conclusion of the Summit of the Americas, Editorial Columnist Christian Cooper wonders how future relations will be between the United States and the region's nations.
Viewpoint, page 4
F.Y.I.
Senior speakers, Earth Day event
The Latino Senior Speak-Out, sponsored by El Centro Chicano, will be held from noon to 1 p.m. today on the third floor of the United University Church. Refreshments will be served.
For more information, call Deborah Perez at (213) 740-1480.
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"Non-human Earthling Are Living Beings" will 1 presented by Liberty of the Mind and USC Vegetarians in celebration of Earth Day at 5 p.m. today in Topping Student Center, room 205.
For more information, call (818) 789-6675.
• ••
The Buddhist Student Organization will hold its organization meeting at 5 } p.m. today in Topping Student Center, room 204. Refreshments will be served.
For more information, con-tac^Geraldine Kim at (213) 764-4566.
Eric Sullano I Dally Troian
Frank Lee, a senior majoring in fine arts, looks at the Saturn EV4 zero-emissions car Tuesday.
Celebrating the
By Sylvia Moore Staff Writer
A petition for more recycling bins on campus, an ozone-friendly electric car, free condoms and political activists filled Hahn Plaza Tuesday in the first annual USC Earth Day celebration to be combined with Activism Day.
The official Earth Day, which began as a movement for environmental awareness in 1970, will be observed around the country today.
USC's Earth Day Celebration was organized by Student Action For the Environment in conjunction with USC Hillel and the Women's Student Assembly, which sponsored Activism Day. SAFE has also been active in beach cleanups and endangered species and recycling campaigns, said Adam Levine, a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering and next year's SAFE president.
"It's really important that we have an earth day just in terms
Ambar Otto / Daily Trojan
Part of SAFE’S petition to get more campus recycling bins.
to get people h and
of awareness aware about the eartl about the environment," he said. "The biggest detriment to our environment is that people
don’t know what's going on and they're not taking a part in it. If people start speaking up,
(See Earth, page 12)
Through the combined effort of government, universities and private corporations, the internet will be widely expanded, and USC is among the participants.
Vice President Al Gore unveiled the network, called Abilene, last week during a White House press conference Abilene is being developed by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development and will be the most advanced network available to universities participating in UCAID's lnternet2 project.
The project will attempt to meet the growing demand for a higher capacity on the internet. More audio and visual files are being transmitted, which requires larger amounts of bandwidth.
The Intemet2 project is a collaboration among 122 research universities, corporations and federal agencies to develop a source of advanced applications to meet the demand for faster connections due to the emerging academic requirements in research, teaching and learning.
Intemet2 is just one part of USC's involvement with the national project, said Jon Postel, director of the Computer Networks Division at the information Sciences Institute, a division of the School of Engineering USC is also directly involved with CalREN-2, California's part of Internet2.
"We are helping to install the equipment ana coordinate initial software set up of the CaIREN-2 project,'' Postel said. "It is our hope that we will be up and running by the middle of summer."
Computer scientist Javad Boroumand, lead contact from
KysJBI
(See Internet, page 13)
Clinton initiative may drop student loan costs
By Jennifer Prosser
Staff Writer
An initiative that would lower the interest rates on federal student loans by 1.25 percent has been proposed by the Clinton administration.
The initiative would dramatically decrease interest payments for the 65 percent of all USC students who receive federal loans. According to USC's financial aid office, the interest on a federally subsidized loan accrues at a rate of around 7.66 percent while a student is in school and increases to 8.25 percent after graduation.
The initiative would set the interest rate at 7 percent during the entire loan period. This means that a student who borrows $12,000 would save $650 in interest during a standard 10-year repayment period, according to the government's House Education and Workforce Committee. A student who borrows $60,000 would save $3,200.
However, many lenders in the banking industry have lobbied against the plan, aiguing that student loan programs Will no longer be beneficial to them. But a recent analysis by the US. Treasury stated that the initiative would provide lenders with a sufficient return.
"My guess is that there will probably be some compromise," said«Guy Hunter, senior associate director of financial aid. "Although you never know what the feds will do."
Hunter said he believes a compromise is imminent because it would help students without hitting the lenders too hard.
"The feds still want to help the students," Hunter said. "(A compromise) would give some benefits to students without putting the lenders at a total disadvantage."
He added that the government has always tried to make loan financing easier for students.
Catherine Thomas, director of financial aid, also said she believes compromise is
(See Loans, page 12)
Federal program aims to cut college loan costs
By Jennifer Prosser
Staff Writer
;V, / ; ' ■' '
The Federal Direct Student Loan Program was created five years ago to cut loan costs for students by financing them directly through the government. It quickly failed; the government never met its goal of a 50-to-70 percent participation rate.
"I didn't work the way they thought it would," said Guy Hunter, senior associate director of financial aid. "It was much more difficult."
Although USC was approached in the second year of the program, Hunter said
(See Program, page 3)
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