Panels
discuss
African
nations
Former president of African republic joined professors and students Friday.
By JASMIN PERSCH
Contributing Writer
The former President of the Republic of Mauritius Karl Auguste Offmann attended two interrelated panels concerning African and American academic relations Friday in Taper Hall.
Two separate panels addressed solutions to the lack of basic needs in Africa and American isolationism and the lack of understanding in Africa.
"Africa will be very important in the next five to 10 years,” Offman said. "There are a lot of expectations of Africa.”
The first panel included four undergraduate students who presented projects completed for the international business communications class, BUCO 460, and engineering writing 340 classes.
Students developed solutions to problems conceived by the African Millennium Foundation, a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization that tackles social and economic problems by equipping victims of poverty'with tools to achieve self-sufficiency.
I see Africa page 6 I
by the Senate executive cabinet this week and reaffirmed by a Senate resolution at next Tuesday’s Senate meeting, will be led by Chris Collier, a residential senator.
The commission's goals are to provide legal advice, improve safety and build a more cohesive off-campus community, Collier said.
Legal services and housing affairs will be Collier's priority, and he wants to make sure students are aware of their rights as tenants.
"We’ve got to put the fear of God into these landlords," he said. “We’re
USC students and we will not be taken advantage of.”
The problems
Students living in off-campus housing have to deal with a variety of issues that students in university housing don’t have to worry about, such as signing leases, paying rent and dealing with private landlords.
“One of the biggest things about a landlord instead of the university is that the university can be held more accountable than a private landlord," said Tamar Shaham, a junior
majoring in psychology, who now lives in a bouse on the 1200 block of 37th Place. "USC is probably more willing to listen to you and is going to be less shady than landlords.”
Shaham said her previous landlord was unreasonable and tried to take advantage of students.
“They can’t really be held accountable because they're just individual landlords, unless you want to go to a lawyer or something," she said. “They’ll charge you a lot of money for not the best places and there’s not much you can do about it,”
The commission will try to deal with legal issues between landlords and student tenants by possibly bringing free student legal services to campus, Collier said.
"Once upon a time, the university had legal services for students," he said. “They could go in, ask a lawyer, get advice and be directed to either a law firm or the proper place."
Collier is no stranger to the legal issues of being a tenant in nonuniversity housing.
"1 still have a lady that's not supposed to be living in my house living in my house," he said. “Why? The landlord couldn't evict them."
Collier, however, admitted that he is familiar with correct legal procedures for such a situation and is not taking steps to have the problem resolved, but said that the average student might not know what to do.
“Other people have problems with roommates, have problems with mov-
Senate Special Election Results
Heather
Arroyo
Keenan
Gosset
Ainy
Williams
Chris
Rosette
Jade | Werner
Rosette and Arroya win
Chris Rosette and Heather Arroyo were sworn in as new commuter senators during Tuesday night's Senate meeting, after the results of a special election to elect the two new senators were announced.
The election, held on Sept. 14 and 15, drew 111 votes from commuter students. Rosette won the most votes with 28 votes, and Arroyo had 26.
Two commuter senators, Tamar Gabriel and Tate Bejanyan, resigned earlier this year for academic reasons, forcing Senate to hold the special election.
— James R. Koren, staff writer
www.dailytrojan.com
I
Student Newspaper of the. University oj Southern California Since 1912
.September 22, 2004
INDEX
Oprah Winfrey has a media and philanthropic empire, but is she really that great? 4
Columnist Jason Levy takes on a fearsome foe. 7
News Digest— 2	Sport*.-------IS
Upcoming------2	Classifieds_12
Opinions—.....4	Lifestyle------7
WEATHER
Today: Sunny. High of 88. low of 62
Tomorrow: High 86, low 65.
Vol. CLIII. No. 20
Senator takes on landlords
Trojan Debate Squad argues media with British team
Mass media's role in
I see Senate page S
Thinking quickly. British debater Robert Marts, right, argues the negative aspects of stereotypes in the media as the USC debater Kamil Chaudhary listens and prepares for his cross examination Tuesday night in Annenberg Auditonum.
futhering stereotypes is focus of Tuesday debate.
By BONNIE SCHINDLER
Contributing Writer
USC's Trojan Debate Squad battled a British team Tuesday evening in front of nearly 40 audience members in Annenberg Auditorium.
The two teams debated the topic of mass media’s role in furthering stereotypes.
The debate against the British traveling team is part of a long tradition of debate exchanges, said Goidon Stables, director of debate at Annenberg School for Communication.	%
“Students from Great Britain regularly take part in tours where they visit another country and engage in debate exhibitions with students of many nations," he said.
two USC students took the affirmative side, opening the debate with a six-minute constructive argument.
“Each student speaks in a structural order and thus must simultaneously refute the arguments by their opponents and continue to strengthen their position," Stables said.
The USC team argued that perpetuating stereotypes in the media is ultimately educational, said Alex Iftimie, a sophomore majoring in communication. and Kamil Chaudhary. a junior majoring in business, who both represented USC in the debate.
I see Debate oage 111
INSIDE
There is a new No. 1 in the world of men 's water polo.
New Senate committee will focus on problems with nonuniversity housing.
By JAMES R. KOREN
StaffWritcr
Students living in nonuniversity housing in the University Park area will soon have some much-needed support from a new Student Senate commission.
The off-campus nonuniversity housing commission, which will be approved