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Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912
November 22, 2004
Errick Craven and the USC men 's basketball team season open its
Vol. CL1U, No. 63
Acting program revamped
Director named for master offine arts acting program, to open in 2006.
By BONNIE SCHINDLER
Contributing Writer
Andrew Robinson, stage, screen and TV actor, will become director of the reformatted master of fine arts acting program within the School of Theatre in 2006, pending university curriculum review board approval of the new program.
While the USC theatre undergraduate program is one of the best in the country, the MFA acting program stopped enrolling students about 10 years ago, said Madeline Puzo, dean of the School of Theatre.
Requests for the program in recent years shaped the decision to start the program again from the ground up, she said.
The school looked at top acting programs at universities including Yale, Brown, New York University and Columbia. USC’s intention is not to mirror these programs, but instead use their foundations as a base to build on, Puzo said.
One of the first things the school did was conduct a national search for a directorial candidate.
Robinson, well known for his role as “Elim Garak” from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," has excellent depth as an actor, and he understands both sides of student needs: acting and understanding their director, Puzo said.
This, Robinson said, is the challenge because he is now attempting to create an acting training program.* The three-year program will consist of intense training designed to give actors a thorough background so they can go straight into the working world, Robinson said.
To do this, he has set up three goals for the students to achieve.
The overriding factor is to give the actor the right training to succeed in the 21st century. Secondly, the students should come out of the progrdm not as carbon copies, but as individuals who have found their true acting core. And finally, the graduates should recognize the joy of the work, Robinson said.
Robinson said he has experienced the true joys of the profession, as he has been in the business for 39 years.
As he was wrapping up his bachelor’s degree at the New School in New York, Robinson was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. He received a master’s degree from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
From there, he appeared in movies such as “Dirty Harry” and “Hellraiser," as well as playing various television characters. He is also one of the founding members of the MatrixTheatre Company in Los Angeles.
While Puzo thinks acting students need a good I see Robinson, page 10 I
Rachel Elias I Daily Trojan
Break. Laura Jimenez sings “I will Survive" during a spontaneous talent show on a lunch break for the 14th annual Raza High School Leadership Conference Sunday. The event seeks to ensure higher education is available to all Chicano students.
M.E.Ch.A hosts high school event
Quick Facts
Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan seeks to motivate students for college.
By ANNA JEWETT
Staff Writer
Approximately 1,000 minority students flooded USC Sunday for the 14th Annual Raza High School Leadership Conference, organized and facilitated by Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan.
M.E.Ch.A, a student organization committed to ensuring that higher education is available to all Chicano students, holds the annual day-long conference in the spirit of achieving the organization’s fundamental goals.
Eighth-graders through seniors in high school from throughout the community attended the free event themed “Breaking the Barriers of Education."
“We are trying to increase the
number of minority students going to college," said Marina Rueda, a senior majoring in psychology and a member of M.E.Ch.A. “Although of course this is not limited to Latino students, these are the students that predominantly populate these schools."
Keynote speaker Shanta Driver, a Harvard alumna and the national spokeswoman for the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By any Means Necessary, opened the event.
Driver spoke to motivate the students and impress upon them the importance of affirmative action.
The low numbers of minorities enrolled in institutions of higher learning are a direct result of the loss of affirmative action programs, she said.
Driver also said that the SAT and ACT tests are rigged against minority students. She explained that every question on the SAT’s has been pretested. Of these pre-tested questions,
the test makers did not select a single question that black students had scored higher on, she said.
Driver said that even before minority students sat down to take the test, the test maker knew that minority students were at a disadvantage.
Minority student scores will not be reflective of their actual abilities, she said.
Christopher Valencia, an eighth-grader who attends Camino Nuevo Middle School said he decided to attend the conference because he wanted to learn more about college in general. He found Driver’s speech particularly inspiring.
"I’m going to keep what she said in mind," Valencia said.
The keynote speaker was followed by a variety of cultural, academic, and by-grade workshops, each addressing a different issue that could potentially affect a minority student's pursuit of higher education.
This is the first year that M.E.Ch.A.
I	see M.E.Ch.A. page 6 I
Approximately 1,000 minority students from community high schools and middle schools participated in the day-long event Sunday.
Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan puts on the event as an attempt to increase the number of minority students attending universities.
Students invited to celebrate holiday
"Thanksgiving match up" program gives students from abroad a place to go.
By COURTNEY WILLIS
Contributing Writer
For more than 20 years, the Office of International Services has hosted “Thanksgiving Match-up." a program designed to expose international students to the American tradition of Thanksgiving.
Ever year, the program pairs up international students with fami-
lies around Southern California so that they have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving.
“Students who have come to visit found it to be a little bit of an interference because they’re studying ... but once they get here they are amazed," said Robin Holland, a USC alumna who has hosted students every year since the program began. “They learn more at this dinner than they could've learned in a book. It's a good experience on both ends.’
The program was implemented not for international students to learn about the tradition of Thanksgiving
in general, but to get a feel for what Americans do, Holland said.
“It's a great chance for students to learn about American family life,” said Laurie Cox, associate director of the program. “There are so many traditions that we take them for granted. International students are very interested in learning."
For many host families, the program has become a tradition, Cox said.
The program is popular because international students are curious
I see
page 10 I
Facts
The Office of International Services has hosted the event for 20 years.
Families from all over the area participate.
INDEX
Student's art exhibit offers a new "tilt"on life, revealing hidden secrets. 7
Fanaticism by any religion is a danger to society 4
News Digest_____2	Sports----------IS
Upcoming........2	Classified]_____12
Opinions.-------♦	Lifestyle________7
WEATHER
Today: Sunny. High of 67, low of 47. Tomorrow: Sunny. High of 67, low of 46.