N e w s p a p er of the University of Southern California
Monday
February 10,1997 Vol. CXXX, No. 21
Headlines
USC tied with Bruins atop Pac-10
The USC men's basketball team continued its stay on the top of the Pacific 10 Conference with a 93-85 victory over California Saturday at the Sports Arena in front of 5,294 spectators.
Sports, page 12
Viva Las Vegas... here we come
is a perfect haven for a
p
weekend road trip. Staff
The city of glitz and glamour I na
•ip. £
writer Taryn Nesbit gives the inside scoop on Vegas in the first installment of our Weekend Getaway series.
Diversions, page 6
Slang-based dialect hurts kids
Using Ebonics as an excuse to avoid proper English, editorial writer Yvette Sandoval explains how this new inner-city language fails to teach and simply furthers the cultural gap.
Viewpoint, page 4
F.Y.I.
Day of Dialogue, campaigns panel
The United Ministry at USC, Civic and Community Relations and Center for Multiethnic and Transnational Studies invite staff and students to a Day of Dialogue on racial relations, today from 11:30 a.m. to 1:15
tm. in the United Ministry lunge, room 103 in the University Religious Center.
For more information, call (213) 740-2667.
The Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics is sponsoring a "Campaigns" panel today at noon in Grace Ford Salvatori, room 331. Guests include Dan Schnur, who worked on Gov. Pete Wilson's campaign, and Jennifer Steen, campaign manager for Congresswoman Jane Harman. For more information, call (213) 740-8964.
t • •
The Jewish Student Union will have a general meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillel Jewish Center.
DailyTrojan
TMH, USC creating sound system
By Angie Chen
Staff Writer
The innovative company recognized for developing the THX sound system is creating a new product called Micro Theater, which is being developed in partnership with USC.
Micro Theater's "immersive sound" system will allow film editors to direct audio signals to an individual using computer technology that locates the heaci and ears of the listener. This system lets editors adjust and edit sounds while hearing the soundtrack like an audience would.
TMH, a technology firm which creates enter-
tainment industry products, is working in partnership with the university's Integrated Media Systems Center to create the sound system.
Used at film studios and post-production houses for editing, Micro Theater is currently in use at 20th Century Fox and the Sony DUD Center, Koenig saia.
i already appe« in movies like "Chain Reaction" and "Naked Gun 33 1/3" and will be appearing in the upcoming film "Volcano."
Stephanie Loete, the treasurer of the IMSC's student council, said "immersive sound" is better than anything anyone else has done with two speakers.
"It's a setup similar to the standard two speakers that you can find on most computers, but as you're sitting there between the two speakers ("immersive sound") creates (the illusion) that things are going on around and behind you, without any additional speakers," said Loete, a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering with an emphasis in computers.
Friederich Koenig, CEO of TMH Corp., said the product was initially developed by TMH outside of IMSC.
Koenig said the immersive sound system operates in two ways. First, the image of a head and ears is detected by the computer.
Micro Theater then modifies the sounds and projects them to the listener.
"It's a completely different sonic effect for different parts of tne room, so the optimum spot is where the listener is and where he moves," he said.
Some of the things Micro Theater does include changing tne timing of the two sound signals, the frequency responses and the angles of emission, Koenig said.
Researchers in the Engineering and Cinema-Television Schools and at TMH Corp. are working to perfect sound placement. They believe the new technology may help the visually impaired, air traffic controllers and airplane pilots in the future, according to a recent article in USC's Chronicle.
Koenig and Tom Holman, president of TMH Corp., recently spoke at a university retreat for Trustee Scholars and demonstrated tl to students, he said.
I the system
(See Theater, page 3)
Dance-a-thon raises money for children
By Tamara Garton and Megan Monroe
Staff Writers
Dance, dance, dance—24 hours of dancing, that is. From 6 p.m. on Friday night until 6 p.m. on Saturday, students were rocking and rolling for USC's first Dance Marathon.
The event raised a total of $12,241.92, said Michael King, dance marathon treasurer. This amount exceeded the $10,000 goal the committee had hoped to reach prior to the outcome of the event.
The event took place in the south gym of tne Physical Education building, where donations of at least $25 were collected from participants in exchange for a T-shirt as a symbol of their participation in the Marathon.
"To the committee it was an absolute success," said Jessica Guheen, the chair of the Dance Marathon committee and member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. "We really wanted to establish the dance marathon as an annual event. That's definitely possible now."
Students from the Greek system, Troy Camp, Mortar Board,
Circle K, and the Student Senate collected donations to benefit the Children's Hospital and the Children's Miracle Network.
Trophies were awarded to various organizations and teams for collective donation amounts and participation.
Michelle Brown, a member of Alpha Chi Omega, individually collected the most amount of donation money. The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and the Alpha Phi sorority were awarded the trophy honoring the Greek organizations with the most donations.
The Greek team who collected the most donations included Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Chi and Tau Kappa Epsilon. Troy Camp was awarded the trophy for tne most dancer tion, the only non-Greek tion to receive an award.
Besides dancing, participants played Twister, foosball, air nockey, basketball and pool. A massage booth was set up to relieve aching muscles.
Participants took part in group line dancing sessions, and the Greek organizations teamed up to participate in a lip sync contest. AXO, DX and TKE with the help of three of the children per-(See Dance, page 3)
participa-eek affilia-
Campus institutes serve as research facilities
By Jason S. Grant
Staff Writer
Several institutes on campus, some of which are known nationwide, serve many of the research needs of the university.
The Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention was founded in 1980 by its current director, Andy Johnson. Although it was originally a part of the School of Pharmacy, it has been associated with the School of Medicine since 1986, Johnson said.
"The institute was created in recognition of the need to address the major causes of illness and premature death," Johnson said. The institute's mission is to do research and training in the social, cultural and behavioral causes of illness and health.
Members come from various disciplines throughout the university including the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Annenberg School for Communications, which both collaborate with the institute on research, projects and teaching.
"(The institute's success) requires a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together the best from tne behavioral, social and biomedical sciences," Johnson said. "The major
emphasis is to try to translate what we've learned in our research into practice throughout our graduate and undergraduate training programs."
Students are a crucial element in the institute's community-based prevention pro-i in Southern California. These incfu
grams
ude
educating people about substance abuse,
peopli
cancer, heart disease and diabetes prevention.
The institute also organizes programs to enhance students' experience at the university through its interdisciplinary approach. Most recently, the institute created a first-ever undergraduate major revolving around health promotion and disease prevention-similar to the doctoral and post-doctoral level courses of study which have been offered.
The institute is internationally recognized for its leadership and substance-abuse prevention studies and currently receives $5 million each year from federal and state research funding, Johnson said.
The Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics interacts with students directly with its internship program and recruitment of political speakers.
The Institute was founded in 1978 as the Institute for Politics and Government. In 1987, it was rededicated in the name of the late speaker of the California Assembly who served from 1961 to 1968. Unruh also served as California state treasurer from 1974 until 1987, when he passed away.
The Unruh Institute's mission is to "get students interested and involved in political affairs," said Steven Greene, assistant director of the institute.
"Our internship program places undergraduates in internships in government, political and advocacy offices throughout the L.A. area," Greene said. On the average, 150 students a year get internships through the institute in political offices, with members of Congress, tne Los Angeles City Council or environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and Surfrider.
Other programs at the Unruh Institute focus on bringing speakers to the campus. These include the Distinguished Leader Lecture Series which has featured San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, mayoral candidate Tom Hayden, Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti and Kim Campbell, (See Institute, page 3)
Jaff Baard / Dally Tro|an Michelle Dallas and Dawn McCullon put on their most comfortable shoes for the 24-hour dance marathon on Friday.