Newspaper of the University of Southern California
The players' perspective
Greg Keating / Daily Trojan
The crowd gets pumped at last week's volleyball game. Yell leaders, song girls and the band will be out in force at tonight’s football spirit rally at Hahn Plaza at 6 p.m.
Health centers facing challenges
By Ken Braslow
Health and Medicine Writer
As students across the nation return to school this fall, currents of change are slowly eroding part of the campus landscape that is usually taken for granted: the student health center.
The billion-dollar industry now faces a plethora of issues threaten-	A
ing the quality
of care approximately twelve million students receive.
Highest on the priority list is funding: SHC costs are growing at about 8 percent annually. But tuition costs have soared so much in recent years that schools, faced with declining enrollments, are hard-pressed to charge students even more.
Tuition costs have increased by an average of 46 percent at private four-year colleges and 54
percent at their public counterparts over the last decade after inflation, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Yet funding of SHCs from tuition coffers has fallen dramatically— by two-thirds—while revenue from additional, mandatory student fees has almost doubled.
__________________ Specifically,
funding from tuition dollars has dropped '.5 per-
Rx for Student Health
from 45.!
Special Report cent of health center budgets in the 1980s to an all-time low of 16 percent, while money from fees has increased from 34 to 63 percent. USC funds its student health center through a special fee, which has doubled in the last 10 years.
Still, to be as competitive as possible, many schools would rather not raise fees and tuition at all. And most would prefer
(See Health, page 2)
Headlines
Defense could have new look
Among the notes revealed during football practice Wednesday was the USC football team's apparent effort to get freshman linebacker Cnris Claiborne more playing time this weekend.
Sports, page 16
Underappreciated talent in Heilman
Monte Heilman, best known for his work directing "Two-Lane Blacktop," is being honored this weekend by the American Cinematheque. Film Editor Scott Foundas interviews the little-known director.
Diversions, page 7
Girls can make good friends, too
Analyzing her transition from an all-girl high school to the coed USC campus, Editorial Writer Lizzie Singian comes to the realization that preserving old friendships with girls is valuable.
Viewpoint, page 4
Local bands play, writers workshop
The Santa Monica College Associated Students is holding a noontime concert series featuring various local bands starting today at the Santa Monica College Amphitheather.
All concerts are free and open to the public. Free parking is available in the Santa Monica City Park-and-Ride lot at the city airport.
The concert series will run through September. For more information call (310) 452-9209.
•	• •
Venue, a student organization dedicated to the arts, specifically short fiction and poetry, will hold a writers workshop at Ground Zero Coffee House on Sunday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m.
•	• •
Last chance to get your Student Activity Card before Saturday when Trojans play their first home football game against Oregon State. Activity Cards are available in the Ticket Office, STU 100.
Thursday September 12,19% Vol. CXXIX, No. 10
Low enrollment threatens two classes
By Carol Surovey
Staff Writer
Due to low enrollment, a pre-health class has been canceled and another one is in jeopardy of closing. The classes' instructors have tried to generate interest, but their best hope may be moving the classes to another major.
The classes, listed under public administration, have experienced declining enrollments over the years. "Issues in Health Education," PPMT 464, had three students enrolled and was officially closed by the university. "Principles of Health Education," PUAD 463, is normally offered in the spring, but will not remain unless enough students register.
The classes have a chance to proceed if their departmental affiliation is changed from Public Administration to the new
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention major.
"The problem is we don't have enough
People who know about the classes," said aula Swinford, who has instructed both classes. "1 don't know how to get the word out."
"Exposure is the problem," agreed instructor Ann Hickley.
The instructors said these classes are fundamental and basic courses everyone should be exposed to. Instructor Doug Chesshire said both courses provide "really good fundamental understanding, especially to the college age group" by dealing with disease, behavior, sex and alcohol.
In addition, these courses could prepare students to work with university medical staff, since the instructors are all physicians or staff at the USC Student Health Center.
Swinford noted that both classes have been offered for over 20 years, and said she is disappointed that they are in danger of closing.
One proposal to preserve the classes is to reintroduce them under a new undergraduate major to be offered at USC. Dr. Andy Johnson, who has been confirmed as director of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, said once the major receives final approval, these courses could be admitted. Currently, the School of Public Administration and the new major are trying to incorporate the courses into a program focusing on health issues.
Johnson is extremely excited about the program, as he feels there is a "big societal need for health promotion." He also said the classes may represent the applied side of student health services
Trojans reach their peak atop namesake
By Tony Aimone
Staff Writer
Mt. Williamson, the second highest mountain in California, would appear to be a thrill in itself. But after one climbs to the top and looks down 500 feet to the 13,950 foot Trojan Peak and the icy Lake Helen of Troy, that thrill truly hits home.
Xin Gong, a graduate student in international relations, and her husband Matthias Selke, a USC alumnus, had that experience this summer.
"Except for a few clouds, the weather was excellent," Gong said. "In the morning, however, the temperature on the plateau dropped below freezing. This was tne highest place we've ever camped at. As usual, at very high altitude, we had increased respiratory and heart rates, and we slept fitfully, woke up every now and then. I've never been so proud to be a Tmjan," said Gong and her husband in their journal of the trip.
Alumnus Chester Versteeg, Al Drummond and Noble Trennam dedicated the mountain and the
lake on the foot of the peak to the university in 1951 during the ninth known ascent up the mountain.
Other schools have mountain namesakes, including Stanford University, CalTech and the UC system.
"The Stanford Peak is slightly higher, but of course we tower over University Peak and CalTech Peak,'' Gong said. "Currently there are very few mountains without names in the High Sierra."
The Sierra Club and the California Mountaineering Club sponsor trips to mountains around California, she said.
Gong and Selke registered with the mountaineering club two months in advance to go on a tour of Mt. Williamson and Trojan Peak on the Fourth of July.
"Most students (either) don't have the time, have not heard about it or aren't interested," Gong said.
"(Trojan Peak is) definitely not (a trip) you would want to make for your first time out," said Dave Wyman, program director
Photo Courtoiy of Xln Qong
Xin Qong, standing on the summit of Mt. Williamson, views the Trojan Peak and Lake Helen of Troy.
of the university's Outdoor Adventure Travel Program, in a 1980 Daily Trojan article.
Part of the hike involved a class-three slope, which Gong said was not too difficult to climb.
Some people were using ropes and extra equipment to be entirely safe, she said, but she added, "It was a workout."
Tmjan Peak is located three
and a half hours from Los Angeles on the southeastern edge of the High Sierras In 1952, the university had an active Sierra Club According to the club's constitution, the purpose was to sponsor an annual climb of Trojan Peak and to priv mote interest in climbing According to the Office of Student Activities, there is no current Sierra Club