Newspaper of the University of Southern California
Headlines
Things that make you go BOOM!
Chances are that tomorrow night, you'll watch the world be accosted by alien life . forms or watch humans shoot fire up into the sky in retaliation. So should you look up or shouldn't you? Scott Foundas rates the hot release of "Independence Day," while the rest of the Summer Trojan staff offers insight on other areas of Fourth of July festivities.
Diversions, page 6
Day of celebration can be dangerous
Sparklers, fizzlers, bottle-rockets and Roman candles—they're all fun and games until someone gets caught in the crossfire. Fourth of July has become a day where reckless firework shenanigans are pulled off in American backyards. Guest editorial writer Benjamin Acker lists his reasons for hating fireworks, and the people who use them.
Viewpoint, page 4
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F.Y.I.
Blood donation, Fulbright Grants
The USC Summer Blood Drive will be held Tuesday, July 9 from 10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. near Tommy Trojan.
Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to make an appointment ahead of time,
appn
although it is not required. Call Jon San Juan at (213) 748-8264 to sign up.
The blood drive is sponsored by the Panhellenic Council, Interfraternity Council, Student Senate and the USC Catholic Center.
• t •
Fulbright Grants are still available for graduate students interested in financing international research projects. Full grants and travel grants are being offered.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens and hold a bachelor's degree or its equivalent at the beginning date of the grant.
For more information contact Carol Gordon, USC's Fulbright Program Adviser, at (213) 740-9053 or at GFS 315.
Brandtn Hancock / Summar Trojan
Student Senate Treasurer Jim Lewis and Political Affairs Chair Christina Ackerman relax in the newly furnished senate office.
Senate office gets new look
By Kamron Barron and Rad Probst
Staff Writers
Student Senate members have been keeping themselves busy this summer revamping their Student Union office and making plans for the upcoming academic year, said Student Body President Dave Gabler.
"We're almost done with the Endowment Wall, which is a gift from last year's senate to the office," Gabler said.
The wall will be approximately 4 to 5 feet wide and 3 feet tall, affixed with gold placards representing companies, groups or individuals who have contributed to the Student Senate's Endowment Fund.
The Endowment Fund was established so that, eventually, the Student Senate could become self-supportive, according to Statements from Radna Thompson, last year's student body president.
Gabler said that proceeds from the endowment fund will be used as early as this fall for scholarships and leadership conferences.
The Endowment Wall will be dedicated on August 28 at 4 p.m. during the senate's open house.
Also planned for the new senate, Gabler said, will be the update of the mission statement and establishment of a new Student Senate ethics code.
Jim Lewis, Student Senate treasurer, said there are two new focuses of the mission statement, student education and student outreach. Student education will promote providing an educational environment, while student outreach will deal with services.
A draft of the new mission statement has been distributed to Student Senate members, but will probably not be approved until August at the Student
(See Senate, page 2)
Fire destroys Greenroom Theatre
Playhouse leveled after accident while retarring parking lot
By Melanie Asp
Editor-in-Chief
Suspected Row burglar apprehended
By Kamron Barron
City Editor
A 39-year-old transient suspected of breaking into two sorority houses on 28th Street last week was apprehended by Department of Public Safety officers near the scene of one of the attempted burglary sites.
Marcus Johnson, who has nearly 20 aliases and an 18-page-long rap sheet, was seen by an Operations and Maintenance worker breaking a glass d(x>r at the Alpha Thi house on June 24, which was reported to the DPS offices, said Bob Taylor, deputy chief of DPS.
Johnson was apprehended by Del Taco, at the corner of 28th and Figueroa streets, where he had been hiding and was positively identified by the worker, Taylor said.
Glass was also found in Johnson's hair, which linked him to the broken glass from the door at the Alpha Phi house, he said.
"He was asked why he had glass particles in his hair and he said he must have gotten them while sleeping on the ground," Taylor said. "But we suspect a spectroanalysis of the glass particles from his hair and the glass from the door at Alpha Phi will be one in the same."
During a routine pmperty inventory, he was found to have seven keys in his possession belonging to the Kappa Alpha Theta house next door, Taylor said.
"He must have swiped them from the key board," he said. "Some were marked pantry, kitchen and so on, and those were the rooms that had been ransacked."
A burglary had been reported at that house earlier that morning by a gmundskeeper who found the sliding glass door in the patio unsecured About $1400 in goods were stolen, including three VCRs that have not been recovered, Taylor said.
"We'd been doing regular checks on the building," Taylor said. "We did a check the night before
(See Sororities, page 3)
Wednesday July 3,1996 Vol. CXXVIII, No. 8
The charred remains of the Greenroom Theatre were torn down Saturday after a fire on Thursday caused an estimated $100,000 worth of damage and rendered the small wooden structure useless.
The fire sparked around 3:30 p.m. Thursday during the resurfacing of the parking lot surrounding the Greenroom Theatre on the south side of University Park Campus near Exposition Boulevard. No one was inside the building and no injuries were reported.
"We were applying hot asphalt around the building," said Abraham Sota, an employee of Little Paving Company and foreman on the site. "To seal (the asphalt), we piled it and pushed it up against the building."
Sota said he was riding on equipment on the northwest corner of the theater when residents in the neighboring Parkside Apartments noticed flames engulfing the southwest corner of the building.
"The asphalt is anywhere
Brandan Hancock / Summar Trojan
The charred remains of the Greenroom Theatre awaits a demolition crew Saturday.
from 180 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit when we pour it, so the heat must have sparked the building," Sota said. "Then the fire just shot up within five minutes because of all the dry lumber and the wind."
Bob Taylor, deputy chief of the Department of Public Safety, said the workers had been smoothing the edges of the asphalt where it touched the building by reheating the tar
with a five-gallon propane torch.
"When you have a guy using a blowtorch next to a wooden structure, you should have a guy right next to him with a nose, just in case," said Taylor, who described the fire as an accident.
The pavers had been retarring the parking lot on a two-week contract with the university and were scheduled to finish Friday,
Sota said.
But on Thursday, Sota and the seven men on his paving crew had attempted to put out the fire with two or three small buckets of water but ended up sitting on the curb across 37th Street from the burning building while firefighters doused the flames.
Six fi retrucks responded to the scene, but by the time they
(See Theatre, page 2)