Newspaper of the University of Southern California
Wednesday September 13, 1995 Vol. CXXVI, No. 9
Headlines
Sprinkler misuse causes alarm
Backfield topic of discussion
USC Coach John Robinson commented on the Trojans' running backs — Leonard Green, Shawn Walters and Delon Washington in particular — at Tuesday's media luncheon.
Sports, page 20
Students react to Bosnian raid
After Monday's authorization of an air strike over war-torn former Yugoslavia, students respond with their views on the future prospects of the southern European nation.
Diversions, page 10
'Back to normal’ at the Citadel
Shannon Faulkner, the first female cadet at the Citadel, recently lef tthe instituiton. Editorial columnist Krysten Fikes comments on the implications for women across the nation.
Viewpoint, page 4
F.Y.I.
URSC meetings begin tonight
University Residential Student Community (URSC) will be holding its first meeting for the year tonight 6:30 p.m. in Topping Student Center. For more information, call (213) 740-6467.
The Suicide Prevention Center of Los Angeles is seeking volunteers for its CrisisLine. The center provides immediate telephone counseling to more than 16,000 callers who are contemplated suicide or are in severe psychological distress.
The center provides free suicide prevention training to the Police Department, 911 emergency personnel, the Los Angeles County School of Nursing, Los Angeles County Childrens' Hospital, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the Wilkensen Senior Center. For more information regarding being a volunteer, call (213) 385-FSLA.
By Melanie Reyes
Staff Writer
The new sprinkler system installed in university housing cost some residents damage to their rooms when a sprinkler activated in a room in Trojan Hall on Move-in Day.
Sprinklers were set off in a room on the third floor of Trojan Hall on August 26, flooding the room and two rooms on the second floor, said Kyler Kuehn, a resident advisor in the building.
The RAs helped to evacuate the building, and had everyone meet outside. By midnight, residents on the first and second floors, and most of the residents on the third floor, were moved back into their room, Kuehn said.
tuft got completely ruined," he said.
The flooding oc klers were activated by a student who hung
"A lot of stuff got wet, but things weren't .impletely ruined," he said.
Tne flooding occurred when the fire sprin-
i nu
a poster on a sprinkler head.
At 8:19 p.m., the Department of Public Safety and the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the sprinkler activation. The Operations and Maintenance staff cleaned up the water and the LAFD reset the alarm and cleared the building. There were no injuries.
According to an assistant foreman who refused to give his name, the sprinklers are fairly fragile because the head has a piece of metal which melts at a low temperature.
"If you hang clothes or anything on it, 99 percent of the time it will break the piece of metal," he said. "Lots of water comes through because it is tied into the water main... It can cause a large amount of damage."
The final estimates on damages were not complete, but they should not exceed $4,000, said Jeff Urdahl, director of housing.
Carpet on the second floor, a computer and a number of books were ruined, he said.
The new system was added in order to bring residence halls up to code.
"The sprinkler system was doing its job," Urdahl said. "If there was a real fire, we would be thankful they worked. They add a degree of safety that is hard to measure."
To prevent accidents like the one in Trojan Hall, training sessions are being held today on the new system, said Ken Taylor, director of Residential and Greek Life.
As more systems come online, additional sessions will be held to get everyone updated.
Also, guards will be placed over sprinkler heads in areas in stairwells or fully exposed pipes to prevent future accidents.
"The sprinklers are not meant to be played with or be ornaments or have anything (See Sprinkler, page 12)
Alpha Beta store opening set for next February
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By Jonathan Atienza
Staff Writer
Sam Hayes, a welder who lives in the neighborhood near the intersection of Adams and Vermont, has seen his two daughters, Simone and Tiana, grow from babies to children over the last few years.
During that time, however, a 52,493 square foot lot at that same intersection had not grown at all. Though announced as the site of a future grocery store, the lot was still full of dirt.
The lot was formerly the site of a Thrifty's drugstore that was demolished more than a decade ago. At one comer, several signs have been posted — one promises an Alpha Beta grocery store will open in fall 1995, and next to it, an artist's conception of the structure is posted.
"The lot just needs something to be there," Hayes said. "We (the residents) have been looking at that lot for years. Everybody's been waiting for that market."
This Monday, it seemed that the residents' wait was over, Crews began the preliminary preparations for construction which include digging a trench around the lot and setting up fencing to surround the area.
Residents will still have to wait until February next year for the building to be completed , according to Jennifer Barrera, assistant project manager of the Hoover Redevelopment Project, who said that it was an unfortunate delay.
"(The grocery store) is much needed and the residents can't wait for it to be built. It's long
* *
.41
Grog Keating / Dally Trojan
The empty lot on Vermont and Adams where Alpha Beta will soon siand has been caught in appropriations for three years.
overdue," Barrera said.
She said that the construction was held up by the merger between Ralph's and Alpha Beta and three houses at the edge of the lot that actually had to be moved to add more space.
Plans call for the grocery store to take up 43,027 square feet, with the remaining 9,466 being taken up by smaller businesses
that can lease the space.
When the grocery store finally does open, many residents who shop at the 32nd St. Market are looking forward to having a new shopping option which will hopefully be less crowded.
"Thirty-Second Street is full all of the time," said Elizabeth Mejia, a local resident.
(See Alpha Beta, page 14)
Examining literature’s critical condition
Professor Jay Martin takes recent top ten recognition seriously
By Dana Cohler
Staff Writer
English Professor Jay Martin is one of the top ten Leading Literary Critics in America, according to the Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook 1994.
The list, determined by a survey of panels of literary experts, was published in "Who Runs American Literature?", an article wrriten by George Garrett in August.
"(I am) excited to be ranked with major critics in the U.S. and regarded with people who determine what is good and not good in American literature," Martin said.
However, Martin sees the honor as a tremendous responsibility.
"Literature studies [play a major role] in generating and influencing cultural values," ne said.
Martin said that his work is meant to be in the public arena so that it may "influence a wide range of people, (including) profession-
al specialists and the general educated pub-
Paul Alkon, an English professor and colleague of Martin's, said he was pleased by Martin's recognition, but was not surprised due to the quality of his work.
Martin has written over 150 publications, some of which have been translated into Japanese, German, Portuguese and, most recently, Spanish.
Martin said that his writings generally fall under three categories: literary history, biographies, and book reviews for the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
In 1956, Martin graduated from Columbia University with honors in English and Comparative Literature, where he studied with well-known writers Mark Van Doren and Lionel Trilling.
He received his master's and Ph D. in English at Ohio State University. After teaching at Pennsylvania State University and Yale, where he was an Undergraduate Director of American Studies, he moved to the University of California, Irvine where he founded the Comparative Culture Pmgram.
Profile
It soon became the largest major at the university, but didn't survive after Martin left the university.
In 1979, Martin accepted the Leo S. Bing Professorship of English at USC, where he teaches both graduate and undergraduate classes in American Literature and Contemporary Writing.
In addition to his vast experience and expertise in Literature, Martin also lectures and has a private practice in psychoanalysis.
He received his Ph.D. in psychoanalysis from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in 1983 "(Martin) is one of the very few literary scholars who has mastered the field of literary history and criticism and psychoanalysis," Alkon said.
"1 tend to be most interested in works from a positive point of view rather than a negative one," Martin said. "I try to be empathet-ic with the author and try to understand his work rather than condemn and castigate it."
Martin said that he hopes his students "would describe me as informed, intelligent and kind."
(Sff Martin, page 14)