Wednesday September 20,1995 Vol. CXXVI, No. 14
Miller goes on the air for TNT
Former USC women's basketball coach Cheryl Miller announced she will broadcast basketball games for Turner Sports. Players reacted to Miller's sudden departure.
Sports, page 16
Identifying love and its remains
You've seen the movie (maybe; it was OK), you probably haven't read the play, but you might well be inclined to see "Unidentified Human Remains and the Nature of True Love."
Diversions, page 7
Ratings system arcane, archaic
Editorial columnist Erik Aadahl examines the double standard that exists within the Motion Picture Association of American in the way it assigns ratings to movies.
Viewpoint, page 4
F.Y.I.
IRUA to discuss nuclear testing
The International Relations Undergraduate Association will be meeting today at 6 p.m. There will be a simulation on French nuclear testing. For more information, contact IRUA President Meehan Moore at (213) 734-1471.
• • •
LAIisled, a new student job service, helps students solve problems with cash-flow, tight schedules, and recreational time. The service helps students combine their personal activities with their work schedule, such as shopping for someone else when the student needs to pick up items from the store or giving rollerblading or tennis lessons.
Students must be listed for the area or areas of work in which they are interested,
The cost to list for one year is $12 and student can update their listings any time. For more information or to obtain an application, call (310) 456-1546.
Newspaper of the University of Southern California
All dressed up...
Troy Witt / Dally Trojan
Firefighters return from a false alarm at EVK Residential College this Monday.
Study honors graduate engineering program
By Jovie Baclayon
Staff Writer
~ ngineering Program ranked 10th in its field, the National Research Council reported last week, with Stanford in first place and UCLA tied at 10th.
"I think that this ranking is very good for the program," said Anthony Freitas, a graduate student in the control systems engineering program. "I knew that USC's electrical engineering program would be a good one. Its high standing had a bearing on my decision to come here."
The ranking was determined by evaluations done by the council on the educational effectiveness of the graduate programs. The quality of faculty also had a strong bearing.
"Our program has an outstanding faculty," said Hans Kuehl, chair of the electrophysics department. "They are the reason behind our successful ranking. The research for our program covers such a diverse area and tne faculty does an excellent job."
Also considered for the study were evaluations from 8,000 faculty members of various universities.
"I am very pleased with the National Research Council's ranking," said Leonard Silverman, dean of the School of Engineering. "However, due to a change this year in the collection of surveys, I am concerned that not all of our departments were accurately evaluated."
"Had the typical process for evalua-J tion... been followed, our other depart-
USC garners only a single top ten rating
By Coll Metcalfe
Staff Writer
USC claimed only one top 10 honor in the National Research Council's most recent study of U.S. doctorate programs.
The four-year study, called "Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States," is the most comprehen-
(See Programs, page 2)
ments would have done equally as well," he said.
The electrical engineering graduate program includes graduate students in the electrophysics department, which has programs in photonics, laser studies, inte-grational optical computing and joint services electronics.
It also consists of students from the systems department, which deals with computer engineering, signal and imaging processing and communication sciences.
Overall, University of California at Berkeley ranked first in the nation with 97 percent of its programs in the top 10. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard rounded out the top three schools.
Business affable to affirmative action
By Jennifer Hamm
Staff Writer
Though governmental issues surrounding affirmative action are buzzing around California campuses, private businesses will not be significantly affected by legal deci-sions.	.
David Lopez-Lee, professor Third If) 3 S6/76S of political science, said affirmative action programs are not usually based on a quota system.
"Preferences or quotas only occur when mandated by the court as a legal remedy," he said. "Affirmative action is not about prefer-
ences, it is about making an even playing field."
Charlotte Barlow, section administrator for Bank of America, said she doesn't know if affirmative action has helped her at all as an African-Ameritan. She was hired in 1983 after working for Bank of America for a brief time through a temporary agency.
"The man who hired me liked my work," she said. "He had to choose between me and someone who already worked for the bank."
Thomas Gunatilleke, senior credit support officer for Bank of America, who has worked
Affirmative Action
for the bank for 15 years and is from Sri Lanka, said that preferences have not affected hiring at the bank "They are hiring the right people for the right job," he said. "It's not right to hire people just to fill quotas."
According to Linda Nolen, director of the Affirmative Action Office at USC, many people are against affirmative action because they believe that others get preferential treatment — something she says is not true.
"Affirmative action programs never require that anyone who is unqualified be hired," she said.
Afshin Ketabi, account service manager for
(Set Business, page 2)
Officials say 'Excellence ’ worth price
By Jonathan Atienza
Staff Writer
Nearly $75,000 was spent on Thursday's black-tie dinner to preview President Steven Sample's campaign, "Building on Excellence,' but according to the campaign director, it was well worth tne money.
The dinner was for the benefit of current and potential donors to the university, who were given a preview of the campaign Sample announced Friday morning.
Campaign Director Paul Blodgett said that a fundraising campaign has taken place every decade since 1960 and such dinners have been an important part of that tradition.
"We are talking about trying to generate a great deal of money for the university," he said. "There's a certain amount
of marketing, advertising, promotion with any product you're trying to sell. You're going to have to spend some money to generate tnat money."
Approximately 575 people attended the dinner and nearly 75 percent of them were donors. The rest of the people consisted of administrators, deans, endowed chairs, who represented the most distinguished faculty members, and a select group of student leaders.
The dinner was free for those who were on the guest list because the intent was to recognize donors and have them meet the faculty and students.
"This event was designed to bring together a number of our most important and prospective donors and key members of the administration and faculty and to acknowledge the support of some of them," Blodgett said.
The $75,000 total is an approximation of the evening's expenses based on an estimated cost of $130 per person who attended, Blodgett said. The funds came from a Central University Advancement Budget that is used for fund raising.
The money spent on the dinner includes such items as first-class catering, a guest conductor and lighting, but organizers say the event was a necessary step in soliciting donors.
Actual figures on expenses will not be available for several weeks because the accounting figures are still being tabulated, Blodgett said.
Otner expenses for the evening were for the decorative columns, sound equipment, flowers, programs, champagne and a red carpet for the guests.
World-famous Hollywood Bowl conductor John Mauceri
was recruited to conduct the symphony, but Blodgett said that they paid Mauceri an amount that was nowhere near what he usually receives.
"Mauceri asked only for a very small honorarium," he saia. "He essentially donated his services and the student musicians got to work with a world-famous conductor."
Blodgett also said that efforts were made to keep expenses down through efforts to recruit volunteers, searching for discounts and soliciting multiple bids for large purchases.
"This dinner was not extrava-ant," he said. "We had a good eal of assistance from off campus and it was a necessary thing to do."
The donors who attended the dinner were very impressed, said Event Coordinator Adriana (Str Dinner, pagt 2)