www.dailytrojan.com
Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912
January 26,2006
INSIDE
Bruin alumni group's Web site doesn 't give students enough credit. 4
Vol. CXL VIII, No. 11
THIRD IN A THREE-PART SERIES ON FOOD STAMPS
Full
bellies,
fewer
crimes
‘Crime definitely plays a big role when you live in an area where everyone is in poverty.
By BONNIE SCHINDLER
Staff Writer
Food is an essential ingredient in sustaining life; without it, the body and mind are not in balance.
For one-third of low-income adults, it is a daily struggle to maintain equilibrium.
On the days when these adults lose this struggle, there is a correlation between hunger and social ills.
Without food, people sometimes do poorly in school or break the rules, said Frank Tamborello of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger & Homelessness.
"Hunger and poor nutrition have been scientifically proven to affect children's educational performance,” he said. "Hunger is a symptom of poverty, and I believe you can find validation that loss of jobs and income can lead to a higher crime rate."
The problem is especially prevalent in areas where people such as Leatrice Parks, a struggling mother of two who lives in Long Beach.
“Crime definitely plays a big role when you live in an area where everyone is in poverty,” Parks said. “Everyone around us is hungry."
She said that because of their situations, people would do anything they could to survive; selling drugs or stealing. Before electronic benefits cards. Parks said some folks illegally copied food stamps and sold them in the streets.
I	see Hunger page 11 I
INDEX
On the road to Songfest: the first in a series of articles on the annual competition. 8
USC and Oregon Suite play in Corvallis, Ore., tonight 16
Newi Digest-.... 2 Lifestyle-7
Upcoming-----2 Classified* —12
Opinion*.....4 Sport*........!•
WEATHER
Today: Partly cloudy. High 61, low 47.
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. High 62, low 45.
IFC frats recruit 233 new members
The 19fraternities that participated in spring rush averaged almost two more rushees than in spring 2005.
By TOREY VAN 00T
Staff Writer
Pop the sparkling grape juice and tap the kegs of O'Doul's — the Interfraternity Council's spring rush concluded on Saturday with a 36 percent growth in participation since the enforcement of dry rush began in spring 2005.
The 19 IFC houses that participated in rush have welcomed 233 rushees into their new pledge classes. The average new member class this semester was 12.3 members, compared to 10.6 in spring 2005.
The range of pledge class size decreased for the third consecutive spring rush. New member class sizes spanned from six to 19 students.
“The Row is becoming more of a unified community.” said Sagar Patel, IFC vice president of rush, regarding the diminishing gap between traditionally large and small houses.
IFC viewed this semester's rush as “close to perfect," said Patel, a junior majoring in biological sciences.
“I'd say kids are more serious about it, understood the process better and appreciated the Greek system better,” said Patel on the Spring’s improvements.
Patel said that he attributes a large amount of the week's perceived success to the enforcement
I	see Rush page 13
Wrist-worn sensor measures alcohol level through sweat
The sensor has been in development at USC and other universities for five years..
By KATE JACKSON
SUIT Writer
Students and faculty members of the USC Department of Mathematics are helping to develop a new kind of sensor that measures blood-akohol concentration through sweat instead of by breath or blood.
The project a collaboration among many fidds of study and several universities, including USC. UCLA and Brown University, aims to find non-mvasive and non annoying wavs of measuring BAC. said Gary Rosen, chairman of the USC math department and head of the mathematical portion of the project
The project is sponsored by the National Institute
see lemer page 10
Coroner releases infant autopsy
The autopsy report is evidence in the Holly Ashcraft murder case. The infant was found near campus 108 days ago.
By JOSHUA SHARP
Staff Writer
The autopsy report for the baby boy found in the Holly Ashcraft murder case has been completed, said Efrain Aceves, prosecuting deputy district attorney. Aceves said that he received the
report Tuesday and will make a copy available to the defense team, led by attorney Paul J. Wallin, by Friday.
While Aceves wouldn’t comment on the specific conclusions of the report, he said it didn’t raise any new questions.
“It’s pretty much what we expected," he said.
Because the autopsy report was not available earlier, the court date to schedule a preliminary hearing was rescheduled three times.
It is currently scheduled for Feb. 23. Dave Felton, a paralegal working with Wallin on the case, felt the delayed release of the autopsy report as “ridiculous" and "frustrating."
He said that he had never seen delays in “a case of this magnitude.”
“It shows incompetence ... on the
part of the whole prosecution team," Felton said.
Aceves responded by saying that the Ixis Angeles County Coroner’s office is independent of the County District Attorney’s Office and that the prosecution is in no way responsible for the length of time an autopsy report takes to complete.
He added that the coroner is a trained expert who is “very knowledge-I see Autopsy, page 10 i
Information, please. Environment First, Amnesty International and other groups passed out information during an involvement fair held at Tommy Trojan Wednesday. The groups are all members of the Political Student Assembly.
Political assembly hosts fair
Twenty politically active student groups make up the Political Student Assembly.
By DANIELLE SCHUMAKER
Staff Writer
The Political Student Assembly, a new organization composed of various political clubs, hosted an involvement fair on Trousdale Parkway on Wednesday.
The assembly oversees 20 politically active student groups, including Amnesty International, Rock the Vote, USC College Democrats, USC College Republicans, Human Rights Action and Environment First. The groups have allied under the umbrella organization with the intention of collaborating toward the common goal of fostering open discussion with opposing viewpoints.
The organization, previously known as the Unruh Political Student
Association, was created because of the "need for an assembly that addresses the reach of political awareness to more individuals." said Lee Sherman, director of PSA.
Sherman, a senior majoring in political science and theater, was responsible for the PSA’s acceptance by Student Senate for a trial period covering the 2006 spring semester. Last fall. Senate voted to accept the temporary inclusion of the PSA into Program Board.
I see A*s«mbiy page 13 I
Gizmo. Prof Gary Rosen models an alcohol sensor USC has been helping develop along with UCLA and Brown