Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912
INSIDE
Matt Leinart set a Pac-10 touchdown record in USC's win over jV Washington	y\
Saturday. ^ j 20
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www.daitytrojan.com
October 24,2005
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Vol. CXL VII. No. 44
INDEX
MOCA I new exhibit features a fountain rumored to be laced with LSD. 7
Congress might cut billions from student aid 4
News Digest..— 2	Sport*—........20
Upcoming_______2	Classifieds____IS
Opinions-------4	Lifestyle
WEATHER
Today: Mostly cloudy. High of 63, low of 5ft. Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. High 64. low54.
Keck to study link between cancer and obesity
The USC school received a $12.1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute.
By CARLEY DRYDEN
Contributing Wntrr
The National Cancer Institute awarded the USC Keck School of Medicine a $12.1 million grant to study the relationship between obesity and cancer ruk in minority children, as part of the new Transdisophiury Research on Energetics and Cancer initiative, according to a press release from the
National Institute of Health News.
The NCI TREC initiative's goal is to join together the study of diet, weight and physical activity and their effects on cancer through research centers that focus on energy balance and energetics
—	the study of the How and transforma tion of energy through living systems.
The TREC initiative will fund four centers, the Keck School of Medicine at USC. the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and the University of Minnesota, with a five-year. $54 million initiative, according to a press release
"This is a very exciting initiative	Allipk
because it brings	together faculty from	Iflllvll
a wide variety of research backgrounds from various centers across the US to	*
work together to	understand the com-	♦
plex link between obesity and cancer."	The TREC
said Dr. Michael Goran, principal inves-	initiative will
tigator of the project at the Keck School	fund tour
of Medicine.	centers, one
The center at the Keck School of	of which will
Medicine, under the direction of Goran be at the USC and co-principal investigator. Dr Leslie	Keck School
Bemsteia will explore the physiologi-	of Medicine
caL metabolic genetic, behavioral and	and led by
environmental influences on obesity	Dr Michael
page 11	Goran.
Ryan Schuster I Daily Trojan
Annenberg a finalist for NSF center
The center's aim would be to improve science education for students in grades K-16.
By TOREY VAN OOT
Contributing Writer
The USC Annenberg School of Communication is one of the seven finalists in the National Science Foundation’s search for campus sites to host multidisciplinary centers focused on exploring science learning.
USC’s involvement in the program is in response to NSF’s request for proposals to build a center aimed at "improving science education in the K-16 levels and to help students ... in getting excited about learning sci-
ence," said Geoffrey Baum, assistant dean of public affairs and special events at Annenberg.
The centers are part of NSF's new science of learning center initiative, which is seeking “outside the box" ways to help us understand learning, said Lynn Miller, the principal investigator on the project.
The three to five centers whose proposals are selected will be awarded a grant of $20 million over five years to set up the center, Phillips said. The grant can later be extended to fund a 10-year center, she said.
The proposed center is named iSOLVE. the Institute for Socially Optimized Learning in Virtual Environment, said Nichole Phillips, administrative director for USC's
Integrated Media Systems Center.
The center will set up individually tailored tutorship programs, explore the use of games and focus on the effectiveness of virtual environments in teaching the “stem" subjects such as engineering, math, science and technology, Miller said.
“Our concept was that we wanted to understand what self-regulated, deeper learning is all about," said Miller, who will be director of the program if it is funded. "If you look at trends in schools there is a tremendous drop in intrinsic motivation as soon as children enter school."
She also said this trend is alarmingly present in children interested in engineering, math, science and tech-
I see Cantsr. oage 13
The three to five centers whose proposals are selected will be awarded a grant of $20 million over five years to set up the center. The grant can be extended to fund a 10-year center.
College selects 4 new deans
The four new deans in the College of Letters. Arts & Sciences will serve for five years each.
Ready to ride? Gayle Peterson has been working the community carnival, held at the Hoover Recreation Center, for 35 years.
“I've done everything at the carnival,” said Peterson while standing under the ferris wheel. The carnival was open to the public throughout the weekend.
Round and round
By STEPHANIE SAMUELS0N
Contributing Writer
Dean Joseph Aoun and a search committee have selected four new associate deans for the College of Letters. Arts & Sciences.
These deans — Dean of Research Michael Quick, Dean of Faculty Wayne Raskind, Dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs Peter Starr and Dean of Graduate Academic Programs Jennifer Wolch — will each serve at their new posts for five years.
Their new positions became official July 1 after Aoun and the search committee interviewed candidates for three weeks, but wasn't made public until Oct. 17.
“1 personally feel that you need to bring in new Vilood periodically.
There is a real institutional interest
in seeing these positions turn over.''
Starr said.
New deans also bring new ideas to the table for USC students, many of whom filter through the College's general education classes, as well as enrolling in its 80 majors and 50 minors.
The College is looking to recruit better faculty and students to inflate USC’s reputation, Starr said.
“(USC) was a very distinguished regional university and now we are very, very much positioning ourselves as a university of the world," Starr said.
Aoun and the search committee conducted an internal search because Aoun has a good faculty to select from and the associate deans act mainly as a support staff to Aoun, Quick said.
"But I can't imagine a much more motivated, bright, hard-working group," Quick said.
And while the college continues to progress, dynamic leadership will be a crucial element to success, Aoun said.
Aoun divided the dean of academic programs into two posts — the dean of undergraduate academic programs and the dean of graduate programs.
In order to compete with the top universities in the nation to attract the best and brightest students, undergraduate and graduate students needed more direct attention, Aoun said.
“The person who is the dean of academic programs will spend most of their time on undergraduate issues.
I see Daant oage 13
“I personally feel that you need to bring in. new blood periodically. There is a real institutional interest in seeing these positions
turn over." ♦
PETER STARR
dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs USC College of Letters. Arts & Sciences