Students
discuss
forming
group
Annenberg School Latinos talk about bringing back professional organization.
By KEVIN PINKNEY
Contributing Writer
After nearly 20 years of inactivity, Annenberg communication and journalism students, faculty and staff met Wednesday afternoon to discuss the re-establishment of the Annenberg Latino Student Association.
Annenberg hosted two meetings Wednesday to gauge student interest in the ALSA.
The discussion served as an open forum to gather feedback on what needs and desires an organization like ALSA could provide to the Latino community at USC and the university at large.
ALSA plans to focus on helping Latino students find scholarships and internships and inform the students on industry news, said Diana Beas, a senior majoring in communications.
Beas and Brenda Duran, a senior majoring in print journalism, spearheaded the effort to recreate ALSA.
Duran will handle the journalism-oriented events ALSA will sponsor and Beas will be in charge of events centered on communication.
ALSA is still in the planning stages, so future events have yet to be determined, Beas said.
“1 want avenues for networking such as trips to job fairs, inviting guest speakers and developing an alumni base with graduating seniors," Duran said.
ALSA also hopes that the organization will eventually be able to hone the job skills of Latino Annenberg students, Beas said.
"We definitely want to grow to a professional organization, including internships, workshops on careers in every communications field: writing, editing, technological, etc. We want to be renaissance men (and) women of the future,” Beas said.
Sylvia Lopez, co-anchor of KCAL-9's News at Nine and an Annenberg alumna, originally founded ALSA. Lopez said she modeled the organization after the Latino Student Business Association.
ALSA was founded in 1981, disbanded around 1985 and- has been dormant ever since, said Felix Gutierrez, a professor of journalism.
Lopez returned to USC to attend Wednesday's meeting and offer advice about restarting the organization.
“There was no one in the community or on TV at the time I could identify with, so I had no mindset to go into broadcasting," Lopez said.
Lopez majored in public relations instead and started her career
Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912
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Signing up. (Left) Anastasiya Kukhtareva, a sophomore majoring in communications, and (right) Genevieve Goetz, a sophomore majoring in theater, sign the USC Feminist Majority Leader Alliance's pledge of solidarity.
Thirty-two years
Abortion remains at the forefront of American politics more than three decades after Roe v. Wade.
By ARCHANA PRAKASH
Contributing Writer
he Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance hosted an event Wednesday evening to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade, decision and raise awareness of the possibility that the woman's right to choose is under attack.
The FMLA event also served as a kickoff for their Pledge of Solidarity campaign, an initiative in which people sign an oath that pledges their commitment to fight for equal treatment of all people, the right to reproductive choice, a policy and practice of peace and support for an international feminist movement.
"Hopefully the pledge will have some effect, even if we don't change the world immediately. If we affect a few people, it’s a start,” said Sarah Levy, president of the FMLA.
Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court case in which a majority vote of 5-4 ruled that a woman’s choice to have an abortion is protected by the right to privacy.
The federal decision allowed women to choose to have an abor-
tion, striking down laws in many states that prohibited women from having an abortion unless the woman’s life was in danger.
Since 1973, the decision has slowly lost its weight, starting with the 1989 Supreme Court ruling in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, in which restrictions placed on abortion in the state of Missouri were not found to be unconstitutional.
Some legal experts have argued other legislation, such as last year's Partial-Birth Abortion Act and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, are adding more restrictions to the all-encompassing protection of a woman’s right to choose established by Roe v. Wade.
National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League Pro-Choice America, one of the leading organizations for protecting the right to choose, recently released a study titled, “Who Decides? The Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States,” in which they found that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, 19 states would outlaw abortion and 19 others might subsequently follow.
"1 think this issue is taken for granted. Roe v. Wade is slowly being chipped away at, and pretty soon people will wake up one day and say, 'what the hell happened?”’ Levy said.
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The other side. Last year's Democratic National Convention saw abor tion protestors line the streets.
INSIDE
The young kids are trying to help the men's basketball team find success this year.
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Study says
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money si ill
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a big issue
A recent online survey said only about 35 percent of college students said they're financially "secure."
By JEFF SKIBISKI
Contributing Writer
With tuition rates on the rise, the majority of students are struggling financially. WhiJe many students take advantage of the work-study program and the various scholarship opportunities offered by the school, several students are left in the dark and are forced to deal with financial obstacles.
A recent study conducted by sur-vey.com found tli.it only 36 percent m of college students describe their financial status as "secure.”
The survey, taken in December 2004, used information gathered from approximately 515 undergraduate and graduate students to determine tiie Imancjai status ol students as second semester progresses and to investigate the buying and selling of textbooks on-line.
Buying books online to save money is a method that more and more students are taking advantage of nationwide. The survey found that more than 50 percent of students have sold or shopped at half.com for their textbooks.
“It saved me a lot of money, but there's also a downside to it since 1 had to worry about getting them on time and also about the hidden shipping costs,” said Mojdeh Navid, an undecided freshman. “You can’t always be sure of the exact edition of your book, especially on Web sites such as half.com, which don’t always provide the edition number."
One of the other ways students are choosing to deal with their finan-
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INDEX
Angeles Drake band members are also workers. 7
Tsunami radio parody is not appropriate satire. 4
I see ALSA. page 3 I