USC will go north
Trojans defeat BYU to advance to Super Regional where they will face Stanford beginning Friday /12
Student newspaper of the University of Southern California
WEDNESDAY
-------♦-------
June 5, 2002
Of interest...
Congress’ attempt to protect children from Internet porn violates more than freedom of speech / 4
News Digest	2	Roundup	2
Opinions	4	Lifestyle	7
The Buzz	7	Classifieds	8
Crossword	9	Sports	12
vol. CXLVI, no. 4	www.usc.edu/dt
SCelebration
Mason Poole I Summer Trojan
Baseball Bliss. Senior center fielder Brian Barre gets a lift from senior first baseman after hitting the game-winning home run in the 11th inning of Friday’s NCAA Regional game against BYU. The Trojans won all three games in the Regional Tournament and will advance to the Super Regionals at Stanford June 7-9.
Professor to work for SEC
Faculty: Securities and Exchange Commission picks Harris as chief economist
By KAUSTUV BASU
Contributing Writer
The Securities and Exchange Commission appointed USC business and finance professor Lawrence Harris as chief economist the beginning of last month.
The SEC ensures that the markets run well.
Harris’ plans in his new job are to “help the SEC develop a first rate capacity for economic research and analysis," he said in an e-mail.
He said one of his first tasks will be to address the issue of the costs and benefits of moving to next day settlement for securities transactions from the present settlement.
Harris also said that he had always wanted to be involved in public policy but he was happy to do it through his research and training at USC.
In his new position, Harris will be responsible for helping the officials at the SEC better understand the different economic forces that affect markets, according to USC News. He will work under Chairman Harvey Pitt and with commissioners Cynthia A. Glassman and Isaac C. Hunt Jr.
“The tremendous prosperity of our economy depends critically on having fair and well-functioning markets," Harris told USC News.
“Good markets do not just happen.
Mason Poole I Summer Trojan
Moving up. Lawrence Harris, a business and finance professor, has been appointed chief economist of the Securities Exchange Commission.
Exchanges, brokers, dealers, traders and regulators must act together to create markets that promote the common good.”
Harris said the process began
when a senior manager recommended him to the SEC chairman. Pitt interviewed Harris and then invited him to Washington, DC, where Pitt,
I see Harris, page 3 I
USC questions possible WRC
membership
Human rights: Officials do not have enough data to decide whether to join the Worker’s Rights Consortium
By BETH COOMBS
Contributing Writer
Despite strong student support, university officials have decided USC will not yet join the Workers Rights Consortium, a group that monitors manufacturers of university logo apparel, because authorities do not have enough information about the organization.
For more than 18 months, students have campaigned for USC to join the WRC. Their efforts culminated last month in a six-hour demonstration in President Steven B. Sample’s office. The protest gave a group committed to seeing USC join the WRC a chance to talk to university officials. All parties agreed a decision about USC’s involvement in the WRC would be made before graduation.
On May 9, Dennis Dougherty, senior vice president for administration, sent out a letter to the students involved in the demonstration explaining that USC officials don’t have enough information about the WRC to make a decision.
“I do not feel prepared to make a definitive decision as to whether or not USC should join the WRC," Dougherty said in the letter.
He went on to cite concerns about the WRC’s monitoring practices, lack of industry representation, scope of monitoring and formal partnerships.
“1 still want to learn more about the overall issues, the WRC, its leadership and its programs,” Dougherty said in the letter.
The decision to not join the WRC isn’t final, as USC is just asking for more time to learn about the issue, said Cynthia Cherrey, assistant vice president for Student Affairs.
“(The decision) is open ended right now,” she said. “We need more education and understanding about the organization and the university’s direction."
In the month between the sit-in at Sample’s office and the letter, USC officials met weekly with the 12 students who occupied Sample’s office to protest the university’s alleged ties to sweatshops. The meetings were a chance to give USC officials more information on the WRC and other sweatshop monitoring organizations, according to Cherrey.
“It was a time of dialogue and exchanging of information,” she said, "an on-going dialogue."
Despite the communication, the meetings weren’t as productive as students hoped, according to Chrysta Wilson, a senior majoring in public policy and management, who
facilitated all three meetings.
“The meetings were very tense,” she said. “I think the key issues where compromise is needed are the key issues that both sides feel strongly about."
But the meetings did open up the desire for further WRC and sweatshop monitoring discussion. Doughertys letter calls for a symposium or speaker series on the issue, as well as continuing the meetings with students, this time including members of the WRC and the Fair Labor Association, a separate sweatshop monitoring organization USC belongs to.
The idea of educating others about sweatshop conditions is a good idea, according to Wilson.
Timeline
Last month, students held a six-hour demonstration in President Steven B. Sample’s office
The protesters talked with university officials
USC officials met weekly with the 12 students who occupied Sample’s office
On May 9, the administration sent out a letter explaining that USC does have enough information about the WRC to make a decision
“I think that educating students and faculty about labor issues is important because it is a complex issue that combines social responsibility, economics, local and international laws within these sweatshop’ nations,” she said. “1 would love to see our esteemed public policy, IR or political science professors educate beyond their classrooms.”
But the overall decision to not join the WRC didn’t please the people who had been fighting for USC to join, especially because of USC’s insistence on apparel industry representation on the WRC board.
“The WRC’s main strength is precisely the fact that it is independent from the industry it evaluates, and precisely why the FLA is so criticized by human rights groups,” James Nussbaumer, a senior majoring in political science and communication, said in an e-mail.
i see WRC, page 3 I