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Feature, page 7
trojan
Volume CX, Number 27
University of Southern California
Wednesday, October 11,1989
In Brief
Soviet news agency reports spacecraft, aliens land in city
MOSCOW — A three-eyed alien with a robot sidekick landed by UFO and made a boy vanish by zapping him with a pistol, a state-run Soviet newspaper reported Tuesday in a second day of strange tales.
“Don’t believe all you hear from Tass,” cautioned Genrikh Silanov, head of the Voronezh Geophysical Laboratory. “We never gave them part of what they published.”
On Monday, the official Soviet news agency told the world that scientists had confirmed that an alien spaceship carrying giant people with tiny heads had touched down in Voronezh, a city of more than 800,000 people about 300 miles southeast of Moscow.
The reported close encounter in Voronezh was only the latest weird tale to appear in the Soviet media, which, under the policy of “glasnost” or openness, have recently told of other sightings of UFOs and the Yeti, or abominable snowman.
State: Suspect arrested for Pennsylvanian robbery
LAKEPORT — A man arrested by FBI agents is wanted in Pennsylvania, where he is accused of taking part in possibly the biggest Philadelphia bank robbery in 10 years, authorities said.
Stephen Stewart Miller, 33, told agents he was “just waiting” to be located after this year’s May 25 armed robbery of the First Valley Bank of Lansford, Pa., said Greg Snider, an FBI agent in Santa Rosa.
Miller was arrested Friday afternoon minutes after he drove away from a Lakeport home where he rented a room, Snider said.
Local: Olivia Newton-John named UN ambassador
MALIBU — Entertainer Olivia Newton-John has been named goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ Environment Program, a move aimed at calling attention to concerns for global warming and pollution.
The singer-actress said that for the next few months she will juggle album promotions with United Nations briefs on topics ranging from recycling to the destruction of the rain forests.
From the Associated Press
Index	
Viewpoint			 4
Komix			 6
Security Roundup			 6
Feature			 7
Sports			 20
Talkin’ Display
Michelle Sablan / Dally Trojan
Two fiat Trojan fashion models talk to each other in the university bookstore’s basement about getting free Russell Athletic T-shirts.
USC violated radioactive chemical law, city charges
By Andrew Vrees
Staff Writer
An Oct. 26 hearing in the Los Angeles Criminal Municipal Court will target the university as the first in the state to violate laws governing the safety of radioactive chemicals.
The city maintains that the university has continually mismanaged the use and tracking of radioactive chemicals including cobalt-60, plutonium-238 and califomium-252.
"There is definitely a problem (at the university) that has existed for a while," said Vince Sato, deputy city attorney.
On Oct. 1, 1987, the California Department of Health imposed a probation on the university for criminal violations regarding the state's safety laws concerning radioactive chemicals.
The city alleges that the university violated the probation in spring of 1988.
"The purpose of the hearing is to make sure the university complies with the law," Sato said.
When a crime has been committed, he said, the public should know about it.
"I think the university will agree that they have committed a crime," Sato said.
Sato alleged that violations of the probation have continued to this day. University officials adamantly disagree.
"The program that exists on this campus today is very good," said Leo Wade, university director of safety and risk management.
The university's policy on the safety of radioac-
(See Chemicals, page 3)
Students bite hand that feeds them
Protests give Dining Services officials some food for thought
By Romi Rudolph
Staff Writer
In the second Student Senate Speakout on Tuesday, a panel of Dining Services officials heard protests from students outraged about meals wasted because of mandatory meal plans in residence halls.
The discussion of alternatives to existing meal plans developed after students asserted that they are forced to pay for food they do not eat.
"Where else in society do you have to pay for things you don't use?" asked Tara Brigham, senate president.
The existing meal plans, aimed at accommodating students' actual eating habits, include a 15-meal-plus-points plan and a 20-meal plan, and were not designed for students who skip meals, according to Susan Wilke, director of Dining Services.
"Students are feeling robbed because if they don't structure their eating patterns to the dining hall schedules, they lose out on meals," said Michael Culross, a senior
majoring in communications.
Students said the perfect solution would be the elimination of the mandatory meal plans in favor of an exclusive point plan.
"The student doesn't get to pick where they will live, so they shouldn't be forced to use a set meal plan," said Anthony De-Barry, senate elections and recruitment chairman and director of the Speakout committee.
However, Dining Services officials did not see this as a reasonable solution for (See Speakout, page 2)
Relations with local schools unstable
By Kristine Kennedy
Staff Writer
To attract more local black students to the university, admissions officials may need to first increase and consolidate the now sporadic support from local high school administrators.
Their relationship with university recruiters ranges from good to extremely frustrating, the administrators say.
"I don't know anybody at USC," said John Mandel, coUege counselor at Locke High School. "I've made contacts and they don't bother to call back."
This Is the last In a three-part series on USC’s relations with local black high school students.
Mandel said he would like a better relationship with USC, but he has far more contact with other college recruiters.
St. Mary's College, a UC school and three California State schools each send representatives to Locke High School one day a week to motivate students to attend college. USC has no representatives there.
"I'm not gonna send my kids somewhere where the school says minority kids aren't welcome," Mandel said.
Of last June's graduating class of 180, about 40 students went on to four-year schools.
Carrye Baker, a college counselor from Washington High School, has had better luck with the university.
"USC does a good recruitment job here," Baker said, but she concedes that it is unusual.
"I think we may be getting special treatment — because at other schools it doesn't happen that way," she said.
(See High School, page 6)