Battle for First
Men’s basketball looks to take sole possession of first place in the Pacific 10 Conference and break the Trojans’ three-game losing streak /12
DM TROJAN
Student newspaper of the University of Southern California
THURSDAY
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January 10,2002
Of interest...
After a one-year hiatus, Daily Trojan's inane weekly segment is back — Third Degree / 5
News Digest	2	Roundup	8
Opinions	4	Weekend	5
Third Degree 6		Classifieds	10
Crossword	10	Sports	12
vol. CXLIV, no. 1 www.dailytrojan.com
Budgets can control savings and spending
Dean’s goals have no limits
Speech: Fine arts official emphasizes ambition, travel and an open mind
By STEVEN JONES
Staff Writer
Ruth Weisberg, the dean of USC's School of Fine Arts, takes her responsibility to change the world seriously.
“I’m of that generation that was told we could do everything,” she said in her speech Wednesday for the “What Matters to Me and Why” series, sponsored by the Academic Culture Initiative at Tyler Environmental Prize Pavilion.
At USC, she had found a place where she could take full advantage of her opportunities, she said.
"One of the things I love about USC is that we've tried to build (changing the world) into the fabric of the community,” she said.
She also focused on the importance of an open mind when dealing
with different people and places. Weisberg said her prescription for ensuring continual learning is to have experiences that are not predictable.
Citing her own extensive travels in Europe, she spoke of the need for an open-minded approach to life. In particular, she encouraged spontaneity when planning trips rather than following well-worn paths.
“I really worry about the tendency toward the second- and third-hand experience instead of the first-hand encounter,” she said, criticizing close reliance on tours and guidebooks.
Weisberg’s dual-residence childhood is a further example of hands-on experiences, she said. She was raised in a predominately Jewish Chicago neighborhood, but her family kept a summer home in the Indiana sand dunes.
The Indiana community did not have electricity or running water and gave her the sense of being at one in the natural world, she said.
During the school year, Weisberg said the urban environment had an
equally profound influence. Her father was an architect who shared his sense of art’s purpose with her, which was that the visual was not purely decorational.
"(The visual) might startle you,” she said. It might ask hard questions.”
By taking weekly classes at the Chicago Art Institute, she developed her passion for all artistic mediums.
“There’s a whole part of me that you’re not getting to know unless you see my work,” she said.
Weisberg has an art studio in Venice and her work has been featured in museums around the country.
She credited the teachers who supported her development, but also cautioned that the most supportive person is not always the least critical.
Most of the roughly 45 attendees appreciated Weisberg’s honesty.
“It was refreshing to hear something so personal, willing to share her life,” said Haley Thompson, a senior majoring in psychology and linguistics.
Jeannie Kwok I Daily Trojan
Aim sky-high. Speaking at the Tyler Environmental Prize Pavilion, Ruth Weisberg, dean of the School of Rne Arts, shares her motivation and advice.
YOUR MONEY
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By KENNETH BASIN
Staff Writer
Money — keeping it often proves harder than getting it Some students benefit from organizing their finances into formal budgets, while others take more laissez-faire approaches to organizing their money.
Nathan Gotsch, a freshman majoring in cinema-television critical studies, described his personal financial philosophy in terms of childhood trips to the supermarket with his mother.
“When we’d go through the checkout line and 1 wanted candy, if I asked every time, I’d never get it,” he said. “But if I tried to spend once every three times, I’d always get what I wanted.”
Gotsch says that remembering this lesson eliminates the need for a budget limiting his spending allows him to forego the formal organization of his finances.
Jim DeBolt, a sophomore majoring in chemical engineering, also sees little use in keeping a formal budget “Other than what I spend on my meal plan, I don’t have any consistent I see Money, page 3 I
David Cisneros I Daily Trojan
‘Friendly’ reality. Students listen carefully as Andy Friendly, cinema-television professor and executive producer of the news channel CNBC, discusses the class syllabus and procedures. Prominent guest speakers, including actress Tracy Ullman and baseball announcer Vin Scully, are vital to the course.
Class features celebrity guests
Academics: New cinema-television course focuses on reality television, sitcoms and game shows
By SARAH REA
Staff Writer
A vice president from Columbia TriStar. A senior vice president from CBS Entertainment Executives whose experiences include shows such as
“Big Brother,” “The Real World” and “South Park.”
This is only part of the lineup for USC’s new cinema-television class — Developing and Producing Talk, News, Game and Reality TV
Known for molding the future moguls of the film and television industry, the School of Cinema-Television debuts the production class, CTPR 499, this semester. The course aims to teach the future producers of pop culture their craft in a market where television programs
such as “Survivor” and “Dateline” dominate ratings.
“We’re always trying to expand the types of classes that we give so that we’re not just teaching filmmaking,” said Barbara Corday, production chair for the School of Cinema-Television.
Since more than half of the employment in the entertainment industry is in television, it is important for USC students to have skills in television as well as film, Corday added.
USC alumnus Andy Friendly, an executive producer at CNBC, is teach-
ing the course. He is also the former president of King World Entertainment and the original producer of “Entertainment Tonight” Friendly said the course is designed to teach students how and why popular reality and news shows work and how to find and develop the next big hit He said the class will also focus on how to develop, package and sell such shows, and how the TV business really works.
“I think there’s always going to be I see Course, page 3 I