MONDAY
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April 22, 2002
Of interest...
Asian Americans’ role in American history is lacking in textbooks and classrooms / 4
News Digest	2	Calendar	2
Opinions	4	Lifestyle	7
The Buzz	7	Classifieds	12
Crossword	13	Sports	16
vol. CVL, no. 64 www.dailytrojan.com
Missing votes stops passing Senate budget
Senate: Attending voting members debate procedure, listen to funding presentations until exits force meetings adjournment
By YVONNE NGAI
Campus Editor
Official debate about Student Senates 2002-2003 budget ended early Saturday afternoon when Senate lost quorum almost three hours into the meeting.
The budget will go up for approval at Tuesdays meeting and must be approved by Friday to be presented to the Board of Trustees.
Although the meeting was intended to approve the $1.8-million budget.
Senate spent almost an hour discussing whether it could establish quorum — the number of votes needed to conduct official business — based on the number of filled positions instead of the usual number of voting offices.
Nine votes instead of the usual nine and one-half should establish quorum because the position of Commuter Advocacy Program president had not been confirmed, said Senate vice president Lauren Geissler, a junior majoring in public policy and management
When some voting members disagreed, Geissler said Senate parliamentarian Ali Khan, an undeclared freshman, had interpreted Senates constitution as reading that quorum could be obtained based on the number of filled positions. Khan was not present at the meeting.
The discussion was deemed useless when nine and one-half votes were present nearly an hour after the meeting in Taper Hall 118 was to start at 10 a.m.
Voting members are usually restricted to two speaking times per meeting, but Geissler disregarded the rule for the meeting before calling it to order.
President Matt Weir, a junior majoring in economics, proposed early in the meeting that $3,564 be moved from the Senate management fund to the restricted tuition remission account, which pays Senate directors’ salaries. The proposed move would add tuition remission funds for
I see Senate, page 111
"These numbers hold Program Board groups accountable.
If this number is reevaluated, then all numbers should be evaluated"
..♦.....
KYLE COLOGNE executive director Program Board
Student newspaper of the University of Southern California
Dividing race lines persistent
Panel: Angelenos discuss city’s segregation, social problems after civil unrest
By JENNIFER MEDINA
Staff Writer
Racial segregation in Los Angeles County is rising, police brutality continues and jails are filled with mostly blacks and Latinos.
Community activists, academics and politicians painted a grim picture of Los Angeles Friday in Davidson Conference Center, saying much has not changed since the 1992 civil unrest
"1 don’t know that people are faring better,” said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, during the panel presentation. “Now people are talking about recession and we’ve had five police chiefs in 10 years ... We’re in a lot worse shape than we were 10 years ago. What 1 see is a great deal of despair.”
There is only a 5-percent chance that whites will have blacks as neighbors in Los Angeles County, according to a study last year by USC public policy professors. That represents a 4-percent increase from 1940 but no change since 1990, based on census figures.
More of a sustained effort to improve the city is needed, said former city councilman Michael Woo.
“We are an unofficially segregated city,” Woo said. “We are temporarily overwhelmed by (negative) conditions, but in the absence of that, we slip into a kind of complacency.”
The discussion “The Verdict & the Violence: Los Angeles 10 Years Later” was sponsored by USC Law School and other academic departments.
Several of the panelists, including former mayoral candidate, California State Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, and Joe Hicks, former I see Panel, page 11 I
Above the rim
Mason Poole I Daily Trojan
Helping hands. Veronica Pineda, 11, a student at the Pacific Boulevard Center for Special Education, gets a boost from volunteer Katherine Fortune, a freshman majoring in pre-business, at Saturday’s Sprits in Action at Cromwell Field. The annual event attracted hundreds of participants and volunteers.
Are You Game?
B-list celebrity guests. A cross-dressing host. Mandatory winner abuse.
This isn’t your grandmother’s bingo game, and that’s a good thing/ 7
Pre-medical students take valedictorian, salutatorian positions
"To be chosen as valedictorian is such a great honor —♦— STANLEY CHOU senior psychology and biomedical engineering
Commencement: Individual schools honor top graduates in their particularfields
By SHERRY ANNE RUBIANO
Contributing Writer
USC’s 2002 valedictorian and two salutatorians all have more in common besides a perfect grade point average — they are all pre-medical students in the Baccalaureate Medical Program.
Stanley Chou, this year’s valedictorian, is majoring in psychology and biomedical engineering.
“To be chosen as valedictorian is such a great honor,” Chou said.
Chou served as director of com-
munity affairs for Student Senate, as chair of USC's philanthropy fund and is a member of Golden Key honor society.
The two salutatorians are Sameer Amin, a senior majoring in biological sciences, and Scott Takano, a senior majoring in biomedical engineering.
The trend of students in the medical field becoming valedictorian and salutatorian has been established here at USC, said Rahnia Hassan, a senior majoring in psychology and kinesiology.
“1 think it’s kind of biased,” Hassan said.
It eliminates a majority of USC students, Hassan added.
But Tony Tambascia, director of Academic Recognition Programs for
Leadership, Service and Scholars, said the valedictorians and salutatorians have been chosen from diverse fields.
In the past five years, the students’ majors include psychobiology, biology, political science and economics, Tambascia said.
A committee of faculty members and a representative from Student Affairs selects the valedictorian and salutatorians, Tambascia said. Committee members are kept confidential.
The committee uses certain criteria to make its decision, with GPA being the most important criterion, Tambascia said. Other criteria are the number of units taken at USC, the breath and challenge of the academic program and contribution to
community life, he added.	H Aflftr
The committee reviews student	IIUIIUI
records of potential candidates dur-	Hits
ing March, and it chooses the students in the beginning of April,	*
Tambascia said. On average, the	The 2002
committee selects from a group of	valedictorian
five to eight students.	and two
Students have mixed reactions	salutatorians
about the selection process to choos-	are all pre-
ing the valedictorian.	medical
GPA should not be the most	students in
important factor, said Mike Weissman,	the
a junior majoring in accounting.	Baccalaureate
The committee should try to	Medical
diversify from students with differ-	Program,
ent majors, Weissman said.
There is a lot of talent at USC and not just in the pre-medical depart-I see Honors, page 10 I