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Volume CHI, Number 62	University of Southern California	Monday, April 20, 1987
AARON BIRENBOiM DAILY TROJAN
STUDYING LONGER — The Von KleinSmid Library will be staying open for longer hours during the final weeks of the semester.
By Stephanie Powers
Staff Writer
In response to the often intense and desperate studying that accompanies finals preparation, extended library hours and study hall areas have been established for university students.
Charles Ritcheson, university librarian, dean and vice provost, said that Von KleinSmid Center library hours will be extended beginning Saturday, April 18.
From April 18-29, VKC library will be open 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday and on Sunday. On Friday and Saturday, hours will be 8 a.m. to midnight.
Beginning Thursday, April 30, the library will be open continuously until 8 p.m. May 7. However, on Friday, May 1, the library will close at midnight, and on Saturday, May 2, the hours will be 9 a.m. to midnight.
Todd Maynard, chairman of the university's academic excellence subcommittee, said that in addition to the extended library hours, study rooms and study areas will also be provided.
VKC classrooms 100-112, 150, 152-157, 160, 161, 200-212, 252, 254-259 and 261 will be reserved as study space Wednesday, April 29 through Thursday, May 7 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Ritcheson also announced that EVK Dining Hall will be open for studying for North Complex residents, April 12-23 from 8 p.m. to
2	a.m., and April 26 through May 6 from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Maynard said the changes in library hours and study areas, effectively immediately, are just two items on a list of suggested improvements that the subcommittee on academic excellence is pursuing.
“Basically, I've been in contact with Dean Ritcheson to get some changes in scheduling. We would like to eventually see a library with permanendy extended hours. Dean Ritcheson has agreed to open VKC 24 hours during finals week and to extend hours the week before,” Maynard said.
Library hours extended for desperate studiers
MICHAEL KIM / DAILY TROJAN
INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION — This Physical Plant worker is giving the flowers in front of Doheny Library that private tender loving care that plants need.
Thieves, police crash party
TEP party interrupted by car chase; five suspects arrested
By Gary Caffey
Co-Managing Editor and
Laurie Betlach
Staff Writer
A large party at the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity house last Thursday night was interrupted briefly as University Security and officers from two Los Angeles Police Department divisions pursued six robbery suspects for allegedly stealing a bicycle.
The car chase ended at ap-
Several people were almost hit by the van as it attempted the turn.
proximately 10:40 p.m. when the suspects' van attempted to make a left-hand turn on University Avenue, but failed to make the turn and stopped on the sidewalk next to the TEP house, located at 745 W. 28th St.
When the chase took place, approximately 50 people were attending the party at the TEP
house, and an additional 25 people were standing on the comer of 28th Street and University Avenue. Several people were almost hit by the van as it attempted the turn.
Five of the six suspects, who attempted to flee the scene after the van stopped on the sidewalk, were almost immediately apprehended by students on the Row, security and LAPD. The sixth suspect escaped and LAPD is conducting an investigation to locate him, said Fabian Lizar-raga, a Southwest division officer.
The incident began when the suspects were driving up and down 28th Street, and, according to females on the Row, "they tried to pick us up."
At 28th and Figueroa streets, the suspects allegedly attacked a student, stole his bicycle — valued at over $200 — and put it in their van, but before the student reported the crime, University Security officers started to follow the 1971 Dodge custom van because they believed it to be a suspicious vehicle. Security and LAPD officers then tried to stop thevan.
A four-block, high-speed chase ensued throughout Adams Boulevard, Severance Street, University Avenue and 28th Street. Several parked cars were hit by the van during the chase.
By the time the suspects attempted to flee on foot, six LAPD cars, two motorcycle units and four University Security units were on the scene, for crowd control.
Five of six suspects-. . .were almost immediately apprehended by students on the Row.
The suspects were taken to LAPD's Southwest division and booked for investigation of robbery. They are Henry Zavala, 21; Manuel Ponce, 23; Peter Rodriguez, 21; Joseph Olagui, 22; and a 16-year-old juvenile, whose name cannot be released because he is a minor. All are from Paramount, Calif.
Tuition remission now taxable; stipends to increase accordingly
By John Perrone
Staff Writer
Prospective graduate students, required under the new tax law to pay taxes on the tuition remission they are awarded, are being recruited with the promise that the university will assist them with the added financial burden.
Before the Tax Reform Act of 1986, teaching assistants, research assistants and assistant lecturers received non-taxable tuition remissions for their services, but the new law states that any tuition remission above $5,250 is taxable.
“If the law doesn't change by next fall, the university will supplement their stipends to help them cover the new tax burden," said Marilyn Baker, associate dean of the graduate school, regarding prospective students currently being recruited.
Cornelius Pings, university provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, released a memo last month instructing various deans, directors and department chairs to recruit students with the promise of increased stipends "to compensate approximately for the difference in the tax burden between USC and public universities, where tuition is much lower."
"You're unfairly taxing people who attend private colleges," said Robert Baird, assistant comptroller. He also said that it is discriminatory for the federal government to draw the line at $5,250, since the financial bur-
One option would separate the relationship of tuition remission and stipends.
den affects only those attending private schools.
Pings' memo also stated that there are signs from Washington, D.C., that the 1987 cap of $5,250 on tax-exempt tuition may be lifted. This would eliminate the university's need to provide the stipend supplement incentive to new students.
Baker said university officials are still discussing how to deal with continuing students if the current tax policy remains intact.
Stipends, fixed sums of money paid to the students periodically to defray costs, were previously tax-free if the graduates received the money for work required to earn a degree. The new law taxes all stipends, regardless of the reason the money is awarded.
Baird, noting that tuition remission, like "almost any fee for service," is taxable, said there are options available to avoid paying the tax, but they cannot be guaranteed.
One option would separate the relationship of tuition remissions and stipends. "Tuition remission'' would be renamed "scholarship," although its pur-
pose would still be to "pay" the graduate for his services.
Baird said that the option may not be effective for universities because graduate assistants would not have to assure their services in return for the scholarships and could thus walk away with upwards of $5,000 given as a "free-standing scholarship based on merit."