CHECK IT OUT Be sure to pick up the Daily Trojan’s Orientation Issue on August 20.
Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | VOL. 164, NO. 2 | www.dailytrojan.com WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008
Smart move, hollywod
“Get Smart,” Steve Carell’s newest over-hyped
gem, should have taken the
advice offered by its own title. 5
Dream come true
U.S. Women’s National Team soccer coach
Pia Sundhage names senior Amy
Rodriguez to the Olympic roster. 12
Area businesses feel
the summer pinch
By TAREN FUJIMOTO
Summer Trojan
As summer sets in and the num-ber
of students on campus decreas-es,
so do the sales of local business-es
around USC, according to local
business owners.
Insinity Communications’ owner
Carlos Huezo said his business, lo-cated
in the University Village, next
to Baskin-Robbins and across from
Superior, drops almost 45 percent
in revenue during the summer.
“It’s actually kind of depressing,
but the good part is with the sum-mer
session there’s a burst of fresh
blood, if you will,” Huezo said.
“The foreign students are my main
customers during the summer.”
Huezo said his business model
is based on the both the local com-munity
and student demographic,
but he mostly targets students.
The profits of the popular eatery,
the 2-9 Café on 29th Street, “drop
fairly significantly” during student
summer vacation, consulting man-ager
Jim Walker said.
Walker said the 2-9 tries to miti-gate
the problem by concentrating
on lunch for the business commu-nity
in the area rather than the late
night crowd, which during the sum-mer
is pretty nonexistent.
“We’re very pleased with our
lunch sales,” Walker said.
He also said the 2-9 tries to keep
the same employees on the lunch
shift to get to know regular cus-tomers
and thus far, has had a lot
of success.
Walker said that with the sum-mer
school in session, he sees “a lot
of new faces,” and “sports enthu-siasts,”
especially for events such
as soccer and Happy Hour from 3
p.m. to 6 p.m.
Walker said business is also slow
during every student holiday in-cluding
winter and Thanksgiving
break.
During the school year, Walker
said at least three-fourths of its cus-tomer
base is students.
“We’ve been fortunate,” Walker
said. “We’re quite close to the row
here and we’ve had a lot of success
with them. We try to accommodate
them.”
Leo Amari, manager of the 901
Bar & Grill said although business
“significantly decreases” during the
summer, a lot of people who live
and work in the area come in.
“We basically have a pretty good
plan for the whole year, this is part
of the work year, I guess,” Amari
said.
Amari said the 9-0’s business
model is based on USC students,
faculty and neighbors.
Libby Bahl, manager of U-Tan
LA, a tanning shop located in the
UV, said although most of its cli-ents
are USC students, summer
business has been “pretty good.”
“We still have quite a lot of stu-dents
now,” Bahl said.
Bahl said during the summer,
U-Tan LA does not “do anything
different” to make up for the dif-ference
in profits, but does offer
discounts.
Business owners say
international USC students
drive summer business.
By ALEXANDER COMISAR
Summer Trojan
In the wake of the recognition
that many lenders recently stopped
granting federal student loans at
low-profile and community colleg-es,
Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) have
proposed a bill prohibiting lenders
in the federal program from with-holding
credit based on institutions
attended, The New York Times re-ported
last week.
While laws concerning the val-ue
of federal loans have already
passed, the proposed new legisla-tion
would require that all lenders
distributing federal loans accept
eligible students regardless of what
institution they attend, assuming
the school is a participant in the
federal program.
Murray and Dodd argued that
the latest move by many lenders
to refuse loans to community col-lege
students constituted discrimi-nation,
and that to lend on those
terms is unlawful, the Times re-ported.
The proposed legislation comes
at a time when legislation regarding
student loans and the process by
which they are distributed is being
hotly contested.
Over the last few years, the
number of college applicants has
steadily risen, making the applicant
pool more competitive and making
a bachelor’s degree more crucial to
success in any industry.
While USC does not find itself
on the list of colleges whose stu-dents
have recently been denied
loans, many transfer students who
are currently in the federal student
loan program began borrowing
while still enrolled at community
college.
Samantha Myles, a senior major-ing
in broadcast journalism, trans-ferred
in the middle of her college
career, which began at El Camino
College in Torrance, Calif. While
there have been reports of students
at schools such as El Camino being
turned away by lenders, Myles ap-plied
for and received a federal loan,
or Stafford loan, upon matriculat-ing
to El Camino her freshman year
of college.
Myles said she has acquired her
loans with ease.
“I’ve had great success with
loans,” Myles said. “USC makes ev-ery
part of financial aid very simple
in my opinion.”
Even at El Camino, Myles said
she encountered little difficulty get-ting
a loan.
“I went to community college
and I didn’t have any trouble be-lieve
it or not,” she said. “They were
very generous with loans and finan-cial
aid. It surprises me that people
are having difficulty and I’m disap-pointed.”
As one of millions of students
who borrow money for college,
Myles said she is frustrated by the
fact that, with tuition costs soar-ing,
lenders are failing to relieve
pressure on many low-income stu-dents.
“I think [the recent lending prac-tices]
are ridiculous,” she said. “This
just prevents one more person from
going to college when they should.
If you can help for the loans now,
you’ll be better off in the future.”
While the new bill has gained
the support of Sen. Ted Kennedy
(D-Mass.) and other Senate Demo-crats,
many oppose the bill, saying
such a piece of legislation would
drive many lenders away from the
federal program.
The future of the bill remains
unclear.
— Taren Fujimoto contributed to
this report.
After being suggested by two Democratic senators, the
proposed legislation received Sen. Ted Kennedy’s support.
Senate Dems propose universal student loan bill
Opinion | While
summer used
to be a time
to be carefree
and playful, the
season becomes
more depress-ing
with age,
writes Kartik
Sreepada.
PAGE 4
Leah Thompson | Summer Trojan
Summer drought | La Taquiza, a Mexican restaurant located near campus at the intersection of 30th
street and Figueroa street, has seen a 45 percent revenue drop-off since the beginning of the summer.