Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 167, NO. 4 | Wednesday June 10, 2009
SUMMER TROJAN
InDEX
2 · News Digest
3 · Sudoku
4 · Opinion
5 · Lifestyle
8 · Classifieds
12 · Sports
Verbal war: A review of
‘Oleanna,’ a David Mamet
production. PAGE 5
Floyd resigns: Mississippi
newspaper reports USC coach
Tim Floyd will resign. ONLINE
By alexandra tilsley and
LAURA NEL SON
Summer Trojan
More details have emerged about the three men
who robbed multiple students inside the Alpha Tau
Omega house Friday night, Department of Public
Safety officials said. The robbery is one of four in the
past week.
DPS Capt. David Carlisle said three black males
entered ATO around 9:20 p.m., told those in the house
they had a weapon — though no weapon was seen —
and demanded property.
“Three suspects entered, indicating they were look-ing
for someone, but the victims didn’t know who it
was,” Carlisle said. “Then [the suspects] said they had
a weapon and demanded their property.”
The victims complied, handing over wallets and
money. Though there were three people in the ATO
house at the time of the robbery, it is unclear whether
or not they all lost property, Carlisle said.
In addition to wallets, Carlisle said the suspects
also took electronic equipment, including a flat panel
monitor and a television, and then fled to a vehicle in
a nearby alley.
Carlisle said that, though the suspects claimed to
have at least one weapon, and might have simulated
one, no weapon was actually seen by the victims.
“Whether a gun was seen or not, it concerns us
greatly,” Carlisle said. “Any robbery is a very serious
matter.”
Though the robbery occurred inside the ATO
house, Carlisle said the victims were not members of
the fraternity, as the house is leased out during the
summer.
DPS: robberies
‘unrelated’ to
ATO incident
Friday’s robbery at the fraternity house was one
of four reported in the campus area this week.
| see robberies, page 3 |
Orientation adviser Sarah Friedman, a junior majoring in accounting, welcomes a group of incoming freshman to USC Thursday.
The university hosted the first on-campus orientation session of the summer June 4 through June 5, where students attended sessions
focused on different aspects of life at USC, toured campus and had the opportunity to meet other members of the class of 2013.
Welcome to the family
Dieuwertje Kast | Summer Trojan
By Jacqueline kurth
Summer Trojan
For months, the Information
Technology Services department
has been advertising the coming
of the “new Blackboard.” While
many students have seen this
new addition advertised on their
Blackboard home pages, many
have probably not explored the
full range of what this means af-ter
the switch takes place this
summer.
As Blackboard is upgrades
from Version 7.3 to Version 9,
the overall look of the website
will be overhauled, replacing the
blue and gray color scheme with
USC’s traditional cardinal and
gold. More substantially speak-ing,
Blackboard is making a num-ber
of logistical changes that is
designed to make it a more useful
and productive tool for teachers
and students.
Blackboard 9
upgrade aims
for efficiency
Students will be notified via
e-mail if professors make any
changes to their course pages.
| see nine, page 3 |
By alexandra tilsley
Summer Trojan
The Phi Delta Theta fraternity celebrated its
return to The Row Thursday as members and
alumni got a first glance at the newly renovat-ed,
$4-million house that will be home to al-most
half of PhiDelt’s active members in the
fall. PhiDelt has been missing from The Row
since 2002, when the fraternity was suspend-ed
by the university for behavioral issues. In
2005, three alumni petitioned the school to al-low
the chapter to return, but in the April of
that year, as they were planning renovations to
the house that was soon to be inhabited again,
the building caught fire, calling for far more
extensive repairs than had originally been
envisioned.
Now, five years and $4 million later, PhiDelt
is ready to take back its place on The Row.
“It’s been a long time coming now,” said
Michael Spilsbury, who was president of PhiDelt
last year. “You can sense it among the chapter
how excited people are to finally have house on
The Row and finally get to live together.”
The renovations and reconstruction was
managed by PhiDelt’s housing corporation, a
group of alumni who dealt with securing funds
and meeting with the construction company.
Ali Shorooghi, who became a part of PhiDelt
when the fraternity returned to USC in 2005
and was involved in the reconstruction as a
member of the housing corporation, said the
fraternity used a loan from USC as well as an
additional private loan to fund the construc-tion.
To raise money to pay back the loans, the
housing corporation hired the Laurus Group,
which specializes in capital campaigns for fra-ternities
and sororities. With the help of the
Laurus Group, PhiDelt was able to secure do-nations
from more than 75 people, totaling $1.8
million.
The construction did hit some roadblocks,
as the property — which once belonged to the
Spanish consulate — is considered an historical
property, and as such, renovations had to be ap-proved
by the city and other historical groups.
“The windows were a huge issue,” Shorooghi
said. “We were putting in these nice, huge win-dows
and they said: ‘No, they need to be like
After five-year wait, PhiDelt house opens on The Row
The recently completed house will be home
to half of the fraternity’s members this fall.
| see phidelt, page 3 |
Dieuwertje Kast | Summer Trojan
Brand new · Members of PhiDelt will use the fraternity’s new house this fall for various events.
This fall marks the first semester since 2002 that the fraternity has had a house on The Row.