Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 168, NO. 15 | Tuesday September 15, 2009
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
5 · Lifestyle
8 · Classifieds
11 · Sudoku
12 · Sports
Out today: Reviews of the
latest releases, including one
from Muse. PAGE 5
Ultimate challenge: The women’s
ultimate frisbee team flies under the
radar. PAGE 12
By Kate Mason
Daily Trojan
The latest collaborative ef-fort
between LAPD and USC’s
Department of Public Safety could
end up costing bikers up to $250.
LAPD and DPS are joining to-gether
to step up enforcement of bi-cycle
laws around USC. The effort
will include an LAPD task force —
officers dedicated entirely to mon-itoring
bike safety at USC — that
will patrol key intersections near
campus on specific days and issue
citations.
“We will have a task force be-cause
the bicycle issue is becoming
a very serious issue,” said Officer
Boyce of LAPD’s South Traffic
Division.
There are three specific traffic
laws that students often violate,
Boyce said. He said LAPD has re-peatedly
noticed students biking
against the flow of traffic, not stop-ping
at stop signs and riding their
bikes through intersections, all of
which violate regulations.
Boyce said there will be one or
two officers out each day, but the
larger task force will monitor the
area occasionally.
DPS Assistant Chief John
Thomas said DPS is most con-cerned
with the intersection
of Hoover Street and Jefferson
Boulevard and the intersection of
McClintock Avenue and Jefferson.
Thomas noted that the goal of
the increased is not to aggravate or
punish students, but to make the
intersections safer.
“You don’t want to write a ci-tation
if you don’t have to, but we
have to clean up those intersec-tions
because we have seen acci-dents
occur there,” Thomas said.
DPS Capt. David Carlisle said
DPS has seen many of the same
types of traffic violations as LAPD.
“If bicyclists want to ride
through the intersection, they
should do so as a car would,”
Carlisle said. “If they’re going to be
in crosswalks and they have a bike
they’re supposed to walk it, but
they usually don’t.”
At crosswalks, Boyce said, bikes
are considered vehicles, and by rid-ing
through intersections they are
interfering with pedestrians.
Students who are found violat-ing
a traffic law can be ticketed by
LAPD.
Currently, only LAPD officers
are issuing city traffic citations,
but DPS officers are being trained
to be able to cite bicyclists as well.
LAPD and DPS to
ramp up bike safety
LAPD has created a task force
that will monitor bike safety in
the USC area on certain days.
| see bikes, page 3 |
Geo Tu | Daily Trojan
Violation · Students bike through the crosswalk at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street.
Biking in crosswalks is against California’s traffic laws and students who do so could be ticketed by LAPD.
By Ana cosma
Daily Trojan
USC’s chapter of the Sigma
Alpha Epsilon fraternity is work-ing
to improve its pledge pro-gram
and meet university behav-ioral
standards, after university
sanctions prevented them from
participating in recruitment this
fall.
SAE was originally placed un-der
review in April, per a let-ter
it received from Student
Judicial Affairs and Community
Standards. At the beginning of
the fall semester, the fraterni-ty
received another letter from
SJACS, detailing the sanctions it
was facing and informing the fra-ternity
that it would be barred
from recruitment, SAE President
Matt Nicoletti said.
Nicoletti said he was told by
the university that the sanctions
were a result of an overall behav-ioral
interpretation of the house.
“They said our behavior stan-dards
were not matching what
After rush
ban, SAE
reforming
The fraternity will be
permitted to participate in
recruitment next semester.
| see sae, page 3 |
By jordan vieira
Daily Trojan
The White House announced
last week President Obama’s in-tent
to nominate Erroll Southers,
the associate director of USC’s
Center for Risk and Economic
Analysis of Terrorism Events,
as the assistant secretary of
the Transportation Security
Administration.
After announcing his intend-ed
nominees to various posts —
Southers included — President
Obama said in a press release, “I
am grateful that these fine indi-viduals
have agreed to serve my
administration at this impor-tant
time for our nation. I look
forward to working with them
in the months and years ahead
to strengthen our economy, keep
our nation safe and provide new
opportunities for all our people.”
With a broad spectrum of pub-lic
service under his belt, Southers
will contribute his expertise and
experience from serving as depu-ty
director of homeland security
for the state of California, a po-lice
officer with the Santa Monica
Police Department and a special
agent with the FBI.
“[We’re] sorry to see him
go, actually,” said Marshall
McClain, president of the Los
Angeles Airport Peace Officers
Association in a press release.
“Out of the new management
team, I would say he was the most
well-received and most well-liked.”
In addition to his responsibil-ities
at CREATE, he is also pur-suing
a doctorate in policy, plan-ning,
and development at the
university.
CREATE declined to comment
until the nomination is con-firmed.
As a TSA administrator,
Southers will supervise the ef-forts
to protect United States
highways, railroads, ports and
mass transit systems. He will also
be in charge of the Federal Air
Marshal Service and security op-erations
for 450 government-run
airports throughout the country.
Additionally, Southers will
oversee approximately 50,000
employees, 45,000 of whom work
as screeners providing security at
government-run airports nation-wide,
according to CNN.
Department of Homeland
Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano approved of President
Obama’s intent to nominate
Southers.
“Effective transportation se-curity
involves protecting our
citizens from threats while facil-itating
travel around the coun-try
and throughout the world,”
Napolitano said in a press release.
“Erroll’s expertise in counterter-rorism
and airport security will
be a great asset to the depart-ment
in our efforts to ensure the
safety of the nation’s transporta-tion
systems.”
Upon official nomination, the
Senate Commerce Committee will
commence with a background
investigation of Southers that
will lead to a Senate confirma-tion
hearing.
Southers declined to comment
until the nomination is official.
Southers holds a bachelor’s de-gree
from Brown University as
well as an MPA from USC.
Obama to nominate USC professor to top TSA post
Erroll Southers would be
overseeing protection of the
nation’s transport systems.
Photo courtesy of LAX Police Department
New heights · Erroll Southers, associate director of USC’s Center for
Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, will likely head the TSA.