Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 168, NO. 12 | Thursday September 10, 2009
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
7 · Lifestyle
12 · Classifieds
13 · Crossword
16 · Sports
Happy birthday: Thornton
School of Music celebrates its
125th anniversary. PAGE 7
Natalie Torkan, a senior majoring in business administration, and Sohail Sareh, a senior majoring in health promotion and dis-ease
prevention, make sandwiches for the homeless as part of the Mitzvah Marathon. Held in memory of 9/11, the marathon gave
students the chance to do a mitzvah, or a good deed, record it on a page and display it by Tommy Trojan in honor of a 9/11 victim.
Geo Tu | Daily Trojan
Many mitzvahs
By Nicole Dailo
Daily Trojan
USC’s Undergraduate Student Government is tak-ing
a page out of C-SPAN’s book.
Striving for greater transparency, USG has decided
to film its weekly Senate meetings and post them for
viewing on its website.
“Not many people go to these meetings, so people
can at least get a feel of what the Senate is about and
what they do,” said David Ji, deputy director of tech-nology
for USG.
Tuesday’s Senate meeting was the first to be video-taped,
but USG officials are currently in the process
of resolving technical and logistical issues related to
filming and don’t expect the video to be available un-til
Friday, Ji said. As filming procedures become more
streamlined, the videos should appear online one to
two days after each meeting, he added.
Residential Senator Wilson Kyi, who spearhead-ed
the project along with Ji and USG Vice President
Ashlie Chan, said he hopes the convenience of watch-ing
the videos online will give students incentive to
take an interest in the work USG does.
“We thought that having our actual meeting video-taped
would increase the transparency for how our de-cisions
are made,” Kyi said.
The project began when Kyi and other senators
spoke to students who said that they weren’t able to
attend meetings because of scheduling conflicts. That
discussion was then made official business at USG
meetings last semester, but the actual process was
USG to provide
webcasts of
Senate meetings
Complaints about inconvenient meetings times
prompts USG to push forward on webcasts.
| see USG, page 3 |
By Laura cueva
Daily Trojan
Elizabeth Jordan saved a life,
and now she is looking to save
hundreds more.
When Jordan — now coordi-nator
of on-campus programs
at USC’s Career Planning &
Placement Center — first decided
to join the bone marrow registry
in 2002, she was told she wasn’t a
match at that time and she soon
forgot about the registry altogeth-er.
But five years later, Jordan was
contacted by the City of Hope can-cer
center and told she was a possi-ble
match for a woman with acute
myeloid leukemia. Jordan decided
to donate. One year later, she met
the woman who had received her
marrow, Rhonda Christensen, and
was immediately welcomed into
the family.
“I could tell she was a caring,
kind person,” Christensen said.
“Without Elizabeth, I wouldn’t be
here. She’s a part of the family; it’s
like we adopted her.”
Now, the two are a hosting a
bone marrow drive at USC, hoping
to save more lives and spark more
lifelong relationships. The drive
which will take place on Trousdale
Parkway from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on
Friday near Tommy Trojan.
Christensen has hosted drives
twice before, but for Jordan, this is
her first. She said she is excited to
bring a bone marrow drive to USC.
“It’s my new passion, edu-cating
everyone,” Jordan said.
“Particularly college students. It’s
been the greatest gift I’ve ever giv-en
or received. It’s been so magi-cal,
and I want people to know
that.”
Though Jordan’s case is rare
USC employee leads bone marrow drive
Elizabeth Jordan donated in
2007 and has formed a bond
with the marrow’s recipient.
| see marrow, page 3 |
Amaresh Sundaram Kuppuswamy | Daily Trojan
Donating · Elizabeth Jordan became close with the recipient of her
donated bone marrow, and is now hosting a bone marrow drive at USC.
Don’t be fooled: Young
Buckeyes roster full of
potential stars. PAGE 16
By nancy martinez
Daily Trojan
Groundbreaking on the USC
Catholic Center — scheduled to
begin this month — has been
pushed back to early 2010 be-cause
of delays in obtaining
building permits from the city.
Plans for building a new
Catholic Center, including a
25,000-square foot church at
32nd and Hoover streets, be-gan
six years ago. The current
Catholic Center, which was in-augurated
in 1958, will be torn
down and its services moved to
a temporary location near cam-pus
once groundbreaking be-gins.
“These things take longer
than you think,” said Father
Lawrence Seyer, the pastor of the
USC Catholic Center. “In order to
move up in the phase, you need to
make sure the previous process is
completed.”
Executive Director of the
Catholic Center Clare Faulkner
said about one-third of USC stu-dents
are Catholic, which was
one of the reasons they wanted to
build a newer, bigger center.
“Our board is committed to
building a place for all students
to gather and have another place
for service, socializing and to
practice their faith,” she said.
With the delay in construc-tion,
the new center is now set to
open in 2011.
“The approval process takes
time,” Faulkner said. “We were
optimistic about the timeline and
found the reality — that it is go-ing
to be pushed back.”
The new Catholic Center, open
to everyone, will include class-rooms,
a library, meeting rooms,
a chapel, a media room and a stu-dent
union.
“We were making do with our
current facility but we have re-ally
outgrown our capacity,” said
Anthony Heim, the campus min-ister
and associate director of
the Catholic Center. “This proj-ect
is coming at a right time for
us as our community continues
to grow. It is a much-needed proj-ect.”
While waiting for the per-mits
to be approved, the Catholic
Center is still finding funding for
the $35-million project.
“We are continuing our fund-raising
effort,” Faulkner said.
“We have raised close to $28
Groundbreaking on new
Catholic Center delayed
While waiting for city permits,
Catholic Center board is still
seeking $7 million in funding.
| see Center, page 6 |