Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 168, NO. 32 | Friday October 9, 2009
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
5 · Lifestyle
8 · Classifieds
9 · Crossword
12 · Sports
Stormy weather: Post-punk
band the Raincoats
makes its LA debut. PAGE 5
Fighting fatigue: The USC men’s
water polo team could play six
matches this weekend. PAGE 12
By john isom
Daily Trojan
A cutting-edge development in
the USC School of Social Work will
give graduate students an unprece-dented
chance to study war-related
traumas through interaction with
3-D holograms.
Since August, USC has offered a
sub-concentration in military so-cial
work and veteran services, a
program that emphasizes the treat-ment
of veterans suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder and
other war-related afflictions.
Once the already-approved $3.2
million grant clears Congress early
next year, however, the program will
feature a more interactive approach,
giving students the chance to ana-lyze
hypothetical war-related trau-mas
using holograms.
The hologram technology, which
uses spinning mirrors to project a
3-D floating head into a confined
area, is completely ready for use, said
Anthony Hassan, inaugural director
of the USC Center for Research and
Innovation on Veterans and Military
Families.
“The use of virtual humans is
something very new within the
School of Social Work,” Jose Coll, di-rector
of Military Social Work and
Holograms
central to
new program
School of Social Work will use
artificial intelligence to study
post-traumatic stress disorder.
| see holograms, page 3 |
By Rohan Venkataramakrishnan
Daily Trojan
America is facing a crucial crisis of leadership that
could alter the country’s future, acclaimed political ex-pert
David Gergen told students and faculty at Bovard
Auditorium Thursday, calling on audience members to
embrace their roles as decision-making citizens.
Gergen, who has been an adviser to four presidents
and is currently the editor-at-large at US News & World
Report and a political analyst at CNN, was speaking
as part of The President’s Distinguished Artist And
Lecture Series. After being introduced by USC President
Steven B. Sample, Gergen spoke to the audience about
the impending restructuring of global dynamics.
“The issue for us is, when the great nations of the
world are sitting around the power tables 25 years from
now — China will be there, India will be there, Japan
could be there — will America be there? Will we be at
the head of the table?” Gergen said.
Referencing influential historical figures from
Winston Churchill to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gergen told
the audience about the importance of determined lead-ership
and how strong personalities can shape the fu-ture
of an organization, whether university or a nation.
“Individuals matter. Leadership matters and the
quality of the leadership is the ‘X-factor’ in so many or-ganizations,”
Gergen said. “We need to think about that
as a society, as we think about where this nation is go-ing.”
As a political expert who has lived through 10 elec-tions,
Gergen said he had seen the country through a
number of ups and downs, and understood the irrational
David Gergen
calls for focus
on leadership
The political analyst spoke to students as part of
the President’s Distinguished Lecture series.
| see gergen, page 3 |
Carlo Acenas | Daily Trojan
Into the future · David Gergen, who held positions in the Reagan, Nixon, Ford and Clinton
administrations, spoke Thursday about America’s crisis of leadership and its potential impact.
By ana cosma
Daily Trojan
Despite attempting to unify the many
Greek councils, the third annual Greek
Week, which wraps up today, received
mixed reviews from council leadership.
All five Greek councils were invited to
participate in the weeklong event, which
included an all-Row Monday Night Dinner
and a new member luau on Wednesday for
all new Greeks, both of which had as many
as 300 students participate.
“Increased participation is an overall
goal,” said Laura Redfern, vice president
of communications for the Panhellenic
Council. “We want to expand our diversity
and include multiple Greek councils.”
Redfern said that interaction between the
councils in the last few years has been lim-ited
to the Panhellenic and Intrafraternity
Councils. This year, however, both IFC and
Panhellenic are actively attempting to boost
cooperation with other non-Row councils
through events such as Greek Week.
“We as a council have made a concentrat-ed
effort to reach out to other Greek coun-cils
to make sure they felt included and in-vited
and are coming out to the events,” IFC
president Nick Hamada said.
Francis Sandoval, president of the
Multicultural Greek Council, said the coun-cil
had looked forward to Greek Week as a
way to get more involved in USC Greek life
and raise awareness about the importance
of other councils.
In the end, however, Sandoval said she
was disappointed with the number of MGC
members that turned out.
But she said she thought all the councils,
not just IFC and Panhellenic, should be in-volved
in planning Greek Week in order to
increase attendance across councils.
“I think because MGC is not involved in
the planning for [Greek Week], the mem-bers
of MGC are not as encouraged to at-tend,”
she said.
Taren Fujimoto, a senior majoring in
print journalism and a member of Delta Phi
Kappa, an Asian Greek Council sorority,
said the AGC also only had limited involve-ment
in Greek Week.
“As far as the Asian sororities and fra-ternities
are concerned, they aren’t that in-volved
with Greek Week. They kind of see it
as an IFC and Panhellenic thing,” Fujimoto
said.
Fujimoto said the only outreach she
noticed from the other councils was a
Facebook invitation to Greek Week events.
One council, however, did see Greek
Week as a unifying experience.
Samantha Castro, president of the
InterGreek Council, said Greek Week was a
great way for IGC to become more involved
with other Greeks.
“Before this year, there was a huge dis-tance
between us and the rest of the Greek
system, and we are trying to unify that gap,”
Third annual Greek Week strives to bring different councils together
Some councils thought Greek Week
could have been more inclusive, hope to
better integrate through future events.
| see grek, page 3 |
Ian Elston | Daily Trojan
The right notes · Members of Alpha Phi sing on the lawn of Gamma Phi Beta during
Thursday’s Karaoke Night, a part of Greek Week, which aimed to involve all councils.