Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 168, NO. 57 | Friday November 13, 2009
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
5 · Sports
10 · Sudoku
12 · Classifieds
16 · Lifestyle
Radio takeover: Talkshow
hosts Frosty, Heidi and Frank
move to AM. PAGE 16
Cardinal sin: Trojans look to
avenge their 2007 upset loss to
Stanford. PAGE 5
By jacqueline kurth
Daily Trojan
Hoping to increase its fundraising revenue any way
it can, Troy Camp is expanding its annual Pass the Can
fundraiser to give students an easier way to donate — via
text message.
“We are trying to solicit donations from people who
don’t have change,” said Collin Evans, a senior majoring
in international relations and the director of alumni and
public relations for Troy Camp. “A lot of people show up
with a credit card or no cash, and this is a way to get
those people.”
Each year at the Homecoming football game, Troy
Camp — a student group that works with local ele-mentary
school children — passes empty milk cartons
around the rows of the Coliseum, hoping for donations
to help fund their annual summer trip for local elemen-tary
students.
In the past, though, those milk cartons never made
it to the student section because there were not enough
volunteers to staff the entire stadium. But Troy Camp
has hit a financial rough patch and will target students
with the new text message donation system.
“Before, we didn’t have enough students volunteers to
go to the student section, so the text messages will al-low
those students to participate,” said Ben Rose, a ju-nior
majoring in international relations and the director
of fundraising for Troy Camp’s Pass the Can.
During the game, students can text the word “camp”
to 85944. A $5 charge will then be added to the student’s
cell phone bill. Troy Camp makes $4.50 for every text
message, and the other 50 cents goes to Mobilecause, the
Troy Camp to
fundraise via
text messages
New aspect of Pass the Can fundraiser, aimed at
students, donates $4.50 for every text message.
| see texts, page 3 |
Dieuwertje Kast | Daily Trojan
Remember · Deyonte Austin, a junior, speaks during a re-enactment of a slave
auction, presented by the Black Student Assembly in honor of Nakumbuka Day.
By alexandra tilsley
Daily Trojan
“Please stand for something,”
said Deyonte Austin as he stood on
stage at Lazzaro Plaza, his arms and
legs in shackles.
Austin, a junior majoring in
music industry, was playing the
role of a slave in the Black Student
Assembly’s re-enactment of a slave
auction on Thursday. The event was
held in honor of Nakumbuka Day
— dedicated to Africans who died
on the Middle Passage — a route of
the slave trade. About 1 to 2 million
slaves died on the Middle Passage.
As he recited his speech on stage,
Austin began to cry. He said after
ward that re-enacting the role of a
slave deeply moved him.
“For a second, I felt like I was ac-tually
in that position,” he said. “My
grandfather used to tell me stories
like this. He saw it ... I could never
forget.”
“Nakumbuka” translates to “I re-member”
in Swahili. The slave auc-tion
re-enactment was held to en-sure
people did remember — or,
for those who had never heard of
the day, to teach about the plight of
slaves traveling from Africa.
The re-enactment drew in many
Slave auction
re-enactment
draws crowd
Members of the Black Student
Assembly met in Lazzaro Plaza
to honor Nakumbuka Day.
| see auction, page 2 |
By john isom
Daily Trojan
Saturday’s game against
Stanford will bring thousands of
alumni back to campus, but for
local businesses, Homecoming
Weekend’s influx of fans brings
more than just Trojan spirit.
With the Alumni Association
estimating that about 100,000 vis-itors
will flock to campus — on
Saturday, outlets on and around
campus like the USC Pertusati
Bookstore and the Radisson —
expect to see an uptick in business
over the weekend.
“With all the Trojan
faithful coming back, there’s al-ways
a huge surge of people,” said
Daniel Archer, director of the USC
Pertusati Bookstore. “There are
normally a lot of people [on game
day], but this is really extrava-gant.”
The bookstore takes several
measures to ensure it can keep up
with the throngs of people who
flood the store.
“There’s a large amount of tem-porary
labor to support the large
crowds,” Archer said. “The stock
area and sizing need to be correct,
and the concessions booth near
Tommy Trojan gets expanded to
sell more products.”
The bookstore’s normal op-erating
hours on weekends are
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but during
Homecoming it opens an hour ear-lier
and closes an hour later to give
customers as much time as possi-ble
to pick up merchandise.
During peak hours on
Homecoming before the game, the
store usually sells about $1,000 of
merchandise per minute — Archer
said he once saw sales up to $1,400
a minute — and he expects this
weekend’s sales to be in the same
range.
Still, the early timing —
Saturday’s game is set to kick off
at 12:30 p.m. — is going to affect
the bookstore’s revenues.
“If we had, say, a five o’clock
game, we’d definitely have more
sales,” Archer said. “After the
game is over, business slows down
to a trickle.”
Erin Grathwohl, a freshman
majoring in civil engineering
(building science), has been put-ting
money aside specifically for
the purpose of purchasing book-store
merchandise over this week-end.
“I’m really excited about my
first Homecoming,” Grathwohl
said. “So I’m definitely planning
on doing some shopping at the
bookstore this weekend.”
On-campus dining, however,
does not see as much of a jump in
business as the bookstore, espe-cially
since most people prefer to
tailgate on game days.
“Most groups and organiza-tions
bring their own food,” said
Kristian Klinger, director of USC
Hospitality. “There’s a small lift in
business, but it’s nothing too dra-matic.”
Klinger expects the real jump
in profits comes with off-campus
dining, since The Lab, McKay’s
and Rosso Oro’s all usually see
Homecoming expected to boost sales at bookstore, restaurants
Official says bookstore sells
about $1,000 of merchandise
per hour before game.
| see homecoming, page 3 |
Vicki Yang | Daily Trojan
Coming home · Vendors around campus are preparing for
homecoming weekend, which will bring thousands of visitors to campus.
Sports Extra Page 5