Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 169, NO. 12 | Friday January 29, 2010
InDEX
4 · Opinion
5 · Lifestyle
8 · Classifieds
9 · Crossword
11 · Sudoku
12 · Sports
My brother’s keeper: Nick
Jonas & the Administration
play at the Wiltern. PAGE 5
Big win: Ashley Corral’s 19-point
outburst helps the Women of Troy
blow out Oregon State. PAGE 12
Vicki Yang | Daily Trojan
Passenger on · A student boards the DASH at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover
Street. DASH prices are set to increase soon, and LADOT is also considering cutting some bus routes.
By laura cueva
Daily Trojan
Students without cars could
soon find themselves with even few-er
options for getting around Los
Angeles.
Because of massive budget defi-cits,
Los Angeles’ major public tran-sit
systems — the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority and
the Los Angeles Department of
Transportation — are considering
hiking fares and cutting bus lines.
Both MTA, which runs the regu-lar
bus routes, and LADOT, whose
services include the DASH and the
Commuter Express, are researching
ridership levels around the city as
they consider which lines to shut
down.
“It’s in the early stages,” said
MTA spokesman Rick Jager. “It’s ir-responsible
to say which lines will
be cut. [At the moment] we have no
plans on how to deal with the defi-cit.”
MTA, LADOT contemplating cutting routes
Both public transit providers
are considering raising fees to
help shrink budget deficits.
| see Busses, page 3 |
By rebecca buddingh
Daily Trojan
The dynamic of The Row will be
different next fall, as several hous-es
are in the process of planning
moves, signing leases or finding
alternative housing options.
Come fall, Zeta Beta Tau frater-nity
will take over the house cur-rently
occupied by Pi Kappa Alpha
fraternity; Pi Kappa Phi fraternity
will move back into the house it
owns, though it is currently being
used by ZBT; and Pike has yet to
decide where it will move.
Earlier this month, the land-lord
of the current Pike house de-cided
not to renew the fraternity’s
lease. Pike has occupied the house,
which is owned by Phi Sigma
Kappa, since fall 2005.
According to Pike President
Eric Geibel, the fraternity has
been looking for alternative hous-ing
arrangements for the past two
years.
“We’re very dissatisfied with
our landlord, and we feel he has
not met his obligation to us as
tenants in providing a valuable
house,” Geibel said. “It hasn’t ad-equately
met our needs, and we’ve
had a housing committee for the
last two years trying to find new
options for us that would be bet-ter.”
The fraternity felt it was paying
too much for the house and is eval-uating
other options, Geibel said.
Though the location of its new
home has yet to be determined,
Geibel said he views this as a good
opportunity for Pike.
“I’m personally excited to be
moving out of here,” Geibel said.
“It’s just been a long time coming,
and the members of our house de-serve
something much better.”
When Pike moves out at the end
of the spring semester, ZBT will
take over its lease.
ZBT President Ivan Whittey
said he had no say in the decision
to leave the current house and
Several fraternities trading spots on The Row for the fall semester
Pi Kappa Alpha did not renew
its lease and is now looking for
an alternative housing option.
| see houses, page 3 |
By paresh dave
Daily Trojan
The push by USC Admissions
to increase its number of visits to
high schools around the world has
led to a record number of fresh-man
applications and a stronger
applicant pool.
In the tough economy, many
universities chose to cut their ad-missions
travel budgets, decreas-ing
visits to high schools. USC,
meanwhile, set out to increase vis-its
by 50 percent, aiming to attract
more students from a wider vari-ety
of backgrounds. The return
was about a 3 percent increase in
freshman applications.
The Office of Admissions far
exceeded its goal, visiting about
1,350 high schools, a 67 percent
jump from last year. Though these
1,350 schools are only a few of the
30,000 high schools in the United
States, Tim Brunold, associate
dean and director of undergradu-ate
admission, said the visits were
integral in drawing a greater num-ber
of strong applicants to USC.
“We want to keep up the trend
of delivering a freshman class that
is more distinguished than the
one before it,” Brunold said. “High
school recruiting visits are one
of the best ways to provide more
high quality applicants.”
Brunold said the “volume and
scope” of USC’s visits were “defi-nitely
beyond” those of other uni-versities.
USC spent $200,000 on
travel for recruitment, which is
less than they had originally
budgeted.
Aside from campus tours, sur-veys
show that high school out-reach
visits have the greatest im-pact
on generating applications,
Brunold said. Applications from
a particular school can as much
as double after USC visits for the
first time.
Wayne Thompson, a junior ma-joring
in business administra-tion,
said colleges visiting his high
school gave him a good picture of
the university.
“It’s a tangible effect to be able
to shake someone’s hand,” he said.
“To converse in face just generates
excitement.”
While USC visited the same
number of California high schools
as 2008, it increased its presence
in the Southeast and Northeast,
especially in highly populat-ed
states like Texas, Florida,
Georgia, New York, New Jersey
and Pennsylvania. USC drew 6.8
percent and 4.3 percent more ap-plicants
from the Southeast and
Northeast, respectively.
When determining which
schools to visit, USC seeks the
most return on resources spent by
finding schools with achievement
scores that match its target and
that also have a large number of
students that would be interested
in coming to USC.
That approach seemed to work
this year, as preliminary figures
show that the average SAT score
of this year’s applicants was 20
points higher than last year.
Kate Durkee, an undeclared
freshman, said USC mailings
and a desire to move West were
enough to persuade her to apply.
Increased visits pay
off for admissions
Applications increased about
three percent in part because
of admissions outreach efforts.
| see admissions, page 3 |
Ian Elston | Daily Trojan
Trading spaces · Zeta Beta Tau will leave its current location and move into the house currently occupied
by Pi Kappa Alpha. Pi Kappa Phi will move into ZBT’s current house, and Pike is looking for a house.