Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 174, NO. 18 | Friday September 16, 2011
InDEX 2 · Quick hits 4 · Opinion 5 · Sports Extra 8 · Classifieds 9 · Crossword 12 · Lifestyle
By Denise Gonzalez
Daily Trojan
The first All Fellows Forum,
a new monthly panel series that
aims to bring graduate students
together to discuss topics of
shared interests with an inter-disciplinary
approach, was held
Thursday.
About 50 students and facul-ty
came to “New Perspectives on
Islam and the Middle East,” which
focused on issues related to events
that have transpired in the region
during the past few months.
Meredith Drake Reitan, as-sistant
dean of graduate fellow-ships,
said she organized the new
forums to bring students in the
graduate school together.
“The goal of these events is to
foster a community of interdis-ciplinary
scholars,” Reitan said.
“We’re interested in new ap-proaches
and bringing students
together from all over the univer-sity
to think about issues from a
variety of angles.”
She also said this series is a
chance for the students to become
more involved while giving them a
“really strong push toward inter-disciplinary
work.”
The university has several
interdisciplinary programs in
place at the graduate level, and
the program is designed to con-nect
them within the university,
Reitan said.
The monthly forums bring to-gether
university-funded fellows
to discuss a variety of topics in a
scholarly and social environment.
“I hope it is something that will
last the students long after USC,”
Reitan said.
Two graduate students and one
professor discussed the ways they
collected information about cur-rent
events in the Middle East and
the conclusions they drew from
Crime
By David Lowenstein
Daily Trojan
A suspect was arrested in the
shooting of two USC students
at an off-campus party, the Los
Angeles Police Department an-nounced
Thursday.
Tyson Tiree Smith, 21, was ar-rested
Wednesday night in the
City of Signal Hill near Long
Beach, Calif., LAPD Southwest
Division Capt. Melissa Zak said.
Two USC students, a male un-dergraduate
student and a female
graduate student, were shot early
on the morning of Sept. 4 on the
1200 block of West 37th Place af-ter
a confrontation occurred be-tween
the shooter and the vic-tims.
The Los Angeles District
Attorney’s Office filed two counts
of attempted murder and two
counts of assault with a firearm
against Smith, the district attor-ney’s
office said.
LAPD and the Dept. of Public
Safety used photographic and vid-eo
evidence from the crime scene
to identify the suspect and track
him down, Zak said.
“A combination of several dif-ferent
sources of video were
used in the investigation,” DPS
Assistant Chief John Thomas said.
“It was a combination of technol-ogy,
interviews and the whole
gambit to piece together what re-sulted
in an arrest.”
Thomas said that security cam-eras
installed as part of a DPS se-curity
expansion west of Vermont
Avenue contributed to the arrest
of Smith.
“The [newly-installed] camer-as
played a part in [the arrest] but
so did everything else,” Thomas
said.
One shot was fired at the vic-tims
after a confrontation over
a pair of Beats by Dr. Dre head-phones
escalated. The bullet hit
the female student’s finger and
then hit the male in the chest. The
female victim performed CPR on
the male victim, likely saving his
Suspect in Sept. 4
shooting arrested
The male victim of the
shooting was released from
the hospital Wednesday.
| see Arrest, page 2 |
All Fellows Forum holds first panel
The series was designed to
spark interdisciplinary interest
among graduate students.
graduate school
Chris Pham | Daily Trojan
Speaking up · Graduate students Laila Shereen Sakr (left) and
Maytha Alhassen discussed the usage of the term “Arab Spring.”
Carlo Acenas | Daily Trojan
Invite only
Donors attended a reception to kick off the Campaign for the University of Southern California in the
International Plaza of the Ronald Tutor Campus Center from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursday. President C. L. Max Nikias
and other noted faculty and staff will speak in Bovard Auditorium from 10:30 a.m. to noon today.
academics
By Arlene Washington
Daily Trojan
Imagine your first year of college
if you had your posse with you. The
Posse Foundation has brought this
sense of friendship and community
to USC for 12 freshmen students
from New York City, who said this
unique scholarship has helped them
transition into college.
The Posse Foundation is a national
organization founded in 1989 that
aims to create a network of leaders
from diverse backgrounds, who will
not only be successful individually,
but also have an impact on their
university campus. A multicultural
group of scholars are awarded a
merit-based scholarship from each
participating university where the
“posse” enrolls and attend college
together.
“A couple of days ago, me and one
of my Posse peers pulled an all-nighter
together in Leavey Library,” said Vidal
Woods, a freshman and Posse Scholar
majoring in international relations.
“It’s great that I have someone that
I already know and can turn to for
support at the start of the year.”
President and founder of the Posse
Foundation, Deborah Bial, began the
Foundation after a student once said,
“I never would have dropped out of
college if I had my posse with me.”
Since then, she has promoted the
importance of leadership to freshmen
campuses at 38 partner colleges.
“This really is a leadership merit
award allowing students as a group
to come to USC and further that
leadership in the classrooms and
organizations on campus,” said Bial.
“They bond together, but are not
only diverse in race and sexuality, but
interests as well.”
The students’ mentor, George J.
Sanchez, vice dean for diversity and
strategic initiatives, said the Posse
scholarship expands upon previous
USC initiatives to increase diversity.
“This will help USC in their
recommitment to establishing itself
as a premiere institution that can
produce a generation of urban leaders
of the future,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said he is thrilled with the
Posse’s progress so far and believes
this diverse addition to the Trojan
family will help build on programs
USC has with local communities such
as the Norman Topping Scholars, who
are awarded academic scholarships
based on merit and community
involvement.
“We officially meet as a group
First group of Posse Scholars
transition to USC together
The 12 students have received
both a full-tuition scholarship
and a supportive community.
| see Posse, page 3 |
Check out Saturday’s game against
Syracuse in the Sports Extra, page 5.
| see Forum, page 2 |