Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | VOL. 162, NO. 12 | www.dailytrojan.com
THURSDAY, SEPTE MBER 13, 2007
By RADOMIR AVILA
Daily Trojan
“Thank you for inviting me to the
revolution,” Republican presidential
candidate Ron Paul said to a crowd of
supporters and curious bystanders in
front of Tommy Trojan Wednesday
afternoon.
The gathering, sponsored by Pro-gram
Board, attracted students and
adults from throughout the Los An-geles
area, many of whom were roused
to cheer every time the 10-term con-gressman
from Texas heralded points
on his libertarian agenda.
Paul’s fans made up an eclectic set
of followers — one woman in tie-dyed
pants holding a sign dotted with the
peace symbol and the slogan, “End
Iraqi Nuclear Holocaust,” stood next
to a man whose sign portrayed a bald
eagle in front of a waving flag — and
less than half the crowd appeared to
be USC students.
Nearly all Paul’s policies are based
in libertarianism, a political ideol-ogy
based on individual rights, small
government and free markets. While
some issues include lower taxes, the
dismantling of federal departments
and an elimination of spying pro-grams,
many of his positions, such
as his belief that non-violent drug
offenders should be released from
prison, break with those of the main-stream
Republican base. His most
contentious platform is his belief
that the United States should imme-diately
withdraw all troops from Iraq,
a position he has held since the start
of the conflict in 2003.
“He is a libertarian who has found
The Republican presidential candidate addressed a crowd
of students and supporters about key campaign issues.
2008 candidate Ron Paul speaks at USC
| see 2008, page 12 |
Joshua Sy | Daily Trojan
Protect and preserve | Donnell Bell, Collection Inventory Assistant, stands with some of the books stored in the Grand
Avenue Library located three blocks east of campus. The newly air-conditioned building holds some of USC’s collections.
Grand Avenue Library cools down books
By JULIA WONG
Daily Trojan
Sweltering summer heat and decaying
books will no longer be characteristic of
USC’s Grand Avenue Library, which in-stalled
air-conditioning at its off-campus
facility earlier this year in an attempt to pre-serve
the collections stored there.
Grand Avenue Library, located at 3434
Grand Ave., is the holding place for lesser-used
research materials that are still impor-tant.
It is a huge book repository packed
floor to ceiling with old and special collec-tions.
The collections were moved into the
81,000-square-foot Grand Avenue location
between 2000 and 2001. But the installation
of air-conditioning was not initiated until
after the university’s Information Technol-ogy
Services relocated into the same build-ing
earlier this year.
“We wanted this for a very long time
and this is a huge step forward,” said Marje
Schuetze-Coburn, senior associate dean of
libraries.
Without air-conditioning, Schuetze-Co-burn
explained, the fluctuation of tempera-tures
within the building would damage
print materials and microfilms.
“Film will break down, and paper will get
brittle over time and disintegrate. Cooling
the materials down will slow their destruc-tion,”
Schuetze-Coburn said.
The introduction of the air-conditioning
facility better allows the library to preserve
older and more fragile print materials, such
as microfilms, government documents and
journals.
Doctorate and graduate students use
the library’s resources the most, but some
undergraduates find it useful in heavily
research-based studies, said Gene Bickers,
professor of physics and associate vice pro-vost
for undergraduate programs.
“I don’t normally refer undergraduates to
the Grand Avenue Library, but this really
depends on their field. Students studying
literature, archaeology, art history or history
will need their primary sources,” Bickers
said.
Robert Shanklin, a doctoral candidate
in philosophy of language and linguistics,
takes advantage of the materials stored at
the Grand Avenue Library, and said he will
visit more often now that comfortable fa-cilities,
such as the accompanying reading
room, have been completed.
“I would be encouraged to go to the
Grand Avenue Library now that is has air-conditioning,
because it shows the library
really cares about materials,” Shanklin said.
Shanklin said he researches the ways lan-guage
facilitates knowledge and influences
thought. He uses sources ranging from an-cient
and fragile materials to newer materi-
The off-campus library installs
air-conditioning to preserve
some of USC’s rare collections.
| see library, page 3 |
By NANCY CHEN
Daily Trojan
Wendy Lopata wants to make it clear: They are
survivors, not victims.
Lopata, the assistant director of the USC Center for
Women and Men, believes a change in nomenclature is
necessary to better address issues of domestic abuse.
“It’s important to recognize that people have to en-dure
a lot to survive an [abusive] situation, and it’s an
affirmation of how hard it is to get where they are,” she
said.
In recent weeks, two USC female students in separate
cases lodged complaints involving former boyfriends
with the Department of Public Safety.
One student reported her ex-boyfriend, also a stu-dent,
after he told two separate people he would harm
her, according to a DPS report.
Another student called DPS after she discovered her
ex-boyfriend, against whom she had a restraining order
in another state, standing outside her apartment door.
The officers detained the ex-boyfriend, but the student
declined to file a charge to have him arrested. He was
then released after being escorted from the premises.
Both females were referred to the Center for Women
and Men for help in getting a restraining order.
“Counselors at the Center work with students, both
male and female, who fear for their safety, to devise an
immediate safety plan, including whom to contact and
turn to for support,” Lopata said.
The Center for Women and Men offers
counseling and help to those being stalked.
USC offers
resources for
abuse victims
| see stalking, page 3 |
SECOND CHANCE
Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller
blew a 21-3 lead vs. USC when he
played for ASU. Saturday he gets
another shot 20
THE WAR AT HOME » »
Paul Higgis’ latest effort, ‘In the
Valley of Elah,’ examines the
moral consequences of war
for a soldier’s family 7
Just too much »
The VMAs put columnist
Stephen Kwok on sensory
overload.
Opinion, page 4
Ron Paul