Craniofacial Birth Defect Research Gets $5.5 Million Boost

Chronicle
USC: Time Magazine’s College of the Year 2000
Published for the USC Faculty & Staff
Craniofacial Birth Defect
Research Gets $5.5 Million Boost
November 29, 1999
Interdisciplinary effort seeks to reduce incidence of cleft lip and cleft palate.
by Bob Calverley
T
Learning Communities
co-directors describe
successful new program
JON NALICK
7
Molecular biologist Charles F. Shuler will lead the research effort to look into
the molecular mechanisms that control craniofacial development. Craniofacial
anomalies constitute 35 percent of all birth defects.
The Fisher Gallery’s
“Crossing Boundaries”
runs through Feb. 26
12
he National Institute of Dental Craniofacial Research
has awarded $5.5 million to USC to develop molecular-based strategies for reducing the incidence of
craniofacial birth defects.
“If we can understand the fundamental molecular mechanisms that control craniofacial development, then we will be
able to prevent, diagnose and treat craniofacial anomalies that
constitute 35 percent of
all birth defects,” said
One in 700 American children molecular biologist Charles
F. Shuler, who will lead
is born with cleft lip or cleft
the interdisciplinary research effort. “Not only
palate.
do these birth defects put
a devastating burden on
individuals and families,
but they are associated with significant health-care costs for
society.”
One in 700 American children is born with cleft lip or cleft
palate, although the incidence is one in 300 for native Americans
and one in 500 for Hispanic and Asian populations.
“Every child born with this condition needs four major
surgeries,” said Shuler, director of USC’s Center for
continued on page 11
Atlas 3: Experts Look at Southland’s Health
by Meg Sullivan
Inside
USC IN THE NEWS
3
O P E R E T TA O P E N S D E C . 3
7
CALENDAR
8
CINDY MCCAIN TO SPEAK
VOLUME 19 NUMBER 13
10
health-care system shows symptoms of strain, according to a USC
report.
“One of the world’s best
health-care systems is increasingly
less accessible to many consumers
and subject to so many financial
and organizational stringencies
that even health-care providers
are dismayed,” said geographer
Michael Dear, lead editor of the
Health Atlas of Southern California and director of USC’s Southern
California Studies Center (SC2).
“This is a road map for the
future of health-care policy in
Southern California,” said Stephen
J. Ryan, senior vice president for
medical care at USC’s Keck School
of Medicine.
Issued Thursday, Nov. 11, by
continued on page 6
D A N AV I L A
THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Scholars who contributed to the Health Atlas of Southern California include (from left to right, back row) Margaret Gatz,
Wendy Cozen,Michael Dear,Dallas Dishman,Shri Mishra,Heidi Sommer,Amy Fiske,David Sloane.Others are (from left,
front row) Michael Cousineau, Sheldon Kamieniecki, Shumarry Chao, Aandrea Hricko, Elizabeth Graddy and Robert
Tranquada.The scholars gathered at the Doheny Eye Institute to discuss their findings at a Nov. 11 press conference.
Social Policy Expert Rino J. Patti
to Hold Endowed Professorship
by Zsa Zsa Gershick
RINO J. PATTI, an expert on social
policy and the legislative process,
will hold the Margaret W.
Driscoll/Louise M. Clevenger
Professorship at the USC School
of Social Work. His appointment
was announced by Marilyn L.
Flynn, dean of the school.
The professorship was endowed by a $750,000 legacy from
the estate of Pasadena social
worker Louise M. Clevenger and
a gift from Rudolph Driscoll, in
memory of his mother, Margaret
Weyerhauser Driscoll. Margaret
Driscoll and Clevenger were lifelong friends: Driscoll, who was
awarded an honorary doctorate
from USC in 1978, began funding
School of Social Work scholarships in 1962, in honor of
Clevenger, and continued to do
so until Clevenger’s death in
1981.
“The Driscoll/Clevenger professorship will help us to recruit
USC Staff Earn
Year-End Bonus
and retain outstanding faculty
members, such as Rino Patti, and
will enable the chair holder to
conduct vital research,” said
welfare administration.
Patti is the author of “Social
Welfare Administration: Managing Social Programs in a
Developmental Context”
(Prentice-Hall, 1983) and
“The Driscoll/Clevenger
co-editor of “Change From
Within” (Temple Univerprofessorship will help us to
sity Press, 1980) and
“Managing for Service
recruit and retain outstanding Effectiveness in Social
Welfare” (Haworth Press,
faculty members and will
1988). He is editor of
Administration in Social
enable the chair holder to
Work, a journal of human
services management. Pubconduct vital research.”
lications in which his articles
have appeared include
– M A R I LY N L . F LY N N
Social Work, Social Service
Review, Public Welfare and
the Journal of Education in
Flynn.
Social Work.
Patti’s teaching and research
A member of the Los Angeles
focus on social policy and the leg- 2000 Partnership and the United
islative process, social policy and Way Community Issues Council,
social services, organizational he was president of the National
analysis and design, strategies of Association of Deans and
organizational change, and social Directors of Schools of Social
IN A NOVEMBER letter to staff,
Sample offered his “heartfelt
thanks for a job well done,” noting that “the trustees have
agreed that it is a fitting recognition of the dawn of the new century and the important role you
have played in creating the kind
of momentum we are currently
enjoying at USC.”
According to the letter, staff
members in areas that must stay
open Dec. 27 through 30 will be
allowed to take the four special
university holidays before Dec.
25 or within six months of that
date. Staff members cannot
choose to work the special holidays and receive extra pay for
working those days. Also, where
an employee’s holidays are governed by a collective bargaining
agreement, that document will
apply. ■
2
Work from 1990 to 1992.
Patti taught at the University
of Washington, Seattle, before
joining USC as professor and
dean of social work in 1988. He
relinquished the deanship and
returned to full-time teaching in
1997.
He was a social worker for
Special Services for Groups Inc.
in Los Angeles (1965), the
Marianne Frostig Center for
Educational Therapy in Los
Angeles (1965), the Alcoholism
Clinic of Cincinnati General
USC License Vendors Agree to Safeguards
WORKERS AT A LOS ANGELES garment factory
BECAUSE OF STAFF accomplishments that resulted in
USC’s being named Time/
Princeton Review “College of
the Year 2000,” President
Steven B. Sample has designated the four work days between
Christmas and New Year’s Eve
(Dec. 27 through 30) as special
paid university holidays.
This is the second year in a
row that the trustees and officers of USC have acknowledged
staff contributions with an
exceptional year-end bonus –
extra time to spend with family
and friends.
Rino J. Patti will hold the professorship that memorializes Margaret W. Driscoll
(right) and her lifelong friend, social worker Louise M. Clevenger.
recently sued a former USC contractor, alleging violation of state labor laws.
In the suit filed Tuesday, Nov. 16, in U.S. District
Court, eight Latino immigrants alleged they were routinely forced to work overtime off the clock, periodically had to take work home and were subjected to verbal
abuse.
“This is exactly the type of abuse our codes of conduct are meant to prevent,” said Padmini Narumanchi
of the USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation
during a news conference held Nov. 17 on USC’s
University Park Campus.
The news conference was part of a coordinated
“labor solidarity day” in which students at 20 universities across the country demonstrated in support of
labor rights. Students from Harvard to Stanford called
for tougher codes of conduct for contractors who produce university apparel.
J.H. Design, the firm singled out in the lawsuit – and
in the student demonstrations that followed – is no
longer a contractor to USC. That company’s contract
with USC was canceled on Oct. 8, 1992, according to Liz
Kennedy, director of USC Trademarks and Licensing
Services.
“As a matter of principle, the University of Southern
California deplores any actions that denigrate, coerce or
exploit workers in any industry,” said Kennedy. “USC
prides itself on the leadership role it has taken on the
‘sweatshop’ issue.”
According to Kennedy, USC on July 1 asked all of the
vendors who provide the university with “USC License”
clothing and accessories – and their subcontractors – to
sign contracts that incorporate safeguards guaranteeing, among other things, adequate wages and prohibitions against child labor, sexual or other exploitation, or
abusive working conditions, including excessive hours.
“Most USC vendors have already completed these
contracts; all shall,” said Kennedy, who added that USC
was among the first universities to embrace President
Clinton’s Fair Labor Association initiative.
“We applaud students who have worked to convince companies that they must treat all workers fairly,”
said Kennedy. “We invite USC students to continue to
share their ideas with us. We believe we are behaving
responsibly in this area, but we are always ready to do
better.”
The lawsuit was filed by the Legal Aid Foundation
of Los Angeles and the Asian Pacific American Legal
Center. The demonstrations were coordinated by the
newly formed National Student Labor Alliance and
United Students Against Sweatshops. ■
Fisher Gallery Director
Selma Holo to Sign New Book
A Monday, Dec. 6, book signing and luncheon, sponsored by the
department of art history, begins at noon in Fisher Gallery. The
event celebrates the recent publication of Selma Holo’s “Beyond the
Prado: Museums and Identity in Democratic Spain.” The book, published by Smithsonian Institution Press, is available at the Pertusati
University Bookstore. Admission to the Fisher Gallery signing is free.
To RSVP, call (213) 740-4561.
Hospital (1962-64), the Veterans
Administration Hospital in
Cincinnati (1960-64), the San
Bernardino County Department
of Public Welfare (1959), the
Psychiatric Unit of L.A. County
General Hospital (1959-60) and
the Los Angeles County Bureau
of Public Assistance (1958-59).
Patti earned his A.B. degree,
with honors, in sociology from
San Diego State University in
1958, and his MSW and DSW
degrees in social work from USC
in 1960 and 1967, respectively. ■
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Chronicle
Editor
Christine E. Shade
Associate Editor
Melissa Payton
Writers
Matt Blakeslee Bob Calverley
Paul Dingsdale Alicia Di Rado
Zsa Zsa Gershick Inga Kiderra James Lytle
Brenda Maceo Eric Mankin Jon Nalick
Lori Oliwenstein Sharon Stewart
Mary Ellen Stumpfl Meg Sullivan
Staff Photographer
Irene Fertik
Photography Intern
Casey Crafton
Technical Support
Glenn K. Seki
Business Manager
Wanda Hicks
Executive Director, USC News Service
Alfred G. Kildow
Vice President, University Public Relations
Martha Harris
University of Southern California Chronicle
(ISSN 1053-573X) is published weekly on
Mondays, September through April (except the
week of Thanksgiving, two weeks before and after
Christmas, and the week of spring break); and
biweekly May through June, by the University of
Southern California, News Service, KAP 246, 3620
S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90089-2538.
Printing by Rodgers and McDonald. Periodical
Postage Paid at Los Angeles, California.
Subscriptions Weekly delivery of 32 issues a year.
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On the Internet:
http://uscnews.usc.edu/
chronicle.html
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
USC IN THE NEWS
Atlas Puts News Focus on Health Care
❑ Newspapers in seven of the eight counties covered by USC’s Southern California Studies
Center’s (SC2) Health Atlas of Southern California reported findings from an interdisciplinary team of 29 USC researchers. “If I had to pick one [problem], it’s access in its many
dimensions – physical access, access to the emergency medical system, financial access, and
cultural access for all the different ethnic groups,” said SC2 director Michael Dear in a Nov.
11 front-page Los Angeles Times Metro section article, which appeared in an extended version
in the Times Orange County edition. The Times ran yet another story on the findings in the
newspaper’s Nov. 12 Ventura County edition. “We can’t afford to become complacent,”
warned Stephen J. Ryan, senior vice president for
medical care at the Keck School of Medicine. “While
the economy is in a boom, the number of uninsured
Americans is increasing at an amazing rate.” The Atlas,
the third in an ongoing series, also received front-page
coverage in the Nov. 11 Orange County Register, Nov. 12
Ventura Star and Nov. 12 La Opiñion. Also following the
story were KFWB-AM, KNX-AM, KCRW-FM’s
“Which Way, LA?,” KNBC, KCBS, Fox News, KCAL
and the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Santa Barbara News
Press, San Bernardino County Sun and San Diego UnionTribune.
❑ “His clarity and leadership
brought together a consensus
that would have been impossible
without him,” Mayor Richard
Riordan said of constitutional law
expert Erwin Chemerinsky in a
front-page Oct. 15 profile in the
Heritage Southwest Jewish Press.
The story detailed Chemernsky’s role as head of the elected
commission for charter reform, a
movement that prevailed in a
ballot initiative last summer.
❑ An Oct. 30 Los Angeles Times
editorial described as “significant” a Nov. 4-5 series of USC
economic development workshops for religious leaders.
“Efforts like next week’s economic development conference
… already have laid an important
foundation,” the editorial said.
“The work is significant for its
acknowledgment that if people
can move beyond creeds and
dogmas, they can address poverty and related social problems.”
News of the conference also
appeared in La Opiñion and the
Wave newspapers.
❑ “Airline travel is phenomenally safe. Last year more than 600
million people traveled on commercial airliners in the U.S. without a single fatality. More than
twice as many people lose their
lives in automobile accidents
each year than have died in airline crashes in the entire history
of air travel,” said fear expert
Barry Glassner in a Nov. 2 Wall
Street Journal op-ed titled “Fear
of Flying.” In his piece, Glassner
skewered the media-driven
scares, specious statistics and
faulty reasoning that typically
follow airline accidents such as
the recent EgyptAir disaster. In a
New York Times column two days
later, the author of “Culture of
Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid
of the Wrong Things” wrote that
the media sends the wrong message by providing “a laundry list
of past crashes and possible dangers.” Two days later on NPR’s
“Morning Edition,” Glassner
noted that “one reason … plane
crashes get so much attention is
specifically [that] they’re so
uncommon.” Glassner also commented on the issue for MSNBC
“News with Brian Williams,”
NBC’s “Today Show” and
“Later Today,” CNN’s “Saturday Morning News” and
KPCC’s “Talk of the Nation,”
among others.
❑ Entrepreneur expert Nitin
Bhatt was quoted in the Nov. 3
Los Angeles Times in a story about
microlending programs. “We
need to be cautious about advocating more loan programs –
something that the development
community and policy-makers
have fallen in love with,” Bhatt
said, citing conclusions contained
in a three-year USC research project. “The money is [already]
there. We have to figure out why
the money is not being used.”
Bhatt and public policy experts
Gary Painter and Shui-Yan
Tang examined 16 California
microcredit programs, interviewed 300 local entrepreneurs
and reviewed national studies
highlighting the industry’s success.
❑ The appointment of John
Brooks Slaughter – “one of the
country’s most passionate advocates of equal opportunity in
education” – to the Irving R.
Melbo Chair in Education was
reported in the Nov. 4 Los Angeles
Sentinel. “I’m committed to the
idea that it’s possible to increase
academic excellence while at the
same time having a strong commitment to equity,” said
Slaughter, who served as president of Occidental College from
1988 to 1999. “The most important message I can convey is that
we have to be much more sensitive to those goals in higher education.”
❑ The Nov. 4 Hollywood Reporter
and Daily Variety reported a
$50,000 donation from the
Hollywood Foreign Press Association to USC’s Annenberg School
for Communication. “I’m confident that this check will be
meaningful and will help to
churn out many thoughtful journalists in the future,” said television producer Norman Lear, who
accepted the check on the
school’s behalf.
❑ Bruce Nugent should be
added to the list of writers who
use modernist techniques, literature expert Joseph A. Boone
told the Chronicle of Higher
Education in a Nov. 5 article. The
story, on the expansion of the
modernist canon to include some
lesser-known writers, noted that
Boone discusses Nugent – who
was black, gay and only 21 when
he wrote his best-known short
story – in his recent book,
“Libidinal Currents: Sexuality
and the Making of Modernism.”
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
❑ The Nov. 8 issue of Der Spiegel,
the most influential news weekly
in the German-speaking world,
carried an illustrated report entitled “Keen-Eared Computer” on
the work of biomedical engineers
Theodore Berger and Jim-Shih
LIaw in creating “an electronic
speech recognition system than
understands spoken words better
than the human ear.” The story
noted that the system works by
using the characteristics of
human nerve cells.
❑ Health-care expert Glenn
Melnick was quoted in a Nov. 9
USA Today story about the relationship between a doctor’s freedom to make treatment decisions and the cost of that treatment. “If everyone were to relax
oversight, the tendency would
be for utilization to go up again
and costs to go up,” Melnick
said. He was also quoted in a
Nov. 15 front-page Los Angeles
Times article about a shift in the
“culture” of medicine toward
considering the cost of treatment
before deciding how to care for
patients.
❑ “Lou’s one of the most
amazing members of the USC
family of all time,” President
Steven B. Sample said about
World War II hero Louis
Zamperini. Sample was quoted in a Nov. 11 Los Angeles
Times feature about a meeting
of the Los Angeles Breakfast
Club convened to honor
Zamperini’s wartime heroics.
Sample presented a plaque to
the former USC track star in a
presentation reminiscent of a
1945 Breakfast Club meeting
when then-USC President
Rufus von KleinSmid awarded a medal to Zamperini. Now
82, Zamperini was captured in
1943 by the Japanese after his
plane crashed in the Pacific.
He spent 2 1/2 years in a prisoner-of-war camp, and was
beaten almost daily when he
refused to make propaganda
broadcasts for the enemy.
❑ Geographer Stephanie
Pincetl’s new book, “Transforming California: A Political
History of Land Use and
Development,” figured prominently in a Nov. 12-18 L.A.
Weekly roundup of new books
that illuminate Southern California during the Progressive
Era. “With scrupulous attention
to how the state’s political structures have shaped the way in
which we organize our communities and interact with the land,
Pincetl sorts out the interconnections among the various phenomena that characterize California today, including corporate
dominance of agriculture, white
flight, urban neglect, environmental degradation and suburbanization.” The book was also
favorably reviewed in the Sept.
19 San Francisco Chronicle.
❑ Marketing expert David
Stewart was quoted in the Nov.
15 Los Angeles Business Journal in a
story about the annoying habits
of urban residents. He cited a
trend toward less civility and
increasing urban anonymity as
factors. “The people around us
tend to be … strangers, so their
opinion of you is not necessarily
terribly important,” he said.
❑ The Nov. 17 USC unveiling of
“Blacklist,” a sculpture by artist
Jenny Holzer that celebrates the
First Amendment and commemorates victims of the
McCarthy era, was reported in
that day’s Los Angeles Times
Morning Report. The Calendar
section column noted that the
$250,000 project was initiated by
faculty members of USC’s Filmic Writing Program. ■
Alphabetic Inscriptions Found
West Semitic inscriptions expert Bruce
Zuckerman was quoted in a Nov. 14 New
York Times article on the discovery of
limestone inscriptions in the desert west
of the Nile that Egyptologists say are the
earliest known examples of alphabetic
writing. “This is fresh meat for the
alphabet people,” said Zuckerman,
director of USC’s West Semitic Research
Project, who assisted the investigation by
taking detailed pictures of the inscriptions for analysis using computerized
techniques.
3
Student Scholar Chosen to Join NIH Research Program
gram scholars. “They give us pretty much everything
we need,” he said.
by Alicia Di Rado
CHIEN RECENTLY came back to USC for a quick visit
to encourage other Keck School students to apply for
the research program, which offers a $17,800 salary,
medical insurance and other benefits, as well as a rich
opportunity to learn from other scientists.
“It’s great to see a student thriving like this,” Keck
School Dean Stephen J. Ryan said.
“This is a big opportunity,” Ryan told Chien. “We’d
like to see a lot of students go into the program after
you.”
CHIEN ALMOST DIDN’T end up in medicine.
ALICIA DI RADO
JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO, Wade Chien was plugging away in labs and classrooms with a fervor familiar to any Keck School second-year medical student.
Today, he’s doing research with the director of the
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and
Stroke.
Chien, 23, is participating in the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health
Research Scholars Program in Bethesda, Md. He is one
of only 42 students from 24 medical and dental
schools across the nation chosen for the award this
year. Participants specialize in a research topic and
work with top scientists at an NIH institute for nine
months to a year.
Working in NINDS director Gerald Fischbach’s electrophysiology laboratory, Chien is studying the interactions where nerve cells meet muscle. “Working here
is great,” Chien said. “Dr. Fischbach even comes in
nights and weekends to work with us in the lab.”
Although he misses USC, Chien said he is learning
a great deal on the NIH campus. Each Monday, a wellknown scientist speaks to all the program scholars
and meets them at an informal dinner. And each
Thursday, selected students in the program present
their research findings to fellow students, gaining
experience in public speaking and working with
peers.
Study areas include cell biology, epidemiology and
biostatistics, genetics, immunology, neuroscience and
Dean Stephen J. Ryan, right, congratulates Wade Chien for his academic success. Chien is one of only 42 students chosen from across
the nation to join the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National
Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program.
structural biology.
Chien has seen advantages to slowing down and
focusing on one area of study for a while.
“I’ve found that doing research here is slower
paced than being in medical school,” said Chien, a
Taiwan native. “It’s a different kind of experience.”
As a program participant, he lives in The Cloister, a
residential facility with amenities provided for pro-
He began practicing the violin at age 5, went
through music school and entered a conservatory,
seemingly destined for a musical career. By the second
half of his freshman year at the New England
Conservatory of Music, he had decided to explore
other subjects and grew interested in the sciences.
Medicine combines Chien’s interest in people with
his strengths in science.
“I think I’d like to be involved in research, as well
as in treating patients,” he said, looking forward to
his future work. “The whole discovery process in
research is amazing. As an undergraduate researcher,
even the little things I found were such a great feeling.”
For more information about the program, go to
http://www.hhmi.org/science/cloister.htm. ■
Students Build Character While Helping Others
EACH YEAR during spring
break, 20 USC students (plus
faculty and staff advisers) spend
four days at Dorothy’s Place, a
homeless day shelter in Salinas,
Calif.
There, participating in one
gram to give students of diverse
religious backgrounds an opportunity for personal and spiritual
growth while doing community
service. This year’s trip is
scheduled to begin March 12.
THE LATEST EDITION of the
Templeton Guide: Colleges
That Encourage Character
Development cites the
“USC has terrific year-round
Monterey ASB program as
“exemplary.”
service learning programs, but
“The Templeton Guide
selection fits in nicely with
the great thing about Alternative the recognition from Time
magazine,” Laemmle said,
Spring Break is that it gives
referring to the Time/
Princeton Review college
students everything healthy they guide’s selection of USC as
“College of the Year 2000”
would get from going to Hawaii based on its communityoutreach programs.
... and leaves out the less healthy
“USC has terrific yearround service learning
things.”
programs,” she said, “but
the great thing about
– RABBI SUSAN LAEMMLE
Alternative Spring Break
is that it gives students
everything healthy they
of USC’s Alternative Spring would get from going to Hawaii
Break programs, the volunteers – a break from school, a chance
help to prepare and serve meals, to travel and bond with other
socialize with shelter guests, students – and leaves out the
make repairs, do chores, and less healthy things. Plus they’re
participate in evening discus- helping other people.”
sions about the day’s experiThe Templeton Guide
ences.
“identifies colleges that encourRabbi Susan Laemmle, USC age students to understand the
dean of religious life, started and importance of personal and civic
leads the Monterey ASB pro- responsibility, which will help
4
D AV I D N G U Y E N
by Melissa Payton
1998 Alternative Spring Break volunteers help to serve meals at Dorothy’s Place, a homeless shelter in Salinas. They also
made repairs, did chores and took part in discussions about their experiences.
them succeed in college and
beyond,” said Arthur J. Schwartz,
director of Character Development Programs at the John
Templeton Foundation.
The newly published guide
profiles 405 exemplary programs
in 10 categories, listing USC’s
Monterey ASB program in the
category “Spiritual Growth
Programs.” ■
FOR INFORMATION about joining the Monterey Bay ASB trip,
contact Rabbi Laemmle at (213) 740-6110 or [email protected].
TO LEARN MORE about other USC Alternative Spring Break
programs, including trips to the Navajo National Indian
Reservation in Utah and Death Valley National Park, call the USC
Volunteer Center at (213) 740-9116.
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
P H O T O S B Y S H A R O N S T E WA R T
Law and Business Students Advise Local Entrepreneurs
Students gain ‘real world’ experience
as business owners get free advice.
TAJUAN MERCER is no longer
afraid to follow her dream.
“I decided that 1999 was my
year to stop running from my 3year-old plan to launch
an Internet-based business,”
Mercer said. “I contacted USC’s
Business Expansion Network,
and I’ve been moving at warp
speed ever since.”
Mercer, a television editor by
day, is one of 22 entrepreneurs
who have taken the first steps to
start or expand their businesses –
thanks to the Neighborhood
Enterprise Program, a studentfaculty initiative sponsored since
June 1998 by the Business
Expansion Network.
people just like Mercer, said
Nitin Bhatt, BEN’s executive
director.
“We have clients all the way
from those who say ‘I have an
idea’ to companies that have
been around for years and are
looking for expansion strategies,”
Bhatt said. “We had a client who
had been in business for years
but still didn’t have a personnel
manual. A group of USC Law
School students and their professor worked for a semester to help
him create one. “
MBA STUDENTS AND USC
undergraduates in business and
law develop business plans, draft
marketing strategies,
research manufactur“We have clients all the way from
ing and shipping costs,
and identify possible
those who say ‘I have an idea’ to
lending institutions,
Bhatt said.
companies that have been around
“USC
students
gain,” he said, “befor years that are looking for
cause this is a realworld laboratory in
expansion strategies.”
which they can apply
the theories they learn
– N I T I N B H AT T
in the classroom.
Clients gain because
they don’t have to
Holding her cards close to the spend time or dollars to develop
vest, Mercer won’t describe the a good business plan or marketexact nature of her business idea. ing strategy.”
Student-faculty consulting
But when she floated it past
friends, relatives, acquaintances, teams provide the assistance
established business people and free of charge. “We’re talking
other professionals, “The re- high-quality assistance for
sponse was so overwhelming, it which private consultants might
kind of scared me,” she recalled. charge up to $500 an hour,”
“I started getting calls for orders I Bhatt said.
couldn’t fill. I had no idea what
Marshall School of Business
an entrepreneur was.”
undergraduates Edmundo Rivera,
The Neighborhood Enter- Douglas Clayton, Kris Kim and
prise Program was created for Ling-Chi Huang are helping
Q U I C K TA K E S
Journalism School Certified as
CNN Student News Bureau
❑ The Atlanta-headquartered Cable News Network has
certified USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism as a
CNN Student News Bureau. In the evaluation process,
CNN producers evaluated television stories produced by
USC students, who will now be able to submit pieces to
be aired nationally and around the world on CNN. Most
of the pieces will be selected from Impact and Annenberg
TV News. CNN hopes to feature students in its coverage
of the 2000 presidential campaign. Journalism director
Loren Ghiglione’s earlier relationship with Turner
Learning in Atlanta helped to expedite USC’s application. Brad Luck has been appointed student bureau
chief. Terry Anzur is the faculty adviser.
❑ Jon Soffa, formerly director of construction management for Facilities Management Services, is now executive director of Planning, Design and Construction
Left, entrepreneur TaJuan Mercer. Above, Marshall School of Business
undergraduates Edmundo Rivera and Douglas Clayton are pursuing
degrees in management consulting. The students take part in the USC
Business Expansion Network’s Neighborhood Enterprise Program by
advising local entrepreneurs how to start up a business or help it
grow.
Mercer find the most economical
way to ship the product she plans
to manufacture. They are also
doing a competitor analysis by
researching the Internet for similar businesses.
“They’re helping me find a
niche,” Mercer said. “I think
[the Neighborhood Enterprise
Program] is a wonderful, wonderful program, especially for
entrepreneurs like myself who
have to keep a regular day-today job. I’m really impressed by
my students; they’re the cream
of the crop.”
THOMAS OLSON, the professor
of management and organization
overseeing the Mercer project,
“thought it would be a good idea
for us to get our feet wet and help
some small business in the area,”
said Rivera, who’s pursuing a
degree in management consulting.
The experience has given
Rivera and his classmates a
chance to work with a veteran in
management consulting. “In professor Olson, we have a professional consultant, too,” Rivera
said. “We’re under his wing, and
he’s directing us in what we need
to do.”
Philip Sandino, the MBA student who coordinates the
Neighborhood Enterprise Program, said 13 undergraduates and
15 MBA students are participating in the program. Without
them, Juan Aceves might still be
trying to raise the funds to buy
more semi-trucks for his business.
“They helped me get the
loans I needed to buy more
trucks,” said Aceves, president of
Management Services. Maurice Hollman, Facilities
Management Services associate vice president,
announced the appointment last month. Soffa, who is
also interim university architect, directs a staff of 25
who manage campus planning, design and construction
for new buildings and renovation projects, including a
capital improvement program of $500 million over the
next five to seven years. Before coming to USC in 1992,
Soffa spent 12 years as designer, project architect and
project director with the Los Angeles architecture and
engineering firm of AC Martin Partners.
❑ The Hollywood Foreign Press Association presented a
$50,000 donation Nov. 3 for journalism students at USC’s
Annenberg School for Communication. Norman Lear, a
member of the school’s board of councilors, accepted the
donation on the school’s behalf. “The Hollywood Foreign
Press Association is pleased to be able to contribute to one
of America’s pre-eminent schools of communication and
journalism,” said association President Helmut Voss.
“While we have been committed for a long time to helping future filmmakers, we are pleased to now be able to
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
Nationwide Trucking. “They’re
doing all the financials and my
business plan.”
Aceves, a graduate of
FastTrac II, another BEN program for entrepreneurs, said he’s
helping his three brothers to start
their own trucking businesses.
MBA student Ann Curson
believes that she and the community will both benefit from her
volunteer work in the Neighborhood Enterprise Program.
“I was looking for a way to
share my expertise in business
planning with a nonprofit organization,” Curson said. “Now
I’ll be part of a team preparing a
strategic analysis for the
Achievable Foundation. We’ll
gain experience in applying
some of the marketing and strategy tools that we learned in
school.” ■
give something back to our own profession and assist
future colleagues.” Annenberg Dean Geoffrey Cowan
said the donation will be used to help journalism students
gain exposure to other parts of the world, enhancing their
understanding of global and entertainment issues.
❑ Julie Chen, a broadcast journalism and English graduate of the Class of 1991, has become a member of a
news team that includes former “Today” anchor Bryant
Gumbel and former ABC news correspondent Jane
Clayson. Chen joined the “Early Show” as a news
anchor at the program’s Nov. 1 debut. The New Yorkbased CBS show is engaged in a race for dominance of
the morning news airwaves by the three major networks.
The “Early Show” team also includes news correspondent Jon Frankel and weathercaster Mark McEwen.
Barbara Alvarez, a contributor on Telemundo, a
Spanish-language network, will be a contributor to the
show. With this lineup, the “Early Show” is set to be the
most ethnically diverse morning program on network
television, according to an article in the Sept. 29 USA
Today. ■
5
SC2 and Health Care
continued from page 1
SC2, the Atlas documents the
state of health of the eight-county region from San Diego to Santa
Barbara – tracking trends in emergency care, infectious diseases,
environmental toxins, health-care
finance, alternative medicine and
access to health-care services.
• Although complementary
HIV drug therapies (“cocktails”)
have
reduced
AIDS-related
deaths, newly diagnosed HIV
infections are increasing among
women, African Americans and
Latinos.
ALONG WITH the Atlas, SC2
issued the “1999 Scorecard of
Health and Healthcare in
Southern California.” The scorecard assesses 16 facets of public
AMONG THE FINDINGS:
health in the region, determining
• The region’s eight counties
whether conditions warrant a
fared better than the nation as a
green light for
“favorable,” a yelThe Atlas reflects the interdisciplinary low light for “neutral” or a red light
for “unfavorable.”
efforts of 29 researchers from SC2,
Each facet received
an additional grade
the USC Keck School of Medicine,
of an arrow indicatthe department of preventive medicine, ing whether the
trend was improving, declining or
the Cancer Surveillance Project and
holding constant.
• The six “red
the Southern California Environlight” issues for
1999 are: increasing
mental Health Services Center.
health-care costs
associated
with
treating victims of
violent crimes; air pollution’s
whole in meeting Healthy People
worsening effects on children’s
2000 objectives, the nation’s most
health; limiting of health-care procomprehensive and commonly
vision due to conflicts in managed
used set of indicators to gauge
care; lack of access to health care
public health.
for more than a quarter (27 per• Geography matters. While
cent) of the region’s residents,
exceeding most federal goals, the
mostly the uninsured working
quality of public-health indicators
poor; a health-care system that is
varies dramatically from county to
increasingly expensive and less
county. Uneven distribution of
accessible to people in need; and
health-care resources leads to
threats to the viability of the
unequal access for residents.
region’s safety-net hospitals for
• Acquisitions of secular hospithe poor and the uninsured.
tals by religious organizations
• The three “green light”
have proven a mixed blessing,
issues for 1999: improvements in
with some underserved populameeting federal public health
tions enjoying improved access,
goals; a continued decline in
but women who seek certain
Southern California’s suicide rates
reproductive care are experiencamong most groups; and the
ing a loss in services.
emergence of faith-based charita• Violent crime has dropped,
ble trusts to fund health care for
but the financial burden of caring
underserved populations.
for crime victims has markedly
• The remaining seven issues
risen, straining already overburfell into the “yellow” light categodened resources.
ry. They included trends in cancer;
• Despite recent improveHIV/AIDS; alternative medicine;
ments, the region’s air quality
hospital architecture; emergency
ranks among the nation’s worst,
medical access; ocean water pollucontributing to a dramatic intion; and access to reproductive
crease in respiratory ailments
services as a result of mergers
among children.
between faith-based and secular
hospitals.
The Atlas, the third annual report of SC2’s Metrotrends project, reflects the interdisciplinary
efforts of 29 researchers from
SC2, the USC Keck School of
Medicine and its department of
preventive medicine, and the
department’s Cancer Surveillance
Project and Southern California
Environmental Health Services
Center.
Founded in 1995, SC2 uses
Southern California as a laboratory for basic and applied
urban studies. USC provided
research funding and covered
The Health Atlas of Southern Calipublication costs for the 1999
fornia is SC2’s third annual report.
Atlas. ■
6
Where You Live Matters to Your Health
The deadliest counties: L.A, San Bernardino and Riverside.
AS A WHOLE, Southern California is healthier than the nation, but some of the Southland’s counties
are healthier than others, according to a USC report released Thursday, Nov. 11.
“Where you live matters to your health, and the county-to-county variations in public health are
striking,” said Michael Dear, director of USC’s Southern California Studies Center (SC2) and lead editor
of the Health Atlas of Southern California.
“The region’s eight counties fared better than the nation as a whole in meeting the nation’s most
comprehensive and commonly used goals for improving public health,” said SC2 fellow Heidi Sommer,
a contributor to the Atlas. “But there’s plenty of opportunity for improvement. We really need to work
to achieve consistent outcomes among people with different socio-economic and racial/ethnic backgrounds.”
Using statistics gathered by county, state and federal agencies between 1995 and 1997, Sommer
looked at the incidence of 15 health-related conditions in each of the eight counties.
The 15 Healthy People 2000 objectives, and their categories, are:
• Maternal and child health – infant mortality, low birthweight, prenatal care for pregnant women
and adolescent pregnancy.
• Sexually transmitted and infectious diseases – gonorrhea, AIDS and tuberculosis.
• Mortality – coronary heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, motor vehicular accidents,
firearm-related incidents, suicide, homicide and drug-related deaths.
Then she looked at how those rates compared with 15 of the most commonly watched HP 2000
objectives – the nation’s most comprehensive and commonly used set of indicators of public health. She
also looked at how the region compared with the state and nation in achieving those objectives.
While the nation as a whole has met only three of the HP 2000 objectives, all eight of the Southland’s
counties met at least four, Sommer found. The two lowest-ranking counties – San Bernardino and
Riverside – met only four of the 15 goals. (See table below.)
Despite these disparities, the Southland’s counties did share some striking similarities. All fell short
of HP 2000 goals for increasing the number of women who receive prenatal care and reducing the
frequency of drug-related deaths, tuberculosis infection and low-birthweight newborns.
“It’s shocking in this day and age that we’re still
grappling with TB and inadequate prenatal care.”
– MICHAEL DEAR
“It’s shocking in this day and age that we’re still grappling with TB and inadequate prenatal care,”
Dear said.
Meanwhile, nearly all of the counties succeeded in meeting federal goals for reducing adolescent
pregnancy, gonorrhea infection, new diagnoses of AIDs and cancer-related deaths. ■
Number of HP 2000 Objectives Achieved (Out of 15 Key Indicators)
United States
California
Orange
Santa Barbara
Ventura
Imperial
San Diego
Los Angeles
Riverside
San Bernardino
3
8
10
10
10
9
9
7
4
4
Information on the Southern
California Studies Center can be
found at:
http://www.usc.edu/dept.LAS/SC2/
M.S.
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29,1999
Straussian Shenanigans: Batty Operetta Opens at the Bing
by Inga Kiderra
T
oasts to champagne,
“king of wines.”
Waltzes, polkas, Hungarian Gypsy songs. A
drunken jailer. A vengeful “bat.”
A repeater watch that charms the
ladies. And a masquerade ball at
the home of one Prince Orlovsky,
famous for his parties featuring
bubble baths. What ensues is a
story of mistaken identity as well
as near-successful infidelity.
With a plot more convoluted
than a 1040 tax form, Johann
Strauss the Younger’s “Die
From The
Provost's Office
Fledermaus” (“The Bat”) –
libretto by Carl Huffner and
Richard Genée – opens at the
Bing Theater on Friday, Dec. 3.
The operetta, by the author
of the “The Blue Danube,” premiered in 1874 to wide acclaim
and has since rarely left the stage.
“It is the precursor to our own
music theater and represents a
turning point in the genre,” said
David Pfeiffer, director of the
USC Thornton School of Music
production. “Unlike opera, the
songs forward the story.”
Also unlike most opera, “Die
Fledermaus” borders on vaude-
“Most people think of
operetta as being boring, and it
can be,” Pfeiffer said, “because so
much information is required for
understanding the twists and
turns of a labyrinthine plot. But
what I hope we’ve done in this
production is to give the informa-
tion in such a spirited way – in
such an eclectic and absurd way,
too – that it has comedic value
in itself. So when the complications come up, they’re just the
icing on an already sweet cake.”
Timothy Lindberg, music
director of USC’s Opera Program, conducts the orchestra.
An opulent set has been rented from the Central City Opera
in Colorado. ■
Show times are Friday, Dec. 3, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 4, 2 and 8 p.m.;
Sunday, Dec. 5, 2 p.m. Admission is $10 general, free to USC faculty,
students and staff.
Success of Learning Communities Leads to Expansion
by Melissa Payton
USC LEARNING COMMUNITIES – a pilot project that
aims to improve retention of freshmen by helping undeclared students select a major – has had such promising
results after one year that administrators are planning to
expand it.
Learning communities are groups of up to 20 freshmen
who take two courses together: one that satisfies a general education requirement and one that introduces a possible
major or minor.
The groups have a mandatory discussion or lab section
together, as well as co-curricular activities – field trips, lec-
Learning Communities “can give these very bright
[undergraduate] students the support they need to
succeed.”
ville.
“It is a revenge comedy in the
form of a classic French farce,”
Pfeiffer said. “There are a lot of
entrances and exits and characters just missing each other.”
The story, in a nutshell:
“Though the Eisentsteins really
do love each other, the spark of
romance has gone out of their
marriage, and – as this is before
the generation of talking it out –
they look outside the home,”
explained Pfeiffer. Dr. Falke
(“the bat”), humiliated three
years before, is waiting in the
wings, ready for pay-back.
– LLOYD ARMSTRONG JR.
tures and social outings – with a strong academic component. And each learning community has a staff adviser and
a faculty mentor who contact students at least monthly.
“This new USC program, which was inspired by several
successful programs at other universities, has been adapted
to exploit our strengths in undergraduate education – our
many professional schools, double-major options and
major-minor combinations,” said Provost Lloyd Armstrong
Jr.
“Along with other recent, strong improvements in
undergraduate education at USC, it can give these very
bright students the support they need to succeed at USC,”
Armstrong said.
In one year, the USC Learning Communities program has
racked up some impressive numbers.
It started with 103 freshmen in fall
1998; this fall, it enrolled 170, and
administrators hope for 300 next
fall. But the bottom line, according
to its organizers, is that only two of
last year’s 103 enrollees dropped out
before their sophomore year, for a
“persistence” rate of 98.1 percent.
That’s well above the 91.3 percent
average for freshmen persistence
over the previous five years.
“This jump looks significant, but
we need to track it over a longer
period of time,” said Albert A.
Herrera, executive director of the
Office of College Advising in the
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
and a professor of biological sciences. Herrera and Jane M. Cody, associate dean of academic programs in the college, are co-directors of USC
Learning Communities.
When Armstrong appointed L. Katharine Harrington
director of undergraduate programs in 1998 to oversee university retention efforts, she looked at learning communities springing up at colleges nationwide. She then appointed Cody and Herrera to develop a program at USC.
At other institutions, learning communities are sometimes called cluster courses or first-year seminars. They create a “platoon of students who care about each other and
trust each other, and they are used as a springboard to the
rest of the campus,” one South Carolina instructor told The
Chronicle of Higher Education in an Oct. 8 story.
“We wanted a program for freshmen who needed the
kind of help they would get in a department if they had a
declared major,” said Cody, who is an associate professor
emerita of classics. “This is a mechanism to give them a
sense of belonging and personal support.”
M E L I S S A PAY T O N
FRESHMEN WHO HAVE NOT DECIDED on a major can
Jane M. Cody, associate dean of academic programs, and Albert A.
Herrera, executive director of the Office of College Advising in the
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, are co-directors of USC
Learning Communities, a 1-year-old pilot program.
sign up for Learning Communities during orientation. This
fall they chose from among seven “courses in common”:
three clusters with a cinema-TV component linked to a general education course, two in the sciences and one each in
“Media and Public Life” and “Law and Social Theory.”
The cinema-television clusters are popular because USC,
with the top-rated cinema-TV school in the country, draws
many undergraduates with a strong interest in the subject.
But few freshmen can be selected for the small number of
openings in the school, and some aren’t ready to commit to
a cinema-TV major, Herrera said.
The science clusters often prove helpful for students
exploring a pre-health major: “They know they want a
health career, but don’t know what kind,” he said.
Freshmen in learning communities are introduced to one
another at a special dinner during the first week of classes,
“so already in the first week of school they have a group of
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
faces they know,” Cody said. “They feel more comfortable
in a fairly large class, and they can form study groups; it’s
the same experience that declared majors have.”
Next year, in fact, freshmen in learning communities will
be assigned to the same residence halls. “That way they’ll
see one another in residential settings as well,” Cody said.
Regular contact with advisers and mentors is an important component of the program. Staff advisers, from
Herrera’s Office of College Advising, monitor students’
progress until they declare a major. Faculty mentors often
teach a Learning Communities course or have a strong interest in the area.
Most of the faculty members who agree to serve as
mentors have stayed with the program. The improved quality of USC undergraduates in recent years makes the students – including the undeclared freshmen in the Learning
Communities program – fun to work with, Herrera and
Cody said.
“They have so many interests,” Cody said of the
Learning Communities students. “They’re still exploring,
and it makes them very exciting students. They’re not so
much homed in on a professional goal as exploring the
world and all of its possibilities.”
This year, an honors science track has been added for
students in the program – often those interested in prehealth majors – who can meet requirements for high SAT
scores and a high-school science background.
“As freshmen, it’s too early for them to participate in
department honors programs,” Herrera said. “We can use
this as a recruiting tool, to enroll even more outstanding science freshmen.”
In future semesters, Cody and Herrera would like to add
clusters in journalism and business, two other popular
majors.
Drawing undeclared freshmen into the USC fold is important for both the students and the university, they said.
Students who leave early lower USC’s retention rate,
which hurts the national rankings that have played a role in
the university’s improved standing among top high school
students and the academic community.
“We spend a lot of time and effort recruiting students
we really want to have here,” Cody said. “Once they’re here,
we should offer opportunities that will make them want to
stay. For students who don’t have a department home, we
want to substitute that kind of feeling and help them find
that department home. Once they get into the culture of a
department, they don’t leave.”
Sometimes it’s just as helpful for students to try out a
major in Learning Communities and find it’s not the right fit
for them, Herrera said.
“If they find their interest is not in the major they came
for, so be it; there are many other ways to get where they
want to be,” he said.
“The Learning Communities project is about more than
simply boosting retention statistics. We want every student
to have a satisfying experience, to achieve what they came
here for: an education and a degree of lasting value.” ■
7
Calendar
for Nov. 29 to Dec. 6
For these events and more, visit http://www.usc.edu/calendar
KENNETH JOHANSSON
Love/20?
Louise Reichlin’s “Tennis Dances” is
revived on the same stage on which
it was born 20 years ago, Bovard
Auditorium, this Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Tom L. Freudenheim, deputy director
of the Berlin Jewish Museum, delivers the 19th annual Jerome and John
Nemer Lecture.
8
“Tennis Dances,” created by USC faculty
member Louise Reichlin in 1979, volleys back
to the site of its premiere, Bovard Auditorium,
this Tuesday, Nov. 30. Reichlin’s signature
piece, the 10-part suite was reviewed when first
produced as “a unique dance that is almost cinematic in its effects … creat[ing] on stage the
illusion of long shots, montages, quick cuts and
individual close-ups usually seen only in the
film and video media.” Twenty years old this
year, the dance remains one of Reichlin’s most
popular and acclaimed works. So far, more than
200 dancers have been in its cast. It or sections
from it have been performed at venues as varied as the 1984 Olympics and the Dorothy
Chandler Pavilion as well as at numerous festivals, theaters, schools and colleges around the
United States. Reichlin, who teaches “Movement
Training for Musicians” at the USC Thornton School of
Music, specializes in educational programs and, in particular, in programs designed for children, including a recent
residency and commission at the Los Angeles Zoo. This
last, however, is not to say that Reichlin monkeys around.
“Here is a choreographer,” wrote one critic, “who
arguably picks up the feminist point of view where
Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis left off.” Part of the
dance company’s weeklong “Celebration of Creative
Women,” the Tuesday night recital – “Tennis Dances” in
its entirety as well as selections from “Urban and Tribal
Dances” – begins at 7 p.m. in Bovard. Admission is free.
For more information, call Los Angeles Choreographers and
Dancers at 213-385-1171 or USC Program Board at 213740-5656.
‘Jews in Germany Now’
Half a century after the horrors of World War II and
Hitler’s “Final Solution,” the Jewish population in
Germany is still decimated. But though the population is
not large, the Jewish presence remains important in the
cultural life of the country. Tom L. Freudenheim, deputy
director of the Berlin Jewish Museum, discusses “Jews in
Germany Now: Renaissance or Resurrection?” on
Tuesday, Nov. 30, at 5 p.m. in Annenberg Auditorium.
Freudenheim’s talk explores issues relating to museums
and how they represent Jews. He focuses on the special
circumstances of creating a Jewish museum in Germany,
where a small but significant Jewish community remains
in the wake of the Holocaust. USC’s Institute for the
Study of Jews in American Life is presenting the talk as
the 19th annual Jerome and John Nemer Lecture in
Jewish Thought. After his lecture, Freudenheim is joined
in further discussion by Robert J. Lieber, professor of
government at Georgetown University, addressing current
German attitudes toward the Jewish community; and by
Selma Reuben Holo, director of USC’s Museum Studies
Program and Fisher Gallery, addressing the civic role of
museums. The event is co-sponsored by the USC School
of International Relations and the European Union
Center of California. Reservations are required. Call 213740-7381.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Thursday, Dec. 2, 4 - 6 p.m.: Center for
Feminist Research Holiday Reception.
CFR hosts university authors who have
recently published books of interest to
feminist scholars. Representatives from
USC’s Pertusati Bookstore sell copies of
the books at the event. Doheny Library
Rotunda. Free. (213-740-1739)
Thursday, Dec. 2, 6:30 p.m.: Wake-Up
Call! “The Multi-Worlds of Jamex and
Einar de la Torre.” Featured artists
Jamex and Einar de la Torre discuss the
effect their cross-cultural (Mexican and
American) experience has on their art,
the advantages of collaborating and the
shock of having their art destroyed by a
religious zealot. Presented in conjunction with the “Crossing Boundaries”
exhibit. Harris Hall, Rm. 101. Free.
(213-740-5537)
Friday, Dec. 3, 1 - 3 p.m.: Center for
Occupational Science and Lifestyle
Redesign Grand Opening. USC’s No.
1-ranked occupational therapy program
has launched a research center examining how everyday activities contribute
to health and wellness. The Center for
Occupational Science and Lifestyle
Redesign – or a sort of Jane Addams’
Hull House for the 21st century – incorporates educational, research and practice arenas. The center is in the renovated Cockins House, a historic 105year-old building in North University
Park, 2653 Hoover St., at the corner of
27th. Free. (323-442-2856)
cultural significance and tradition of the
food. Reservations required. Student
Union, Rm. 300 for sign-up. Approximate cost: $15-$20. (213-740-1573)
Saturday, Dec. 4, 6 - 10 p.m., and
Sunday, Dec. 5, noon - 4 p.m.: Masters
of Fine Arts Candidates’ Open
Studios. The graduate art studios are
opening their doors to the public for the
first time. Visitors are invited to view
the art and the work spaces as well as to
interact with USC’s emerging artists.
The 16 students work in a wide range
of media and will be available to discuss
their ideas and creative processes. Watt
Hall. Free. (213-740-2787)
WORKSHOPS
Wednesday, Dec. 1, noon: USC
Macintosh User Group. Len Wines,
Emeriti Center, addresses any questions users may have and helps solve
computing problems. Bring a formatted
Zip disk for shareware. Leavey Library,
Learning Room B. Free. (323-937-4082)
Saturday, Dec. 4, 1 - 4 p.m.: California
African American Museum Workshop. Bring the whole family to weave
a Kwanzaa basket of marzipan, nuts and
seeds. Limited to 20 participants – first
come, first served. CAAM, 600 State
Drive, Exposition Park. Free. (213-7447432)
LECTURES & SEMINARS
Friday, Dec. 3, 1 - 5 p.m.: Friedrich A.
Monday, Nov. 29, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.:
von Hayek Centennial Conference.
Unruh Institute of Politics Scholars’
Presentations. Von KleinSmid Center,
Commemorating the life and career of
Austrian-born economist Friedrich A.
von Hayek, winner of the 1974 Nobel
Prize. Presenters include Enrico
Colombatto, professor of economics at
the University of Turin; Richard Day,
professor of economics at USC; John E.
Elliott, professor of economics at USC;
and Kurt R. Leube, professor of economics at Stanford. Organized by USC’s
Political Economy and Public Policy
Program; the Austrian Consulate
General, Los Angeles; the Austrian
Cultural Institute, New York; and the
Friedrich A. v. Hayek Institut,
Vienna/Stanford. Hedco Neurosciences
Building, Rm. 100. Free. (213-740-3521)
Friday, Dec. 3, 5:30 p.m.: International
Diners Club. Student-led excursion to a
Scandinavian restaurant. A USC international student explains the history,
Rm. 329. Free. (213-740-8964)
Monday, Nov. 29, 1 p.m.: Valley
Discussion Series. “Sustainable
Economics for the New Century” by
Arthur Gutenberg, retired professor of
management, USC. Hughes Adult
Learning Center, Rm. 35, 5607
Capistrano Ave., Woodland Hills. Free.
(818-992-5133)
Tuesday, Nov. 30, noon: Tuesdays at
Fisher. “The History and Tradition of
Mexican Dress.” Genevieve Barrios
Southgate, director of children’s education at the Bowers Museum of Cultural
Art, presents a fun and informative talk
on the history of Mexican dress. USC
student volunteers model authentic costumes. RSVP requested. Fisher Gallery,
Harris Hall. Free. (213-740-5537)
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
Tuesday, Nov. 30, noon: Population
Research Laboratory Seminar. Greg
Molina, USC’s Institute for Prevention
Research, and actress Alexandra Paul,
“Baywatch,” discuss “Jam Pack:
Education Film About Population for
Teenagers.” Lewis Hall, Rm. 304. Free.
(213-740-6265)
Tuesday, Nov. 30, noon: Cancer Center
Grand Rounds. “The Methylated APC
as a Marker in Esophageal Cancer” by
Kathleen D. Danenberg, cancer
research lab specialist, USC. Norris
Topping Tower Seventh Floor
Conference Room, Health Sciences
Campus. Free. (323-442-1145)
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 5 p.m.: 19th Annual
Nemer Lecture. See highlight.
Wednesday, Dec. 1, noon: Center for
Feminist Research Faculty Research
Luncheon. “Feminist Faculty at the
End of Their Ropes” – with Estela M.
Bensimon, associate dean and professor,
USC Rossier School of Education;
Judith Grant, associate professor of
political science, USC; and Hilary M.
Schor, chair of the Gender Studies
Program and director of the Center for
Feminist Research, USC. University
Religious Center, Rm. 108. Light lunch
by reservation. Free. (213-740-1739)
requested. Lunch: $12. Faculty Center.
(310-645-9453)
Swiss Studies Literary/Musical
Evening. See box at right.
Thursday, Dec. 2, noon: International
Through Dec. 19: 24th Street Theatre
1999-2000 Season. “A Thimble of
Smoke,” by Elroyce D. Jones, is set in
the Jim Crow South of the ‘50s. Though
poor, segregated and marked by desperation, the backwater remnants of a former cotton mill also house one Miss
Thelma Pearl Sykes. A resolute washer
woman, she parlays a ray of hope for her
youngest child into a legacy for generations. Gregg Daniel directs. Shows
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and
Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m. 24th Street
Theatre, 1117 W. 24th St., just west of
Hoover. Admission: $15 general, $9
seniors and students. (213-745-6516)
Perspectives on Aging Colloquium
Series. “Cross-Cultural Comparisons of
Social Support Networks” by James
Lubben, professor and chair of social
welfare and urban planning, UCLA.
Andrus Gerontology Center, Rm. 224.
Free. (213-740-8242)
Thursday, Dec. 2, noon: USC Research
Center for Liver Diseases Seminar.
“Update on Wilson’s Disease and NonWilsonian Hepatic Copper Toxicosis”
by Irmin Steinlieb, professor emeritus
of medicine, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, and senior attending, St.
Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center,
New York. Ambulatory Health Center
Auditorium, Rm. 102, Health Sciences
Campus. Free. (323-442-1800)
Friday, Dec. 3, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.:
Alcohol Research Center Annual
Symposium. Scholars from Yale, UNC
Chapel Hill, University of Navarra
(Spain), USC and UCLA present “New
Research on Alcohol.” Ambulatory
Health Center Auditorium, Rm. 102,
Health Sciences Campus. Free. (323442-3121)
Sunday, Dec. 5, 2 p.m.: Natural History
Wednesday, Dec. 1, noon: Department
Museum Lecture and Book Signing.
of Cell and Neurobiology Lecture.
“The Grizzly in the Southwest.” David
E. Brown, professor of biology at
Arizona State University, chronicles the
bear’s demise. Natural History Museum
Auditorium, 900 Exposition Blvd.,
Exposition Park. Admission: $9 general,
$7 museum members and $5 students.
(213-763-3534)
“Dendritic Plasticity and Dendritic
Pathology: Implications for
Development and Aging” by Joseph
Watson, associate professor in residence,
psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences,
UCLA. Doheny Vision Research
Center Auditorium, Health Sciences
Campus. Free. (323-442-1881)
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 4 p.m.: USC
Neuroscience Seminar. “Tyrosine
Phosphorylation and Axon Guidance in
Drosophila” by Kal Zinn, Caltech.
Hedco Neuroscience Auditorium. Free.
(213-740-9176)
FILM & PERFORMING
ARTS
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 7 p.m.: Louise
Reichlin and Dancers. See “Love/20?”
Thursday Dec. 2, through Sunday, Dec. 5:
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 4 p.m.: Birnkrant
Development Seminar. Ethan Lighon,
UC Berkeley, on “Dynamic Bargaining
in Households (and Lending to Women
in Bangladesh).” Kaprielian Hall, Rm.
319. Free. (213-740-2107)
Thursday, Dec. 2, noon: USC Retiree
Book Club. John W. Gould, USC associate professor emeritus of business
communications, leads a discussion of
A. Scott Berg’s Pulitzer Prize-winning
biography, “Lindbergh.” Reservations
USC Chronicle welcomes calendar listings from all areas of the university. Items
should be submitted online at:
http://www.usc.edu/info/
calendar/cal_input.html
To be considered for a featured item
send any additional information and
photos to:
Inga Kiderra
Calendar Editor
KAP 246, MC 2538
University Park Campus
213-740-6156, fax 213-740-7600
e-mail:[email protected]
The deadline for the Jan. 10 issue is
noon Wednesday, Dec. 22.
USC School of Theatre 1999-2000
Season. “The Learned Ladies.” Will
Henriette marry her true love
Clitandre? Or, will her bluestocking
mother, leader of “the learned ladies,”
Philaminte, succeed in forcing a marriage with the pedantic poet Trissotin?
Written in 1672, Molière’s next-to-last
play satirizes 17th-century social climbing and affected intellectualism, but has
contemporary applications, too. This
production, from a translation by poet
Richard Wilbur, is directed by Alicia
Grosso. Show times are Thursday and
Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8
p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Scene
Dock Theatre. Admission: $7 general,
$5 students. (213-740-7111)
Friday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m., 9:45 p.m. and
midnight: DKA Films. “American Pie”
stars Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas
Ian Nicholas and Seann William Scott.
Norris Theater. Admission: $3. (213740-1945)
Friday, Dec. 3, through Sunday, Dec. 5:
USC Thornton Opera. See page 7.
Saturday, Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m.: USC’s Max
Kade Institute for Austrian-German-
MUSIC
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 5:30 and 8 p.m.: USC
Thornton String Chamber Ensemble.
Featuring the best of the chamber
music repertoire. Newman Recital Hall.
Free. (213-740-3233)
Wednesday, Dec. 1, noon: Music at
Noon. This weekly series features the
most accomplished students from the
music school (and provides free lunch).
United University Church Sanctuary.
Free. (213-740-7917)
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 8 p.m.: USC
Thornton Early Music Ensemble.
James Tyler conducts sopranos Phoebe
Alexander and Claire Fedoruk, mezzosopranos Carol Lisek and Ann Desler,
bass-baritone Bruce Bales and a 14piece instrumental ensemble – comprising Baroque strings, winds, lutes,
harpsichord and chamber organ –
“Music for All Seasons.” The concert
features virtuoso motets by Monteverdi
and Vivaldi, oratorio and cantata arias by
Handel, Caldara and Bach, and sonatas
and concertos by Torelli, Albinoni,
Castello and Heinichen. Newman
Recital Hall. Admission: $7 general,
free to USC faculty, staff and students.
(213-740-7111)
Goethe’s philosopher sells his
soul to Mephistopheles once
again when “Faust Comes to
Grand Avenue” on Saturday, Dec.
4. The literary/musical evening,
with texts by Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe and music by Charles
Gounod, stars Oscar-winner
Maximilian Schell. Schell, who
was a visiting professor at the
USC schools of cinema-television
and theater in 1992, enacts scenes
Academy Award-winning actor (and
and monologues from Goethe’s
accomplished pianist) Maximilian Schell.
“Faust” in both English and
German. Complementing Schell’s performance are narration by USC alumna Christina Linhardt and singing by Los Angeles Opera resident singers:
soprano Shana Blake Hill, mezzo Meagen DeyToth, tenor Bruce Sledge and
bass In Joon Jang. (Like Linhardt, Blake Hill and Sledge are USC alumni.) And
the maestro? William Vendice, former music director of the opera program
at USC and now the head of music staff and chorus leader for the Los
Angeles Opera. He leads the vocalists on the piano in highlights from
Gounod’s “Faust,” including the beloved “Jewel Aria” and the famous “Trio
Finale.” The event, sponsored by USC’s Max Kade Institute for AustrianGerman-Swiss Studies in co-operation with the Goethe Institut and Los
Angeles Opera, begins at 7:30 p.m. in Colburn School’s Zipper Hall, 200
Grand Ave., next to MOCA. Parking is at Olive Street and Kosciuszko Way.
Admission is $25 general, $15 students. For reservations, call 213-743-2707.
Sunday, Dec. 5, 4 p.m.: USC Thornton
Choirs. “Seasons Past and Present.”
The USC University Chorus – directed by Rodger Guerrero – presents
sacred and secular Christmas music
from the Renaissance to the present.
United University Church. Free. (213740-3233)
EXHIBITS
Through Dec. 3: The Los Angeles AIA
Design Awards. The Los Angeles
Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects presents this year’s recipients
of the AIA Design Awards. Hours:
Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6
p.m. Verle Annis Gallery, Harris Hall.
Free. (213-740-2723)
Thursday, Dec. 2, 5:30 and 8 p.m.: USC
Thornton String Chamber Ensemble.
Through December 10: Doheny
Memorial Library. Take a close look at
Newman Recital Hall. Free. (213-7403233)
USC’s “Grand Dame,” aka Doheny
Memorial Library, before she closes her
bronze doors at the end of 1999 for
preservation and earthquake retrofitting.
The exhibit chronicles the library’s
nearly 70-year history and takes a peek
at her future. Stephanie Davis is curator.
Open regular library hours. Group tours
can be arranged. Treasure Room. Free.
(740-3183)
Thursday, Dec. 2, 8 p.m.: Big Band
Night. The Thornton Studio Jazz
Band, directed by John Thomas, and
the Thornton Concert Jazz Band,
directed by Bruce Eskovitz, in a tribute
to the early big bands of Fletcher
Henderson, Benny Goodman, Woody
Herman and others. Ground Zero
Coffee House, next to Pardee Tower.
Free. (213-740-3233)
Friday, Dec. 3, and Saturday, Dec. 4, 10
p.m.: Club Thelonious. Guest artist:
tenor saxophonist Chad Bloom. There
is no cover charge, but patrons can order
drinks, light foods and desserts. Otto’s
Restaurant, Music Center, 135 N.
Grand Ave, Los Angeles. Free. (213821-1500)
Saturday, Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m.: USC’s Max
Kade Institute for Austrian-GermanSwiss Studies Literary/Musical
Evening. See box above.
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
KEVIN MERRILL
Mephistopheles,
the Maestro and
Maximilian Schell
Through Dec. 13: USC Hillel Art
Gallery. Nishima Kaplan’s “Women at
the Wall” – a one-woman show of narrative landscapes, still-lifes, plein air
watercolors and hand-pulled prints –
explores sacred images of Israel and
Judaism. Born in Texas to an Anglican
mother and a Hindu father (who had
recently emigrated from England and
India), Kaplan turned to Buddhism,
Hinduism, New Age spirituality and
Christianity before finding a home in
Judaism. Hours: Monday through
Friday 9 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m. USC Hillel
Art Gallery, 3300 South Hoover St.
Free. (213-747-9135)
Through Dec. 17: Vincent Price Gallery.
“Basic Drawing: Complex Projects.”
The exhibit includes three USC School
of Fine Arts faculty members – Stas
Orlavski, Margaret Lazzari and Trevor
Norris – and recent graduate Nicole
Cohen. Organized by Bob Alderette,
associate professor of fine arts, USC.
Hours: Monday through Friday, noon to
3 p.m. East Los Angeles College,
Monterey Park. Free. (323-265-8841)
Through Jan. 30: Virginia Steele Scott
Gallery. “Canto V: A Whirlwind of
Lovers” by Ruth Weisberg, dean of fine
arts. The mural-sized work, executed
on gessoed paper with pencil and
watercolor, grew out of visit a
Weisberg made to the Huntington
almost three years ago. She had been
invited to see William Blake’s and
other artists’ illustrations of Canto V
from Dante’s “Inferno.” Weisberg’s
imagination was sparked, and the
result is a pensive exploration of passion and of love. Also in the exhibit
are drawings and monotypes made as
Weisberg explored the canto's themes.
The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road,
San Marino. Hours: Tuesday through
Friday, noon to 4:30 p.m., Saturday
and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Admission: $6-$8, free the first
Thursday of every month. (626-4052141)
Through Feb. 26: USC Fisher Gallery.
“Crossing Boundaries.” See page 12.
KUSC-FM 91.5
Friday, Dec. 3, 8 p.m.: Metropolitan
Opera Auditions. Gene Parrish hosts
the auditions recorded at Bovard
Auditorium on Nov. 13. (514-1400)
Saturday, Dec. 4, 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.:
Texaco Metropolitan Opera. A season
preview. (514-1400) ■
9
USC-UMR Team Wins Boeing Contract
Starting with the Jan. 10 Chronicle, the first issue of the year 2000,
events must be submitted online to be considered for inclusion in
the paper.
The URL for the online calendar is http:// www.usc.edu/calendar. The submission form can be accessed there through the “Add
Your Event” button. Or, go directly to the submisson form at
http://www.usc.edu/info/calendar/cal_input.html. ■
by Bob Calverley
USC: Stops on the
Campaign 2000 Trail
IRENE FERTIK
THE BOEING CO. – America’s
largest aerospace corporation
and the largest aerospace
employer in Southern California –
has selected a team consisting of
USC and the University of
Missouri-Rolla to provide graduate education to its employees
worldwide.
The collaborative program
will begin in the spring semester
2000, focusing on systems engineering and emphasizing the creative process by which complex
systems are conceived, planned,
designed, built, tested and certified.
“This is the first time that a
major global corporation has
entrusted its graduate education
in systems engineering to a single
university team,” said Elliot
Axelband, associate dean for
research development at the USC
School of Engineering.
“Each school brings strengths
to the collaboration,” he said.
“UMR has an international reputation in developing technical
leaders and providing graduate
engineering education, while
USC has internationally recognized strengths in engineering
Year 2000 Calendar: Changes
in Submission of Events
“This is the first time that a major global corporation has entrusted its graduate
education in systems engineering to a single university team,” said Elliot Axelband,
associate dean for research development at the School of Engineering.
education, research and systems architecting and engineering.”
AXELBAND PREDICTED the
collaboration will be a model
for the future, when university
teams offer their combined
programs to meet corporate
needs.
Boeing employees will earn
a master of science degree
(requiring 30 graduate credits)
or a graduate certificate (requiring 15) by attending classes at
either campus or by utilizing distance-education
technology
from either university.
In the program’s initial semester, the USC/UMR team will provide courses at Boeing facilities in
Mesa, Ariz.; the Puget Sound area;
Southern California; Wichita, Kan.;
and St. Louis, Mo. ■
CINDY HENSLEY MCCAIN – wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain – will speak at the School of Gerontology’s
Leonard Davis Auditorium on Thursday, Dec. 9. McCain received
her B.A. from the USC Rossier School of Education in 1976 and her
M.A. in special education in 1978.
McCain will speak on issues relating to women and education.
The talk begins at 11 a.m., and a question-and-answer period will
follow.
The event is open to the public, but space is limited. RSVP to
Cindy Flowers at 740-5811 to attend.
USC CHRONICLE will run occasional reports alerting the community to campus visits by candidates or principals associated with their
campaigns.
Schools or departments that know of such pending visits should
call the USC Chronicle editor, Christine E. Shade, at 740-7891, or
send an e-mail massage to [email protected]. ■
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early disconnection fee and other restrictions apply. At least five hundred (500) mobile numbers must be activated on USC’s consolidated account and service must be maintained on the eligible pricing plans for the participants to receive the $9 access discount, 250 mobile-to-mobile minutes, and other benefits noted above. State requires sales tax to be calculated on AirTouch
Cellular’s unactivated phone price of $109 for the Audiovox 502 or $279 for the Samsung SCH-411. Phone prices subject to change. Promotion good for a limited time only. AirTouch Cellular’s
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may not be combined with some promotional offers.2Digital phone required for use on National Calling Plans.
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
Craniofacial Research
continued from page 1
Craniofacial Molecular Biology. “In California, these
multiple surgeries cost the
state’s children’s services
agency an average of $1.5 million per child.”
IN ADDITION TO looking for
ways to reduce the incidence of
cleft lip and cleft palate, the
USC researchers will study
craniosynostosis, a birth defect
affecting one in 3,000 children.
Craniosynostosis occurs when
the bones of the fetal skull fuse
together prematurely, resulting
in a misshapen head and a host
of physical, neurological, social
and psychological problems.
Other congenital defects
to be studied include craniofacial muscle alterations often
associated with temporal
mandibular joint dysfunction
and abnormal tooth development – disorders that can lead
to an array of nutritional and
social problems.
With the national institute
funding, USC researchers
from the School of Dentistry
and its CCMB, the Keck
department of basic sciences,
will investigate the series of
genetic chemical reactions leading to the formation of teeth and
cartilage in the jaw.
• IGM director
Laurence H. Kedes,
Other congenital defects to be
holder of the Keck
School of Medicine’s
studied include craniofacial
William M. Keck
Chair in Biochemmuscle alterations often
istry, will try to delineate the molecular
associated with temporal
mechanisms leading
to the development
mandibular joint dysfunction
of tongue muscles.
Previous data supand abnormal tooth development
port the hypothesis
that tongue muscle
disorders.
fibers acquire their
adult characteristics
during fetal developSchool of Medicine, the ment.
USC/Norris Comprehensive
• Yi-Hsin Liu, research
Cancer Center and the In- assistant professor in the denstitute for Genetic Medicine tal school’s department of
will work on five closely relat- basic sciences, will examine
ed projects:
the pattern of gene expression
• Yang Chai, an assistant pro- associated with the developfessor in the dental school’s ment of cranial sutures,
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999
including the abnormal development that results in craniosynostosis.
• Robert E. Maxson, professor of biochemistry and
molecular biology at USC/
Norris and the Keck School of
Medicine, will delve into the
poorly understood cellular
developmental mechanisms
underlying craniosynostosis,
building on recent research
that has identified several
gene mutations producing the
skull disorder.
• Shuler, who holds the
dental school’s George and
Mary Lou Boone Chair in
Craniofacial Molecular Biology, will probe the molecular mechanisms essential to
the process of palatal fusion.
“Some of these birth
defects are genetic, some are
environmental and some are
both,” Shuler said, “but they
all result from mistakes during fundamental reactions
that occur as the craniofacial
complex forms.” ■
Parking
Information Alert
Faculty-staff parking pass
renewals are now complete,
according to Brian d’Autremont, director of transportation services. The old passes
expired on Nov. 12, and citations will be written for those
not in compliance.
Parking reduction forms
were included in every parking envelope distributed by
home coordinators. New
forms must be sent in by
Wednesday, Dec. 15. D’Autremont said USC employees
saved more than $240,000 by
using this program in 1999.
There are seats available
in some van pools. The following vans have seats available: Santa Clarita (UPC),
West Covina (HSC), Westminster (UPC) and Redondo
Beach (UPC). ■
11
Fisher Fun House
the Fisher Gallery – features the
work of four sculptors whose senSTEP INTO THE Fisher Gallery sibilities are fantastic in the true
and it’s as though you’ve walked sense of the word.
through Lewis Carroll’s looking
Fanciful and defying categoglass – only one more morbid, rization, the works in the exhibimore moving and less genteel.
tion mix media, genres and culThings are not what they tures. The boundaries they cross
seem, either at first glance or at are as varied as their viewers.
second. A bovine hip serves as
“Catacomb,” an installation
the rib cage for a humanoid by Ronald Gonzalez, is concreature, standing sentinel with structed of steel, plaster, wax,
rust, carbon and animal
bones.
Things are not what they seem,
“There’s a note of
death, but there’s an
either at first glance or at second. equal or maybe even
stronger note of life,”
said curator Max Schulz
74 of its brothers and sisters. of the 75 haunting figures in a
The feathered serpent-god bed of bones.
Quetzalcóatl, slinking around a
“Are they disintegrating? Or,
Christian cross, metamorphoses are they rising, refleshing, reinto a battered Mexican wrestler, assembling? There’s a magical,
bleeding large drops of red glass. mysterious element. They are
A flat canvas painted with a dart both temporal and timeless – the
opens up, once, twice, five times unknown conveyed,” he said.
to reveal imaginary worlds and an
“The cumulus heaps strike
actual dartboard.
me as archaeological,” said
“Crossing Boundaries: Jamex Schulz, referring to the sculpand Einar de la Torre, Steven La ture’s bone piles grouped by type
Ponsie, and Ronald Gonzalez” – (ribs, jaws, etc.). “Perhaps this
showing now through Feb. 26 at community of creatures, like and
unlike humans, is a
leftover species.”
Where
Schulz
sees archaeological,
others see alien. Yet
others see suggestions of the Holocaust or holocausts in
general.
And Gonzalez?
“I’m making poetry
with bones,” he said,
even as he agreed
with all possible
interpretations. “It’s
kind of automatic
writing in images –
capturing a preconscious state. This
could be a book of
anatomy by García
Lorca. This is imaginary. It’s not mimicking anything.
“There’s a place
without language –
impossible to talk
about in some sense,”
Gonzalez said.
C O U R T E S Y F I S H E R G A L L E RY
INGA KIDERRA
by Inga Kiderra
Top, glass and mixed-media sculptures by Jamex and Einar de la Torre. Above,
Steven La Ponsie’s “Flying Carpet Dart Box #6” has five different levels.
12
But, he explained, what he
was contemplating when he first
created the piece, a 1998 commission for Salina Art Center, in
Salina, Kan., was “big sky country and flatlands,” the human figure in relation to outdoor vastness. The words “exhume” and
“inhume” intrigued him as well
as the knowledge that keepers of
charnel houses were known as
“conservators,” a word now usually applied to museum officials.
The piece is also, in a way,
self-referential. “I see me in
these,” Gonzalez said. “They are
my stature.” And now, more than
a year since he has seen them,
“They seem aged to me. I was 46
when I made them. Now they
and I are 47.”
Asked about his choice of
materials, Gonzalez said he consciously recovers the discarded:
“Rebar, wire, rust and bones,
these are things people throw
out.
“Skeletal imagery has always
been a part of my vocabulary. In
rural New York [Gonzalez lives
and works in Binghamton], you
find bones in the woods, the way
you find shells on the shore. I
scavenged all these – from
ravines and trash dumps.
Beautiful things, bones …”
Originally installed under a
skylight, the work has a different
feel in its Fisher Gallery incarnation. “It looks like a raft in here to
me – a float,” Gonzalez said, grinning at the new reading. “Where
have they come from, I wonder?”
CROSSING DIFFERENT
BOUNDARIES
Steven La Ponsie and the de
la Torre brothers, Jamex and
Einar, cross boundaries of a
slightly different order.
Irreverent and bordering on
vulgar, the work of the de la
Torres takes on culture and its
icons, faith and its articles.
The de la Torres, who grew
up not as hyphenated but as
binational Mexican-Americans
and who continue to choose this
dual existence, work individually
and collaboratively in hot glass
and found objects. Their playful
sculpture conflates Aztec with
Catholic imagery and melds the
contemporary kitsch found both
north and south of the border.
Their style is exuberant,
noisy with color. Schulz writes in
the exhibition catalog: “This art
glories in an irresistible compulsion to cover every surface, edge
and breakpoint with globs of
glass, paillettes, found objects,
pieces of leather, fabric, metal,
pottery and painted figurations.
… [It is] art that dares to be in
INGA KIDERRA
The fantastic sensibilities of four American sculptors
are on view at the Fisher Gallery through Feb. 26.
Sculptor Ronald Gonzalez, pictured here with his “Catacomb” at Fisher Gallery.
“This could be a book of anatomy by García Lorca,” he said of the piece.
questionable taste.”
For example? “Oxymodern,”
an Aztec calendar stone, interpreted for our era and measuring
more than eight and half feet in
diameter.
The fierce head of a god
mounted on a bicycle wheel at its
center, the de la Torres’ calendar
marks off time with plates of
hearts served in molé sauce, with
the bruised heads of TV
wrestlers, with dominoes and
stubbed-out cigarettes – all in
brilliant tones, studded with references to the erotic and the scatological.
At first, and especially in comparison to the other artists’ works
in the exhibition, Steve La
Ponsie’s works seem to be just
traditional paintings – until the
viewer discovers that the canvas
surface can be pulled away and
each work rearranged into four
more versions of itself.
A former aerospace design
technician, La Ponsie was
inspired by a pair of prayer rugs
his sister had sent him from the
Middle East. The ideas of flight,
focus and direction, as embodied
in both the unassuming dart and
the magical carpet, interested
him – as did the notion of incorporating his performance-art and
stage-construction backgrounds
into his paintings. The result: the
mixed-media, cross-genre “Flying Carpet Dart Boxes.”
Each of these early “Wonder
Boxes” has five levels, the first a
“flying carpet” painted with a
giant dart. The next levels, usually jigsaw-cut triptychs and
shields painted with thematically
related scenes and designs, can
be flipped out or moved aside.
And on the last level, logical and
surprising at the same time, is a
functional dartboard and darts.
“People who own a piece
become its performers,” La
Ponsie said. “They can even play
with it if they want, throw a dart.”
The multilevel wonders of
the “Wonder Boxes,” however,
make them difficult to exhibit.
Even though the works at Fisher
are hung at different stages of
exposure – one at level one,
another at level three or five – La
Ponsie has also set up a video display, detailing the different levels
of each piece. ■
Hours and Related Events
Meet the artists:
• Thursday, Dec. 2, 6:30 p.m.
Jamex and Einar de la Torre
discuss the effect of their
cross-cultural experience on
their art, the advantages of
collaborating and the shock of
having their work destroyed
by a religious zealot. Gin D.
Wong Conference Center,
Harris Hall.
• Tuesday, Jan. 11, noon.
Steven La Ponsie discusses
his “Wonder Boxes.” Fisher
Gallery, Harris Hall.
Admission to the exhibit and
all events is free.
Fisher Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5
p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to
3 p.m. For more information,
call 213-740-4561 or visit the
gallery on the internet at
h t t p : / / w w w. u s c . e d u /
fishergallery. RSVP for the
events at 213-740-5537. ■
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A C H R O N I C L E November 29, 1999