USC in the News 10/14/2009

The Orange County Register ran an op-ed by Jerry Lucido, USC vice provost for Enrollment Management and Policy, on whether applying to college early-decision is a good idea for everyone. High school students and their parents would do well to examine if an early decision is a good decision, Lucido wrote. "Colleges and universities with early decision plans capitalize on the anxiety of students and parents by requiring students to commit to one and only one college at the time of application. As a student, you want to spend every last minute of time reflecting on whether a college is right for you. This process of discernment is one of the most important learning experiences and growth phases of your life -- until you arrive at the fullest and most informed choice, based on who you are and the kind of person you hope to become." Lucido highlighted USC's admissions process, which does not include an early decision option. "At USC, we could easily institute an early decision plan in order to secure firm, early commitments from prospective students. But it would rob them of invaluable months in which they could explore academic programs, location, finances, ambience and attitudes at schools around the nation," he wrote. Another version of the op-ed ran in The Providence Journal.

The New York Times, in a Reuters story, quoted USC Marshall School Dean James Ellis about PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch agreeing to jointly purchase goods and services, from computers to travel. "This is the first time you've seen two giants do something like this," Ellis said. He foresaw no antitrust issues with the pact, since PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch are not direct rivals. "They're in businesses that are not necessarily competing, but they're looking for similar types of goods. It's a great way to leverage their buying power," Ellis said. "It's not anything that has to do with the customer, the product, the brand, or the advertising." Some suppliers could use the agreement as an opportunity to increase volume and potentially expand the number of products they are selling to the companies, Ellis noted.

Los Angeles Times remembered Anne Friedberg of the USC School of Cinematic Arts in an obituary. Friedberg, who published several works on film critical studies, was appointed chair of the School of Cinematic Arts' Critical Studies program in 2006 and developed a new interdivisional Ph.D. program in interactive media arts and practice. "Anne was one of those rare individuals who with her remarkable intellect could integrate past, present and future," said School of Cinematic Arts Dean Elizabeth Daley. "She was always challenging her colleagues and students to move forward and embrace change and innovation with courage and integrity." Friedberg was married to screenwriter and School of Cinematic Arts Professor Howard Rodman, the story noted. Variety also remembered Friedberg. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118009838.html?categoryId=25&cs=1

Los Angeles Times reported that USC football player Stafon Johnson, who was injured in a weightlifting accident, is expected to be released from the hospital today. Johnson appeared at a press conference held at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a second Los Angeles Times story reported. "I'd like to thank my doctors -- they were definitely sent from heaven. This is not the end of anything. This is the beginning of things to come. We are fighting on," Johnson said at the news conference, NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV reported. Associated Press also covered the news.

Los Angeles Times quoted Naj Meshkati of the USC Viterbi School in an article on radiation overdoses from CT scans at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which the hospital has blamed on a programming error. Meshkati said that the overdoses point to a problem well documented in medicine over the last decade: the need for multiple backup systems to catch mistakes. "Where are the lessons learned as a result of the Dennis Quaid incident?" asked Meshkati, referring to an incident at the hospital in which the actor's newborn twins were accidentally given 1,000 times the intended dose of a blood thinner.

Variety highlighted USC's Institute for Creative Technologies in a story on how Hollywood technology has helped the United States military train its soldiers. The Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation spent $50 million to set up the Institute for Creative Technologies, which goes beyond virtual reality technology and taps into Hollywood's storytelling expertise, the article stated. "We refer to them as cognitive training systems," said Kim LeMasters, creative director at the institute. "We're trying to train the brain." The institute created a mobile, interactive training system to teach soldiers how to defend themselves against roadside bombs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), constructing a story told from the point of view of two characters: a bomb-maker and a young soldier who has just survived an IED attack. "To make this a compelling experience, you have to hook them," LeMasters said. "You have to have a story."

Indo-Asian News Service (India) cited research by Jonas Kaplan of the USC College which found that when it comes to religion, believers and non-believers' brains use the same cerebral areas. Kaplan and colleagues, including researchers from UCLA, used what is believed to be the first neuro-imaging study to find that while the human brain responds very differently to religious and non-religious propositions, the process of believing or disbelieving a statement appears to be governed by the same brain areas.

National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" interviewed Tim Page of the USC Annenberg School. Page's new book, "Parallel Play: Life As an Outsider," describes his struggle with Asperger's syndrome, which he wasn't diagnosed with until he was 45. Page is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic. "[With music] it's not so much about going places and arriving somewhere and big crises and climaxes, as it is about the actual journey rather than arrival or leaving from someplace," Page said. "You're just fascinated by what's going on at the moment, just surrendering yourself to speed and jostling and, you know, gorgeous sensations that overwhelm you. And I love the sort of patterning of it all."

United Press International cited Melvin Silverstein of the Keck School of USC in a story on how a third of U.S. women suspected of having breast cancer get open surgery biopsies, even though the needle biopsies are the best practice. Silverstein was chair of the International Consensus Conference on Image Detected Breast Cancer, the article noted. "In spite of considerable agreement in the medical literature and national recommendations published by industry thought leaders, such as the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Breast Surgeons, there was only a small decrease in the number of surgical biopsies since our last conference four years ago," Silverstein said.

Providence Business News reported that USC is No. 1 on a list of higher education institutions that are most engaged with their local communities. The survey, "Saviors of Our Cities: 2009 Survey of College and University Civic Partnerships," ranked 25 colleges and universities in terms of their contributions to the communities surrounding their campuses. University of Pennsylvania was tied with USC for the top spot.

The Miami Herald cited Guilbert Hentschke of the USC Rossier School in an article about the growth of for-profit universities. The story referred to Hentschke's book, "New Players, Different Game: Understanding the Rise of For-Profit Colleges and Universities," which he co-authored with William Tierney of the Rossier School. Hentschke said that for-profit schools succeed generally because they tend to offer convenient class times for working students, have many campuses, have numerous staff available to help students, and offer one-stop shopping in which students can register for classes, pay their bill and apply for financial aid all in one place. In contrast, "Many of the community colleges are stretched pretty thin, they're understaffed, and they don't have the capacity to respond to individuals," Hentschke said.

Los Angeles Daily Journal quoted Clare Pastore of the USC Gould School in a story about the signing of AB 590, which creates a pilot project making legal counsel more widely available to low-income litigants in civil cases.

KPCC-FM interviewed Richard Little of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development in a story on the feasibility of a tunnel for the 710 freeway through Mt. Washington. "The tunnel is feasible from an engineering and financial standpoint, and if by taking the surface route off the table you could make that move forward, it seems to me to be a good thing to do," Little said. "I think tunnel-boring has come a long way. This isn't the old excavation method. It's a very elaborate but well established process."

Ventura County Star mentioned USC in an article on legislation that would mean some California colleges, public and private, would get more oversight over donations and other records. The story reported that the legislation exempts all private schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, including USC.

Pasadena Star-News mentioned the late Eleonore Schoenfeld of the USC Thornton School in a story on the event Concerts on the Crest Revisited: A Boho-Highbrow Weekend in Altadena. Cellist Schoenfeld, "one of the greats on the instrument," taught Diego Miralles, who will be performing at the event, the story stated. She once performed at the event with her sister, Thornton School Emeritus Professor Alice Schoenfeld.

The Herald-Times reported that David Bollier of the USC Annenberg School will be a panelist at the International Day of Climate Action public forum. Bollier is the author of "Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth," the story noted.

The Buffalo News highlighted a keynote reading by Percival Everett of the USC College. The reading is scheduled to take place at the Conference of Literary Arts in Buffalo, N.Y. Everett's most recent novel is "I'm not Sidney Poitier," the story noted.

Glendale News-Press quoted Katharine Strunk and Priscilla Wohlstetter of the USC Rossier School in an article on federal stimulus money that the Glendale Unified School District is hoping to get by applying for Race to the Top, a nearly $4.4 billion grant program. California recently struck a portion of education code that prohibited linking student data to teacher pay, thus rendering its schools eligible for federal funds. "I think it helps that California is more able to apply to those funds than it has been in the past. But, it's hard to tell what the [federal government] is looking for until we see final guidelines," Strunk said. Removing barriers that prevent linking student achievement and teacher effectiveness rarely sees the light of day, because of the strength of the state's teachers unions, Wohlstetter added.