THUR FRI SAT SUN
69’- 54" 70"- 53" 62"- 51" 66"- 50”
ESTABLISHED 1921
February 23, 2012
Volume 90, Issue 33
Your Home. Your Voice. Your Newspaper.
Loyola Marymount University
www.laloyolan.com
Concerns remain about Mexico travel
EACH YEAR
over1 00,000
American high school
and college students
spend their spring breaks in
Mexico, , .,
a country where nearly Ncllt
of the states are currently
under a travel advisory from
the U.S. Government.
Photos: Associated Press
Graphic: Joanie Payne and Dol-Anne Asiru I Loyolan
Statistics from MSNBC.com
and U.S. State Department
NEWS ANALYSIS
U.S. government- issued
travel warnings increase to
include 14 Mexican states.
By Casey Kidwell
Asst. News Editor
Over 100,000 American high school and
college students travel to Mexico for spring
break each year, according to a Feb. 26,
2009 article on MSNBC.com. LMU students
are no exception, and with the University’s
close proximity to Mexico and focus on social
justice, there are even University-sponsored
trips there. However, following the U.S. State
Department’s travel warnings for 14 of the
31 Mexican states, issued Feb. 8, questions
have been raised about the safety of students
heading there next week.
Despite these recent travel warnings,
members of the LMU community will
continue to make the trek across the border.
This spring break, an alternative break group
will head to Morelos, Mexico, a city described
as having state authorities ‘being increasingly
infiltrated by drug gangs,” sparking citizen
protests in April 2011, according to the BBC
News article “Mexico violence: Morelos state
security chief sacked.” Additionally, in 2012
alone, there have been six De Colores trips to
Tijuana, Mexico, according to the Center for
Service and Action’s website. During these
trips, students spend a weekend immersing
themselves in the culture and doing service to
help locals.
Campus Minister and Coordinator for
Service and Spirituality April Gutierrez,
who is also the organizer for the De Colores
program and Ignacio Companions trip to
Cuernavaca and Mexico City, said that the
significance of these service trips is that it
allows students to “see an aspect of their own
mission or an issue they care about in a deeper
or new light.” While Gutierrez labeled this as
an important attribute of the programs she
See Mexico | Page 3
Riordan stresses empowerment
Former L.A. mayor Richard
Riordan offers local,
political insight to students.
By Jay Lee
Asst. News Editor
Even after his tenure as the mayor of Los
Angeles, Richard Riordan continues to be
politically active within the city.
Riordan, a Republican, was mayor of Los
Angeles from 1993-2001 and California
Secretary for Education from 2003-2005.
He currently serves as the Chairman for
the Alliance of College Ready Public schools,
which manages Los Angeles middle and high
schools. Riordan spoke as a part of the Spring
2012 Urban Lecture Series in Ahmanson
Auditorium on Tuesday and was interviewed
by Dr. Fernando J. Guerra, director of the
Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles.
At the Urban Lecture Series, according to its
website, guests discussed the impact of the Los
Angeles Riots (April 29, 1992) on Los Angeles
and their future vision for Los Angeles.
Riordan and Guerra covered a variety of
topics, including Riordaris policies and actions
as mayor. Riordan continually brought up the
importance of streamlining business practices,
utilizing the private sector, reforming the
education system and empowering Los
Angeles citizens.
Riordan believes in empowering people,
even if it means breaking rules. Guerra asked
what Riordan was most proud of during his
tenure as mayor, to which Riordan replied,
“empowering people to do things, getting a
city that believes it can make things happen.”
Guerra mentioned that Riordan handled the
1994 Norfhridge Earthquake well. Riordan
said he “told people on television ‘Forget rules
See Mayor | Page 5
Liana Bandziulis | Loyolan
Rose float lion takes up permanent residence on the first floor of U-Hall
It took approximately two hours for crew to remove the metal platforms under each foot of the lion which were prohibiting it from
fitting through the U-Hall doors. The statue has been set up in the U-Hall atrium, but may be moved in front of Roski Dining Hall.
Fire alarm
system
to be
updated
Facilities Management
hopes that renovations will
decrease malfunctions.
By Laura Riparbelli
Senior Editor
Fire alarms rang across campus last
semester a total of 37 times, according to
statistics compiled by the Department of
Public Safety (DPS). This semester, there
have already been 31. Of these, 23 were false
alarms and eight were due to equipment
malfunctions occurring with the fire alarm
system. Four were classified as “mischief,”
meaning that the alarm was intentionally
pulled when no danger was present.
“Intentional pulling is relatively new to us,”
said DPS Chief Hampton Cantrell. “We know
it is an extreme nuisance when a building
alarm goes off several times in a year.”
Although DPS Captain Cristina (Martin
said that the number of fire alarm activations
is not necessarily abnormal, Cantrell stated
that when afire alarm is pulled or erroneously
activated, valuable DPS resources are taken
from the department.
‘Tor example, when there is a malicious
pull in U-Hall, it requires [us to] send most of
our officers to manage the evacuation, check
the building and make sure people can return
inside,” Cantrell said. “Because U-Hall is so
large, we need almost all field personnel to
respond, and there’s disruption of classes,
meetings and a loss of productivity.”
Junior film production major Kevin Wells
was asleep on his couch in the O’Malley
Apartments early Saturday morning, Feb.
11, around 2 a.m. when the fire alarm
sounded and the building was evacuated.
Although that fire alarm was later deemed
a mischievous pull, Wells said that he
experienced a system malfunction his
freshman year in which he said Del Rey
South was evacuated twice one evening due
to the equipment not working properly.
‘If they improve the system, that would be
nice. Even if it only happens every once in a
while, it seems to always happen at the most
inconvenient times,” Wells said. ‘1 think I
subscribe to the boy cried wolf phenomenon
sometimes. I’ll go into my apartment and
111 hear an alarm going off and it doesn’t
even cross my mind that it could be [a real]
problem because the system seems to be
always going off.”
Facilities Management has taken heed
of these issues and, in order to provide an
upgrade of the current system, is crafting
a plan to renovate all fire alarm systems
on campus. This upgrade project, which is
currently in the drafting phases, will include
automatic fire sprinklers, fire alarm systems,
fire alarm monitoring, access control systems,
video surveillance systems, in-building
emergency communication and wide-area
mass communication, among other upgrades.
Rick Harris, director of Building
Management at Facilities Management, and
his team have been working in collaboration
with DPS on the proposal since the summer
of 2011 and, although no date for completion
has been set, some changes have begun
installation. The first allocation of funds
See Alarms | Page 2
EVERYTHING OSCARS
Loyolan staff members provide
an in depth look at this
Sunday’s Academy Awards.
A&E, Pages 8-9
Index
Classifieds .
. 5
JOURNEY TO THE TITLE BEGINS
Opinion .
. 6
The Loyolan sports section
A&E .
. 8
reflects on LMU basketball this
Sports .
. 16
season in preparation for next
week’s WCC tournament.
The next Issue of the Ixryolan will lx- printed on March 8,2012.
Sports, Page 1 5