Riot Aftermath : Spared by Riots, USC Intent on Its Own Damage Control : Campus: School uses phone banks and mailings to soothe nerves of students, parents, alumni and donors who might reconsider ties.

Although fires destroyed stores just across Vermont Avenue from its campus in last week’s rioting, the University of Southern California suffered nothing worse physically than one broken window at a parking kiosk. Now, USC officials hope to prevent less visible, but no less threatening, damage to morale, finances and enrollment.

USC leaders and staff are using telephone campaigns and massive mailings to soothe jittery nerves of students, parents, alumni and donors who may be reconsidering ties to a school so close to some of the trouble spots. Some fear clearly remains, but campus officials contend that their calming efforts are working, bolstered by what they say were very successful security measures.

For example, admissions officials estimate that, as a result of the turmoil, they will lose only about 50 prospective freshmen out of a hoped-for class of 2,600. “The fallout based on the disturbance will not be as great as we first anticipated,” said Duncan C. Murdoch, USC’s director of undergraduate admissions. “We thought, my God, this might be a disaster. But it’s not going to be.”

An informal survey of college counselors at California high schools that traditionally send many students to USC confirmed Murdoch’s upbeat assessment. However, reaction out of state may be worse because some national news shows broadcast incorrect reports of damage at USC.

If the enrollment projections hold in the fall, it will be nearly as much a relief for USC as having escaped looting and fires. The school has had trouble filling its freshman class in recent years, partly due to annual costs topping $22,000 for undergraduates who live on campus and don’t receive financial aid. Deposits from most freshmen for next fall were due on May 1, a deadline now extended by two weeks because of the riots.

USC has had an ambivalent relationship with the low-income neighborhoods surrounding its main campus since even before the 1965 Watts disturbances, which came nearby. In the 1950s, the school considered moving to Orange County before it decided to stay and expand in the area north of Exposition Park, between Vermont Avenue and Figueroa Street. More recently, USC has stepped up involvement in neighborhood education and improvement, seeking to shed old stereotypes of being an affluent island amid hostile poverty.

Keenly aware of those issues, USC President Steven B. Sample is sending a three-page letter this week to an estimated 20,000 alumni, supporters and prospective freshmen. Sample’s letter details the security steps last week, including postponement of final exams and moving students from off-campus apartments to on-campus dormitories and a gymnasium. Three USC students were roughed up off-campus last Wednesday night but suffered no major injuries, said Sample, who slept on his office floor Thursday night during the troubles.

“It was not a miracle that USC came through unscathed; rather, it was due in large part to the hard work and dedication of thousands of individuals who love this university and the community of which it is a part. That certainly includes our friends and neighbors who live close. . . . Our neighbors understand that USC is an anchor institution in this city, and they do what they can to help it flourish,” Sample wrote.

In an interview at his office, he stressed that USC is one of the largest private employers in Los Angeles, with about 13,000 people on payroll, ranging from professors to custodians. That fact, he speculated, may have led neighbors to tell rioters that “they didn’t want this institution hurt in any way, shape or form.”

Still, the riots will remain on the minds of USC’s 27,200 students.

For example, Daniel Landau, a journalism major who expects to graduate in December, said that he used to drive surface streets to visit his family in Palos Verdes. Recent images of motorists being beaten by mobs will keep him on the freeway, said Landau. “Crime around here is never really that bad,” he said during an outdoor lunch at the Carl’s Jr. on campus. “But now there’s a tension out there that won’t go away for a long time.”

His friend, Paul Pinner, said USC student involvement in such efforts as tutoring neighborhood children may have paid off in goodwill during the disturbances. “If USC is smart, it will continue to develop that,” said Pinner, who was wearing a T-shirt being sold on campus that reads: “University of South Central. I Survived the Finals Week Riot! April 29, 1992.”

Nearby, sophomores Matthew Nelson and Bianca Brown were taking a break from studying. They had been evacuated from an off-campus apartment into a recreation center at the height of the riots. Nelson, from Palo Alto, said he had expected “the campus to get trashed” because it might be viewed as a symbol of white affluence. He praised campus security guards’ work.

Brown, from San Diego, said she was not very worried about safety in the area, but she predicted that some parents will forbid students to attend USC. “There is still a stigma here from the Watts riots,” she said.

To counter any such stigma, volunteer students and parents are helping with phone-a-thons this week at the admissions office, trying to reach about 1,200 high school students who have been offered entrance but have not yet sent in their deposits. Of the 430 calls made Monday night, about a dozen conversations focused heavily on the disturbances near campus, Murdoch said, as USC students stressed how well the school weathered the crisis. Those dozen may be lost, but 100 other young people committed to USC Monday.

While some parents’ fears could not be assuaged, other applicants reportedly mentioned that they wanted to attend USC to help with the rebuilding of Los Angeles. President Sample has offered office space and staff help to Peter V. Ueberroth, who was appointed to head the citywide rebuilding effort. Students and faculty are getting involved in various efforts to aid people harmed by the riots.

Recruiters say the riots reinforce the need for a racially diverse student body; 55% of current USC freshmen are white, 22% Asian, 14.2% Latino, 7.5% African-American and the rest international students. Minorities constitute 30% of all undergraduate and graduate students.

Meanwhile, final exams have been made optional and preparation continues for Friday’s commencement. As military helicopters flew above and National Guardsmen patrolled nearby streets Tuesday, flowers were being planted and chairs unpacked for the ceremony. The main speaker will be Sample, replacing Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister and now leader of the new Georgian Republic. Shevardnadze dropped out due to civil unrest, in Georgia, not Los Angeles.