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Pace 4 Hll£ (531HfC0Cll Friday, November 12,1999 South Carolina college students learn state government up close by Jessica Barfield, The Carolina Reporter Student delegates from South Car olina colleges and universities recently had the chance to introduce and debate their own bills in the same chambers where the state’s laws are made. The 43rd meeting of delegates to the S.C. Student Legislature, held in the Sen ate and House chambers of the Statehouse from Nov. 3 to 6, included about 70 bills written by students from the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, Newberry College, The Citadel, Bob Jones University, Columbia College, Fur man University and Presbyterian College, among others. Although a bill to legalize and regu late prostitution was introduced, the mock legislation did see its fair share of legiti mate bills. Bills proposal during the conference involved increasing voter registration among college students, creating a state scholarship by placing a 1 -cent tax on all fast-food items and setting suffer penal ties for underage drinkers. Delegates from Presbyterian College proposed a bill to have welfare recipients give back to their communities by per forming community service. A Newberry College student intro duced a bill to require high school stu dents to complete 100 hours of commu nity service upon graduation to teach them respect for their communities. In addition to the fall mock legisla tion, the S.C. Student Legislature, found ed in 1956 by Douglas Carlisle, meets each spring in a members’ conference. Carlisle said there are many reasons for bringing together students interested in politics. “There needed to be some place where students could express their opinions freely and not feel intimidated in doing so,” Carlisle said. “They needed a place to learn about government and about the parliamentary procedure,” he said. The rules of the student legislature are designed much like those of the state Legislature in an effort to guide stu dents through the lawmaking process. During the student legislature, once bills have passed with a majority vote in both the Senate and the House, they’re compiled and put into a journal, Carlisle said Then, the bills passed by student del egates in the fall are presented to state legislators for consideration during South Jessica Barfield The Carolina Reporter William Mier, a student senator from Furman University, pre pares to debate a bill for the annual South Carolina Student Legislature in Columbia. Carolina’s legislative session. Bills written and passed by members of the SCSL have even become state laws, proving that the fall gatherings of student delegates aren’t simply fun and games. State laws requiring drivers to turn on their cars’ headlights when driving in the rain and to make legal right turns at red lights that aren’t marked otherwise, both originated with South Carolina’s stu dent legislators. SCSL Miscellaneous Committee Chairman Nick Pizzuti said he found out about the organization when friends of his horn around the state became involved. A member of SCSL since the spring, the USC business junior joined SCSL because of a desire to be in politics later in his ca reer. Pizzuti said the best bill to come from this year’s session is one that might help raise the test scores of South Carolina’s public school students by providing school choice. “The voucher bill, which came from a combination of four different schools, lets kids of all ages choose the schools they will go to, public or private,” Piz zuti said. “The voucher would help pay for low income students to go to the schools they choose,” he said. Members of the SCSL have a high success rate, according to Carlisle. For mer members include state Sen. Donald Holland and Lee Atwater. Atwater, a student legislature gover nor from 1973-74, went on to become chairman of the Republican Party and is credited with helping George Bush be come president. “They’re everywhere,” Carlisle said of former SCSL members. “They have a pretty good chance at success, whether they served in office or not,” he said. I Hurricane bills await legislators in new year by Ann Kennedy The Carolina Reporter Thirty-one bills already have been filed for the South Carolina Legisla ture to consider when it reconvenes in January. Sen. Glenn Reese, D-Spartanburg, called many of the bills “send-the message bills.” “Most are missions, to do things for specific constituents,” Reese said. “Sometimes, they just need people to talk to if they’ve had a problem come up. They’ll talk to you and tell you to get a law passed, and I try to screen them, but I like to try to take care of them, too.” Seven bills are results of Hurri cane Floyd and the problems that resulted from the massive evacuation of tkn oonrt Sens. Lany Grooms, R-Berkeley, and Glenn Reese, D-Spartanbuig, were the first to propose a hurricane-relat ed bill, S.919, which would use all lanes of major roads from the coast for evacuation immediately after the governor issues an emeigency evac uation. Several other senators have al so proposed an interstate lane-rever sal plan. School and work days missed be cause of emeigency conditions won’t have to be made up if bills S.824, S.925, S.929 and S.932 are passed. One of the bills recommends that the Department of Education exempt school days canceled because of emer gency conditions. The others are joint resolutions to provide that students or government workers who missed Sept. 14 to 17 don’t have to make up that time. Sens. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland; Kay Patterson, D-Richland; and Ralph Anderson, D-Greenville, have spon sored a resolution to require the Con federate Battle Flag to be removed from the Senate chambers and only be displayed on special days in Con federate history. Reese and Billy O’Dell, D Abbeville, have filed S.922, a bill that would prohibit the distribution of cred it card applications on college cam puses. All prefiled bills are listed on the legislative home page, www.lpitr.state.sc.us. Get in touch Here’s how to reach the senators from Richland County. RJohn Courson Republican (803)212-6220 siv@scsenate.org Warren Giese Republican (803) 212-6148 (Nkg@scsenate.org Darrell Jackson Democrat (803) 212-6040 bdj1 @ scsenate.org Kay Patterson Democrat (803) 212-6008 kay@scsenate.org Or mail the senators at: P.O. Box 11867 Columbia, S.C. 29211 Source: S.C. General Assembly Cara Pellatt The Carolina Reporter PRWEEK Something missing in your colege education? Perhaps it’s time to H ■ ■ I -'.V'- I mi me void. Think you’re a good communicator? Subscribe and find | out how the pros j communicate. 1 1 =s#i m *m Now you can get PRWeekmaM right to you at school. See campus buletin boards for details or call 1-800-722-2348 Have your credt card ready. Get 15 issues for just $32. BETTB YET! Get a whole year for $80 or half a year for $54. Make PRWeek part of your required reading each and every week. \ 1 X Impeachment from page 2 “Senators who voted to adjourn the senate meeting really aren’t represent ing their constituents because they do not want to discuss whatever’s going on and do not want stay past a certain time,” Lentini said. “That’s not right. If you are here to do business, you are there to do busi ness. You’re not there to leave,” she said. But Dawkins said the move was nec essary. “We need the opinion of the attor ney general at this point,” he said. “Wfe need to ask his opinion.” Dawkins also reiterated his opposi tion to Brown’s serving as parliamen tarian while the issue makes its way through senate. “I think that his position is one of objectivity, and he cannot be objective at this point,” Dawkins said. Ballentine said she wouldn’t com ment on whether Brown had a conflict of interest. But she did say she didn’t think he could be asked to step aside. “You can’t ask him to step down,” she said. “He has to be impeached.” According to Ballentine, some sen ators are “very adamant” that a recom mendation come to senate. However, Ballentine said she wouldn’t attempt to force the charges onto the floor. “As far as me making a motion to bring it to the floor, that’s not going to happen,” she said. Fordham said that the senate should move on and that the senators’ at tempt to reopen the matter shows the charges are a personal attack. “It clarifies that it’s a personal attack if they can’t just drop it,” Fordham said. “I think they should ...just drop it. Sen ate’s spent enough time on this. “I think it’s time for senate to just pick up, move on and focus on the fu ture. We have more important things to focus on.” But Dawkins said he didn’t think senators could bring the charges to the floor after the court dismissed them, adding that he thought the court could dismiss the charges. “I think we did what was in our pow er to do,” he said. Because the charges would normal ly die if the court doesn’t make a rec ommendation to the senate within 30 days, the senate would have to consid er the charges by Nov. 24. Dawkins said he thought the deadline would still ap ply. However, the senate doesn’t meet that day, so its Nov. 17 meeting would be the last opportunity to consider the charges, Dawkins said. “I’m ready for this to be over with because I’m ready for the senate to do what we were elected to do,” he said. The senate meeting ended while ar guments continued concerning the tabling of a resolution thdt would’ve created a USC World Hunger Awareness Day. The senate tabled, for technical rea sons, a resolution sponsored by Sen. Den tavius Barber and SG Director of Mar keting Norm Jones that would have declared Nov. 17 USC World Hunger Awareness Day. Senators said that Jones couldn’t sponsor a bill and that the bill wasn’t written in the correct format. “After the cloud of impeachment, student senate had a chance to shine a light of redemption on the legislative process,” Jones said. “But they failed to set differences aside for a resolution to encourage students to fight hunger in South Carolina and worldwide.” Jones said he hoped that the senate rlirln’t toKln tKo Kill Kcw*cuico nf Kic nrrv. posal, filed with the Judicial Council al most two weeks ago. The proposal would declare the entire segment of the SG Constitution concerning impeachment unconstitutional under the U.S. and S.C. constitutions. “I would say, in the back of my mind, that’s always a possibility, but in this sce nario, I don’t think that was the prime consideration or main factor,” he said. He said Student Body President Ma lik Husser was expected to sign a copy of the resolution as an executive order by the end of the week. The resolution could come up again at next week’s meeting. However, Jones pointed out, that means the senate couldn’t pass the bill until the day was almost over. In related news, Judicial Council Chief Justice Camber Cauthen said she and Judicial Affairs Director Scott Lewis had initially rejected Jones’ impeach ment proposal before showing it to the entire board. “Upon first look, we found prob lems in his argument,” Cauthen said. However, she said Jones discussed the matter with her and would rewrite and resubmit the proposal. I Briefs ■ City parks Columbia City Parks have something for visitors of all ages. For more information, call 733-8331. ■ Marionette theater The Columbia Marionette Theatre, 401 Laurel St., features year-round perfor mances at 3 p.m. every Saturday and Sun day. For more information, call 252-7366. ■ Sterling Chamber Players to perform The Sterling Chamber Players will perform at 8 p.m. today at the Sterling Chamber Players Center and offer chamber music in an intimate garden setting. Casual dress. For more information and prices, call 252-2001. ■ The Living’ comes to USC “The Living” will play through Nov. 21 at the Longstreet Theatre at USC. Perfor mance are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sat urdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. For more infor mation and prices, call 777-2551. ■ Riverbanks Zoo holds Bonsai Show The Riverbanks Zoo and Garden will hold a Bonsai Show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Bonsai experts will perform the ancient art and show their waxes. Free. For more information, call 779-8717. ■ Gaelic concert features Titanic’ band The Gaelic Storm Concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Historic Haynes Auditorium in Batesburg-Leesville. The concert will feature the “party band” from the movie “Titanic.” Reservations required. For more information, call 532-2388. ■ Homes for the Holidays begins Tickets go on sale Wednesday for Homes for the Holidays. Sponsored by the Hollywood-Rosehill Neighborhood Association and Shandon Neighborhood Council, the event will open seven homes to the public from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 5. Admission is $10; proceeds go to neighborhood and school projects. A Vista lights The Vista lights, a candlelight tour of historic businesses, will be held Thursday in the Congaree Vista. Free. For more information, call 738-1499. 'die Carolina Reporter Publisher Ronald Farrar Reporters Allison Aiken Jessica Barfield Gina DeMillo Kristin Freestate Ann Kennedy Israel Kloss Kate Maxwell Todd Money Noelle Orr Jacquelyn Poston Jeff Stensland Adrienne Thompson Managing Editors Judson Drennan Jeff Romig Editors Shana Bowman David Cloninger Rebecca Cronican Ashley Mathias Ryan Mosier Cara Pellatt Faculty Advisers Scott Farrand Keith Kenney Pat McNeely Henry Price Jennifer Wood The Carolina Reporter senior semester students pro vide The Gamecock with week ly Metro & State coverage. For Metro & State news tips, please call (803) 777-3307 or (803) 777-3281. To fax tips, please call (803) 777-3248. Letters to the editor regarding Metro & State coverage should be directed to The Gamecock, RH 333, or gcked@sc.edu. The Carolina Reporter Online can be found on the World Wide Web at: www.jour.sc.edu/reporter/home.html -v