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Vol. 94, No. 32 Monday November 13, 2000_ _ Serving na Community since 1Q08 WWW.GAMECOCK.SC.EDU UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA ' COLUMBIA. S.C. 0 Blood battle with Clemson begins by Charles Prashaw The Gamecock The week before the annual Caroli na/Clemson football game is traditional ly known as Spirit Week at USC, a week of annual events that celebrate USC and the long-standing football rivalry. ^ For this Spirit Week, three big events ™ire taking place: the annual Carolina/Clem son blood drive, the grand opening of the Gamecock-themed Bi-Lo on Devine Street and the annualTiger Bum. USC has won the annual blood drive for the last two years, with around 2,000 pints of blood donated by students, pro fessors and community members each of those years. The event, which is sponsored by the Red Cross and the Fraternity and Sorori ty Councils, pits Greek Life from the two schools against each other in a contest to see who can get’members of their com munities to donate the most blood. The blood drive will take place all this week at the Russell House Ballroom and in a Red Cross bloodmobile outside the Darla Moore School of Business between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. To get more students to give blood this year, Greek organizers are giving Gamecock T-shirts to donors. The shirt says “I bleed garnet” on the front. According to Director of Greek Life Gena Runnion, there will also be free food, and some professors are giving ex tra credit for donating blood. “It’s a great cause. It’s something that is a very healthy competition for both schools,” Runnion said “We can’t all play football, but we can all support the effort and support the cause.” Runnion also gave advice to those wishing to donate this week. They should remember to eat food high in iron, like oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits and leafy green vegetables, accord ing to Runnion. “If someone doesn’t have a high enough iron count, they can’t donate,” she said. The grand opening of the Gamecock themed Bi-Lo on Devine Street will take place Wednesday between 5-7 p.m. The managers of the Bi-Lo plan to hold a cel ebration in the parking lot with free food discounted prices, “Cocky,” cheerleaders and fireworks. According to Russell House Director Carmela Car, the grand opening of the store just happens to take place during Spirit Week. The Tiger Bum, the last event of Spir it Week, takes place at the South Caroli na Fairgrounds at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Tiger Bum is the annual pep rally and bon fire before the Carolina/Clemson football game. Admission is free to both the Tiger Bum and the grand opening of the Bi-Lo. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmalLcom. Three in a row? USC has beat Clemson in the Carolina Clemson blood drive for the past two years, and will try for a third victory this year. The totals in the previous two years: 1999 USC 2,018 Clemson 1,904 1998 USC 1,657 Clemson 1,433 BUILDING A BETTER USC -- ■ ■ -----------1 t rav ■■ : , T ! Gmh C! S Work continues on the Strom Thurmond Fitness and Wellness Center, which Is scheduled to be completed by January 2003. The Fitness and Wellness Center is Just one of many construction projects being undertaken by the university over the next five years. Trustees’ goals include campus beauty, safety This is the final installment in a series by The Game cock examining the goals the USC board of trustees re cently agreed to try to achieve by 2005. by Brandon Larrabee The Gamecock tin •< • r f . 1 or tlm Cimm Tl_ir»._IVIE-11 tv line uic main tutus ui uic uuum of trustees’ goals for 2005 rests on im proving tlie quality of students, teach ers and the university as a whole, there are also other areas the goals tar get. One of these is the campus’s ap ^ pearance, with the board setting goals to improve the learning environment and safety around campus. Even before the goals, USC had planned several construction projects. The university is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into such projects (IIUIIIIUIIU 1 1UI09 UIIU T »vu ness Center, Uie new Greek Village, the Vista Arena, a new Law School and a new facility for the school of public health. However, one of the most imme diate and far-reacliing projects being un dertaken is a “streetscraping” project that will lead to changes along many of USC’s streets, including Sumter, Blos som, Green, Bull and Pendleton. “That’s [the streescaping project is] very comprehensive,” said Charles Jef fcoat, director of facilities management at the university. The plan involves adding lighting and trees to streets affected by the project, narrowing several of the streets, removing some university parking and moving sidewalks further off the roads. The university will also add a left turn off of Blossom Street onto Bull Street. While the university is planning on removing parking on some of tlie streets encompassed by the plan, Jeffcoat said that won’t always be the case. “In most cases, the parking’s re maining along the street,” he said. Some of the parking could also be moved. On Sumter, a gated median will be added in addition to the otlier streetscap ing elements, Jeffcoat said. The side walk will be moved further away from the curve, and a grassy area will take its place. Another major change affects Greene Street. The university is no longer con sidering opening Greene Street during some hours when it is currently closed, Jeffcoat said. “Our plan is to continue that sched ule,” he said. Instead, the gates that block traffic when the street is closed might be moved outward. “We may move those further west and place them on the comer of Sumter and Greene,” Jeffcoat said. The streetscaping plan also calls for the narrowing of Greene Street and the removal of the parking spaces on that road between Sumter and Bull streets. The spaces between Bull and Pickens “more than likely will stay,” but those is SLED picks up $990,000 grant ■ Money will help improve communi cations network by Kristin von Karowsky The Gamecock The US. Department of Justice award ed the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division a $990,000 federal grant, US. Sen. Fritz Hollings announced Oct. 25. The funding, which is part of the Jus tice Department’s National Criminal His tory Improvement Program (NCHIP), will be used to improve and upgrade SLED’s communications network. Tire Justice De partment’s program seeks to improve pub lic safety by making criminal record in formation complete, accurate and immediately accessible to law enforce ment. The NCHIP receives its funding through the Crime Identification Tech nology Act (CITA). According to the De partment of Justice website, CITA pro vides assistance to states to upgrade or establish identification technologies and criminal justice information systems. CI TA expands on the National Criminal His tory Improvement Program administered by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and pro vides assistance “for virtually every” tech nology-based, criminal justice identifi cation, information and communications need. SLED chief spokesman Hugh Munn said with the new funding, smaller courts, such as magistrates and city judges, will now be able to get depositions to SLED faster with the new technology. “A problem we were having here was that smaller summary courts had to mail the information to us before,” Munn said. “Tliere was no automated system from the summary courts. Now, it will be eas ier for smaller courts to send us the in formation electronically. 1 want to stress the timelines. This will really move tilings along for us, in terms of electronic switch ing equipment and improved software.” Munn also said criminal histories in cluded in the data base will include “all criminal histories,” and not strictly vio lent criminal histories. When asked if the new communica tions system might help deter crime, Munn couldn’t say for sure. “I really don’t know, but it will sure help in detecting and investigating crimes in a more timely manner,” Munn said. According to the Justice Department’s website, a public law passed on Oct. 9, --SLED SEE PAGE 3 Big Brothers, Sisters hold extravaganza by Eugene Rodillo The Gamecock Children and volunteers met this past Friday for the fifth annual Big Brothers/ Big Sisters of Greater Columbia Midnight Extravaganza held at USC’s Blatt P.E Cen ter. From 11:00 p.m. Friday to 8:00 a.m. Saturday, children and volunteers partic ipated in various activities such as bas ketball and arts and crafts, giving the chil dren a chance to interact with possible mentors. Barron Damon, spokesman for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Greater Colum bia, said the gathering was a way for the children to have a night out, estimating more than 250 people participated in the event this year. According to Damon, the program began only for boys who were on a wait ing list to meet possible mentors. After the females found they didn’t have a sim ilar opportunity, it was decided to com bine the program for both boys and girls. This year, the program was full of ac tivities to keep children busy. “Everytliing is done simultaneously,” Damon said. “They’ll be moving die whole time, from station to station. We even have a book station out there in case there are some of them who just want to read, be cause some of llie kids are a little intro verted.” Along with these activities, diere was a karaoke machine and a motivational speaker named Eric David. “He (encouraged) the kids to stay off the streets and stay off drugs,” Damon said. The volunteers played a big part in this event, with many being students from USC and other colleges. Damon said diere Bio Brothers seepages Weather Inside Quote of the Day Datebook Today 65 50 Tuesday 59 33 1 Spotlight looks at the movie “Men of Honor’’ Page 7 “Democracy is the worst form of government- except for all those other ones.” — Winston Churchill Monday ‘Spirit Week begins • Carolina/Clcmson Blood iMlgg^PI Drive, RH Ballroom ‘Sigma Chi Derby Days Tuesday •Spirit Week continues •Carolina/CIemson Blood Drive, RH Ballroom •Sigma Chi Derby Days •Hunger Banquet, 6 p.m., Capstone Campus rm