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Sims CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 According to J. B. Coaxum of the USCPD, the graffiti was found on the hallway, stairwells and doorframes. Later, police were called back when more graffiti was found on the walls near the water fountain and the door of the custodial supply room. According to the report, “This new graffiti was written after (2:30 p.m.) when the custodians cleaned off the original writing.” The vandalism caused $300 in damages. Sims residents who discovered the graffiti began to clean it up immediately. Later, the custodial workers helped the students. “Imagine you seeing your name with some racial words next to it and having to wipe off your own name,” Johnson said. “It’s pretty tough.” Housing Department officials held two meetings with Sims res idents to explain exactly what happened. Attendance was taken at the meetings, and all but 30 res idents showed up. Those not at tending were later briefed by Residence Life administrators. “The women in those meet ings were very angry,” Johnson said. “I could barely get through the meeting because right away, they were planning an ‘appreci ation this’ and an ‘appreciation that.’ They were furious that they were going to get painted with this brush that they were anti-African-American or anti custodian.” USC decided to keep custodi al staff out of Sims, an all-fe male hall, for two days. “Students stepped up and said that they would help pull trash, that they would bring their trash down to make it easier,” Johnson said. “I remember one. of the custodial workers said, ‘none of my women would ever do that.’ As a matter of fact, they were mad at me for even changing the staff.” The front desk at Sims is staffed 24 hours a day, either by resident advisers or Sizemore Security personnel. “Security’s been good, and this was not a se curity lapse at all. This was not some strange man that wandered in off the street and did some thing, “ Johnson said. “If you are a person that lives in the com munity and you want to do some thing like this, there is no secu rity guard that can stop you. Here’s what can stop you, though:... If every resident in Sims knows to be on the lookout, that can stop you, and that’s ex actly what happened.” Luna called Housing’s re sponse “one of the most premier responses that I’ve seen in the 10 years that I’ve been here.” He said he doesn’t think it will affect housing sign-ups this week. “An awful tragic situation for a group of individuals to be named for a group of students to be smeared that way ... but Housing and the students re sponded in such a way to say ‘this is unacceptable in our communi ty,’” Luna said. Comments on this stoty? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com V'r ’ . ' '•• ' • # ' Live contemporary music Casual atmosphere & dress Complimentary coffee & snacks at 9:30 am SHanDon United Methodist find your way Arafat won’t attend summit; international observers killed BY STEVE WEIZMAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JERUSALEM - Yasser Arafat decided Tuesday not to attend a key Arab summit after Israel brushed aside appeals by the United States and threatened to prevent the Palestinian leader from returning home if violence flared during his absence. Arafat’s absence could undermine Arab support for a Saudi peace plan be ing presented in Beirut. Despite calls by the United States that he let Arafat go to the summit, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said “conditions are not ripe” to do so. He insisted the Palestinian leader call a cease-fire first and that Washington back any Israeli decision to bar Arafat from re turning home if there is violence during his absence. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher insisted Israel grant a “round trip” for Arafat to and from the summit, which opens in the Lebanese capital on Wednesday. Nevertheless, Arafat will ad dress the Arab gathering. Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said the Palestinian leader would speak to the summit via satellite Wednesday from his Ramallah headquarters. Underscoring the incendiary situation on the ground, two ob servers from an international force in the West Bank were shot and killed. The Israeli military said Palestinians opened fire on their car on a road used mostly by Jewish settlers north of Hebron, where the force is stationed. The two observers — from Turkey and Switzerland — were the first members of the force to be killed. The observers were sent in after an Israeli settler massa cred 29 Palestinian worshippers at a holy site in 1994. The Hebron agreement, dividing the city, was signed in 1997, and the observers continued their mission. Also, two Palestinians from a militia linked to Arafat’s Fatah movement drove a bomb-laden car toward Jerusalem’s largest mall Tuesday morning, blowing them selves up when they were stopped by police. No Israelis were hurt. U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni made some progress in his efforts to broker a cease-fire deal. Israel grudgingly accepted new compro mise proposals, while the Palestinians expressed some reservations. Violence CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 cent of rapes are committed by someone the victim knows and 60 percent of all sexual assault occurs within the victim’s home, a neigh bor’s home or a friend’s home. “It’s who you know, it’s where you live, and that’s the really frightening part about it,” Wyatt said. “How do you overcome all that?” Rape can also severely affect victims’ health; 31 percent of rape victims develop some kind of post traumatic stress disorder. PTSD causes the sufferer to always be highly alert and leads to severe anxiety and depression. PTSD suf ferers are also more likely to have health problems ranging from stomachaches to cancer. “The longer you live in a vio lent situation and the longer you are exposed to trauma, the more chances there are for it to impair your life both emotionally and physically,” Wyatt said. South Carolina had 1,670 rapes and 2,207 other forcible sex crimes reported in 1999. However, since only 16 percent of sexual assault victims report the crimes to the police, Wyatt estimated that the actual numbers were much high er. FBI statistics for 1999 ranked South Carolina first in the nation for women being killed by men. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of those homicides occurred in in timate relationships. In response to these statistics, Gov. Jim Hodges created a special task force to deal with domestic violence, the first of its kind in South Carolina. The state is now ranked fifth. However, “No. 5 is horrendous when you’re talking about women killed by men that they love and trust,” said DuRant, who was a task force member. DuRant noted that “prevention is a major issue” when it comes to domestic violence. Since most in timate homicides occur when the victim tries to leave her abuser, it is important to educate women on how to avoid what DuRant calls the “cycle of abuse.” “Once a person gets involved in this cycle, it just perpetuates it self, and it’s almost impossible to get out,” DuRant said. Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands, formerly known as the Rape Crisis Network, offers crisis counseling for victims, staffs a 24 hour crisis line and provides hos pital accompaniment for abuse victims. . Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com St. Thomas More Catholic Center Rev. Tim Lijewski Mass Schedule Sacrament of Penance Chaplin Saturday 4:30 pm Saturday 3:00 pm-4;00pm Sunday 9:00 flc 11:00 am, or by appointment Mr. Gaurav Shroff 7 3° pm Newman Club Director of Christian Formation Tuesday 7:00 pm 1610 Greene St. 799-5870 (Across from School of Nursing) ^HT£ommons_lH