University of South Carolina Libraries
4 University of South Carolina FRinAV nFOFMRFR R 9009 Vol.96,No.45 www.dailygamecock.com irxIL/rM, L/LV^L-IVIDL-rX U, Z.UWZ Sincel908 A record-setting shot PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Lady Gamecock basketball player Jocelyn Penn ties the USC record for most points In one game with this free throw. She scored 50 points Wednesday night against Wofford. Storm brings *USC to a halt BY COREY GARRIOTT TWUIAMKCOCK USC shut down its offices and canceled classes Wednesday in accordance with the South Carolina Office of’ Human Resources, which closed state of fices in 22 counties because of an "eunesaay. '--'JiumDia LC' ceived a pair of those warnings One, an advisory, predicted freezing rain during the day with small accumulations of me. The second, issued later, was a win ter-storm warning that predicted a quarter-inch to a half-inch of ice in spots and advised motorists to avoid bridges and overpasses, the end of the day. yp to a foot of snow fell in locations from Texas to Virginia. In North Carolina, southern counties woke up to snowfall ear ly yesterday morning. Several highways closed, with the low pressure system which closed them moving further South. Two inches fell on Charlotte, N.C., 90 minutes norm of Columbia, forcing Charlotte pub lic schools to shut down again on Thursday. More than 200,000 in the Anderson Greenville Spartan-burg area lost pow « yesteraay oedu&e oi aownea power lines. Ice and 2 inches of snow weighted down area tree branches, which hung on near by power lines. E.O. Ferrell, Duke Power’s se nior vice president of electric distribution, calls the Carolinas’ ice storm “the worst in compa ♦ WINTER SJORM, SEE PAGE 2 ice 3101 III uiai hit the Upstate. The office was responding to the National Weather Service, which sent a bevy of severe weather warnings • throughout the ^ southern Plains and Eastern Seaboard. “It was fun because we didn’t have classes, but was ridiculous because it didn’t really do anything outside.” KATHRYN TOOLE FIRST-YEAR ELECTRONIC-JOURNALISM STUDENT - • STUDENT GOVERNMENT. Voters OK amendment to push back elections Commission members hope the new date will increase voter turnout BY MICHAEL LAFORGIA THE (iAMECOCK Students voted online yester day and Wednesday to pass an amendment to the Student Government constitution that will allow elections to be held af ter spring break. The amendment passed easi ly, with 340 supporting votes and 73 opposing. Election commis sion members said the percent age of opposing votes was sur prisingly high. Brooke Vickery, elections commissioner and a fourth-year marketing student, said the students who voted against the change might have been misled by the vote’s online presentation. “The format of the vote online was confusing,” said Vickery, who initially proposed the legis lation. “The reason we wanted to see elections moved is that we want ed them-to become more effi cient,” Vickery said. “Now, it splits up the semester into two parts. If we move the election af ter spring break, we could get more done.” Student Government and Election Commission members said the change allows adminis trations more time to complete their agendas and encourages voter turnout. “I’m excited about it because I ♦ AMENDMENT, SEE PAGE 4 Voting Breakdown Supporting: 340 VOTES Opposing: 73 VOTES SG plans to give surplus to student organizations Cutbacks, increase in student-activity fee leave $15,000 in excess funds BY ADAM BEAM THE (IAMECOCK Cutting back on “frivolous” expenditures and lobbying the Board of Trustees for a higher student-activity fee have led to a $15,000 surplus in Student Government, with most going back to student organizations. SG President Ankit Patel said most of the surplus came from cutting various expenses within SG, such as money for receptions and banquets, overhead costs in cluding copier expenses, and pet projects, such as SG T-shirts and Homecoming floats. SG Treasurer Becky Floyd said cutting SG’s Homecoming program “just wasn’t necessary because people in Student Government were involved in other organizations, so we just saw it as a frivolous cost.” Floyd said organizations can now look forward to bigger allo cations in the spring. Every year, student organizations turn in a budget-request form to the Student Finance Committee, which in turn decides how much funding each organization gets from SG. Patel said “it’s not guar anteed” that organizations will receive more money. “But what I can say is the Finance Committee will have more mon ey to distribute,” he said. About 66 percent of the sur plus will go to the Senate Finance Committee, and the oth er 34 percent is earmarked for or ganizations’ special projects. This year, Patel created councils that loosely affiliated organiza tions with SG. An example of this is the Community Service Council, in which council mem bers comprise the presidents of all the service organizations on campus. Patel said part of that 34 percent would go toward sever al of the council’s spring pro ♦ SURPLUS, SEE PAGE 4 Hootie and the design class Students work to create a cover for Hootie and the Blowfish’s album BY EMMA RITCH THE GAMECOCK USC assistant professor Scott Farrand says Lou Holtz was his inspiration to ask Hootie and the Blowfish to become involved in an album-design project for the Journalism 364 class he teaches. “When President Palms was here, his motto was ‘Shoot for the best,’ ” Farrand said. “I came here the same time as Lou Holtz; his motto is ‘You are the best.’ ” Farrand decided he, too, wanted the best — for his graphics-design and-production class: a “real client” for whom they could de sign an album cover. Farrand said he originally wanted members of Hootie and the Blowfish to come speak to the class so that students could de sign a fake CD cover for the band. “So I thought, why not ask them?” he said. Farrand said the band liked the idea so much, it wanted the stu dents to have a contest to design its new album, coming out in February. “I didn’t even know they were coming out with a new album,” Farrand said. Hootie and the Blowfish doesn’t yet have a name for the album; in fact, that’s part of the students’ projects. Farrand kept the final project secret from his students until Nov. 6, when the band visited the class. After it got clearance from its record company, Hootie and the Blowfish let the students listen to recordings of parts of five new songs going on the album. “It’s not every day you walk into class and there’s a Grammy award-winning band there,” said class member Jason Mitchell, a fourth-year advertising student. “It was definitely a surprise.” PHOTO BY KATIE SMITH/THE GAMECOCK Third-year public-relations student Kim Fields creates a cover for the new Hootie and the Blowfish CD as part of a final project for a journalism class. But Hootie and the Blowfish or music to create an additional needed the design four weeks ear- design for the album. The class lier than Farrand anticipated. The has an advantage, Farrand said, students wouldn’t have been pre- because it is “privy to more infor pared, Farrand said. So, he said, mation” than the company is. the band is having a company that is not familiar with the members ♦ CD COVER, SEE PAGE 3 Retail team wins ethics competition BY KEVIN FELLNER THECAMECOGK A five-student team from the Retail Department edged out five teams from other departments to win a competition among USC’s Students in Free Enterprise that aimed to con vince random students of the im portance of an issue that in volves business ethics. The team, which made a 30 minute presentation about its report Tuesday night at The Roost, decided to tell USC’s ath letes about the dangers and un ethical behavior involved in steroid use. The students depicted the pressures to succeed in both pro fessional and amateur sports that can lead to a dependence on the physical boost provided by ♦ COMPETITION, SEE PAGE 3 Index Comics and Crossword_ j8 Classifieds 13 Horoscopes 8 Letters to the Editor 5 Online Poll 5 Police Report 2 Weather TODAY TOMORROW # # High 52 High 54 Low 28 Low 33 -p Today ♦ ON THE WEB Read state, nation and world briefs. www.dallygamecock.com ♦ VIEWPOINTS Phil Watson prepares for Columbia’s biker week. Page 5 ♦ THE MIX Check out the best of 2002 in movies, music and video games. Page 6 ♦ SPORTS JocelynPenn ties school record with 50 points in the Gamecocks' win over Wofford. Page 9