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wwiv.iLiilygamecock.com WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29,2004 Since 1908 IN THIS ISSUE W?NEWS “USCs oldest elevator lifts its last load Board of Trustees OKs more than $500,000 to replace McKissick elevator. Page 3 ♦ VIEWPOINTS Teeny-boppers invade campus Curtis Chow bemoans the outbreak of colorful pants, Hollister and flagrant mid-riffs. ♦ THE MIX Groups urge student voters The College Republicans and Young Democrats are doing their part to make sure every college student's voice is heard come this November. Page 10 ♦ SPORTS Odom has high hopes Coach Dave Odom talks about his expectations for the upcoming basketball season. Page 13 WEATHER ♦TODAY j ♦THURS. High 85 High 83 Low 65 Low 63 FOR EXTENDED FORECAST. SEE PAGE 2. INDEX Comics and Crossword.12 Classifieds.15 Horoscopes.12 Letters to the Editor.8 Online Poll.8 Police Report.2 i ( MUSIC With the announcement of Music School dean Jamal ♦Dewpoints 'TV'n A tat Rossi’s planned resignation, USC is forming a committee JSardw^hT^the1 I 3 KA to find a replacement, for coverage, see page 4 ^ *HA d,lemma‘ 4 ■>- ' *■ -s > V ' £ S?>.V s 'C * i * * 5 '" n\ VISUAL COMMUNICATION JENNI DILLARD/THE GAMECOCK Andrea Johnson, left, a deaf USC sign language professor, provides signing instruction to third-year nursing student Katie Arnold. Turning a blind eye to limits By LaDONNA BEEKER THE GAMECOCK USC American Sign Language teacher Andrea Johnson does not let her disability keep her from enjoying life. Johnson has been at USC since August and is a teacher’s assistant for the deaf education class at Crayton Middle School, but has been teaching ASL for five years. She previously taught at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind in the Outreach Department and as ah ASL tutor. “I like to teach students how to sign, but I enjoy the social interaction with the wide range of students from beginning to advance levels,” Johnson said through an interpreter. While she teaches more hearing students than deaf students, it does not add difficulty to her teaching ability. “South Carolina needs interpreters, so I hope they learn sign language and maybe one day become interpreters.” Sign language is not a major at USC, but Johnson hopes that will change. The class she teaches counts as an elective. One of her students, third year nursing student Katie Arnold, said she is looking for another school to transfer to so she can major in sign language and interpretation. “I thought about (being an interpreter) a long time ago, but by taking this class made me think more about it,” Arnold said. “The idea that she is deaf helps me use sign more because it is the only way to communicate with her." Johnson is on the South Carolina Association of the Deaf board as secretary and neasurer. She spends most of her time helping out the deaf by attending ♦ Please see TEACHER, page 5 Commuter student lot opens ■ Officials optimistic temporary spaces will reduce congestion By JON TURNER THE GAMECOCK Parking Services has opened a temporary commuter student parking lot near the intersection of Bull and Whaley streets. Derrick Huggins, director of the department, said the idea was to reduce the congestion at other lots in the area and give commuter students a better chance of finding spaces. “Right now commuter and residential students are competing for the Bates House parking lot,” he said. “It’s a competitive area and we feel it’ll at least relieve some of the pressure.” Huafeng Zhou, a graduate biostatistics student, said he has recently had trouble with parking. “I live on Pendleton Street, but there’s no place to park,” he said, emerging from his car in the Bates parking lot, about seven blocks away. “I just started parking here last week, since they closed the one on Pendleton,” he said. Zhou said he was glad to hear about the new spaces. Stephen Hamilton, a fourth-year music student living at Bates West, said he didn’t think the new lot would significantly affect competition. “There’s really nothing they can do,” he said. “I mean, as soon as they open something up they’re going to swarm to fill it up. “If you go down to the Colonial Center there was a lot of parking. Last year if you drove down, there were always one or two spaces, but now it’s filled up. If they build another lot, it’s just going to get filled up. I’m not sure there’s anything they can do besides just build 20 or 30 parking garages,” he said. The new parking lot was built on the site of the old Gateway Academy Child ♦ Please see STUDENT LOT, page 3 'use CQt*\'^Lfa>r t STtvdk#4(£$ I ^ y/ I ’ ■ -JL. A Parking services has temporarily opened a student parking lot on the corner of Bull and Whaley streets at the old child develop ment center location. Parking officials say they don’t know how long the lot will exist. JASON STEELMAN/THE GAMECOCK RHA reinstates partial funding for CTV affiliate By JACOB DAVIS THE GAMECOCK RHA Sen. Allen Klump proposed introducing legislation Tuesday night calling for closer review of dining facilities and more student interaction with dining services officials, following dining services second C rating in three weeks. The Grand Market Place received a C rating earlier this month, while the Carolina Diner, the restaurant at Bates House, was closed during Parents Weekend because of a C rating after an unannounced^ DHEC inspection. Klump’s comments were the first from an organized student group expressing concern about dining services. The idea was strongly supported by a number of senators, including Mike Kucharski, President of Bates House hall government. “I urge all the senators to take a close look at this situation and support Senator Klump in addressing it,” he said. Klump’s comments came during RHA’s regular meeting, which is held every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in Gambrell Hall. RHA President Adam Hark opened his report during Tuesday’s meeting in by responding to what he saw as criticism about^he senate’s executive board communicating their vision for the organization. “We have vision and direction for the organization, but if there is one thing we are guilty of, perhaps it is not communicating that vision. RHA strives to serve its residents 100 percent. We considered it a victory when we reserved voting rights for senators only,” said Hark. He also spoke about the remaining money in the treasury, urging the senators to “think about the best way it could serve their residents, and spend it proactively.” In addition to voting new funding for Carolina Television, the senate also heard from Sen. Patrick Walsh about providing trash cans in the McBryde women’s restrooms because the former all male dorm now has female residents. Senators from the Towers also expressed interest in supplying trash cans for Laborde. Terrill Wilkins, the affiliate representative for Housing and Campus Concerns, spoke about the Residence Hall Review program that his organization is about to begin. Wilkins said the program would be 1 comprised of two phases. In phase one, the Review board will sit in on hall government meetings to hear concerns. By Fall Break a list of concerns-from around campus would be compiled mi to a report. Phase Two would involve sharing die combined concerns of each residence lall with the campus. This would allow !ach residence hall to see if any other lalls shared their concerns. These roncerns would then be addressed by housing and Campus Concerns, which Wilkins said would try to provide olutions. Housing and Campus Concerns is scheduled to meet with the lall governments from Carolina Global Community and South Tower first, ollowed by Preston on Sept. 30th,Bates tnd East Quad on Oct.3, the Towers and Wade Hampton on Oct. 4, Simms and ♦ Please see CTV, pagi 3 Bates eatery reopens with C rating ■ Officials say A rating will be up by end of the week By TAYLOR SMITH THE GAMECOCK Students were able to return to the Carolina Diner Tuesday after the Bates House restaurant was closed over the weekend because of a C rating, but the restaurant hasn’t been restored to A status because DHEC officials haven’t returned for an inspection. Mike Schefffes, general manager for Sodexho, a food management company that oversees USC Dining Services, said he expects the Carolina Diner to have an A rating by the end of the week. “It is a waiting game,” Scheffres said. “We asked for them to come and re-inspect as soon as possible, but we are at their mercy.” The school decided to close the restaurant, managed by Sodexho, because of the rating it received Friday, which stated that the restaurant had several infractions that earned it a grade of 76. “We asked for them to come and re inspect as soon as possible. But we are at their mercy.” MIKE SCHEFFRES GENERAL MANAGER FOR SODEXHO “DHEC did not require that we shut it down," said Helen Zeigler, director of business affairs for USC. “And although the grade of C may be good enough for DHEC to let us remain open, it is not good enough for us, and Sodexho needs to understand that.” Zeigler added that USC will be having “serious discussions” with the Sodexho officials and that if the school is not satisfied with the actions Sodexho takes, USC’s relations with the company “will be just as strained that as they are now.” Scheffres said he was “very - surprised” about the closing, saying “I could not walk around in my right mind and imagine we would have a place without an A rating.” The Carolina Diner serves mostly first-year students who live in Bates ♦ Please see BATES, page 3