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□ wunv.dailygamecock.com WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12,2005 _ Since 1908 IN THIS ISSUE ♦ VIEWPOINTS Americans giving their all The Gamecock staff editorial addresses whether the American tsunami relief effort was sufficient and in keeping with our role as world peacekeepers. Page 5 Expounding on exercise Curtis Chow says students' hefty New Year's resolutions to get thin at the gym always seem to burn out before their calories. Page 5 ____,...... ♦ THE MIX Finger-lickin’ Jennifer Freeman and Bobby Brooks venture to Al Amir to sample some of the finest Mediterranean cuisine Columbia has to offer. Page 7 ♦ SPORTS Layin’ the smack down A scrappy Gamecock defense is set to take on the LSI) Tigers tonight. Page 9 WEATHER ♦ TODAY ♦THURS. &- •T High 7 6 High 7 6 LOW 5 7 LOW 6 0 FOR EXTENDED FORECAST. SEE PAGE 2. INDEX Comics and Crossword..8 Classifieds.11 Horoscopes.8 Letters to the Editor..5 Online Poll..5 Family Fund donations surpass expectations By TAYLOR SMITH STAFF WRITER The USC Family Fund is setting a record this year for funds returning to the school, proving that the holiday tradition of giving is not lost around campus. Annual Giving Director Lola Mauer said the fund is almost $400,000 ahead of its goal for this school year, reflecting a university united in aspirations. Mauer attributed the extra money to an increased awareness of the program around the USC community. “We have better outreach to faculty and staff this year,” Mauer said. “And we have also given some great incentives, have received some great community support.” She said the USC Family Fund has been around for 27 years and is designed to provide a chance for university faculty and staff to give back by donating money to a department or school of their choice. The fund is valued at $1,066,000 with almost six months of fund raising left before the 2004-05 campaign ends. Mauer said the program’s success shows that “faculty believe in the future of the school.” Donators can give to any institution within the university, with the exception of those that provide benefits, such as the Gamecock Club’s football ticket distribution. Whether the donation can be classified as a gift is up to the IRS, Mauer said, but any donation benefits USC. “The gifts that do not benefit the donators benefit students with things such as scholarships,” Mauer said. Giving to the fund is not difficult, Mauer said. People can donate to the school by writing checks, giving cash, exchanging stock options or taking pay deductions, which is most popular among faculty and staff members. “I believe in this institution,” Sonya Duhe, an associate professor in the USC School of Mass Communication and Information Studies who contributes to the Family Fund, said. “And if you believe in something you should support it.” Because of the Fund’s success, Mauer said other schools have inquired as to how the fund is operated and how they can receive the same support from their ♦ Please see FUND, page 4 JASON STEELMAN/THE GAMECOCK First-year civil engineering student Ryan Wilson was happy to see his Internet working again Monday afternoon. Technical Difficulties Campus Internet problems hinder students' return to classes By SYDNEY SMITH THE GAMECOCK Because of traffic on USC’s VIP, BlackBoard and Gamecock E-Mail, many students found themselves unable to access their e-mail or check their class schedules Monday morning. When first-year civil engineering student Ryan Wilson returned to his room at McBryde Quad, the clogged network forced him to find his classes another way. “It was the wrong time for it to be down, because I didn’t even know my schedule,” he said. “I didn’t find it out ‘til 1 called my sister at 8 a.m. and made her get online to tell me.” He said the call to his sister had been his last resort. “She wasn’t really mad or anything like that,” he said. “She just didn’t want to get up.” From Sunday night to Monday morning, the residence hall network was down. Computer Services Public Information Coordinator Kimberly South said a combination of two problems left students across campus offline. First, something corrupted the configuration database that monitors different IP addresses and Smart Enforcer. Representatives from Computer Services do not know what happened. By noon Monday, the residence hall network was back up for students to log on to Smart Enforcer and the Internet when the second Internet problem began. Once Computer Services located and isolated the problem with the configuration database and the Internet was working, between 4,000 and 5,000 students logged on, overflowing the system. Many students are dependent on VIP and BlackBoard to get schedules and class information. LDAP, which logs students on to VIP, BlackBoard and GEM, experienced a request overflow that virtually shut down the system. By 3 p.m., Computer Services fixed the problem. First-year biology student Lauren Mengler faced a similar situation when she could not log on to the USC network at McClintock and had to call her sister for her schedule. Mengler said she sometimes loses her Internet connection for long periods of time. She said she hopes Internet service will become more reliable on campus. “They should fix the Internet quicker next time so people can get ♦ Please see INTERNET, page 4 21 -year-old tsunami victim rescued after 15 days at sea By VIJAY JOSHI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KLANG, Malaysia — Lying prone on the bobbing wooden plank, Ari Afrizal looked left and saw the fiery red sun dipping into the watery horizon. Weakly, he turned his face the other way and saw a pearly white full moon rising in the east. All around him, the sea looked like it was sprinkled with chopped leaves of gold, shimmering in the sun’s glow. Ari had never seen a more wondrous sight. It was dusk on Dec. 26, and Ari was adrift in the Indian Ocean. I was not prepared to die,” the 21-year-old carpenter said. And against all odds, he didn’t. That morning, when the ground began to shake, Ari was on a scaffolding, hammering nails into a plank, pan of a crew building a beach home in Aceh Jaya town about 150 miles from the Indonesian provincial capital Banda Aceh. Frightened, the crew moved away from the house and squatted in the sand. “Then the waves started coming,” Ari said. The first one, 3 feet high, ripped the scaffolding down. A minute later came the big one, a bluish white wall about 30 feet high. “It produced a deep sound like whooooooo,” Ari said this week from his hospital bed, in an interview with The Associated Press. “It destroyed the house. The wave hit the houses with a terribly loud sound, phang! phang!” Ari felt as if he were caught in a giant washing machine. Tossed 1,500 feet inland, he banged against a man^o tree and grabbed a branch. “I saw my friends also hanging on to trees. I thought the world was coming to an end,” he said. “I kept praying hard to Allah for my life.” As the tsunami receded, it pulled him under and sucked him out to sea. Swimming desperately, Ari could see the hills of Aceh receding fast. He swam and floated for an hour before his first stroke of luck: A wooden plank about 5 feet long drifted by and he clambered aboard. “My throat was burning. The sun was hot,” Ari said. I had cuts all over my body. The salt water was stinging.” Five bodies floated past. About 300 feet away two other men clung to debris. “I couldn’t even find my voice to call out,” Ari said. “Eventually they all drifted away and I was all alone.” Exhausted, he lay on the plank all day, weak and hungry. Coconuts were drifting by, caught in the mass of debris swept out to sea by the tsunami. Ari used his teeth and a piece of wood to split open a coconut, which yielded tender white flesh and sweet milky water. That night, he barely slept, afraid he would fall off the plank and drown. He found solace in nature’s beauty, watching the simultaneous sunset and moonrise over the water. The next day, a leaking, listing fishing boat drifted by. Ari swam to it and found no one on board. As he drifted, he thought of his parents, his two elder brothers, a younger brother and a sister. He knew the giant waves were too powerful to have spared their home, only a mile from the shore. His girlfriend’s house was not too far either, he said. “I jjove her very much,” he said. “I miss her.” He still doesn’t know whether they survived, or if they are among the tragedy’s 150,000 dead in 11 nations. “I was not prepared to die,” he said. And so he prayed: “Allah I seek your forgiveness and I seek your help for myself and my parents” and my girlfriend. “Please give me life. Please give me life.” But for days, his prayers were not answered. He was adrift in a busy shipping lane near # Please see SURVIVOR, page 4 ANDY WONG/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tsunami survivor Ari Afrizal speaks to reporters on a hospital bed in Klang, in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday. Ari, 21, who was rescued by a container ship on Sunday, says he drifted on the Indian Ocean for two weeks. Graniteville moving on after deadly train wreck; By AMY GEIER EDGAR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The first burial service for a casualty of the Graniteville train crash and chemical spill was held Tuesday, as at least 25 people remained hospitalized, and five patients were still in critical conditions, according to area hospitals. Also Tuesday, work continued on removing chlorine from the ruptured tank car. On Monday night, workers also began to remove liquid chlorine from an undamaged train car. The process may take several days and emergency officials will not rescind the evacuation order until all the chlorine is removed, Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt said. Work began Tuesday to fabricate a steel patch for the ruptured tanker, which contractors determined would work better than one made of lead. The temporary polyethylene patch remained in place and no leaks were detected as workers attempted to apply the permanent patch. Area schools remained closed Tuesday, and officials planned to meet to determine when students could return. The decision will be based on air quality samples, said state Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Jim Beasley. It also wasn’t clear when the more than 5,000 people living within a mile of the crash would be allowed to return to their homes after a mandatory evacuation. Workers will test every home to see whether heavier-than-air chlorine has pooled in basements, DHEC spokesman Thom Berry said. State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart said at least 16 people tried to get their driver’s licenses changed to a Graniteville address so they could collect money from the railroad. Norfolk Southern is giving residents money to pay for living expenses while ♦ Please see TRAIN, page 4 Bush increases Social Security reform pressure on Capitol Hill By NEDRA PICKLER * THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — President Bush tried to increase pressure on members of Congress who are leery of his ideas to change Social Security by telling them Tuesday they could be risking their jobs. “I happen to believe people who have been elected to office who ignore problems will face a price at the ballot box,” Bush said during a forum with voters who support his goal of creating private investment accounts to partly replace guaranteed benefits. Democrats say that they, too, will make an issue of Social Security in the midterm elections. “Republicans should be worried,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Jano Cabrera. “Whether Republicans are cutting . benefits, raising taxes, or further exploding the budget deficit, Democrats intend to make Social Security a key issue in 2006.” Social Security is projected to start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2018, according to Social Security trustees but will be able to pay full promised benefits until 2042. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected the program will be solvent until 2052. The president wants to revamp the government retirement program by letting younger'workers divert some of their Social Security payroll taxes into personal investment accounts, although he has not provided details of his proposal. Many Democrats are unwilling to ♦ Please see REFORM, pagd4