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VOL. LXV1I NO. 42 University of South Carolina Columbia, S.C. thursday march 11 i?nk w/ jsimmrv . m \ mmrmMA % n - WJWmYik m 1 ifc " * mmm vi * V , "m-v.- v'Ai g \ 1 \ \ Hhoto by Gene Ga / d Professors will begin to move into the new Biology building next week. i'hoto Dy Ucbbie How<iia The author of Chariots of the (Hods, Krich von Daniken. said the earth was once visited by an alien civilization. Von Daniken spoke Tuesday in the Carolina Coliseum. Run-off ele By Lee Harter Jim Stuart and Dave Wilsford topped a field of four candidates in Monday's Student Government Association (SGA) elections and will vie in today's run-off. Todav's election will nkn inr?lnHo (ho rnn.nff _ _ ^ ? ...VkMUV iliv A Ukl Ull Utl" ween Frank Shealy and Gerald Moseley, who led the field of vice-presidential candidates in Monday's balloting. Rex Gale, with 883 votes, won the office of SGA IrPflSlirpr Mnnrtnv hu Hpfoatina TVjim#-! Dumn ~ J v.v?VMV?i1& A^UVIU K UJIIC, VVIIU captured 734 votes. Sandra Bell received 1,472 votes iri her unopposed election as SGA secretary. Four run-offs in today's Senate elections will News analysis . -m Student com By Kerry J. Northrup Monday's general SGA election was plagued by "procedural mix-ups," formal and informal complaints to the Election Commission and the poorest percentage turn-out of the student body in USC's history. Less than 9 per cent of the eligible voters cast ballots in the presidential race, a number that decreased with the level of the office being voted for. Several Senate seats were left vacant, meaning only one write-in vote could have filled the position. But even that was not cast. \A/n o rirotfcnn unci innno ofnl i ?-* Uic Kirl ff VU vv.1 VJI M J OU1 1 , UIIOUV,VVOi)lUI III MIO UIU IU1 president, filed a complaint Wednesday with Election Commission chairman Jonathan Bryan concerning nii^icii i asu uii uses science, in By Carl Strange "We can write a new history of mankind," author Krirh von l");inikon tnlrl n Parnlinn f'nlicouin unrlioiuwi of more than 3,000 Tuesday. Von Daniken-whose 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods? offered the first serious proposal the earth was once visited by an alien intelligence-said civilization is prepared to assess history in this totally new light because it has grown accustomed to seeing fantasies become reality. "Imagination is something positive," von Daniken said. "All the scientific knowledge before us today was once imagination." The 40 year-old Swiss native asked the audience to imagine spaceships from earth visiting the primitive people of another solar system in the year 2100. The technology man takes for granted would seem a miracle to them, he said. "Then wc would leave," he said, "and while our spaceships descend into the galaxy the primitive people we left would be talking about this miracle, expanding 011 it with their imagination and chantnni> ? - u r? n it so it could be explained more easily." Successive generations would continue to change the story of such a visit, von Daniken said, until it acquired the hallmarks of mythology-holy t>ooks, effigies of the visitors and ritualistic appeals to the 11 urn which miry came, mis rrugni do tne start of a great religion," he said. Against this background von Daniken laid his evidence, the products of 2ft vi?;irs of rosoarrh In archaeology, astronomy and ancient writings. He read from the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamcsh a description of the earth as seen from a ^ If til UIMilllH" : 'The earth appears as porridge, and the sea like a water trough,' " von Daniken read. "As a child of the ction today complete the formation of the 1976-77 SGA Senate, except for three unfilled seats. The final count in the presidential race gave Stuart, With 513 VftfoC a clitn lno/1 II7:i 1 ' ' 1 ...... .vivn, u o11111 icau uvci Tvnuiuru wun :?U1. Weaver Grayson polled 459 votes in the race,and Bob Knudson, who was endorsed bv the Gr^ok organizations, garnered 352. Stuart's areas of strongest support were Capstone, Bates House and Columbia Hall. He, along with Grayson, had widespread support at the law school. Wilsford's support was strongest in South Building, RalfPr.Rlirnoir l-"-> T1""'"? U1IU IIIC A UWCI 5. Grayson ran strong in the Roost and among General Studies voters. Knudson's area of strongest support was McBryde. See ELECTION, Page 2 tests election the Bates House and Bates West precincts. Grayson said last night he intends to file formal charges to delay the certification of Monday's election results. Grayson charged that there were 10 more votes counted in the Bates House nreoinrt than thpr#? u/prp voters registered at the poll. Precinct captain Holly Slovic said, "Some guys must have gotten by. They came in big groups around lunch, and some must have forgotten to sign the register." Slovic says she checked all ID's and fee receipts before people en tered the voting machines so "there is no chance that they could have voted twice." In telline The Gamecock that he was nol point* to c? ? D O change tlie official results of the precinct tallies, Bryan said, "I looked at it. thought about it and See STUDENT. Pace 2 Olii coat*nli 0V/CtJL V/Ii lagination zwn ceniury wno has seen photographs of the earth from outer space, I believe any psychological explanation of this is more fantastic than the idea of ancient astronauts." The phrophet Ezekiel provides what von Daniken ~ i-: 1- -? ' 1 ? - ?><tiu is. <i Mi iMiigiy ueiaueci account of an ancient spaceship's visit. "Behold, a whirlwind came out of the north." the imipm-i wroit*. a great cioua, ana a lire enfolding itself." Four creatures with "the likeness of a man" emerged from the ship and flew around in what von Daniken said was a helicopter of sorts. Kzekiel concluded not h inn and wrnto that ho "tat where they sat and remained there astonished among them seven days," according to von Daniken. Further illustrating his noint von Hanikmi Ihe audience to suppose a U.S. satellite landing in a Kuropean backyard 500 years ago. "A washerwoman might describe it as a washtub with eight wheels and feelers like that of ;in *?i cetera," he said. Sec ASTHONAl'TS, Page 2 Ar.^-as";: -. n: . i-n Maxcy ceiling falls Part of the plaster ceiling on the third floor of Maxcy dormitory collapsed Wednesday morning. Some of the hall was practically inaccessible. A housing employe said, "The ceiling is just getting too heavy for the nails to hold it ." No students were injured, and no damage to student property was reported. ^Siiuia k ii hi | mi, I,, iiLi?jj i ?