Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I Volume LXX, No. 52 University of South Carolina Columbia, S.C. Feb. 1, 19BO Holder By Jeannie Ralston Gamecock Staff Writer USC President James B. Holderman might have violated a section of the state appropriations act by using state allocated funds to mail Christmas gifts to state legislators, Kensey Jenkins, senior assistant to the S.C. Comptroller General, said. HOLDERMAN SENT $10 cans of seafood to all House and Senate members "out of appreciation," 'We need to brin. so they can take ca Chip Gray, university spokesman, said. Postage costs for the gifts mailed were charged to the university's regular postage account, Gray said. The gifts themselves were purchased with university funds not received from the state, but postage was paid for with allocated funds, according to Gray. Actual costs of the postage cannot be determined, Gray said, because there is no way of breaking down the postage account from last December. .Jenkins said the problem was not with the actual giving of the gifts but with the legality of using state funds to mail them. The violation may have occurred T _ T T4 i\ew u< drawin 4 By Ronda Templeton Gamecock Staff Writer A new Student Academic Responsibility Code is being developed because the code the university operates under now is not sufficient to protect academic rights. The Academic Responsibility Committee has been working on trie new code since fall semester of 1976, student ac^cate Russ Putnam said. He mates the code has been re-written 20 times since then because "it is difficult to incorporate the needs of the student with the responsibility of the USC faculty." THERE ARE many problems with the current Student Academic Responsibility Code found in the Carolina Pftmrnnnitv hon^KnAU WW- v?asa%( WIIIIIIMIIIVJ 1 IU I 1V> | Putnam said. For example, several years ago a student offered a professor $500 for a good course grade, and it was discovered that no university regulations had been broken, Putnam said. A female student postponed her exam because she said her father was dying, and when her professor called about her make-up exam, the woman's father answered the telephone. In this instance, Putnam said no rules were violated because there is nothing about lying in the code of academic responsibility. The more the committee probed, the more obvious it became that "cheating was rampant on campus," Putnam said. Also, student rights were not written in the code to determine who witnesses Used sta man m under Section 132 of,the 1979-80 Appropriations Act which states: "Salaries paid to officers and employees of the state, including its several boards, commissions and institutions shall be in full for all services rendered, and no perquisites (fringe benefits) of office of employment shall be allowed in addition there to..." "THIS HAS been interpreted to mean you cannot use state monies in any shape or form to give state g these things to the att re of themselves.' employees gifts," Jenkins said. He said that to the best of his knowledge, if an agency under his jurisdiction applied to his office requesting postage funds for gifts to legislators, it probably would be refused but a ruling from the attorney general's office would have to be received on the legality of the request before the comptroller's office would make a ruling. Assistant Attorney General Mark Dillmrd nn nvnipvt for ? - - - -1 ? ? - an opinion on the legality of using stale funds to send t!:*J gifts has been requested yet. Tim Quinn, of USC Legal Services, said he consulted the S.C. Ethics Commission before the gifts were sent to make sure such action would not violate the state Ethics SC acader g near cor\ ; ' JPI .'4 Leonard Lanfranco journalism professor against him were, that he could look at all information concerning his case and that he had the right to counsel, he said. Many of the various college academic responsibility committees were operating as if these regulations were in the code, but they wereactually "just groping around," Putnam said. THE SENATE judiciary committee spent the fall of 1976 drawing up a bill dealing with Academic Responsibility Code problems, Putnam said. An attempt was made to modify the disciplinary code and make it applicable to the responsibility code, he said, and the bill was te funds to mc ay have Act. Gary Baker, executive director of the ethics commission, unH Cnnm; Iamac uiiv* uuiiiij t/v/uro. cioo ir> ici 11 l d v~ torney general, "verbally and in writing essentially" said the action would not violate the Ethics Act, Quinn said. JONES SAII) the only issue he and Baker were asked to address was whether the gifts would violate the Ethics Act. Baker said the law doesn't appear to prohibit such gifts. No mention was made of ention of the public Rep. Larry Koon R-Lexington using public funds in Quinn's question or in the unofficial opinion from Jones and Baker. The question of the gifts was brought up in a discussion on the i House floor concerning salary A raises for state agency heads. I| Rep. Larry Koon, R-Lexington, I said it was wrong for taxpayer M dollars to be expended for what ,in * effect, was a lobbying effort. "We should be holding the line on expenditures," Koon said. "We need l<> bring these things to the at tent ion of the public so they can > M take care of themselves." 1 Gray said the gilts were given h only as tokens of appreciation to [; legislators for their service to the university and this was not unusual. niccode npletiori signed by former SCI President Dave Wilsford after being passed in the student senate. A committee to develop the code more fully was headed by journalism professor Leonard Lan- | franco, and it was discovered that passage of the code would be complicated because "it goes into the essence of a faculty member's job and is involved in faculty responsibility," Putnam said. The code is difficult to complete [; because combining academic responsibility and protecting student rights is a complicated process, Lanfranco said. It is also difficult to get the students and faculty members on the committee together, and new students have become committee members in the years since the code was first drafted, he said. THE CODE, which is currently in draft form, has been sent to various deans, the USC provost, Student Affairs and Student Government for their suggestions nn hnw it mnlH hp imnmvpH Lanfranco said. Comments on the I code were to be completed yesterday. The code is being revised because the Student Academic Responsibility Code is 10 years old and "there is the feeling that some people wouljd like some changes made," Lanfranco said. The draft of the code was once 20 pages long but is new down to five, he said. i After the Academic Respon- | sibility Committee reviews the | comments received yesterday, the | S&e Code, page 5 | lil gifts t violated law .? %? -i-*? ^ k-SEP | nil |i7?TTnTTifn I -?- , * <Wr-: | |k- ~ % - .'-. - ^^aB-xv^/B ffi *' V <J-v^x "J W JPtfflBfii ^n * - |M / _ jjjg "??" ?ihi.i? ? I, ' "; ^K<-i M t ^ r * \^i .:^qPywgjBp^ mmfflm . nrw ' -.i. mpfet *^'^/~;~\ \ ijbfrv;|^^ *'w ", iii jm t~^ - | i^jrf iilbmti tt^ ^kwktw -, ^ ~-^ja."_ g^hwhmh^t r^ntfr ^hhh bni^osot^^bj^mbki^w" ^isbbbhhbbi^bb^h^^^b Rep. Larry Koon, R-Lexington, criticizes USC President James B. Ho/derman s use of state funds. S.C. House bans y " f1' Iranian students from state schools By Elizabeth P. Latt ' Associated Press Writer COLl'MBIA (AIM ? Iranian students would be prohibited from attending any state-supported institution of higher education in ] South Carolina under a measure approved Tuesday by the South j Carolina House. The representatives approved on voice votes a series of amend ments to the $1.7 billion state budget bill directing the governing boards of each of the state's colleges, universities and technical schools to ban Iranian students after July 1. "I THINK IT'S an absolute disgrace that those people are now going to our schools when the head of their country is saying in effect it is at war with the United States," said Rep. John D. Bradley, RCharleston, author of the amendments. : Bradley noted that the measure can be implemented only for a year unless the General Assembly decides to approve it again next year. If the relationship between the United States and Iran should "warm up" and if the Iranians "repent for their wrongdoing," the j legislature may not want to extend the prohibition, Bradley said. j SHORTLY AFTER some 50 Americans were taken hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Iran in November, the governing board of Greenville Technical College voted to bar Iranian students from enrolling at the school for the winter semester. However, the board rescinded its decision after state Attorney General Daniel R. McLeod issued an opinion that the action was unconstitutional. Bradley said he believed that the courts would uphold the constitutionality of his amendments. HE NOTED that a federal iudce had ?haf th? rouiom ?ii Iranian student visas ordered by President Carter was unconstitutional. But another federal judge overturned that ruling. Bradley said the Iranian government, through its own conduct, has forfeited the privilege of having its citizens educated in the United States.