Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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GAMECOCK LXXIV, No. 70 University of South Carolina Monday January 25, 1982 ' use Ord By TOM COYNE N News Editor Iicr? Woo U.. *u~ 4~ n:r__ 1 uuv 1IUO uccn uiuucu vy IIIC MillC LU UUlIliy cl [JUICIiaSC agreement of a $113,000 Xerox copier the university bought without obtaining bids from other companies. Tony Ellis, a materials management officer for the State Department of General Services, said he ruled Jan. 14 that a f - contract between the university and Xerox Corp. violates " state procurement codes and therefore is invalid. Ellis said the confusion had arisen from a new procurement code which went into effect on July 1,1981. This case is the first to be appealed,so insomeirespects it is a test case, Ellis said. The university has the option of going to a procurement appeals board, which would be comprised of a member of the state Budget and Control Board, a member each from the House and Senate Commerce committees, and five members appointed by the governor. If still dissatisfied. USC mav then move the case into the civil court system. Ellis reviewed the contract when a grievance was filed by the AM International office in Columbia, stating they had not ^ been allowed to submit a bid for the university's copier * purchase. Chris Vlahoplus, senior vice president of Administration, said USC has asked Xerox to nullify the contract and has asked the company to remove the equipment from the print shop. Xerox has already received the purchase order and check from the university and could decide to ignore the university's request. Lyn Hensel of the university legal department said she did not know what the university will do if the company does not take back the copier. But she did say the university is now negotiating with Xerox and thus far things are going 9 smootniy. "We should know later on this week what Xerox will do," Hensel said. I ISC, Fvfli iinorp Sti ^ k/l/l , Of Chinese Culture, 1 By JULIE JAMESON " thenwe broke into smaller s?a? writer groups ? some took art or calligraphy. I took scoti L.awson, a junior economics." Although Government and In- Lawson had an interpreter, ternational Studies major, is he said having a Chinese happy to be back home at instructor forced him to USC after a memorable but think in Chinese, f somewhat lonely trip to "China was very different China. ? no football games on the The idea for the exchange weekends. There were was introduced two years ^10v1!e.s' they were dif ago when Zemin Shai, an ncuJi 10 understand, ambassador from China, lectured at USC. "He was "1 here were a lot of lonely very impressed with USC times, he said. "It was nice and suggested establishing to come back to people we an exchange with one of the understood. We were fairly local Chinese universities. 1S? n 1 ^now w^y i i^.. li^i^ Ihe Chinese wanted us to uuoi jruai , lji . 11UJUC1 lllctil "* , " had a very successful have the best studying en^ delegation. The rest is v'rPAn?1fnt,' history/' said Lawson. A lot of times I d ride my Lawson applied last April around Taiyan. and said, "I was very for- Taiyan is between two tunate to be selected " mountain ranges, and I d The .0 selected spent the int0? th* mountain , _ , vilhi(/(>c thou H n?iior summer logeiner learning *?j ? the (Chinese language. seen a foreigner before. The villages would be backOnce in China, the wards. It was a unique exstudents and faculty perience," said Lawson. researched and studied "The Chinese are curious tr public health, the Chinese and open in spite of the language, caingrapny, system, Lawson said, economics, archeology, and "They didn't know a whole international relations. lot about our culture but "The American students wanted to learn." basically took Chinese Lawson recalled his final courses," said Lawson, night at the Shanxi sred T o Accept Vlahoplus said if Xerox will not take back the copier th< university would have to deal with the state. Vlahoplus said the university has decided to begin th< purchasing process from the beginning, this time acceptinj bids. Vlahoplus said the confusion has arisen with the nev single-source procurement law, which sometimes allow: state agencies to make large purchases without goinj thrOUfh thf? nnrmal nnmr>otw;..? " 0-. i.iui v-unijA-iui?c uiuumg process, i^om petitive bidding was previously mandatory for purchases ii excess of $2,500. In purchasing the Xerox 9500 copier the university used th< single-source clause. AM International officials filed the grievance stating the; had not been allowed to participate in the bidding procedure. , Ellis held what he termed an informal hearing on Jan. 14 U review the purchase and announced his decision the samt day. Ellis said his sole concern was to see if the university ha< followed the correct procedure in obtaining the copier ant concluded the university had improperly used the single ?1 auui tc LJclUSe. The single-source procedure requires approval from th? agency head, President James B. Holderman, who must als< submit a written justification for the use of the single-sourc< process. The clause also states that the agency head may appoint i designee to approve the single-source,process. But this mus also be submitted to the general services department, ant the desicnpp must hnlH a HHo hioiiof ~^ ? 0 ??? ??? u viviv mgiibi LIici11 me dgciiuy : purchasing officer, who in this case is Marion Dantzler. Ellis said he found no letter justifying the non-competitiv? purchase and the agreement was signed by Dantzler, who die not have the authority to sign the agreement. Vlahoplus said although the state does have the provision it is doubtful the university would use it again in the future. Rhemer Lane, manager of AM International's Devinc udent Ends Study Language At Shanxi University "About 20 universities and intellectuals uninese students came over were iooKea aown upon, and brought gifts. They were deeply affected the all poor. I was really education in China. There touched. They all wanted to are many books left by the learn how to disco. They Russians and technical knew that much about our books that no one wants tc culture." read. On this final two weeks, "The classrooms are dirty Lawson had a tour nf C'himi and cold. Some of the win "I learned more about China dows are broken, ' Lawson in those two weeks. 1 was on said. my own to talk to the people. "There are six students tc I saw the people and their a room the size of (JSC dorm history " rooms. Yet, they feel luck> Lawson said he had a to be there. Only one or twc "better education in Shanxi percent of college age peoplt in learning about tho nonnlp actually go to college. You 4if I had gone" to a rarely hear them complain, university in Peking, there "China needs American would have been other technology. It knows this and foreigners, and the people wants our help. It s going tc are accustomed to seeing beakeyareainthefuture.lt foreigners. In Taiyan the ^as a Quar^er ?f the worid s people are rural. Eighty-five people ? we have tc percent of the Chinese are recognize that, Lawson rural." said. "I hope USC students can see what a treasure we Lawson commented on the have here." hardships of the education in The students and faculty China. "The library at remaining are returning at Shanxi is the biggest in the the end of this semester, province, but you're not Applications for parallowed to go in the book ticipation in the exchange area. The card catalog is are now being prepared. ueninu me ciesK, ana you inquiries on participating in have to know the author and the USC ? Shanxi Exchange title of the book you want." should be directed to Dr. H. Lawson said the cultural Salomon, Byrnes Inrevolution of the '60s, where ternational Center. Copier Bids e Street Store, said he filed the grievance because he was not allowed to submit a bid and not because of problems * ith the b university. 3 "The university has been one of our best customers and we were only taking advantage of a new procedure enabling both v sides to be treated fairly," Lane said. "It just so happens we s were the first to take the initiative to file the grievance. If we I hadn't some other company would have." An anonymous source told the Gamecock the Xerox i company had been trying to sell the copier to USC for five or six years, but it had always been both uneconomical and b unneeded because the current machinery was adequate. The source said the university now has three copiers of / similar model throughout the campus, and all were rented | because it is cheaper. He said he could not understand why 3 the university could afford the copier at a time when money a is so tight at the university. The source said the purchase order did not originate in the i printing department, but the print shop was told they would i be receiving a copier. The source said he suspected the reason the university had purchased the copier by the single-source method was 3 because of a grant given to the university research foun) dation, although he had no evidence to support the allegation. 3 Vlahoplus and Lynn Mahaffey, assistant vice president for the administration, said the request had originated from the i print shop, and the copier was needed by the shop, t Mahaffey said the claim was "totally inaccurate." The i purchase order came from the printing department. 5 She added she had been involved in the feasibility study, and it had been determined that because of the cost per copy s and other reasons it would be more cost efficient to purchase I the copier. She said there were thrpp nthpr similar mnHoi copiers currently being rented to the university. Dantzler, who signed the purchase order, refused to , comment. Shirley Hudson, manager of the print shop, "There is a new j copier in the shop, but I have no knowledge of it." ? '"^B B *j|^^HR$^||ra B||p^Jj&:^M Mrs. Feng You and Liu Hai-Liang enjoy a mild autumn day at the University of South Carolina. They are exchange students from Sh^nvi Prni'inr'ii in ill" D??..UK? ? <" v ? 111 MIC * CU|?V S nt'|UIIMK: 1)1 China.