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_ Vol. 93, No. 24 Mond October 4, 1999_ ina Community since 1Q08 Parents Weekend Students share college life with their parents by John Huiett Assistant News Editor More than 900 parents visited USC this weekend during USC’s annual Par ents Weekend. Director of Student and Parent In volvement Programs Rick Gant said 925 parents registered with Student Life to visit the campus and attend events over the weekend. Gant said many more parents who didn’t register were also expected to come. The weekend brought in an estimat ed $60,000 to USC, with $12,000 from football tickets alone. But Gant said the money will be just ^enough for the university to cover ex ’ penses. “We don’t operate to make a prof it,” Gant said. Instead, Gant said USC’s motive is to offer parents the opportunity to be in volved with their children’s education. “It’s important for parents to share and participate in the college experience,” Gant said. “It’s a great way for them to come and have some fun,” he said. Gant added that Parents Weekend is also important for students who might not have seen their families since the begin ning of the semester. According to Gant, that’s one of the reasons Parents Wfeekend is scheduled near the semester’s midpoint. “It’s good, especially for the first-year students whose parents just sort of dropped them off,” Gant said. Charles Williams said the weekend visit with his son, pharmacology graduate student Braxton Williams, was especial ly meaningful. Not only did the elder Williams grad uate from USC in 1970 with an English degree, he said his 93-year-old grandfa ther, Charles Braxton Williams, is the first and oldest-living graduate from USC’s College of Journalism and Mass Com munications. Williams said it’s been years since he visited the USC campus and was im pressed by how large the university has become. But he said some things at USC are just as he remembers, such as the Towers Parents seepages ~~1 USC dropped another gamethis weekend to Ole Miss. See Sports, page 9. i Sean Rayford photo editor Melvin Page, left, has his injured knee treated as Rashad Faison looks at the field with disbelief Saturday night as the Gamecocks suffer their fifth straight loss of the season. Ole Miss defeated the Gamecocks, 36-10. USC will face Kentucky on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. Fans still faithful to ‘football program by Valerie Matchette Staff Writer USC football fens are living up to their reputation as being some of the best in the country. Although USC suffered its 15th straight loss Saturday night, ticket sales haven’t dropped off, and students are still picking their allotment up. By Thursday afternoon, the student m ticket distribution center in the Russell rlouse had already run out of tickets. Helen Morgan, manager of the Rus sell House information desk, had to send dozens of students to the athletic de partment on Rosewood Drive to get their tickets. She didn’t think that the Game cock’ss losing streak was causing a poor response among students. “Personally, I cannot tell that it’s af fected it,” Morgan said. Associate Athletics Director for tick et operations Chris Massaro said that USC’s record wasn’t deterring die-hard fans, but that he had noticed a slight dis crepancy in student distribution between Saturday’s game and USC’s last home game against East Carolina University. m “East Carolina, actually, from our stu dent perspective, we had more student tickets distributed for it, at this point,” Massaro said Thursday. “Hopefully by Sat urday, we’ll be all out of our student tick ets.” Massaro also said ticket sales typically reach their peak at the onset of the sea son. “Historically, at the beginning of the season, there’s a better demand than there is towards the end of the season, whether it’s record-related, or whether students Attendance see page 2 Organizations face intra-campus mail fees by Mackenzie Craven Senior Writer Student oiganizations wishing to send bulk mail through intra-campus mail are met with regulations and a $25 fee. The fee is issued to any oiganization sending mail to at least 25 campus mailboxes; a fee isn’t im posed for mailing to less than 25. “[We have the fee] to help us offset the labor cost to distribute that mail,” said Ladonna Moss, USC Postal Services director. USC gets no money from students who use box es each semester. According to Mail Services guidelines, student oiganizations must follow certain guidelines before their mail can be delivered. These include: • Approval by the Campus Activity Center. • Submission of a memo to Postal Services, in cluding department/fund/class number to be chaiged, telephone number of the sender and three copies ot the mailing’s material. • Inclusion of the organization’s name and re turning address in the upper left-hand comer of each envelope or leaflet. • Placement of the rubber-banded mail in as cending box number. Bulk mail is delivered Wednesday through Fri day and must be scheduled with Postal Services at least five working days in advance. Moss said all intra-campus bulk-rate mail has a fee. Although the fee hasn’t changed in 15 years, Moss believes it should be increased eventually. Typically, organizations send mail to inform their members of meetings or about upcoming activities. Carrie Adkins, public relations correspondent for Carolina for Kids, dislikes the fee. “The organizations have limited funds, and they need to be able to contact their members without paying for it,” Adkins said. Carolina for Kids has sent three different fliers this semester and has been charged $75. It has sent out a total of about 300 fliers this fall. One of the fliers it sent was distributed after classes were dismissed for Hurricane Floyd. It paid $50 to send two fliers about its meetings. “If an individual wants to mail something, it doesn’t cost any mon ey, so it shouldn’t for an organization,” Adkins said. “In addition, we are a community service or (runi7uf irtn c r\ wra posting niers aoout its activities around campus. Fellowship of Christian Athletes has also found a way to avoid paying the fee, FCA chairwoman Jen ny Martin said. It plans to only use intra-campus mail to inform about its special events. But Martin still feels the price is too high. “I think $25 is a little steep,” Martin said. “If we oiganize the mail numerically, all the mail dis tributors have to do is place the mail in each box. I could understand the fee if we didn’t oiganize our own mail.” shouldn’t have to pay a fee to distribute mail on cam pus. Our money could be better spent on the peo ple we are trying to help.” Residence Hall Association publicity chairman Olivia Gilcrese agrees that the price is too high. “I don’t think we should be chaiged $25 to send mail on campus,” Gilcrese said. “We are already charged an activity fee. I don’t understand why we are being chaiged to send intra-campus mail.” Gilcrese said the RHA tries to avoid the fee by The organizations have limited funds, and they need to be able to contact their members with out paying for it.’ Came Adkins Public Relations Correspondent Carolina For Kids Playboy names Sharky's one of U.S.'s best college bars by Laura DeWitt Staff Writer Sharky’s, one of the most popular bars in Five Points, has been named one of the Top 100 College Bars by the na tional Playboy magazine poll. Playboy compiled the poll through Internet votes, phone calls and personal visits to the lo cal hot spots. The poll was published in the October college issue. According to Sharky’s manager Er ic Peake, the magazine judges “how much people are having fun.” Even though this is Sharky’s third time to receive a mention in the top 100, Peake said he only recently heard peo ple talking about the award. “Playboy had a party here back in spring semester for us,” Peake said. According to Peake, the extra pub licity has helped Sharky’s business, but not in laige numbers. “We use it in ads and had a ‘thanks for the support’ par ty,” Peake said. “But we only mention the award in newspaper ads every once in a while. We don’t want to be known only as the Playboy bar.” Peake said he thinks the staff and at mosphere set Sharky’s apart from other bars. “My door staff is great; we’ll do whatever you want to do. We just want you to have a good time,” he said. That’s one reason Sharky’s allows anyone 18 and over to be admitted, in stead of the usual 21 -and-over door stan dard. “We’ll let everyone in,” Peake said USC students make up the majority of the customers at Sharky’s, according to Peake. He said they really enjoy pleas ing their customers. “It’s not always about making mon ey or being the best bar, but helping oth ers and having fun,” he said. Peake used the example of the hurricane relief show Sharky’s hosted Wednesday with Shades of Grey. Peake said to best serve the cus tomers, Sharky’s gets most of its ideas from college students and tries to have low prices, since students are on a lim ited budget. “It’s the laid-back, do-what ever-you-want attitude that students like,” Peake said. Some students agree. “I just go there to hang out with my friends. I know the people are al ways there and the atmosphere is good,” advertising junior Alison Jackson said. However, some students prefer oth er local nightspots. “I like Jungle Jim’s because of the diversity and relaxed set ting,” journalism junior Missi Manwar ingsaid. Other top 100 bars around the South east included the Tiger Town Tavern in Clemson, Lowery’s Tavern at the Uni versity of Geoigia and Players at the Uni versity of North Carolina. I ravis Lynn The Gamecock Sharky’s, voted to the Playboy list of the top 100 college bars for the third time, is located at 637 Harden St in Five Points. Weather Inside Datebook Online Poll Today 83 63 Tuesday 73 57 Gamecocks suffer fifth straight Iloss Page 9 Today • Fraternity Council, 4 p.m., RH 322/326 • Sorority Council, 5 p.m., RH 322/326 • Carolina Productions, 3:30 p.m., RH • Sports Clubs, 5:30 p.m., Blatt P.E. Center t Tuesday • AAAS, 6 p.m., RH Theater •FOCUS, 8:15 p.m., Women’s Club • S.C. Student Legislature, 9 p.m. • Dance Marathon, 8 p.m. • Spring Board, 5:30 p.m. •RHA, 7 p.m.j RH 3070 Will you be attending the South Carolina State Fair this week?