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□ , This Day In USC History rf /^V" ^ October 4, 1835 - A brick wall was built around campus to f V Jl—■ I ■—® keep students from leaving campus to entertain themselves / v^y. _ in Columbia, which then had a population of 7,000 people. — .. .. . . UThe (Bamccock page 7 • ■’ ' - “ • - ■ -v. onors use's h onor fraternities feature many interesting histories by Philip Burt Senior Writer T TSC has many honor fraternities, including Phi Beta Kappa, / / the Golden Key National Honor Society, Alpha Lambda Delta, L/ and Beta Alpha Psi, that require high academic standards and participation in service activities. Phi Beta Kappa was founded nationwide in 1776 and founded ^ at USC in 1926. It focuses on students who study liberal arts or sci m ence. Students must have a minimum of 75 credit hours, including a minimum of 53 liberal arts credit hours, for consideration. Students with 75 to 89 credit hours are required to have a 3.85 GPA, and those with 90 credit hours or higher must have a 3.75 GPA. For each num ber of credit hours earned, the student must have completed a cer tain number of liberal arts hours. It has had an immense impact on its members, said Don Greiner, associate provost and dean of Un dergraduate Affairs. “Being invited into an honors fraternity is a public affirmation that an individual has achieved a high academic goal,” Greiner said. “Honors fraternities were around long before All-American athlet ic teams were formed, and the most prestigious of all honors frater nities is Phi Beta Kappa, which was founded in the 18 th century. Phi Beta Kappa is so important and so recognized nationally that a fact that an individual was part of Phi Beta Kappa is mentioned in their obituary - that’s how important it is.” Greiner said being in Phi Beta Kappa can play a role in a stu H dent getting an interview for a job. He also said that universities that have a Phi Beta Kappa chapters are considered to be recoginzed academically. “The very fact that the university has a Phi Beta Kappa gives it prestige,” Greiner said. “Ninety percent of campuses do not have a Phi Beta Kappa.” He said schools have to fulfill certain criteria before they can have Phi Beta Kappa. “A school cannot just decide it will have a campus Phi Beta Kap pa,” Greiner said. “The school has to be invited by the national chap ter of Phi Beta Kappa, and the criteria are the quality of the faculty and the quality of the library.” USC is the only public university in the state to be permitted by the national oiganization to have a Phi Beta Kappa, said. Pete Mackey, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa executive committee. He also said only 1 percent of all undeigradudate students are se lected to Phi Beta Kappa because many people don’t have a high enough GPA or the right number of liberal arts credit hours. Phi Beta Kappa has gained its prestige from being around such a long time, said Woody Carothers, the director of Student Develop §i ment and adviser of Student Government. a _ “It’s been around since 1776,” Carothers said. “That speaks well for any organization, to have that kind of tenure.” Some fraternities that are open to students from all disciplines include the Golden Key National Honor Society and Alpha Lamb da Delta. Golden Key focuses on academics, said Carothers, who is also a Golden Key adviser. He said Golden Key’s activities include the recognition recep tion for rising sophomores, encouraging them to keep doing well aca demically. However, he also said that a student had to be a junior or a senior and have a 3.5 GPA to be in the society. Golden Key also holds some forums and participates in nation al and regional leadership conferences. “They have presentations by well-known leaders of the nation and the community,” he said. “They have various leadership pre sentations. There is a lot of networking from leaders of other chap ters with an exchange of ideas pertaining to programs and activities.” Alpha Lambda Delta received the Order of the Torch award, which is awarded to the five most outstanding chapters of ALD na tionwide. It’s given out every three years, and ALD at USC has won it the past two years it was given out. Students join ALD dur ing the second semester of their freshman year and become active their sophomore year. Students must have a 3.5 GPA or better. The two big projects they do are The USC Challenge and the Or gan Donor Awareness Campaign. The USC Challenge takes place every December. It’s an acade mic bowl competition, with 32 of the top high schools participating, said Harrison Greenlaw, one of the faculty advisers. All public and private schools can participate, said Kathy Mitchell, the junior ad viser and former president. “It’s a daylong event, and we get volunteers from the faculty to help us out,” Mitchell said. “It’s kind of like ‘Jeopardy’, where the professors read the question and the students buzz in.” She said the academic bowl was one of the things that influenced her decision to join A LD. “It encouraged academic excellence at a high school,” she said. “It enabled us to serve people other than the ones on the campus. It enlarged our scope of service.” For the organ donor campaign, the fraternity goes outside the Russell House for two days in the spring and gets people to sign up to be organ donors. The USC ALD chapter goes to the national conference every year. It send two officers and an adviser. “It’s a chance for different chapters across the nation to get to gether and talk about what works, and what needs improvement in our chapters, and it’s basically a chance for us to make a more suc cessful chapter at our home university,” she said. The conference is going to be in St. Louis at the end of Octo Ja a ber, and ALD will make a presentation so other chapters can see its accomplishments, Mitchell said. The Joanne Trow Undergraduate Scholarship gives out 26 na tional scholarships to undergraduates nationwide, and two stuednts from the USC chapter have won it in the past two years. Also, a few have won graduate scholarships. Mitchell said ALD has helped mold her into a stronger person. “It’s enabled me to be more active on campus and meet new peo ple,” she said. “It’s given me a great leadership opportunity on cam pus, and I’ve learned a lot from my leadership position on the fra ternity.” There are various honor fraternities on campus that are only open to one discipline. One of these is Beta Alpha Psi, an accounting fra ternity. It has various professional meetings with speakers and raises mon ey for charity. It also has social events with professionals. During the professional meetings, members talk about different topics to professionalize students. Some of these topics include in ternational tax, management information systems and professional ethics, faculty adviser Caroline Stroebel said. Other events include raising money for muscular dystrophy through a volleyball tournament. Ten accounting firms take part in this. Also, EAP raises money for the children’s hospital at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital with a golf tournament in the spring. Social events include a big picnic event at the SCANA Facility at Pine Island in Lake Murray. Faculty, alumni and current students of the honor fraternity are invited. Other social events are a field trip to Greenville to visit accounting offices. “We have an active program aimed at providing activities for stu dents that will help them once they’ve started their careers,” Stroebel said. Leadership is one of the elements that employers look for with academic records, said Tracy Powers, associate director at the Ca reer Center. “One of the things they [employers] look for in a candidate is leadership and one way they do this is seeing whether they [students] are part of extracurricular activities,” Powers said. “And in addition, they look for students who have solid academic records. And if stu dents are part of groups that have strong academic background, it’s a double plus.” She also said participation was an important factor, and compa nies want to know how students contributed to the group. “The key is active involvement in organizations so they [students] can demonstrate that they have leadership qualities,” she said. She said some of the top qualities employers look for are lead ership skills, teamwork and interpersonal skills. Canadian I hanRsgivmg coming up gy Mictitieia Ksrr <§>TflFF WlilTe^ To Americans, the second Monday in October is no more than the start of another arduous week of work or school. In Canada, however, this day has a much more special mean ing. For our neighbors to the north, it’s a day of thanks, celebration ® and family togetherness known as Canadian Thanksgiving. Similar to the American holiday, Canadians celebrate with a din ner of roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Families and friends dine together and reflect on the importance that Canadian farmers have for all Canadians. It’s tradition for families to go around the table expressing what they’ve been thankful for over the past year. Many families decorate the Thanksgiving table with decorations made by children during their elementary school days. The centerpiece is usually a cornucopia, a curved goat’s horn, which is filled with fruits, vegetables and grains, symbolizing har mony, peace and plenty. The tradition of the cornucopia dates back to the farmers of Europe. They used the cornucopia, or horn of plenty, during celebrations held at harvest time to give thanks for their good fortune and abun dance of food. ♦ The history of Canadian Thanksgiving dates back to 1578, when the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony in what’s now Newfoundland to give thanks for surviving the long jour ney. The settlers who followed continued the customs. Many factors contributed to the growth of Thanksgiving cele brations in Canada. French settlers, having crossed the Atlantic with the explorer Samuel de Champlain, formed “The Order of Good Cheer” and shared their bounty with Indian neighbors. At the time of the American Revolution many American loyalists to Great Britain moved to Canada, bringing with them their tradition of Thanksgiving. This caused the celebration to spread to all new parts ; of the country. Many of the new English settlers arriving in Cana da at this time brought with them traditions of harvest i celebrations held in autumn. In 1879, British Parliament declared Nov. 6 a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. It was the first of many dates used to celebrate Thanksgiving. Finally, on January 31,1957, Parliament declared “a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful har vest with which Canada has been blessed... to be observed on the second Monday in October.” While it might not have the media attention and parades of the American holiday, Canadian Thanksgiving is a very special day for Canadians. “In Canada it’s not about the size of the turkey or the football games,” said sophomore Mark Mitchell Hartney, who celebrated a Canadian Thanksgiving with family in Manitoba a few years ago. itsaDouuqgetnemess. un cle Schuyler sitting at the table in his Mountie uniform may seem silly to some people, but the spir it of the holiday was alive in his S' heart.” Happy Thanksgiving Campus Notes Hurricane Floyd relief needed People who want to help the victims of Hurricane Floyd may drop off items beginning at 7 a.m. today at Hamilton College. The disaster relief project, spon sored by the Student Association of the College of Social Work, will be collect ing bed linens, washcloths, diapers, baby bottles, towel, pillows, pots, pans, dish es and plastic ware. Donors are asked to bring items in plastic bags or boxes. For more information, call Melissa Re itmeierat 779-4614. « Phi Beta Sigma to hold doughnut sale Phi Beta Sigma fraternity will be dis tributing doughnuts today. Twenty-Five percent of the proceeds will go to a lo cal charity. Sorority to hold information meeting Sigma Gamma Rho will hold an infor mation meeting at 8 p.m. today in Nurs ing 502. Participants are required to wear business attire. For more information, call Mansa Molnar at 544-0824. Second Serving holds interest meeting Second Serving is an organization that delivers leftover food from campus dining halls to the Oliver Gospel Mis sion, a local homeless shelter. It takes on ly one hour to feed over 100 people. An interest meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday in RH 302. Pizza will be served. For more information, call Chris Terlinden at 926-8532. Contra Dance to be offered Columbia Old Time Music and Dance is offering a Contra dance from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Hugh Dimmery Memo rial Center. Traditional dancing from New England with caller Seth Tepfer and live music by Cabin Fever will be provided. A workshop will also be offered at 7:30 p.m. for new dancers. All dances taught, no partner necessary. For more infor mation, call 796-8935. Rape Crisis Network looking for volunteers The Rape Crisis Network is searching for responsible, caring people to respond to survivors in local hospital emergency rooms and on the 24-hour crisis line. Con cerned people over the age of 18 who have access to transportation are en couraged to apply. For more information or to interview, call Cecily Watkins at 252-8393. LRADAC needs volunteers The Lexington/Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council needs college vol unteers to share experiences with high school students to help them prepare for life after high school. For more infor mation, call 733-1390. Briefs for On Campus can be submitted to RH 333. Briefs should include a con tact name and phone number. We can’t promise to print everything, but we can promise to try. V n Say yes to study abroad in [yes to kim^jos] [yes to kiltsw Study Abroad Fair October 6, 1999 % 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Russell House Patio Rain location: Russell House Ballroom International Programs for Students • Department of Student Development • Division of Student & Alumni Services - ■- _ - — ' »■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ " ^i»irincr a difference J hag always been a matter l of applying yourself. Here’s where to apply; 5 W** Cm* m*w ,au vLl'Jk* —‘•mats**™** l ESACE DORPS g Oaetaut u at a.v.aaaui »on»a.<«T»r i >h «x hie. ■ ’ ...-I ■ ■ Peace Corps is coining ! to campus: Information Meeting Business Administration Building Oct. 7, 2:30pm - 4:30pm I ■ Information Table ■ Business Administration Building Oct. 7, 9:00pm - 2:30pm ' 1-800-424-8580 | www.peacecorps.ifov I ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■a