Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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' ' ' ' Law Enforcement and Safety Program teaches women safety tactics by Philip Burt SenjpA Writer Women can learn to protect themselves and avoid rape or assault through USC’s Rape Ag gression Defense program, which leaches women about self-defense. 6 According to investigator Steve Wright, RAD, which was designed specifically for women, serves the need for a program that provides female stu dents, faculty and staff with a solid self-defense base. Women outside of the university can also par ticipate if the class has enough room. “The program began because of the need for female students to be exposed to a self-defense pro • gram that provided not only hands-on self-defense, but a program that provides awareness, prevention, risk reduction and avoidance methods,” Wright said. Wright said self-defense in rape is important because it gives the victim “assurance” and opens up all options about whether to fight or flee. RAD students learn to defend themselves with such techniques as the proper way to stand and the proper way to do a hand strike. They’re also taught to rely on personal weapons, intuition and instinct in making decisions when they might need to defend themselves. “The program teaches intelligent decision-mak ing and teaches you to use your good common sense,” said Calvin Galiman, the victim/witness coordinator for the Division of Law Enforce ment and Safety. It also teaches awareness, which includes know ing where attacks are likely to occur and knowing the statistics. Galiman said that statistically, USC is a safe campus for its size. One rape was reported in 1998, and another in 1999. However, he said that many crimes go unre ported, including rape. He said that when people don’t report crimes, it doesn’t give the full picture. “Any time there is less to report, then it is go ing to give the mindset that there’s less crime,” Gallman said. Gallman also said that when people don’t re port crimes like rape, it makes the police officer’s - job more difficult. ___ - “It increases the chance of crimes occurring because nothing happens to the perpetrator, and we don’t have enough information to educate peo ple,” he said. RAD serves to encourage women to report a rape or attack, Wright said. But to prevent the crimes from occurring in the first place, Wright said RAD teaches preven tion through workshops and brochures, which, along with risk reduction, account for 90 percent of avoidance. * « “If the student takes the opportunity away for someone to attack her, then the attack is not go ing to happen,” Wright said. The next set of classes will be from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Nov. 9 to Nov. 11 in the Bates West So cial Room. Wright said that attracting participants has been in obstacle. “In an effort to circumvent that [the obstacle], we’re providing more publicity and more aware ness for the program,” he said. In its first year, the RAD program attracted 37 women, on a campus of 13,779 female under graduate and graduate students. RAD SEE PAGE 2 USC Creed Week begins with 'Birdcage' Amy Goulding The Gamecock I Samantha Hunter performs at the annual “Birdcage, Gamecock style” % Thursday night In the Russell House Ballroom. Co-sponsored by Carolina Productions and the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Association, this event was the start of Creed Week. by Charles Prashaw Staff Writer The disco ball was up, the gaudy dance lights were on, the runway was set up, the techno-dance music was thumping in die background and die cross-dressers were all ready to perform. This isn’t a scene out of “The Rocky Horror Pic ture Show”; it’s the second annual “Birdcage, Game cock style” held Thursday in the Russell House Ball room. Although named after the movie “The Birdcage,” the event was more of a talent show, with six different female impersonators lip-syncing to some of their fa vorite songs. The event was co-sponsored by the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Association and Carolina Productions to kick off Carolinian Creed Week, a week promot ing awareness and understanding of the Carolinian Creed. The two-hour event drew more than 400 stu dents from all walks of life, according to CP Cultural Awareness Commissioner Lee Harper. “We put this on so people can learn to respect oth ers that are more diverse,” Harper said. Backstage before the show, female impersonator Doran Saundes, who has been cross-dressing for 14 years, said USC was more of a “good old boy school” than a diverse campus. “It’s the same old while people running this cam pus. It’s a new millennium, and this campus needs to reflect that,” Saundes said. “They need new leadership: gays, blacks, Latinos and people from all kinds of races. “They try to promote this school as being di verse, but they are being a bunch of hypocrites because the leadership doesn’t reflect that.” The first performer, Patty O’Furniture, was heckled by an audience member who yelled out “trick or- treat.” In response, she said: “A little of both, honey.” That set a tone for the rest of the night that the girls weren’t going to be picked on by anyone. “Forget ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.' You can look at us and tell what we are, Saundes said. As O’Fumiture began her routine, people began to dance in the crowd. After O’Fumiture performed, Shine Stevens came out in a revealing gold dress and lip-synced “You’re Still the One” by Shania Twain. Next, the 1999 S.C. Gay Pride winner, Nicole Roberts, look the stage and performed “Crazy” by Brit ney Spears. In the middle of her performance, a man from the audience came up to the stage and got a kiss from lier. Later in her act, another man got onstage and danced with her. Roberts was one of many performers who were tipped with $1 bills after the show by those in atten dance. One pf the tippers, Troy Bowen, said, “It’s agreat night. My adrenaline was pumping, and I just went up there [to the stage].” Performer Samantha Hunter, after finishing her song, pulled another man from the audience, pushing him to the stage floor and climbing on top of him. She then went into the crowd and kissed a bald man on the head and sat on another man’s lap. The show ended with a question-and-answer ses sion with BGLA members. Harper said she expects the event will also be pret ty wild next year. ‘We put this on so people can learn to respect others that are more diverse.' Lee Harper Carolina Productions CulturaJ Awareness Commissioner Students favor apartments over dorms Staff Reports Associated Press Ci£MSON - More and more, students I (Hik ing to spread out are finding nearby apart ments. Now, colleges and universities are trying to meet those needs on campus with ment-style residences. Not all students fit into one type of environment,” said James Barker, Clem sop University’s president-elect. “Students want options.” ’David Spitlal, president of Southern Wesleyan University in Central, says such complexes are the wave of the future on campuses. His school recently broke ground for lw» residence halls containing 36 four-bed rown apartments. ^Spittal says students want home-style .... quarters where they can set up their computers, watch cable television, cook meals and move around. Furman University recently built a 216 apartment complex, called North Village, that serves as many as 864 students. Furman spokesman Vince Moore said competition for students is so intense that colleges need to give prospective enrollees what they’re looking for. “They visi t all kinds of schools and shop around, and you have to be able to provide something attractive to them,” Moore said Chauncy Thomas, a resident adviser in Clemson’s Byrnes Hall, said students want to live off campus for privacy and space. Also, some just can't adjust to the “everyone’s-liere” domi life at a lot of uni versities, he said. Clemson signed off on a $9.2 million bid for a new apartment-style residence on its Easl campus. The bid was accepledfrom an Easley construction company with a contingency to negotiate cost reductions. Clemson also plans to build a new res idence hall on the west side of campus. The university says the projects should be finished by fall 2001. It will then close and tear down sections of Johnstone Hall, an outdated dorm. Melanie Branham, Furman’s interim director of University Housing, said tradi tional dorms will still be around, particu larly for freshmen. The closer living quarters of tradition al residence halls help to instill a sense of community on campus, she said. Students dumping the dorms More and more, students in South Carolina schools are indicating that they don't tike traditional dormito ries, Schools are responding by building more apart f| ment-style residence halls, • South Quadrangle-East residence hall should be fin ished by this fall at USC. It will hold about 400 students, • SOUTHERN WESLEYAN recently broke ground for two resi dence hails containing 36 four-bedroom apartments. • At FURMAN, a 216-unit apartment-style hail has been built that serves 864 students. • CLEMSON will build two apartment-style halls by fall 2001 and tear down parts of an old residence hall. Source: The Associated Press Brad Waiters graphics editor rrofessor seeks flag converts Staff Reports Associated Press Rock Hll - A Wintlirop University pro fessor lias a suggestion for the factions fighting about the Confederate battle flag atop the Stalehouse, but so far lie’s hav ing trouble finding converts. History professor Jason Silverman is proposing substituting the current flag - the Confederate Naval Jack - with the Stars and Bars that was approved as the official flag of the Confederacy on March 4, 1861. That flag doesn’t hold the same emo tional attachment and divisive power of the more familiar battle flag, he said. “If this is about flying a flag to com memorate the war and those who died fighting valiantly and gallantly in the name of the Confederacy, then this is your llag,” Silverman said. The National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People has ap proved a tourism boycott of the state, say ing the Confederate flag that has flown over the Statehouse since 1962 is a sym bol of racism. More than 40 groups liave canceled or moved conventions planned for South Carolina since the boycott was proposed in July. Hag supporters say it s a symbol ol Southern heritage and honors those who died in the Civil War. The controversy has drawn in the state’s political, academic and business leaders. The source of controversy, says Silverman, who has taught Southern his tory for 16 years, is that the Naval Jack has been appropriated by the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups. “That’s not to say everyone that sup ports the flag supports it for that reason," Silverman said. The Stars and Bars has greater histor ical significance, he said. “It’s the first fiag of the Confederacy. It’s the fiag that [Confederate President] Jefferson Davis saw when he went to work every day,” Silverman said. “It is the fiag that flew over the Confederate capi tol, and it’s the flag that most Confeder ate veterans rallied around during their reunions during the 19th century.” State Rep. Becky Meacham, R-Fort Mill, considers Silverman’s proposal as an “interesting concept” that deserves some research, but otherwise it’s not winning many converts on either side of the issue. Slate Rep. Herb Kirsh, D-Clover, a fiag supporter, doesn't “see any point to it.” South Girolina Slate University po litical science professor Ricky Hill said: “It’s not a compromise to lake down Flag see page 2 Datebook Online Poll Results Today 76 60 Tuesday 63 55 Halloween with a bit of the mind flip Page 2 Today • CP, 3:30 p.m. • Fraternity Council, 4 p.m., RH 322/326 • Sorority Council, 5 p.m., RH 322/326 Tuesday • Spring Board, 5:30 p.m. • AAAS, 6 p.m., RH Theater • Dance Marathon, 8 p.m. • FOCUS, 8:15 p.m., Women’s Club • S.C. Student Legislature, 9 p.m. Do you feel safe walking to Five Points at night? YES: 78.41 percent NO: 21.59 percent VOTES: 264 ' ' *