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Carolina News Gamecock staff ranks top USC stories of 1999 The Gamecock’s senior staff voted on the top ten USC news stories of1999. Here are our picks: Not 1: Engineering dean incficted in Virginia on charges he embezzled funds The dean of USC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology was indicted in July by a Virginia grand jury on five counts of embezzlement of public fiinds and three counts of obtaining mon ey or property under false pretenses. He has stepped down from his administrative duties until the mat ter is resolved. Rogers allegedly embezzled funds from the Vir ginia Polytechnic Institute, whefe he was director of a research center. Authorities didn’t disclose the amount of money involved, but the indictments allege thou sands of dollars in state funds were handled improperly. Vnginia State Police began in vestigating after complaints that Rogers was taking funds for the research center and putting them ROGERS uuurarauigm me., a private cor poration that no longer exists. According to affidavits filed in the Montgomery County Circuit court, the employees provided doc uments to support their claims. The grand jury charged Rogers with two counts of spending public funds on international engi neering conferences without obtaining proper au thorization. A third embezzlement indictment alleges that Rogers put $1,500 of public funds into a private bank ing account. Rogers spent 15 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech. He was a professor of mechanical engineer ing and became the center’s founding director in 1988. He left Tech in August 1996 for USC. No. 2: SG Senate impeaches treasurer Eliz abeth Fordham; charges later dropped Impeachment charges against Student Body Trea surer Elizabeth Fordham were dismissed by the Stu dent Government court of impeachment in No vember by a nearly unanimous vote. The court defeated all three articles of im peachment, which alleged that Fordham hadn’t car ried out her duties as treasurer by not attending Fi nance Committee meetings, not attending an entire treasurer s worKsnop, not Keep ing 10 office hours and showing “a general lack of initiative” in the SG finance process. The dismissal meant that Ford ham didn’t have to face a trial in the senate, where it’s unclear whether she would have been convicted and removed from of _ . nce. rORDHAM Fordham said the chaiges were nothing more than a personal and political attack by members of SG who wanted to reverse last year’s elections, in which Fordham beat then-Sen. Timo thy Clardy. No. 3: USCs football team goes 0-11 in *99, amassing the nation’s longest losing streak The Gamecock football team went 0-11 in 1999 and extended their losing streak, the nation’s longest, to 21 games. After the acquisition of head coach Lou IJpltz in December 1998, fans had hoped that Holtz could turn the team around from its 1 -10 record in 1998. The 1999 season started in a rain-soaked Carter Finlay Stadium in Raleigh, N.C., as the Gamecocks lost their first game to then-No. 24 f$.C. State, 10 0. “Lou-mania” continued despite the losing sea son, as USC had among the country’s highest aver age home football game attendance marks in 1999. The Gamecocks ended their season with a loss at Williams-Brice Stadium in the annual Clemson rivalry game, 31-21. No, 4: Club Mercedes closes after a series of violent crimes, including a murder fhe owner of Club Mercedes, a nightclub sur rounded by several blocks of campus, agreed to shut down the club permanently in June after it was or dered temporarily closed in a court hearing that month. Since its opening in 1998, the club and its sur rounding area had been the site of several criminal incidents, including the shooting death of a securi ty officer in January 1999. The man charged with the shooting death was apprehended in February. Several more incidents, including gunshots fired outside the club in May, prompted complaints to the city from USC faculty and administrators about the noise and danger of the club. The club was-located on Devine Street between Assembly and Main streets, across from the School of Law. No. 5: Grading proposal hits snag as USC Spartanburg votes down minus plan USC Spartanburg’s faculty senate voted down a plan to include minuses in USC’s grading system. If implemented, this Would have meant that minuses would have appeared on transcripts and would have affected grade point averages. For example: 4.0 = A, 3.7 = A-, 3.3 = B+, 3.0 = B. USC Aiken and USC Columbia had already ap proved the plan, but USC Spartanburg’s rejection of tb^proposal means that the system could go into ef fect no sooner than 2001. Supporters of the minus plan said that allowing pluses without allowing minuses contributes to grade inflation. However, according to a resolution passed in March by Student Senate against the minus plan, a 12-year study by the Registrar’s office “demonstrated an absence of grade inflation.” N<x & USC men’s basketbal player BJ McK ie sets all-time scoring record for USC Men’s basketball player BJ McKie scored his 1,977th point at USC in February, passing NBA superstar and hall-of-famer Alex English for tops on Carolina’s all-time scoring list. McKie, now with the Connecticut Pride of the Canadian Basketball League, was instrumental in the Gamecocks’ appearances in two straight NCAA tournaments in 1997 and 1998. The team he led his senior year ended up with a disappointing 8-21 fi nal mark. McKie scored the record-setting point in a game • against Vanderbilt, which turned into a 69-57 USC win for the team. No. 7: Computer science merges with the college of engineering, despite concerns Tire controversial merger of the departments of computer science and computer engineering was completed, wjth computer science’s faculty and re sources expected to move into the Swearingen En gineering Center. One computer science faculty member said in March that the computer science faculty was “unan imously against a merger,” and the dean of the College of Science and Mathematics said he didn’t ^approve of the merger at the time, either. The de partment faced the possibility of losing its accredi tation, though, and ultimately the administration de cided to move ajiead with the merger. Upon completion of the merger, a transition team that had been formed faced new problems, in cluding a shortage of faculty members, a lack of suit able space and what to do about combining classes for the fall 2000 master schedule. No. & USC student kidnapped on campus and raped; Eastover man arrested in case An 18-year-old USC student was abducted and raped in October, and a 19-year-old suspect was arrested in the case. The victim was attacked after she parked near the tennis courts on the comer of Blossom and Pick ens streets late & night. The victim tried to get out of her car, but was allegedly pushed back inside by the suspect, who allegedly told the victim to drive to the Hopkins area of lower Richland County, where the sexual assault took place. The suspect then allegedly took the car, leaving the victim at the scene, where she sought help froig area residents. The suspect was arrested when an individual identified the victim’s stolen car and called the au thorities. The Richland County Sheriff’s Depart ment said a weapon was not used. No. 9: Husser wins student body presi dency in+unoff Malik Husser was elected student body presi dent in a February runoff election by a margin of 343 votes. Husser, an advertising junior, won the election with 1,178 votes. His opponent, English junior Chris Dorsel, received 835 votes. Husser ran on a platform emphasizing safety and community service. Brandon Anderson and Elizabeth Fordham were elected to the offices of vice president and treasur er, respectively. Anderson, an advertising junior, won a tight race. Anderson got 1,219 votes to James Munsey’s 1,146 votes. The treasurer race was close as well, with Fordham receiving 1,246 votes to Timothy Clardy’s 1,185. No. 10: Students evacuate during Hurri cane Floyd scare; USC cancels classes Hurricane Floyd brushed by the Columbia area in October after early predictions that the eye of the 145-mph storm would pass right near Columbia led to the cancellation of classes and a mass exodus to ward the north and west. Classes were cancelled for two days to give stu dents who had left town ample time to return. The storm brought only moderate rain and winds to the area as it skirted along the coastline, and no damage was reported on campus. File Photos (Top to bottom) Malik Husser and Chris Dorsel embrace after the 1999 SG election (February). Basketball player BJ McKie is dou ble-teamed in the game against Vanderbilt in which he broke USC’s scoring record (February). Club Mercedes closed after com plaints that it posed a threat to USC students (June). Traffic crawls from Savannah the day before Hurricane Floyd (October). AP: Kosovo bombings top story of 1999 by Matt Kohlman Associated Press The ethnic violence in Kosovo that prompted NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia and a subsequent peacekeeping mission was voted the top news story of 1999 in a poll of Associated Press world sub scribers. President Clinton’s impeachment tri al, which ended with his acquittal, was a distant second, followed by deadly earth quakes in Turkey, violence in East Tim or and Russia’s military action against Chechnya. The poll was completed in mid-De cember, missing the final weeks before the turn of the millennium. But anticipa tion of the Year 2000 and any attending computer problems still made the list at No. 6. “Y2K sets this year apart There’s been nothing like it,” the Canadian Press news agency said on its ballot. AP’s tofi stories of 1999: 1. Kosovo bombings 2. Clinton impeachment 3. Earthquakes in Turkey 4. Violence in East Timor 5. Russia's military action against Chechnya 6. Y2K 7. Border clash between India and Pakistan 8. Taiwan earthquakes 9. U.S. growth powers the world economy 10. Turkey's capture of Abdullah Ocalan Crash frorrl-page A1 the Beaufort area. The plane descended into a wooded, isolated region of Oak Island. The plane was found upside-down with both wings broken off. The fire began after the crash, according to Beaufort County Deputy Emergency Management Director Steve Fields. The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigator to the scene on Monday, Dec. 20. Baier said the flight crew was going through the landing checklist when “it happened suddenly and he wasn’t sure why,” according to athletics director Mike McGee, who spoke with the co-pilot. Foster, who had been added to the uni versity’s full-time staff on Dec. 1, previ ously flew part-time for the university, McGee said. Holtz said he flew with Foster about 30 times and they had grown close. “This is not about me, it’s about los ing a friend,” Holtz said. “But at the same time, I feel very blessed. I don’t know why, but I must serve a purpose.” Holtz reflected on his difficult pro fessional and personal year. “It has been a very long year,” he said. “The only thing you can do is go on. I can’t understand why things happen the way they do. You just have to have faith in God.” * ‘Wdcome Bacf^Students - * FINE CLEANERS UJeP & ^ine/ ToletMtew laJte/ ca/ie/op/cM i^owt/ f* dby/ cletMtirujfr lajwitlty/ wntl/ alfeicUioM/ neeilb/! ^044/cA<wPe^ PPiififi/ jk PPine/ Poletme^/ .. .u&us’ve/ ciwA&n/ lh&finest: 830 Harden Street in the Heart of Five Points • 254-7373 • 13 Columbia Area Locations • Same day Service • , '• Fluff and Fold • Student Accounts Welcome • « * 4 < 1 * lllllS 2009 Devine Street H in Five Points hours! Mon-Sat 11:30am-2am fcR Sun 11:30am-12am Nightly Pizza Specials ■ Monday $1.75 48oz. 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