Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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_ Vol. 93, No. 52 Fria January 21, 2000_-_ W k# " www.camecock.sc.edu University of South Carolina Columbia-, s.c. SG Senate calls for relocation of flag by Brandon Larrabee Associate News Editor A resolution calling for the relocation of the Confederate Flag from the dome of the South Car olina State House passed student senate Wednes day, mak ing the senate the third uni versity governing body to call for the banner’s removal since the conflict resurfaced last year. Some senators voted against bringing the bill to the floor, and at least one, Sen. Jessica Lentini, left the meeting after the senate decided to hear the bill anyway. Lentini said the bill hadn’t been put in thfc sen ators’ mailboxes on time, and she hadn’t had time to look over the bill. Under SG codes, bills are supposed to be in the boxes by the Monday prior to the senate meeting at which they will be heard. However, the reso lution wasn’t put in the boxes until shortly be fore the meeting Wednesday. The resolution was brought to the floor by Vice President Brandon Anderson, who can override the rule. “I barely had time to look at it, glance at it, think about it,” Lentini said. “I hadn’t even had the time to read it.” Lentini said that, although Anderson can force the bill on the floor, the Senate has set a precedent of not bringing bills to the floor without unanimous consent. Lentini also said she had not had time to con sult her constituents and would’ve abstained even if she had stayed at the meeting. “I would’ve abstained,” Lentini said. “I would’ve been making an uninformed decision. I wouldn’t have been voting on behalf of my constituents.” Lentini didn’t challenge whether other sena tors had consulted their constituents about the mat ter. “Maybe they had the time to speak to their constituents and find out how they felt, but 1 didn’t,” she said. Sen. Adam Dawkins, who co-sponsored the bill with Sens. Jotaka Eaddy and Charaka Cook, said the time had come for the senate to act. “We are the elected representative body of the students of this great university,” Dawkins said. “It is our duty to address any and all issues that affect our constituents. This is what we are elected to do: to lead.” Dawkins mentioned his own Confederate her itage in calling for the flag’s removal. “I am a descendant of several brave men who fought and died for the Confederacy,” he said, not ing that his ancestors didn’t own slaves. “They fought against oppression and for freedom. To day, it is our turn.” He also said the flag’s symbolism wasn’t an is sue. Some opponents of the flag have contended that it symbolizes slavery. Supporters say it’s a sym bol of the state’s heritage and history. “No matter what it symbolizes, the message is clear,” Dawkins said. “That flag has divided our state.” The flag also hurts the university’s efforts to recruit, he said. “The flag hurts our reputation and affects our recruiting of the best and brightest,” he said. “It must come down.” Eaddy echoed many of Dawkins’ comments in her remarks. “This is an issue that has divided our state, and it has divided our campus,” Eaddy said. “It affects every student at this university,” she said. “It is up to you ... to take a stand on this is sue no matter how you feel. Take a stand.” Cook agreed. “This is an issue that we cannot ignore any longer,” she said. “This is an issue that we must ad dress and take a stance on.” The senate passed the resolution with no de bate, although some senators expressed concern over whether the bill represented the views of all students. Sen. Dan Dixon said he was planning to vote for the bill. “My only concern... is that as the senator here, we have to speak for the entire student body,” Dixon said. The bill drew several abstentions but no dis senting votes. The senate’s action follows similar action by the board of trustees, which called for the flag’s re moval in a resolution passed Dec. 13. Board Chair man William Hubbard said he heard no dissenting votes in that action, but noted that there were some absences. Hubbard said the board’s resolution makes the opinion that the flag should come down official university policy. “The opinion of the board of trustees is the of ficial policy of the University of South Carolina Senate see page m Filing for SG office to begin Monday by Brandon Larrabee Associate News Editor Filing for the 2000 Student Govern ment elections begins Monday, and can didates who file will have to abide by new rules passed to govern SG’s new online voting system, according to an SG offi cial. The filing will run from Monday through Friday, SG Elections Commis sioner Emily LeMaster said. Elections will be held from 9 a.m. Feb. 16 to 5 p.m. Feb. 17. LeMaster said the SG elections codes have been revamped to deal with online voting. “Pretty much all the codes... have had to be revised,” she said. Candidates receive any number of in fractions when they violate SG elections codes, LeMaster said. Five infractions dis qualify a candidate. Polling places have been changed from the different colleges around campus to all buildings that house computer labs, LeMaster said. “Polling locations are now any build ing with a computer lab in it,” she said. LeMaster said that covered 25 build ings, including Bates House, the School of Law, Gambrell Hall and the Welsh Hu manities Classroom Building. Under the new codes, candidates can neither put campaign material in any of the labs nor have it in any of the buildings on the election days. Furthermore, can didates aren’t allowed to campaign per son-to-person before election day and are then allowed to distribute campaign ma terial “only outside specified polling lo cations.” Dorm rooms wouldn’t be considered polling locations, LeMaster said. How ever, many of the dorms have computer labs, she said, and would be considered polling locations. Candidates are also prohibited from sending mass mailings, including e-mails. “That’s actually a university policy,” LeMaster said. “The university dictates that to us.” LeMaster said there’s no official plan for handling voter fraud over the new sys tem, but that she’s not concerned. “The elections will be as safe as anyone’s grades or academic or financial records,” she said. LeMaster said she thought that any evidence of fraud would lead to as many as five infractions and that candidates who commit fraud would be disqualified. Candidates also have to follow regu lationsgoveming campaign posters. LeMas ter said posting and campaigning viola tions are the most frequent. She said it’s the candidates’ responsibility to make sure their staffs understand the rules. “The fact is, the candidate is respon sible for knowing ... what’s acceptable posting-wise,” she said. Regardless of how a candidate choos es to campaign, spending limits exist but are hard to enforce, according to LeMas ElECTIOHS see page A2 Governor makes his second State of the State address Travis Bell Special to The Gamecock Gov. Jim Hodges focuses Wednesday on education and the Confederate battle flag flying atop the S.C. Statehouse dome. Hodges focuses on schools, flag by Charles Prashaw Senior Writer Members of the audience and the majority of the Democrats in the S.C. General Assembly rose and applauded the closing remarks of Gov. Jim Hodges’ State of the State address, but most of the Republicans didn’t stand. The governor ended his annual ad dress to the General Assembly on Wednesday night with a call to legisla tors to resolve the issue of the Confed erate flag. “We must move the flag from the dome to a place of historical significance on the Statehouse grounds,” he said. “Tire debate over the flag has claimed too much of our time and energy - energy that can be better used building schools.” Hodges reversed an earlier stance that the National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People boycott should be lifted before the flag issue would be resolved. In his speech, Hoflges said the sanctions should no longer keep the assembly from doing what’s right. During the address, which was tele vised live across the state, Hodges out lined several other issues he wants the General Assembly to tackle in the com ing year. Raising the value of public educa tion was at the top of these issues. Also mentioned were economic development, hurricane evacuation preparedness, do mestic violence, nuclear waste, the es tablishment of Martin Luther King Day as a state holiday and improving health care. Hodges said that in the past year, $ 1 billion was spent on building and fix ing old schools. He also looked back at the success of alternative schools and the placing of resource and police offi cers in every high school in the state. Hodges said that even more im portant to him is the fact that S.C. teach ers are being paid well above the aver age for the South. Hodges focused most of his speech on education plans, which was expect ed because he Won on a platform that promised better public education in South Carolina. The governor pushed for $10 mil lion more for the First Steps program to be expanded throughout the state. In ad dition, the governor called on the as sembly to pass a bill that would make teaching manners in the classroom mandatory. He also called for $1 million State of the State see page a2 I Young Americans turned off by politics, polls show by Lori Lessner College Press Exchange Washington — A generation after 18 year-olds won the right to vote, young people don’t find politics particularly ger mane to their lives. They say they don’t bother casting a ballot because voting has little to do with the way public policy decisions are made and politicians don’t listen to their concerns anyway. Although they’ve written off poli tics, their civic- minded spirit is very much alive. Three-fourths performed some sort of volunteer work in the past two yean — far more than the 15 percent who vot ed in the 1998 election. That double-edged message, the re sult of two separate polls that explored what motivates young people leading up to the 2000 presidential election, suggests that young adults prefer to give back to their communities by performing pub lic service rather than by wading into par tisan politics. More of them have taught, fed the hungry and cleaned up the environment than have volunteered on a political cam paign or seriously considered running for office. But experts who track voter partic ipation are concerned about young peo ple’s reluctance to vote. Only 32 percent of 18- to 24-year olds voted in the 19% presidential elec tion, while 67 percent of those 65 and older voted, US. Census data show. What’s worse, experts say, is that young people seem unlikely to pick up the voting habit as they get older. In the presidential election of 1972, the first one in which 18-year-olds had the vote, 49.6 percent of 18- to 24-year olds voted, a percentile that has steadi ly declined ever since. Mel Henning, a University of Kansas senior, said she has seen her peers become increasingly committed to volunteering in the four yean she has lived on campus. She is part of that trend. She’s helped build homes for Habitat for Humanity and is active in a program that matches children with Big Brothers and Big Sisters on cam pus. “Sometimes we get tired of everyone thinking our generation is just a bunch of lazy, nonmolivated people, so we volun teer for ourselves and to show the older generation that not all of us are doing crazy stuff all the time,” said Henning, a Wichita student majoring in elementary education. Although she said she can see why some people don’t think voting matters much, she made sure to vote for the pres ident in 1996. She has paid less attention to local elections. She expects to continue volunteer ing and perhaps find work in a nonprofit group after graduation. Like Henning, a significant majority of young adults polled by the Mellman Group for the Panetta Institute expect to spend part of their careers working for nonprofits or performing some kind of public service. But only a quarter voiced an interest in pursuing careers in politics to express their civic-mindedness. College students under age 31 were asked about their career paths and other topics that lie into the public arena as part of the poll. President Clinton’s former chief of staff, Leon Panetta, started the institute to encourage public service. Politics see page a2 Autos dominate the airwaves The top five advertisers in the United States, classified by category, for 1998 (in thousands of dollars): Automobiles Retail_ Media | — Drugs ~| Toiletries ~| Source: World Almanac 2000 {Weather:' 'Inside'" 1 k lafiTEBooK. ‘ ' .OnlinePoll '■'? jSSSjgWljgSiSBilwSSSiSwOWeSeWWWOMegemHKHtwMStSSoSSftHweSSewoSSeSwwitMOOeeettS^^ Women’s team gets first SEC victory Page B1 Friday • Fraternity Rush ends 4 Saturday • Round Table Gaming Society, noon to 11:45 p.m., RH s Should the Student Gamecock Club have lost its block seating? Yes-48% No-52% book for next week’s question in Monday’s Gamecock.