The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 03, 2000, Image 1
March 3, 2000
SG passes budget bill
Bill passes
unanimously
despite protest
by Brandon
Larrabee
Associate News Editor
Afterpeppering the Senate Fi
nance Committee with dozens of ques
tions, student senate passed two fi
nance bills allocating a total of $615,774
Wednesday.
Tension was occasionally present dur
ing the meeting, particularly when par
liamentarian Austin Brown stood to give
the Judicial Council report. After the
senate voted to allow him to speak, Brown
began to protest the Council’s allocation,
saying that Judicial Council should have
received more as the “third branch” ol
Student Government.
Senators took issue with Brown’s
statements.
“This is neither the lime nor the place
to take care of this,” Senator William
Frick said,
Senators split on a second vote to de
cide whether to allow Brown to contin
ue. Vice President Brandon Anderson
voted not to allow Brown to continue.
“I don’t want to deal with this to
day,” he said.
Among the questions senators raised
was a querie about the Judicial Council’s
allocation.
Finance Committee Chairwoman
Sally Ballentine said the council would
have access to senate’s special projects
fund next year to help it put on events
such as Creed Week.
“They had access to additional [funds]
being a third branch of Student Govern
ment,” Ballentine said. “The precedent
has been set, and there’s no reason why”
the council couldn’t have access to the
projects funding next year.
She also pointed to the spending pat
tern set by the council last year.
“This oiganization hadn’t spent any
money up until January and February,”
Ballentine said.
Ballentine also said council gave
no specific costs for many of the items
for which they requested funds.
“Over half of their budget were blank
pages,” she said.
Other finance committee members
said they couldn’t make a decision with
out having more specific information.
“We cannot fund unless we have spe
cific items on what’s going to be fund
ed,” Sen. Aesha Harrison said.
Student Body Treasurer Elizabeth
Fordham said the committee’s decision
was fair.
“I don’t feel like they were slight
ed in any way, because they have ac
cess to additional funds,” Fordham said.
Ballentine also officially announced
their decision on an appeal of student
funding for the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.
The appeal, by history senior Brandon
Gaskins, alleged that the NAACP was a
political oiganization.
SG Finance Codes prohibit political
oiganizations from receiving general fund
ing. The Finance Committee decided to
revoke all of the NAACP’s general funds,
amounting to $800, and allocate $800
more to the organization’s Black Histo
ry Month Event.
Any organization can receive mon
ey for general funding.
“After serious review and consul
tation, the Senate Finance Committee
reconsidered the money allocated to the
organization to attend their National Con
vention,” Ballentine said in prepared re
marks.
“The Finance Committee feels this
allocation is fair and in the best interest
of every student involved,” she said.
Budget see page 2
‘The Finance
Committee feels this
allocation is fair and in
the best interest of
every student involved.’
Sally Ballentine
Finance Committee
Chairwoman
-
Where your fees are going
Oistributiort of $615,774 in tuition and fees allocated for student
programs and organizations for the 2000-2001 school year:
Student Carolina Graduate, Student Under- Sport.
Media Productions med, law Gov't graduate Clubs
30% 27% ‘clubs 13% Clubs 4%
15% 11%
Week of programs
warns students of
spring break 'traps'
by Amanda Silva
Staff Writer
Students were warned to “Beware
of the Traps” this week in an effort to
promote spring break safety.
Beginning Sunday, the Office of Al
cohol and Drug Programs and the de
partment of Student Life sponsored a se
ries of programs to raise awareness of
and encourage students to consider safe
ty issues.
“We’ve had a really good turnout,”
said Student Life representative Feli
cia Law.
The safety week focused on the pri
mary traps for students on spring break:
assault, DUl-related crashes, harassment,
hotel room break-ins, predatory drugs,
rape, regretted sex, sexually transmit
ted diseases and sun risks.
To prevent these and other problems
i and situations during spring break, the
OADP and the department of Student
Life advise the following:
• Drink responsibly. According to
the OEAP, almost 30 percent of drinkers
aged 18 to 25 reportedly become “ag
gressive” while drinking. Innocent by
standers often become the targets of
alcohol-related assault. Drinking also in
creases the risk that people will harass
others because of their gender, race or
sexual orientation. In addition, exces
sive intoxication lowers one’s inhibi
tions, impairing judgment and often
resulting in regretted sexual incidents.
• Drink carefully. Take caution when
drinking and be aware of predatory drugs
like rohypnol, or “roolies," and gamma
& hydroxybutyrate (GHB), two of Hie most
common drugs used to spike drinks. Both
of these drugs are known to impair mo
tor skills and cause memory blackouts.
• Take turns serving as designated
driver.
• Limit the number of valuables you
bring on vacations and double-lock ho
tel room doors.
• Be cautious, particularly if you’re
female. According to the OEAP, one in
four women will experience rape or at
tempted rape by the end of their college
careers. Ninety percent of these cases
occur when the assailant, the victim or
both used alcohol.
• Practice safe sex. To avoid STDs
or pregnancy, students should practice
abstinence or use proper protection, like
latex condoms.
• Avoid overexposure to the sun.
Drink plenty of nonalcoholic beverages
to avoid dehydration. Avoid the midday
sun and use sunscreen regularly to re
duce the risk of sunburn.
The Safe Spring Break Week began
on Sunday with a baseball game against
the College of Charleston.
A Mardi Gras carnival, complete
with mask-making and a traditional king
cake, was held Monday. Students who
attended the carnival received free spring
break survival kits.
Tuesday’s programs, “Spring Break
Stock-Up” and “Happy Hour at the
Blau,” featured contests and offered door
prizes and free spring break goodies. Lat
er Tuesday evening, Carolina Produc
tions sponsored a masquerade ball in
the Russell House Ballroom.
The week ended on Wednesday with
a continuation of “Spring Break Stock
Up” and a workshop on campus alcohol
policy. A meeting of Gamecocks Ad
vocating Hie Mature Management of Al
cohol later Wednesday afternoon ad
dressed the personal and financial issues
of DUI convictions.
I ■ ■HiBL-. .'X -t hi . ■ 1
Photos by Amy Goulding
Business junior Cale Johnson, above, Inspects SHARE’S table
promoting sexual health. SHARE and several other groups had
tables on Greene Street on Monday for the Mardl Gras celebra
tion.
Members of the
USC Jazz Band,
left, provided
music for the
Mardl Gras cele
bration, which
was part of Safe
Spring Break
Week. Safe
Spring Break
Week was spon
sored by the
Office of Alcohol
and Drug
Programs, and
the department
of Student Life.
Parking director
fields questions
at Faculty Senate
by Brad Walters
Managing Editor
Questions about the future of
parking on campus were fielded at
Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
“I know we have a parking problem,
and the only way we’re going to be able
to solve it is with a perimeter parking
scheme; that’s what we’re working to
wards,” said Derrick Huggins, director
of Parking and Vehicle Management.
“Our goal is to make sure we have
the buses in place so that when we start
removing spaces from the campus core,
we have a transit system that can bring
people in.”
The university recently bought two
full-sized buses, and Huggins said four
more would be running by year’s end.
Once all six buses are in place, two
buses each from the Coliseum, Bates
area and the soon-to-be-acquired Bell
South parking lot would run to and from
campus — with a turnaround time of
five minutes each, Huggins said.
The bus running from the old Bell
South lot on Pickens Street, four blocks
north of campus, would probably also
stop at McMaster, Huggins said, pro
viding art students a closer place to catch
the shuttle than the current shuttle slop
more than a block away.
As for current problems, Huggins
provided few concrete solutions, but he
did say some ideas are being explored
- including the possibility of keeping the
shuttles running until 7 p.m. and then
asking Alpha Plii Omega escort service
to run a van until midnight to increase
safety.
In other business, the senate approved
a list of the courses to be offered by
the newly formed Department of Com
puter Science and Engineering. Course
descriptions that had been written for
those classes were not sent to a vole,
however.
Most computer science and com
puter engineering courses, formerly la
beled CSCI and EECE in the current
Undeigraduate Bulletin, will be replaced
with the CSCE designation, to denote
the consolidation of the two departments.
Faculty Senate see pace a
Bull Street garage
opens for free parking
by Phil Watson
Staff Writer
Parking services has opened the low
er level of the Bull Street garage for free
parking every day from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
If students have not moved their cars
by 7 a.m., they must pay a fine to get
out of the garage.
The lower level of the garage will
hold 250 can, but Director of Law En
forcement and Safety Ernie Ellis said the
bottom level only has about 170 cars
parked in it each night. He said the
majority of the can are moved by 7 a.m.
With approximately 80 spaces left each
night, lack of parking spaces in the garage
hasn’t been a problem.
“We opened the bottom level to be
sensitive to the needs of students; this
way, they will have some type of park
ing close to the dorms,” Ellis said. “We
lost a lot of parking in the second
phase of building housing facilities, so
this helps.”
A gravel parking lot was removed
in order to make room for the new South
Quad East dorm.
Most of the students who use the
lower level of the garage live in the Fra
ternity Quad or the South Area, Ellis
Parking seepage2
Weather Inside Datebook Online Poll Results
Tomy
61
' 47
Saturday
67
48
>
*
‘Cocks
fall to
Gators
87-67
Page 8
Friday
• Women’s tennis vs.
Clemson, 2 p.m.
• Spring Break begins
]
Saturday
MARCH * R°und Tabic Gaming
Society, noon to 11:45
[J, p m., RH
y
Do you feel safe on
campus?
40%-yes 60%-no
Look for next week’s question in
Monday’s edition of The Gamecock.
7