Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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_Carolina News _ Budget from page 1 In an interview, Ballentine said the committee had to look at what action they could defend if the NAACP allocation ended up in court. “That’s a question all the committee members had to ask themselves from a le gal standpoint,” Ballentine said. According to Ballentine, one of the committee’s concerns was that, while the Finance Committee could verify what the NAACP did with on-campus funding, the committee wouldn’t have any oversight of the NAACP’s national convention. “We cannot be 100 percent sure on what might happen at the national con vention,” Ballentine said. Fordham said the Finance Commit tee also found out that the organization didn’t have to attend the convention to remain a student chapter of the NAACP, contributing to their decision to revoke the organization’s general funding. Finance Committee member and pres ident-elect Jotaka Eaddy said she thought the organization could accept the com mittee’s decision. “I think the decision... was a decision that the NAACP is pleased with,” Eaddy said. However, there was no debate on the annual bill, which has caused contentious senate meetings in the past. The bill was approved unanimously. The largest allocation for a single or ganization is the Association for African American Students, which gets $2,060 under the bill. The College of Pharmacy’s student organizations get $3,830, which is split between the college’s student government, four student organizations, and a special projects fund. The college’s funding changed this year under a new bill passed by the senate. It is now similar to the fund ing system used for the Medical and Law School clubs, which are funded us ing 38 percent of their students’ activity fees; the College of Pharmacy now gets 38 percent of student activity fees from those students who are in their hist two years of Pharmacy school. Brown had to leave the senate meet ing early because of academic obligations and couldn’t be reached for comment as of press time. NAACP Pres. Douglas Wil son declined comment Wednesday. The senate also heard a bill that would add the coordination of Clean Carolina to the responsibilities of the Student Services Committee and another that would allow student senators who switch majors to con tinue to serve in an open seat in their new college, if the move is approved by the Powers and Responsibilities Committee. The senate will vote on those mea sures next week. Faculty Senate from page 1 The courses will be offered beginning this fall. The senate Curricula and Courses Committee found that some courses in the new department overlapped significantly in content and description. These will be combined or dropped altogether, while one class - CSCE 245, Object-Ori ented Program Techniques - is being added. Other classes whose content overlap, such as CSCE 211, 212 and 213, are being kept on an interim basis. Provost Jerry Odom said the search is continuing for deans in five colleges on campus—the School of Music, the College of Education, the Darla Moore School of Business, the Col lege of Engineering and Information Technology, and the Col lege of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management. None of the searches appears to be close to completion, though. The business school has gone without a dean for nine months, and some fear the long-lasting vacancy could lead to a potential loss of accreditation. “The search committee had a conference call with a can didate (for business dean) early this week,” Odom said. “I think they have two more of those sessions planned before we bring someoneio campus.” The search has just begun for a new College of Journalism and Mass Communications dean, a post vacated last month by Judy VanSlyke Turk. Parking . from page 1 said. Ellis said when the lower level was first opened last semester. Parking Ser vices officials went to nearby dorms and told the residents of this new parking option. The free parking also gives off-cam pus students who drive to campus to use the library in the evenings a place to park. Security in the free parking level is the same as the rest of the garage, Ellis said. USC Police patrols it as they do all other garages on campus. There are also cameras in the exits and entrances of the garage. The security of ficers at the front desk monitor these cam eras all night long, Ellis said. Some students see the opening of the garage as a step toward alleviating the park ing problem on campus. “Opening the lower level of the Bull Street garage is definitely a good thing,” said Stu dent Government President-elect Jotaka Eaddy. “I like the fact that students have a place to park their cars close to theirdorms from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.,” she said. “I think this shows that Parking Services is attempting to seek a solution to the park ing problems on campus. I would like to see other garages on campus do this as well, maybe even extend the hours in the morning.” Ellis said, “Right now it’s working out very good. ’’ Ellis also said that Parking Services didn’t look at opening up the bottom lev el of the Bull Street garage in terms of financial loss, but in terms of what would help alleviate some of the parking prob lems on campus. College aid increasingly going to wealthier students, study shows College Press Exchange Washington—Colleges and universi ties are giving about three-fourths of their grants to middle- and upper-income stu dents, regardless of financial need, ac cording to a new study in the Journal of Student Financial Aid. From 1989 to 1995, the amount of aid grants — whether based on need or not — increased for all income groups, the study found. But total grants for high income students soared by 62 percent - about tliree times the 22 percent increase for middle-income students and almost four times the 16 percent growth rate for low-income students. “Any money that goes to merit aid is going to come at the expense of need based aid,” said Donald Heller, an asso ciate education professor at the Uni versity of Michigan who co-authored the study with Thomas Laird, a doctoral stu dent at the university. The trend reflects the growth of “tu ition discounting” or “merit aid,” where institutions offer annual grants ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 to attract acade mically superior students regardless of need This practice is supposed to gen erate revenue and attract better students, which, in turn, helps to recruit more pres tigious faculty. However, when coupled with recent tuition tax breaks for the middle class and a shift in federal student aid from need-based grants to loans, merit aid fur ther reduces money available to help low-income families finance skyrocket ing undergraduate education. “Colleges and universities are turn ing their backs on the principle of meet ing financial need as they adopt programs, such as merit aid, that are aimed mainly at more affluent students,” Michael McPherson, president of Macalester Col lege in St. Paul, Minn., recently told a U.S. Senate committee. In addition, because higher-income students typically perform better on stan dardized tests, as studies have shown, Heller said merit aid recipients tend to be more affluent, and most probably would attend college with or without aid. “If we’re concerned about who goes to college, it makes absolutely no sense at all to give money to a student to en roll if he or she is going to go to college anyway,” Heller said. But Kathy Kurz, vice president of Scannell & Kurz, an education consult ing firm in Pittsford, N.Y., disagrees. Many parents, regardless of income, are worried about how to pay for college tuition, which has risen much faster than median household income and the rate of inflation, Kurz said. Merit aid is tar geted not only at top students, but also at those from families with incomes where a discount of several thousand dollars may affect their choice of college. As more schools offer merit aid, com petitors are pressured to do the same or risk losing students, Kurz said. Colleges fmd the financial advan tages of merit aid equally compelling. In stead of giving a needy low-income student a $30,000 full scholarship that generates no revenue, an institution can give the same amount - $5,000 apiece to six merit aid students - and reap the remaining tuition from all six. Many schools use the additional revenue to pay for other need-based aid, said Tun Chris tensen, director of planning with die Na tional Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “So that's a small investment with a large return,” Christensen said. Students in no rush to commit to candidates by Julie Chen College Press Exchange Austin—You know what they say about assuming things — it makes an ass out of “u” and me. So, what might that mean for this year’s presidential campaigns? In short: just because George W. Bush is from Texas doesn’t mean all college students in Texas are for him. Ditto for students in Tennessee, campaign headquarters for Vice President A1 Gore; students in Ari zona, home of Sen. John McCain; and students in New Jersey, ground-central for former Sen. Bill Bradley. Many students have dismissed the notion of home-state advantage, pre ferring instead to vote for whomever they consider the best man for the job. They are staunchly standing beliind trail ing candidates and even shelling money out of their own pockets to spearhead groups with no affiliation to a national campaign. Among them is Michael Lieberman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, who thumbed his nose at Bush mid has emptied his meager wallet to co found “Longhorns for Bradley.” Orga nized hist semester, Longhorns for Bradley officially kicked off this semester but has yet to see any massive influx of Bradley supporters. Liebennmi admits the first meeting was a near “disaster” but remains confident that time mid informative ses sions hold the answers - not free food. “It’s a little condescending to try to attract students with pizza and beer,” Liebemtan said. “We believe [students] are smarter than that. If you put the is sues on the table and explain their im portance, then students will come.” It’s with similar confidence in their peers and a vision for change that Nick Ellmger and Brian Patrick Benda, college stu dents in Tennessee, Gore’s home state, have teamed to back McCain. “Character has a lot to do with it,” said Ellinger, co-chairman of Tennessee Students for McCain and a political science graduate working on his MBA at Vanderbilt University, where Gore also took a few classes. 100% All White Breast Meat • 99% Fat Free (butterbau* _ v'v...w . TurkeyBreast | BUY ONE LB., GET ONE LB.| B 29 oz.-34.98 oz. Assorted Varieties BI-LO Self-Rising Pizza SAVE *238on 2 bonCS&j® 5.5 oz. Assorted Varieties Lay’s Potato Chips IBUY ONE, GET ONEI wrrum rr V» 11 nUU I /-. - Jjjwg . |bpnS?arp RETAl Limit Eight 2 Liters With $10 Additional Purchase. _ '-— Other Purchases At Regular Retail.