Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Vol. 93, No. 74 March 20, 2000_ na Community since 1Q08 www.gamecock.sc.edu University of South Carolina Columbia, $.c. Anderson reflects on vice presidency by Brandon Larrabee Associate News Editor He admits he was nervous. “I sweat bullets,” said Brandon Anderson, look ing back on the last year. He had good reason. As Student Government vice president, Anderson presided Anderson over a uuu urUl" visive issues ranging from Che Confederate flag to the attempted impeachment of SG Treasurer Elizabeth Fordham. The senate hal contentious debates over everything from fund ing for the College of Pharmacy to whether a sen ator should be able to more easily switch senate seats when switching colleges. At times, it might have seemed like things were falling apart. When the Court of Impeachment an nounced its decision to dismiss all charges against Fordham, the senate ended up adjourning over the objections of several senators, while others ques tioned the impartiality of Parliamentarian Austin Brown. One senator walked out of senate after sen • ators decided to vote on a resolution calling for the flag’s removal. “They [the senators] were just exploding,” An derson said. Anderson admitted that he likes to wear a smile. “I’m just a very positive person,” he said. But when it came to the senate, things changed “When I hit that gavel, it’s strictly business,” he said. Anderson said he left personal feelings behind in his job. “You leave everything personal behind and do what you think is best for the student body,” he said. But Anderson said it wasn’t always easy being fair. “It’s hard,” he said. “It’s real hard. You have to be the bad guy sometime.” However, Anderson said some of his favorite moments came when issues like the flag were de bated. “They were like the best and the worst,” he said. For his handling of senate’s more tense mo ments, he gained the respect of senators who were admittedly skeptical of him at first. “I was extremely pessimistic,” said Adam Dawkins, co-chairman of the senate Judiciary Com mittee. Dawkins said Anderson didn’t strike him as professional enough to lead the senate. But that has changed. “Brandon is someone I have come to respect a lot,” Dawkins said. “He has set an entirely new standard for future vice presidents,” he said. Sen. Corey Ford, vice president-elect for the 2000-2001 school year, also commended Ander son on his performance. “1 think he did a very good job,” Ford said. Ford pointed to Anderson’s ability to handle tense issues like the impeachment ordeal. “He really shone through with, being able to keep us together, especially afterwards, and being able to keep the ball rolling,” Ford said. Keeping the senate together wasn’t one of An derson’s stated goals when he was elected in Feb ruary 1999. He said he wanted to develop rela tionships with senators and administration and the Anderson see pact 2 ■ 1 fraternity house fire kills three students by George Strawley Associated Press Bloomsburg, Pa. - A fire in an d-campus fraternity house near Blooms ,,Ulg University killed three people ear y Sunday, while others jumped to safety in their underwear from a second-story window. Six male fraternity members were sleeping in the Tau Kappa Epsilon house when the fire broke out about 6 am. Three managed to get out safely, university spokesman Jut) Hollister said. Hollister said it was loo soon to tell whether die bodies were those of die miss ing students. He said the victims would be identified through dental records. “It didn't set in with me until I went down to the scene,” said Jason Starling, a member of the university’s Kappa Al pha Psi fraternity. “You had people out there camping out. You had the (surviv ing) brothers out there.” The cause of the fire was not imme diately dear. The two-story wooden house is located in a hilly neighborhood about two blocks from campus. ^uuenis in sweaismns nud died in small groups and talked quietly as fire officials and construction equipment sifted through still-smoking ruins. A neigh boring white three-story home was scorched, and police said it sustained se vere damage inside. Bloomsburg university President Jes s'Ca Kozloff said ihe building was own^ h-v ll,e fraternity and had been maintained v ell. She said the university had revised its procedures to offer education and train ing for off-campus students alter a fraler_ nity house fire ^ 1994 killed five students. “These ate young adults who do make decisions on their own about their lifestyle and where they re going t0 five,” Kozloff said. We can t protect them from every thing.” City officials cleared ule house for oc cupancy after noting a do^ cotie vio]a. tions in October, including a bai^ miss. ing from a smoke detector, five electrical ' Balers being run on an inadequate e]ec_ trical system, a missing doorknob anq ^ empty fire extinguisher, said code en forcement officer Dean Van Blohn. He said the violations had been corrected by 'ate January. The house was required lo have three smoke detectors, Van Biohn said. “l ean assure you that if wediscover mat this occurred because orany negij. gence - we will certainly take Measures to make sure it doesn’t happen .. Kozloff said. ^ ’ [ St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Five Points -—— Am* Goulding Photo Editor ln P** PO,ntS 0,1 Saturday- More than 70*000 People took part in the 18th annual St Patrick's aoe leb*ftlon' ^Ich feafored 16 bands, four stages and more than 20 food vendors on Harden, Devine and Saluda streets. Everyone a9e 17 and over bought a $5 wristband for admission to the festival. everyone SG gets Coliseum tunnel renovated by kelly Haggerty Assistant News Editor After years of talk, Student Govern ment finally managed to paint over the decades- old design and years-old graffiti ln the underground tunnel that connects the School of Law to the Carolina Coli seum. Freshman Council and other SG mem bers began the project last weekend, which Director of Special Projects Timothy Clardy called a kihd of “spirit tunnel.” When completed, the iunne| wi|| have common university graphics on both walls, primarily painted in garnet and black! One side of the tunnel will have “Uni versity of South Carolina” in script fol ■owed by the university seal and palmet to tree graphic, as well as gamecock ^Phics. The other side will display a time me of the six to eight different mascot CC* umes Used at the university through ou e years as well as the written word Gamecock'Both walls will feature im ages of the Horseshoe gates. “I made it my personal goal to put in to effect what Student Government has always wanted to do,” Clardy said. “Ever since I’ve been at this university, there’s hoon talk about renovating the tunnel, and it’s never been done." Clardy said he and some SG members looked through university pamphlets and magazines to find the graphics to use in the tunnel. He likened the project to coi ning a coloring book, saying that SG sim ply Had to paint between the lines after the graphics were projected onto the wall. Business freshman David Bomemann, one of the painters, said the trick was keep ing a steady hand. “Normally on a Saturday and Sunday, 1 don’t do much until night, so it’s not so bad working down here,” Bomemann said. “It’s actually pretty encouraging seeing so many people out here instead of sleep ing.” Electrical engineering freshman Kath leen Young said she continued to paint be cause she was procrastinating on doing homework. However, she said loved paint ing the tunnel. “This looks great so far,” Young said. “I remember when I came for ori entation and had to walk through the tun nel. I was like, ‘Oh man, these worms are gross.’” The worms Young referred to were a part of the previous design on one wall of the tunnel that featured six-foot-long waves in all colors. University architect Charles Jeffcoat said he couldn’t be sure, but he believed the art department painted the wall sometime in the 1960s or ‘70s. Since then, he said, graffiti artists have embell ished the existing design as well as cov ering the entire other wall with their own designs. Jeffcoat said the graffiti might have made students wary of walking through the tunnel. “It gives a sense that the environment is not safe,” he said. “It’s like every graffiti artist in town has left their mark in the tunnel. It’s des perately in need of repair and repainting.” Gerald Goings, assistant director for facilities management, said it had been seven to eight years since the tunnel had been repainted, the typical amount of time between paintings. USC is responsible for painting over the graffiti and touching up the design. Goings said SG was the first student organization to request painting the tun nel. He worked with the campus paint Tummel SEE PAGE 2 ‘I made it my personal goal to put into effect what Student Government has always wanted to do.’ Timothy Clardy SG director of special projects Companies targeted for profiting from slavery Staff Reports Associated Press A New York attorney whose great great-grandmother was a slave in South Carolina says Aetna Inc. and other busi nesses that profited from slavery should be made to pay. Daedria Farmer-Paellman, who spoke with The State for a story in Sunday edi tions, said Aetna is first on a long list of businesses — including textile, banking and steel firms — that she’ll target for apologies and reparations. Farmer-Paellman wants Aetna to do nate $ 1 billion to set up a foundation ben efiting minority education and business es. She said other businesses that benefited from slavery should also contribute to the foundation. Aetna, based in Hartford, Conn., apol ogized earlier this month for selling policies in the 1850s that reimbursed slave owners for financial losses when their slaves died. The South Carolina Histori cal Society has one of the Aetna policies, dated Aug. 11, 1856. Aetna spokeswoman Joyce Oberdorf said her company would balk at paying reparations, noting slavery was not illegal when the policies were issued. “It’s un clear whether we ever made a dime on that,” she said. Tom Baker, director of the Insurance Law Center at the University of Con necticut School of Law, said it was a com mon practice to guarantee slaves, includ ing insuring them as cargo on ocean voyages. “It’s never very pleasant to think about with 20th century eyes, but Aetna wasn’t unique in that regard,” Baker said. “When you had a slave economy, it infected many facets of economic life.” A host of German companies paid reparations to Holocaust victims for their use of Jewish labor during World War II, and European insurance companies have been sued by relatives of Holocaust vic tims for failing to pay life insurance claims. The pursuit of private American com panies for slavery reparations is rare, but Farmer-Paellman said she planed to meet with a group experienced at seeking Holo caust reparations. Farmer-Paellman’s efforts are forcing U.S. companies to grapple with their pasts. She already has asked FleetBoston Fi nancial Corp. to explain its relationship to a predecessor bank, Provident Bank, which profited from slave trafficking, she said. “This money made by the original company has benefited the current com pany,” Farmer-Paellman said. “In a sense, they have been unjustly enriched. The fact Reparations vp otrs 9 □-1 lOO\Y 58 49 Tuesday 75 53 Gamecocks ’ undefeated streak ends at 22 games Page 8 Monday • The Gamecock, 4 p.m., RH333 • Fraternity Council, 4 p.m., RH 322/326 • Sorority Council, 5 p.m., RH 322/326 • CP, 3:30 p.m. h Tuesday • AAAS, 6 p.m., RH The ater • S.C. Student Legisla ture, 9 p.m. • RHA, 7 p.m., RH 307 • Spring Board, 5:30 p.m. • FOCUS, 8:15 p.m., Women’s Club Are salaries for USC employees equitable across the departments? Vote at www.gamecock.sc.edu. Results will be published Friday.