Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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__Carolina News Elections from page A1 to build off that. I’m looking forward to leading the organization next year.” Liberal arts freshman Erica Sutton de feated biology sophomore Devin Christo pher for vice president. “I’m excited about the new year,” Sutton said. “I’m glad the associatidn be lieved in what I was saying. I guess they’re confident I can do the job.” Engineering sophomore Thelisha Casey will be the next secretary, politi cal science sophomore Shana Swain will be treasurer and computer information systems sophomore Stephen Matthews will be parliamentarian. Each candidate ran unopposed. Candidates were nominated at the meeting prior to the elections and had to fill out an application. Members who weren’t nominated could have applied, as welL All candidates had to be in good academic standing. I At the March 21 meeting, candidates gavt three- to five-minute speeches. AAAS members then had one hour to vote by ballot. For the first time, elections were held in conjunction with a cookout on the Rus sell House patio. Members ate chicken fingers and wings while voting. Organizations out of the Office of Multicultural Affairs also set up tables on the patio during the elections in hopes of gaining AAAS members awareness about their group. Current AAAS President Felicia Rich butg said the event paralleled the Wel come Back Cookout normally held in the fall, and that the event had a “pretty good” turnout. ‘Typically during spring semester, we lose the activity of our members,” Rich burg said. “We decided we would do this to bring people out. Wfe wanted to make suite as many people voted as possible.” The installation of new executive of ficers will take place at one of AAAS’s April meetings. Gridlock from page 1 According to USC Parking Direc tor Derrick Huggins, the university is trying “to give our students good park ing spaces.” “We’re just being sensitive to our students,” Huggins said of the lower prices at USC. USC also has one of the lowest fines for parking tickets. USC fines a student $5 for letting a parking meter run out. Florida also charges $5. UNC charges $15 for the first ticket, $5 for each sub sequent hour and another $25 if the car is left at the meter for more than 24 hours. Clemson charges $10 for the violation, $60 for “habitual offenders,” and $69 for towing and impounding a vehicle. Georgia charges $10. Tennessee charges $42. USC also does better at the ratio of parking spaces to the number of students. The university has almost 450 spaces for every thousand students, though there are only about 300 park ing decals per thousand students. The highest student to spaces ratio was found at Clemson, which had more than 750 spaces per thousand students. Other schools oversell their park ing lots. Florida, for example, has about 300 spaces open to students for every one thousand students attending the uni versity. But the number of decals sold is over 450 per thousand students. Huggins said not all USC students park in the university’s lots. He said many park in private lots and metered lots owned by Columbia. About 7,000 to 8,000 students at the university have parking decals or park in garages, Hug gins said. He also pointed out that different class times affect how many students are parking. Many commuters will have all MWF or TTH classes, Huggins said. “Everybody’s not coming to cam pus at the same time,” he said. According to Huggins, the univer sity does plan on improving its parking system. He said the university is im proving its transit system by acquiring larger buses with air conditioning, as well as forming a partnership with SCE&G. He said the Columbia trolley will also start running through cam pus. Huggins also said parking services is planning on increasing the frequency of shuttlecock rides. “Wfe’re not building parking garages,” Huggins said. “Wfe’re just enhancing our perimeter lots and also our shuttle sys tem.” He said the new system would al low students to “utilize the program a lot better.” Huggins said more spaces would be available when the Arena opens. He said 3,000 or more parking spaces could be created with the new system. Huggins said USC was comparing well with oth er schools across the region. COCKSTOCK from page 1 community. Beezer’s Sandwich Shop, Stakeout and Dominos Pizza will provide food for the event, while Loose Lucy’s, All tel, Collegeclub.com and Fun Fun Tan and Wrap wiU set up booths to sell mer chandise and provide information about their companies. “I just hope this adds a little spice to the spring semester,” CP member Vickie Benet said. Albright and a group of about sev en volunteers have been organizing the concert since the fall, working with a budget of almost $ 17,000. “It was a lot of work planning for this event... some people might not re alize how much goes into something like this,” said Benet, who was among the group of concert-planners. “Just book ing Gran Torino to headline the concert was a lot by itself.” Other concert events that CP has helped bring to USC include Jump Lit tle Children during Welcome Week in August and the Goo Goo Dolls in No vember at the Township Auditorium. Cockstock will go on rain or shine, Albright said BASED ON THE NATIONAL BEST-SELLING NOVEL , Opens Friday, March 31 At,Theatres Everywhere i News Commentary Driviri 'Slick Willie' Joel Sawyer is a senior | political science major. He can b« reached at: joel_sawyer ©hotmail.com Wednes day, President Clinton visited Columbia to at tend a dinner for Rep. James Clybum, D-S.C, at Allen Univer sity. Ihaveno idea what he said. I was outside die whole time beside a Ford E350 conversion van, waiting for the dinner to be over. My journal istic instinct was overcome oy tne op portunity to drive in President Clinton’s motorcade. My neighbor, who works for the De mocratic Party, asked me Sunday night if I wanted to drive in the motorcade Wednesday night. I didn’t even know the President was coming to town at the time. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse The next day I was contacted by Xavier Hughes, the White House mo torcade coordinator. Xavier explained the job; wear a suit, follow the car in front of you, do what the Secret Service tells you to do, and I’d get an autographed picture of me with the President. Cool The drivers, four of which were USC students, met at the Clarion hotel on Wednesday afternoon at 1:30. Vfe drove to the Columbia Metropolitan Airport and proceeded to the rental counter. And don’t worry taxpayers - the US Gov ernment rents from Budget. At first, I drove an Astro minivan. All the vehicles were labeled according to their function and lined up. Mine was marked “Control” and lined up first “Oh yeah, baby,” I thought “This is the im portant one.” AH the drivers were issued securi ty pins with A-9 clearance. A-9 essen tially means you can go to the bathroom without someone watching you. Wfe drove the motorcade to the air port fire station for a security sweep ol the vehicles (and the drivers). On the way over, a secret, service agent named Joe jumped in the car to cfirect me where to go. “You live this sh#t, don’t you?” Joe asked. “Yeah,” I said. “But can I get one oi those ear tilings?” I didn’t I sat in the Control vehicle while it was being outfitted with lots of com munications equipment. “Excuse me - what does the Con trol car do?” I asked someone who was wiring up the van. She told me to ask the secret service. Another Lady handed me a package. “Make sure the mil-aide gets this,” she stud “What’s a mil-aide?” “The military aide,” she said. “Oh.” \\fe assembled the motorcade on the landing strip and waited for Air Force One. Contrary to popular belief, Air Force One is not one plane; it’s what ever plane the President is on. The big plane most people call “Air Force One" is too big to land at the airport. When the plane landed, an agent ap proached me. “Maybe I can find out about this ‘Control Car’ business,” 1 thought “Sir. Step out of the car. This is sealed package vehicle,” the agent said. “This is the car I was assigned to dri ve,” I respond, feeling my importance being stripped away. “Sir, I’ll be driving this vehicle. You’ll have to ride with someone else," he stated firmly. He also re-emphasized that it was a sealed package vehicle, like that should ring some bell for me. “Oh. Well, uh, make sure the ‘mil aide’ gets this package,” I said, trying to sound like I knew what was going on. ' I ended up riding shotgun in the lo cal press van. The 20-something vehi cle motorcade sped away from the air port, down the interstate and into down town. All traffic was cleared so that we could proceed unimpeded by motorists and pesky red lights. Clinton and Clybum supporters lined the streets. A few weren't fens. One man at the comer of Bull and Thylor held a yellow sign that simply said “LIAR.” Some pro-life supporters displayed an ti-abortion signs. But by and large, the majority of attendees cheered with sup port. Before the dinner, the drivers were hurried in for pictures with the Presi dent. Wfe were lined up like kids in the cafeteria on Salisbury steak day. “Hey, man,” said Bill Clinton as we shook hands, I expected something a lit tle more ‘presidential,’ but he’d already shaken lots of hands for lots of pictures. During the dinner, the drivers milled around outside. Wfe ate little boxed lunch es without the benefit of forks. I asked Xavier for one, but fa had more impor tant things to do than to keep us dri vers from getting potato salad on our fin gen. After the function ended, everyone piled back into their vehicles. I got to drive this time. As we left Allen and turned the first comer, the motorcade stopped suddenly. “We’ve got an OTR!" someone yelled .All the press people jumped from the vans and ran to die front of the mo torcade. While my driving partner and I won dered what the heck and OTR was, Xavier ran down the line, telling us to • stay in the cars. Then, a minute later, the press people came stampeding back to wards the vans. OTR stands for ‘off the record;’ the President made an un scheduled stop to shake some hands, and, of course, everyone wanted a picture. The motorcade rolled back to the landing strip, and everyone piled back onto the planes. Wj turned in our vehi cles and went back to the hotel. Every one was a little exhausted, but relieved that everything went off without a hitch. 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