Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Carolina News New student group encourages voting by Charles Prashaw Senior Writer To prove students care about voting, a group of USC students have recently formed Students for \foter Participation. SVP’s goal is to get more college stuents to take part in elections. The new group, which has 10 mem-! bers, plans to set up registration tables on Greene Street during Earth Week, which runs from April 16 through April 22. SVP will also sponsor guest speak ers and make students aware of the lack of voter turnout. In addition, SVP plans to be active next semester before the presidential elections in November. According to the group’s founder, international business senior Sven Gerz er, college students are historically among the lowest percentage of registered vot ers. “This is a pretty important thing, and when I saw how low the statistics were for college students, I thought we should do something, about it,” Gerzer said. “Only about 35 percent of students vote.” Gerzer pointed to statistics to prove his point.In the 1998 general election, where just more than two million South Carolinians registered to vote, but only about half of those registered voters ac tually voted. Also, voter participation has dropped nationwide with each pres idential election since 1960. Most people believe their vote doesn’t count, but there are plenty of examples throughout history where just a few votes have made the difference, Gerzer said. He said that, in 1776, one vote made English the official language instead of German; in 1923, Adolf Hitler became leader of the Nazi party by one vote; Texas, California, Oregon, and Wash ington all became states within thin mar gins; John F. Kennedy won the 1960 elec tion by less than one vote per precinct, and only 5 percent of Russians brought the Communist Party to power in 1918. Gerzer believes these substantial changes could also be made in South Car olina, if college students would vote. Sout Carolina, which is 46th in the nation in Voter turn out, makes it easy for college students to register. They can either claim their campus address as their permanent address or vote on an absentee ballot from their home county. Also, there is no length of residency requirement in South Carolina; therefore, in order to vote in an election, the only requirement is that you’re registered 30 days before the next semester. At the group’s first meeting in Gam brell Hall, they elected their officers. The SVP officers are Vice President, busi ness freshman Maggie McAllister; Trea surer criminal justice sophomore Jason Summers and Secretary international business sophomore Sarah Schoenek. The group is still looking for other members. For more information, stu dents can e-mail SVPUSC@yahoo.com. SG from page 1 men to be appointed to the council. She also accepted an amendment that took out a provision requiring the Student Gov ernment president to appoint the Fresh man Council adviser within a week of tak ing office, as well as an amendment clarifying the role of the Powers and Responsibilities Committee in the se lection of a new Freshman Council ad viser if the adviser resigns. However, Floyd rejected an amend ment proposed by Sen. Bryan Hunter, who served on Freshman Council. Hunter wanted to strike language in the consti tution that would prohibit the Freshman Council adviser from participating in the selection process. Hunter said the amendment was nec essary to make sure questions were asked of the applicants for Freshman Council. Hunter said that, when he was a member of the selection committee, the commit tee often had no questions, but the adviser did. But opponents of the amendment said it wasn’t the responsibility of the advis er to ask questions of the applicants. “I think the adviser’s job is to sit in the comer and make sure nothing goes wrong,” said Sen. Christy Stauffer, also a former member of Freshman Council. She said the selection committee was “in competent” if it couldn’t come up with questions on its own. Stauffer also said one of the current Freshman Council advisers told her the adviser had never asked a question. Hunter’s amendment was defeated after the senate split evenly, and Ford vot ed against it. The constitution itself passed 23-12. Sen. Tyson Nettles abstained. And, upon the request of sponsor and Judiciary Committee Chairman Austin Brown, the senate tabled a bill that would have changed the elections codes to prevent the attorney general from rul ing on his own appeals. Currently, appeals of election infrac tions handed down by the Elections Com mission go to the attorney general before going to the Office of Student and Alum ni Services. Brown’s bill would send an appeal by the attorney general running for another office directly to the Office of Student and Alumni Services. Brown said the bill should be tabled because it directly conflicted with SG’s own rules, which require any changes to the elections codes to be approved by the elections commissioner and the elections commission. SG President Jotaka Eaddy has already appointed Angie Alpert elections com missioner, but the commission won’t be appointed until next semester. The senate also overwhelmingly rat ified Ford’s choice for senate clerk, An gela Malek. Earth Week from page 1 can receive a prize package by taking a short quiz. Each participant will go to five of the 30 featured tables to find the an swers to environmental questions. They can also eat earth-friendly snacks, such as barbecued tofu and other oiganic and veg etable based foods. Damu Smith’s keynote address will be given at 7:30 p.m, after the celebra tion has ended. Smith will speak in Gam brell room 153 about environmental racism and how people of color and the poor bear much of the burden of the nation’s pol lution, landfills and incinerators. “He’s such an incredible speaker. [His keynote address] is so relevant to every thing going on in South Carolina,” Van Wye said. She said the problem with environ mental racism is that minorities and the poor don’t have political power to stand up for themselves. They haven’t been properly informed of the risks they are subject to, and they haven’t been com pensated in any way. She said the quest for environmental justice has been on the rise since the ‘80s. Other influential environmental ac tivists during the week will include Tim Palmer with a landscape slide show, Holmes Rolston III with a lecture on environmental ethics and Geoige S^ berry with a marine-science semintm There will be two cleanups during the week, one at A.C. Moore Garden and one at Rocky Branch Creek. Also, the College of Engineering will sponsor Alternative Solutions, a presen tation of solar and other alternative-pow er cars, lawnmowers and other alterna tives to traditional power. The official Earth Day Celebration will take place April 22 at Finlay Park with a five-kilometer walk, live music and displays by non-profit environmental or ganizations. Amnesty from page 1 ly involved in efforts to increase death penalty awareness, labor rights (especial ly in Latin America) and with other hu man rights concerns. Cook said she plans, along with other USC students and Amnesty members, to attend the upcoming World Bank meeting in Washington, D.C., to protest against substandard labor con ditions. Flag from page 1 ident James Gallman. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said the national organization backs the state con ference’s decision. The Senate plan “adds insult to injury,” said Nelson Rivers, field operations director for the national organi zation and a former official in the South Carolina con ference. “They’re in a box,” shot back House W^ys and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, a Charleston Republican who supports the flag. The boycott won’t mean much without the flag on the dome, he said. The bill would remove the banner from the dome and place a similar, square battle flag behind an existing mon ument honoring Confederate soldiers on Statehouse grounds. The flag would fly on the north side of the Statehouse at Main and Gervais streets front a pole no taller than 20 feet. The bill also would remove the Confederate flags hanging in the House and Senate chambers, and would protect all monuments, memorials and buildings erected or named in honor of the Confederacy or civil rights move ment. “I don’t think putting it out here at Main and Ger vais will bring the kind of finality that we have all talked about,” said House Minority Leader Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg. But Democratic Sen. Darrell Jackson, who was a li aison between the National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People and Legislature in flag talks, said it is important that the flag will come down, not where it will go. Jackson previously was adamant that the flag not fly in front of the Statehouse or on the grounds. “You run the risk of trivializing the argument” to quibble over location, he said. Flag supporters don’t like the compromise either. “The Confederate flag is the symbol Christ and to vote to bring Christ down in this day and time when we need him now more than ever is a shame on the whole state,” said Maurice Bessinger, who owns the barbecu^ restaurant chain, Maurice’s Piggie Park. ^ House Republicans, many of whom support the flag, recognize a shift in public opinion. In 1994, the GOP put the issue on the primary ballot and three-quarters favored leaving it up. House Republicans in 1997 shot down an attempt to get the flag removed by one of their own, then Gov. David Beasley. Beasley lost to Democrat Jim Hodges a year later. “I think there’s a realization that long term this is harmful to our state,” said Wilkins, a flag supporter. “I think that’s persuaded many people to find an area of com promise. The boycott certainly has not been positive. The national attention we’ve gotten has not been positive. I think many of us feel now it’s time to bring closure to the issue.” Summer Get a head start on Fall Semester with Midlands Technical College. MTC has the scheduling options that will match your summer plans. Registration is going on now. Call 736-8324 , , for an updated class listing VO and registration dates w , @ Jo x Jl \ t J jh* MLjmH • wff * .<*1i&vii m «n~- t®Wil cm «■» 1 <m S kJBI 1 1 o - IT spiff flrSfEHB Jl 11, «*• f gyffP* ^ ir * «/ u m ,.ars