Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Carolina News Comparing Carouna from page A1 as well as three graduate courses; and Florida requires four cours es for an associate of arts degree with honors or high honor. Ten nessee and UNC don’t require honors courses to graduate with honors; graduating with honors for a four-year degree is decid ed by individual colleges at Florida. Three of the colleges surveyed have honors housing: USC, Clemson and Florida. Georgia recommends certain halls for its honors students, while Tennessee gives honors students pri ority registration. UNC has no honors housing. Standards for admission USC’s standards for admission aren’t set in stone. While stu dents would be “competitive” for admission to the Honors Col lege with a 1300 SAT and 3.0 GPA, it doesn’t mean they will be automatically admitted to the college, Honors College Dean Peter Sederberg said. “It’s not, ‘Let’s admit everyone who meets a benchmark,”’ Sederberg said. He cited Clemson as an example of a school that admits everyone who meets certain standards. This year, Sederbeig said, that led to the program to admit 200 more students than was ex pected. “That has a tremendous impact on the functioning of your program,” Sederbeig said. Other schools also have fluid standards for admissions: Geor gia uses past examples to advise students on who might be in vited to join the honors program, while UNC admits the top 200 students from the school’s incoming freshman class. All of the universities surveyed also allow enrolled students to join later in their college careers. USC has a waiting list, while other schools require a minimum GPA. UNC encourages stu dents to join after their freshman year, since standards for first year admission are high. Clemson has a sliding scale for freshmen to join the hon ors program their freshman year. A student in the top 10 per cent of his class needs between a 1340 and 1350 on the SAT to be admitted. A student in the top 25 percent, on the other hand, needs a 1450 SAT score to get in. Graduating ‘with honors’ All of the colleges surveyed require senior theses or pro jects in some cases, though some of the colleges only require this for departmental honors. Clemson requires 14 hours of honors courses to be taken; students must get an A or a B in the course for it to count to ward the total. No more than eight of the 14 hours can be earned in any one discipline. Students must have a 3.4 GPA to gradu ate with honors. Florida requires students to take four honors courses to get an associate of arts degree with honors or high honors after two years; to graduate with honors after four years, students must complete requirements set by various colleges. These re quirements can include a thesis, an interview with a commit tee, a sem&iar or a combination of the three. Geotgia requires students to maintain a 3.3 GPA both cu mulatively and in honors courses. Students must take three grad uate courses and complete a senior thesis. UNC requires students to keep a 3.2 GPA to the end of their junior year. Then, students can participate in a senior thesis. A student may do this regardless of whether he’s an honors stu slpnf as they maintain a 3.5 GPA, regardless ol whether he s enrolled in the honors program. USC requires students to complete 45 hours of honors work — by far the highest of any of the colleges surveyed — com plete a senior thesis and maintain a 3.3 GPA. Sederbeig said the 45-hour requirement is one of the high est he’s seen. Avoiding an ‘explosion* According to Sederbeig, USC and UNC are the only col leges of those surveyed to avoid rapid growth over the past few years. “We’ve really had controlled growth,” Sederbeig said. He said the USC Honors College’s number of incoming freshmen grew from 175 applicants to around 250 applicants from 1993 to 1997, and has stayed there since. UNC has grown to just 200 applicants from about the same number. Clemson, on the other hand, had 600 students enter its pro gram this year, after expecting 350 to join. Georgia and Clem son also experienced rapid growth, according to Sederberg. “They had an explosion this year,” Sederbeig said. He said rapid growth usually raises one or two of three is sues: a drop in the quality of students, a drop in the quality of the program or an increase in resources. “That [rapid growth] begs the question: What are they of fering their students?” Sederbeig said. Top Ten? USC was one of three universities surveyed to have its hon ors program ranked as “excellent” in the 1994 Ivy League Programs at State School Prices. Only 10 programs in the na tion received the designation. According to Sederbeig, the survey hasn’t been repeated since. Sederbeig warned that the survey figures might be inaccu rate; only one university from each state, usually the flagship school, was reviewed for the book. He said that led to problems in states like Arizona, where the flagship school — Arizona Uni versity — has a weaker program than another school in the state — Arizona State University. However, Sederbeig seemed to agree with one of the book’s conclusions. “I like to think that we’re certainly in the lop 10,” Seder beig said. He said the school was “arguably” in the top five. The best of both worlds’ According to Sederberg, the Honors College is meant to provide “the best of both worlds” for students, providing the at mosphere of a liberal arts college at a research university. Sederbeig said evidence of the approach can be seen in such aspects of honors life as housing. All dorms that have honors housing, with the exception of Maxcy, also have non-honors housing. Another sign of the “both worlds” approach is the fact that most honors students take three honors courses per semester for their first year, then one or two courses per semester in their remaining years. He said the approach was an implied promise given to stu dents when they enroll in the college. “The most important thing we can do is honor the implied contract,” Sederbeig said “We’ve attracted them because of the promise we’ve made,” he said. Tennessee allows students to graduate with honors as long Video poker ban survives court test by Richard Carelli Associated Press' Washington—The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with South Carolina’s scheduled July 1 ban of video gambling, i $2.8-billion-a-year industry in that state. The justices, without comment Mon lay, rejected an appeal that challenged the way the ban was approved last year. The appeal had been filed by Joytime Distributors & Amusement Co., a Dreenville-based corporation that owns 164 video gambling machines in several :ounties. “We thought it was a substantial issue hat at some time the court needs to look it,” Joytime lawyer Gaston Fairey said. ‘We’re disappointed that the court chose jot to do it.” The South Carolina General Assern >ly last summer passed the ban on video gambling unless a majority of voters in a ilanned November referendum approved ontinued payouts from the machines. The South Carolina Supreme Court truck down the referendum, ruling that he General Assembly had violated the state constitution by delegating its deci sion-making power. But the state’s high est court upheld other parts of the law, ef fectively ending video gambling as of July 1. “1 do not believe we left any loop holes in the law to give them an extend ed life,” said Rep. Terry Haskins, R Greenville, who wrote the bill. After unsuccessfully seeking the state court’s reconsideration, lawyers for Joy time filed the appeal acted on Monday. “The court below infringed funda mental First Amendment freedoms of the South Carolina electorate by first enjoin ing the referendum on video gaming and then itself deciding that such gaming should be outlawed,” the appeal said. The amendment protects freedom of speech and the right to petition the gov ernment. The state court wrongly views voters “no differently from an administrative agency,” and therefore “submission of a legislative matter to referendum is for bidden,” the appeal added. State Attorney General Charlie Con don and his staff uiged the justices to re ject Joytime’s appeal. Tliey noted that the First Amendment argument never was raised when the case was before the state Supreme Court. The state’s lawyers also atgued that no First Amendment violation occurred. “The Supreme Court has correctly ruled that video poker is a state matter and should be dealt with by the state of South Carolina, not the federal courts,” Condon said. “This state’s long video pok er nightmare is over.” Gov. Jim Hodges said he was not sur prised by the ruling because “I believed all along this was a state matter for the state of South Carolina to work out.” Columbia lawyer Richard Gergel helped set the state court’s action in mo tion with a federal court lawsuit against the industry by people who said they were addicted gamblers. That case, which remains pending, led to enforcement of a $ 125 daily payout cap that prompted video gambling operators to first seek help from the Legislature and to support the referendum. Alike rethinks donation to University of Oregon College Press Exchange Eugene, Ore. - The University of Ore on’s plans to join the Wforker Rights Con ortiuni, an anti-sweatshop group, have rompted Phil Knight, chairman of Jike Inc., to rethink a multimillion gift j help renovate the university’s stadium. Knight, an alumnus of UO, was plan ing to donate or raise $30 million toward le $80 million stadium project, but ap ;irently changed his mind last week af :r university officials announced their ecision to join the consortium. In a state lcnt, Nike said it wouldn’t discuss Knight’s private philanthropy." While Oregon of cials confirmed that Knight had made a formal pledges, they also said they were ft with the distinct impression that he anted to be significiuitly involved with ie project. _ Nike, based in Beaverton, Ore., has doggedly opposed the consortium, which is made up primarily of students and la bor groups bent on excluding apparel man ufacturers from the organization’s power structure. Nike favors the Fair Labor Association, which evolved from meet ings between apparel makers and the U.S. Labor Department and considers about 130 universities among its members. “The WRC is a loosely formed orga nization whose operating tenets include a ‘gotcha monitoring’ system and an ambiguous living-wage provision,” the Nike Web site states. “Neither Nike nor any of our competitors can even join the WRC because they exclude companies from participating in their process—which we believe demonstrates the lack of depth and commitment to serious reform of fac tory conditions. “The U. of 0., despite its unique re lationship with Nike and Phil, is free to align itself with the WRC,” the statement continued. “However, it does not mean that we are required to support those ef forts with which we have fundamental disagreements.” Consortium supporters maintain that the only ways to objectively monitor man ufacturers’ working conditions is to have outside sources do the monitoring— and by keeping manufacturers off the group’s governing board. In the past couple of months, Nike has moved to end its contract to supply uniforms and equipment for Brown Uni versity’s men’s and women’s hockey teams after that institution also pledged to join the WRC. Oregon University decided to join the consortium two weeks ago after a year of deliberations and voles by stu dent government leaders and the univer sity senate. •^fie (7VROUNA vVLUMNI ASSOCIATION Salutes OUR Ul Graduation Fair Thursday, April 27, 2000 11:30 am-1:30 pm Alumni House Garden Official Ring Ceremony Honoring Juniors and Seniors •9 who have purchased m l m a class ring. Thursday, May 4, 2000 2-3 pm Rutledge Chapel Graduation Gala Friday, May 5, 2000 8-11 pm The Zone at Williams-Brice Stadium $15/person; families welcome Call 777-4111 for more information.