Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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<Che 6am crock Enrollment, value of education continue to increase by Katie Rawson The Gamecock The number of students attending college nationwide and the value of an undergraduate degree have both steadily increased in the past decade, according to Stuart Hunter of the Na tional Resource Center for the First Year Experience. Employers are raising the mini mum requirements for employment, which now makes a college degree almost mandatory for a job, Provost for Academic Affairs Stuart Hunter said. These changes have caused college enrollment to increase, Hunter said. Colleges have had to adjust to the increase in student population, but community colleges and less-selec tive colleges are able to admit more students than they could 30 years ago, Hunter said..Meanwhile, USC has been raising its admission Standards and is seeing a decline in enrollment. “In the big picture, USC is a se lective college,” Hunter said. “Be cause it is the state school and serves the citizens of the state, it is not the most highly selective. That’s not to say we don’t have students who could attend any college they chose. We are selective as opposed to open door schools.” With the population growth comes building and improving. At USC, Sloan College and other buildings are being renovated. Ground is being broken on the Greek Village and a new fitness facility. Services are constantly being im proved and added, according to Hunter. Vice President for Student and Alumni Services Dennis Pruitt said the improvements are an effort to re cruit more high-potential students. “Colleges, including USC, con tinue to expand services and facilities today because we are all competing for the students with the highest po tential for success,” Pruitt said. According to Hunter, student fa cilities and services haven’t over shadowed the importance of acade mics. “Academics [at USC] continue to increase in quality,” Hunter said. “I’ve been involved with students for 24 years. Every fall, I’m impressed with the continued rise in excellence. Students are expecting better, and they are getting better.” Pruitt said the increase in the num ber of students will continue. “In the next eight years, there will be more college students than ever before,” Pruitt said. “The com petition to get into top colleges and top programs will be at an alb-time high. We’ll have to wait and see what that does to the atmosphere of the college campus.” According to Hunter, in the fu ture, colleges will be faced with the challenge of deciding how to balance the importance of academics and stu dent services. “USC will always be the state in stitution,” Hunter said. “We will al ways serve a wide variety of students and programs. We will continue ed ucating the whole student.” Fire from page 1 Other fire hazards include a lack of adequate tenant separation in apart ment complexes and building con struction that enables fires to spread quickly. That’s what happened at Bri argate apartments off Broad River Road earlier this year when wooden stairways allowed fires to race through some buildings and trap third-floor tenants, Amick said. One solution is to install sprin kler systems in all area apartments, what Amick called “almost a cure all.” Columbia will adopt a revised safety code adhering to national fire safety standards in Jan. 2001, enabling the Fire Department to be more flex ible in preventing apartment fires. “The national code will allow us more leeway in the installation of sprinkler systems,” Amick said. “There are almost no fatalities in apart One death that continues to haunt Amick is that of a young woman who died in a fire at Tamarind Apartments off Greystone Boulevard this past summer. Amick said memories of her 911 call broke through whatever emo tional resistance he had built up over 23 years in fire service. “When you hear someone on the telephone begging for her life, plead ing, and you hear her take her last breath, it’s a feeling of helplessness and disparity,” Amick said. “We feel like we have failed.” That incident fueled Amick’s pas sion to educate the public and pre vent as many fires as possible. Once a building is in flames, he said, there’s only so much the Fire De partment can do. “We really do not have a window of opportunity to save someone in a burning structure,” Amick said. However, it’s not just lives at stake when an apartment fire breaks out. Amick said property damage and loss cently some damage and loss assess ments have gone as high as $800,000. For heavily insured apartment com plexes, the expenses are significant but recoverable. But for tenant sur vivors, the loss can be far more dev astating. During the summit, a video pre sentation chronicling 24 of Colum bia’s most recent fires revealed the effect an apartment fire could have on survivors. “You could see the pain on these people’s faces as they lost every thing they had built up in a lifetime,” Amick said. Ultimately, Amick said the re sponsibility of apartment fire pre vention rests in the tenants them selves. Each tenant should make it a personal mission to know how pre pared his or her neighbors are and to what extent the neighbor is edu- < cated on prevention. “Your highest level of safety in a building is going to be based on the least amount of fire safety,” Amick said. Assistant Fire Chief and Colum bia Fire Marshall John Reich said judg ing frorti the phone calls received yes terday, the summit was a success. He said several insurance companies have already called to discuss rate decreases of as much as 30 percent for com plexes installing sprinkler systems. And representatives of the Midlands Apartment Association have expressed interest in joining a fire safety task force being formed as a result of the summit. While Reich is optimistic, he said there is still much work to do. “It’s agreed by all parties on the [summit] panel that this is only the first step toward improvement,” Re ich said. Deadlines pending for competitive scholarships Highly prestigious and competitive, the Rhodes Scholarship presents an exceptional opportunity for a full fellowship for two, possibly three,0> years of study. The Rhodes recognizes altruism and superior intellect and provides for two years in any field at the University of Oxford. Awards include all tuition and fees (matriculation, tuition, laboratory fees, and oth er set chaiges), books, living expenses, and travel expenses to dnd from the U.S. Thirty-two Rhodes Scholarships are awarded annually. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and no older than 24 years of age in October 2000. Qual ifications include literary and scholarship ability, strong GPA, record of ser vice and leadership, knowledge of global issues, and physical vigor. An ap plicant must have achieved academic standing sufficiently advanced to assure euiiipieuun ui a Dauieiui s uegiee ueiuie wciuuei zuui. ruiuues candidates must be evaluated by a University committee for nomination. USC had its first Rhodes Scholar since 1983 this past year. Caroline Par ler, a chemical engineering major in the Honors College, will study at Oxford University beginning October 2000. The campus application deadline is Tuesday, Sept. 12. Contact the Of fice of Fellowships and Summer Programs at 777-0958. Fulbright Grants are available for graduate study in the arts, acade- # mics Students planning on professional training in the arts or graduate study should attend the Fulbright Grant Workshop on Wednesday, August 30 at 4 p.m. The workshop will be held in the Gressette Room on the third floor of Harper College. The annual competition for Fulbright Grants has opened for 2000-2001. Fulbrights are awarded to students who plan on graduate study abroad in academic fields or for professional training in the creative and performing arts. Since 1994, twelve USC students have won Fulbright Grants. The campus deadline for receipt of applications is Wednesday, Sept. 13, in the Fellowships Office. Applications will be reviewed by a campus faculty committee prior to being forwarded to the HE for the October dead i:_ U11&. The Fulbright promotes increased mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowl edge and skills. Applicants must be U.S. citizens at the time of applica tion and hold a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent by the beginning date of the grant. Creative and performing artists are not required to have a bach elor’s degree, but they must have four years of relevant training or study. Candidates in medicine must have a M.D. or equivalent (e.g., D.D.S., O.D., etc.) at the time of application. * Applicants should have sufficient proficiency in the language of the host country to carry out their proposed study or reasearch. Full grants pro vide round-trip international travel, maintenance for the tenture of the award, a research allowance and tuition waivers, if applicable. Travel grants provide round-trip international travel to the country where the students will pursue study or research. All grants include health and accident in surance. For more information, call the Fellowships Office at 777-0958. .. I Employers AIMCO Alabama Department of Transportation Alleqiance Healthcare Corporation Alltel Andersen Consulting APAC Customer Services, Inc. Applied Manufacturing Technologies ARAMARK ARAMARK Uniform Services Automated Trading Desk AVX Corporation Bank of America Bechtel Bettis Belk Department Stores BellSouth BellSouth Mobility DCS Blackbaud, Inc. Blanchard Machinery Company Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC Booz-Allen & Hamilton Bose Corp. Branch Banking and Trust Co. (BB&T) Broughton Hospital Buckeye International Burlington Industries Inc. C. H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. Carolina First Carolina Phone A r—v n I ! -Li __ _ . OCUUIIMC1 ruwci w i_iyi 11 vv/m^ai 1/ Chesterfield County Police Department Chick-fil-A, Inc. Cintas Corporation City Year ClubCorp Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company Columbia Area Mental Health Center Le Consolidated Graphics, Inc. Cooper Industries Delaware Department of Transportation DLJdirect Duke Energy Corporation Eagan, McAlister Associates, Inc. Earth Tech, Inc. Eastman Chemical Company N Eaton/Cutler-Hammer Edward Jones Enterprise Rent-a-Car Federal Bureau of Investigation Ferguson Enterprises Florida Highway Patrol Footaction USA N GE Supply Great Dane Trailers Great-West HwV Ci irniti iro P.nmnanioQ Inr Ullit A » Hilton Charlotte & Towers IKON Office Solutions IMIC Hotels International Paper Company JC Penney Kline Iron & Steel Co. Inc. Kington Medical Center Extended Care Lowe's Home Center Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC Mass Mutual Maxim Healthcare Services McLeod & Associates Michelin North America Microsoft lilhous, DeLoach, & Williamson, L.L.P. Milliken & Company Nan Ya Plastics Navy Civilian Jobs Navy Officer Programs NCR New Hope Treatment Centers orthwestern Mutual Financial NetwodK OLDE Discount Corporation » Onsite Companies V Peace Corps Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) Professional Service Industries, Inc. (PSI) Regional Acceptance Corporation Smith Regions Bank Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith's RJR Packaging Sapiens USA SCANA Corporation SC Army National Guard SC Department of Corrections SC Department of Mental Health SC Department of Mental Health Beckman Center SC Department of Public Safety SC Department of Revenue SC Department of Transportation SC Employment Security Commission SC Probation, Parole and Pardon Services SC State Career Center ScientificResearch Company SCT Sears, Roebuck, & Co. SMI Steel- South Carolina Sapp, Bookhout, Crumpler, & Callihan P.A./Nvision Business Consulting Software Architects, Inc. Solectron Technology, Inc. SONOCO Southern Company Square D Company Staples, Inc. State Farm Insurance TEKsystems She The Kroger Company The LPA Group The Sherwin Williams Company The Timken Company The Vanguard Group Toys "R" Us, Babies "R" Us Travelers Property Casualty TruGreen ChemLawn Tuomey Healthcare System Underwriters Laboratories Inc United Parcel Service United States Border Patrol US Army Health Care Recruiting USC-School of Medicine, HR USDA, APHIS, VS/PPQ Verizon Wireless Volvo Commercial Finance Wachovia Corporation Wallace ^ Wallace's Bookstores, Inc. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Westinghouse Electric Company louse Safety Management Solutions Westinghouse Savannah River Co. Westvaco Corporation Graduate & Professional Schools Armstrong Atlantic State University Ball State University Campbell University, Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law Clemson University Columbia College East Tennessee State University Florida State University School of International Studies Francis Marion University School of Information Studies Francis Marion University < Georgia Southern University Georgia State College of Law Howard University Howard University School of Law Mercer University School of Law MUSC - College of Dental Medicine MUSC - Graduate Studies Ohio Northern University College of Law Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Radford University Samford University Cumberland School of Law Savannah College of Art & Design t rman College of Straight Chiropractic Southern College of Optometry Stetson University The Citadel College of Graduate & Professional Studies University of Charleston, S.C. USC - College of Education USC - College of Library & Information Science USC - College of Nursing USC - College of Social Work USC - Office of the Pre-Professional Advising USC - School of Law USC - School of Medicine Over 100 Employers, Graduate Schools and Professional Programs will attend CAREER u CENTER For more Career Information Xtra Information: http://www.sc.edu/career/cfxtra/ 6th Floor, Close (BA) Building • M-F 8:30-5 • 777-7280_