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_ Vol. 94, No. 14 \)^edlieg<laySeptember 27, 2000_ ♦ ina Community since 1Q08 i_aBBnflmffffi .. z-——;■■■■.*. . him.. i Travis Lynn The Gamecock Officer James Bulger, standing, supervises the W. A. Perry Middle School KOBAN program, a venue for community Improvement KOBAN program to steer children away from crime * by Lindsey Marshall The Gamecock W. A. Perry Middle School opened its first KOBAN, or police mini-sta tion, in its school Sept. 15. Learning from the Japanese, whose country has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, KOBAN was re cently brought to Columbia to help the community combat children’s in volvement with crime. KOBAN is the Japanese word for “mini-station.” In Columbia, the KOBANs will serve as a safe haven and miniature police station where KOBAN staff, police officers and volunteers can form relationships, according to KOBAN spokesman Rudolph Hall. KOBAN “provides an alterna tive for kids to things out in the street,” Hall said. The program has strong partner ships with City Year and Columbia Housing Authority, its main sponsor. The Columbia Police Department, Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation, Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, Richland County School District One and Palmetto Baptist Health Alliance also support KOBAN, Hall said. There are five KOBAN locations around the Columbia area. The first, Gonzales Garden, opened in August 1995 and is in the Lyon Street com munity. in the late ivsus, the Milton Eisenhower Foundation was interest ed in the KORAN model and began to conduct studies on how to apply the original Japanese model to inner cities in the United States. “The foundation sponsored dele gations of police chiefs and commu nity leaders from inner-city youth de velopment organizations to travel abroad to study the Japanese system of police mini-stations and to gener ate ideas of how the system could be adopted here,” according to KORAN’s Web site. After studying the Japanese KORANs, representatives from the study brought back information and created the American version of the Japanese program. The first four KORANs opened in Columbia were created in communi ties. One is in a residential communi ty, but the other four are near schools and other community-based buildings. Hall said while the other attempts were successful, the organization was KOB AN SEE PAGE 3 'The greatest link to the community is through the school.’ Rudolph Hall Koban spokesman AAAS hosts discussion on sex, love by Amanda Silva The Gamecock Tuesday night’s Association of African-American Students meeting featured a discussion on personal re lationships, offering insight into the male and female perspectives on love, sex and commitment. AAAS members, who have been meeting since the beginning of the school year, were split according to gender—men on one side of the the ater, women on the other. This setting was appropriate to the debate-style atmosphere fueled by some of the questions offered by AAAS members. The discussion, headed by AAAS President Aisha Taylor, opened with general questions about relationships and the reasons men and women have for their actions and their thinking. All questions were directed to the members of AAAS, who were then allowed to comment or debate possi ble reasons, solutions and experiences. “Learn to respect yourself, and re member who you are. That is the on ly way you can love somebody else; you have to love yourself first,” said Student Body President Jotaka Eaddy in response to a question about what it takes to be committed. In addition to debating the issue of commitment, members addressed per sonal issues and questions, with the men answering the women’s questions and vice versa. According to Taylor, the meeting had increased attendance due to ad ditional publicity, but all of the meetings have had excellent atten dance. The first issue of “\bices of Col or,” the club’s newsletter, was dis tributed at the beginning of the meeting. According to Tina Brown, the newsletter serves as a medium of com munication not only for members of AAAS, but also for the whole African- - American community at USC. “Its purpose is to give students here at USC a voice to be heard through poetry, song, stories or informational articles,” Brown said. Upcoming AAAS events include a fashion show Oct. 30, Gospel Fest Nov. 5 and Step-Off 2000 Nov. 10. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmalLcom. Note takers needed for disabled students « —IBP _ MM — I Katie Davis The Gamecock Holly Selgler, a volunteer with the Office of Disability Services, assists fellow student Joey Thomas by putting notes In his bookbag. by Maggie Stewart The Gamecock In the midst of a shortage of par ticipants, the Office of Disability Ser vices is recruiting note takers and read ers to assist University of South Carolina students who are disabled or handicapped. Students who sign up to help on a semester basis are paid $5.15 an hour to take notes in their classes and record books on a tape, among other services. Only 6.3 percent of disabled stu dents in the United States are attend ing post-secondary institutions, ac cording to 1997 statistics published by the Digest of Education. At USC, 26,852 students are en rolled and 700 of those students are physically or mentally handicapped, according to a USC statistical sum mary. Many of these students need help in note-taking services, accord ing to the Office of Disability Services. Business graduate student Clay Jeffcoat said because of his visual impairment, he has come to rely on note-taking assistance. “Without the educational support and assistance this office provides to students like myself, it would be im possible for me to achieve my acade mic goals,” Jeffcoat said. “I have a vi sual impairment that prevents me from reading, and through the office’s ser vices, I can have someone read and record my textbooks onto a cassette.” Students seepages USC seeks speakers for 200th anniversary ■ Students, faculty embark on 'Search for Six' by Gina Caruso The Gamecock To mark the 10th anniversary of the Carolinian Creed and celebrate USC's bicentennial, Bicentennial Stu dent Events Committee and the Di vision of Student and Alumni Services is sponsoring a “Search for Six.” The program will identify and work to bring to USC six people who are most admired by students and whom students believe best exempli fy the Creed. The individuals will be chosen from the following categories: Art, Entertainment, Pop Culture and Sports; Business, Industry, Science, Technology and Medicine; Education, Literature and Media; Politics, Law, World Figures and Government; Re ligion and Alumni. Academic departments and stu dent organizations will form six teams representing each of the six categories. They will brainstorm a list of can didates for each category who clear ly demonstrate the ideals of the Car olinian Creed in their professional or personal lives. Once the people have been nominated, their names will be re leased to the student body, which will Six see page 4 APO, USC shuttle service search for equilibrium by Charles Prashaw The Gamecock When USC Parking Services brought back a long-ago abandoned evening shuttle service to campus, the fate of the Alpha Phi Omega es cort service was in limbo. ^ So much in doubt was the stu dent-run program that some Uni versity 101 professors told their stu dents APO wasn’t even operating this year. Additionally, inside the 40-mern ber APO service organization, mem bers started to hear rumors that Park ing Service Director Derrick Hug gins thought there wasn’t a need for the group anymore, a rumor that ul timately turned out to be false. “There is still a place for the escort service at USC,” APO Presi dent Joanna Atkins said. “Wfe are go ing to make a big push this semester to let everyone know that we are still running.” The APO escort service, which has been in operation for almost 10 years at USC, started soon after Park ing Services abandoned the old evening shuttle service. The coed Greek service organization operates a van that escorts students anywhere on campus from 8 p.m. to midnight, Sunday through Thursday. While the USC evening shuttle service runs Monday through Friday 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. and makes stops at Capstone/B.A. area, Bates area, Russell House, Carolina Coli seum, Byrnes building, Swearingen engineering building, Maxcy honors college residence hall, the Towers and Blatt P.E. Center, Huggins said the system is in the pilot stage. Parking Services will evaluate later whether to extend services to the weekend and to make more stops for the system, he added. The failure of the original evening shuttle was the great number of core parking spaces on campus, including parking near the center of campus, Huggins said. Recently, USC has de veloped a plan to replace core park ing with perimeter parking to make campus more pedestrian-friendly, a plan that Parking Services feels will one day make the evening shuttle more useful. “Of course there is still a distinct service APO can perform at USC,” Huggins said. “They have the ad vantage of going directly to where someone is and picking them up.” If someone is going from Cap stone to Thomas Cooper Library, he or she can use the evening shuttle. However, if they’re going from Cap AP(T SEE PAGE 3 Amy Goulding The Gamecock Sophomore Michael Forrest takes a turn behind the wheel for APO. Weather Inside Quote of the Day Datebook Wednesday 76 50 Thursday 72 48 Spotlight takes a look at Harvest Hope \ Page 8 Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government, too. Richard Nixon Wednesday • Last Lecture Series, 7 p.m. • Mitchell-Ruff Duo, Koger Center Thursday • NAACP, 6 p.m., Rus sell House 205 • Omicron Delta Kappa, 6 p.m., Russell House 315 • BASIC Theater, 6:30 • Mortar Board, 7 p.m., Russell House 315 Lr \