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VOL. 94, No. 26 Friday October 27, 2000_ WiBsXsamecock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 . """ " — — in 1.111 a "» "<"«■» .WWW.CAMECOCK.SC.EDU UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA COLUMBIA, S.C. - - ' / - < , ;-'"Ua’ Palms, provost address funding by Brandon Larrabee The Gamecock Questions about health care and stipends for graduate students, the con ditions of the university’s buildings and contaminated water dominated a Thurs day question-and-answer session be tween USC President John Palms, Provost Jerome Odom and graduate stu dents. Palms stressed the need for funds at the university and USC’s long-standing goal of entering the Association of American Universities, a group of pres tigious research universities. “They have the best faculty, the best libraries, they do most of the research that’s funded by federal money and they have the best graduate students,” Palms said. Palms also talked about the univer sity’s attempt to get more funding from the slate legislature, which currently funds the university at about 70 percent of what the university needs to run on, according to a formula used by the leg islature. The lack of funding at the state lev el impacts the funding for endowed chairs, named professorships and graduate fellowships, which arc im portant to the university’s aspirations, Palme cniH “We’re just not going to be able to become an AAU institution without re alizing this,” Palms said. One of the things the legislature did right, according to Palms, was to refuse to allow all the slate’s institutions to of fer Ph.D. programs. “This suite cannot afford, really can’t afford, three research institutions,” Palms said. Clcmson, USC and the Medical Uni versity of South Carolina are the suite’s three research institutions. Palms said they had teamed up to lobby the legis lature for more funding. “We’re in this thing together,” he said. “We’re sticking together. And we have a lot of political weight together.” One student wanted to know if con tacting legislators would help in the uni versity’s struggle for funding. Odom said the university had tried taking groups of students before the legislature. “They say it matters, but it doesn’t seem like it does when it comes time for action,” Palms said. Palms also faced questions about contaminated water at some ol the uni versity’s buildings, among them Hamil ton and Barnwell. One student said some water fountains in Barnwell had signs indi cating the water was contaminated with lead, but not all of the fountains were labeled. Palms said another one of the build ings where students said the water was contaminated was scheduled to be tom down. “Demolition,” Palms said of the building’s fate. “Don’t stay long.” Odom said he was unaware of the problems with the water, which stu dents said was contaminated with lead. “I was not aware of this, and 1 will look into Barnwell, Hamilton and Ben son,” Odom said. The university desk cun he reuchedut gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. Rolling Stone Unleashed Kevin Langston The Gamecock Students dance to “The Time Warp” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show" outside the Russell House yesterday as part of the Rolling Stone.com celebration. Governor addresses education 4t ■ Hodges discuss es school reform with USC students by Gina Caruso The Gamecock Governor Jim Hodges discussed teacher irtitiatives and educational sys tem reforms Thursday with USC ed ucation students. While sharing his vision for the fu ture of education in South Carolina during Dr. Richard Hult’s Education 401 class, Hodges asserted the abili ty to transform the slate lies in the hands of schools. “Where students excel, the qual ity of life is better,” he said. According to Hodges, the im provement will be a result of diverse thinking and a new focus on education rooted in parental and prc-kindcigartcn initiatives. He expressed great confi dence in pre-school programs and em phasized their reaping benefits. “The first step focuses on getting kids ready to start kindergarten,” Hodges said. He commended the use of the TEACH program that the state has adopted from North Carolina. “TEACH provides scholarships for people at child care centers who prepare youngsters in their charge for school,” Hodges said. In addition to focusing on the readi ness of children to Start school, Hodges stressed the importance of improving the conditions of public schools. He said many of the public schools are in poor shape. Hodges explained the acquisition of modern facilities and better work ing conditions are a key factor in the success of the reform. Furthermore, teachers who arc computer literate arc essential. Aside from renovations and pre school involvement, Hodges noted the necessity of not only experienced teachers, but new ones as well. “The median age of current teach ers in the state is 42 years. This means that within 5 to 7 years, 8 to 10 thou sand new teachers will be needed in Hodges see page 2 Improving student QUALITY AT CAROLINA This is the second article in a series by The Gamecock examining the goals the USC board of trustees recently agreed to try to achieve by 2005. by Brandon Larrabee The Gamecock Students are perhaps the most basic building blocks of a uni versity. They are a source of pur pose, funding and prestige. With the latter in mind, the university’s board of trustees in cluded five goals in the list of 24 they agreed to little more than a week ago. Three of these, achieving a mean SAT score of 1175, increasing Honors Col lege enrollment to 1,200 and enrolling 60 National Merit Scholarship winners a year, deal directly with student quality. But with new standards come concerns. Minority students don’t tend to do as well on stan dardized tests, according to a number of studies, and an effort to increase higher quality students :ould force South Carolina’s flagship university 10 look for more out-of-state students. The concern is particularly acute at a uni versity where nearly a quarter of undergraduate students arc minorities, including an African Amer ican population of 19.3 percent in 1999. Meanwhile, 87 percent of USC’s student pop ulation comes from in-state. Student Government Pres. Jotaka Eaddy said :onccms about the effects of the goals and mi norities were justified. “I think that’s a fair question,” Eaddy said. “I would hope lhal this university would make a conscious effort to keep the level of diversity at this university.” Eaddy also said the question about in-state students was one “that you would think about when dealing with this issue,” but pointed out the board had also committed to working to improve education at the K-12 level in South Carolina. USC officials said the goal for higher SAT scores wouldn’t necessarily lead to higher re quirements for those seeking admission to USC. Students see page 2 U.S. Senate approves health plan for military ■ Military health care package also includes pay raise by Alicia Ballard Tiii: Gamecock A new military health care pack age, including a pay increase, has been passed by the U.S. Senate. South Carolina Sen. Fritz Hollings announced Oct. 12 that the Senate passed the Department of Defense Au thorization bill for fiscal year 2001 by a vole of 90-3. Hollings voted to adopt the pro posal. The defense authorization bill includes several quality of life provi sions for military personnel, such as a 3.7 percent increase in pay. Also, it establishes a national health care program with a prescription drug benefit for Medicare-eligible military retirees who have served at least 20 years in active duty and are 65 years of age or older. Alter the age of 65, the responsi bility of health care for military re tirees fell to Medicare, a Hollings’ aide said. Health see page 3 Weather Inside Quote of the Day Datebook Today 78 61 Saturday 84 53 Spotlight takes a look ahead at Halloween Page 7 “If you don’t want anyone to know it, don’t do it.” — Chinese proverb Saturday I • Football vs. Tennessee, 1 p.m. • Great Gamecock Tail gate Party _ . . . SUNDAY —~j • Daylight-saving time ends (set clocks hack one hour) jgin • Wfomen’s Soccer v. Flori da