Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TEfie ©amecock Governor says pay increase, lottery to Improve education by Valerie Matchette The Gamecock Gov. Jim Hodges has outlined his po tentially ambitious plans for the legisla ture's next session, emphasizing plans to reduce state expenditures and raise teacher pay. “Work with me to downsize gov ernment,” Hodges said in a press release touting his goals. “Help me make the cuts necessary to pay for the legislature's past promises.” Hodges said one of the state's most ^Iportant priorities must be education. He stressed teacher pay as a focal point of improvement. “Even as we face a tough budget year, we must encourage excellence among South Carolina's teachers,” Hodges said. “With accountability in place, it is time to raise South Carolina teacher pay to the national average.” The salary rate for South Carolina's teachers, along with the state's SAT scores, has long beemamong the lowest in the nation. In 1998, the average national salary was $35,099, while South Caroli na's was $32,830, According to Senior Master Seigeant Earl Ware, who has been an ROTC in structor at Columbia High School for the past five years, a raise in teacher pay is long overdue. “Teachers are not being paid for what they do in the classroom,” Ware said, adding that South Carolina teachers' pay is “probably lowest on the scale,” and they deserve a salary increase due to their dedication and commitment. Ware also suggested another way to improve the state's educational standards, saying the state’s teachers should go through new training programs every couple of years or so to move into higher categories of pay. He said they should be rewarded with higher pay if they get their master's degree, for ex ample, or take computer science cours es. “That's a step they need to take in order to get more pay,” Ware said. Hodges lauded the newly passed state lottery as South Carolina's best means to improve education and said there are many possibilities for the funds it will provide. “Ratify the will of the people,” Hodges said. “The people of South Car olina have sent a clear message: we want an education lottery. We want it to pay for college scholarships, a free technical education for anyone at any age, free mas ter’s degrees for teachers and computers in the classroom.” Hodges went on to promise an effi ciently-run, well-used lottery for the state. “The people of South Carolina de serve the best-run education lottery in America,” Hodges said. “Work with me to give it to them.” The city/state desk can be reached at gamecockcftydesk@hotmail.com. --- Che (Bamecock is accepting applications for the spring semester. Pick them up in RH room 333. * USC's Athletic-Academic Department is seeking tutors for the Spring 2001 semester. Interested individuals, who are reliable with great communication skills and a desire to help others learn, please apply. Pay: $ 10.00/hour for graduate students Location: $ 7.50/hour for undergraduate students Contact: Hours: Sunday between 5pm-11 pm and Monday- Thursday 6pm - 11pm. (Flexible) ■ -- -■—-■ The Roost Academic Lnnchment tenter Billy Swanson, Tutor Coordinator 777-5284 Academic Enrichment Center - The Roost Find the Best Price on New and Pre-Owned Hondas www.rickhendrickhonda.com HONDA 791-5660 < 1650 Airport Boulevard • West Columbia, SC 29171 AN HISTORIC RESIDENCE Efficiency $445 One Bedroom $505 Two Bedroom $540 Rents include all utilities and cable TV. All rates quoted are month to month. (Leases available, prices subject to change) Located across from the University of South Carolina Horseshoe and the State Capital, Cornell Arms offers the premier location for downtown living. (803) 799-1442 1230 PENDLETON STREET jCOLUMBIA, SC 29201 The Gamecock launches new Web site for snrin? semester by Amanda Silva The Gamecock The Gamecock enters a new era to day as it launches its new Web site, www.dailygamecock.com. The site will be updated periodically over winter break with sports and entertainment sto ries and will be updated Monday through Friday in the spring semester. Gamecock editor-in-chief Brock Vergakis said he is expecting the site to be beneficial to the newspaper’s staff and readers. “Our staff will have an opportunity to work on real deadline pressure next semester, and that’s the type of expe rience that gets jobs and internships,” JL U Veigakis said. “And our readers will no longer have to wait two days to get their news. We hope to have the Web site updated by midnight Monday through Friday all semester.” Having the newspaper go online five days a week is part of a larger plan Veigakis has been working on over the past year. “This is just another step in the process, in which we hope to begin pub lishing five days a week in the fall of 2001,” Veigakis said. “There is no ques tion that USC needs to have a daily newspaper. Students need to get the prac tical experience that can’t be Obtained in the classroom, and this is the place to get it.” Other site features will include a link with movie listings, the return of an online, poll and a link to submit let ters to the editor. Veigakis said he also hopes to begin putting classified ads online, too.' “We want people to be able to. hunt for an apartment or a job without hav ing to leave their residence hall by go ing online,” Vergakis said. “We hope to provide as many services as possible for our readers, including providing a campus calendar in the spring where stu dent oiganizations can post information they want to get out to students.” The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. Federal crime statistics law might help students, parents by Gina Caruso The Gamecock A federal law passed last year that requires all colleges and universities to publicize their crime statistics might as sist potential students and their par ents in researching criminal offenses on campuses throughout the country. The Clery Act, an amendment to the 10-year-old law that required col leges and universities to compile a cam pus security report, was enacted by the parents of Jeanne Clery, following their daughter’s rape and murder in her col lege dormitory. USC Director of Law Enforcement Ernie Ellis favored this type of legisla tion and asserted that the University of South Carolina has and will continue to comply with it. "There is great validity to the law," he said. "We have been comply ing with it for years through a program in which we work together with SLED to make our crime statistics pub lic." As part of the law, schools are re quired to report crimes on campus along with those in off-campus buildings and on public property near the campus. The reports are then submitted to the Office of Post-secondary Education, which is responsible for posting them on their Campus Security Statistics Web site where prospective students and par ents can research them when selecting a school. Ellis said the site is already being used for this purpose and said it will be increasingly used for such reasons. "The more people learn about it, the more effective it will be," he said. According to the site, the report re quirement also says that by Oct. 1 of each year, schools must publish and dis tribute an annual campus security re port to all current students and em ployees. Also, schools are required to provide timely warning of these crimi nal offenses to ensure the safety of stu dents and employees and to prevent crimes of similar nature from occurring. Ellis noted that although the report requires some additional work, it is noth ing new to the university because USC has kept records and taken crime prevention seriously for years. "We employ an individual whose full time job is working on ways to pre vent crime," he said "The university is very interested in making crime pre vention a part of the entire education process." The university’s goals toward pro moting a crime-free environment can be seen posted on the Web. Com pared with other universities of its size, USC reported fewer on-campus bur glaries and aggravated assaults in 1999. Additionally, the university reported no hate crimes in the required posting years of 1997-99. Ellis was confident that the Clery Act would encourage colleges and uni versities across the nation to work hard er at preventing campus crime. "I think that part of the legislation’s intent serves to improve’ safety on cam pus as well as crime prevention train ing," he said. The Web site to access college and university crime statistics is www.ope.edgov/security. The city/state desk can be reached at gamecockcitydesk@hotmaiLcom. Senior awarded $500 in contest by Alicia Ballard The Gamecock Former Gamecock reporter Pete Johnson was awarded $500 from the South Carolina department of Mental Health for winning an essay contest spon sored by the de partment. Inis was the first year of the essay con test. Johnson was in his senior se mester as a print journalism major when a represen- JOHNSON tative visited one of his journalism classes to speak about mental illness. According to Johnson, his professor assigned stories about men tal illnesses. “I had to write two articles on the subject of mental health. I did a profile on someone with bipolar disorder and that is the one which won the essay con test,” Johnson said. This was the first writing competi tion Johnson had entered. “I never had thought I was that good of a writer. My professor made me en ter the contest,” he said. “I didn’t even think my essay was that good, but my professor felt it had a chance of win ning.” Johnson writes columns for the Gamecock, and will be graduating this month. After graduation, he plans to fmd a job in Columbia. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. w ■» w ▼ FREE OUTBACK BOWL \ PARTY BAGS TO 50 OF THE LAST PEOPLE IN ATTENDANCE! I* 3 #" 3Bosfcefcojff* ST°*M . * 3 Point Shoot Out nament begins 0t 8 * :zer. •*"» • iSt r"w° ^7: ■ ^Sr-sr-'55r*' c* OFFICE OF - I »1 M |[AI ti \ r ALCOHOL 4 I ^^Th^OfficiaPBookstor7qf7jSc\ N I PROGRAMS ' 140°GfW,leSl *RuSSCl1 H0UM *(803) 777~4160 * All activities are free and open to USC students only! Bring your valid student ID! ^ ^ Actual events may change due to funding or programmatic decisions. This event is paid for, in part, with student activity fees. C XL A aaAa A . . a - A _ A ..A.A a A a A a A . A - A a , aaAa A . aaAa A. aaAa A /