Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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t:he (Bamecock University ' Tuesday, Jan. 23 ■ Trespass after notice, Richland Medical Park 2. Lilian Hamilton, 75, told reporting officer J. Taylor she was just hanging around. After a records check, it was discovered she had been warned be fore to stay away from university property. She was arrested and transported to Richland County De tention Center. Mondays Jan. 22 ■ Nonsuspicious fire, outside Laborde. Uni versity employee Thomas Bachheit smelled some thing burning, and upon looking outside he noticed a fire in the trash can outside. Bachheit immedi ately grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the fire. City ' Wednesday, Jan. 24 ■ Larceny by trick, 7335 Gamers Ferry Road, Shoney’s. Cashier Ben Shante, 18, gave officers the following account: A male suspect in a red jacket and dark pants paid for his food, then proceeded to fool Shante. At first, the unknown subject gave Shante a $50 bill, then the suspect asked for the $50 back. The subject then gave the cashier a $5 bill, followed by another $50 bill. After confusing the cashier, the man asked for $100 in change, which the cashier gave him. The man then left the scene in an unknown direction. The reporting officer was R Legette. ■ Cruelty to animals, 4039 Maurice Ave. Den nis Floyd, 42, told police that one of his neighbors left dogs outside tied to a tree with no food or wa ter over the past several days. Floyd said the dogs were malnourished. Police are still investigating. ■ Larceny of trash can, 2514 Bratlon St. A man reported to police that someone stole his city issued blue trash can, a “herbie curbie,” from his back yard. It was the third trash can reported stolen this week to police. The reporting officer was C. Taylor ■ Disorderly conduct, 1100 Gervais St. A 23-year-old female told officer P. Purrio that her ex-boyffiend threw a beer can on her vehicle and threathened to kill her. The ex-boyfriend wasn’t ar rested. Tuesday, Jan. 23 ■ Indecent exposure, 1300 Arrowhead Road next to Rhame Elementary School. Witness reported seeing an unknown subject masturbating in front of children. A 19-year-old female called the police and reported the man was last seen heading west away from the school’s playground. The reporting officer was C. Taylor Police say boyfriend kidnaps USC worker by Charles Prashaw The Gamecock A USC employee was kidnapped from the Carolina Plaza by her live-in boyfriend Wednes day morning, according to USC police reports. The incident, which took place about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, was witnessed by at least two people and occurred in the front loading area of Carolina Plaza. Tony Wangness, 35, came to USC’s Divi sion of Human Resources, workplace of USC employee Sheala Renee Watts, 21. After what was described as both a physical and verbal confrontation, Whngness forced Witts into his green truck and drove away from the - scene. According to police, Watts had returned home, but they were still looking for Whngness, who is described as a white male with brown hair, 185 lbs. and is six feet tall. “The investigation is continuing and the sub ject (Wmgness) is still at laige,” Director of Law Enforcement Ernie Ellis said. According to a USC Police Department in cident report, the case is still open. Wangness hasn’t been formally charged with any crime. The incident report doesn’t say where Wfcng ness took Watts, but they both share the same address, 113 Wilma Ann Drive in Lexington. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the USCPD at 777-4215. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmaiLcom Battle over university’s budget heats up Palms to faculty: We will fight cuts by Brandon Larrabee The Gamecock USC President John Palms promised Wednes day to put up “a very good fight” to keep the uni versity’s budget from getting drastically slashed as the state passes its budget for fiscal year 2002. Palms’ comments to USC’s faculty came the day before he was to appear in front of the Higher Education Subcommittee of the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee. “To cut the source of enlightenment... is just not something that we’re going to accept without putting up a good fight,” he said. “We’re going to do all we can to continue to fight this and hopefully have zero cuts,” Palms said. He pointed to the university’s “performance funding” from the legislature, which is about 80 per cent of what the state’s formula says the university should receive. “In a sense, we have already absorbed a 20 percent cut, and that’s what we have been operat ing under,” Palms said. Palms said he thought the university was “one of the most efficiently run institutions in the coun try:” “I’m going to continue to talk about the mo mentum this institution has had,” Palms said of his pending meeting with the S.C. legislature. Palms also said the university’s fund raising could be hurt by deep cuts. “The people are not going to give if they think that the state is not going to do their part in sup porting higher education,” he said. Palms also talked about the freeze he’s imposed on university hiring, his first public comments on that action since he sent a memo Friday notifying USC administrators of the move. “The freeze was an appropriate, responsible ac tion to take,” he said. “We just have to... put every thing on the table, just in case.” He also spoke about the exception to the freeze. If a department believes a position is “mission crit ical,” it can make a request for that position to be filled. “We’ll just take it on a department, college by-college basis,” Palms said. Provost Jerry Odom said the faculty needs to remain positive in the face of the cuts. “Wfe don’t need to whine, we don’t need to pout, we don’t need to be confrontational with the gov emor or with the legislature,” Odom said. He said the decisions the university would be forced to make to respond to the budget cuts were “not decisions that we want to make, but decisions that we will have to make.” “Everything is on the table,” Odom said. “We will consider all options. We have to.” But Odom said he wasn’t sure how the univer sity would cover some of the proposed cuts. A 5 percent cut would drain $8 million dollars from USC, Odom said; a 15 percent cut would take $24 mil lion. “I don’t know where we’ll find that kind of mon ey,” he said. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Senate passes resolution condemning budget cuts by Charles Prashaw The Gamecock Student senate unanimously passed a resolution denouncing Gov. Jim Hodges’ recent announce ment calling for statewide budget cuts. The reso lution called the cuts “unfair to the students of USC.” The resolution also says the potential 15 per cent budget cuts for higher education are wrong, and the responsibility for compensating for the cuts would unfairly fall on the shoulders of college stu dents across the state. All 34 senators attending the meeting voted in favor of the resolution, which will be sent to Hodges, President Palms and all the major media outlets in the Columbia area. Only one senator spoke against the resolution. Liberal Arts senator Chrissy Stauffer, who ultimately voted in favor of the resolution, said the senate should be more proactive in the resolution by not just de nouncing the budget cuts. “These cuts aren’t just directed toward USC stu dents,” she said. “All govern ment agencies will be hurt by the proposed budget cuts.” In her remarks to the sen ate, Stauffer explained the pur pose behind the cuts, which includes the state’s potential $500 million shortfall. The shortfall will come because the state man t receive major amounts oi one-time mon ey, as they had over the past several years. And the growth in state revenue was only $75 million, al most half of previous year’s total. “There is no mistaking that the state needs to tighten its belt,” Stauffer said. “The blame for high er tuition cost shouldn’t be blamed solely on the elected officials.” Stauffer also said the administration at USC would be partially responsible for a tuition increase. After Stauffer spoke against the resolution, Pub lic Health senator Adam Musgrave noted that she had volunteered with the S.C. Democratic Party. “I think everybody 1 should be upset about [the bud- s get cuts],” Science and Math a senator Chris Odom said. “If t the state goes through with the cuts, then they aren’t placing v enough emphasis on education t past high school.” p Odom, who intro . . v aucea me resolution, saia ooutn Carolina was onng ing in new companies like BMW and Michelin Tires, and the only way for the state to retain its business 1 and bring in more is through higher education. “I thought our state was taking the right steps for better education with the Life Scholarships and ll with passing the lottery,” Odom said. “If these bud- v gets go through, it would be a giant step backwards.” li The resolution comes as Student Government plans to launch a lobbying effort — including a let- a ter-writing campaign — to fight the possible cuts, according to SG Vice President Corey Ford. Students should be able to pick up a standard :tter in the SG office beginning next week, Ford rid. Students can put their addresses on the letter, nd Student Government will use their ZIP codes ) find out who their representatives are. After a “substantial number”—probably some where between a few hundred and 1,000 — of let ;rs are collected, SG will take them to the State louse, Ford said. Ford said he thought the campaign would be successful. “I honestly believe that we will succeed and tere will not be a 15 percent cut in the department f education,” he said. But Ford also said the budget cuts wouldn’t have > be eliminated for SG to claim victory. He said he 'ould consider the effort a success if the cuts were iwer than 15 percent. “I personally realize that there probably will be cut, some kind of cut,” he said. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotniail.com Student Senate Budget from page 1 “Instead, for more than a decade and even in prosperous times, we have had to tighten our belts. And we have done so,” Palms said. He painted a grim picture of what would follow further cuts. “A cut of the proportion that has been suggest ed would devastate the university for years to come,” Palms said. “Across our eight campuses, we would have few options but to consider decreasing acade mic offerings and programs, eliminating faculty and staff positions and increasing tuition at all campus __ ” es. Subcommittee Chairman Tom Keegan, R-Hor ry, said the state had to be careful about tuition in creases. “Tuition raises are a real possibility, but we can’t price our students out of college,” Keegan said. Rep. Denny Neilson, D-Darlington, said she was concerned about possible tuition increases, such as the 32 percent increase Palms said would have to be instituted to cover a 15 percent cut. “I do not want to drastically increase tuition for students,” she said. -■in—— I —— Neilson said the presentations of all the state’s college and university presidents would be taken in- n to account when the subcommittee and the House it Whys and Means Committee begin hammering out v the budget later this year. d “Dr. Palms did a thorough job in presenting his case to us,” she said. “We’re now going to consider Sl all the information that he and other presidents have given us.” ® Rep. John Riser, R-Lexington, said he favored an agency-by-agency approach, as opposed to Hodges’ n plan, which slashes the budgets of all state agencies, _ except K-12, by 15 percent. “Some might get it, some might not,” he said. Provost Jerry Odom said he thought the com littee’s reaction to Palms’ presentation was “pos ive,” but he said he wasn’t reassured about the uni ersity’s fate concerning the budget process, noting le state still has budget problems. “I’m not,” he said. “Not yet. We really need to ;e how the state is going to solve this problem.” Odom also said he thinks there will be a bud ;t cut. “What we need to do is try very hard to mini iize the size of that cut,” he said. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Residents discuss minority profiling by Brooke Bryenton The Gamecock South Carolinians gathered Wednes day at the Blatt Building for an annual town meeting to testify about their own experiences of racial profiling, sometimes known as “Driving While Black.” Despite the ethnic implications of this code name for when a driver is stopped by the police because of skin color, the audience in attendance was of mixed eth nic backgrounds, including Asian, Cau casian, Latin and Native American. Thirty people testified at the meeting of more than 100 citizens. A panel con sisting of state Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland; Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott; De partment of Public Safety Director Boykin Rose; LaVeme Neal, executive director of the S.C. American Civil Liberties Union; and Dwight James of the NA ACP listened intently to the three-minute testimonies given oy concerned citizens. The speakers shared stories of being pulled.over for obscure reasons. A. C. Williams of Imio, a former member of the military and the sheriff’s department, recalled being pulled over while driving home from Fort Jackson. He said he was stopped because he was driving a new car. As a former policeman, he also remem bered questioning why checkpoints were always set up in black areas of town, but rarely in white neighborhoods. Another black man explained how he was stopped on Main Street twice with in three days for having an expired stick er on his license plate. Although he had the new sticker in his possession each time, it had been too cold to remove the cover over the plates to replace the sticker. Out of frustration, he put the new sticker on the outside of the cover, but that move upset the police officer even more. He says he reminds himself daily never to dri ve down Main Street at night, because, as a black man, there are too many things for which he might be stopped. “The fact of the matter is if you’re a person of color living in South Carolina or the United States, there are many law enforcement officials looking at you sus piciously,” James said. The city desk can be reached at gamecockdtydesk@hotmail.com Activists from page 1 as animal-free circuses,” Wells said Lexington County resident and ac tivist Jimmie Ewing, holding a sign that read “Circus = Animal Abuse,” said, “I want people to become aware that [cir cus animals] are fettered and confined for long periods of time. They are put in a very unnatural situation, and it shouldn’t be encouraged. I hope people will boy cott the circus and encourage trying to get animal-free circuses into town, like Cirque du Soleil.” “The USDA has filed over 100 com plaints (against Ringling] in violation of the Animal Welfare Act,” Modaresi con tinued. Doug and Dana, two Ringling circus workers who didn’t wish to reveal their last names, denied charges of animal abuse within the company. “The animals are well treated,” Doug said. “They get treated better than we do,” Dana said. Dana also said the Ringling trains, which transport the animals to shows across the country, aren’t allowed to travel more than 65 mph, and the trains make frequent water stops. They both said they had nev er seen the circus animals being treated in a cruel manner. While Eleanor Young, a circus-goer and S.C. resident, believed the activists had the right to protest, she didn’t agree with their beliefs. “I don’t think [Ringling Circus] would be here as long as they have been if they had been being cruel to ani mals,” she said. Circus officials declined to comment. The city desk can he reached at gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com Medicine from page 1 sent the bill to the senate. “I’ve had it in the back of my mind for a number of years,” Mescher said. He said the plan would combine the Columbia medical school with the Charleston site, which is larger and has its own hospital. Columbia’s cam pus works with several area hospitals, including Lexington Medical Center and Palmetto Baptist Medical Center. Other state lawmakers were doubt ful that the plan would come to fruition, including John Courson, R-Richland, of the Senate Education Committee, who likened the chances of a school reloca tion to the likelihood of a July snowfall in Columbia. He cited USC’s medical university as a primary research loca tion in the state, and asserted that any negative publicity would be detrimen tal to USC’s chances of being admitted to the prestigious AAU. Sen. Robert Waldrep, R-Anderson, agreed that closing the school would not be the best move the university could take. “At this time, I don’t believe that that’s a very good idea,” Waldrep said. “We need more doctors than we have. It would be great if we just have one fa cility turn out what we need.” He said that because the state and federal gov ernments had already made investments in the schools, neither one of them should be closed. Larry Faulkner, dean of USC’s School of Medicine, could not be reached by press time. The city desk can be reached at 3amecockcitydesk@hotmail.com Exodus from page 1 ing her discipling partner with those questions. Her partner’s response didn’t change her mind. ‘“You know, I really don’t know, but you seem really upset,”’ Melissa quoted her partner as saying. “Tm just worried about your... spiritual well being.’” Melissa wasn’t persuaded. Five days later, on a Saturday, Melis sa figured out what she wanted to say and left a message on the female leader’s answering machine. She never returned. Now, Melissa wants the group banned from campus. She said she’s not trying to get revenge, just protect others from what she experienced. “That is my only goal,” Melissa said. “It is not 100 percent vengeance, and as I said before. I’m not really angry, I’m more annoyed.... But my goal is to have as many people know about it on this campus and for South Carolina, for the University of South Carolina to enforce the rule that doesn’t allow peo ple to be solicited (to) on campus.” “That happened to me,” she said. “It should not have happened.” Meanwhile, Melissa has gone back to her old church, Northeast Presby terian. She said she’s helping get to gether a group for college students when they return from break. “That’s what, from the beginning, I wanted,” Melissa said. “I wanted peo ple that were serious, committed, who wanted to know more about the Bible and developing in their transition from teenagehood to young adulthood.” Now, maybe she can find it. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@holmail.coin