The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 28, 2001, Image 1
_Vol. 94, No. 60 Wednesd February 28, 2001_•_
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t Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08
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STUDENT GOVERNMENT
VP runoff election starts today
SG runoff
■ WHEN:
9 a.m. today to
5 pm Thursday
■ WHERE:
’ http://vip.sc.eclu
■ WHO:
Freshman Council
Adviser Nithya
Bala and Sen.
Nathan White
by Cristy Infinger
The Gamecock
Another week, another election.
Student Government Freshman Council
Adviser Nithya Bala and Sen. Nathan While
are headed down the final stretch of the
SG vice-presidential election.
Students can vote at http://vip.sc.edu
from 9 a.m. today to 5 p.m. Thursday.
“We are wearing our green shirts all
week,” Bala said. Those shirts carry her
slogan, “Keep it Simple.”
White’s campaign is also out in lull force
this week. Supporters will be sporting red
shirts with “Make it Complex” printed on
the back.
The candidates have been preparing for
weeks for Thursday’s announcement of who
will be SG’s next vice president. A cutthroat
campaign filled with infractions and tense
debates will come to an end with this week’s
runoff.
Bala received 44 percent in the first vote,
while White received 22 percent Sen. Brian
Hunter, with 20 percent of the vote, and
Institutional Affairs DirectorAdam Bourne,
with 13 percent, were defeated in the first
round.
Bala said her plans for this week are
nearly parallel to those of last week.
“We had previously spoken to around
50 organizations and plan to go back again
this week,” Bala said. “I want to make sure
that my original voters are coming back again
this week to vote and to know that there is
a runoff.” -
White said this week’s effort would be
even more intense.
“We didn’t really campaign much last
week because we were pretty confident about
getting a spot in the runoff. It was important
to save our energy and resources,” White
said. “We just want to make sure that
everyone knows to vote.”
Infractions haven’t been uncommon in
this year’s election, and another was filed
on Monday. White received an infraction
for having a spontaneous meeting with Sen.
Chris Odom about his campaign.
White blamed a Bala supporter for filing
the violation that led to the infraction.
Vice President seepages
City Hall Resignations
Coble says
shake-up
not linked
,to probes
by Charles Prashaw
The Gamecock
A city manager and an assistant city
manager have resigned after two recent
scandals, but city officials have said there
is no connection between the scandals and
the resignations.
City Manager Mike Bierman
announced his resignation this past week,
and Assistant City Manager Charles
Williams announced he would be resigning
soon. Neither offered a detailed explanation
for his departure.
For now, Williams hasn’t been
replaced, but Bierman’s job has been filled
by Leona Plaugh. Plaugh is Columbia’s
* first female city manager.
Coble called the resignations “mutual
agreements” and said they had nothing to
do with the two recent controversies that
have come out of the city manager’s office.
One of the controversies includes a
recent formal investigation into the city
manager s office because oi allegations
that city officials had cleared a Gty Council
member’s overdue city water and garbage
bills.
The bills, which belonged to City
Council member E W. Cromartie D, were
cleared without explanation. The more
than $1,000 in alleged overdue bills was
connected to Cromartie’s private business
and his private home on Haskill Avenue.
The allegations have persuaded city
officials to bring in independent
investigators who are looking to see
whether any wrongdoing was involved in
the paying or the possible clearing of the
city bills.
The other city conflict involved a golf
course being built in the Washington
Heights neighborhood. Earlier this year,
it was discovered that as many as 300
mental health patients were buried where
the golf course was being constructed.
Construction has been put on hold,
and state archaeologists have begun to
exhume the bodies.
Critics have questioned the practices
' of the city manager’s office, saying that if
a records check of the golf course site had
been done sooner, officials would have
known about the bodies.
The city desk can be reached at
gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com
SPRUCING UP: Callcott undergoes a facelift
Valerie Matchette/The Gamecock
The Callcott Social Sciences Center will undergo renovations starting Monday. The department of geography, which Is housed In
Callcott, will move from the building until the facelift Is completed. The university expects the renovation to be complete by January.
Changes at Callcott
■ Department of geography
prepares for move to Jones
Physical Science Center as
Callcott renovations begin
by Adam Clark
The Gamecock
The department of geography is getting packed
for its move next week from the Callcott Social Sciences
Center while the building undergoes an extensive
renovation project.
Construction will start this Monday, according to
Director of Construction Services Ed Bass. While
renovations are taking place, the department of
geography will be moved to the Jones Physical Science
Center.
“We had to create space on the sixth and seventh
floors [of Jones] to move the department so renovations
can begin,” Bass said.
Callcott, which was built in 1955 and last renovated
in 1978, won’t look much different on the outside after
the renovation, Bass said.
“Wfe’re not really changing the outside appearance;
it will still be brick,” Bass said. “But we are adding
new windows, which will make the building look
better.”
According to Project Manager of Construction
Services Fred Scott, the renovations should be finished
by January.
Faculty and students in the geography department
said they think the renovations will be beneficial,
but they’ve said having to move out of the building
has been a drawback.
“It’s an inconvenience now, but the long-term
benefits are good,” associate professor Helen Power
said.
Though the department will be moved to the Jones
Physical Science Center, the department’s classes will
be held in various campus buildings.
Graduate student Cindy Kolomechuk is worried
this could affect the unity of the department.
“Since the classes are going to be spread throughout
campus, the department might lose cohesion,” she
said.
The timing of the move is a stressful element,
Kolomechuk said.
“1 feel it is very inconvenient for us to move in
the middle of a semester. Things might get lost,”
Kolomechuk said.
Kevin Remington, campus Geographic Information
Systems coordinator, thinks moving a department mid
Horseshoe
Greene
Blossom
Brad Walters/The Gamecock
semester is especially hard because of the computer
services the department provides.
“We have people depending on us everywhere,
and we will not be able to provide information on the
Internet while we are moving,” Remington said.
“To have to bring down all the computer systems
during the middle of the semester and bring them back
up with no downtime really makes it hard.”
The university desk can be reached at
gamecockudesk@hotmail.com
Weather Coming Up Quote of the Day Online Poll
Today
58
44
Thursday
62
° <47
Results from
the SG vice
presidential
runoff
“Don’t take life too
seriously. You’ll never
get out of it alive.”
— Elbert Hubbard
Should Eddie Fogler keep
his job as head basketball
coach after this season?
Vote at www.dailygamecock.com.
Results will be published Friday. f
Honors
students
might see
extra fees
by Mary Hartney
The Gamecock
The South Carolina Honors College
might impose a $50 fee on current students
and a $100 fee on incoming students,
according to Honors College Dean
Peter Sederberg.
Sederberg talked about the fee proposal
at a forum last Wednesday. The meeting
was the second of two student forums
Sederberg has held about the possible fee,
which would be charged to South Carolina
Honors College students starting next fall.
Sederberg emphasized that the fee is
still only a proposal and must be approved
through several outlets before it can be
enacted. USC’s board of trustees wouldn’t
approve the proposal until June, after it’s
approved for consideration by President
John Palms and Provost Jerry Odom.
“But I am not waiting until June to
tell students what the score is,” Sederberg
said of the forums.
He said the idea to enact the fee began
as an intellectual inquiry for him, because
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country have a similar “user fee.” But with
looming budget cuts, he said the fee appears
necessary.
The proposed fee would chaige current
Honors College students $50 and new
students $100 per semester. The funds
would go toward “maintaining the integrity
of the college,” Sedeibeig said. That would
include staff salaries, course development,
field trips, a budget for the student Honors
Council, scholarships and research
fellowships. The exact figures assume the
college won’t see a cut to its $ 1.2 million
budget, according to Sedeibeig.
“I feel fairly confident that I know Hie
basic dimensions [of the fee], plus or minus,
but some things always pop up at you,”
Sedeibeig said.
Sedeibeig said in-state students have
seen the fee as relatively nominal, but that
some out-of-state students have found it
to be quite serious.
Aaron Hark, a third-year Honors
College student from West Vuginia in the
College of Engineering and Information
Technology, took issue with the idea
that the money would go toward more
scholarships and fellowships.
“For students who are on a free ride
and can get more fellowships, it is like
they are being paid to go to college,” he
said. “In tight times, you shouldn’t be
giving away money."
narK said ne wasn i completely
opposed to the fee, however.
“1 just feel like we are going to get
‘fee-ed’ to death next year,” Hark said.
Tom Spackman, a second-year Honors
College student in the School of Music,
said he only gets to take a few honors
classes per semester because the college
is only beginning to offer honors music
courses. He said he wouldn’t see many
benefits from the fee.
“As a music major, I have a particular
problem, but as a whole, the fee would be
necessary in helping the Honors College
to prosper, particularly if we have the
budget cuts,” said Spackman, an out-of
state student.
Sedeibeig said he will frame something
in the next week for the president and
provost to review.
The university desk can be reached at
gamecockudesk@hotmail.com