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_vol. 94, no. 62 Monday march 5,2001_ » Officials sav city’s crime rate down Lott Austin by Eugene Rodillo The Gamecock Though several recent occurences of violent crime in downtown Columbia have made the area appear crime-ridden, local law enforcement officials say crime rates have actually gone down. Columbia Chief of Police Charles Austin said the facts show that crime has gone down in the city, regardless of what anyone says. “Our year-end statistics reflect a 13 percent reduction in overall crime, and so far this year, we have recorded a 7 percent reduction on top of that,” Austin said. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott agreed, adding that area crime statistics are improving. “Overall, crime is going down. The numbers in all areas are going down, so crime is coming down,” Lott said. Austin hypothesized that students might feel crime has gone up because of a recent upswing of criminal activities near campus. Over winter break, USC student Daniel Duke was the victim of what police believe to be a hit and-run accident. The Buiger King near the USC Horseshoe was robbed and a stabbing occurred at the Elbow Room in February. A slew of armed robberies, carjackings and other assaults have also been reported near Five Points. “When there are high-profile incidents, especially when there may be a series of high profile incidents, then for that particular moment. it does give the impression that there is a surge or a major increase in crime,” Austin said. Lott agreed with Austin. Each said they thought people perceive crime as they see and hear of it. Lott said he thought the media also played a big part in public perception of crime. “They are focusing just on the crimes that they’re hearing about, maybe on campus. Most news media focus on blood-and-guts stories, so when you have a crime that they publicize a lot, and people get the perception that that’s going on all the time, when that’s really isolated cases,” Lott said. Nevertheless, Austin said he understood why Crime see page 2 SIGNING OFF: DJs at campus station forced to give up shows 1^—1i ■ 111 i I Ml P iiHII—1 Kenley Young/Special to The Gamecock Jill Coleman (left) and Camille Watkins broadcast their show, “Auditory Stimulation,” at the studio of WUSC-FM. As current students, Coleman and Walklns don't have to give up their time slot at the campus radio station. WUSC-FM alumni D Js lose time slots ■ Newly enforced policy forces alumni to give up working at campus station by Christoph Schulz The Gamecock The enforcement of a rediscovered USC Student Media policy has caused three alumni disc jockeys to lose their slots at WUSC-FM, the campus radio station. In accordance with the policy, all students, faculty and staff will get a chance for a radio slot as a DJ before alumni get the chance to be a DJ. According to station manager Taylor Marshall Green, the policy was discovered by Graduate Advisor Holly Harper and enforced by Director of Student Media Ellen Parsons. Though WUSC has lost three popular shows with the enforcement of the policy, Marshall Green isn’t worried about the future quality of the programming at WUSC. “We still have over 80 DJs. We are not falling down,” Marshall-Green said. “We have 12 shows a day, seven days a week. That means under 5 percent of our shows were lost.” However, Marshall-Green said he’s sad about the loss of experience and some of the intangible qualities the alumni brought to the radio station. “They were always showing up for shows, pulling a lol of effort and commitment in their shows,” Marshall-Green said. He said alumni always attend the station’s meetings, never miss shows, bring a lot of ideas into the station and usually have a lot of contacts with bands, labels and promoters. The alumni also brought some financial backing to WUSC, Marshall-Green said. WUSC is a chartered, non-commercial radio station — it isn’t allowed to take money for advertising but can only accept it for mentioning and thanking a sponsor. Marshall-Green said this money might be lost with the loss of the alumni DJs. “Businesses want to have a long-lasting relationship with the station,” he said. Mark Lyvers, an alumni DJ who lost his popular folk-music show “Red Bank Bar & Grill,” said he has hosted on-and-off since 1978 and continually since May 1997. “My only complaint is about the timing,” Lyvers said. “I have already collected underwriting worth $900.” Lyvers said he had no hard feelings toward the station. He said he will continue to help WUSC, starting March 10-17 when he will do his show over spring break. He also said he hopes to host his show again during the summer sessions. Bill Cunningham lost his Wednesday morning free-formal show, “The Rhythm System,” after working at WUSC for one year. Cunningham brought experience of working for a commercial radio station based in Augusta, Ga. He said, though he liked hosting his own show, he wouldn’t return to commercial work. “College radio is a lot more about the music,” he said. “You can play music you don’t normally hear on radio.” WUSC also lost a nationally syndicated show, Making Contact, with the layoff of DJ Rob McQue. McQue said a non-commercial radio station should not only educate through music, but also work as an alternative. He isn’t angry with WUSC, but put the blame of the exclusion of alumni DJs mainly on the administration. “They were taking it too far to the letter of the law,” McQue said. “If you want some kind of diversity, you need some show hosted by alumni.” All three alumni DJs said they agreed with students getting a slot first, but that alumni should get a chance as well to help out in the station with their experience. The university desk can be reached at gam ecockudesk@hotmail.com Drop Date Extension » « Committee to consider proposal ■ Faculty senate won't take up plan until April at the earliest by Brandon Larrabee The Gamecock Student Government’s proposal to extend the drop date won’t reach faculty senate until at least April, tfie chairman of the committee said. Gary Reeves, who chairs the Committee on Standards and Petitions, said his committee hadn’t yet begun considering the proposal, which would extend the period that students can drop a class without getting a “W.” The proposal would move the date from five days after the beginning of the semester to 10. But Reeves said he planned to try to get the proposal to the full senate by its April meeting. “That’s my intention,” he said. Reeves said his committee would meet within the next couple of weeks to decide what it will recommend for the faculty senate to do with the proposal. According to SG Academic Affairs Director Heather Homick, 5,123 students have signed a petition in support of the proposal. She compared that to the number of students — about 1,700 — who voted in SG elections this year. “1 think that that really says something about our effort and the support of the students,” she said The average drop date at several AAU peer institutions is 14.6 days after the beginning of the semester, Homick said She said moving the drop date back is necessary because some students don’t have class until after the current drop date has passed. “Those students don’t even gel a chance to meet their professors or gel syllabi or anything in that lime,” she said. Without that information, Homick said students can’t decide whether they need to drop a course. Homick said the reactions she’s gotten from faculty were positive. “They like the idea of giving students more lime in addition to keeping the add date (where it is),” she said. Homick said moving the add date had been a snag in previous drop-date proposals SG had suggested. The current proposal, Homick said keeps the add date and the 100-percent refund date — the date by Drop Date sa page 2 Football players involved in fight, eyewitnesses say ■ Alleged altercation occurred at Jungle Jim's in Five Points by Charles Pr^shaw The Gamecock Members of the USC football team were reportedly involved in an altercation early Friday morning in Five Points. According to eyewitness reports, the fight broke out about 3 am. Friday at Jungle Jim’s when a football player bought a drink for the girlfriend of a patron. Later, more football players and patrons joined in the argument. Witnesses claim the police were called and questioned several people at the scene, including members of the football team and other patrons. Though two separate witnesses contacted by The Gamecock gave details of the incident, there was no official report filed in the public record at the Columbia Police Department. A more complete search of this past week’s incident reports couldn’t be done because the records department was closed this weekend. No punches were thrown in the altercation, according to a witness, familiar with the team, who asked not to be identified. The witness said he saw linebacker Willie Offord restraining quarterback Phil Petty, who was yelling at several people in the bar. The incident was also the subject of a posting on the “Gamecock Central” Wfeb site. The posting, made by user “downtowncock,” said “members and former members of the USC football team were involved in an altercation with members of a fraternity.” The posting claims the scuffle between the “frat brothers and USC football team lasted nearly 5-6 minutes.” About 20 minutes later, the posting said, police arrived and started to question witnesses and people involved in the fight. The posting claimed one of the members involved in the altercation was “definitely in the back of a squad car.” Assistant Athletics Director Kerry Tharp, who handles public relations for the Athletics Department, said he “didn’t hear anything like that.” The university desk can be reached at gamecockudeskighotmaiLcom Weather Coming Up Quote of the Day Online Poll Today 56 30 rUESDAY 48 29 A look at the latest arena | developments This Week “The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.” — Emerson Does the USC football team have too many disci pline problems? ^ Vote at www.dailygair.ecock.com. * Results will be published Friday. 3