The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 23, 2001, Image 1
_vol. 94. no. 67 Friday march 23.2001
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WWW.DAILYGAMEC0CK.COM UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA COLUMBIA, S.C.
‘WE’RE NOT HERE TO START A WAR’: Anti-abortion group bring signs, controversy
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Mackenzie Clements/The Gamecock
Pro-life demonstrators brought graphic signs to campus to portray what they said were the realities of abortion.
Abortion display sparks protest
■ Graphic posters cause debate among
students about way anti-abortion group
conveyed its message on Davis Field
by Mackenzie Clements
The Gamecock
Giant orange signs cautioned people
approaching Davis Field in the past two
days — “Warning: Genocide Photos
Aliead.” ~
The warnings were hardly
unwarranted. The Center for Bio-Ethical
Reform displayed on Wednesday and
Thursday its “Genocide Awareness
( Project” next to the Russell House,
sparking student protests against the
graphic images.
The photographs, on 6-by-13
billboards, showed aborted fetuses and
compared them with images of the
Holocaust, the Jim Crow era and the
Cambodian killing fields.
CBR, which has taken the display
to nearly 30 colleges across the nation,
approached different student organizations
in the fall about bringing the project to
USC. Students for Life and Reformed
University Fellowship signed on as
sponsors, permitting campus space to be
used for the display.
According to CBR’s Soutlieast Region
Director Fletcher Armstrong, the project
aims to educate people about who the
unborn child is and what abortion truly
does to that child.
“We’re not here to start a war. We’re
liere to educate,” Armstrong said. “Tliere’s
no way we can present the facts without
using pictures.”
Armstrong also said the group’s
purpose is never to condemn people who
might have had abortions.
Volunteers with fliers and pamphlets
were available to answer questions about
the project. Each volunteer had signed an
agreement to not pressure passers-by, to
treat people with respect and to condemn
abortion-related violence, among other
things.
“We had to show people the realities
(of abortion),” said Katie Benton, a 17
year-old high school volunteer from
Knoxville, Tenn. “This is not a tissue being
removed.”
Crystal Johnson, a first-year
nursing student and a project volunteer,
said CBR’s message can’t be sugar-coated.
“1 think it’s shocking and repulsive,
but it’s not made up; it’s not fiction,”
Johnson said.
Johnson’s aigument against pro-choice
advocates is that “it’s also a woman’s
choice to have sex.There may be
someone out there who might want
that baby.”
Reformed University Fellowship
sponsored the display because it agreed
with the message CBR was delivering,
though RUF’s mission goes beyond simply
Display see rage 2
USC students
Brandon Ray,
Patrick Rybarezyk
tnd Any Dangelawkz
protest the
display.
Mackenzie
Clementi/The
Gamecock
Higher Education
Hodges’ plan
would restore
funding cuts
by Brandon Larrabee
The Gamecock
Gov. Jim Hodges announced a plan Thursday that
would restore virtually all the money he had
proposed to cut from liigher education in his first budget
outline, which could allow USC students to avoid a
laige tuition increase.
The plan would give universities about $126.3
million more than Hodges originally proposed.
“We’ve put a plan on the table that fixes college
budgets without raising taxes,” Hodges declared, flanked
by university and college presidents.
The plan would use a combination of new revenues
and borrowed money from other agencies to allow
higher education to avoid the 15 percent budget cuts
Hodges originally proposed and the 10.5 percent cut
dealt by the Legislature.
University officials shid they were pleased with the
announcements.
“It appears that tlie governor has heard and accepted
the message that the college and university leaders have
made,” said USC spokesman Russ McKinney, who also
credited student leaders for their efforts against the cuts.
The plan still must be approved by the Legislature.
“We’ve laid out a road map to fix higher education.
Now, with the help of our colleges and universities, I
will work every day to convince the Legislature to
follow.” Hodees said.
McKinney echoed that theme while praising the
governor’s plan.
“That’s great news,” lie said. “But, again, the ball’s
really in the Senate’s court at tliis point.”
McKinney said the university would “aggressively
lobby the Senate to follow the governor’s lead.” He
also said the plan would likely allow USC students to
avoid a larger-than-normal tuition increase, which
administrators had said would be necessary to help make
up for the cuts.
I Hunk the threat ol a real high or real huge tuition
increase would be diminislied significantly” if tlie proposal
goes through, McKinney said.
Tlie plan restores $93.7 million in budget cuts while
providing for $32.6 million more in spending, most of
that going to college technology-related programs.
Under the new plan, Hodges would borrow $60
million, take $35 million from the Barnwell County
Budget see page 2
Hodges’
plan
Gov. Jim Hodges
has offered a plan
to restore $93.7
million cut from
college budgets
while adding $32.6
million in
technology
spending. Hodges
plan includes: ‘
■ $60 million in
bonds to cover
maintenance,
equipment and
technology.
■ $35 million in
excess funds from
a trust fund for
future cleanup
needs at the
Barnwell low-level
nuclear was^e site.
■ $24 million from
more federal
matching funds at
the Department of
Health and Human
Services.
■ $5.1 million
from cuts at other
agencies and the
Legislature. The
Senate would lose
$560,352, and the
House would lose
$1 million. The
attorney general
would lose
$440,000, and the
adjutant general,
$528,704.
■ $2.2 million
from collecting on
overdue student
loans.
Sourca: Associated Prass
Pi Kappa Phi sponsors
‘No Boundaries Week’
* by Cristy Infinger
The Gamecock
Pi Kappa Plii launched “No Boundaries
Week” Monday, an event devoted to its
national philanthropy, Push America,
which creates awareness about and helps
people with disabilities.
Events for the week included a scaffold
sit and sorority change donations, and it
will finish with an empathy training dinner
at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Preston Dining
Hall.
“No Boundaries Week is a weeklong
fund-raiser and awareness-raiser for people
with disabilities to benefit Push America,”
* USC’s Push America Chairman Gabriel
Fluhrer said.
One of the events of No Boundaries
Week was a war between the sororities to
see which one could collect the most
change. The winner, Chi Omega, raised
more than $150 in donations for the
Philanthropy.
Members of Pi Kappa Phi also spent
the week collecting donations in
buckets on campus, for a total of about
$2,000.
“[Push America] is a good opportunity
to help out people with disabilities. I am
going to try my best to help,” associate Pi
Kappa Phi member Tyler Odom said.
Members spent their time at a 53-hour
scaffold sit, where brothers and associate
members took turns silling on a scaffold
constructed for the event at the Russell
House patio.
“The scaffold sit is basically an
attention-getter so that people will try to
find out what we are doing and what Push
America is,” Pi Kappa Phi President Mark
Hartney said.
The executive director for Push
America will be the speaker at Friday’s
empathy training dinner. Participants will
Fraternity see page 2
Student Government
Newly elected SG officers inaugurated
by Mark Hiner
The Gamecock
Unity and proaction were die primaiy
goals addressed by the new Student
Government officers at Wednesday’s
inauguration.
The ceremony, held in Rutledge
Chapel, ushered in the 2001-2002 term
for SG’s senate and executive officers.
President Corey Ford’s speech
focused on quickly resolving the conflicts
that arose in February’s hotly contested
campaign.
“Whether it be the ending of
friendsliips or die ambition to defeat one's
opponent, the taint of mistrust has made
its mark on our electoral process,” Ford
said.
Ford said the election closely
mirrored the fierce animosity of national
campaign strategies and the bitterness
has had an effect on the student body’s
trust in their elected officials.
“The issue of an executive officer’s
actual (responsibilities, discrepancies of
platform stances, the choice of keeping
it simple or making it complex, the
endorsements of a student newspaper—
all produced an atmosphere saturated
with animosity towards one another and
each other’s campaigns,” Ford said.
“What confidence students had in
Student Government certainly has been
broken and has continued to erode since
then,” he added.
Ford briefly outlined his agenda,
referencing the hallmark issues of his
campaign, including creating a Campus
Activist Network to give student
organizations belter access to the
administration.
“Only by creating a network of
organizations can we lobby before the
administration and truly bring change on
issues of the drop dale, academic
forgiveness, increased funding for
undergraduate organizations and
protection from discrimination for all
Carolina students,” he said.
Unity was also a primary concern
for newly elected Vice President Nithya
Bala.
Bala reminded the senators that they
will be representing nearly 26,000
students.
“Student is a broad term which is
often incorrectly used to lump all of us
into one large homogenous group,” she
said, “when, in fact, the Carolina
Community is composed of all different
types of students.”
Treasurer Hydrick Harden was also
sworn in at the ceremony, which lasted
about an hour.
Harden said students must prepare
themselves for the sacrifices proposed
higher education budget cuts could cause.
77ie university desk can be reached at
gamecockudesk@hotmail.com
Travis Lynn/The Gamecock
Treasurer Hydrick Harden gives
his inauguration speech, remind
ing students to prepare themselves
for the sacrifices proposed higher
education budget cuts could cause.
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