Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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_ _' USC enacts hiring freeze BY JESSICA FOY THE GAMECOCK USC announced on Friday that a hiring freeze has been put in place for all open positions. The freeze is a result of a 4 percent cut on the school’s state funding, which should result in a cut of just under $8 million for the 2001-2002 fiscal year. USC spokesman Russ McKinney said there were about 800job open mgs throughout the USC campus es before the hiring freeze. Most of those openings are in Columbia. There will be exceptions made for positions deemed to be criti cal to operation. The choice of whether to fill such positions will be made on a case-by-case basis. When asked how he felt stu dents, faculty and staff were re acting, to the hiring freeze, McKinney said he didn’t think they were surprised. “Unfortunately, people are start ing to take things like this in stride. We did it last year, and we antici pated doing it again this year. Nobody is happy, but they’re not shocked either,” McKinney said. Professors across campus are reacting to the hiring freeze in dif ferent ways. William Padgett, a Carolina Distinguished Professor from the statistics department and mem ber of the Strategic Directions and Initiatives Committee, said the hiring freeze will greatly im pact on the university. He said the freeze could compromise the uni versity’s ability to offer the vari ety of classes it needs to. He also said he knows of one position that will remain open in his depart ment now that the freeze is in place. “It will certainly effect us,” Padgett said. But when asked if he felt it was a good choice to en act the freeze, he said, “Well, it seems to be the only one.” Steven M. Weingartner, an in structor in the college of engi neering and computer science, shares some of Padgett’s thoughts about the freeze. “From the university’s stand point, it is probably the only thing they can do,” he said. ♦ HIRING, SEE PAGE 3 AN EDUCATIONAL FIXTURE DESTROYED The old Olympia School was being renovated when a four-alarm fire engulfed the building, destroying the main building and two wings. No one was hurt in the fire, and authorities are still trying to determine its cause. For more on the fire, see page 2. photo by robert gruen Arena project closer to goal BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE GAMECOCK After a set of agreements be tween USC and Columbia, work on USC’s Vista arena and a hand ful of city projects seems to be back on track. The latest signs of movement came Monday when the city an nounced it would send its $2.5 mil lion share of the arena’s cost to the university. That had been in jeopardy be cause of a logjam in negotiations between the university and the Columbia Inferno over the hock ey team's lease on a university fa cility. The team and USC also an nounced Monday they had made progress on that front and were considering the possibility of the Inferno playing at the Carolina * Coliseum, where they have a one year lease. “Now we are taking a hard look at all the implications of that,” USC Athletics Director Mike McGee told The State. USC spokesman Russ McKinney said recently that the main dispute is “the number of differences on how the revenues flow from hockey matches.” The money from the agreement was supposed to go toward con struction expenses for the arena. How the Inferpo playing at the Coliseum would affect that aspect of the agreement is still unclear. Last week, USC signed an agreement that allowed the city to start work on three other projects ♦ ARENA, SEE PAGE 6 USC maintenance workers speak out about bias suit Seven litigants grant interview for first time BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE GAMECOCK One university official told a maintenance worker he was making “too much to be a black man,” said one of the 26 mainte nance workers now taking part in a racial discrimination law suit against the university. In an interview with The Gamecock, seven of the workers alleged a history of discrimina tion against blacks, including a pattern of refusing to interview blacks for promotions and chang ing requirements for a job when it appeared it might be filled by a black worker. The interview is the first with severed of the work ers at the same time since they filed the lawsuit in August. The workers are suing the uni versity, President John Palms and Assistant Director of Facility Services Gerald Goings for dis crimination, saying they were denied pay and promotion be cause of their race. While uni versity officials won’t comment on the case’s specifics, spokesman Russ McKinney has labeled the complaints “ground less.” The university official “said I was making too much to be a black man,” said Preston Sims, who has worked in the mainte nance department since 1962. “The reason he told me that [is] because I wouldn’t do as he want ed me to. He wanted me to dog the black and put the white on a pedestal. And I told him, ‘No.’ “He said, ‘Now, you can’t run a supervisor position because you’re going to favor one more than you favor the other. You’re going to fa vor the black,”’ Sims continued. “And I told him straight up, I said, 'Let me tell you something, I’m color-blind when it comes down to my work. All I want is the work done. I don’t care if you're pink.’” Another plaintiff, Ron Derrick, said the argument in favor of dis crimination was fairly simple. “It is simple. No black man agers. Not a one,” Derrick said. "And it appears to me that every time a position comes open where a black [worker] may have an op portunity to get that job, it moves.” The workers said at least one black worker missed out on a promotion because the require ments were rewritten to give a white worker the jobs. Larry Bonnette said he had the potential to get a promotion, . but the department was talking about a restructuring plan that could deny him the job. “The chance comes; they wipe it away,” he said. Of 137 maintenance workers, 34 are black. None of the depart ment’s managers are black, though some blacks are given su pervisory duties. Derrick said blacks and whites wishing to return to the universi ty after retirement are treated dif ferently. He said most black work ers come back through the state’s TERI program, which allows workers to come back and work. The workers’ retirement checks are put into an account while they continue to work. “That [the TERI program] is the only way that blacks as a class have been able to come back to the university and get jobs,” Derrick said. Meanwhile, white workers were hired as “consultants,” he said. “Here’s how it works: If you do it for one, do it for another,” Derrick said. The employees said there was discrimination in how raises were distributed.“Pay for performance raises: blacks never get any,” plaintiff Ernest Robinson said. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. HUNGER BANQUET At Tuesday night’s Hunger Banquet, about 150 people paid $5 to benefit Oxfam Carolina. Student Body president Corey Ford is serving, photo by michelle dosson GOING HUNGRY Three meal types illustrate income differences BY EMMA RITCH THE (lAMECOCK Student Body President Corey Ford and Vise President Nithya Bala were just two of about 150 students and faculty who attended the Hunger Banquet Tuesday night in Capstone to raise money for and awareness of hunger world wide. Ford and Bala served food to the students and faculty, who paid up to $5 to attend the Ninth Annual Hunger Banquet spon sored by Oxfam Carolina. The money raised went directly to Oxfam America to support hunger relief efforts around the world. Oxfam Carolina Vice President Amanda Goldson said the ban quet's purpose is to “illustrate dif ferences and educate people.” She said they illustrated the differ ences by feeding attendees based on division of wealth in the world. Oxfam members divided at tendees into three groups: low income, who were fed rice on a banana leaf; middle-income, ♦ BANQUET, SEE PAGE 6 USC'S PAST Nov. 8,1861 Hearing that Port Royal had been captured by Union forces, the South Carolina College Corps of Cadets left for Charleston and prepared for attacks * K WEATHER Today Tomorrow Sunny, Sunny, 73/32 72/34 4 INSIDE TODAY’S ISSUE USC wary of No. 4 Florida Gators UF equally concerned about Gamecocks. ♦ PAGE 12 < Getting to know local artist Blue Sky Gallery lends Columbia unique artistic flavor. ♦ PAGE 9 r ONLINE POLL Captain GameDay Will Lee Corso pick the Gamecocks? Vote at www.dailygamecock.com. Results are published on Fridays. t