BY BRANDON LARRABEE
'.'THE gamecock
For the second time in less than
six months, the board of trustees
Thursday voted to raise tuition,
increasing tuition $98 for most un
dergraduate students while also
raising the rates for graduate stu
dents and students in the school
of medicine.
The university also dealt cuts
between zero percent and 4 per
cent to all departments.
The tuition hike amounts to an
increase of 4.9 percent (from $1,982
to $2,080) for resident students and
a 1.8 percent jump — from $5,452
to $5,550 — for nonresident stu
dents. Nonresident scholarship
students will see their tuition go
up $54, also a 1.8 percent increase.
While university officials
couldn’t say for certain if this was
the first time the university had
ever increased tuition midyear, it
was the first such increase in the
past 15 years.
President John Palms, who pro
posed the increases on behalf of
the university, said the increases
for resident students were capped
by the state legislature, while eco
nomics controlled the out-of-state
tuition increase.
“That’s dictated by the kind of
market pressures we feel for stu
dents out of state,” Palms told the
board.
Graduate students will see the
same rate of increase as under
graduates, while the students in
the school of medicine will pay 9.1
percent more than last year.
In an interview with The
Gamecock on Thursday, Palms said
the university didn’t want to depend
on tuition alone to address the cuts.
“We’re trying to balance [the
budget] but not solely on the stu
dents’ backs,” Palms said, adding
that the university had increased
tuition “a modest amount.”
Chairman of the board Mack
Whittle said he hoped the effect on
students would be minimal.
“Hopefully, it won’t have that
big of an impact,” Whittle said. “I
know that tuition is the last thing
the board likes to look toward, but
given the surprise nature of this
increase and this decrease in fund
ing, this really leaves us very few
ways to accommodate it.”
Whittle said the university ex
hausted all of its options, includ
ing cutting its academic depart
ments and wearing its reserved
fund down to $844,000, but was still
forcgd to increase tuition.
“You saw that we took it out of
the surplus, we basically depleted
the surplus funds of the universi
ty, and we’ve used all of those ex
cept $800,000 and the only other
source we had was tuition,"
Whittle said.
Provost Jerry Odom said one
possible effect of the hike would
be to get students involved in the
budget process this year.
“One of the things that I hope '
♦ TUITION, SEE PAGE 3
I DO YOU BELIEVE?
I In 1984, the largest crowd to that date watched the Gamecocks defeat FSU to go 9-0 — with a little help from “Black Magic.” file photo
BLACK MAGIC IS BACK
BY ADAM BEAM
thecamecock
Greg Bell first became a
Gamecock fan in the fall of 1979,
when USC defeated Clemson,
13-9. Since then, Bell has fol
lowed Gamecock football close
ly, but says that 1979 game “re
ally started a tradition” for him.
That tradition was Black
Magic.
The year was 1984, and a phe
nomenon known as Black Magic
was sweeping the country. After
a surprising 8-0 start, South
Carolina, led by head coach Joe
Morrison, was prepared to prove
their No. 5 ranking was no fluke
by beating a Florida State
ranked 10th in the country.
A letter to the editor that ap
peared in the Nov. 7,1984, edi
tion of The Gamecock urged all
USC students and fans to wear
black to the game. The fans
were happy to oblige.
“Everybody wore black,”
Bell said. “I still have the shirt
that I wore, a short-sleeved
black shirt with a Carolina em
blem on the pocket.”
Don Clary, who has been at
tending USC games for more
than 40 years and now teaches
in USC’s College of Engineering,
was also at the game.
“The noise was unreal,” he
said. “I had my portable radio
on, and I could not hear my ear
phones, it was so loud. It’s prob
ably one of the top five games
I’ve ever seen.”
Whether it was black magic
or not, something was with the
Gamecocks that day when they
handed Florida State a 38-26 de
feat that vaulted USC up to the
No. 2 spot in the national polls,
their highest ranking ever.
Is black magic back?
If all goes as planned on
Saturday, the Gators will ride
into Williams-Brice Stadium
staring into a sea of black some
80,000 fans strong. The effort,
dubbed “blackout,” is being co
sponsored by the Student
Gamecock Club and Student
Government.
While the Gamecocks aren’t
defending a perfect record and
dreaming of a national title
heading into Saturday's show
down with Florida, they’re look
ing to put themselves into posi
tion to win the SEC champi
onship — an idea that, two
years ago, would’ve made
sports fans spew milk out of
their noses.
“I think if we have a huge ad
vantage in this game, it is the
crowd,” said Chris Odom,
Student Gamecock Club presi
dent and chairman of Student
Government’s athletics com
mittee. “We know we have the
♦ BLACK, SEE PAGE 3
t
More than 20,000 fans
J expected for GameDay
BY CHRIS FOY
; THE GAMECOCK
South Carolina fans are excit
ed about this weekend’s matchup
with the No. 4 Florida Gators for
reasons other than the SEC East
title contention.
ESPN’s College GameDay is mak
ing its first-ever appearance at USC.
More than 20,000 fans are ex
pected to attend the show.
GameDay, hosted by Chris
Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk
Herbstreit, will broadcast Saturday
morning from the fairgrounds. The
first broadcast can be heard on the
radio today at 4:30 p.m.
♦ FOR MORE COVERAGE ON THE
FLORIDA GAME, SEE PAGE 9.
The show will be here in con
junction with ESPN’s coverage of
the highly anticipated matchup.
In addition to GameDay, the
highly coveted Sears Trophy will
be displayed on the sidelines dur
ing the game. The Sears Trophy is
given to the national champi
onship team. It goes on an annual
tour every year to the top matches
of the season.
GameDay will film tomorrow
starting at 10:30 a.m. Fairgrounds
will open at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Nlrmesh Shah, Corey Ford and Brandon Bookstaver, left to right, Impersonate ESPN's
SameDay hosts Friday afternoon outside the Russell House, photo by aaron hark
Cuts
to hit
most
areas
Honors College,
scholarship
fund spared
from reductions
i
BY KEVIN FELLNER AND
ADAM BEAM
THE GAMECOCK
The Executive Committee of
USC’s board of trustees an
nounced Thursday it will re
duce funding for various de
partments in the university’s
budget from zero percent to 4
percent.
The budget reductions will .
save about $2 million. The esti
mated $1.2 million generated by
the approved midyear tuition
increase won’t be enough to cov
er the $6.8 million deficit USC
Columbia incurred from the 4
percent across-the-board state
appropriations reduction on
Oct. 30. A budget reserve of
about $3.6 million will cover the
rest of the deficit.
Most departments wm re
ceive a 1.5 percent reduction in
total funding, while the
“Cathedrals of Excellence,”
which include the colleges of
business, liberal arts, engi
neering, and math and sciences,
will receive a one-half percent
reduction. The law enforcement
and safety department suffered
only a one-half percent reduc
tion as a result of the increase
in national security. The
Facility Services Operations
also received a one-half percent
reduction.
President John Palms said
the midyear budget adjustment
will be merely a setback and
will not alter the university’s
goals. “We are not giving up
wanting to be at the level of ex
cellence to be invited into the
AAU,” Palms said.
Palms also said the Strategic
Directions and Initiatives
Committee had a pivotal role in
determining the nature of the
budget reductions.
“The quality of departments
has been taken into considera
♦ PROGRAMS, SEE PAGE 3