The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 26, 2001, Image 1
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USC studies athletics
Evaluation part
of NCAA rules
l for certification
BY KEVIN FELLNER
THE GAMECOCK
USC President John Palms an
nounced this month that the univer
sity is beginning a year-long study of
the its athletics programs as part of
the NCAA Division I certification
process. This will be the first time
that USC has undergone the NCAA’s
revised certification process, which
focuses more on self-evaluation.
“While academic accreditation
for colleges and universities is
common, athletics accreditation
is relatively recent,” Palms said.
“We are very proud of our athlet
ics programs, and we welcome
this opportunity to evaluate them
and their relationship to the mis
sion of our university.”
Areas that will be studied in
clude academic and fiscal integri
ty, governance and compliance,
commitment to equity, student-ath
lete welfare and sportsmanship.
According to the NCAA
Division I Committee on Athletics
Certification, the certification
process is designed to help ensure
integrity in the institution’s ath
letics operations. It opens up ath
letics to the rest of the university
community and the public.
College of Hospitality, Retail
and Sport Management Dean Pat
Moody will chair the committee
that will study the USC athletic de
partment. “The goal is not only to
be certified with the approval of
the NCAA, but, in the process, to
do anything we need to do to im
prove any weaknesses that might
exist,” Moody said. “It will be a
very thorough and very intense
study. We certainly expect it to be
successful.”
Moody added that the study
would ensure that the university
is complying with all NCAA gov
erning principles as well as re
cruiting guidelines. The study will
also analyze topics such as gender
equity in USC athletics. The study
will determine the financial health
and predict the stability of the pro
gram in the future.
Moody will chair the steering
committee of ten faculty and staff
members. Four other committees
of faculty members will be re
sponsible for each designated top
ic in the self-evaluation.
Sports Information Director
Kerry Tharp said most Division I
athletic programs now view this
certification process as the new
standard procedure for determin
ing athletic integrity. “We cer
tainly think that we will be judged
favorably by the NCAA,” Tharp
said. He added that USC’s partici
♦ ATHLETICS, SEE PAGE 3
ELECTRICAL FIRE BLOCKS TRAFFIC
A downed powerline blocked traffic both ways on Sumter and Pendleton streets between 2-3:30 a.m. on a drizzly
Saturday. “That little buzz that you hear, yeah, it’s an electrical fire," said USCPD officer Nick Beza. The line spewed
sparks and an occasional fireball, igniting a pole, fallen leaves and charring a nearby tree. Columbia firefighters hosed
down the spot where the line fell, preventing a larger fire. Power was out in Cornell Arms, Sammi’s Deli and Beezer’s for
half an hour. SCE&G cut power to the damaged line and started repairs around 3:15 a.m. Streets were reopened before
10 a.m. on Saturday, photo by martha wright
Jailed soldiers
of bin Laden
» •
stage uprising
BY BURT HERMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan -
Hundreds of Osama bin Laden’s
foreign legion were killed after
staging an uprising with smug
gled arms in a northern alliance
prison Sunday, officials said. U.S.
airstrikes helped quash the day
long insurrection.
A U.S. special forces soldier in
side the fortress was taped by a
German television crew saying an
American may have been killed,
but-the Pentagon said later that all
U.S. forces in Afghanistan had
been accounted for and that none
had died.
The U.S. Central Command,
which oversees the war in
Afghanistan, declined to say
whether U.S..forces were inside
the Qalai Janghi fortress when the
fighting began.
The fighters, about 300
Chechens, Pakistanis and Arabs
who surrendered Saturday from
the besieged city of Kunduz, had
smuggled weapons under their tu
nics into the fortress and tried to
fight their way out, Pentagon
spokesman Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking
said.
The alliance said most of the
prisoners were killed.
The uprising began about 11
a.m., witnesses said. Alliance
spokesman Zaher Wahadat said
the prisoners seized other
weapons from their guards and
captured an ammunition depot,
using its contents to fight the
troops sent in to put down the re
volt.
Yahsaw, a spokesman for
northern alliance commander
Mohammed Mohaqik, said the
prisoners broke down the doors
and tried to escape.
As outnumbered guards
perched on the compound’s walls
fired wildly down at the prisoners,
a U.S. special forces soldier could
be seen in footage by a Germany
television crew using a telephone
to call in airstrikes and reinforce
ments.
“There’s hundreds dead here at
least,” the man, who identified
himself only as David, can be
heard saying on Germany’s ARD
television network.
♦ UPRISING, SEE PAGE 3
State of War
Other major developments
this weekend related to
the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks:
♦ AT LEAST EIGHT U.S.
BOMBS reportedly
exploded on Pakistani
territory during a raid on
Taliban positions along the
frontier with Afghanistan.
Witnesses say at least 13
Afghans were killed. The
reports could not be
independently confirmed.
♦ PRESIDENT BUSH, in
his weekly radio address,
says the effort to root out
terrorism will take time
and may expand to more
countries: “The fight we
have begun will not be
quickly or easily finished."
♦ U.S. AIRSTRIKES
continues pounding
suspected terrorist hide
outs among ATgnamstan s
■ tunnels and caves.
♦ THE MOST SENIOR
TALIBAN MEMBER to
defect so far blames
Osama bin Laden and
Taliban hard-liners for
transforming Afghanistan
into a terrorist haven and
bringing on a disastrous
war with the United States.
♦ THOUSANDS OF
MOURNERS packed the
cathedral in Catania,
Sicily, for the funeral of
Italian journalist Maria
Grazia Cutuli, who was
killed Monday along with
three colleagues on the
road from Jalalabad to
Kabul.
♦ THE EUROPEAN UNION
AND PAKISTAN agree
there can be no talk of
deploying a multinational
force in Afghanistan until a
multiethnic government
has been agreed upon for
the country.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEDICINE ‘LIKE SPEED TO THEM’
Experts don't
q know whether
USC students
misuse Ritalin
BY GINNY THORNTON
THE GAMECOCK
Fourth-year biology major
Annie Lee doesn’t keep her medi
cine in prescription bottles any
more.
Lee started hiding her Adderall,
prescribed to her for attention
deficit disorder (ADD), after it was
stolen from her last year. Though
she hasn't had any similar inci
dents since, she says she’s now
more aware that the drug is abused.
4 “I just don’t understand, ’’ she
said. “It upsets me and disgusts
me that people would abuse some
thing I need.”
Adderall and Ritalin, a similar
drug, are stimulants used to treat
attention deficit disorder and hy
peractivity. Since 1995, Ritalin has
ranked on the Drug Enforcement
Administration’s “most stolen” list.
“For people without ADD,
Adderall is like speed to them,”
Lee said. “Anybody who takes it
and gets hyped up doesn’t need it.”
Statistics on Ritalin and
Adderall use in college are hard to
find, and statistics on the abuse of
these drugs in college are nearly
nonexistent. But rumors of college
abuse prompted a 1998 University
of Wisconsin-Madison study.
In a student survey, 1 in 5 stu
dents who responded admitted to
past or present misuse of Ritalin.
Misuse can vary from using more
of the drug than prescribed to
stealing it for illegal use.
USC’s Student Health Center
has filled only 27 prescriptions of
Adderall and 15 of Ritalin since
Aug. 1, according to pharmacist
Tammy Batson. But many stu
dents might get their prescriptions
filled in commercial pharmacies,
which keep no statistics on college
use. “Where you go all depends on
your insurance plan,” Batson said.
“The drug definitely has poten
tial for abuse,” pharmacy profes
sor Dr. Tom Oppelt said. “But it’s
hard to tell how much of a prob
lem it is in college. We focus main
ly on children.”
Sean Dozier, a first-year phar
macy student, agreed: “Most of the
information I get from class is
about children.”
Students now might have more
reason to reconsider abusing stim
ulants. A recent University of
Buffalo study found that Ritalin
might cause long-term changes in
the brain, similar to those caused
by amphetamines and cocaine.
This contradicts the popular be
lief that Ritalin is a short-acting
drug.
“I don’t know how I feel about
anyone using Ritalin,” Oppelt
said. “Doctors are also using other
drugs to treat ADD now. Anti-de
pressants like Wellbutrin and
Effexor seem to be less abuseable,
although sometimes they don’t
work as well.”
Lee still uses Adderall to help
her focus. During busy weeks,
such as exam time, she said she
has to write a note to remind her
self to take it.
“That’s why I know I’m not ad
dicted,” she said. “I don’t depend on
it or feel like I can’t live without it,
but I know it does help me study.”
Lee, who says she doesn’t even
drink caffienated drinks, tries to
avoid taking unnecessary drugs.
“I don’t like to put anything un
natural in my body, so it’s hard
for me to understand abusing
drugs.”
“I can understand how society
looks down on using drugs for
ADD,” said Lee, who thinks stu
dents who abuse Adderall and
Ritalin probably don’t under
stand how helpful the drugs are
for those who need them.
“They’re giving what I need a bad
name. But I don’t think there’s
anything wrong with it, and other
people probably wouldn’t if they
understood it.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockudesk@fwtmail.com.
USC’s Ritalin,
Adderall numbers
While the number of students
who misuse Ritalin and
Adderall at USC is unknown,
the university does know how
many prescriptions it has
filled.
♦ 27 Adderall prescriptions
since Aug. 1
♦ 15 Ritalin prescriptions
since Aug. 1
But studies show Ritalin
misuse is a problem at the
nation’s colleges. In a 1998
University of Wisconsin
Madison survey, 1 In 5
college students admitted to
past or present misuse of the
drug.
users PAST
November 26,1949
The board of trustees named a
new building housing the
school of law for James L.
Petigru. an 1809 graduate and
distinguished Charleston
attorney.
WEATHER
Today Tomorrow
Partly cloudy, Partly cloudy,
80/59 82/56
Lady Gamecocks
pick off Duke
Women’s basketball team
surprises many by defeating
No. 7 Blue Devils. ♦ PAGE 7
X
INSIDE TODAY’S ISSUE
< A One Eared tow
and some glass
Visit the One Eared Cow glass
gallery, where Columbia
artisans blow glass into bowls,
vases and more. ♦ PAGE 5
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