Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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USC senior guard Jamel Bradley points out himself — sitting on the bench — in a photograph in the men’s basketball locker room, photos by Mackenzie clements MAKING HIMSELF HEARD Deaf basketball player inspires young students BY MACKENZIE CLEMENTS THE (iAMPXOCK Senior basketball guard Jamel Bradley, who lost most of his hearing as an infant, used to shrug off his mother’s notion that he would be a role model for deaf students in South Carolina. But at Monday night’s basket ball game against East Tennessee State, seven deaf children — all clamoring for Bradley’s auto graph and attention — proved mother always knows best. For the group of Beaufort County students, who attended the game with several instruc tors and an interpreter, USC’s 83-64 win was just an added bonus. Their time with Bradley afterward was the main attrac tion. “He is truly a role model to these kids, and it makes a differ ence in their lives,” said Debbie Dawsey-Brown, a speech-lan guage pathologist for Beaufort County. Dawsey-Brown origi nally had the idea for the trip four years ago, when she discov ered USC had a hearing-im paired player. Her boyfriend, Buster Davis, coordinated the trips by seeking support from the community and former head coach Eddie Fogler. An immeasurable impact Bradley’s impact on her stu dents’ lives is immeasurable, Dawsey-Brown said. “They realize that being a hear ing-impaired person shouldn’t stop them from anything. It sure didn’t stop him,” she said. On the court, Bradley has shown that deafness doesn’t in terfere with success. He was USC’s leading scorer last season. He also was the leading scorer for this sum mer’s Deaflympics, interna tional games for deaf athletes, where Team USA won a gold medal. As one of only two se niors on USC’s team, Bradley is expected to be a leader on the court again this season — last night, he hit three of the team’s 133-pointers, which helped lead USC to its highest-scoring first half since 1998. “When I’m out on the court, ♦ BRADLEY, SEE PAGE 2 W^r... .. ^ Cocky autographs a basketball program for Hakeem Pinckney, a deaf fourth-grade student. •v USC examines merits, costs of McKissick BY ADAM BEAM THE GAMECOCK When Lynn Robertson went be fore the SDIC on Tuesday, she thought she would be presenting to 20 board members, not a con gregation. More than 65 people packed the conference room in the Osborne Administration Building to hear Robertson defend McKissick Museum. Students, faculty and staff filled the chairs along the wall and even sat on the floor to hear what Robertson had to say. Entering its final stages, the Strategic Directives and Initiatives Committee has begun formulating suggestions about how to strengthen the university - suggestions that could include closing McKissick Museum. “McKissick has a substantial budget,” said Provost and SDIC chairman Jerry Odom. “There are people on the committee who have made it a point to visit the muse um several times this semester and have found it empty or almost empty, and have simply brought up the question: Is that the best use of the money?” The museum’s annual opera tion cost is $900,000. Of that, $537,923, or 86 percent, goes to ward personnel costs for classified staff, graduate students and work study positions. During 2000, McKissick had 20.000 walk-in vis itors, as well as 11,220 people who attended its various programs. “Our attendance is about what other university museums of our size have,” said Lynn Robertson, McKissick Museum’s executive director. “We find that we are more heavily used by graduate students than we are by under graduate students.” Robertson also said limited parking “definitely affects our at tendance.” A recommendation by the SDIC to eliminate McKissick Museum would first have to go through President John Palms, who in turn would take it to the board of trustees, which would have the final say. “We must make a recommen dation that we feel is the correct “I think McKissick has a good presence, but my question is, is it worth $650,000 a year to the students who are paying tuition?.” HERBERT ADAMS BOARD OF TRUSTEES . recommendation,” Odom said. “Now, whether the president feels that that is correct or not, or whether the board of trustees feels that is correct or not, is another question altogether. I would per sonally say that I would be very surprised if all of our recommen dations are accepted.” Herbert Adams of the board of trustees said the board “puts a great deal of faith into what the president brings to them.” “I think McKissick has a good presence, but my question is, is it worth $650,000 a vear to the stu dents who are paying tuition?” he said. Robertson went before the SDIC during its weekly meeting to give a presentation about the services McKissick provides and to answer questions from the com mittee members. “We are a teaching museum,” she told the committee. “This is what sets us aside from every oth er museum in South Carolina.” Robertson called the museum a “learning laboratory” and stressed that students have direct access to the McKissick collec tions, which include more than 125.000 individual objects that take up 13,600 square feet in the museum building, and another 6.000 square feet in storage. Robertson said every American Association of Universities (AAU) member institution supports at least one museum. “The fact that all major univer sities support one or more muse ums on their campuses is a testa ment to the fact that we can provide ♦ MCKISSICK, SEE PAGE 3 U.S. planes strike Kandahar in attempt to kill Taliban elite Targets said to be ‘leadership area head of Taliban reportedly in city BY ROBERT BURNS ASSOCIATED PHESS WASHINGTON - The Pentagon ordered airstrikes Tuesday on an Afghan compound southeast of Kandahar after receiving infor mation it was being used by senior leaders of the Taliban and of al Qaida and another alleged terror ist group. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said. The information about the target came into U S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., while Rumsfeld was visiting Tuesday afternoon. U.S. F-16 jets and B-1B bombers attacked two targets with preci sion-guided weapons, military of ficials said. Pentagon officials didn’t say who may have been in the com pound and possibly killed, though Rumsfeld told reporters “It clearly was a leadership area” and he said those targeted were “non-trivial.” “Whoever was there is going to wish they weren’t,” he said. Rumsfeld said the compound was thought to hold leaders of the ruling Taliban militia, Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization and Wafa, a Saudi humanitarian aid organization that was among several groups named by the United States as alleged money conduits for bin Laden and his network. . Several hundred members of al Qaida have been killed during the seven weeks of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, said one U.S. official, who spoke on con dition of anonymity. Seven of those killed are con sidered al-Qaida leaders, said an other official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. “Whoever was there is going to wish they weren’t.” DONALD RUMSFELD SECRETARY OF DEFENSE They include Mohammed Atef, one of bin Laden’s top two deputies, killed in a U.S. strike around Nov. 14. Other leaders be lieved killed include Mohammed Salah and Tariq Anwar, two high ranking members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, who are part of al Qaida, the officials said. Earlier in the day, a Taliban spokesman, Mullah Abdullah, told the Afghan Islamic Press, a Pakistan-based news agency, that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was still in Kandahar and in command of his troops. Rumsfeld spent several hours at Central Command, where he Northern Alliance soldiers prepare to attack Khanabad and Konduz. photo by cheryi diaz MEYER/KRT CAMPUS met with Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander running the war. Franks said U.S. forces in Afghanistan are searching more than 40 laboratories and other facil ities suspected of conducting secret work on chemical, biological or nu clear weapons. So far, none has yielded clear evidence of such work, he said, adding that if any such weapons material were found, its re moval would be “nonnegotiable.” He said results from initial tests of samples taken from some sites were not yet available. The more than 40 sites are in parts of Afghanistan no longer under con trol of the Taliban militia. “What we have found in a va riety of laboratories is laborato ry sorts of paraphernalia,” he said. ♦ AFGHANISTAN, SEE PAGE 2 USC’S PAST Nov. 28,1845 Former U.S. senator and college alumnus William Campbell Preston was named as Carolina’s fifth president. } \ WEATHER Tomorrow r, Showers, 75/55 INSIDE TODAY’S ISSUE Satisfy your need for rhythm Drummers, dancers perform to international beat. ♦ PAGE 5 f < Basketball teams travel to Upstate Women to take on Clemson, men to face Wofford. ♦ PAGE 8 ONLINE POLL Human cloning Is human cloning a good idea? Vote at www.dailygamecock.com. Results are published on Fridays.