Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Palms reviews report Lottery tickets make debut SDI Committee suggestions now go to board for final approval BY ADAM BEAM THE GAMECOCK After meeting about 50 times during the last seven months, the Strategic Directives and Initia tives Committee presented its long-awaited report of sugges tions to USC president John Palms on Thursday regarding the establishment of “the university as an efficient, nationally re spected, comprehensive research university within five years.” The 91-page report contains 28 recommendations divided into two categories: “strongly recom mended” and “recommended.” The report also lists 15 areas of opportunity for the university. Palms said the report “fits right into the momentum” of USC and praised the committee for being able to put aside individual wants for the sake of the university. Listed among “the most signifi cant recommendations” are ♦ Adopting a Value-Centered Management (VCM) that would give each department part of the tuition of every student it teach es, allowing more budgetary free dom. ♦ Creating a College of Health Sciences by combining the Schools of Medicine and Public Health and Colleges of Social Work, Pharmacy and Nursing. ♦ REPORT, SEE PAGE 2 Reshaping a University As part of its quest to make USC run more efficiently, the Strategic Directions and Initiatives Committee has recommended merging several colleges and departments. Among the suggested changes’: College of Nursing ^ 4* College of Pharmacy 0 # % ♦ College of Social Worit School of School of Medicine ^cUnSnSl Health Just,“ * * # ♦ * College of Journalism and College of Library and School of Music Department Department Mass Communications Information Science of Art” ofTheater, tgb Speech and m Dance” Media Arts’” •Note: The committee also recommended combining all of the foreign language department in Liberal Arts and placing ROTC and TRIO under the Office of the Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraudate Affairs. ’’Note: The Art Department and the Theater, Speech and Dance Department will leave the College of Liberal Arts. ’ * ’Note: The Media Arts program would either remain in Liberal Arts or move to the new college combining the colleges of Journalism and Library and Information Science. Source: SDI Committee report BRANDON LARRABEE/THE GAMFCOCK BY KEVIN FELLNER Til K GAMECOCK On Jan. 7, South Carolinians traveled to convenience stores, gas stations and restaurants to purchase the first available scratch-off tickets in the South Carolina Education Lottery. Tickets went on sale at 6 a.m. at 3,181 locations statewide, and Gov. Jim Hodges appeared at the Exxon at the comer of Huger and Blossom streets to participate. Lottery officials reported $1.8 million in sales during the first 12 _ hours, with about $620,560 paid to winners. Estimates on the week’s total are expected to be reported later today. Chief Operating Offi cer Anthony Cooper compared the lottery’s first day to giving birth. “We’ve been in labor for several months,” he said. Barbara Pate- was one of many employees who worked at the Exxon on Blossom Street during the lottery’s instant tick et launch. According to Pate, people formed a line stretching to the parking lot at about 5 a.m., and the store sold out of tickets by 1 p.m. Pate said she sold $400 of tickets to the day’s second customer. Almost everyone who came into the Exxon last week bought a ticket, Pate said. “When they buy gas, I guess they want to help education, too.” • The lottery saw two $10,000 winners in its first week. Emma ♦ LOTTERY, SEE PAGE 4 Gamecocks can’t hold on to lead; Weaver saves the day in Outback Bowl With 7 seconds left on the clock, Daniel Weaver sets in motion the game-winning kick for USC in the 2002 Outback Bowl — a 42-yard field goal that barely cleared the crossbar. Amid an Ohio State line in shambles, the Gamecocks celebrate Weaver’s game-winning field goal. Weaver Is far right (No. 97). Visit www.dailygamecock.com for a complete photo gallery of USC’s 31-28 win over OSU. PHOTOS BY AARON HARK AND CANDI HAUGLUM Hodges would shield education from cuts Republicans say budget proposal might be illegal BY BRANDON LARRABEE TIIKCAMKCOCK Gov. Jim Hodges’ $5.3 billion pro posed budget, which spares higher education from the budget cut ax while using money borrowed from state agencies and accounting ma neuvers to maintain balance, is run ning into opposition from Republi cans who blast the proposal as vague and possibly illegal. Hodges will get his first chance to sell the plan to the public Wednesday night when he makes his State of the State address. After a contentious battle last year over how to slice nearly $500 million from the state’s budget, the GOP-dominated General Assembly and the governor are headed to ward another showdown over about the same amount of money. This year’s battle could be even more heated, with elections in No vember for all state offices. Hodges’ plan maintains funding for all public- and higher-education programs, in some cases even proposing an increase or new fund ing for additional programs. It pro poses no actual cuts and instead re lies on an effort by the state Budget and Control Board to help agencies trim $150 million from their bud gets, putting off more than $130 mil lion in spending, and borrows from some state reserve funds. The budget also asks the Gener al Assembly to shield some parts of the state budget, including public and higher education, from any midyear budget cuts. The budget board makes midyear cuts to keep the budget from falling into a con stitutionally prohibited deficit. Hodges wrote in his proposal that higher education is vital to South Carolina’s economic for tunes. He says he is “disturbed” by rising tuition, which he blamed on a lack of funding for colleges and universities. “Too often, our higher educa tion institutions have been asked to bear the brunt of difficult eco nomic times,” Hodges wrote. “We must recognize the benefits af forded by high-quality, affordable higher education.” Higher education was spared cuts last year only because Hodges vetoed the cuts to colleges and uni ' versities while eliminating a pro posal to cut the sales tax on food and medicine. Universities were dealt a 4 per cent budget cut in November that set off a midyear tuition increase and cuts to most of USC’s budget. ♦BUDGET, SEE PAGE 4 Anti-abortion advocates call for legislation BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE GAMECOCK At a rally held 10 days before the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision making abortion legal nationwide, anti-abortion advocates called on lawmakers to ban cloning and pass legislation increasing the punishment for injuring or killing a pregnant woman and her fetus. Speaking on the State House grounds during Saturday’s “Stand Up 2002” rally, Wanda Frantz, Na tional Right to Life Committee president, seemed to draw paral lels between the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and abortion while shying away from direct comparisons. But Frantz spent most of her speech advocating a ban on cloning and passage of the Un born Victims of Violence Act. She said simply banning repro ductive cloning, which produces an entire human being, wasn’t enough. Frantz said the govern ment should also ban therapeutic cloning, which uses cloning for some medical procedures. According to Frantz, thera peutic cloning is worse than re productive cloning because it in volves creating a human being for medical purposes that involve killing him or her. “Reproductive cloning is bad enough, but therapeutic cloning is outright diabolical,” she said. A full ban on cloning passed the House with a coalition including conservative Republicans and a Socialist, Frantz said, but is being held up by “anti-life Senate De mocrats.” She blasted an alternative pro posal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., as “a clone-and-kill bill.” Frantz also called for Congress to pass the Unborn Victims of Vi olence Act, sponsored in the House by Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the “phony” Mother hood Protection Act. The latter, Frantz said, punishes suspects for “interruption of the normal course of pregnancy” while stop ping short of the Graham-spon sored measure, which recognizes the fetus as a second victim of a violent crime committed against a pregnant woman. Abortion-rights advocates have said the Unborn Victims of Violence Act is an attempt to set the groundwork for a ban on abortion. Frantz also blasted an offer by Planned Parenthood to give free abortions to women affected by the Sept. 11 attacks. “In response to mass murder of the innocent, they offered more killing of the innocent,” she said. Frantz called both the terror ist attacks and abortion “evil” and said the “death toll” from abortion was equivalent to hav ing a terrorist attack every day. “You just don’t see it on TV,” she said. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockcitydesk(a)hotmail.com. Johnny Gardner, a well-known local anti-abortion activist, participates in the rally on the State House steps Saturday. In the background, USC’s Students For Life are visible, photo BY CANDI HAUGLUM TODAY’S WEATHER: A mix of sun and clouds. Winds SW10 to 15 mph. High 65, Low 46. ♦ TOMORROW’S WEATHER: Partly cloudy. Skies becoming clear late. High 61, Low 37.