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YEAR IN REVIEW: 2001 brings celebrations, victories, pain Happy 200th birthday 2001 was USC’s 200th birthday. Students and the community commemorated USC’s existence by dedicating trees to influential professors on the historic Horse shoe, volunteering in 80 public schools and burying a time cap sule. USC played host to various conferences and symposiums as part of the yearlong celebration. Speakers included Patch Adams and Pat Conroy. The yearlong celebration ended in a December ceremony on the Horseshoe. SG election controversy After bitter and contentious cam paigns, then-Student Government Vice President Corey Ford and then-Sen. Nithya Bala won the top two spots in SG elections in Febru ary. Ford won a stunning outright vic tory in a three-way presidential race against Angela Wilson and Donald Brock. Bala faced Nathan White in a runoff to succeed Ford. Hydrick Harden was unop posed for treasurer. The race also featured a con troversy over The Gamecock’s role in student elections. After the paper endorsed Wilson and White for the top offices, nearly 1,000 issues of the paper located near p0 r(j the SG office were trashed. The endorsements—along with printed accusations that Attorney General Norm Jones was responsi ble — led the Board of Student Pub lications and Communications to reprimand former Gamecock Editor in Chief Brock Vergakis. A resolu tion to censure The Gamecock failed in the student senate. Budget cutting State legislators cut the budget 12 percent in March, only to see that number decrease to 5 percent by May. USC officials responded by raising tuition 10.4 percent, only to cut it back down to a 5.2 percent in crease after Gov. Hodges vetoed a one-cent sales tax on food items. With another budget cut ex pected later in the year, Presi dent John Palms created a task force for laying out strategic di rectives and initiatives for re structuring the university. After seven months of delib erations, the report was finally released on Thursday, Jan. 10, for Palms and the board of trustees to review. Palms for Senate? President John Palms came un der fire from members of the board of trustees after it was revealed in March that he was considering running for the U.S. Senate seat be ing vacated by Strom Thurmond. Palms, who would have run as a Democrat, was criticized by some board members. Palms announced in mid-May that he wouldn’t run for Senate but would step down as presi dent in June 2002. Palms Our own Miss S.C. USC student Jeanna Raney was crowned Miss South Carolina in July. Raney, a native of Inman, S.C., is spending what would have been her junior year of college fulfilling the duties her title brings. Raney speaks to school groups about sui cide prevention. She competed in the Miss America pageant in Sep tember and placed in the top 20. Freshman overload USC accepted 3,218 new freshmen for the fall 2001 semester, according to Director of Undergraduate Ad missions Terry Davis. Demand for student housing surpassed on-campus availabili-. ty; so USC housed freshmen gt the Assembly Street Holiday Inn for the fall semester. “It was all right, just not what I was expecting,-” freshman Matt Owens said. All USC students have since moved out of the Holiday Inn. The freshman enrollment goal for fall 2002 remains 3,000. Sept. 11 at USC Many students huddled around televisions and watched in horror as terrorists attacked the United States. Though many miles away, stu dents helped victims. Students passed around white ribbons and lit candles to show respect for those lost and raised money for victims. An Outback win again For the first time in school his tory, the Gamecock football team posted back-to-back bowl victories with a second straight win in the Outback Bowl, this year with a game winning kick by Daniel Weaver. A 9 3 season set a new Gamecock record for wins (17) over a two-year span. USC also knocked off ri val Clemson for the first time since 1996 by defeating them 20-15 in Co lumbia. Writers Adam Beam, Chris Foy, Cristy Infinger, Eric Lapin and Brandon Larrabee contributed to this review. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. -1 HandPicked Inc. ■ Mon.-Sat. 10-6 ■www.HandPicked.net The Bazaar ■ 1101 -E Harden Street ■ 803-252-2121 Columbiana Center ■ 150-C Harbison Blvd. ■ 803-749-6024 ^W, | * ^ | f^\ j f u UKj [tP^fl SPRING 2002 SCHEDULE Event Entries Open Entries Close Basketball Tues. 1/14 Thurs. 1/24 Soccer Mon. 1/22 Thurs. 2/7 Badminton Mon. 1/28 Thurs. 2/7 Softball Mon. 2/4 Thurs. 2/14 Bowling Tournament Mon. 2/4 Thurs. 2/14 Team Racquetball Mon. 2/18 Thurs. 2/28 Racquetball Doubles Mon. 2/18 Thurs. 3/28 Floor Hockey Mon. 3/4 Thurs. 3/21 Sand Volleyball Mon. 3/18 Thurs. 4/4 Tennis Doubles Mon. 3/25 Thurs. 4/4 Table Tennis Mon. 4/8 Thurs. 4/18 Track Meet Mon. 4/8 Thurs. 4/18 For more information contact the Office of Campus Recreation at 777-5261. ^ www.sa.sc.edu/pecenter/crec.htm fiCampus Recreation |J \ \ erf §©utfVi Cmtioa 1' .-.. '. .-.- .-.*