_
UT VS.
Game
draws
sellout
crowd
BY CHRIS FOY
TIIE GAMECOCK
Thursday night witnessed the
first-ever sellout crowd for a USC
women’s basketball game as the
No. 8 Lady Gamecocks took on
No. 2 Tennessee. Unfortunately,
the crowd also witnessed why the
Lady Voluteers are the second
ranked team in the country as
they commanded the second half
en route to an 80-61 victory.
USC Head Coach Susan
Walvius thought her team still
played a hard- « for MORE
lought battle in CQVERAGE 0F
their loss. __
“Tennessee is a ^0- 8 SOUTH
great basket- CAROLINA’S
ball team,” 80-61 LOSS TO
Walvius said. NO. 2
“But I think TENNESSEE,
tonight our $EE pAGE g
team earned
the respect of
our fans. They played hard.”
The Lady Gamecocks went
into the locker room at the half
trailing by one, but after a huge
19-5 Lady Volunteers run, the
game was out of reach.
Nonetheless, Tennessee guard
Kara Lawson thought the USC
team and their fans were quite a
sight.
“Tonight we faced a great
crowd and a great atmosphere.
Credit is due for South Carolina
and their fans.”
Comments on this story? Write
gamecocksports@hotmail.com
USC: 10 MINUTES THAT CHANGED IT ALL
Teresa Geter tries to put two on the board against her former team. After an early lead, the
Lady Gamecocks succumbed to Tennessee's superior play, photo by robert gruen
Governor
highlights
education
Republicans call
State of the State
speech ‘vague’
BY BRANDON LARRABEE
AND KEVIN FELLNER
THE GAMECOCK
Urging legislators to undertake
“the work of the swift and the
strong,” Gov. Jim Hodges un
veiled a raft of new proposals for
education and homeland security
in his State of the State address
Wednesday night.
Republicans blasted the speech
as vague, saying it was filled with
politically popular but expensive
initiatives despite a sparse state
budget.
In the speech, Hodges repeated
his plan to devote $40 million in
lottery proceeds to endowed
chairs at the state’s research uni
versities. Hodges said such sup
port for higher education was nec
essary to boost the state’s sagging
economy.
“Look no further than Atlanta,
Georgia; the Research Triangle in
North Carolina; and Austin,
Texas, to see the impact a re
search university has on the eco
nomic development of their com
munities,” Hodges said. “Our uni
versities can also be engines of
economic opportunity. But only if
we dramatically increase re
search funding to support promis
ing new ideas.”
That was just one of the gover
nor’s many education proposals,
which include a
“Marshall plan”
for school build
ings that would put
a read-aloud li
brary in every ele
mentary school
room. Other pro
®es posals include
putting 3,700 additional national
ly-certified teachers in the state’s
classrooms and, in a move that
was mocked by Republicans, an
initiative to send every high
school student a copy of Tom
Brokaw’s book, “The Greatest
Generation.”
Hodges also focused on home
land security in the address, pro
moting legislation that includes
antiterrorism training and greater
cooperation among law enforce
ment and health care officials.
Hodges proposed one measure
to deed with the state’s slumping
budget. He said the General
Assembly should try to trim its
session to 60 days and threw his
support behind a bill sponsored
by House Speaker David Wilkins
that would shorten the session.
The move would save the state
$60,000 for each day the legislature
didn’t operate, according to the
governor.
“If Florida can do the people’s
business in 60 days, and Texas can
do this by meeting once every oth
er year, then South Carolina can
do the people’s business in two
months,” Hodges said.
Republicans — including sev
♦ HODGES, SEE PAGE 2
McKissick’s size could complicate merger i
Combining with
Visitor Center
might cause
space problems
BY ADAM BEAM
TIIKUAMKCOCK
USC might soon see the merg
er of the Visitor Center with
McKissick Museum to give
prospective students a more per
sonal view of the campus on uni
versity tours — if there’s room.
The Strategic Directions and
Initiatives Committee recom
mended the merger in its recent
report to President John Palms.
McKissick Museum director
Lynn Robertson said, “If they
want to bring the Visitor Center
over here, which I think we could
do some really good cooperative
programs, there will be the need
for using some additional space
that is now university offices.”
McKissick has 10 employees
who take up less than 6,000 square
feet of the building’s ground floor
for office space, which includes
building management offices, ex-.
hibition research departments, a
graphic design studio, a photog
raphy laboratory, an exhibition
workshop and staff offices.
While most McKissick staff per
sonnel share offices, Robertson
said the museum has “done this
specifically to keep as much of the
public area as open to the public.”
The Visitor Center has 75 em
ployees — including student am
bassadors — who occupy 8,600
square feet at University Plaza on
Assembly Street.
“There is no magic to the
amount of space we have or we
need,” Visitor Center Director
Denise Wellman said. “We need a
lot of space for the staff that we
need to get the work done.”
One possible solution for the
space problem would be to move
the Visitor Center staff to
McKissick’s third floor, which
houses seven employees in media
relations, four in special events
and six in internal audit.
But according to Charlie
Jeffcoat, facilities planning and
construction director, the third
floor has only about 6,000 square •
feet of office space — 2,600 square
feet less than the Visitor Center
has now.
“I think we need to explore it a
lot more," Wellman said about
merging with McKissick.
Provost Jerry Odom said it
wasn’t the committee’s job to con
sider matters of operations.
' “This committee has not rec
ommended operationally how
things are going to happen,” he
said. “One of the things that I
think will occur after the presi
dent decides what recommenda
tions he will take to the board —
and something like that would
♦ VISITOR CENTER, SEE PAGE 2 \
Celebrate the Dream
A LIST OF USC EVENTS
THIS WEEKEND BEING
HELD TO CELEBRATE
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
DAY ON MONDAY.
Breakfast featuring Rep. Joseph H. Neal, South Carolina
Legislative Black Caucus chairman
Friday, 7:30 a.m., Russell House Ballroom
Tickets: $6 (available at the Russell House information desk)
The Black Law Students Association and S.C. Bar Association
Young Lawyers Division hosts forum on the role of lawyers in
the civil rights movement
Monday, 3 p.m., USC School of Law
The Williams Brothers, Grammy-nominated gospel group,
perform.
Monday, 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $6 (available at the Carolina Coliseum box office]
Students sign up for Service Day events
Monday, 9:30-10 a.m., Russell House
ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON LARRABEE
Continuing a USC tradition
Preston selects
new principal;
art professor
loves adventure
BY LOGAN BARLOW
THE GAMECOCK
In August 2002, art professor
Chris Robinson will succeed Ken
and Margaret Perkins to become
Preston College principal.
Robinson has taught art at USC
for 27 years. Hired as a sculptor,
he is now a computer graphics in
structor.
Robinson, a faculty associate in
the college, has been involved
with Preston since it was estab
lished as a residential college in
1995.
According to Kevin Lewis. 1995
1998 Preston principal, the job is
an integral part of the traditional
college atmosphere. Lewis com
pared Preston College to British
universities Oxford and
Cambridge, which try to bring
students and faculty together in a
living and learning environment.
Robinson’s strong background
in public service stems from his
role as a parent. To be more in
volved with his children’s educa
tion, he ran for the Lexington
County School Board in District 5.
Robinson served for twelve
years, acting as committee chair
man for four of those years. He
♦ PRESTON, SEE PAGE 2
Dr. Chris Robinson is poised to become the next principal of
Preston College beginning in July, photo bycandi hauglum
TODAY'S WEATHER: Partly cloudy, light W§W winds, High 56, Low 41. ♦ TOMORROW'S WEATHER: Periods of light rain, High 55, Low 39.
Ule Burriss registers a prospective student for a campus tour
it the Visitor Center on Thursday afternoon, photo by candi hauglum