Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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MLK Day Celebration ends with gospel concert CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 I “We should encourage more people to do community service on a regular basis, not just to day,” said Genesia Reed of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority. “Regardless of race, religion and background, everyone came together on this special day to help further promote Dr. King’s dream,” said Caroline Thomas, site leader and mem ber of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. “Unless people change the way they think, nothing more can be achieved,” USC Spartanburg student Daosha Littlejohn said. - Following the service events, the Law School, Black Students Association and S.C. Bar Association Young Lawyers Division hosted a forum on the role of lawyers during the civil rights movement. The forum featured a film that chronicled the lives of several well-known lawyers during the civil rights movement. Concluding the celebration was a gospel concert held in the Roger Center for the Arts, featuring The Williams. Brothers, an award-winning gospel group from Mississippi. They were accompanied by Columbia’s Capital City Chorale and Eastover’s The Rising Stars. The weekend’s events pro vided the faculty, staff and stu dents opportunities to com memorate the holiday and serve the USC community. “We can all he American and learn to get along without losing our diversity,” said volunteer LaTaursha Andrews of the USC Spartanburg campus. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com NAACP Students, staff visit civil rights sites CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 for desegregation, voting rights and equal rights occurred. About 35 USC students and staff members attended the tour, cosponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, the Department of African-American Studies and Student Government. According to USC NAACP President Lee Alyson Gaillard, “Some participants were mem bers [of the USC NAACP] or heard about it by word of mouth. We (the USC NAACP) also did advertising on Channel 8, flyers, brochures and classroom visits.” Traveling to the sites of the civ il rights movement allowed the students a chance to see a side of history not found in textbooks. Tour participant Mansa Gory said, “Standing-actually at the spot where the pictures are — it’s a different kind of feeling.” USC NAACP Vice President Jerome Bryant added, “Here are some of the small stories, the per sonal stories — not to be found in the history books, not even to be a footnote in the history book — but [stories of people] who gave their lives so that someone else could vote, someone else could drink from a water fountain.” At the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Ala., historian Joanne Bland provided a first-per son account of a horse trampling. Mounted police interfered with an attempted march, and an officer let his horse ride across a fallen woman’s body. “It’s something that makes you really think about the pain that people must have suffered,” said political science student Patrick Norton. Although most of the tour par ticipants were African-American, several non-blacks, including Abey Coker, also attended the trip. While helping to organize the USC Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, Coker decided to supplement her work with the Civil Rights Tour. “It was an eye-opening experi ence,” Coker said. “I’ve never tru ly been so honest with such a mix ture of people before. I was always tip-toeing around things... I saw some things I wasn’t prepared to see. It made me feel a little bit guilty because I’m white. It’s something I’ll never forget.” During travel time on the char ter bus, the group viewed movies reinforcing the stories and mean ings of their trip. The reality of the civil rights struggle—presented in films, mu seums, monuments and actual sites — sometimes threatened to be an overwhelming experience. “We as a group didn’t want to take it for 24 hours,” Gaillard said. “But these people had to live it every day of their lives. It wasn’t a VCR you could turn off.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com SACS Accrediting group again certifies USC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 great improvement for the school because in 1990, the visiting dean made over 150 recommendations. The second part of the study fo cused on information technology on campus. Barron was chosen as a co-director for his knowledge of this field. “It is probably one of the most, if not the most, critical issues that an institution of higher education has to face today,” Barron said. Barron said 18 task forces were created to look at USC’s peers and compare their information tech nology programs. From there, each task force decided on a rec ommendation to make to the self study about how USC could im prove information technology. Of these recommendations, Barron addressed two specifically. The first is to create a Sustainable Learning Community Center that will provide resources for information technology. The second is to establish an of fice for school-university partner ships. The purpose of the office will be to provide services for high school and elementary school teachers and students throughout South Carolina. Although Barron is hopeful for the success of the two new centers, he is unsure of a location or date for the start of either. The school has also spent a lot of time developing basic informa tion technology throughout the campus. Students and faculty may now gain access to the Internet in various places on campus, includ ing all dorm rooms and offices. USC was the first school to be accredited by the SACS in 1917. The school received its last reac creditation in 1991 when Palms be came USC’s president. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com SG Some senators want to fix constitution CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But Aramark is trying to expand into the South; it has most recently won the contract for the University of North Carolina dining services. SG Vice President Nithya Bala is trying to get students involved in the contract process at USC. “I just want to make students aware of different types of facili ties the three companies offer and the changes they could make at USC,” Bala said. The final decision on the new contract will come from USC’s Business Affairs Office this spring. SDI Committee report SG Senate is taking on the SDI Committee report as the Faculty Senate is already in the process of doing so. Student Senate has taken the recommendations and split them up among standing senate committees. Each standing com mittee will make a proposal to ei ther pass a resolution in favor or against each recommendation on Jan. 30. SG constitution changes Before their ends, several SG members want to change the wording of the SG Constitution about the budget process and how student organizations receive al locations. It was discovered that there were a few discrepancies between what the codes specified and how the budget was actually done. Also, SG isn’t sure how much graduate students are contribut ing to the student activity fees. The problem stems from graduate assistants who aren’t required to pay student activity fees. Some organizations on campus contain many graduate assistants who re ceive allocations, but they aren’t contributing to the general activi ty fund. “We are currently trying to fig ure out who is contributing and who isn’t contributing to the ac tivity fund,” SG Treasurer Hydrick Harden said. Campaign finance reform Last semester, Senators Brook Bristow and Chrissy Stauffer spon sored a bill that would have made candidates for executive positions disclose the amount of money they spend on their campaigns. The bill would have made all spending public knowledge, and all students would have had access to it via the Internet or other means. Many thought the bill would en courage more students to run for office. However, that bill was vetoed, and several senators are still try ing to make the changes in policy. Senator Zachery Scott said, “It failed because there was some am biguity in the wording.” Now, each candidate can spend any amount of money without dis closure. “We always have the student’s best interest in mind, and this one of those things that will be benefi cial to students,” Scott said. Student Senate meets every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the Russell House Theater. The meetings are open to all students. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com < ^^ntfinv^R^KKiv|fiv9^nvv^^A Preston College CaroCmas ResuCentiaC CoCCege Preston College re establishes a tradition dating back to 1801. Students at Preston College benefit from a unique environment that promotes informal contact with faculty and a variety of cultural, social, leadership, and academic activities. Preston is home to nearly 240 students, 40 faculty associates, and a faculty principal. Interested in living in Preston? Want more information? Join us for our next Preston Tea! Where you can learn first-hand about living in Preston while enjoying some tasty treats. Friday, January 25, 2002 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. in the Principals Lodge, Room 113, Preston Co Applications for Preston College may be picked up at University Housing : (1215 Blossom Street) or the Preston ijk College Office. 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