Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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INSIDE: Men’s basketball drubs a L^v* "l r| nTT January 25,2002 ♦ Vol. 95, No. 52 Tennessee in Knoxville. 0 J. WA.CX V University of South Carolina ♦ www.dailygamecock.com ‘GREATEST i SHOW ON ft EARTH’ L COMES W WITH NEW ! TWISTS TO CAROLINA COLISEUM PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK BY ADAM BEAM THE GAMECOCK This weekend thousands of people will watch as tigers dom inate the floor of the Carolina Coliseum. Who says miracles can’t hap pen? Arriving in Columbia on the wheels of the world’s largest pri vately owned train, which stretches one mile long with 53 cars, The Greatest Show on Earth is stampeding into Columbia with more than 40 an imals, including Bengal tigers. “Each individual animal is so different,” said animal trainer Mark Oliver Gebel. “Some of the elephants in this year’s show have been with Ringling Bros, since I was a baby.” This is the 131st edition of the Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which plans to visit 90 cities and entertain more than 11 million people on its tour this year. The show is visiting Columbia for a four-day, seven show extravaganza with a “Samba Meets Broadway” theme including three musical numbers with all 100 performers and animals. “This is a new kind of dance for the Ringling Bros.,” said Choreographer Tony Stevens. “It’s so hot and high energy.” Tracing its influences to Broadway, costume designer Gregg Barnes calls this year’s circus “extremely glamorous,” with its use of runway fashion references instead of the tradi tional spandex attire. One member of the circus who missed the train ride was Bo, the five-ton elephant. Touted as “the world’s smartest ele phant,” Bo travels in his own 18 wheeler with trainer Larry Carden, who was first exposed to elephants at age 12. Bo boasts more than 60 ma neuvers, including walking across beams and skipping, as well as playing the drums, tam bourine, trumpet and harmoni ca. Bello Nock, Bo’s clownish partner, shares the spotlight with Bo as the two create an act of silent comedy. Bello is marked by his signature tall, red hair, which points toward the big top. “I use a combination of Rogaine and Viagra,” he said. Coming from a long line of Swiss circus performers, the 32 year-old Bello brings experience as well as antics to the ring. “I was never satisfied with just one thing,” said Bello, who has been performing since he was 6 years old. “I wanted to jug gle. Walk the wire. Flying trapeze. The teeterboard. Outrageous stunts like the sway pole. There are only about two dozen people in the whole world who can do that.” Along with the lion tamers and trapeze artist, this year’s cir cus brings a modem flavor of ex treme sports with the Max-Air Blizzard Battalion. Instead of wobbly performers tiptoeing along the high wire, these per formers ski down the tightrope in a display of aerial skiing. “Aerial skiing is an extremely physical sport,” said Craig Peterson, the one responsible for bringing the team to Ringling Bros. “The Max-Air Blizzard Battalion is all absolutely world class, Olympic-caliber athletes.” The battalion consists of sev en skiers, snowboarders and trampolinists, led by team cap tain Anne-Marie Brassard. Circus-goers who wish to get a taste of the real thing are en couraged to come an hour early to pre-show Three Ringed Adventure where they are invit ed to see performers and animals up close. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Business School Senate seat falls victim to reapportionment BY KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK Business students voting in next month’s Student Government elections will find the ballot dif ferent this year. Senate seats have been reap portioned, causing the Business School to lose a seat. The College of Education and the Applied Professional Sciences and Continuing Education Senate dis tricts each have gained a seat. Senate reapportionment is mandated by the Student Government constitution and is based on current full-time enroll ment figures obtained from the Registrar’s Office. The SG office evaluates figures each January be fore elections. Elections Commissioner Adam Bourne said reapportion ment is common in the Senate, but it rarely means adding or dropping more than a few seats in one year. Even though larger schools have more representation, it does not mean that they have more in fluence, Bourne said. “In the Student Senate personality plays more of a factor in influence than numbers do,” he said. “I don’t see this as something negative. It’s just part of the nat ural change, the way students en roll in different colleges and the way our Senate has to reflect upon that,” Student Government President Corey Ford said. Carolyn Jones, an administra tor at the Business School, said the decreased enrollment from year to year is a common phe nomenon for many schools. She said the decrease is misleading be cause the Business School had the most freshmen of any school at USC this year. “We’re attractive to people,” Jones said of the Business School. “We may have 750 freshmen next year, and that’s big for us. We’ve had a lot of good PR too.” Jones also said the Business School loses very few students to withdrawal and transfers, and most of the decreased enrollment comes from the number of gradu ating students. Ford said the reduced enroll ment in the Business School isn’t bad for the university. “I think it shows that a lot of students are be coming involved in other programs that we have. Everybody would just talk about the Business School, but I think our other schools have improved and our students are go ing into those,” said Ford. Currently, there are 15 Senate districts that represent either a particular college or group of col leges at USC. The maximum num ber of senators for any college is eight. The College of Liberal Arts is the only district that will have eight senators next year, while the Business School will be reduced to seven. Bourne said there has been some discussion in the Senate “I don’t see this as something negative. It’s just part of the natural change, the way students enroll in different colleges and the way our Senate has to reflect upon that.” COREY FORD STUDENT GOVERNMENT PRESIDENT about lifting the restriction on the maximum number of sena tors that a college can have. But he also said there has not been any proposed legislation to do so. Ford said having a maximum number of senators in each school and having a constitution that reg ulates Senate representation is the best method for Student Government because it emulates what is done at the federal gov ernment level. The Applied Professional Sciences and Continuing Education Senate district, which includes the College of Hospital, Retail and Sports Management, will be represent ed by four senators next year in stead of three. The School of Education will receive one sen ator as the only component of its district. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Showtimes this weekend Tickets are available to USC students for $12. ♦ Jan. 25- 7:30 p.m. ♦ Jan. 26- 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. ♦ Jan. 27 -1 p.m. and 5 p.m. PHOTOS BY REGINA GOODWIN Above left: Daredevil comedian Bello Nock was one of many performers at the circus, which opened Thursday night at the Carolina Coliseum. Top: Before the circus starts, a clown speaks with a little boy who rushed up to shake his hand. Bottom: Two clowns perform during a pre show, which children could participate in. Missing bus found; driver surrenders Students found safe after being taken 115 miles by armed man BY STEPHEN MANNING ASSOCIATED PRESS LANDOVER HILLS, MD. - A school bus driver with a loaded rifle took 13 children on a six hour odyssey Thursday that ended in another state when he turned himself in to a police of ficer, authorities said. None of the children was hurt, but some saw the gun and feared the driver was go ing to kill them, according to an FBI affidavit. The students’ parents wait ed anxiously for word of the bus after it vanished on the way to a private school north west of Philadelphia. Authorities said driver Otto Nuss told the officer that he had a gun and had brought the children to the outskirts of the nation’s capital against their will. “He said he wanted to show them Washington D.C.,” FBI spokesman Peter Gulotta Jr. said. The children told FBI agents that the driver told them not to go near the gun, ac cording to an affidavit from special agent Thomas D. Neeson. “One of the students, fear ing what was going to happen, wrote 911 in reverse on a fogged bus window,” accord ing to the affidavit. Nuss, 63, faces federal kid napping charges. He was taken to jail Thursday evening, and a court appearance was sched uled for Friday! The bus picked up the stu dents, ages 7 through 15, at a high school in Oley, Pa., at about 7:30 a.m. for the six-mile trip to the Berks Christian School in Birdsboro, Pa. The bus never showed up, and school officials said they couldn’t raise Nuss on the ve hicle’s two-way radio. After a frantic search by res idents, a police helicopter and cruisers in rainy, foggy weath er, the bus and the youngsters were found 115 miles away, parked outside a Family Dollar discount store in Landover Hills, just a few miles from Washington. “They made a different turn, and next they know, these children ended up here in Prince George’s County,” Gulotta said. Nuss walked into the store and approached off-duty Officer Milton Chabla, telling him he had left a gun on the bus, police said. Nuss told Chabla he had taken the children against ♦ SCHOOL BUS, SEE PAGE 2 SG will change election codes Candidates will get more time for campaigning BRANDON LARRABEE THK GAMECOCK Candidates for Student Government offices will be al lowed more time for some types of campaigning and will face a dif ferent enforcement regime under a new interpretation of election codes by President Corey Ford’s administration. Ford and others say the changes will allow a better ex change of ideas and have the po tential to spark greater interest among students. Less than 10 per cent of students voted in last year’s elections. “I think we want to allow more freedom for the candidates so that you’ll have a better dialogue, a better debate,” Ford said. _ Under the new interpretation, candidates for executive office would be allowed twice as much time for so-called “person-to-per son campaigning,” which in volves personally soliciting votes by distributing flyers or cards stating a candidate’s platform. Previously, candidates were al lowed to take part in person-to person campaigning only during the two days when students vote online. After the changes, that time would be extended to the be ginning of election week, allowing can didates four days for person-to-person campaigning. Vice President Bala Nithya Bala, who said she limited her person-to-per son campaigning during last year’s vice presidential runoff, said she disagreed with the change. She said the changes would irritate students who al ready feel harassed by SG candi dates. “I don’t think that they want to see us any more than they already can, so why do it?” Bala asked. Bala said she had voiced her opinions at a meeting of Ford’s Cabinet. Some members, though, said candi dates would likely Rn„mo think twice before campaigning too long for fear of alienating voters. “That’s true, but that doesn’t justify it for me,” Bala said. The role of the Elections Commission will also change sig nificantly this year. According to Commissioner Adam Bourne, the panel “will be more of an advisory board this year.” That would be a break from previous years, when the com missioner was the organization’s leader but had equal voting rights to other members. “In the past, it’s always been majority vote, but the rules do not ♦ ELECTIONS, SEE PAGE 2 TODAY'S WEATHER: Showers ending in the morning, then turning partly cloudy. High 58, Low 43. TOMORROW’S WEATHER: Times of sun and clouds. High 60, Low 41.