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Enhancing research a main goal of combining USC health schools BY KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK During a USC Board of Trustees fiscal policy meeting Wednesday, Provost Jerry Odom and other Strategic Directions and Initiatives Committee members explained their recommendations to consoli date the School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, College of Social Work and School of Public Health into a Health Sciences College. Odom said during the meeting at Carolina Plaza that the recommen dations’ main objectives are to en hance the university’s research pro ductivity and express the need for increasing outside funding, espe cially from the National Institutes of Health, for research at USC. The recommendations are con sistent with the committee’s plan to consolidate university pro grams with a technique called Value-Centered Management, which gives financial priority to more successful or renowned pio grams while the university faces reduced state allocations. uoij riesiuem juiui reams iuiu the committee the goals of the pro posed Health Sciences College in clude using research done at USC as part of the teaching curriculum in its health sciences programs. According to Odom, health sci ences’ greatest problem at USC is the lack of funding for research. He said the committee is propos ing paying faculty members nine month salaries, a move he said would give faculty members in centives to pursue outside fund ing for research projects to make up for the three months during which they won’t be paid. “We need more internal pres sure for faculty members to be en terprising in research ventures,” said Odom, who added that the nine-month salary appointments have been implemented at other state universities. Larry Faulkner, School of Medicine dean, said his greatest concern about the committee’s recommendations is the need for long-term, strategic planning. According to Faulkner, USC re ceives less then $10 million in NIH research funding, while the University of Washington receives more than $270 million. “We’re not going to catch up to them just by being conservative,” he said. Faulkner said Washington’s program is so advanced because of its large faculty, which is en couraged to be enterprising in biomedical research. Odom said the goal right now is to start assessing research costs immediately. “We’ve got to start. We’ve got to figure out what we’ve got and what we have to do to get better project grants,” Odom said. Trustee Darla Moore said South Carolina has some unique research opportunities the uni versity isn’t completely taking advantage of. She was also con cerned about how recruiting out of-state students will affect the de velopment of the proposed Health Sciences College. OHom caiH the anal ic tn nn. ticeably increase the overall qual ity of the students. He said out-of state recruitment could be a long term goal, but it doesn’t have to be decided now. Odom told the board that USC is important for research because it houses the only schools of public health and social work in South Carolina, along with one each of only two medical and pharmacy schools. He said the university has a distinct opportunity to influence the improvement of health sciences. The proposed Health Sciences College would aim at reducing the amount of duplication in class cur ricula among health science stud ies and would provide unified leadership for all health programs, according to the SDI report. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Mideast truce talks end without agreement BY GREG MYRE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JERUSALEM — U.S.-led truce talks ended without an agree ment late Sunday but both Israelis and Palestinians said they would meet again, focus ing on new American propos als aimed at bridging their dif ferences and halting 18 months of bloodshed. Violence raged despite the cease-fire efforts. Israeli com mandos backed by helicopters tracked and killed four mili tants who slipped across the normally quiet border from Jordan, and seven other people were killed in other violence. U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni convened Israeli and Palestinian security comman ders in an undisclosed location to try to settle the final differ ences over implementing a truce plan negotiated last year by CIA director George Tenet. Israeli and Palestinian offi cials, requesting anonymity, said Zinni presented propos als to bridge the gaps between the two sides, and the two sides were to present their re sponses at another meeting of security commanders on Monday. xt_ J _ j._ il _ _ r* n_tt n _ iiu uciauo ui mu u.u. piu posals were made public. But an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said those proposals were con structive. A U.S. official said Sunday’s meeting was “slow going. It’s fair to point a finger of blame at the Palestinians.” “We are not there yet,” the U.S official said of Yasser Arafat accepting truce terms which President Bush and Vice President Cheney set as a precondition for Cheney to meet Arafat in Egypt. STATE Marine recruit dies during training run PARRIS ISLAND (AP) - Marine Corps officials have identified an 18-year-old recruit who died during a 1.5-mile training run this weekend. Pvt. James R. Boglin of Selma, Ala., died Saturday af ternoon, said Capt. Porter Harlow, duty officer at the Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot. He was taking part of the initial strength test (1ST)—the first test a recruit must pass be fore 12 weeks of training — when he stopped and collapsed. Harlow said initial indica tions were that Boglin had a heart attack. The cause of death is still being investigated. It is the second training death at the depot this year. Last month, a sergeant training to be a drill instructor died after finishing a 4-mile run. Sgt. Fredrick A. Hughes, 30, collapsed while walking around to cool down after his run. Parents of 15 agree to government aid GREENVILLE (AP) - The Upstate parents of 15 adopted and foster children have agreed to accept government aid and get outside care need ed by the children returned to their care. That’s a big change for Bill and Debbie Rettew, who have rejected the involvement of government agencies in then care of special-needs children for 20 years. The Rettews’ change of heart was prompted by the re moval of 15 children from then home this past November and a subsequent finding of med ical and educational neglect. BE PREPARED: The American Red Cross sent three of its new disaster trailers to Beaufort, Hampton and Jasper counties to prepare for this year’s hurricane season. NATION $8 million might go to plane’s survivors WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has pro posed paying $8 million to the survivors of a missionary plane that was misidentified as a possible drug-smuggling flight and shot down last year by a Peruvian jet. An American missionary and her infant daughter were killed. ** The request was made last week in President Bush’s sup plemental spending proposal, which Congress must approve. “I know that there had been talks about that topic, and I’m not confirming the exact set tlement,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Sunday as he traveled with the president in Latin America. The Cessna float plane was fired on in April 2001 after a CIA-operated surveillance plane misidentified if. Veronica Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, were killed. Her hus band, Jim Bowers, and the cou ple’s son, Cory, escaped serious injury. Pilot Kevin Donaldson, who had serious leg wounds, crash-landed the plane on the Amazon River. Jim Bowers, along with Veronica Bowers’ parents, Donaldson and the Association ^of Baptists for World Evangelism, jointly have been trying to reach a settlement with the government. Ashes spark large fire in New Mexico ALTO, N.M. (AP) — Fireplace ashes dumped in a back yard sparked a grass and timber wild fire that burned 28 homes in an affluent neighborhood in the mountains of southern New Mexico, authorities said Sunday. Firefighters said winds died down Sunday and that the fire was 60 percent contained. The fire destroyed a bam as well as the homes. WORLD Central American trade might expand SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR (AP) — President Bush on Sunday held out the promise of expanded trade to Central American nations, say ing countries once racked by civil war now deserve jobs as a reward for the way they have “changed old ways and have 'found new wealth and new freedom.” Bush paid a six-hour visit here — his first ever, he said — to discuss the possibilities of a Central American trade pact . with Salvadoran President Francisco Flores and other leaders from the region. The sessions closed out a four-day tour of Latin America in which Bush pushed open markets, anti-terrorism efforts and more foreign aid money for de veloping nations that flush out corruption. Bush also pledged Sunday to pursue a trade agreement for all the Americas, and promote im migration policies that would , establish temporary protective status for some immigrants whose visas have expired. Over lunch with the leaders of El Salvador, Belize, Guatemala. Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama, Bush said he wants to get Congress energized behind the regional trade proposal he submitted in January, even though the matter, for now, is “at • the working level," White House spokesman Sean McCormack said. nnirntim mrm m . rm. _ _ I IIIWVI1U1 VIWI Ulk. U1C guv ernor of an eastern Afghan province demanded U.S. Special Forces hand over several rival Afghan allies who allegedly opened fire Sunday on the re gion’s security chief, "killing a bodyguard and wounding two pthers before reportedly fleeing into an American compound. HEALING BEGINS: Survivors of a grenade attack on a Protestant church in Pakistan that killed five people gathered on Palm Sunday for the first time since the assault. Maintenance CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 mated amount the university should spend to maintain and re pair its facilities every year. According to the Association of Physical Plant Administrators’ guidelines, USC should spend be tween $9.5 million and $14.3 mil lion annually. The university, however, can now only afford to spend about $7 million. According to USC Chief Financial Officer Rick Kelly, the university can no longer afford to have a rotating schedule for re painting buildings. “We have no routine to repaint common areas and walls — it’s a problem,” he said. Board member Darla Moore urged the board to be inventive. “We need creative, alternative so lutions if we’re going to fix this problem,” she said. “Even ones that sound outlandish.” Wilcox said physical environ ment being voted the No. 1 con cern in a survey of faculty shows it really is a problem. * “To bump faculty salaries out of No. 1 at any institution, you know you’ve got some issues,” Wilcox said. Wilcox said many faculty members have discussed their Emmert CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 investments in higher education,” Foster said. “All the talk about rolling back taxes while LSU is last in the SEC in investment mystifies me.” LSU System President Bill Jenkins said the whole state of Louisiana should be pleased by Emmert’s decision. “I’m truly very, very, very pleased that the chancellor has decided to stay with us and con tinue on the difficult path we’ve taken,” he said. Hubbard said USC’s search committee would focus on find ing the best candidate for the job instead of trying to meet an “ar tificial deadline.” “We would like to have some body, obviously, in place by the time Dr. Palms retires,” Hubbard said. The university’s Strategic Directions and Initiati tfes report might help. maintenance concerns, which vary from classroom size to light ing. “It’s hard to teach when the lights are flickering,” he said. One suggestion the committee gave in its report was to ask the General Assembly for a one-time sum of money that would let USC make needed repairs. Board member Michael Mungo disagreed with the idea. “That isn’t ever going to hap pen,” Mungo said. “They’re too busy reducing taxes, which is the most ludicrous thing in the world. ’’ Mungo said USC needs more of a long-range system, and sug gested the university privatize its buildings by making them avail able for corporate sponsorship. The ‘Faculty Welfare’ and ‘Services, Resources, Students’ section of the survey reports that 94.6 percent of faculty who re sponded said campus building conditions need improvement. Wilcox said he hopes a solu tion is found to USC’s mainte nance problems so that graduates don’t look back on their college careers and remember poor fa cilities. “On the development side of things, you don’t want to have alumni leaving with that image,” he said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com “We would like to have somebody, obviously, in place by the time Dr. Palms retires.” WILLIAM HUBBARD PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN Board member Herbert Adams said he’s heard that the report has encouraged candidates who have interviewed with the university. “Every candidate that we have talked to that has seen the SDI re port has been very positive,” Adams said. “Most of them have done similar things. I think it is an attractive thing. That’s what Mr. Hubbard tells me: It’s an at tractive thing.” Emmert was confident USC would find a good president. “It’s a wonderful place with wonderful leadership,” he said. “They’ll wind up with a terrific president. I have no doubt of that.” Adam Beam contributed to this story. 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