Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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INSIDE THE MIX: Better Than Ezra r± HeIPqHqV APril 10> 2002 4 VoL 95- No- 80 to play tonight in Russell House V V CU.lICuU.dj University of South Carolina ♦ www.dailygamecock.com AMEGOGK Bill would punish for endorsing Organizations naming favorites would lose funds BY BRANDON LARRABEE TIIKCAMEOOCK Any student organization that publicly endorses a Student Government candidate would lose student activity fees under a new bill The bill is sponsored by College of Liberal Arts Sen. Ginny Wright on behalf of SG President Ankit Patel. The bill, called “The Public Endorsement Prohibition Act,” would leave enforcement of the ban up to “those given jurisdic tion” over student activity fees, presumably the Student Senate Finance Committee chair and the SG treasurer. The act will likely get a first reading during Wednesday’s Senate meeting, which means the body could vote on the legislation as soon as next week. Patel said the bill would simply allow for the enforcement of a pro vision of the finance codes that prohibits organizations from be ing active in political activities. “Our finance codes currently stipulate that orga nizations that re ceive student activ ity fees are not al lowed to get in volved in nolitiral Patel campaigns at any level,” Patel said. The Gamecock has endorsed candidates in the past two SG elec tions. Patel said other organiza tions also endorsed candidates, but he wouldn’t identify those organi zations. He said the bill wasn’t tar geted solely at The Gamecock. “It’s targeted at all student orga nizations” receiving activity fees, said Patel, who was endorsed by The Gamecock. “Obviously, The Gamecock does fall in that category.” He said that, in addition to re inforcing the finance code, the bill was “a philosophical issue.” Patel said his administration supported the right of student organizations to endorse. “We just don’t want to use tax payer money to allow them to do that,” he said. Wright said it was targeted at “having an organization publicly back a candidate.” “We just don’t want to use taxpayer money to allow them to [endorse].” ANKIT PATEL SG PRESIDENT She said the bill wouldn’t take away an organization’s right to en dorse a candidate. “We’re just not going to let them endorse with the money that stu dents pay,” Wright said. She said she was unaware of any organization, aside from The Gamecock, that endorsed in February’s election. SG Attorney General Brook Bristow said the measure was con stitutional under the SG constitu tion, but he wouldn’t comment on the its implications to the U.S. Constitution. An organization defined as po litical cannot receive general fund ing under SG finance codes. However, such an organization can still receive so-called special projects funding — which come from student activity fees and can be used for programs and events ♦ ENDORSEMENTS, SEE PAGE 2 Professor dispelling Fitzgerald mythology Tax returns show author was not so rich BY ADAM BEAM TIIBUAMKCOOK Dispelling myths that F. Scott Fitzgerald was “a millionaire who squandered and drank away his fortune,” USC professor Matthew J. Bruccoli presented the American icon’s income tax returns yester day to suggest that Fitzgerald was not as rich as people think. “This is the true history of F. Scott Fitzgerald,” Bruccoli said. “The proper way to examine any author is as a professional man of letters. What could be a better key to Fitzgerald’s career than the record of his earnings?” Bruccoli discovered the returns about 25 years ago when he was helping Fitzgerald’s daughter, Scottie, clean out her attic. His col lection of Fitzgerald materials is considered the best in the world, “She tossed this stuff into a garbage can,” Bruccoli said. “I asked Scottie if I could rescue it and keep it as part of the Fitzgerald archives, and Scottie, who seemed a little puzzled that I would want this stuff, nonetheless said I was welcome to take it.” Perhaps best known for his nov el “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald has long drawn comparisons to the title character of his famous book for his alleged fortune and raucous living characteristic of the 1920s. But the tax returns, all in Fitzgerald’s handwriting, show his inrnmo fmm COC in 1QQC to $29,919 in 1929. “The legends, the stories of Fitzgerald’s enormous earnings are exaggerated,” Bruccoli said. “He did not make as much money as people think he made because authorship was not as lucrative in Fitzgerald’s time.” In 1929, three years after “The Great Gatsby” was published, Fitzgerald owed $909 in taxes, equivalent to about $9,000 today. His income dropped to only $7,535.51 in 1936. In 1937, the de jected author turned to Hollywood to try his hand at screenwriting. Stories abound claiming that Hollywood ruined Fitzgerald . In 1939, he was hired by David O’Selznik to make the character Aunt Pitty in “Gone with the Wind” more colorful. He was fired after less than a week and paid $625. Nonetheless, Bruccoli states that Hollywood, specifically MGM, saved Fitzgerald. “He went out to Hollywood in 1937 broke, and in his 18 months on the MGM payroll ... in ’37 and ’38, he made more money than he had ever made be fore,” he said. “It allowed him to ♦ FITZGERALD, SEE PAGE 2 PHOTOS BY COREY DAVIS/THE GAMECOCK Above: Faiyaz Dossaji raises takes a donation from Nikki Brady during Pi Kappa Phi’s No Boundaries Week fund-raiser. Below: Jaime Walters and Todd Deegan take part in the 72-hour scaffold sit for the fund-raiser. Breaking the boundaries BY ADAM BEAM THE (iAMECOCK A 113-mile bike ride and a 7! hour sit-a-thon atop a 10-foc scaffold at the back of th Russell House are just two c the ways members of the F Kappa Phi fraternity are rai! ing money for handicapped p< tients. The weeklong fund-raisin drive, dubbed No Boundarie Week, will benefit Pus America, a national organiz; tion created by the fraternit to benefit the handicapped. “We want to get rid of th boundaries that people wit disabilities face,” fraternity member Jason Springs said. “We want to level the playing !- field. It is a week where every t one should come out and see e we are all equal. It’s a week of f empathy, but not sympathy.” i This is the second year No i- Boundaries Week has visited i- USC. Event chairman Nick Kemp called last year’s effort l “a learning experience. ” s “We’re adding new activi 1 ties and finding out what works and what doesn’t,” / Kemp said. “Hopefully, it will get bigger every year. The phil b anthropy hasn’t changed; it’s 1 still about raising money and showing how important it is.” Returning this year is the 72-hour scaffold sit. Starting yesterday at noon, brothers take shifts sitting on top of a 10-foot aluminum scaffold to raise money. Sororities are en couraged to drop money into their designated slots. Groups that raise $100 earn a com memorative plaque. Second-year students Jamie Walters and Todd Deegan shared the first shift on the scaffold Tuesday afternoon, with dark clouds beginning to move in overhead. ♦ BOUNDARIES, SEE PAGE 3 13 Israeli soldiers killed in suicide ambush I_I PHOTO BY ALAA BADARNEH/KRT CAMP Palestinians surrender to Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday. Attack marks biggest blow to West Bank push BY GREG MYRE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JENIN, West Bank - Palestinians ambushed Israeli troops in the cramped quarters of I a West Bank refugee camp Tuesday, setting off a suicide bomb trap in a narrow alley and firing on soldiers in a courtyard, the military said. Thirteen Israelis were killed, the biggest blow to the JS army in its West Bank offensive. The carefully planned double attack in the Jenin refugee camp also wounded nine Israeli sol diers. A military spokesman said a rapid series of blasts went off in the alley—one of them det onated by a suicide bomber — and collapsed part of a building on several soldiers. Defying U.S. demands that Israel’s 12-day-old campaign wrap up without delay, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed “Operation Defensive Shield” will go on until it fulfils its mis sion — “the destruction of the in frastructure of the terror groups.” “This is a battle for survival of the Jewish people, for survival of the state of Israel,” Sharon ♦ MIDEAST, SEE PAGE 2 Willis named library dean UK’s library director tapped for USC post BY KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK The libraries director at the University of Kentucky was named the new USC associate vice-provost and library and in structional services dean on Monday, and he will take office in July. Paul Willis has been active in Kentucky’s libraries throughout his professional career, during which the libraries have received national recognition for their im provement. “The libraries at USC have a lot of momentum, and I sense from the people whom I met, both in the li braries and in the administration, that they are eager to keep that mo mentum going,” Willis said. At his new position, Willis will oversee the Thomas Cooper Library as well as the South Caroliniana, business, film, math ematics and music libraries. He will also supervise the library an nex and conservation facility. Willis will also lead the distance education department and li braries at USC’s satellite campus. “I look forward to coming to the University of South Carolina ... and particularly enhancing the changes in scholarly communica tion that have been brought by in formation technology and devel oping partnerships with other aca demic institutions,” Willis said. Provost Jerry Odom said the search committee made the cor IOV.1 V/I1U1V/C. “The search committee was im pressed by Willis’ experience, his understanding of technology and enthusiasm, and we look forward to having him join the adminis tration and implementing a vision that will take our libraries to even greater heights,” Odom said. Tom McNally of the Thomas Cooper Library was part of the committee that decided which candidate to pick. He said bring ing Willis to manage the USC li braries was like bringing Lou Holtz to coach the USC football team in that the two men are the best in their professions. “This will bring someone to the university to expand the breadth of our goals as a library,” McNally said. He said the primary goal for the search committee was to find a candidate with enough experience to lead a large library system, ♦ LIBRARY, SEE PAGE 3 TODAY’S WEATHER: Rain and thunder. High 76, Low 58. j TOMORROW’S WEATHER: Mostly cloudy. High 75, Low 59.