Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Thousands protest army training school BY JON CUSTER INDEPENDENT FLORIDA AlAHIATOR (UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA) COLUMBUS, GA. (U-WIRE) - Two years ago, the U.S. Congress shut down the long-protested School of the Americas, which trained battalions of Latin American soldiers — some of whom went on to commit brutal war crimes. But the thousands of protesters who gathered outside Fort Benning, Ga., on Sunday say the new Western Hemisphere Institute , for Security Cooperation is the same school in a new disguise. The institute occupies the same seemingly innocuous pink complex of classrooms, libraries and auditoriums as the SOA and still offers U.S. military training to selected soldiers from Latin America and the Caribbean. But Col. Richard Downing, the school’s amiable, fast-talking new commandant, points out a raft of changes that differentiate his school from the “Cold War di nosaur” it replaced — changes the protesters insist are superficial. The new institute features mandatory human-rights in struction, tougher screening for recruits and an oversight board of congressional representatives, academics and military brass. “We want to be sure they’re trained to deal with the chal lenges of the 21st century,” Downing said of his students. “I can’t think of a better role model than our military and police.” All students are required to take a minimum of eight hours of human-rights instruction, with up to one week offered in the school’s yearlong officer-training course, Downing said. Gail Taylor, legislative direc tor for the SOA Watch group that organized the protest, dismissed the changes as a diversion. “It’s still a combat training school,” she said. “They’re teach ing combat tactics, and (the grad uates) are using these tactics against the civilian population.” She also derided the Board of Visitors, an oversight committee with members appointed by the secretary of defense. Dennis Jett, dean of the University of Florida’s international center, is the board’s chairman. “The Board of Visitors is a joke,” Taylor said. “They don’t have a mandate—it’sadistracter.” But Jett said the board is es sential because it allows a group outside the institution to offer opinions. He also said the protesters use faulty reasoning. “I would agree there is a prob lem of Latin American militaries abusing human rights,” he said. “That’s not a result of the train ing that’s provided. I think our training makes a positive contri bution.” BRIEFLY USC to set up mentor program The USC Study Abroad pro gram is setting up a mentor sys tem for the spring semester. USC students will pair up to mentor foreign students and help them get to know USC bet ter. Activities can include meet ing mentor groups for dinner and socializing on the weekends. Mentors do not need interna tional experience, but intema ' tional interest is preferred. The interest meeting will be held in Byrnes 704 (beside the Study Abroad office) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Students who can’t attend should email USCmentors@hot mail.com for more details. Medical professor given service award The USC School of Medicine presented Dr. Charles Robert Propst of Sumter with the William Weston distinguished service award for excellence in Pediatrics this past Friday. The award is one of the state’s highest honors for pedi atricians and recognizes the pe diatrician whose life best exem plifies the ideals of professional excellence, dedication and ser vice to the children of South Carolina. Propst joined the School of Medicine in 1989 and was promoted to professor in 1996. “Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. Propst has served as a role model for all of us to emu late,” said pediatrician Dr. Warren Derrick, chairman of the USC medical school’s Pediatrics Department. Since coming to USC, Propst has developed a comprehensive developmental pediatric practice with particular emphasis on children with attention deficit disorders. A member of the USC School of Medicine’s Admissions Committee, Propst has also been a faculty mentor to medical stu dents. “It’s been a wonderful oppor tunity to have two careers, one in private practice and one in academic medicine,” Propst said. “I feel extremely grateful to receive this award, and it is one that I will cherish.” Screenings delay international students BY NICK CHAPIN CAVALIER DAILY (U. VIRGINIA) CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (U WIRE) — Increased security screening of prospective inter national students by the State Department is keeping some out of school, a recent study found. The study, conducted by National Association for Foreign Student Affairs, the Association of International Educators and the Association of American Universities, found that hundreds of students and scholars have missed programs because of the increased scruti ny of those seeking visas for scholarly work. “It’s never been like this be fore,” said Richard Tanson, in ternational students and schol ars adviser at the University of Virginia. Tanson reported that 20 in coming university students were not able to arrive for the fall semester this year because of prolonged visa screenings. Most of the students delayed because of security screenings were from Southeast Asian Islamic nations, Tanson said. The study shows that at 77 surveyed institutions, the num ber of enrolled international students has continued to rise, as has been the trend in past years, though the increase might be leveling out. The num ber of international students and scholars actually attending these schools, however, has de creased. According to the survey, many students, professors and researchers have been forced to go to other countries or refrain from their work, resulting in high costs to the individuals and the institutions involved. The new screening proce dures, which are only now going into effect, are causing those in volved in international educa tion to adjust application scheduling. “We hope there aren’t going to be continued delays for legiti mate students trying to come here, but we are entering a new system and are certainly in tran sition,” said William Quandt, vice provost for international af fairs at the University of Virginia. “However, we hope the State Department won’t unfairly make it harder for students to get visas because of their nation of origin — we can deal with a new time frame, but only if it is done in a'fair way,” he said. Tanson shared Quandt’s fear, citing poor execution of new pol icy to date as evidence. “I do not have confidence in the State Department’s ability to screen entrance,” Tanson said. “So long as the government does its job, there is no problem, but if I said that those in my profes sion thought the INS and the State Department are doing the job they are mandated to do, I would be lying.” Sahil Sethi, a second-year in ternational student from India, which is reported to suffer from increased difficulty in getting visas, said international stu dents go through a lot to get into schools and can suffer greatly from withheld visas. “You go through SATs, ex ams and admission, and if you don’t get a visa, you might not have applied to any schools in your home country,” Sethi said. “Students are relying on their admission, and it hurts a lot if the visa is rejected.” While members of the uni versity community agreed that new regulations are important for national security, they ex pressed fear and frustration over the prospect of sanctions that are not efficiently and uni formly executed. “They need to get their act to gether,” Tanson said. Iraq CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 Baghdad after a four-year ab sence. Asked by reporters if Iraq would meet the deadline, presi dential adviser Amir al-Saadi re sponded in English: “Yes. Within 30 days (of passage of the U.N. resolution), as the resolu tion says, a report from Iraq will be submitted on all the files of nuclear, chemical, biological and missile files.” Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the Iraqi delegation had confirmed it had not developed any nuclear weapons capacity since inspec tors left Iraq in December 1998 ahead of U.S. bombing strikes on Baghdad. Iraq did not allow inspectors to return. Earlier, ElBaradei told Associated Press Television News and Egypt’s Nile televi sion that Iraq promised to de clare “all of its activities in the chemical, biological and nucle ar fields, even those of civilian use.” ElBaradei, speaking in Arabic, said the Iraqis were co operating so far and had pledged to continue doing so. “We hope that this oral commitment will be translated into fact when we begin inspections next week,” he added. Al-Saadi, asked if Iraq was prepared to grant inspectors unfettered access, replied: “Yes, as stipulated in the resolution and as we have agreed with them.” rm_:_ x uc iiiopee tions are consid ered President Saddam Hussein’s last chance to avoid war with the United States. Washington has said toppling saaaam mignt oe tne omy way to contain the threat it believes Iraq poses to the world with nu clear, chemical and biological weapons. Blix and his team arrived in Baghdad on Monday as allied warplanes bombed Iraqi air de fense systems in the northern no-fly zone. The U.S. military said the attack was launched af ter Iraqi gunners fired on the jets during routine patrols. In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iraq must provide proof it no longer has weapons of mass destruction before the Dec. 8 deadline. the Iraqi anti-aircraft fire “ap pears to be a violation” of the lat est U.N. Security Council reso lution. However, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan took issue with that interpretation, telling reporters in Kosovo, “I don’t think the council will say that this is in contravention of the resolution that was recently passed." ml_ 1 r X WC. XU member council never explicitly ap proved the flights over northern and southern Iraq, which Baghdad con siaers violations ot its sovereignty. U.N. Ambassador Wang Yingfan of China, a veto wielding member of the coun cil, said Beijing had “a different understanding” than Washington about whether Iraq’s anti-aircraft fire violated the new resolution. The United States is anxious for intrusive inspections to de termine as soon as possible whether Iraq is serious about co operating. Blix, a 74-year-old Swedish diplomat, favors a more cautious approach aimed at building trust with the Iraqis, who resent the entire inspection program. In Moscow, Iraq’s ambas sador to Russia repeated Baghdad’s long-standing con tention it no longer has weapons of mass destruction, saying it would not be possible to hide them in presidential palaces and mosques - sensitive sites to which inspectors are now per mitted free access. “It’s clear to everyone that for the storage of nuclear warheads, certain conditions, certain pro cedures, are . necessary,” Ambassador Abbas Khalaf said. “A nuclear weapon can’t be hid den under a pillow.” The U.N. team must verify Iraq is free of proscribed weapons before the U.N. Security Council will lift strict economic sanctions imposed af ter Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990. ElBaradei said that if Iraq cooperates with inspectors, they can report within one year to the Security Council that conditions have been met for suspending sanctions on Iraq. Later, after further checks, he said sanctions could be lifted. Fire ■CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 complete, the fire department tried to get as much water out as possible. Firefighters left at about 5:30 p.m. Senate Plaza is an old building without a sprinkler system. Floyd said putting'out the fire would have taken less time and less damage would have been done had the residents installed a sprinkler system. He said every one living in high rises should have a sprinkler systenj. “It’s like having a fireman on every floor in every apartment,” Floyd said. “A system could have put the fire out before it spread.” Deputy Fire Marshall Carmen Floyd said the only USC residence halls with sprinkler systems are the four new Greek houses and, recently, Bates House. Information was not available about whether other residence halls would get sprinkler sys tems. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail. com Cop cars might be used for ad space BY WAYNE PARRY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Cash-strapped police departments around the country are consider ing selling advertising space on their patrol cars — an idea that has some officers worried they will get stuck driving around with a re ally embarra^ing ad. “I don’t want my officers driv ing around in a car that says, ‘Trojan: Ribbed for extra plea sure,”’ said Louis Napoletano, pub lic safety director of Long Branch. “We’ve come a long way to be per ceived as professional, and this would set us way back.” Government Acquisitions LLC, a company in Charlotte, N.C., started selling the ads about two months ago. The deal works like this: A po lice department agrees to put ads on its patrol cars, usually on the hoods or on the side and rear. In return, Government Acquisitions provides new patrol cars to the de partment for $1, and replaces them every three years. The company keeps the ad revenue. So far, 20 mostly smaller mu nicipalities around the country have signed contracts, and scores of other cities have expressed in terest, said Ken Allison, president of Government Acquisitions. The first cars should be delivered with in a few months. Greek Parking CONTINUED ROM PAGE 1 mit was sent out, Parking Services did not reiterate that the permit was for a semester. “It wasn’t a situation where we were trying to cause prob lems — we were trying to pro mote convenience,” Huggins said. He said Parking Services was trying to make it so that the per mit itself was good for a whole year, but the fee tor it naa to De paid each semester. This was so that stu dents would not have to go to Parking Services every few months to renew their permits; if they de cided they did not want to live in the Village anymore, they could simply turn their permits over to the house director, who would return them to Parking Services. “The intentions were to cut down on the task of having to send out renewal cards to that area every three months,” Huggins said. “But it seems we’re going to have to expire them (the permit) each semester.” He said the problem will be fixed next year, when the per mit’s cost will be stated more clearly. Huggins said t^e cost to The cost of parking will help pay for guards, cleanup, maintenance and timed parking spots. park in the Village will be $100 per semester. Wooten, however, thinks Greeks shouldn’t have to pay to park in the Village; she said it is just like any other residence hall on campus. “Because we live here, we should be able to park here with out paying $100 a semester,” she said. Wooten compared the fee to park in the Greek Village to the fee paid by many who park in garages, which can cost $160 a semester. Huggins said the money will be used to ease the costs of mainte nance, guards, timed parking spaces and cleanup of the ' narking area. He said that when huge events take place at the Carolina Center or the Carolina Coliseum, USC has to pay guards to make sure no one parks in the Greek Village to go to these events; the money from the permits will be used to pay the guards. “We’re trying to make sure they have ample parking close to their houses,” Huggins said. “The only way we can enforce that is to assign it.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudeskCaihotmail.com I r FRESH LOCAL SEAFOOD COMFORTING ITALIAN FARE HOME OF THE CRISPY FLOUNDER 5:30 pm 2013 GREENE STREET COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA 29205 (803) 771-8888 ★ Put Christ mas from the Blossom Shop under the tree, on the tree & all through the house. ■ 2001 DEVINE STREET □ FIVE POINTS □ 799-3730