Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Fitness center to offer more activities BY JOCELYN MEYER THE GAMECOCK The Strom Thurmond Fitness and Wellness Center will be one of the largest fitness centers on a col lege campus in the Southeast when it opens this spring, said Charles Anderson, director of fit ness at USC. The center will be a 192,000 square-foot home for fitness and sports activities. USC’s current physical recre ational center, the Blatt P.E. Center, was built in the early 1970s and is “deficient in meeting the university’s recreational and fit ness needs,” according to univer sity fitness staffers. Anderson said one of the most unique features of the center is the 52-foot climbing wall that stretches from the first to third floor. The wall can be used for climbing, rappelling and other outdoor uses. Classes will be of fered for climbing, as well as other outdoor activities, such as canoe ing. The new center will be open to enrolled students, who have paid their tuition and fees. Full-time faculty and staff must purchase memberships. Spouses and family of staff might also be allowed to buy mem berships, but not until the center has been open for a few months. “Even though the new Fitness and Wellness Center will open, the Blatt P.E. Center will also re main open. The same equip ment, classes and services will be offered at the Blatt Center, along with the additional ser vices at the Strom Thurmond Center,” said Kim Dozier, asso ciate director of Campus Recreation. The Blatt Center has only 2,500 square feet and minimal aerobic and weight equipment compared with the new building, where 18,000 square feet will be used as a strength and condi tioning area. The workout area will consist of 60 to 80 cardiovascular ma chines, including treadmills, el liptical trainers, stair machines, stepping machines, cross train ers, rowing machines, upper body ergometers (bikes for the upper body), and recumbent and upright stationary bikes. In addition, there will be plate loaded weights, weight machines and free weights. There will also be a line of equipment for disabled people, in accordance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Anderson said about $500,000 worth of equipment will be in the new strength and conditioning area. For students who enjoy playing sports or outdoor activities, the Strom Thurmond Center will have four basketball courts with wooden floors and glass back boards, two outdoor volleyball courts and racquetball and squash courts. For indoor games, the fitness center contains a state-of-the-art auxiliary gym. Three hard walls will sur round the auxiliary gym, and the side wall will be glass, so people can watch games through the wall. The gym will have built-in basketball goals and soccer goals. “The Fitness and Wellness Center will have two pools, one outdoors and one indoor. The in door pool is 4 feet deep and will be used for lap swimming, group ex SURFYOURSELF For pictures and floor plans of the Strom Thurmond Fitness and Wellness Center, see www.sa.sc.edu/pecenter/crec.htm ercise classes and other aquatic activities,” Dozier said. Also offered will be a food ser vice and a pro shop. The food ser vice will contain health food, which can be purchased with a Carolina Card. Sodexho Campus Services will provide food for the center. The pro shop will sell fitness and university related goods. As for parking at the new fit ness center, “the lot that already exists right next to the building will be used,” said Parking Services assistant Amy Steele “The lot will only be used for thi . people who are using the Fitnes Center.” With the university acceptini more and more students, “the cen ter will be large enough and havi an array of activities, as well a; state-of-the-art equipment to ac commodate everyone,” Andersoi said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Iraq says resolution’s wording gives United States pretext for an attack BY CHARLES J. HANLEY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AP) - The new U.N. resolution on the in spections could turn “inaccurate statements (among) thousands of pages” of required Iraqi reports into a supposed justification for military action, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “There is premeditation to tar get Iraq, whatever the pretext,” Sabri said. His letter was not expected to affect the inspections, which re sume Wednesday after a four-year suspension. Iraq had accepted the resolution in a Nov. 13 letter from Sabri to Annan. Preparations moved steadily ahead on Baghdad’s outskirts Sunday, where technicians at the i U.N. inspection center worked to establish a “hot line” with liaisons in the Iraqi government. The first working group of 18 inspectors arrives Monday from a U.N. rear base in Cyprus. Their numbers are expected to swell by year-end to between 80 and 100 at a time in Iraq. In seven years’ work after the 1991 Gulf War, U.N. experts de stroyed large amounts of chemi cal and biological weapons and longer-range missiles forbidden to Iraq by U.N. resolutions and dismantled Iraq’s nuclear weapons program before it could build a bomb. The inspections were suspended amid disputes over U.N. access to Iraqi sites and Iraqi complaints the United States inserted spies in the inspection teams. A new focus on Iraq by the Bush administration led to adop tion of Resolution 1441 and the dispatch of inspectors back to Iraq with greater powers of unre stricted access to suspected weapons sites. Washington alleges Iraq retains some prohibited weapons and might be producing others. It requires Iraq to submit an ac count by Dec. 8 of its weapons pro grams, as well as of chemical, bio logical and nuclear programs it claims are peaceful. Any “false statements or omissions” in that declaration could contribute to a finding it had committed a “mate rial breach” of the resolution — a finding that might lead to military action. The Bush administration has threatened war to enforce Iraqi dis armament, with or without U.N. sanction. But other governments, including France, Russia and China, say that decision can be -1 made only by the Security Council. Sabri’s letter complained that a key passage on providing docu mentation is unjust, “because it considers the giving of inaccurate statements — taking into consid eration that there are thousands of pages to be presented in those statements — is a material breach.” After talks with the Iraqis last week, chief U.N. weapons inspec tor Hans Blix said they had ex pressed concern about what was expected of them in reporting on their chemical industry, a com plex area in which many toxic products can be diverted to mili tary use. The foreign minister’s letter disputed the allegations that his government retained chemical or biological weapons. Better Scores. Better Schools Classes Starting Soon! ■ 80+ hours of instruction-more than any other national course! ■ Up to 4,300 pages of material ■ Specially trained, carefully selected instructors ■ Five full-length, proctored practice exams ■ Guaranteed satisfaction Space is limited. 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