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STATE Gov. Sanford closes meeting to public COLUMBIA (AP)—Despite his campaign promise to bring open ness to government, Gov. Mark Sanford will hold his first Cabinet meeting — which will address the state’s budget crisis — behind closed doors. Sanford spokesman Chris Drummond said Tuesday that the group can meet in private be cause “one, it’s not a public body. It’s basically a staff meeting.” “I don’t see where it’s a legal requirement to have it open,” Drummond said. At a briefing last month,. Sanford said public officials need ed to work out deals in private so they could speak freely. Columbia media attorney Jay Bender said the state Freedom of Information Act requires such meetings to be held in the open. “I don’t know what his philos ophy is, but I feel quite confident that Cabinet meetings are to be public,” said Bender, who helped craft the law. “I don’t think there’s any way consistent with the law that the meeting could be closed to the public.” The South Carolina Republican Party sued former Gov. Jim Hodges under the FOIA to get minutes and details of his Cabinet meetings. Agency: Find other funding for colleges COLUMBIA (AP) —The way South Carolina funds colleges and universities based on per formance doesn’t work and should be changed, especially in the current budget crisis, the state’s watchdog agency said Tuesday. “It is not desirable or feasi ble to allocate all funds accord ing to performance scores,” the Legislative Audit Council said in a follow-up to an audit it con ducted two years ago. The report said that even in good times, the state’s system of performance funding was weak. But with ongoing budget cuts, schools have not been reward ed for meeting state standards. “The law still requires fund ing to be determined solely on the basis of performance, when in actuality, during the past two years, performance scores have had a negligible effect on fund ing,” the report said. The 1996 law creating per formance funding eliminated a formula based on the number of students at each of the state’s 33 colleges and universities. The intent was to eliminate waste and direct funds from weaker schools, eventually clos ing low-performing schools. NATION Shuttle investigators confident of solution SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON (AP) — The head of the Columbia in vestigation expressed confidence Tuesday the panel will solve the mystery, and said it would stitch together photos, video, radar and other data into a “stereoscopic mo saic” of the shuttle’s final minutes. “The professional team I have here has solved accidents with less evidence,” retired Navy Adm. Harold Gehman Jr. said. “There’s a lot of data and more data com ing. We haven’t even started de bris analysis yet.” Thousands of pieces of debris have been recovered. All of it has come from either Louisiana or Texas, though no farther west than Fort Worth, Gehman said. However, he said data suggest the shuttle began breaking up over the western United States and “it’s possible there is some thing out there.” “We have reason to believe that we should keep looking west of Fort Worth,” he said. Gehman renewed NASA’s re quest that amateurs turn over any photos and video of the shut tle as it flew over the West Coast early Feb. 1 before it broke apart over Texas. All seven astronauts aboard were killed. States raise tuitions to balance budget (AP) —Cash-strapped states | from coast to coast are weighing hefty tuition increases for public colleges and universities, prompt ing experts to wonder aloud if state schools are pricing them selves out the market for most stu dents. “This trend is going to catch up with the middle class at some point,” said Barmak Nassirian, an analyst with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. With most states unable to cov er their expenses, tuition in creases have been imposed mid way through this academic year by several states including Maryland, Oregon and California. Vermont, Hawaii, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, New York and Utah are among the states that have already adopted or are con sidering tuition hikes at public in stitutions for the fall semester. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education re ported in a study released Tuesday that students at public, four-year colleges in 16 states were hit with tuition hikes of more than 10 percent for this academic year. Protests mounting against U.S. action" LONDON (AP) - The United States’ drive to disarm Iraq by force hit mounting global opposi tion Tuesday, with Russia warn ing that military action without U.N. consent would be a “grave er ror” and China backing calls to give U.N. weapons inspectors more time. With the world’s other big powers lining up against Washington, the NATO alliance was in disarray, failing for a sec ■ond day to support a support a U.S.-backed proposal to begin military planning for a conflict with Iraq. The showdown comes just days before chief U.N. weapons inspec tors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei report Friday to the U.N. Security Council, where the United States hopes to get ap proval for tough action against Baghdad. President Bush’s national se curity adviser, Condoleeza Rice, met Blix on Tuesday to discuss the inspection process in Iraq, a se nior U.S. official said. WORLD BRIEFLY Students may name professors for award Students will have the opportu nity to nominate their favorite professors for the Amoco Award for Outstanding Teaching. The award is given annually to outstanding teachers in under graduate courses. Student nomi nations are essential in the selec tion process. A selection committee com posed of undergraduates and for for the nomination. The letter should be addressed to Professor Lori Thombs, chair woman of the Amoco Committee, Department of Statistics, USC. The deadline is Friday, March 7, just before spring break. The winner is announced at the spring general faculty meet ing. The winner receives a check and certificate, and the winner’s name is engraved on a perma nent plaque housed on the main floor of the Thomas Cooper Library. Previous winners are not eligible. mer winners of the award evalu ates the nominations and deter mines the list of finalists. The committee urges the stu dents to nominate their most ef fective undergraduate professor. To nominate a professor, stu dents need to write a letter with the name of the nominee and a short paragraph giving the reasons Research CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 University’s Centennial Campus, which has 16 buildings on the 1,334-acre site. The site contains more than 100 large and small businesses, government agencies and university faculty that are collaborating on research projects Sorensen’s push for the re search campus is by far his most financially extravagant proposal so far as president and is the cen terpiece of his agenda now that he has wrapped up the bus tour of all 46 of South Carolina’s counties. But while USC’s budget has been reduced by $33 million already this fiscal year, Sorensen and oth er research personnel have man aged to secure $30 million more in research funding this year than last. He says boosting research is, for the most part, USC’s way out of financial crisis. When talking about research plans Sorensen emphasizes the need for funding. Since his tenure as presi Sorensen will besan diSCUSS fund he Us raising and a pushed for Prosed “ for research research ef centeratthe forts. The £££ of Health awarded USC an $11 million grant —the largest in school history— in October to study colorectal can cer. Sorensen also has expressed the need for private funding in university research for mutual benefit, which is a driving force for N.C. State’s research campus. He also says that cooperation from local governments and business leaders would be essential for the research campus to come to fruition. Since becoming president, Sorensen has said in several public statements to the faculty, the uni versity community and audiences during segments of last fall’s Bow Tie Bus Tour, “In all these part nerships we must ensure that the financial tail does not wag the aca demic dog.” He recently explained the expression by saying that the university should not sacrifice aca demic integrity for financial gain. Thursday’s meeting will be the first of the entire Board of Trustees since October of last year. The trustees held a retreat in January. ♦-#-— Comments on this story?E-mail gamecochudesk@hotmail.com arc tT 7 ADMISSION btate tairgrounds [ - c~^bi7— Saturday, 22nd Sunday. 22>rd 9 am -6 pm u pm — 6 pm FEATURING Connie Briscoe, RoseUen Brown, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Sena Jeter Naslund, Nikky Finney, Crystal Wilkinson, Silas House, Brad Watson, Kiik Read, plus neady70 more authors. information o U D. J J1. z41J www.scbookfestival.org SPONSORED BY TKe Humanities Council50 ALSO SPONSORED BY OxtState j WIS* | j- | ««■««»* [ Wachovia | NO LIMITS ON MINUTES. PERIOD. CALL ANYTIME TO ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY ALL DAY. ALL NIGHT. ALL YOU WANT. GET THE SAME BILL EVERY MONTH. No long distance charges. No roaming charges.** Simply pay a $49.95 monthly subscription fee. * Get a free phone when you \ sign up for any SunCom plan \ — while supplies last. ' . AT&T Wireless WeGetit. 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