Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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University of South Carolina CDIHAV FFRDIIADV01 OHOQ VoL96.No.61 www.dailygamecock.com iiaIL/HT, rQDrxUMrVl 4 1, 4vJUO Since 1908 Palms still receives top pay # BY AMY GEIER EDGAR ' THE ASSOCIATED PRESS COLUMBIA — Despite facing millions of dollars in budget cuts, USC continues to pay salaries for two presidents. Former USC President John Palms retired at the end of June, but stayed on the university pay roll at $211,923 a year to assist Andrew Sorensen’s transition as the new president. The Budget and Control Board says Sorensen, who started in July, is paid $215,000 a year. Palms is now on a sabbatical for the first half of the year, re ceiving the same salary, said uni versity spokesman Russ McKinney. Sabbaticals normally allow employees to continue re ceiving their pay. At the end of June, when Palms returns from his sabbati cal, his salary will be reduced to about $175,000 and he will become a full-time faculty member who teaches courses and conducts re search, said Mack Whittle, chair Palms man of the uni versity’s Board of Trustees. His title will be distinguished president emeritus, Whittle said. I Palms, a physicist, has numerous research projects under way and will teach classes on physics and possibly government to share his leadership experience, Whittle said. Palms did not immediately re turn a phone message seeking comment. It is unwise to continue giving a former president the same pay, said House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Ronald Townsend, R-Anderson. “To me, whenever a person leaves a post, they ought to stop getting paid for it,” Townsend - said. Townsend said the university should have negotiated a salary for Palms that was commensu rate with his duties in the transi tion period. The salary issue comes at a ♦ PALMS, SEE PAGE 3 Eating the way to victory PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK Brett McCarty, far right, a fourth-year history and physics student, won an eating contest sponsored by the Bateman Team, which is conducting a public relations campaign for Nutella, on Greene Street on Wednesday. He won tickets to the IFMA Freestyle Motocross at the Carolina Center this weekend. New VP hired to seek private funds Sorensen places Ball State exec over university advancement BY ADAM BEAM THE OAMECOCK U£C President Andrew Sorensen announced a new vice president for university advance ment Thursday, saying the uni versity is seeking to expand its fund-raising efforts into the pri vate sector. Hudson Akin, executive direc tor of Ball State University’s de velopment, will take office April 1. Akin will fill the position left by Bob Staton, who oversaw USC’s $500 million capi tal campaign be fore leaving USC in the spring of 2002 to become president and CEO of United Way of South Carolina. The hiring signals a change in the university’s structure. Under former President John Palms dur ing the Bicentennial Campaign, ' USC had a yice president of de velopment. When Sorensen came to USC in July 2002, he decided to go back to an advancement mod el, which pulls all the university’s’ external offices together, such as media relations and public affairs. ♦ AKIN, SEE PAGE 2 BY JESSICA FOSTER THE GAMECOCK Former Gov. John C. West presided over a panel of Republican and Democratic House leaders Wednesday night at a USC public event to debate * Gov. Mark Sanford’s legislative agenda. “30 Days In: South Carolina’s Legislature Debates Our New Governor’s Agenda” was held in the Belk Auditorium of the Moore School of Business and fo cused on the questions posed in Sanford’s state of the state ad dress, given Jan. 22. ♦SANFORD, SEE PAGE 2 PHOTO BY MARK SCHILUNG/THE GAMECOCK Budget deficits were the topic of discussion Wednesday as state lawmakers gathered to discuss Sanford’s agenda. Domestic-violence court is effective, USC study finds BY KEITA ALSTON THE GAMECOCK The results of a USC-conduct ed study indicate that domestic violence courts increase victim safety and offender accountabil ity. The study, done over a two year period, looked at the effec tiveness of South Carolina’s first criminal domestic-violence court in Lexington County. Angela Gover and John MacDonald, USC criminology re searchers and assistant profes sors in the Criminal Justice Department, conducted the study. They found that victims and defendants were satisfied with the domestic-violence court pro cess. Seventy-four percent of vic tims and 62 percent Of defendants said the quality and profession alism of the court was “good” or “excellent,” and 74 percent of vic tims and 68 percent of defendants said the outcome was “fair” or Both victims and defendants think the court is fair, according to a USC study. “just.” “The majority of both victims and defendants said they were treated fair and just,” MacDonald said. “This is important because people are to obey conditions if they were treated fairly.” The professors conducted a time-series analysis of arrest rates, which looked at the num ber of arrests and rearrests in a 60-month period before and after the domestic-violence court was established. “We conducted a series of in depth interviews with persons working in the court: victims, de fendants, attorneys, judges, men tal-health professionals and shel ter advocates,” MacDonald said. He said that the rearrest anal ysis was done by randomly se lecting 200 domestic-violence of fenders who went to domestic-vi olence court and compared them with 200 offenders who went to ♦ COURTS, SEE PAGE 3 Index Comics and Crossword 6 Classifieds 8 Horoscopes 6 Letters to the Editor 4 Online Poll 4 f, Police Report 3 Weather TODAY TOMORROW High 63 High 72 Low 55 Low 51 In this issue ♦ ONLINE State, nation and world briefs. www.dailygamecock.com ♦ VIEWPOINTS Anna Lake reveals Saddam’s secret weapon. Page 4 ♦ THE MIX Representatives of different faiths address the Iraqi situation from a religious perspective. Page 5 ♦ SPORTS The DSC men’s basketball team continues its winning streak with a 77-63 win over Tennessee. Page 8 ; . _ School of Music to hold scholarship-funding event Musical black-tie affair to be school’s main event for year BY RENE TURNER THE GAMECOCK Eight USC music students will ben efit from the Moveable Musical Feast this Saturday at the USC School of Music building. The festival provides a once-a-year opportunity for the public to see all of what the School of Music has to offer. At $60 a ticket, participants can tour classrooms, watch opera scenes and hear a presentation by the student choir Carolina Alive, which will per form a Broadway revue. The event, which starts at 7 p.m., is designed to provide the students with scholarships and to help them in their educational plans. This is the sixth feast put on by the ♦ FEAST, SEE PAGE 2 i J Eight USC - music | students will receive scholarship money collected from ticket sales. | Tickets for L the event H are $60 a person. I PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK