Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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University of South Carolina FRIHAY MARPH7 9009 VoL96.No.67 www.dailygamecock.com • FAIL/MI, IVInl\Vjn ( , ZUUO . Since 1908 Service worker suffers collapse BY MICHAEL LAFORGIA THE (iAMECOCK A landscape service worker collapsed ' Thursday outside of Columbia Hall after suffering from an unspecified health problem and has been admitted into the Intensive Care Unit of Palmetto Baptist Medical Center, USC officials said. Preston Cheeseboro, 50, of Gadsden was work ing in the parking lot behind Columbia Hall when he collapsed onto the pavement at about 1:30 p.m.. University Spokesman Russ McKinney said. Jim Demarest, director of facilities services, said Cheeseboro suffered from some type of seizure. He said Cheeseboro lost a lot of blood and was unconscious when transported by am bulance to Palmetto Baptist Medical Center. His condition appears to be very serious, Demarest said. McKinney said the USC Police Department did not suspect foul play. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com } _ ■ * I Candidates gear up for SG elections BY JULIA KNETZER THE GAMECOCK The field is set for the 2003 Student Government elections as candidates have offi cially filed for office. Campaigning will begin after spring break, when candidates will have two weeks to gather ( support before the election March 31 and April 1, said Election Commissioner Brooke Vickery. Part of the campaign process includes an ex ecutive debate on Greene Street at 12:30 p.m. on March 25. Before candidates can meet with any student organizations, they must attend a mandatory meeting Tuesday, March 18, which will brief can didates on rules they must follow during the campaign period, Vickery said. Until then, candidates can go ahead and hang ♦ ELECTIONS, SEE PAGE 2 RALLY FOR HOPE .r • — — —— * I PHOTO BY SAMANTHA HALL/THE GAMECOCK i Kasonna Kennedy, a third-year social-work student from Benedict College, leads the NAACP march Wednesday at the State House. Students from USC and Columbia College joined in the rally to voice their opposition to the eradication of the HOPE scholarship. Possible loss of scholarship spurs protest at State House NAACP, Columbia-area colleges join in demonstration BY ADAM BEAM THEHAMECOCK Accusing the state Legislature of playing “Robin Hood,” the USC chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People joined two oth er Columbia-area colleges Wednesday in a march to the State House to protest the proposed elim ination of the HOPE scholarship. Eliminating the HOPE scholar ship would be an alternative to get ting rid of the Lottery Tuition Assistance Program, which bene fits mainly technical college stu dents. First-year advertising student Latoya Hines said she wanted to let the legislators know that “you just can’t create a South Carolina Education Lottery and then, all of a sudden, not have the funds avail able to create scholarships for the students who need that money to come to school.” Carrying signs that read “Tell the truth — you dissed our youth” and chanting, “Keep HOPE alive,” nearly 60 students from USC, Columbia College and Benedict College marched from Davis field to the south steps of the State House. Armed with an electric mega phone, Kasonna Kennedy, a third ♦ PROTEST, SEE PAGE 2 Victim fears a trend in assaults BY ALLYSON BIRD • THE UAMECOCK When second-year International Master of Business Administration student Jessica Black and her four friends were held at gun point in Five Points on Feb. 7, Black said Columbia police told her, “Oh, it happens all the time.” Black said police hardly took a description of the attacker. “It’s just not acceptable for this to happen in Columbia, South Carolina. It’s just not a really big place,” she said. Black said she has talked to several people within the IMBA program — a program of only 300 students — who have been assaulted this year. Black said she is worried that her inci dent was more than just a chance armed rob bery. Lesha Utsey, public relations director for the Columbia Police Department, said that rnhhprips havp been on the rise lately, and police attribute this in crease to economic downturns. “What we have found in the last month is there has been an increase in commercial rob beries,” she said, ex plaining that the same people might be committing the individual rob hpripc ac u7p11 Black said the attacker wasn’t very aggres sive. “He was pretty coherent, but he had a cell phone in his hand. Maybe he was talking to someone who was watching and saying that there are five people not paying attention,” she said. When Black and her friends were assaulted, she thought it was a joke — until the attacker fired a shot. He then took their wallets. “He was already annoyed with me, so he stuck his hand down my pants and up my shirt. I grabbed his pinky, and he fired a second shot,” Black said. The shot, fired at the side of her head, left her temporarily deaf and with a large bruise behind her ear. Utsey said city police have recently teamed up with Richland County and Forest Acres po lice to take action against this problem. “The goals are to have a higher visibility in surrounding areas and to look at trying under cover operations,” Utsey said. Black and her friends were attacked in the Hiller Hardware parking lot on Blossom Street where James Cooper has been a manager for a year and a half. Cooper is from the Columbia area, and he too ♦ SAFETY, SEE PAGE 3 “It’s just not acceptable for this to happen in Columbia, South Carolina. It’s just not a really big place.” JESSICA BLACK SECOND-YEAR INTERNATIONAL MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION STUDENT Index Comics and Crossword_ 6 - Classifieds_ ~ 8 Horoscopes 6 Letters to the Editor 4 f Online Poll 4 PoliceReport 3 Weather TODAY TOMORROW High 73 Low 45 In This Issue ♦ ON THE WEB Read state, nation and world briefs. www.dailygamecock.com ♦ VIEWPOINTS Rob Seal speculates about the English classes of the future. Page 4 ♦THE MIX Rock gets resurrected by the Strokes, the Hives and late bloomers Burning Brides. Page 5 ♦ SPORTS The Gamecock baseball team wins 9-2 over the Furman Paladins. Page 7 Sorensen seeks faculty’s support for research campus BY KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK Faculty members were personally in troduced to the university’s proposed re search campus Wednesday when USC President Andrew Sorensen sought their support at a Faculty Senate meeting. Sorensen gave a similar presentation to the one he gave last week to a joint re treat of the board of trustees and the uni versity’s four foundations, giving a glimpse at the project’s first phase, which includes four proposed research buildings that would require an esti mated $30 million in pri vate funding. He then took questions from Faculty Senate members. Most questions focused on how the university could maintain fiscal and Sorensen academic success during a time of significant expan sion. Some members also inquired about the parking situation, to which Sorensen ♦ SORENSEN, SEE PAGE 2 PHOTO BY JOHNNY IJAYNES/THE GAMECOCK When walking at night, students should be aware of their surroundings because of an increase in robberies, police say.