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Class CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 He said students taking the class will learn the different as pects of sports broadcasting through hands-on experience and special, in-class speakers. One guest planned to speak to the class i£ Curry Kirkpatrick, a se nior writer for ESPN The Magazine, a senior writer for ESPN.com, and a writer and re porter for ESPN Television. Other speakers scheduled to appear include Larry Conley, a color analyst for Fox TV for SEC baseball and basketball, for ESPN and for Jefferson Pilot; Dave Neal, a play-by-play an nouncer for Fox and SEC TV; Ken Burger, a sports columnist for Charleston’s The Post and Courier; Jimmy Rayburn, exec utive producer for Jefferson Pilot Sports; and Ron Franklin, a play-by-play announcer for ESPN. : McAlexander said this class is a great opportunity for people interested in sports broadcast ing to meet people who work in the field and make contacts in the industry. He said that al though the class will be enter taining, students will be expect ed to work hard. “They have to be on time; they have to do their work; they have to participate in class; they just have to give me all they’ve got, and they’ll make a good grade,” he said. “That’s not a lot • to ask.” Landon Jones, a third-year electronic journalism student, said he took McAlexander’s class last May and thought it was very interesting. “What I did like is he brought in real people,” Jones said. “It wasn’t just him talking.” “It was really hands-on. We did some projects and we actual ly got to go up in the stadium,” he said. Jones said his favorite part of the class was that the students kept a tape of a broadcast they made from Williams-Brice Stadium. “It was a great class,” he said. “I would definitely recommend it.” Gail Pack, director of under graduate student services in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, said the class is open to all majors. In the past, she said, between 80 and 100 stu dents have taken the class each year, and some students are turned away. “Students who have taken it seem to enjoy taking it,” she said. “Charlie does a real good job of bringing in outside sources so these students who may be inter ested in doing sports broadcast ing can get a feel for” the indus try. The class is scheduled for May 12 to 30, from 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., Monday through Friday. McAlexander, who has been handling play-by-play duties for the Gamecock basketball and football teams since 1995, also hosts coaching shows with Lou Holtz, Dave Odom, Ray Tanner and Susan Walvius. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Hours CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 graduate students. Above and below those brackets, students pay per credit hour. “That’s actually pretty stan dard at most universities,” Jones said. “In our case, it is definitely cheaper” than charging students solely per hour, she said, because stu dents can add hours up to the break point at no additional cost. Auburn University and the University of Cincinnati also use the bracketing system, and the ^ University of Missouri, 'University of Chicago, University of Tennessee and Florida State University are among the schools that charge per credit hour. Kelly said he is concerned about students who want to take more credit hours than the bracket holds. “We’re fairly comfortable that we can make it compara ble, neutral, no change, to the 16-hour mark, but it’s that mark between 16 and some oth er number that we’re trying to address,” Kelly said. He said the university doesn’t want to penalize stu dents who want to take more than 16 hours but that “unless we can find a mechanism to make it more comparable above that number, then it costs them more money to do that, and that’s not what we want to do.” Keuy said tne university is weighing its options carefully, and has been doing so for the past couple of months. “I think we’re about to the point now where we just have to sit down and say, ‘OK, this is what the data tells us, these are the positives, these are the neg atives, and we should make the following decisions, or we should not make the following decisions,’ “ he said. “So, I think we’re close.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Maintenance CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 lion would be needed for utilities. Kelly has been working for months to inform the Board of Trustees and the rest of the univer sity that costs of maintaining USC’s infrastructure are rising while the funds able to satisfy those costs are declining. receive tax credits as a reward. “Our financial advisers are looking at not only how that works in other locations, but is it applicable to the state of South Carolina, or would there need to be statutory changes?” Kelly said about other states that already employ such techniques. The university has completed renovations projects of $3 million in Calcott and $3.5 million in Sloan within the last year. use has $20 million avail able per year for the mainte nance of 169 buildings in Columbia that occupy more than 9.5 mil lion square feet. As Kelly noted, those figures average out to a little more than two dollars spent per square foot on mainte nance of build ings with high ly specialized areas, such as “Do you lay people off? Do you repair a roof or continue to use the bucket to catch the leaking water? We’re a university that needs to continue to provide education and research. We have to have a faculty to do that. As a result, the bucket is just going to have to catch the water.” RICK KELLY CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER A partial ren ovation for Jones is in the works. Kelly said the costs of the flood haven’t post poned the pro- „ ject because they came from maintenance funds while the renovation costs would be from capital funds and matching federal dollars. Kelly recom mended in last year’s Strategic Directives and Initiatives plan laboratories, that present complex problems. Kelly and USC President Andrew Sorensen have said that kind of spending isn’t enough. Kelly said the administration has categorized maintenance needs and deemed some projects as “absolute needs” that get fund ing through the limited resources. “So in lieu of closing a building down, we’ve been able to direct enough resources to keeping it open or closing a floor down in stead of just letting the building go dark,” he said. To make things worse, the $20 million per year has to cover util ity costs as well. Kelly said rising natural-gas rates as a result of a lagging economy combined with a harsh winter would mean feed ing more money into such costs this year. The solution, Kelly said, is to privatize repair efforts. This would be similar to Sorensen’s plans to privatize costs for new research fa cilities by allowing companies to purchase properties through a land lease, invest money in main tenance and utility costs, and then that the university find a way to get $5 million in recurring funds from the state Legislature to satisfy some deferred maintenance costs. While that recommendation hasn’t been implemented and the state legisla ture has cut USC’s appropriations for four consecutive years, main tenance problems get lower on the university’s priority list as it tries to pay its faculty and provide am ple learning opportunities. “That is the frustration of this whole thing that you have these urgent needs; you know you do,” Kelly said. “You have this tremen dous need for resources that are legitimate needs and there’s just not enough money to go around.” “Do you lay people off? Do you repair a roof or continue to use the bucket to catch the leaking wa ter? We’re a university that needs to continue to provide education and research,” he said. “We have to have a faculty to do that. As a result, the bucket is just going to have to catch the water.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Omicron Delta Kappa v'Tlonor Stole Orders If you are an undergaduate or graduate student graduating in May and | ™u’Kiiiitaf|lie Wl"wtagiij*»ii»iii>ni Eta Kappa Nu Gamma Beta Phi Gamma Sigma Alpha Golden Key Kappa Tau Alpha Master of Public Administration Student Association Mortar Board Mu Sigma Rho Nat'l Residence Hall Nat'l Collegiate Scholars Omicron Delta Epsilon Omicron Delta Kappa Order of Omega Phi Alpha Theta Phi Eta Sigma Phi Lambda Sigma Phi Sigma Pi Phi Tau Sigma Pi Sigma Alpha Psi Chi Rho Chi Society Sigma Delta Pi Sigma Theta Tau Sigma Iota Rho Tau Beta Pi Order forms can be picked up at the Russell House information desk, Room 112 of the Russell House, and the University Housing office at 1215 Blossom St. Deadline for orders is Tuesday, March 18 at 5:00 p.m. If you have any questions, call 777-6911 BC^ & jj^Z* CklA^^r'1^^^it— BLjEHBWj a \ 7%