The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 17, 2003, Image 2
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.
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Hours
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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.”
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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.”
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Omicron Delta Kappa
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If you are an undergaduate or graduate student graduating in May and
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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
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