The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 31, 2003, Image 1
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University of South Carolina MONDAY M ARPW Q 1 OHOQ . Vol.96,No.74
www.dailygamecock.com IVIVJINL/Ml, IVIrAixL/l I Ji, Z.VJUO since 1908
USC students to rally
for affirmative action
More than 300
travelling to D.C.
to protest outside
Supreme Court
BY KEVIN FELLNER
THE GAMECOCK
Some USC students are joining
thousands from across the nation
0 in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday
in a demonstration outside the U.S.
Supreme Court as it hears argu
ments in a landmark case debating
affirmative action admissions poli
cies at public universities.
Fourth-year sociology student
Quinten Dingle has been rallying
support for the trip, organizing
bus transportation for students in
favor of affirmative action. He said
that more than 300 USC students
are going and that at least six oth
er colleges in South Carolina are
sending students to the rally. The
other colleges include Allen
University, Benedict College and
Francis Marion University.
Thousands of students from
hundreds of universities nation
wide are expected to participate,
according to the rally’s organizer,
United for Equality and
Affirmative Action Legal Defense
Fund.
“This is bigger than black and
white,” Dingle said. “This is for
minorities and women of all sorts,
and I saw that no major organiza
tion on campus was picking up on
this issue. So I just tried to get stu
dents interested and got sponsors
to help pay for the buses and ex
penses.”
The rally is planned for 9 a.m.
to noon and is expected to coin
cide with the court’s hearings on
Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v.
Bollinger, which originated as
suits against the University of
Michigan’s law school and its un
dergraduate program, respec
tively.
The plaintiffs claim that the
university gave spots to less-qual
ified minority applicants that
should have gone to white appli
cants. The court’s ruling is ex
pected to specify whether it is con
stitutional for public universities
to give bonus points to minority
applicants to purposely increase
the diversity of the student body.
Dingle and other affirmative-ac
tion supporters say the measure
would give more opportunities for
qualified minorities to get a col
lege education and that university
admissions criteria as a whole fa
vor wealthy, non-minority stu
dents.
“If they do away with affirma
tive action at the college level, it’s
just a stepping stone for schools
and offices to become either all
black or all-white,” Dingle said.
“Everything would just become
segregated again.... That’s not the
direction that America needs to be
going in right now.”
Dingle said he thinks USC has
a respectable percentage of
African-American students. But
♦ RALLY, SEE PAGE 3
USCPD arrests 7 in break-ins
PHOTO BY TRISHA SHADWELL/THE GAMECOCK
After a series of break-ins on campus this month,police say students should be aware of what they leave in their cars.
BY ALLYSON BIRD
THE HAHECOCK
After a string of automobile break-ins this
month, USC police have made seven arrests
and put out a warrant for a eighth suspect.
Labrian Ramon Williams, 18; David Ryan
Q Burrell, 18; Brandon O’Neal Boyles, 17; and
Charlie Lorenzo Bates, 17, were arrested, and
the police are seeking Franklin Robinson, who
is either 17 or 18 years old, according to USC
police reports. The other three suspects are ju
veniles. These eight suspects could be respon
sible for up to seven burglaries, said Lt. Henry
Garbade, spokesmari for the USC Police
Department.
At least four of the arrests were made as a
result of students calling to report suspicious
activity, Garbade said.
“The more eyes we have looking for these
folks,” he said, ‘.‘the better the chance they get
caught."
Garbade said this type of crime is common
during the spring.
“As the weather gets warmer and it’s not
uncomfortable to be out late at night, we’re go
ing to see an increase,” he said. But “those ar
rests we’ve made seem to have slowed things
down a bit.”
Between March 1 and March 26, according
to USC police reports, 24 automobile break-ins
were reported, along with three vehicles stolen
and 10 tampered with.
Garbade’s advice to students is to keep valu
ables out of plain view in their vehicles.
Earlier in the month, he said, campus po
lice noticed items in many vehicles that were
obvious targets. When they called the vehicles’
owners, they found that “some of them were
receptive, and some told us it was their stuff
and to leave it in the car,” Garbade said.
Katie McClendon, Student Government safe
ty director, said she was disappointed with the
owners’ response.
“I didn’t really understand,” the fourth-year
pharmacy student said. Checking vehicles for
valuables is “not something the police have
time to do on a regular basis,” she said.
Second-year African-American studies stu
dent Erica Whipple was one victim of the
break-ins. When her car was broken into on
March 14, a CD player and her boyfriend’s
track-meet medal were stolen, she said. The
juvenile who had robbed her was caught, she
said, and everything was returned.
♦ ARRESTS, SEE PAGE 3
ODK honors new members
PHOTO BY TRISHA SHADWELl/THE QAMECOCK
Third-year English student Kelly Bowen lights a candle at the
Omicron Delta Kappa induction ceremony yesterday.
101st Airborne
surrounds Shiite
holy city in Iraq
BY KIMBERLY HEFLING
AND CHRIS TOMLINSON
THE ASSOCIATED HHESS
NEAR NAJAF, IRAQ - The U S.
Army encircled the Shiite holy
city of Najaf on Sunday and said
it killed about 100 paramilitary
fighters and captured about 50
Iraqis.
The “terror squad members”
were killed'Sunday at Najaf and
another town in fighting with the
82nd Airborne Division, the
Central Command said in a state
ment Monday. It did not further
identify the “terror squads” or
give other details about the new
ly captured Iraqis.
missions to clear the road to
Baghdad of Iraqi attackers.
But it was at Najaf - a city of
300,000, 100 miles south of
Baghdad — that U.S. military
leaders were faced with a diffi
cult decision.
It was unclear whether the
U.S. strategy is to take Najaf or
simply to cordon off the city.
There are too many Iraqi fight
ers to bypass them or leave them
unattended; they’re a danger to
supply lines on the way to
Baghdad.
But if Najaf is a key stepping
stone to the capital, it is also a
dangerous one. On Saturday, a
suicide attack killed four U.S. sol
j„ i. „
Airborne
Division sur
rounded Najaf,
preparing for a
possible door-to
door battle to root
out Saddam
Hussein’s fight
ers—but leery of
damaging some
of the faith’s most
sacred shrines.
Further north,
Army brigades
rrpnt rlnc’pr tn
“This is our type of fight.
This is probably the
most dangerous part of
combat, and that’s
urban. Sometimes you
don’t find out who the
enemy is until they’re
shooting at you.”
COMMAND SGT. MAJ. MARVIN HILL
PART OF FORT CAMPBELL. KY.-BASED AIR
ASSAULT DIVISION
checkpoint
north of
town; on
Sunday,
nervous
U.S. troops
warned ap
proaching
drivers
they would
be shot if
they did not
leave the
area.
“TVtic ic
Baghdad, advancing 10 miles
with little resistance, though bat
tles with the Republican Guard
loomed. To the south, Marines
launched “search-and-destroy”
our type of fight,” said Command
Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, of the Fort
Campbell, Ky .-based air assault
* AIRBORNE, SEE PAGE 3
Index
Comics and Crossword 7
Classifieds 9
Horoscopes 7
Letters to the Editor_ 5
t , Online Poll __ 5
Police Report 4
Weather
L
TOMORROW
&
High 69
Low 49
In This Issue
♦ NEWS Read up on SG
candidates before you vote on
VIP. Page 2
♦ VIEWPOINTS Tyler Jones
counters criticism of Ludacris
coming to 3 Rivers Music
Festival. Page 5
♦ THE MIX Check out a
preview of this summer’s
potential blockbusters. Page 6
♦ SPORTS USC baseball
sweeps Vanderbilt in a
weekend series. Page 8
I
Panel aims to aid soldiers’ loved ones
Counseling Center
offers programs to
help students cope
BY JESSICA CLANTON
THE GAMECOCK
The Counseling and Human
Development Center is offering a
panel discussion as well as group
counseling to help students begin
to cope with emotional strain
caused by their loved ones being
sent to war.
Pete Liggett will be the moder
ator of the discussion tonight from
5:30 to 7 in Russell House room 303.
“Our role on this campus is to
promote psychological and emo
tional well-being through coun
seling and outreach programs,”
said Liggett, training director for
the Counseling Center and a li
censed clinical physiologist. “We
have had a few students come in
and express concerns about then
loved ones at war, and we have re
ceived phone calls from the USC
Staff who have been approached
by students that want to talk
about the emotional impact of
war. We will try to offer any coun
seling service that is requested.”
The panel discussion will fea
ture psychologists, military per
sonnel and people whose loved
ones have been deployed in oth
er wars.
“I think this discussion is im
portant because it gives students
the opportunity to share their con
cerns about their loved ones at
war and they will be able to hear
the experiences of others that may
be similar to theirs and may offer
some sort of support,” said panel
member Ericka Stricklin-Parker,
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a Counseling Center psychologist
whose husband recently returned
from Afghanistan.
The panel discussion is open
to any student, even those who do
not have loved ones at war.
“I think this war is very differ
ent from the Gulf or any other war
because of the live media co+erage,
so even if students don’t have loved
ones in the war they still could be
affected by these live images of
war,” Stricklin-Parker said.
Although there are many dif
♦ PANEL, SEE PAGE 3
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