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www.dailygamecock.com _WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9,2003_ Since 1908 University receives record number of applications use | received I more than I 12,600 n applications for under- * graduate admission as of March 15, compared t> with the i last year’s a record-high " 11,500 as of L the same |“ date last year. USC President [ Andrew i Sorensen said he | plans to ' reduce the ^ size of the freshman * class from 3,500 to 3,300 in the next few years. PHOTO BY JOHNNY I HAYNES/THE | GAMECOCK l BY KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK More students are applying to USC than ever before, according to university administrators. As of March 15, USC’s Columbia campus had received more than iz.buu applica tions for un dergraduate admissions, compared with 11,500 by the same date last year. Last year’s volume of applications uroo o roprirH high at the time. “It’s just extraordinary how many students want to come here,” USC President Andrew Sorensen said. “And I am im mensely gratified by that.” Administrators say the year to-date increase, has hovered around 10 percent since last fall. Sorensen attributed much of the increase to the reputation and success of USC’s faculty. Char Davis, director of en rollment management services, said the admissions office also saw a trend of large numbers of applications coming in earlier than expected this year. “I think the fact that the rep utation and the notion that it’s more and more difficult to get in has made this become a little bit more presti gxuixs anu more of something for students to aspire to,” Davis said. Davis said the ratio of in state appli cants to those from other c + a+oc ro. mained steady. She said the frend has surprised some ad missions directors after national surveys had suggested that after the Sept. 11 attacks, more college students would be attending col lege closer to their hometowns. “We seemed to have the same type of mix of in-state and out of-state this year, so it doesn’t seem to be a critical issue,” Davis said. ♦ ADMISSIONS, SEE PAGE 3 “It’s just extraordinary how many students want to come here, and I am immensely gratified by that.” ANDREW SORENSEN use PRESIDENT Troops plow farther into Iraqi capital BY CHRIS TOMLINSON AND DAVID ESPO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, IRAQ - U.S. forces battled the tattered remnants of Iraq’s army for control of down town Baghdad on Tuesday, crushing a counterattack and seizing a military airport. Saddam Hussein’s fate was un known after an attempt to kill him from the air. Inside the capital to stay, some Army units routed Iraqi fighters from a Republican Guard headquarters. Others dis covered a 12-room complex in side a cave, complete with white marble floors, 10-foot ceilings and fluorescent lighting. Marines battled snipers as they fought deeper into the capi tal from the east. They seized the Rasheed Airport and captured enough ammunition for an esti mated 3,000 troops. Ominously, they also took a prison where they found U.S. Army uniforms and chemical weapons suits pos sibly belonging to American POWs. On the city’s northern side, Army forces set a Republican Guard barracks ablaze. Warplanes flew their bombing runs unchallenged, and smoke • poured out of the Ministry of Planning building in the city’s center. "We are continuing to main tain our ability to conduct oper ations around and in Baghdad, and remove them from regime control” said Capt. Frank Thorp, a spokesman at U.S. Central Command. State-run Iraqi television was knocked off the air, depriving the regime of a key source of in fluence over a population thought increasingly eager to help the forces of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Four days after Americans first penetrated the Baghdad out skirts, the city showed the effects of the war. Civilians roamed the streets with Kalashnikov rifles in hand, uncollected garbage ♦ WAR, SEE PAGE 2 USC scholarship seeks to reward adult students BY JESSICA FOSTER THE (JAMFXOCK Continuing Education is ac cepting applications for the 2003 Continuing Education Adult Student Scholarships, which vary in number and size and are given to adults already attend ing college. The Office of Adult Student Services offers the scholarship under the Continuing Education Academic Credit Program. Harriet Hurt, an adviser in the Office of Adult Student Services, said these scholar ships aim to recognize the “very hard work that the adult stu dents do on this campus.” She said adult students typically have to juggle a job along with class and that the scholarships reward these students for mak ing the effort to continue their educations. Applicants for the scholarship * must have a minimum 3.0 GPA, * be at least 25 years old and be currently enrolled in a degree program. The applicants must also write an essay about why they want to continue their edu cations and specifying their ca reer goals. A selection committee, com prised of faculty members from all of USC’s campuses, will choose who receives the schol arships. Sally Boyd, assistant vice provost of Continuing Education Academic Credit Programs, said the monetary value of the scholarship varies from year to year depending on the number of recipients and the amount of funding available. She said the program also offers incentive scholarships to adult students beginning their college careers. Applications are available from Harriet Hurt in room 408 of the Carolina Plaza. In addition to offering scholarships, Continuing Education Programs also encourage adult students to further their education. In 2000, the Office of Adult Student Services initiated the chartering of Alpha Sigma Lambda, a national adult stu dent honor society. The re quirements are a minimum 3.6 GPA and completion of the re quired number of hours in lib eral arts studies, Hurt said. The society inducts members every spring, including faculty. This year will be the society’s third induction. The office also serves as a re ferral point for adult students, providing information, advise ment and workshops, Hurt said. She said the office is “a place of welcome” for adult students who want to come to college. ♦ EDUCATION, SEE PAGE 4 Siftin' in the rain Josh Johnson, member of PI Kappa Phi fraternity and a third-year criminal-justice student, sits on scaffolding to raise money for his fraternity’s national outreach project, Push America. Johnson was already on his third shift for the day yesterday afternoon. Members of Pi Kappa Phi are taking shifts that vary in length, from midnight Monday until noon Friday, for a total of 84 hours. Index Comics and Crossword 11 Classifieds 14 Horoscopes __ 11 Letters to the Editor 8 Online PoH_ 8 e Police Report 5 Weather TODAY TOMORROW High 60 High 58 Low 47 Low 40 In This Issue ♦ ON THE WEB Read USC, state, nation and world briefs. www.dallygamecock.com ♦ VIEWPOINTS Phil Watson looks into gangsta rap lyrics. Page 8 ♦ THE MIX Drop by a Dawah table or find an Imam - it’s i Islamic Awareness Week. Page 9 ♦ SPORTS The Gamecocks will try to even up their season series with the Tigers tonight in Clemson. Page 12 Preserving the plants BY ALEXIS STRATTON THE GAMECOCK Organizing plants into a col lection with thousands of types might sound like a laborious task, but John Nelson, curator of USC’s A.C. Moore Herbarium, says sorting them is something he enjoys. “It’s really wonderful just to be able to go through these things and see what we’ve got,” said Nelson. “That’s just kind of fun for me.” A herbarium is a collection of dried and pressed plants often used for taxonomic studies; the plants are organized into groups that share similar characteris tics. Herbaria also works toward research, education and preser vation. The A.C. Moore Herbarium was established in 1907 by Andrew Charles Moore, a former USC biology-department chair man and two-time acting presi dent of USC. The initial specimens were provided by Moore’s own collec tion. What began as a small col lection of preserved plants has grown into a collection of more than 89,000 specimens. “There are a lot of herbaria in the country,” Nelson said. “Some of them are very large and some of them are, you know, small. Ours is kind of an average size for most universities.” The largest herbaria, he said, number millions of specimens. Plants for USC’s Herbarium are collected from all over the country and world, but the A.C. Moore Herbarium specializes in plants from South Carolina and ♦ HERBARIUM, SEE PAGE 4