The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 09, 2003, Image 1
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
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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