Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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University of South Carolina MOMnAV APPII 1 A 000^ Vol.96.No.80 www.dailygarnecock.com Ivl wlNL/rW, Ml IML It, Z.UUO - . since 1908 USC to try out first '2-way video courses BY ALLYSON BIRD THE GAMECOCK USC graduate students could soon have the option of taking courses on television. USC’s School of Library and Information Science and the History Department’s Public History Prbgram are working with three other universities to of fer the university’s first-ever two -way video courses to graduate stu dents. The archives-management classes will be available as a three-year pilot program during fall 2003 at Louisiana State, Kentucky and USC. The classes are a result of a $500,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C. The program, called the Southeast Archives Education Collaborative, will allow students at all four campuses to interact by seeing and hearing each other via two-way video. Robert Williams, a library and information science professor who is coordinating the project for USC, said continuation of the pi lot program depends on what par ticipating students think of it and whether archive professionals are interested in taking part in the classes. “For now, the central purpose of the grant is to broaden the availability of archives classes to students,” Williams said. In the past 30 years, the number of li braries, historical societies and archival repositories in America has nearly doubled, leaving many unfilled positions for qualified archivists. USC has a history of distance learning programs in schools such as nursing, business, engineering and education, but these courses have been offered only through closed-circuit televisions that do not allow interaction. But this year’s pilot project marks the university’s first at tempt to take distance learning out of state. “The goal is to offer additional courses to our students that they could not get just at USC,” ♦ LEARNING, SEE PAGE 3 7 POWs released to U.S. Marines BY PATRICK MCDOWELL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KUWAIT CITY - Iraqi troops south of Tikrit handed U.S. Marines a stunning surprise Sunday: seven American POWs released in relatively good con dition after 22 days of captivity. Freedom brought hugs, ap plause and slaps on the back from smiling Marines before the sev en were flown to Kuwait for a medical checkup and debriefing. Back home, their families and friends burst out in jubilation. Five of those returned Sunday were members of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company that made a wrong turn near the southern Iraqi city Nasiriyah and was ambushed March 23 — the same incident in which rescued POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch was captured. The other released prisoners were crewmen of an Apache he ♦ IRAQ, SEE PAGE 2 PHOTO BY JUAN TAMAYO/KRT CAMPUS Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young Jr., left, gets off a CH46 helicopter in Numaniyah, Iraq, en route to a C130 to take him to Kuwait on Sunday. Library digs for historical treasures on eBay Caroliniana Library finds bargains on * auction sites KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK Some of South Carolina’s his torical treasures are going once, going twice and sold to the South Caroliniana Library via online auction sites such as eBay. Manuscripts Librarian Henry Fulmer said an online auction with eBay’s volume and variety of I merchandise is a valuable tool for acquiring some of the library’s historical artifacts. “It really was something brought to our attention by some one else who just sort of happened to stumble on some South Carolina materials being de scribed for sale,” he said. The person e-mailed the muse um a description of a product it might want to bid on, he said. Fulmer said the staff has been purchasing merchandise on eBay for more than five years and the most common items the staff bids on are historical state maps and sketches. The funds used to acquire the materials are the same funds the library uses for any collections bought at a fixed price, so staff members go into a bid knowing how high they can afford to go. Most of the funds come from the University South Caroliniana Society and other friends of the li brary who provide private en dowments for such expansion of the library’s catalog. Fulmer said that, from talking with competing bidders, he gets the impression that they are often antiquarian dealers. He said the librarians are sometimes clever with the keyword searches they 1 —-- -- enter to find items that other deal ers might have missed. He said, for instance, they might enter the name of a town in South Carolina instead of entering “South Carolina.” “Some of the items go very high and well beyond our means to be able to purchase them,” he said. But creative searching, he said, has allowed the library to find some deals. “There are occasions when we’re able to acquire really nice items at just minimal costs be cause we’re the only bidder,” he ♦ LIBRARY, SEE PAGE 3 Football’s back PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK USC quarterback Dondrial Plnkins attempts a pass during Saturday’s Spring Game. Plnkins is a leading candidate for the starting quarterback position. Students get set for MCAT BY WENDY JEFFCOAT THE GAMECOCK Third-year biology student Lisa Barrow said she doesn’t know if she’s prepared for the Medical College Admissions Test on April 26. But Barrow is taking a Kaplan Test Prep course and said the course is definitely bet ter than studying by herself. She said the course has helped her “because as a group, we have a class, so we have the same goals and a group of people to network with and study with.” “I don’t know if you can ever be ready,” Barrow said, “I hope I am.” Albert Chen, executive direc tor of graduate programs at Kaplan Inc., said that because the MCAT is a critical thinking test and not a context test, stu dents are not expected to know everything. He said because it is a critical thinking test, students are expected to answer the ques tions through reason, not defini tive answers. For students who are enrolled in the Kaplan Test Prep cours es, Chen said they have pre pared so long and so hard, they actually know more than they think they do. “Just relax and rely on the fact that you actually know ev erything, and it’ll come to you on test day,” Chen said. He said there are quite a few ways students can prepare for the test, which is a little less than two weeks away. “This week, before the test, they should be working on then weaknesses,” Chen said. Students should identity then weaknesses through their prac tice test scores and approach those this week, he said. Next week, leading up to the MCAT, Chen said students should be polishing their strengths. “A lot of people spend so much time on their weaknesses that they actually neglect their strengths,” he said, “and they be come weaknesses or they get rusty. ” Chen said that when stu dents review their strengths, they are actually developing a sense of confidence. Chen said if students find themselves doing lots of calcula tions during the test, they are “missing the point” of the ques tion. On average, he said, there are only two calculations per MCAT; the rest of the questions ♦ MCAT, SEE PAGE 3 Index Comics and Crossword _7 Classifieds 10 Horoscopes 7 Letters to the Editor 4 ► Online Poll 4 Police Report 3 Weather TODAY I I TOMORROW High 81 Low 54 In This Issue ♦ NEWS A South Carolina Marine dies in a friendly-fire accident. Page 3 ♦ VIEWPOINTS Tyler Jones shares his adventures at the Augusta National. Page 4 ♦ THE MIX Wesley Willis rocks New Brookland Tavern on Saturday night. Page 5 ♦ SPORTS The football team’s offense and defense are reviewed following the Spring Game. Page 8 ‘Suspicious’ fire kills 5 students in Ohio BY LIZ SIDOTI THE ASSOCIATED PKESS COLUMBUS, OHIO - A suspi cious fire broke out in a three story house early Sunday as a college student’s 21st birthday party was breaking up, killing five students and injuring three others, authorities said. One of the injured, a 20-year old man, was in critical condi tion with burns and smoke in halation, officials said. Arson and homicide investi gators were at the student-rented house near Ohio State University, and police were in vestigating reports that a fight had started before the fast-mov ing fire ignited, said police Sgt. Dana Norman. “The cause has been ruled suspicious,” Fire Department spokeswoman Kelly McGuire said. Party guest Richie Delmont, an Ohio State junior, said the ar gument started after another guest tried to lift a refrigerator on a dare and one of the residents told him to stop. He said the con — frontation did not get physical. The house is about a block from campus in a neighborhood of older homes popular with stu dents. About 80 people had been at the party, and 10 to 20 were still inside when the fire started around 4 a.m. in the front of the house, Norman said. Firefighters found two men and three women dead inside; the women were Ohio University stu dents and the men attended Ohio State, police said. It appeared some had been sleeping when the fire began, Norman said. W Drinking could have been a factor in the deaths and injuries, Norman said. “The smoke and gases from the fire are extremely deadly and when you’re drunk or have been drinking that also contributes to slowing down your-reaction time,” he said. Autopsies were planned Monday, but Franklin County coroner Dr. Brad Lewis said the victims appeared to have died from smoke inhalation and car ♦ FIRE, SEE PAGE 3