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University of South Carolina PDIHAV OfTORPR Q OflOR Vol.97,No.27 www.dailygamecock.com rixIL/MIj UulUDLIv \J, Z.VJUO - • Since 1908 Committee recommends merger ¥ BY ADAM BEAM pen, Sorensen said the universi the gamecock ty needs to find a provost to re place Jerrv Odom, who an USC President Andrew nounced last month he will step Sorensen announced down and return to Wednesday plans to teaching, merge the College of Sorensen set up four Liberal Arts with the times when he would College of Science and meet with faculty to dis • Mathematics. cuss the merger. Faculty The plan comes from the liberal arts col from a committee lege can meet with him Sorensen created in Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. and Oct. July to study the pos- 15 at 9 a.m. Math and sci sibility of a merger. _ ence faculty members Sorensen said he orensen can meet with him Oct. plans to take the re- 10 at 10:15 a.m. and 4 p.m. port to the Board of Trustees on Oct. IT. If the board approves it, Sorensen said the merger could take place next summer, de ^ pending on when a dean could be hired. But before that can hap I want to make sure everyone has a chance to get an oar in the water,” he said. The report comes after months of research by the committee, in cluding two public forums where Funding for USC hotel under fire W BY MICHAEL LAFORGIA THE GAMECOCK According to members of the Greater Columbia Hotel and Motel Association, recently released doc uments indicate that USC will use public money to build a hotel near the National Advocacy Center — a claim the university denies. “Public funds were involved with the acquisition of the hotel site, with the proposed recon struction of the parking garage and with the National Advocacy Center’s reconstruction of the Kirkland building,” said Toby Ward, attorney for the hotel asso ^ ciation, at a news conference . P Wednesday. But University Foundation’s would cost an estimated $141,000 and would involve the creation of a driveway “on the Foundation’s property, behind the future hotel development.” Ward said the possibility of us ing public money for these modi fications concerns him. A publicly funded hotel would be disastrous to local hotel own ers, Ward said, because there are already a large number of hotel rooms with low occupancy rates in the Columbia area, and a USC hotel would only worsen the problem. Ward also said that as of Wednesday, the Department of Justice has no intention of adding any money and the advocacy cen ter has not agreed to use rooms. spoKesman rsob me so McAlister said . . called coopera no public mon There is not one penny tive agreement ey would come of public money that’s is no agreement into play. etointf to be used on the at a^’ Warti There isnot 80|ngtOOe use UMUie said .“This is one penny of project. This is a strictly truly a revela pubiic money private development.” tion.” that’s going to McAlister he used on the B0B MCALISTER confirmed that De Ubeu UNIVERSITY FOUNDATIONS SPOKESMAN comirmeu inai project,’ no formal McAlister said. agreement has “This is a strictly private devel opment.” Ward particularly emphasized the university’s proposal to modi »fy an existing parking lot on Henderson Street, modifications geared to accommodate guests at the USC hotel, he said. In a memo from University Architect Charlie Jeffcoat to Chief Financial Officer Rick Kelly, Jeffcoat outlined possible plans to modify the garage. One plan, he wrote, would cost an estimated $162,316 and would involve the construction of a new driveway through the hotel site to Pendleton Street. Another plan been reached. “It is true that no contract has been signed,” he said, because no zoning has been approved yet. He said, however, that the universi ty will have no problem securing a commitment with the advocacy center once the rezoning is ap proved. “We have every confidence that the hotel will be used in a large measure for the National Advocacy Center,” McAlister said. Ward said the university has been dishonest regarding the ♦ HOTEL, SEE PAGE 2 Index Comics and Crossword 6 Classifieds 8 Horoscopes 6 Letters to the Editor 4 Online Poll 4 ^ Police Report 3 Weather TODAY TOMORROW fe High 70 High 81 Low 43 Low 60 In This Issue ♦ NEWS October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. Page 2 ♦ VIEWPOINTS Patrick Augustine says cell phones are eating away our collective soul. Page 4 ♦ THE MIX Feeling blue? Columbia celebrates “The Year of the Blues" with its ninth annual Blues Festival on Saturday. Page 5 ♦ SPORTS Volleyball will take on two SEC opponents. Page 7 faculty members came and ex pressed their concerns with the merger. But Odom said that de spite the negative .response at the forums, a lot of faculty members and students support the merger. “Any time you haVe a meeting like that, the people opposed to it are the ones who will shop up,” he said. The committee laid out 15 steps it says are essential to the merger process, including: ♦ Investing more money in the new college, besides just merging the two colleges' budgets; ♦ Administrators must reward interdisciplinary research; ♦ USC must raise the salaries of faculty and staff, not just in the two colleges, but throughout the university; ♦ Increase quality research space; ♦ Establish a transition team to consider the logistics of the merger and gather the informa tion necessary for decision mak ing by the new dean. Sorensen announced the re sults of the study in a meeting of the faculty senate Wednesday in the Law School Auditorium. He said he supports all of the com mittee's recommendations, and he paid particular attention to facul ty and staff raises, saying he sup ports the recommendation “whole heartedly and universally.” Pat Maney, co-chairman of the committee and chairman of USC's History Department, said the raise would be modest and is essential to attracting good faculty members. While a majority of the com mittee favored the merger, all of the committee agreed that the merger must not take place unless the 15 recommendations are put into effect. “Merging for the sake of merg ing is not what we want to do,” said Pat Maney, co-chairman of the committee and chairman of USC’s History Department. "This is not a blank check, in other words.” Supporters of the merger say a college of arts and sciences will al low science and math students' easier access to liberal arts classes and vice versa. Some argue that the college would become the aca demic heart of the university. But some students are worried about the effect of the merger on students. Chris Dickson, a second year liberal arts senator for Student Government, says the im pact of a merged college could drastically affect the balance of power in SG. “The liberal arts college is pret ty huge, so if you collapse those two colleges you'll have 20 repre sentatives just from (that school),” ♦ MERGER, SEE PAGE 2 SURFYOURSELF Read the merger committee’s report at www.dailygamecock.com TRACKING THE TREK PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK The USC shuttle drops students off at its new stop on Greene Street across from the Williams-Brice Building. Parking Services said the change will keep students from having to cross the street. Parking, shuttles to change USC’s parking services looks to raise money for safety measures BY ALEXIS BASS AND ASHLEE RICKARD THE GAMECOCK ' USC's transportation depart ment is making many changes out of concern for the safety of students. Increased fines for parking in fire lanes, yellow curbs and grass, as well as for double-parking, will begin Tuesday. A $50 fine will be given to those who park in fire lanes and a $25 fine to those who park in front of yellow curbs and grass. Emergency lights will no longer be accepted as a sign of tempo rary parking, and cars double parked in a fire lane or on grass will be ticketed. Areas to be enforced are Petigru, South Tower, the School of Music, Thompson Student Health Center, Russell House loading dock and the Patterson area. The hours of enforcement are from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monies received from ticket ing will go directly back into stu dent awareness funds that are used for better call boxes, light ing, bike racks and shuttle pro grams. Huggins says safety for students the motivation for these changes. “This is a measure for safety,” said Derrick Huggins, parking services director. Huggins said that if Patterson were to catch on fire and people were double.-parked, as they are now, there would be no way for fire trucks to enter. Parking on the grass has become enforced ters will be enforced 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. The USC Police Department and USC's parking patrol officers will give all tickets. Second-year biology student ueuduac ui ^.muci landscaping |ncreaSed fines for Anderson is issues. . . . . frustrated by Another parking in fire lanes, the new en change af- yellow curbs and grass, forcements. ^ecting ... as well as for double- , 1 d° n°! drivers will .. ... . . _ . _ know if I will be the de parking, will begin Oct. 7. like these en crease of forcements be time in parning meters, i ne me ters in front of Patterson and South Tower will be cut in half from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. This is to promote a higher turnover of available spaces and reduce double-parking. Huggins said the signs are al ready up on the meters behind the women’s quad and that me cause mere is already not enougn parking,” she said. "Where else are we going to park?” Another transportation issue directly affecting drivers is a change in the shuttle stop at the Williams-Brice Building. The shuttle is to stop across the street ♦ PARKING, SEE PAGE 2 Russell House brings world to students BY ALEXIS STRATTON THE GAMECOCK USC’s International Programs for students showcased intern ship, work and academic oppor tunities Wednesday at the annu al Study Abroad Fair in the Russell House. A number of countries and six of the seven continents were rep resented among the table dis plays, as well as a world-travers ing program called “Semester at Sea.” Students who missed the fair can attend one of the first-time information sessions held I Mondays and Wednesdays at 4 p.m. in the study abroad office, located on the sixth floor of the business administration building. TTCP grams and past study-abroad students who spoke of their ex periences. “It’s a great place to go to get a lot of diverse information about --1 of the study “The earlier you start tsfid abroad program, , ■ . .. . a* Adam Grotsky, such as the planning, the better , associate direc International it is for the Student.” tor for interna Studies Abroad AnflM rpfvr<;KY tionalprograms. and the Am.er- associate director for international Grotsky said it ican Institute programs was important for Study for students to Abroad, partici- discover the dif pated in the fair. Others in at- ferent options that are available tendance included USC profes- to them, sors who lead summer pro- Grotsky said that study abroad programs are important for learning about other cultures, and is “a wonderful way to learn about yourself and to challenge yourself.” Rachel Spence, a second-year international studies student, was one of the many students who attended the fair interested in finding a challenge. “I don’t really know what I want to do,” she said. “So getting different information from dif ferent places is a good idea.” But Spence said because there was so much information at the ♦ STUDY ABROAD, SEE PAGE 2