The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 03, 2003, Image 1
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
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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
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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