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- — • *.?,i ,. . -• ' : University of South Carolina CDinAV OPTHREP 17 OP OR VoL97,No.32 www.dailygamecock.com irxIL/rAT, UuIUDLlv -L / , ^uUJ Since 1908 .SG seeks online class syllabuses BY Z’ANNE COVELL THE GAMECOCK The Student Senate has passed a resolution requesting that all fac ulty members post online copies of their classes’ syllabuses before the spring registration period. Student Government Vice President Zachery Scott said the resolution, passed in early October, marks a yearlong initia tive of the Senate’s Academic Committee, which aims to per suade more faculty members to make their syllabuses available to students on the Internet. “A good portion of the faculty is participating in posting their syllabi online, but we want the fac ulty to get in the habit of posting their syllabi for every semester,” Scott said. The Student Senate’s attempts to gain faculty support involve addressing the faculty members and making them aware of the resolution. “We made a presentation to the Faculty Senate, and now we will continue to go to administration and faculty meetings to actively pursue more support,” Scott said. Donald Greiner, dean for undergraduate affairs, said the senate could increase faculty par ticipation through contact with the academic deans. According to both Scott and Greiner, the posting of syllabuses will help alleviate enrollment complications. “The main reason for the reso lution is because there is a huge flux in the add-in and dropout rates, which can be solved by ei ther extending the add and drop dates or by using online syllabi,” Scott said. Scott said the resolution will also serve to stop students’ signing up for more classes than they plan on taking. “Online syllabi will give stu dents an increased understanding of classes before they begin, help ing them to balance out their schedule and plan their semester,” Scott said. “Professors will bene fit because they will get students who know what is expected of them and who want to be there.” Christina Jordan, a first-year business student, said online syl labuses would help her make de cisions about what classes to take. “If you know what a professor is going to expect, you have more of an idea coming in of whether or not you can do everything for the class,” Jordan said. Many faculty members also ap prove of online syllabuses, but the actual posting poses a problem. “My understanding is that a student must be enrolled in a par ticular class to access the syllabus on Blackboard,”, said James Augustine, chairman of the Faculty Senate and a medical school professor. “There needs to be a neutral site where syllabi could be posted.” According to Augustine, this is sue will be discussed in upcoming Faculty Senate meetings to deter mine if posting syllabuses online for the general public is techni cally feasible. Mathematics professor Mary Ellen O’Leary agrees that the lo gistics of online syllabuses still need to be considered. “I think it would be beneficial, especially when choosing elec tives, to see what the workload is and how grades will be deter mined, but I think it’s a practical matter,” O’Leary said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotma il. com *Team hopes event will spur spirit BY BRAD SENKIW THE (iAMECOCK The USC men’s basketball team will play host to a Midnight • Madness rally tonight for the first time since 1997, entertaining stu dents with a variety of basketball related events, free food and an in troduction to this year’s men’s basketball team. The event, which is free to all students, will begin at 10:40 p.m. at the practice facility on Blossom Street beside" the Carolina Coliseum. Free pizza and soft drinks will be served, prizes will be given and the first 1,000 stu dents will receive a Midnight Madness T-shirt. In 1997, ESPN showcased sever al schools’ Midnight Madness ral lies around the country, including USC. USC men’s basketball coach Dave Odom said he thought this was a good year for the event be cause it will help generate excite ment for his team’s season. “Midnight Madness is a spring board into the season,” Odom said. “It’s a way to introduce our new team to our fans and give them a chance to be very much a part of it.” The doors open at iu:3U p.m., and Odom said the real fun would take place before his team takes the court at midnight with the semi-fi nals and finals of the men’s and women’s 3-on-3 intramural basket ball challenge that have been going this semester. The student slam dunk contest is also scheduled and will be judged by the players. • The fans will get a chance to hear from two coaches, as volley ball head coach Kim Christopher will discuss her team playing host to the SEC Tournament Nov. 21 24 and women’s basketball head coach Susan Walvius will preview the upcoming season. One of the highlights will be the Celebrity Hot Shot Contest that features many USC names: baseball head coach Ray Tanner vs. catcher Landon Powell, Odom vs. Gamecock basketball an nouncer Casey Manning and Director of Student Life Jerry Brewer vs. Student Government President Katie Dreiling, to name a few. “They told me I was going to be the bad guy and Katie Dreiling was going to be good,” Brewer said. “I’m not sure I like that idea, but it’s just a fun competition.” In the contest, opponents get 45 seconds to score as many points as possible from a specific area of the court. Students will get a chance to compete and win $200 in books. At midnight, USC guard Michael Boynton will introduce his teammates, coaches and staff. He’ll then answer student ques tions about the team that were dropped into a box before the event began. Following the introduction, the men’s team will split up and scrimmage for two five-minute halves in front of the fans, kicking off the new season. Odom said he expects his team to put on a show with dunks and jump shots but doesn’t expect much defense to be played on the court. VVHCHCVCJL Happens in uiai X\J minute period, if we come out of it, nobody’s injured and every body’s smiling, then it will be a night well deserved,” Odom said. Many of the Gamecock players are also excited about the oppor tunity to get the fans going early in the season. “Everybody’s talking about it around campus, asking all of us,” Tarence Kinsey said. “I think the fans need something like this to motivate them to come to the games, and it’ll motivate us.” Boynton said the event is some thing the team can feed off of. “I think one of the things that we’ve struggled with the past cou ple of years is consistent fan sup port, and I think that to establish that we want to have people there is big,” Boynton said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotma i l. com ♦ ODOM DISCUSSES OFFSEASON ISSUES. PAGE 7 Index Comics and Crossword_ 6 Classifieds 8 Horoscopes 6 Letters to the Editor 4 Online Poll_ 4 Police Report 3 Weather High 75 Low 53 f ■■■■■■ TOMORROW High 70 Low 44 In This Issue ♦ NEWS Cocky returns to Greene Street. Page 3 ♦ VIEWPOINTS Justin Simmons says God should be taken out of the pledge of allegiance. Page 4 ♦ THE MIX rhe Terminator takes over. Everything Arnold never knew he learned in Hollywood. Page 5 ♦ SPORTS USC football team prepares for LSU, its third | top 10 opponent this season. Page 7 Battle of the bands i PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK From left, guitarist John Vails, left, drummer Alex Roberts and bassist Alex Roberts of Last Breath won first place In Carolina Production’s annual Battle of the Bands, beating out four other acts to win. ,"V -' , ’IMlSV.''. _ t,r ’Sl^'S'^. ®j< "’ ^| I 3g$ .*. ^B 95 SRb I l* ' ‘tp^m I B&;£ ¥?% V.'B I BLA«j ,i,\^i . '-■ BY MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK - The investiga tion into the Staten Island ferry wreck that killed 10 passengers focused Thursday on whether the ship’s pilot blacked out and slumped over the throttle before the vessel crashed into a concrete pier. City Councilman Michael McMahon, after a briefing from city emergency and transportation officials, said the crash may have been related to the pilot’s health and medication he was taking for a possible blood-pressure problem. The pilot, Assistant Captain Richard Smith, attempted suicide after the crash by slitting his wrists and shooting himself with a pellet gun, police said. “The assistant captain at the controls collapsed,” McMahon said. “By the time the other cap tain could get control of the ship, it was too late.” The 310-foot ferry slammed into a concrete pier as it ap proached the Staten Island shore in choppy, wind-swept waters Wednesday afternoon, ripping a giant hole along its right side and severing the limbs of three pas sengers. Some passengers leaped into the water. The crash left more than 60 people hospitalized, eight in crit ical condition. The dead, one woman and nine men, ranged in age from 25 to 52. There was one bit of good news: A missing woman, pre sumed to have died in the water, turned up safe at a friend’s house, police said. The fractured ferry sat at the docks Thursday as thousands of commuters boarded boats for the morning rush hour. “If you look at any photograph of a terrorist attack on a bus or train in the Middle East, that’s your idea of what it looks like,” Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro said. Witnesses said the vessel ap peared to speed up as it ap proached the shore. A source close to the probe, speaking on condi tion of anonymity, said the captain told investigators that Smith “slumped forward” on the controls in a way that could have made the boat accelerate toward the pier. Blood samples were taken from Smith and the rest of the crew. Early test results on Smith indicated alcohol was not a fac tor, according to a high-ranking law enforcement source speaking on condition of anonymity. Authorities were still investigat ing whether prescription drugs played a role, the source said. Alan Abramson, an attorney for Smith, issued a statement that said only: “The family and all concerned hope that people will not rush to judgment. Their prayers go out to all the victims.” Smith, 55, was a 15-year ferry veteran whose record gave no in dication of a blood-pressure prob lem, said City Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall. Smith remained hospitalized in critical condition. The investigation, led by the PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Osserrltta Robinson weeps Thursday on Staten Island, N.Y. She was the wife of chef Louis Robinson, who was killed in the Staten Island ferry accident Wednesday. National Transportation Safety Board, was also looking into whether the pilot and captain both should have both been in the pilothouse as the vessel ap proached the dock. Under city Transportation Department pro cedures, that typically happens, although it is not a Coast Guard requirement. “If the policy of the Department of Transportation was implemented at the time of the accident, we don’t know,” said NTSB chairwoman Ellen Engleman. McMahon expressed skepti cism that anyone had been close to Smith: “It’s hard to believe that someone who was right there could not gain control of the ship.” Smith spoke with police Wednesday, but had not yet been interviewed in depth, Engleman said. The NTSB was already speaking with members of the crew, ferry engineers and some of the victims, she said. Investigators were also speak ing with an attorney for the ship’s captain to arrange a session with him. Engleman said her agency had “a lot of conflicting reports” about the pilot’s condition before the crash. “We don’t want to pass on stories or rumors,” she said. Engleman added that the NTSB investigation would consider other possible causes, such as the weath ♦ FERRY, SEE PAGE 2