The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 29, 2003, Image 1
www.dailygamecock.com WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2003
Since 1908
Search for law dean narrows to 3
w
Sorensen to choose from among
final candidates by Thanksgiving
BY TRICIA RIDGWAY
THE CAMECOCK
The USC School of Law has nar
rowed its search for a dean to
three candidates who have been
presented to President Andrew
Sorensen, who is expected to make
a final decision by Thanksgiving.
The search committee nar
rowed the selection down to C.
Peter Goplerud III, dean of the
Drake University Law School;
Burnele V. Powell, dean of the
University of Missouri-Kansas
City Law School; and Rodney J.
Uphoff, associate dean for aca
demic affairs at the University of
Missouri-Columbia Law School.
The search began in May with
more than 100 potential candi
dates, Committee Chairman
William Hubbard said. The pro
cess has been fairly quick for a
search such as this, he said. About
40 schools across the country have
also been looking for a law dean,
and he said USC is probably
among the first to announce its fi
nalists.
The committee looked at candi
dates’ experience, enthusiasm, vi
sions for what the law school can
be, abilities to raise money and
abilities to express the law
school’s mission to the communi
ty, Hubbard said.
The committee comprises five
faculty members and four nonfac
ulty members. It has been meet
ing throughout the summer and
examining all the names brought
to its attention. Once the commit
tee narrowed the field to six, it in
vited those candidates to USC for
further interviews and so that
they could meet faculty members.
From there, the committee de
cided on four, and each candidate
was ranked by the members.
Three were finally chosen and sub
mitted with the committee’s rec
ommendation to Sorensen.
Professor Steven Hinckley, a
member of the search committee,
said the committee looked for the
people that were strongest aca
demically, active members of the
legal community, people with
fund-raising ability, and “people
with good skills internally to be a
good dean.”
Each of the candidates has dis
tinguished himself at his school
and “appeared to be to us people
who could come ... to this law
school and do all of those kinds of .
things for us,” Hinckley said.
In addition to being dean of
Drake University’s law school,
Goplerud served as dean of the
University of Oklahoma Law
School and as a professor at the
Southern Illinois University
School of Law. He also has exper
tise in sports law and environ
mental law. *
Powell earned his law degree
from Harvard, where he was a
Graduate Law Teaching Fellow,
and was a law professor at the
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill.
Uphoff had an active legal and
governmental career before be
coining an associate dean. He
served as chief staff attorney for
the State Public Defender Office
in Milwaukee, Wis., before enter
ing the education arena, where he
was a professor at the University
of Oklahoma Law School.
While each has the combina
tion of skills the committee looked
for, each candidate varies in his
experience. It’s like “apples and
oranges when you try to compare
these people,” said Professor
Patrick Hubbard, senior faculty
member of the search committee.
Comments on this story?E-mail
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p
Forecasting
the financial
climate
USC researcher regarded as one
of state’s top economic authorities
fcv KEVIN FELLNER
THE HAMECOCK
Every time the state economy
turns sour it seems that all eyes
turn to Donald Schunk. It’s not be
cause it’s his fault, but rather be
cause he is one of the state’s lead
ing authorities in forecasting fu
ture economic trends.
The assistant professor and re
search economist for the Moore
School of Business publishes his
analyses in the school’s quarterly
South Carolina Economic Outlook
anri mntrihn+oe ir».
fluctuation of economic values.
But the division relies on Schunk
as a state economic expert to in
terpret the discovered trends.
“I have to have my knowledge
of the state’s economy at the end
to make sure the numbers make
sense,” he says.
The business school’s public
analyses are typically among the
most highly regarded economic
studies in the state. In the past five
years alone, the school’s research
has studied certain industries —
estimating the state beer industry
frt Ho wrvrfh £
formation on relat
ed economic trends
in the monthly
fcSouth Carolina
Economic
Indicators.
“It’s an ongoing,
ever-evolving kind
of process,” he says
about rollectine
billion in total
output and the
cultural indus
try in 2002 to be
worth $1.9 bil
lion — and
state agencies
— estimating
that, in 2000,
ITSP. will hflVP
data and having to draw conclu
sions on what the information
might predict.
While the latest figures suggest
the state hasn’t left economic
mediocrity just yet, thpre is some
hope. Unemployment dropped to
7 percent in September but is ex
pected to climb again after a wave
of manufacturing layoffs.
The leading index, a five-vari
able composite tracking future
growth, is the highest it has been
Pince March. But nonfarm em
ployment has been declining since
February.
Schunk’s latest forecast is that
South Carolina will post positive
job growth starting this quarter
end that new home construction
should post another record year
for 2003. But he isn’t just guessing.
The Division of Research keeps
an adjustable state statistical mod
el, which it processes in comput
ers to find regular patterns in the
a total impact of $3.8 billion on the
state’s economy.
“We like to maintain good rela
tionships with the government
and the community, and this is
something that we do regularly to
help those relationships,” Schunk
says.
State agencies such as the
Department of Commerce and the
South Carolina Employment
Commission, as well as private
firms, seek economic forecasters
largely for such single-topic pur
poses as analyzing tax revenue or
analyzing the economic impact of
a single region or county. Schunk
says the business school’s re
searchers have been trying to look
at how South Carolina fits into the
national economy for years.
“I think we are unique that we
have had a forecasting program
that has been around for several
♦ ECONOMY, SEE PAGE 2
Index
Comics and Crossword 9
Classifieds 12
Horoscopes 9
Letters to the Editor 6
k Online Poll_ 8
^ Police Report 4
Weathe
TODAY
High 75
Low 56
In This Issue
♦ NEWS Wildfires rage in
California, kill 17. Page 3
♦ VIEWPOINTS Wes Wolfe
says that Bush’s reconstruction
attempts in Iraq are starting to
resemble Vietnam. Page 6
♦ THE MIX “Dracula” dances
its way onto the Koger Center
stage. Page 7
♦ SPORTS The USC football
team will have its hands full
with Ole Miss’ Eli Manning.
Page 10
Caught by surprise
PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK
Brian Heyward, a second-year music student, hurries into the
Russell House to escape Tuesday’s rain.
Organizations,
courses bring
religion to USC
BY JUSTIN CHAPPELL
THE GAMECOCK
Being that USC is located
comfortably inside what is com
monly referred to as the “Bible
Belt,” it would seem that many
students would have an inti
mate relationship with religion.
Campus-wide advertisements
promote upcoming religious-or
ganization events, and some
times it seems a church stands
on every corner of Columbia.
But are college students really
involved with religion?
Steve Turner, minister of
college and graduate students
at Shandon Baptist Church, one
of the largest Baptist churches
in Columbia, said that of its 250
to 350-member student congre
gation, at least 90 percent are
from USC. Turner attributes
this turnout to Shandon’s “con
temporary worship” and “very
college-specific Bible studies.”
And, of course, while dining
either in the Russell House or
in another campus eatery, stu
dents can’t miss those neatly
folded triangular ads for PALM.
The Partnership Among
Lutheran and Methodists is
geared primarily toward the
USC student body, said the Rev.
Tom Wall, Methodist campus
minister. It is actually consid
ered to be a student organiza
tion, and because of its close
ness to the campus, about 60 to
80 USC students are regularly
involved with PALM, Wall said.
Another one of USC’s stu
♦ RELIGION, SEE PAGE 2
Greeks join with
Boys and Girls Club
for Halloween bash
BY JUSTIN CHAPPELL
THK (JAMECOCK
It’s that time of year again
when kids, college students and
even adults dress up in ghoul
ish garb hoping to grab the per
fect mix of sweet treats and
haunted entertainment. But
this year, some Columbia-area
children won’t have to wander
the city streets. USC’s very own
Fraternity Council and
Sorority Council will hold a
Halloween event Friday called
“Trick or Treat with the
Greeks” — a joint venture with
the Columbia-area Boys and
Girls Club.
Expect to see about 150 chil
dren dressed as ghosts and gob
lins running through the court
yard in a spookily decorated
Greek Village. The Greeks will
present carnival booths and
award prizes to anyone brave
enough to look past the horrors
and partake in the trick-or
treating ritual.
According to Sorority
Council President Lara
Bratcher, a fourth-year an
thropology student, the
Halloween event is one way the
Greeks at USC strive to give
back to the community.
“We love helping others in
the Columbia community, es
pecially children,” Bratcher
says. Even though the event
promises to incite excited
screams and wide eyes,
Bratcher also says, “This will
be a great opportunity for the
kids to trick-or-treat in a fun
and safe environment.”
As scary as it sounds, Greek
Council’s only goal isn’t
♦ TRICK OR TREAT, SEE PAGE 2
USC students volunteer for political causes
BY IRA KLEIN
THE OAMECOCK
Though they might be from op
posite ends of the political spec
trum, there’s one thing that USC
College Republicans President
Kendall Robinson and USC
Young Democrats President Lisa
Flick can agree on: Volunteering
to work in politics is a worth
while venture.
Both Robinson, a second-year
finance student, and Flick, a
fourth-year political science stu
dent, are volunteering time to
help out their respective political
parties. Robinson works for the
S.C. Republican Party, while
Flick volunteers her time with
democratic presidential nominee
Wesley Clark’s campaign.
Robinson works as an execu
tive assistant to S.C. Republican
Party Finance Director Sunny
Phillips. Robinson is responsi
ble for working with people who
donate money to the party to
make sure their donations are
reported correctly to the
Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Robinson also helps with the
party’s fund raisers. She recently
finished working on one such
fund raiser called “G.O.P. on the
Go,” in which the Republican
Party leadership in the state —
including the governor and lieu
tenant governor — made a grand
tour of the state in order to be
more accessible to people who
don’t normally come to
Columbia.
Flick’s duties at her volunteer
job are more varied and range
from phone banking to passing
out literature and participating
in efforts to raise awareness
about Wesley Clark’s platforms
and ideals.
In both Flick’s case and
Robinson’s case, it seems the key
to taking advantage of such vol
unteer opportunities is connec
tions; it’s all about the people you
know.
Flick said she got her position
through a friend she knew that
was working on Clark’s cam
paign. She said she was interest
ed in learning what goes on in a
♦ POLITICS, SEE PAGE 2