The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 10, 2003, Page 2, Image 2
SG to tout Web site
for teacher reviews
BY COREY GARRIOTT
THE GAMECOCK
Student Government Presi
dent Katie Dreiling will make
good on a campaign promise to
day by endorsing Teacher
Reviews.com as USC’s official
class rating site, she said. She
will promote, the site with T
shirts and stickers in front of the
Russell House.
“It was her No. 1 priority for
the semester,” said Kristin
Andreano, SG’s academic com
mittee chairwoman.
Andreano said Dreiling cam
paigned to use SG money to cre
ate a USC teacher ratings Web
site. The site would have allowed
USC students to post comments
about professors’ performance
for other students to see.
“Freshmen aren’t very aware
of who the teachers are. It would
enable students to see the teach
ing style of the teacher,”
Andreano said. “It’s a tool to help
out the students.”
But SG couldn’t come up with
t the funding and chose instead to
endorse TeacherReviews.com.
Because USC already sends a lot
of traffic to the site — USC stu
dents have posted the third-high
est number of reviews — she said
TeacherReviews.com was a logi
cal choice.
“SG has a limited budget,”
Andreano said. “It was more
cost-effective to endorse the
site.”
SG could not use the $200,000
it found in its bank account ear
lier this year.
The money came from student
groups that did not use the mon
ey SG gave them; forgotten, it
built up for two years. Because
the money could only be used for
one-time
spending pro
jects, said Vice
President
Zachery Scott,
SG used it all
in a single om
nibus bill.
Second
year media
arts student
Chris* Scott
doesn’t use the
site. “I use
RateMyProfessors. com, he said.
“I’ve never heard of
TeacherReviews.com, but from
what I hear, ratemyprofessors is
the best available resource,” he
said.
And second-year business stu
dent Reggie Price said the site
sometimes ranks professors by
how easy they are.
“That’s the thing about
TeacherReviews,” he said. “They
match the easiest teacher with
the biggest grade.”
Second-year education student
Heather Casey said she had sim
ilar concerns. “The reviews were
mixed,” she said. “It would either
be an ‘A’ or an ‘F’.”
But Andreano said she found
the site s re
views positive
for the classes
she takes.
“Nothing but
positive re
views for the
teachers,” she
said.
And Casey
did find the
site useful
when shop
ping for the
right history class.
“It’s good to see if the teachers
are good,” she said.
Price also said he had a good
experience using the Web site
last semester to find the best psy
chology professor — “Well, not
the best,” he said. “The easiest.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockudesk@hotmail.com
“Freshmen aren’t very
aware of who the
teachers are. It would
enable students to see
the teaching style of the
teacher.”
KRISTIN ANDREANO
SG ACADEMIC COMMITTEE CHAIRWOMAN
SURFYOURSELF
Check out the Web site SG is promoting at
www.teacherreviews.com
THE
GAMECOCK
Nobody covers
USC better
prop iv n u \s|
A Scottish touch
PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK
Matt Davis, left, a graduate student in chemistry, and
Pascal Reber, a graduate student in political science,
practice playing the bagpipes on the Horseshoe on Thursday.
Chemist
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Adams teaches chemistry at
USC, but has taken this semester
off to devote more time as director
of the NanoCenter at USC. The
goals of USC’s NanoCenter are to
perform cutting-edge research in
nanoscale science and technology,
provide high-technology learning
opportunities and to promote
high-technology economic growth
and development in South
Carolina.
“It’S a lot of work,” Adams said.
“I enjoy the research, though."
Adams has a passion for sci
ence and nature. His office hous
es an extensive collection of crys
tals, which he has on display,
and a collection of butterflies,
some of which he caught himself,
is mounted and framed on his
walls.
ine feiiow recognition is the
second award Adams has received
this year. Earlier, he received the
Governor’s Award for Excellence
in Science.
“I have always wondered what
makes the world work,” Adams
said. He picked a pen up off his
desk. “I take this pen and wonder,
what is this made of?”
Adams’ curiosity has brought
him much success in the field of sci
ence. He is one the “World’s Mo^
Cited Chemists,” ranking 383 j|
1,000 back in 1997, according to the
Institute of Scientific Information.
Adams will be presented with
an official certificate and g0ld
and-blue rosette pin at the annu
al Fellows Forum in Seattle on
Feb. 14.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockudesk@hotmail.com
STATE
Plan diverts mental
patients from ERs
COLUMBIA (AP) - Hospitals
are beginning to divert mentally
ill patients from emergency
rooms, but administrators say
the new state effort won’t solve
long-standing problems.
Ten areas around the state
are sharing in $1.8 million in
state aid intended to reduce
emergency room crowding
caused by mental health pa
tients as space shrinks at state
run facilities and insurers spend
less for their care.
State Mental Health director
George Gintoli hopes to halve
the number of psychiatric pa
tients, typically 50 to 60 a day,
waiting for care at hospital
emergency rooms statewide by
mid-2004.
House Democrats
to go without leader
COLUMBIA (AP) - House
Minority Leader James Smith
has started 11 weeks of military
training at Fort Jackson and
will miss the first week of the
2004 legislative session.
The 36-year-old Smith is a
captain in the South Carolina
Army National Guard, where he
is part of the 218th Brigade’s
headquarters unit, based in
Newberry.
The GOP holds 73 seats
in the House to 51 held by
Democrats.
The party lost control of the
Senate nearly three years ago,
giving Republicans control of
the Statehouse for the first time
since Reconstruction. With one
vacant seat, Senate Republicans
hold a 26-19 majority over
Democrats.
veteran cop round
with marijuana
NORTH CHARLESTON (AP) -
A veteran of the police force who
resigned after being involved in
a controversial shooting has
been charged with growing mar
ijuana at his Berkeley County
home.
Sheriffs deputies arrested
former Cpl. Anthony
Youngblood and his wife,
Melissa, on Friday. Berkeley
County Sheriff Wayne Dewitt
said seven marijuana plants
worth $14,000 were found at the
couple’s home.
North Charleston police say
they found missing police equip
ment inside Youngblood’s home.
Craig Martin Little, 18, was
charged with second-degree bur
glary and simple possession of
marijuana after police say he left
the garage of the house with in
criminating evidence.
Youngblood had been with the
North Charleston department 10
years.
NATION
Measures suggest
Episcopal split
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Less
than a week after the Episcopal
Church USA consecrated its first
openly gay bishop, three conser
vative dioceses approved mea
sures Saturday indicating the
split in the church has widened.
The Pittsburgh diocese ap
proved an amendment aimed at
allowing the diocese to ignore
some of the national church’s
policies.
The amendment says the dio
cese will prevail “in cases
where the provisions of the
constitution and canons of the
Church of the Diocese of
Pittsburgh speak to the con
trary” or where resolutions of
the Episcopal Church USA are
found “to be contrary to the his
toric faith and order of the one
holy catholic and apostolic
church.”
Virginia’s strategies
aid Malvo’s defense
FAIRFAX, VA. (AP) - Defense
lawyers finalizing their plans for
trying to keep sniper suspect
Lee Boyd Malvo out of
Virginia’s death chamber have
had an unlikely ally : the state.
As the 18-year-old defendant
goes on trial Monday in
Chesapeake, prosecutors in
nearby Virginia Beach have
been trying to convince a jury
there that fellow suspect John
Allen Muhammad, 42, exerted
such control over Malvo that
Muhammad should be held re
sponsible for the shootings that
killed 10 and wounded three in
the Washington area last fall.
It’s a theme that will be re
peated at Malvo’s trial—by the
defense. Malvo’s lawyers plan to
argue that he is innocent by rea
son of insanity.
Hungarian official
praises rock music
CLEVELAND (AP) - Rock mu
sic played lead in giving
Hungarian baby boomers the re
solve to bring down their com
munist state, says one of those
reformers who today is a gov
ernment official.
Andras Simonyi, Hungary’s
ambassador to the United States,
spent an hour Saturday night
discussing the impact of
Western songs on Eastern
European politics before an in
vitation-only audience of 250 at
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Simonyi, 51, was a devoted
fan of the Beatles, Cream, Traffic
and Jimi Hendrix when their re
leases weren’t officially permit
ted in Hungary. Records and
tapes sometimes were smuggled
in or recorded from fo&ign ra
dio broadcasts.
WORLD
Insurgency could
del^ constitution
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AP) - A se
nior Iraqi official warne^
Sunday that the escalating an^B
American insurgency may delay
work on the country’s new con
stitution, slowing steps toward
the U.S. administration’s goal of
. Iraq’s Foreign Minister
Hoshyar Zebari told reporters
he expected the interim Iraqi
government to meet a U.N.
Security Council deadline of
Dec. 15 for submitting a
timetable for a new Iraqi con
stitution and national elections.
“However, those timetables
depend on the security situation,
and if the security deteriorates,
we will not be able to adhere to
such commitments,” Zebari saicl
after a meeting with Spani^^ft
Foreign Minister Ana Palacio^^
Israel approves
prisoner exchange
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel’s
Cabinet narrowly approved a
prisoner swap with Hezbollah
after eight hours of anguished
debate Sunday, overriding
warnings that the deal could sig
nal weakness and encourage
more kidnappings of Israelis.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
lobbied hard for the swap,
which excludes Israel’s most fa
mous missing serviceman, Air
Force navigator Ron Arad, wl^^
was shot down over Lebanon
years ago. The vote was one of
Sharon’s toughest leadership
tests in three years.
Under the deal, about 400
Palestinians and several dozen
prisoners from Lebanon, Syria,
Morocco, Sudan and Libya will
be released in exchange for
Israeli businessman Elhanan
Tannenbaum and the bodies of
three Israeli soldiers.
Guatemalans brave
long lines to vote
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -
Guatemalans waited in long
lines Sunday to vote in the sec
ond presidential election since
peace accords were signed sev
en years ago, participating ii^fe
tense poll that will decide t^^
future of a former dictator ac
cused of human rights abuses
and criticized by the U.S.
government.
Fears of violence were fueled i
when a top aide of center-left I
presidential candidate Alvaro 1
Colom was shot in the leg and |
hand outside his home the night
before voting.
There were scattered reports
of problems during Sunday’s bal
loting. The election is only the
second>since 1996 peace accdrds
ended 36 years of civil war.