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www.dailygamecock.com _MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2003 Since 1908 Surge blacks out part of campus BY MICHAEL LAFORGIA THEIIAMECOGK An electrical explosion in an equipment room of the Graduate Science Research Center caused power outages on Sumter Street on Sunday but probably didn’t in terrupt campus television or Internet connections, a USC po lice officer said. The USC police department re ceived several calls about power outages on campus Sunday after noon after nre alarms cleared the Graduate Center about 3 p.m. On-campus Internet and cable television connections were also briefly interrupted at around 3 p.m. Sunday, but USCPD officer William Bond said he didn’t think the explosion affected those ser vices. The USC Intranet also went offline Sunday but was back up by 8 p.m. Staff members at Computer Services were gone for the week end and could not be reached to explain the other problems. “A transformer exploded, and then smoke filled a couple of floors,” said Paul Thompson, a chemistry professor who was ^feding on the fourth floor when science center was evacuated. Thompson said several fire trucks responded but left after firefighters determined the build ing wasn’t on fire. He estimated that about 30 peo ple were in the building when the explosion happened. Joe Maxheimer of the USC Fire Safety Department was on the scene at the science center about 30 minutes after the explosion. He said he was waiting for an electri cal repairman to evaluate the sit uation and call the fire depart ment with an update. “All they know is there was some type of power surge,” Maxheimer said. Clyde Mevens, an employee of the USC Maintenance and Building Modifications depart ment, was working weekend duty in the Graduate Science Center when the building was evacuated. He said he was well away from the equipment room when the fire alarms went off and that he didn’t know what could have caused the explosion. “I don’t mess around with that high voltage,” Mevens said. At least two buildings, Douglas and Snowden residence halls, lost power for about an ♦ POWER, SEE PAGE A2 “A transformer exploded, and then smoke filled a couple of floors.” PAUL THOMPSON use CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR PHOTOS BY MORGAN fORD/THE GAMECOCK At left, Joe Maxheimer, of the USC Fire Safety Department, takes a look at the damage caused by the power surge Sunday afternoon. At right, firefighters knocked out part of the ceiling, but left after they didn't find a fire. Students from Clemson, USC vie for scholarship BY ALEXIS STRATTON THE HAMEOOCK Two South Carolina college J^lents represented USC and _Jmson this weekend in Washington, D.C., for the final round of Rhodes Scholarship in terviews. Although neither Amanda Marshall, a fourth-year Spanish student from USC, nor Chris Welch, a fourth-year biology and chemistry student from Clemson, were selected to receive the schol arship, Welch said she was hon ored just to be a South Carolina State Rhodes Nominee. Marshall said the 12 applicants were all highly qualified. Both Marshall and Welch found out they were the state nominees after a state-level in j^ciew on Wednesday. ^^fhe applicant pool at that lev el was also very competitive,” Marshall said. “I’m tremendously proud to be the school’s nominee and be able to represent USC at this level.” Marshall said the four recipi ents of the scholarship were from Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Northwestern. Welch said he was told by competition officials that in 12 years, this group was the tough est to decide. Although Marshall received a ticket to the USC-Clemson foot ball game for the first time in her college career, she said she was able to watch parts of the game at the Washington Bureau of The New York Times, where the in terviews took place, and also back at her hotel. Marshall said Welch was good-natured about the ri valry but that “he might have had a better day than I did.” The Rhodes Scholarship, cre ated in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, is the oldest internation al studies award for American students. Recipients are awarded two to three years of study at the University of Oxford in England, during which they study for a bachelor’s degree in Human Sciences to prepare for a medical career. Rhodes Scholars are selected in three stages. First, candidates must be endorsed by their college or university. Next, candidates are interviewed and state nomi nees are selected. Finally, the scholarships are awarded to four candidates within eight regions of the United States. At most, 32 scholarships are awarded per year. The most recent USC student awarded the Rhodes Scholarship was Caroline Parler in 2000, but nine Rhodes Scholars have been selected from USC. Parker is now working on her doctorate at Oxford. There were 16 District Finalists who went on to compete at the state level in South Carolina, and Marshall and Welch were the two state repre sentatives. Competing against them in the final round of the se lection process were students from Kentucky, Maryland, District of Columbia, North Carolina and Virginia. Marshall, a USC McNair Scholar and a research assistant in USC’s College of Pharmacy, is heavily involved in campus ac tivities, including Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board Honor Society and Golden Key International Honour Society. ♦ RHODES, SEE PAGE A3 McCutchen House offers Southern cuisine BY LINDSAY TYNER TIIE CAMECOCK Every Friday afternoon at the McCutchen House students are working hard to make sure lunch is deliciously Southern. Many people do not realize that the McCutchen House is an entirely student-run restaurant. The student-run buffet comes after the Faculty Club, which was located in McCutchen House, was forced to close because of USC’s financial problems, jjfehe student-run restaurant L-J opened its doors for business Jan. 30, 2003 and served 56 cus tomers that day .The restaurant is now serving authentic Southern cuisine on Friday af ternoons under the leadership of executive chef Jules Pernell and John Antun, who has served food to several U.S. presidents as well as the pope. He has also owned eight restaurants and was the of ficial caterer for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the governor’s mansion in New York. Antun came to study at USC in 1995, and he earned his doctorate then stayed on to teach in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sports Management. He founded USC’s Culinary Institute in 2001. The McCutchen House has a new Friday afternoon menu that includes recipes chosen from Southern Living magazine. This new tradition was started two weeks ago. Antun said he is looking to Southern Living for inspiration. “We’re going to the pages of Southern Living magazine, tak ing recipes from there so that it’s truly Southern,” Antun said. He said the staff is hoping the new Friday menus will sell better, since the foods are those more commonly served in the sur rounding region. The restaurant is run com pletely by students under the tute lage of Antun and Pernell in USC’s School of Hotel, V PHOTO BY KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK USC students run the McCutchen House for academic credit. Restaurant, and Tourism Management. These students cook, clean; host and serve to learn the trade of running a real restaurant. The school uses McCutchen House to provide stu dents with real-world work expe rience in the fields they have cho sen. Meals are $7.95 a person and, in addition to the Southern spe cialties, there is a gourmet buffet with soups, salads, side items and desserts. For more information on the McCutchen House, call (803) 777 4450. News editor Michael LaForgia contributed to this report. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Richland 1 gets money to boost PACT scores BY VIVIENNE DECKER THE GAMECOCK Two USC professors will use money from the federal Department of Education to try and increase statewide PACT scores. Professors Lora Bailey, from the College of Education, and George Johnson, from the college of Science and Mathematics, will use a five-year, $577,000 grant to help improve nine schools in Richland County School District One. The schools were chosen be cause of their high poverty rates and need for more instructional education to second- and third graders. PACT, or the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test, is given to elementary school chil dren every year. The test includes essays, math and editing para graphs. Since the 2002 “No Child Left Behind” legislation set na tional standards for reading, math and science, South Carolina has been behind the national average. “Many teachers, no matter how good their intent is, don’t under stand the national standards,” said Bailey said. “The main point of this initiative is to give teach ers a better understanding of the standards and provide ways they can make or change their lesson plans to adhere to the standards.” The new national standards re quire that the state make schools responsible for their PACT scores instead of the students. “Obviously, because there are national standards, we have to talk about numbers and opera tions,” Johnson said. “But we go beyond that to why we do the things we do so that teachers will be able to design assignments that directly address the standards. There should be a seamlessness from the national standards all the way to what a teacher does on a Tuesday.” In achieving higher testing scores, Bailey said he believes in making a better connection be tween in-class and at-home learn ing. Various activities will now push parents to unite with their children, either at school educa tion functions or by helping them with their homework, so that the learning does not stop in the class room. New teaching methods pro posed include using jellybeans for multiplication and division and coins for math problems involving ♦ PACT, SEE PAGE A3 Index Comics and Crossword_A8 Classifieds A13 Horoscopes A8 Letters to the Editor A5 Online Poll A5 Police Report A2 Weather TODAY TUESDAY # High 74 High 57 Low 34 Low 35 Inside ♦ NEWS Two U.S. soldiers beaten to death with concrete blocks. Page A2 ♦ VIEWPOINTS Allison Byrd discusses the practicality of gay marriage. Page A5 ♦ THE MIX Thanksgiving isn't just for the birds. Nontraditional foods are the norm for some feasters. Page A7 ♦ SPORTS Men’s basketball improves to 3-0 with big win over Navy. Page A10