Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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www. dailygamecock. com WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2003_ Since 1908 JJSC, MUSC to discuss merger USC Board of Trustees might consider combining pharmacy programs on 1 campus at Dec. 15 meeting BY KEVIN FELLNER THE (JAMECOCK USC’s School of Pharmacy might be moving closer to a po tential merger with the Medical University of South Carolina’s program later this month. USC Spokesman Russ McKinney said the merger might be discussed at the Dec. 15 USC Board of Trustees meeting. There has been no word on when, if at all, it will come to a vote. The board met with MUSC’s board for the first time in history on Nov. 23 in Columbia to dis cuss contractual matters. The meeting was held in executive session and was closed to the public, as is allowed by law, al though no voting can take place except to adjourn or return to open session. . McKinney said the meeting was held mostly to discuss legal matters concerning a potential merger. “I think it was generally a posi tive meeting,” McKinney said. “They discussed the general state of the collaboration but in partic ular the pros and cons of a possi ble merger.” A merger would mean the two schools would combine their programs on one campus for the first three years of a student’s study. The final year would in clude a clerkship or internship in a professional setting somewhere in the state. McKinney said a merger would be only a fraction of the increas ing research collaborations be tween the universities. USC School of Pharmacy Dean Farid Sadik said he isn’t expect ing a decision on the merger until next year. “No matter what, we are ready,” Sadik said. “If they say yes, we will be ready in ’05.” Sadik said he and his colleagues have concluded that USC has the space and resources to support the estimated 150 students who would be enrolled in the merged pro gram. “The most important ques tion is where will their three years of study be, at USCbr MUSC,” he said. - Sadik and John Cormier, MUSC pharmacy dean, devised the merger idea and formed com mittees composed of faculty mem bers and alumni to study its feasi bility. The committees presented their findings to USC President Andrew Sorensen and MUSC President Raymond Greenberg on Nov. 20. Sorensen has been stressing the academic and financial impor tance of research collaboration among USC, MUSC and Clemson University for more than a year, and he has joined administrators from both schools in backing state legislation that he has said might ease the process. . If the merger is approved, ad ministrators say the changes should take effect in fall 2005. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Security locks fail to prevent bicycle thefts BY JOCELYN MEYER THE (iAMECOCK Yet another string of bicycle thefts is prompting some students to reconsider leaving their expen sive bikes unattended on campus. During the past two weeks, a Wllozen or more bikes have been re ported stolen from campus. Third-year political science stu dent Stafford McQuillin said his bicycle, which was worth $100, was removed from a rack near the Horseshoe, despite being secured with a Master lock and thick chain. “Whoever stole the bike must have known about bikes because mine was the most expensive one at the rack,” McQuillin said. “When I bought my bike, they told me the lock was theft-proof but obviously not. They must have had some serious wire cutters and worked really fast,” he said. Ernie Ellis, director of the ^Jepartment of Law Enforcement Bind Safety, said that if people have the proper tools and are intent on stealing bicycles, they will. Having a quality lock will protect the bicycle only slightly better. However, local bicycle shops do offer insurance on bikes and locks. Law enforcers say stolen bikes are rarely recovered. Ellis said the main way police find stolen bikes is when they ar rest someone with a bike for a dif ferent crime and run the bike’s se rial number. “I may buy a cheap Huffy bike and put stuff all over it so that no one will want to steal it. A bike is such easy transportation to get to class.” STAFFORD MCQUILLIN THIRD-YEAR POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENT He added that students should be aware of the serial number on their bikes so that they can iden tify a lost bike if it is found. “We sent out a notice to the of ficers to pay close attention where bikes are parked, but these things happen so fast that you would al most have to have police on every comer,” Ellis said. “We need the communities’ help with stopping these crimes.” Ellis said anyone who notices suspicious activity near bicycle racks should call 777-4215 and re port it to the USCPD immediately. Even so, increased police activ ity is little comfort to students such as McQuillin, who find them selves frustrated and without transportation. “I may buy a cheap Huffy bike and put stuff all over it so that no one will want to steal it,” McQuillin said. “A bike is such easy transportation to get to class.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com MENDING A SOCIAL PROBLEM PHOTO BY KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK Steven Byrd, a third-year political science student, and Holly Tyler, a fourth-year exercise science student, put the finishing touches on a quilt that World AIDS Day participants later laid on the capitol steps. AIDS Day quilters march to State House BY JON TURNER THE GAMECOCK An absolutely enormous quilt took shape at the Russell House on Monday, World AIDS Day, as patches produced by different student organizations were as sembled into a blanket state ment against HIV/AIDS discrimination. The sixth-annual quilt was marched down Sumter and Senate streets and laid to rest atop the State House steps. The theme this year was “Stigma and Discrimination,” and most of the speeches reflected that focus. The event began at 5 p.m., with a radio beating out hip-hop and about 30 people meandering around the Russell House patio, but by the time the group left, the crowd was closer to 100 strong. Many of the student organiza tions that took part in the event turned up to show their support. The patches of the quilt, most about 12 square feet, were diverse in design but carried many of the same messages, AIDS facts and statistics. Second-year media arts stu dent Justin Chapura was one of the first score or so to arrive at the event. “I came because I heard the music,” he joked, then corrected himself. “I’mhere because World AIDS Day only comes once a year, and millions of people contract it ev ery day,” he said. “We should be working on a vaccine for this.” Student Body Vice President ♦AIDS, SEE PAGE 3 CORRECTIONS ^ ^ A Nov. 10 story about the South Caroliniana Library’s collection of letters from soldiers in wars contained several errors. ♦The story mentioned a letter written by a black soldier, who should have been identified as Millage J. Gomillion. He was stationed at Camp Jackson, now Fort Jackson, and later served in France. Also, the story should have stated that the letter was written during World War I. ♦The story should have stated that a collection of bullets at the li brary’ is from the Civil War. The bullets do not belong to the library; they are on loan from a private collector and in a separate display. ♦Also, the headline erroneously referred to the collection of letters as an “exhibit.” The Gamecock regrets the errors. Index Comicsjmd Crossword 8 Classifieds 12 Horoscopes 8 Letters to the Editor 5 Online Poll 5 Police Report 4 — . - ■ ■ • Weather TODAY THURSDAY High 53 High 53 Low 34 Low 37 : - ., Jo In This Issue ♦ NEWS Look for state, nation and world briefs online. www.dallygamecock.com ♦VIEWPOINTS Ryan Holt says college students should care about Medicare. Page 5 ♦THE MIX Holiday films bring seasonal cheer to the silver screen. Page 6 ♦SPORTSThe USC men’s basketball team looks to keep its winning streak alive at The Citadel. Page 9 Rescuing the research Around-the-clock work allows fast electricity restoration after outage BY JUSTIN CHAPPELL THE GAMECOCK It was a cool Sunday after noon just two days away from the beginning of Thanksgiving break when an electrical explo sion inside the Graduate Science Research Center crip pled the building and left it pow ertess. inow, some are call ing the efforts to regain pow er and stabilize lifetime-span ning research projects noth ing short of heroic. Around 2:50 p.m. on jnov. 26, a tour-men con duit that sent power from an ex ternal transformer on Devine Street to the research center short-circuited and sent a pow erful burst of air through the piping. The air was hot enough to create a small explosion that - ' blew the doors off a circuit box and left the building without electricity. The amount of dirt and dust that erupted from the conduit flooded the air and then triggered the fire alarm. Reaching the center at 3:30 p.m. and being greeted by the USC police and the departing Columbia Fire Department, Scott tiooae oi ine Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was one of many profes sors who real ized the threat of a power out age at the re search center. Every faculty member has an active research program with Ph.D. students that needs to produce results,” Goode said. “Lost enzymes could take years to replace.” ♦ POWER, SEE PAGE 3 PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK Students wait outside the Graduate Science Research Center after a power outage caused the fire alarm to go off on Nov. 23.