Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Manifest CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 section. “Wherever there’s a CD for a ridiculously low price is where I’ll head,” he said. “Manifest seemed to be the only store that understood and appreciated the fact that USC students are poor, and so I think USC students ap preciated gping to the store for that reason.” Maxim said he’d continue to look for low-priced CDs once Manifest is gone, turning to stores like Best Buy, Target and Ebay. “I always enjoy paying four or five bucks for a CD, but if that can’t happen and I really want the CD, it’d be worth,” spending more, he said. The Columbia store, which clos es in March, will receive invento ry from the Greenville and Wilmington stores closing this month to sell at reduced prices. Sounds Familiar and Papa Jazz, which are similar to Manifest, will remain in Columbia. Davis said these stores could be faced with the same problems that caused Manifest’s closing, but Duke saw another possibility — customers from Manifest would discover the other stores. In the meantime, Duke said he’s keeping an eye out for low prices, and is just “waiting for a clearance sale.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Sorensen CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 process faster than the state al lows. He also lobbied for a bill last year that would have freed the university from the regulations of the Commission on Higher Education, but a filibuster in the Legislature killed the bill. Gov. Mark Sanford proposed in December an optional plan for state universities to use their funds to buy their way out of state regulatory control and instill a chosen amount of privatization. Sorensen said USC would need more than $3 billion to get to a strong level of privatization and all but ruled it out as an option. “The amount that we get from the state Legislatur e js diminish ing every year^” Sorensen said. “The governor just announced his budget, and we’re going to be cut even more this year.” He estimat ed the cut could be as much, as 12 percent added to the roughly 10 percent cut sustained last year. “I am not interested in privati zation for two reasons. One is fi nancially in that, even though it’s diminishing, we desperately need the support that we get from the state. Nlimber two is equally im portant, and that is that we are a university that was created by and for the people of the state of South Carolina. So we are by definition a public university, and I want to remain a public university,” Sorensen said, adding that he has made his feelings on the matter clear to the governor and the pub lic. Sorensen is also feeling pressure from the Faculty Senate, which passed a resolution in December urging him for across-the-board salary increases that haven’t been instituted at the university in near ly five years. Sorensen has said that raising faculty salaries is his tpp priority right now, but the state's budget doesn't have the means for It. He is considering us ing a portion of a tuition increase toward in erasing salaries but said he needs to consult administrators and students before presenting the idea to the Board of Trustees. “That’s the only, way 1 have of doing this, because the state ap propriations have not allowed for it up until this point,” Sorensen said. Sorensen is also planning an other bus tour to various locations in South Carolina to speak with prospective donors, alumni, busi ness leaders and high school stu dents about what’s happening at the university. It will be modeled after the Bow Tie Bus Tour used during the 2002-2003 school year. “Our reason for doing this is to introduce him to some groups he may not have met before, follow ing up on some groups he’s seen before, talking with high school students and making calls to uni versity alumni and other poten tial donors,” said Vice President for University Advancement Hudson Akin. Sorensen already used the fall’s eight home football games to in vite generous donors to come to tailgating receptions and to watch the game with him in the presi dent’s skybox. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknewsfSswm.sc.edu Merger CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 work unless you have disciplines first. So you know each discipline will has to maintain its individ uality.” Skvoretz said he hopes the merger is equitable for both col leges and the new dean and other administrators would find a cen tral location to house the college’s offices. “It would .be nice to locate it somewhere midway between where all these social science and natural and physical science fa cilities are,” he said. “Somewhere on the Horseshoe or close by would be nice.” USC had a merged college of arts and sciences until 1973, when, in the interest of highlighting sig nature programs, the colleges were divided at the urging of President Thomas Jones. The College of Arts and Sciences will have 23 departments and 517 full-time faculty members and will enroll about 8,281 under graduate, master’s and doctoral students. Curriculum decisions will be made when the new dean has been named and the combined administration is in place, most likely before the fall semester. -1—.-.„.x —4 -- Comments on this story?E-mail gamecucknews(u)gwm.sc.edu Safe Zone project to help gay community BY JULIE LEDBETTER TilK fjAMKCOCK Beginning this spring, USC will launch a Safe Zone project on campus in which decals will be placed on the doors of stu dents, faculty and staff who sup port members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered com munity. The program touts trained fac ulty and staff acting as Safe Zone allies to students who are in the gay and lesbian community. After attending an information session, these allies will receive decals for their doors. “They can place that symbol on their office door or maybe their residence hall door so that they can identify themselves as being an ally to the gay and lesbian com munity,” said Jay Dempsey, grad uate advisor of S.H.A.R.E. Peers. The information sessions will provide allies with basic infor mation about the gay and lesbian community and information on disregarding stereotypes. The in formation session will also out line a list of local resources and offices for allies so that they may refer students to them. Dempsey said the allies are go ing to be there mainly for sup port. “The whole idea is that if SURFYOURSELF For more information about the Safe Zone project, email: safezone@gwm.sc.edu someone needs to seek out some one to talk to, if they know some one that is gay and is going through some kind of difficulty, or if they themselves are gay and need to really talk to somebody about it but don’t really know who they can trust, they see that symbol on a door, and they know that that person is trustworthy— that they can speak to that per son in a confidential manner,” Dempsey said. The first information session will be held on Friday, Jan. 16. Housing staff will be the first to attend these sessions and become allies, but later in the semester faculty members will be able to become allies as well. Dempsey said he and his office are working on ways for students to get involved. He said some stu dents have expressed an interest in helping train faculty and staff at the information sessions, which would allow students to be included in the project initially. He said eventually students will be able to sit in on the informa tion sessions and receive decals. .1I The program — sponsored by several offices and departments including the women’s studies program, the history department, the Office of Student Orientation and Testing Services and University Housing — is not the first to be initiated in South Carolina. Clemson and Furman have already implemented simi lar programs, and with the recent addition of sexual orientation to USC’s non-discrimination policy and the national issue of gay mar riage, Dempsey said this is the perfect time to begin the pro gram, and that USC will send the right message to its students with the Safe Zone Project. He said the idea is to show that USC supports the gay and lesbian community. “Really we just want to send the message that we are a progressive campus and that we do support the diversity that can be found on this campus and that diversity does include gay and lesbian students.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Gasoline prices rise 7 cents TIIK ASSOCIATED PRESS CAMARILLO, CALIF. - After four weeks of stability or decline, retail gasoline prices surged more than 7 cents per gallon in the past three weeks, an industry analyst said Sunday. The price for all three grades combined was $1.58 on Friday, up 7.1 cents since Dec. 19, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide. Several factors were responsi ble, ipcluding rising crude oil prices, a weaker U.S. dollar, cold er weather that drove up demand for home heating oil and two U.S. gasoline reformulations, said an alyst Trilby Lundberg. In the same period, retail diesel prices increased 3.3 cents per gallon, to $1.63. It was the first significant increase since early October and reflected recent de mand for heating oil, Lundberg said. Further price increases were likely, but it was impossible to predict how much they would rise, Lundberg said. The all-grades retail average price of gasoline was 8 cents high er than it was this time last year and 2.5 cents below the average price for 2003. The national weighted average price of gasoline, including tax- ■ es, at self-serve pumps Friday was about $1.55 for regular, $1.65 for midgrade and $1.74 for pre mium. Cocky CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 each other throughout the fall semester. The team was chosen from 238 eligible NCAA schools with a football program. Other members of the team in cluded Hairy Dawg from the University of Georgia, Monte from the University of Montana, Albert from the University of Florida, YoUDee from the University of Delaware, Smokey from the i University of Tennessee, Big Red from Western Kentucky University, Scratch from the University fif Kentucky, Chip from the University of Colorado and Harry the Husky from the University of Washington. Each member of the team re ceived $5,000 for its school's mas cot program, and Cocky received an additional $5,000 for winning the competition. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu — -1 www.daiiygamecock.com Wednesday, January 14 2004 4:00pm to 6:30pm MAD JAM is an exercise extraviganza comprised of 15 minute fitness sessions and wellness options. If you love group exercise, if you have always wanted to try a fitness class, or if you want to learn more about our class types - then DON'T MISS MAD JAM! The Fit Stop will include Wellness options, nutrition & exercise materials, body fat, & blood pressure screenings. The madness begins at 4:00pm in the lower level of the Strom Thurmond Wellness & Fitness Center, Multipurpose Room 125 ' ■ i_ Remember the deadline tor submitting application 2004 Summer Undergraduate Research Internship USC School of Medicine and Palmetto Health offer an undergraduate level student program for hands-on experience working with USC faculty and Palmetto Health staff in various research disciplines. The program runs from June 1 to August 6. A $2,000 stipend is provided. For information and application, contact the office of Dr. Stanley Fowler at 733-3331 Deadline: March 15,2004 —*