Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Lewis and Clark exhibit highlights epic journey BY KALYN PALMER THE GAMECOCK The Thomas Cooper Library has taken a trip back to the year 1803. “Discovering the American West,” a double bicentennial ex hibit celebrating the Lewis and 3 Clark expedition and the Louisiana Purchase, is on public display in the mezzanine through this weekend. Early 19th-century books, il lustrations, printed accounts and maps, all arranged chronological ly, help to illustrate the travels and adventures of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they navigated the Missouri River on a quest to find an overland route to the Pacific Ocean. Books and maps also depict the ratification of the Louisiana Purchase in October 1803. This exhibit is only one exam ple of the finiversity's vast histor ical resources that benefit the stu dents as well as the community. Patrick Scott, director of Special Collections at the Thomas Cooper Library, said this exhibit “shows that we have materials here from former gifts that relate to topics discussed in History and English courses taught here at the univer sity.” Most of the materials on display come from the university's own collections. Some of the sources contributing to the display are the Kendall Collection, the John Shaw Billings Collection, the South Caroliniana Library, the Map Library, the Alfred Chapin Rogers Collection, which includes the first British edition of Lewis and Clark's Travels, and volumes do nated by Mrs. J. Henry Fair. Also on display is a Bodmer il lustration recently purchased with funds made available by the Barbara L. and David M. Graham Endowment. “This library is one that pos sesses rare material not only of state importance, but of national importance,” Scott said. Another factor that makes this exhibit special is the presence of the Carolinas Chapter of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, which is holding its winter meeting Saturday, Jan. 17, in connection with the library's exhibit. The Carolinas Chapter supports the national and inter national mission: to stimulate public appreciation of the Lewis and Clark expedition's contribu tions to America's heritage and to support education, research, de velopment and preservation of the Lewis and Clark experience. Scott is giving members of the chapter a private gallery tour at 1 p.m. on Saturday. He will also lead a public tour at 2:30 p.m. for anyone interested in experienc ing the rich history on display or learning more about the Lewis & Clark chapter. The exhibit will be on display during regular library hours. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews'@gwm. sc. edu Drach CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 he shouldn't have to pay the fee. He also got Joel Smith, dean of the Moore School of Business, to write a letter to the Registrar's office rec ommending that he not have to pay for the accounting class. The Registrar took the issue to the Bursar's office. According to Cindy Brady of USC's Accounting Services, a board at the Bursar's office met to discuss Drach’s case and decided that Drach must still pay his fee. Drach was sent a letter explaining that be cause he did not drop his spot in the class until two weeks into the year, i. he was taking class space away ' .from other students. The letter fur ther explained that most of the costs associated with being enrolled in a class are incurred in the first week or two of the class. Joseph Taylor, the university Bursar and director of financial services, said the Bursar's office can only make exceptions to uni versity regulations such as the add/drop date in the case of an er ror on the part of university. He said there was no error made that prevented Drach from substitut ing his class before the add/drop date. Drach, however, argued that the university erred by not ade quately publicizing the late regis tration date and excess credit fees, and by not informing students about fees on VIP. Taylor says otherwise. “I definitely have a lot of sympa thy for Drach's situation and it's un fortunate that he had to go through what he did, but it is important to realize that the information about the drop date and the new fee sys tem had been clearly posted on USC's Web site. The Gamecock newspaper even did several stories on it to publicize the new system before it took effect,” Taylor said. After failing to pay his debt, Drach got a letter explaining that a hold was being placed on his aca demic record until he paid, mean ing he couldn't view, access or send out his transcript and would not be allowed to enroll as a stu dent this semester until his debts were paid. Eventually, after agree ing to pay the debts in monthly in stallments of $110, Drach was al lowed to enroll at USC. But until his payments are complete, the hold remains on his transcript. According to Taylor, there were about four other students who had similar problems with VIP and the new fee system, all having inci dents similar to Drach's. Taylor said if only four students out of al most 23,000 had problems, then the system is on the right track. Taylor said the situation was not anyone's fault and can be somewhat attributed to inade quate communication between the academic part of the school and the administrative part. He says Drach was ill-advised, and the Bursar’s office simply followed university policy by making Drach pay his bill. Taylor said he plans to bring up at the next faculty meeting the pos sibility of creating an alert win dow on the VIP Web site to come up when an action would cause a financial charge to be added to a student's bill. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm. sc. edu Service ■ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ry race, politics and civil rights struggles. She is currently writing a history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Tickets to the breakfast, which will be held in the Russell House ballroom, are $6 and are available at the Russell House information desk. One of the biggest events of the weekend will take place Monday: the sixth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, this year themed “What Is Your Dream?” after King's own “I Have a Dream” speech. Pinkney Epps, Office of | Community Service Programs co ordinator, said the day of service is meant to connect USC to the community at large so that USC may become a bigger force in meeting the community's needs. The day of service begins at 9 a.m. with breakfast and a brief ral ly. The rally will highlight parts of King's life and beliefs and will end with a commission to service by USC President Andrew Sorensen. From there, the volun teers will be transported to their respective sites, where they will remain for a late lunch and dis cussion of the day at about 3 p.m. Epps said he set a goal of 1,000 volunteers, twice as many as last year. As of Wednesday, he said al most 300 volunteers were regis tered. I “We're pushing it,” he said. “The lists are coming in more and more.” Approximately 30 agencies from across Columbia have agreed to receive the students. A recent amendment to the Office of Community Service Programs’ mission made “com munity service and service learn ing number three, in the list of rea sons students, faculty and staff are at the University of South Carolina,” and Epps said the ser vice students, faculty members and staff provide at the day of ser vice will help encourage the USC population to come together and make a difference. “I am pushing for community service to be on the forefront of ev erybody's mind,” Epps said, adding that he did not only want USC to be promoted for its “top ed ucation” but for its service as well. Ginny Wright, a fourth-year English and Russian student and co-coordinator of the day of ser vice, said the motivation behind the event is to encourage students to continue volunteering through out the year. “Really, the point of the day of service is to unite people together not just to perform one day of ser vice but really to create an attitude of service year round,” she said. Co-coordinator Shasta McBee, a fourth-year biology student, said she feels volunteering is impor tant to continuing King's own at titude. “It's really a time to reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. King, and really think about the many things he accomplished in his life. One of the things he really did was service,” she said, “Just to stay at home and sleep is like saying ev erything he did and everything he fought for wasn't worth it.” Registration for the day of ser vice continues through Friday, al though some may be allowed to reg ister the day of the event if others who have registered don”t arrive. At 3 p.m. on Monday, the USC School of Law's Black Students Association will host a free lecture in the School of Law auditorium by Lonnie Randolph, president elect of the South Carolina NAACP. Finishing up the day is the an nual MLK Gospel Fest, featuring The Jarvis Brothers. Also per forming are Columbia gospel groups Anointed Angels and Pelham Myers and the Five Singing Stars. USC's A Touch of Faith, a gospel choir, and Higher Harmony, an all-male a cappella ensemble, will also be performing. Josh Ohiser, president of Higher Harmony and a third-year experimental psychology student, said it is important to celebrate King's birthday. “It’s a good chance to show that, even though it’s about one black man, different cultures can sup port each other,” he said. Tickets to the Gospel Fest are $6 and are available at the Carolina Coliseum box office or by calling 251-2222. Proceeds from the event will benefit the USC I. DeQuincey Newman Institute for Peace and Social Change. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Bush protestors break barricades BY LOUISE CHU THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA - Hundreds of people pushed past Secret Service barri cades Thursday to protest President Bush's brief visit to the tomb of the Rev. Martin Luther 1 King Jr. on what would have been the civil rights leader's 75th birth day. Two people were arrested, as 800 protesters pushed toward the street in front of King's tomb, abandoning a designated area sev eral hundreds of yards away. Authorities responded by parking five city buses on the street to block the protesters from the president's motorcade. Some pounded on the sides of the buses. No one was injured, and the crowd remained peaceful, dis persing soon after the president's 15-minute stop. Bush placed a wreath on King's grave before heading to a $2,000-a head fundraiser in downtown Atlanta. Train CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 or crossing railroad tracks at places other than designated crossings is a life-threatening risk, many students take the chance to avoid the hassle of detours or waits. “Students often spend the evening at Five Points and go home the way they came, and suddenly there’s a train stopped and (they) think, ‘Do I walk 100 yards this way or this way, or do I just crawl under the train real quick and in five seconds I’m on the other side and going about my business?”’ said Lt. Deputy Henry Garbade of the USC Police Department. Other factors, such as alcohol and peer pressure, can interfere with students’ judg ment, he added. Jason Byrnes, a second-year computer information systems student at USC, was a'volunteer firefighter with Cook at the Flint Hill Volunteer Fire Department. “It was just a huge shock. He was a real good friend to everyone,” Byrnes said. “I would never have guessed that would have happened be cause it seems like you would have been able to get out in time since trains don’t start up that SURFYOURSELF For more information about railroad safety, visit Operation Lifesaver at www.oll.org fast,” Byrnes said. But according to the Web site for Operation Lifesaver, a non profit organization that works to improve railroad safety, most col lisions occur with trains travel ing under 30 mph. It could take a train traveling 55 mph up to a mile or more to stop. Even if they do walk away un injured after crossing under or over a stopped train, being ar rested is another consequence many students aren’t aware-of. Because railroad tracks are owned by the railroad companies that operate them, they are pri vate property. Any pedestrian or driver who crosses them at places other than designated crossings is trespassing. According to the S.C. Railroad Trespassing Law, passed in 1996, violators can be fined up to $200 or sent to jail for 30 days. Janice Cowen, state coordina tor for South Carolina’s Operation Lifesaver branch, hopes that edu cating students about the dangers of illegal crossings will encourage them to make smarter decisions. The organization distributes fly ers, presents mock collisions and offers training courses for law-en forcement officers to promote rail road safety. . Another effort to prevent acci dents is a grade-separation pro ject in its early stages that will separate the railroad tracks along Assembly Street from au tomobile and pedestrian traffic, said Jerry Watkins, railroad pro jects manager at the Transportation Department. Law enforcement officials want Cook’s death to raise aware ness about the dangers of illegal railroad crossings and prevent further casualties. “Human nature dictates that we react to things after tragedy. We’re always cutting the grass down at the stop sign so you can see oncoming traffic after some- - body gets seriously hurt or killed, and one thing that we need to bring to the forefront and keep at theforeffont so students are aware is that this is something really dangerous to do,” Garbade said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Microsoft to modify software for purchasing music online BY TED BRIDIS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Microsoft Corp. has agreed under pressure to change its Windows software to resolve complaints by the Justice Department that it un fairly influenced how customers buy their music online, the gov ernment said Thursday. Microsoft will offer updated software for its Windows XP op erating system in February or March to stop its disputed prac tice of compelling consumers who buy music on the Web to use only Microsoft's Internet brows er. The company continues to maintain its design was legal. Government antitrust lawyers concluded that the design violat ed the landmark antitrust settle ment approved by a federal court in October 2002. They were expected to meet next week with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly and Microsoft lawyers to more broadly describe the company's efforts to abide by terms of the settlement. A Microsoft spokeswoman, Stacy Drake McCredy, said the company agreed to the redesign for business reasons. “While we differed in our interpretation of the consent decree, we are pleased that the changes we’ll be making also address the govern ment concerns about this fea ture,” she said. A statement from the Justice Department said the government was pleased with the decision “regardless of the reason for the change.” The latest dispute centers on a design feature in Windows called “Shop for Music Online,” which lets consumers purchase compact discs from retailers over the Internet. When consumers click the link to buy music, Windows opens Microsoft's browser even after consumers specify that they prefer using rival browser soft ware. p5S*^58l * If, COU!ir««fTI$ HIT (I 112 Slo Court. Columbia. SC 29201 Outstanding Amenities ♦ FREE Shuttle Service to University ♦ FULLY Furnished 3&4 bedroom suites ♦ PRIVATE Bathroom in Every Bedroom Suite + INDIVIDUAL Leases ♦ FREE Secure Personal Storage Unit ♦ INDIVIDUAL locks for Every Bedroom Suite ♦ LARGE Screen TV in Select Units ♦ OVERSIZED Desk ♦ DESIGNER Furnishings ♦ FULL-SIZE Washer & Dryer ♦ FULL-SIZE Appliances with Microwave ♦ ELECTRONIC Front Door Lock ♦ 24 HOUR Deluxe Fitness Center ♦ 24 HOUR Multi-Station Computer Center ♦ LARGEST Suites in Town ♦ GAME ROOM ♦ TANNING BED ♦ FREE Blazing Broadband Ethernet <► FREE Roommate Matching ♦ FREE Cable TV with HBO package ♦ FREE Trash Pick-Up at your door ♦ WALK to Stadium ♦ RESORT STYLE Spa, Deck and Pool ♦ GATED Community ♦ LIGHTED Basketball Court/Sand Pit Volleyball ♦ PRIVATE Balcony/Patio for Every Apartment Home A more detailed map is available at www.CollegeSuites.net _U..1 ^ I * BLtiswmsi r N V SI * MM*Ml I j Call For Our Specials! 803.779.3280 Toll Free 1.877.927.8483