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.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2004 Since 1908 t • Law professor opts for Charleston ^becorated USCproperty law expert joins new Lowcountry law school BY MICHAEL LAFORGIA THE HAMMOCK Another professor from the USC School of Law has committed to work for the new private law school in Charleston when it opens this fall. Stephen Spitz, an associate pro fessor at USC’s law school, became the third faculty member from Carolina to sign on with the new law school since last September, when the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education granted the Charleston School of Law a provisional license. Spitz announced his decision Jan. 14. He could not be reached for com ment. “Steve Spitz is one of the most respected teachers and lawyers in South Carolina," said Charleston School of Law Dean Richard Gershon in a news re lease. “He is considered a leading expert in South Carolina property law." John Benfield, former assis tant dean of admissions at the USC law school, resigned in October to become an assistant dean of admissions in Charleston. R. Randall Bridwell, USC’s Strom Thurmond Professor of Law, will also begin teaching in Charleston this fall. Spitz, who won the Gedney M. Howe Outstanding Teaching Award during his time at USC, will teach first-year property class es in Charleston. He is the author of a casebook, “Real Estate Transactions: Cases and Materials,” as well as chapters about South Carolina water and environmental laws in various books. He has also served as chair man of the Governor’s Water Law Review Committee. Gershon has said in the past that it’s not the law school’s in tention to compete with USC for students and faculty members. USC law school dean Bumele Powell said the new law school doesn’t bother him. "That’s not something that I’ve given any thought to," Powell said. “Legal academia has over 6,000 professors in it, and it would be surprising even if an unaccredited law school would not be able to at tract some law professor from somewhere.” The Charleston School of Law is still awaiting accreditation from the American Bar Association. For his part, Powell said he is convinced the USC School of Law will always have something to of fer students interested in practic ing law in South Carolina. “There will be students who will want to attend a law school with a tradition that is over a century old, there will be stu dents who want to attend a law school that is ABA accredited," Powell said. “Then there will be students for whom none of those thfngs are important, and they will choose their law school ac cordingly." ■ Better pay may be one reason why so many USC faculty mem bers are going to work at the new school. The Charleston law school’s private status could trans late into higher salaries for em ployees, as it won’t be limited by state budget constraints. Editor in Chief Adam Beam con tributed to this report. ■ Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu ^uilding.blocks PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK South Carolina middle and elementary school students compete in the FIRST LEGO competition Saturday at the Blatt P.E. Center. JLEGO tournament gives students’ creations life BY KEVIN FELLNER THK UAMECOCK Hundreds of middle school stu dents were furiously snapping LEGO pieces into place Saturday at the Blatt P.E. Center in hopes their homemade robotic machines would mimic the functions of a space module. Fifty-eight schools from 37 cities sent a total of 70 teams of no |!^ore than 10 members each to oSC during the weekend to com pete in the state’s FIRST LEGO League Competition, the largest of any state competition in the na tion. The competition is associated with For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology’s Jr. Robotics pro gram and was sponsored by the College of Engineering and Information Technology. Students had been preparing for the competition since last September. “They just announced over the intercom at school that they were going to be doing this, and I thought that’d be cool," said Dutch Fork Middle School 8th-grader Shawn Raab. Titled “Mission Mars” in con junction with NASA’s Spirit rover landing on the red planet, the com petition featured motorized, self guided LEGO vehicles about the size of a brick going through an obstacle course, negotiating ramps and transporting objects with various appendages, all in a limited amount of time. “This is one of the most fun things I’ve ever done as far as ex tracurricular activities go,” said Becca Payne, an 8th-grader from Bryson Middle School in Simpsonville. Many students at tributed their involvement to the suggestion of a teacher or parent. “We need that commitment from parents and volunteers, or else it’s never going to happen," said John Weidner, USC chemical engineering professor and com petition director. Weidner, whose son Nick was competing Saturday, said it is dif ficult for him to explain to his chil dren what he does as an engineer, and the FIRST LEGO competition gives them an opportunity to dis cover it on their own. The state competition is in its fourth year, and Weidner esti mates that it could easily double in size before next year. “There’s a huge interest in South Carolina,” he said. “We’ll probably have to talk about hav ing regionals soon.” The competition, originally held in Seneca, was held at USC for the first time this year. This is the second year the College of Engineering and Information Technology has sponsored it. “These competitions enable USC to be involved in classrooms around the state and to let stu dents see firsthand the opportuni ties for them in higher education," said USC President Andrew Sorensen. Cinna Attar, an 8th-grader at Bryson Middle, said he is attract ed to the challenging aspects of building an original machine. “As a team it’s not that tough, but as a person it’s definitely tough," he said. “You need the help of a team." ♦ LEGOS, SEE PAGE 3 Bush discusses re-election, Iraq war in State of the Union BY TERENCE HUNT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - President Bush, wrapping the themes of his re-election campaign in his State of the Union address, asserted Tuesday night that America is strengthening its economy and successfully combatting terror ism. “We have not come all this way—through tragedy and trial and war—only to falter and leave our work unfinished," he said. In a stay-the-course appeal to a joint session of Congress, Bush said the nation faced important challenges and choices. He said it was tempting—but wrong—to think the danger of ter rorist attacks had passed even though it has been more than two years since America was attacked. “We have come through reces sion and terrorist attack and cor porate scandals and the uncer tainties of war," the president told lawmakers at the opening of a campaign year. “And because you acted to stimulate our econ omy with tax relief, this economy is strong and growing stronger." Bush’s speech was designed to cast him as the commander in chief, grappling with the nation’s problems while his Democratic rivals race around the campaign trail trading charges. With a $500 billion budget deficit limiting his options, Bush President Bush speaks during the first minutes of his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday. offered a handful of modest ini tiatives: a $23 million pilot plan to encourage student drug test ing in public schools and a $300 million training and placement program to help newly released prisoners find jobs. He urged major league sports leagues and athletes to end the use of performance-enhancing drugs to set an example for young people. He also proposed dou bling federal spending on pro grams to promote sexual absti nence among teenagers. Touching on a politically sen sitive issue, he said he would sup port a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages if the courts struck down a law say ing marriage should be between a man and woman. The speech fell one day after the one-two finish of Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards in the Iowa caucuses threw the Democrats’ race into a wide-open contest going into next week’s New Hampshire primary. Bush faced an electorate close ♦ BUSH,SEE PAGE 3 What goes up must come down slowly BY JUSTIN CHAPPELL THE CAME COCK In 1853, a man climbed onto an that previous elevators were no torious for crashing to the ground if the hoist broke. But this elevator did not crash. Instead, its safety catch held the open-air elevator platform in front of a crowd at an expo sition in New York’s Crystal Palace and ordered that the elevator be raised to its maxi mum height with a rope hoist. Then, the man had the piatiorm suspended and un moved. This was the in troduction of the first safety eleva tor, invented by Elisha Graves Otis. rope — pulled taut from holding the elevator — chopped with an ax. The crowd gasped, knowing Since this spectacle in New York more than 150 years ago, the Otis Elevator Company has be come the largest manufacturer of elevators, escalators, moving walks and other people movers. There are more than 1.5 million Otis elevators installed in more than 200 countries, and half of the world’s tallest buildings rely on them. The invention of the safety el evator not only made the naviga tion of tall buildings easier than complicated step engineering, but it introduced and maintained a worldwide need for elevators. On average, elevators move the world’s population every 72 hours. Even in South Carolina, the popularity of elevators and oth ♦ ELEVATORS, SEE PAGE 3 4 ♦ AN EVENING WITH LOU The Thomas Cooper Library will hold a black-tie eventto benefit the Holtz endowment fund. ♦ FOR MORE SEE k PAGE 3 1 ♦ KING DAT Marchers W converge to protest the Confederate flag. ♦ FOR MORE SEE PAGE 4 * FATAL ERROR Curtis Chow tells you just what to do with your computer. ♦ FOR MORE SEE PAGE 6 ♦ FORTUNE COOKIE Ryan Holt gives up on predicting the Democratic primaries. ♦ FOR MORE SEE PAGE 6 ♦IAST CALL Manifest employees speak out on the store’s closing. ♦ FOR MORE SEE PAGE 7 ♦ LIVING IT UP After enjoying the comforts of home, students must readjust to campus life. ♦ FOR MORE SEE PAGE 7 ♦ ROCKY BOTTOM The men’s basketball team blows out Tennessee 85-64. ♦ FOR MORE SEE PAGE 10 ♦ NUMBER S(X Women’s basketball loses sixth straight game against Arkansas. ♦ FOR MORE SEE PAGE 10 Index Comics and Crossword 9 Classifieds12 Horoscopes 9 Letters to the Editor 6 Online Poll_ 6 Police Report 2 Entertainment News 2 USC Calendar 2 Weather TODAY High 51 Low 29 partly cloudy, windat4mph THURSDAY High 55 Low 31 sunny, wind at 13 mph Visit us online at: www.dailygamecock.com Ike Gamecock is pnnted on recydedpeper.