Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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RAs CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 plans at this point. We're devel oping our budget for next year iui umvciaiuy housing. We al ways take a look at our staffing and what the bene fits are,”, he said. Scott’s plan plan involved third-year RAs taking on a po sition as senior RAs. inr R A c would be re- ■ sponsible for assisting the RHD withprogramming events and would receive free housing. “The original proposal was in stead of just throwing more mon ey at third-year RAs, whenever you do pick up all of their hous ing you actually give them more responsibilities to take care of, and they would be assisting the RHD of each building, so they would be able to maybe staff the front desk or handle any pro gramming that may come up,” Scott said. Luna said Housing is open to mcda 11 um students. “We wel come those kinds of rec ommenda tions from Zach and from really any students on campus, and we do take those se riously, and onmotimnc they intersect well with plans we already have and other times they cause us to think different ways, but they are always welcomed, and we'll always consider them,” Luna said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu “There aren’t any definitive plans at this point. We’re developing our budget for next year for university housing. We always take a look at our staffing and what the benefits are.” GENE LUNA HOUSING DIRECTOR Government CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 x twice a year to lobby for our inter ests, but we figured if we had all the other schools with us, it would give us much more clout at the State House. We decided to ask for any schools that would be inter ested in joining an inter-university student government council, and the response from schools all ' ' across the state was astounding.” Anderson said with the state’s economy in such bad shape, high er education has been receiving cuts almost every semester. The issue is especially sensitive for Clemson. It lost seven times more public service funding than USC and 11 times more than the College of Charleston. According to USC’s SG Vice President Zachery Scott, there was a meeting during the summer about creating the council and an other meeting a few weeks ago where participating universities drew up a declaration outlining the basics of the organization, in cluding the participating univer sities and the organization’s mis sion. A seven-student delegation drawn from participating schools will meet in April to draw up a council constitution to outline its agenda and rules for operation and set an official name. Scott is one of the seven repre sentatives who will help to author this constitution. “I'm glad USC will be a member of this council. Now we can finally take concrete action to prevent these budget cuts from happening, rather than just being one more voice in a chorus of complaints,” Scott said. Scott said the minimal first year costs of the organization are covered by a grant but that even tually the organization will charge a membership fee for universities to join based on size. According to SG President Katie Dreiling, USC is working on a sim ilar project called the President's Council to bring together student government presidents of USC’s satellite campuses to address high er education budget cuts. “The administration is behind us 100 percent in the creation of both the President's Council and the inter-university council,” Dreiling said. She added that the President's Council will work closely with USC lobbyist Johnny Gregory to make sure its message is heard in the State House. “It really amazes me to see how far this inter-university council has come since its conception, es pecially since it was almost all stu dents, not faculty, who were able to recognize the need for such a council and who had the drive and ambition to make it a reality,” Dreiling said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Students aim to black out MSU BY MICHAEL LAFORGIA THE GAMECOCK Three USC students are working to bring back the Blackout when Carolina takes on Mississippi State tonight at the Colonial Center. Mike Arthur, Levi Boudreau and Rebecca Campbell said they've been Gamecock fans for as long as they can remember. “We just love the basketball team and don't feel like they get the support they deserve,” said Campbell, a second-year civil en gineering student. Together, the three have been urging students and fans all week to come to the game wearing black. Arthur, a third-year political science student, said he wanted to do something to show support for the basketball team, a group he said has worked hard this year. Arthur ran the idea of holding a basketball Blackout by coach Dave Odom at his radio show last week. “He said he would support any thing that created unity,” Arthur said. With Odom's blessing, Arthur and his friends enlisted the help of Student Government to publi cize the Blackout. Arthur said they chose the Mississippi State game because so much will be on the line when the Gamecocks meet the Bulldogs tonight. An Eastern Division power house, Mississippi State has the best record in the SEC with 19 wins and one loss, the result of a miscue in the final seconds of a game against Kentucky. The Gamecocks are 19-4, with conference losses against Kentucky, Florida and Ole Miss. Carolina is in second place in the Eastern Division. “If we win this game it will do so much to let the country know that the Gamecocks are a major power in the SEC,” Arthur said. USC last tried a Blackout in a football game against Florida in 2001. The result of that contest was a 52-17 victory for the Gators. ‘Tve heard some people say they didn’t know about the Blackout be cause of what happened against Florida,” Arthur said. “I think we would have lost that game no matter what. I don't think the stadium color is very impor tant.” Bouderau, a third-year chem istry student, said the Blackout was effective despite the loss. “The atmosphere was there,” Bouderau said. For her part, Campbell said those worried about the Blackout because of the Florida game are too superstitious. “I think they're being silly,” she said. No matter how effective stu dents' efforts prove, Bouderau said fans shouldn't expect the Blackout by itself to produce results on the court. “It's not going to make our team stellar,” Boudreau said. Campbell added, “It’s really more about uni fying the students and the other fans.” Arthur said the Blackout sym bolizes unity before it intimidates the Bulldog. “If it does intimidate that's a , great side effect,” Arthur said. “It's just to show the team that we're behind them.” Even so, organizers are bank ing on the energy the Blackout will bring to the floor. “It'll certainly give the Mississippi State Bulldogs a hell of a welcome,” SG Vice President Zachery Scott said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu garnet&black Celebrate the 10th anniversary of Garnet & Black by attending its block party Friday on Greene Street Samsung has just put you in the running to carry the torch. Write an essay and you could be a torchbearer for the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Torch Relay. 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