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Amendments CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Wright said. SG Vice President Zachery Scott, a fourth-year political sci ence student, agreed with mir roring the federal apportionment system. “We figured if it's good enough for the federal government, it's good enough for USC," he said. Wright said she hopes the amendment will help fill empty senate seats. “The senate always has, any where in the year, between five and 12 vacancies, and that's a problem," she said. The new sys tem of apportionment will “guar antee that the senate will be more full, more competitive.” Dreiling, a fourth-y^ar politi cal science student, said the sec ond amendment works to foster a better and more clearly defined relationship between CSJC and SG. The amendment outlines judi cial authority, the organizations roles in judiciary matters and the responsibilities and election oi the chief justice and members oi CSJC. “In the past our relationship has kind of been a little bit, 1 guess, leery, so we've kind of de fined our relationship a little bil more," she said. The amendment “helps our two organizations be better able to work together more efficiently." Scott said that after working on this amendment for three years, he is eager for it to go to vote. He attributed the three-year creation process to delays caused by one-year terms but said Dreiling has been a great help by giving CSJC and the senate the autonomy to push the amend ment through. If approved, the apportion ment amendment will apply to spring 2005 elections and the CSJC amendment will go imme diately into effect. The amendments in full are viewable on the SG Web site. Students can also request copies of them in the SG office in the Russell House. SG will also dis play the amendments in The Gamecock on Monday. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu f GPS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 each stop; rather, the buses run on several loops that are sup posed to be compact enough so that specific times would be un necessary. But as many USC stu dents have discovered, the small est things—from traffic lights to train tracks — can throw the bus es off schedule. The new system will track any delays and relay this information to a central server, meaning stu dents will be able to check bus ar rivals online or even on their mo bile phones or personal organiz ers. Also, displays will be posted at each bus stop and in campus buildings that will show the ap proximate location of each bus. Those who might be unfamiliar with the campus’ layout would be able to use these displays to ac . cess information about the bus route, direction, and bus stop they would need for a specific destination. “We are hoping that once the GPS system is set up, the volume of riders will go up to the point that we can purchase more shut tles and have more frequent ar rival times, making the system even more efficient," SG President Katie Dreiling said. SG contributed $30,000 to wards the project, believing that the parking problem is one of the biggest issues facing the univer sity. The money came from a rollover fund from student activ ity fees. The money was spent primarily on the GPS project, the construction of a new parking garage, and the $12,000 per semester newspaper readership program, which began fall 2003. “The biggest complaints we hear from students on campus are about the lack of parking, and so we knew we had to use at least a portion of this money to ad dress that problem," Dreiling said. Adding more parking spaces wasn't an option, she said, because paved parking spaces usually run about $6,000 each, meaning SG would have been able to afford very few spaces. Dreiling said it was clear that upgrading the shuttle system was the best option in terms of cost effectiveness and looking toward the future. “We can’t just keep adding spaces forever; this project was a way to look ahead and find a creative and long-term solution to the parking problem." In addition to funding the GPS system, SG also recently suc ceeded in getting the adminis tration to give the go-ahead to be gin construction on another parking garage for students, a project that will likely use much of the remaining funds from the rollover account. USC is purchasing the GPS system from a Los Angeles-based company. SG and Parking Services met with several firms and watched presentations to find the best system and the best company around. “NextBus was able to give us the assurance of high-quality at the best price, and we're glad to be working with them on this project," Information Resource Coordinator for Parking Services Chris Howard said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu www.dailygamecock.com Now updated five days a week. i-1 Wood CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 woodturner like Babb demon strates a specific expertise in woodturning to the amateur crafters in the club who are devel oping their skills in the art. Members of the Palmetto Woodturners, who meet in the back of Mann Tool & Supply in West Columbia, bring their cre ations to the monthly meeting for both exposure and critique. And they are quick to differentiate their art from woodworking, say ing that their goal is to create ob jects from one piece of wood with one tool—the lathe. “People who generally get inter ested in woodtuming usually grav itate away from woodworking," said Gary Dickey, the Southern states representative who started the Columbia club in 1998. Dickey said woodturning is a “subtractive art," meaning that as woodturners are crafting a piece of wood they have to look at the project in terms of decon struction, as op puacu IU 111UM UL11C1 arts, like painting, that build layer upon layer in construction. “We have to be careful in cut ting the wood because once it's cut, it's gone forever," Dickey said. The woodturners' creations range from functional to artistic. One-piece salad bowls and vases were the most common object on display at the Feb. 6 meeting. And those pieces vary in intricacy from wide-open tops equal to the width of the body, to narrow tops that are just one-fifth the width of the piece's body, making it look like a wooden milk jug with an entirely hollowed interior. Alongside the bowls.were Japanese Ikebana vases. These pieces have spiky metal inserts in their centers that support flowers and branches, allowing for Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. Tom Harvard, a pal metto member who is also a full time woodturner, said he makes five or six of these vases a day and sells them for about $70 each. People are attracted to the art for a variety of different reasons. One of the newer members to the club, Ronald Protts, said he has been turning on-and-off for about one year. “I get a chance to experi ment with the wood and enjoy some leisure time," Protts said. He added that he is currently making spindles and bowls — the bowls be ing more challenging. Tommy Rhoden; another mem ber of the club who has been turn ing for 15 years, said it is the chal lenge of mastering the wooden hat that interests him. “I have about 20 busted hats ly ing all around my shop," Rhoden said. Rhoden said creating the wood en hat is one of the harder pieces because the brim requires such a uniform thinness and that the wood has to be especially wet and green to make the brim bend into a cowboy shape. Along with passion for the art, the woodturning club has an on going mild de bate about woodturning philosophy. The “purists” hold the art to its most basic form. They do not condone paim ui tcu v ings — only creations that can be made with one block of wood and the lathe. Others view the end product as most important and allow any method to achieve the crafter's vi sion. They Qse techniques such as polychromatic turning, which is the process of gluing multiple types of wood together into a block shape and upon turning the wood it cre ates a multicolored result; and ebonizing, which is the process of burning wood with a blowtorch while it is spinning on the lathe, cre ating a black polished look. The art of woodturning isn’t new to the palmetto club or to the 200 other woodtuming groups na tionwide. “Its an art and craft that has gone on for 3,000 years," said Dickey. In its earliest days, woodturn ing was done without electric-pow ered lathes. Crafters would find a small bendable tree and tie a string to the upper limb. Then they would wrap the string around the piece of wood they wanted to “People who generally get interested in woodturning usually gravitate away from woodworking.” GARY DICKEY FOUNDER OF PALMETTO WOODTURNERS carve, which was supported by two stable legs planted in the ground, and extend the rope to a foot pedal. The crafter would then pump the pedal and cause the tree to bend and release, spinning the log. From that humble beginning, woodtuming has evolved through water-powered lathes to the mo torized machines used today. But the technology behind woodturning has not stagnated. New lathing technologies include the use of lasers to gauge depth as a crafter is hollowing out the in side of a piece. Babb, the hat spe cialist from Newfoundland, used a light bulb to standardize the thin ness of the hat's body by shaving the thin, wet wood until the light shone penetrated uniformly. Through the technological ad vances and philosophical differ ences the Palmetto Woodturners experience in their monthly meet ings and specialty demonstrations, the club is roughing away the edges of amateurism and refining their skills. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gvom.sc.edu Free! 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