University of South Carolina Libraries
www.dailygamecoch.com _MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2004_ Since 1908 J-Comm Week kicks off today BY JUSTIN CHAPPELL THE (IAMKCOCK The media are coming to town, but this time it’s to talk about ethics. Fox News correspondent Rita Cosby and Knight Ridder newspa pers White House correspondent Bill Douglas—both USC alumni— are two of the speakers scheduled to discuss mass media ethics for I •tomm Week, sponsored by the college of Mass Communications and Information Studies. “There are a lot of questions floating around now about truth ful media in general,” said Vance Komegay, associate professor of advertising and chairman of the advertising and public relations sequence. Gerald Boyd, former managing editor for The New York Times, will speak Wednesday night during the college’s honors and awards ceremony. Boyd, who resigned from the New York Times June 5, was the focus of much criticism during the Jayson Blair incident, in which it was revealed that Blah plagiarized stories and reported in accuracies in some of his articles. Jhe Blair event and USA Today’s ^cent discovery of faked portions irom at least eight stories by re porter Jack Kelley have contribut ed to the college’s decision to hold the ethics-themed week. “I don’t think these issues are new issues, but the recent scandals have brought it into the public spot light,” said Randy Covington, di rector of college advancement in the mass communications college. “We think ethics is an extremely important subject, and we see it as a unifying theme that affects jour nalism, public relations and other disciplines as well.” Representatives from major ad vertising agencies — including former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi ^d Wax—will discuss ethics’ per ^Jience to advertising. “Creative license and creativity are wonderful to bring to advertis ing; however, there are still bound aries, and we want (students) to know the boundaries,” Kornegay said. “Ultimately, if you are going to be persuasive, you have to be credible and trustworthy. ” Kornegay said part of Wax’s pre sentation will focus on past case studies on advertising truthftilness. The mass communications col lege hopes that by bringing speak ers to discuss ethics from multi ple angles, I-Comm Week will pre vent ethical mistakes that could occur in students’ future careers. “If you are thinking about it now, then when you are confront ed with an ethical dilemma, you will have grounding for judgments to make,” said Charles Bierbauer, dean of the college. “We are con cerned about the ‘why’ in doing the uungs we ao. This is the first time the college has held such an event, which is open to the public. Covington and Bierbauer said they hope it be comes an annual program. The week kicks off today at 10:10 a.m. with Bill Douglas’ jour nalism ethics discussion in the CEO Room of the Carolina Coliseum. In addition to journal ism and advertising presenta tions, a lecture on library and in formation ethics will be held Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Swearingen Engineering Building in Amoco Hall. Speakers are scheduled throughout the week until its conclusion Friday at 2 p.m. in which a panel of deans and professors — from business to law to medicine — will discuss ethics in broad terms and its ap plication to society in Gambrell Hall room 153. Covington said he hopes the week’s message will be clear. “Here is the expectation: jour nalists will tell the truth,” he said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu LCOMM Events Today LECTURE BY BILL DOUGLAS, KNIGHT RIDDER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: 10:10 a.m., CEO Room, Coliseum SOUTH CAROLINA BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION LECTURE BY RITA COSBY, FOX NEWS: 2:30 p.m., CEO Room, Coliseum Tuesday THE PROMISE AND PERILS OF SUPER BOWL ADVERTISING: 3:30 p.m., Belk Auditorium, Business Administration Budding Wednesday HONORS NIGHTAND BUCCHEIT LECTURE BY GERALD BOYD: 6 p.m., School of La w Auditorium Thursday SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE DEAN’S LECTURE: 6:30p.m., Amoco Had, Swearingen Engineering Building ETHICS IN SOCIETY: WHO CARES? DEBATE: 2p.m., GaMrell I lull 153 I BY DAVID KRAVETS the associated press ^SAN FRANCISCO - A historic le „al battle over abortion begins in courtrooms coast to coast today, as three federal judges take up re quests to derail the first substan tial congressional limitation on abortion since the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision. The simultaneous litigation centers on legislation President Bush signed last year banning a type of late-term abortion — what lawmakers defined as “partial birth” abortion and what doctors call “intact dilation and extrac tion,” or D&X. The three trials will be filled with impassioned arguments on whether the law violates constitu tional rights, as well as graphic, highly technical and conflicting testimony from medical experts. ^“This case is going to be made “lost on the experts,” said U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who is presiding over the San r——i—: Francisco litigation. The National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and a hand ful of doctors sued in San Francisco, New York and Lincoln, Neb., to overturn the law. They say its language could criminalize more common types of abortion and could be a step toward abolishing abortion in the United States. Courts and doctors have con strued the 1973 Roe v. Wade deci sion to mean abortions can be legal ly performed until the “point of vi ability,” when a healthy fetus can survive outside the womb. That milestone is usually reached 24 weeks to 28 weeks after conception. In the outlawed procedure, gen erally performed before that point in the second trimester and occa sionally in the third, a fetus is par tially delivered before being killed, usually by puncturing its skull. The number of the procedures performed annually in the United States is estimated at 2,200 to 5,000, out of 1.3 million total abortions. The Partial-Birth Abortion Act carries a maximum two-year prison term for doctors convicted of performing the procedure, but it has been put on hold pending the outcome of the litigation, which appears likely to reach the Supreme Court. The high court struck down a similar Nebraska law almost four years ago, because it lacked an ex ception for procedures done to pre serve a woman’s health. Anticipating this problem, Congress declared that “a partial birth abortion is never necessary to preserve the health of a wom an” and is “outside the standard of medical care.” The abortion groups disagree, saying that doctors might find themselves with no good alterna tive to the banned procedure to protect a woman’s life or health if problems develop. The American Medical Association does not encourage ♦ ABORTION, SEE PAGE 3 rHU I U BY MUKuAN hUKU/IMt CiAMt^UCK Kristina Starling, a second-year marine biology student, Alls out a suggestion card after grabbing a bite to eat in the Grand Marketplace. Dining Services responds to students’ suggestions BY WILLIAM FRIERSON THE GAMECOCK Carolina Dining Services is considering changing the way it serves students after several com plaints and a meeting with a con cerned student. Dining officials are consider ing displaying prices for each item as well as prices for differ ent food combinations, including salads, to keep students from go ing over their meal limits. GMP supervisor Carol West said minor adjustments have al ready been made, including re ducing prices for 32 oz drinks to fit into a combo meal and adding a serving section in the garden salad area to shorten lines. She said other improvements, such as new water faucets and another condiment table, won’t be avail able until the fall. The changes come after first year liberal arts student Whit Ashley sent scathing comment cards to dining services. Ashley scheduled an interview with the GMP staff and interviewed sev eral students to compile a list of concerns, including rollover meals and better drink selections. When Ashley met with GMP unit manager Woody Duernberger, what Ashley thought would be a brief exchange became an hour-long discussion. Ashley received an e-mail from Carolina dining with responses to each concern. Students have complained that designated meal times leave them hungry or with unused meals at the end of the week, re sulting in a waste of money. Carolina Dining officials said meal plans are “designed to sat isfy as many students’ needs as possible,” and that they are looking at “other options that would allow more flexibility and choices.” Officials also wanted to remind students that the block plan is available for up perclassmen, which enables them to have their meals when ever they want. Students have also criticized the GMP for its high prices, but Carolina Dining officials said stu dents are paying less than the credit they are receiving. For ex ample, a 21-meal plan equals $2.89/meal, officials said. Some vegetarian and vegan students have complained that food choices don’t fully coincide with each other, like bacon in vegetarian food, and that food should be accessible on weekends and soy offerings should be avail able. Carolina Dining said vege tarian/vegan cooking is offered in the classic line daily and will continue on weekends. The staff is open to suggestions for new recipes. West said students can help by coming to the manager with problems. “ If your burger is burnt, we will gladly make you another one,” she said. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Fraternity re-established at USC BY LADONNA BEEKER THE GAMECOCK After 40 years, the Gamma Triton Colony of Phi Sigma Kappa has returned to USC. USC’s colony was founded April 20,1929, but disappeared in 1963 for reasons still un known, said Ben Havird, presi dent of Gamma Triton Colony and second-year accounting stu dent. “There are multiple stories that try to explain why the fra temity disappeared from USC,” Havird said. “We’ve been told that the chapter at that time wasn’t pay ing dues to the Grand Chapter: therefore, they lost their char ter.” The chapter was informally re-colonized Nov. 11,2001 and of ficially returned to USC March 20 with a chartering banquet al Saluda’s Capital City Grill in Five Points with appearances by members of the original chap ter. . "A colony is like an interest group with a starting process, where we are given information and have to have a constitution, members and a clear plan,” Havird said. Gamma Triton is similar to most other campus organizations with a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, officers, committee chairpersons and so cial committee. Gamma Triton colony has ♦ FRATERNITY, SEE PAGE 3 -1 .Iflside ftffe&ATE Mass. Legislature resolves to function as student voice. FOR comeback. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 6 ^ ^«sidei8.jUarriage amendment. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 3 ♦ MAGNIFIQUE: ‘Girl from Paris" delivers MORE SEE PKGE,4 ^A’’ ♦ CLICK IT Why South Carolina needs a laughs from abroad. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 6 i stronger seat-belt law. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 5 ♦ ARKANSAWED Baseball drops two, wins RHA ♦AGED WELL Vintage clothing makes a one at Arkansas. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 9 Index The Gamecock i? printed on Comics and Crossword 8 Online Poll 5 recycled paper. Classified 11 Police Report 2 Horoscopes 8 Entertainment News 2 ... .. ----■- -- Visit us online at Letters to the Editor 5 USC Calendar 2 . .. . www.dailygamecock.com