Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I University of South Carolina FRIDAY A PR 11 9 000 A Vol.97,No.82 www.dailygamecock.com IlML/MI, nrr\IL Z, ZUUt • • Since 1908 PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK Michigan high school students wait with their robot for a turn in the FIRST Robotics Competition practice round. Robots come *to Columbia Students, engineering teams compete at the Colonial Center BY JON TURNER THE GAMECOCK Team 818 was pretty self-as sured. In fact, a couple of them, Megan McCarthy and Charles Johnson, teammates from Michigan, were wearing signs that read, “Need help? See team 818.” ^ McCarthy and Charles, both "high school students, are com peting this weekend in the Palmetto FIRST Robotics Competition at the Colonial Center. And while McCarthy said their robot had been show ing fairly well during its practice rounds, the real action starts to day. The organization is called FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. High schools around the country collaborate with teachers and parents to de sign a robot to fulfill a certain task. Team 818 is the result of a partnership between a Michigan school district and General Motors. The robot’s name is Van Guard. Robotics competitions are ex pensive. The Palmetto Regional competition held at USC cost ♦ ROBOT, SEE PAGE 3 RHA money purchases lifesaving equipment BY ADAM BEAM THE GAMECOCK The Residence Hall Association voted unanimously this week to give $2,500 to USC’s Medical First Responder program to purchase new equipment. The money, from RHA’s gener al programming fund, will pur cnase a j uiup bag full of life saving equip ment and an au tomated exter nal defibrillator that jumpstarts the heart if someone is in cardiac arrest. Paul Gerrard, a third-year busi ness economics student, request ed the money during Tuesday night’s RHA meeting. “Until we get that second jump bag, if one person is tied up at a call, no one can respond to a sec ond call, because there is not enough equipment,” Gerrard said. Director Ken Corbin said they needed the new equipment be cause they are starting to cover student-sponsored special events on campus. When Corbin started looking for extra money, Gerrard suggested RHA. “I didn’t think we would get anything, let alone the amount of money that we did,” Corbin said. “It’s quite a pleasant surprise.” USC’s Medical First Responder staneu in i»os and operates out of the Thompson Student Health Center. It runs off of student activity fees and until now has never re ceived any outside tunding. Corbin called RHA's allocation “groundbreaking” and praised the organization for its generosi ty. “The bottom line is, we’re in the business to save people’s lives,” Corbin said. “You can’t really put a dollar value on that.” First Responder serves USC stu dents on campus and has someone on duty 24 hours a day. The pro “The bottom line is, we’re in the business to save people’s lives.” KEN CORBIN FIRST RESPONDER DIRECTOR «. PHOTO BY JASON STEELMAN/THE GAMECOCK USC First Responders will be getting a new jump bag. gram is dispatched through the campus 911 system, and Corbin said the program gets between 40 and 60 calls a month. RHA President Adam Hark said while the RHA Senate doesn’t usually give out money like this, he isn’t surprised at the unanimous vote. “That’s a pretty clear-cut ex ample of something proactive we can do to benefit the lives of our residents here on campus,” he said. First Responder has about nine employees, most of whom are students. Corbin said the stu dents are required to have at least a basic EMT state EMT li cense. ♦ RHA, SEE PAGE 3 Recess PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK Brandon Betchmann, a first year business student, plays with children at Greek Day. Southern University discovers 541 cases of grade tampering ^BY ADAM NOSSITER HriiR associated press BATON ROUGE, LA. -Southern University will likely revoke de grees given to some of the 541 cur rent and former students impli cated in a grades-for-money scan dal that has been traced to a work er in the registrar’s office. Chancellor Edward Jackson Jackson said Thursday that the scandal at the nation’s largest his torically black university dates to 1995, and involves both under graduate and graduate students paying an assistant registrar to have their grades changed. Some students paid to have as many as 20 grades changed, said Jackson, who declined to give the assistant registrar’s name. On campus Thursday, a number »pf students said the practice was Widely known, though none said they had ever paid for a grade. “Sophomore year, it (cost) like $75 a grade,” said Eddie Green, a senior. East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Doug Moreau said he received a summary of the yearlong Southern investigation and was waiting for a complete file of the university’s evidence and conclusions to determine how to proceed with criminal charges. “I think they have concluded all of the interviews and investigation they were going to do,” he said. Moreau said the most obvious law violations could involve filing false public records, forgery and bribery if money changed hands. He said the university’s investi gation involved more than 500 stu dents and more than 2,000 possi ble grade changes. The scandal came to light in March 2003, when a student who’ had enrolled in a Southern gradu ate program presented credentials showing she had earned a bache lor’s degree from that department. The department had no record that the woman had ever graduat ed and alerted the university’s au ditors, who discovered that unau thorized entries had been made in a number of academic records. To prevent similar abuses in the future, the 17,000-student uni versity has new internal controls in place and has assigned an in ternal auditor to monitor the reg istrar’s office, Jackson said. Jackson said each of the 541 peo ple will have a chance for a hear ing before a panel of administra tors and faculty members. A number of students inter viewed said they were upset to know that their fellow students had bought grades rather than studying for them. “To me, it shouldn’t be going on. You’ve got to earn your grade,” said Leonard Pete, a senior. Vise W«* p\edge coosW« BY GABRIELLE SINCLAIR THE GAMECOCK Two USC law students will face off Tuesday at the S.C. Supreme Court over the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance being recited in public schools. The finals of the J. Woodrow Lewis Competition will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the S.C. Supreme m ' ■ i WHAT: Pledge of Allegiance debate WHERE: South Carolina Supreme Court, 1231 Gervais St. WHEN: 4:30 p.m. Tuesday Court and are open to the public. The justices will announce the winner afterward. Second-year law student Thomas Sinclair will present the government’s case and third-year law student Ashley Anderson will argue for the plaintiff in a ficti tious case based on one now in the U.S. Supreme Court. In the first round of the com petition, six second- and third year law students prepared 15 page briefs and gave oral argu ments to local attorneys who served as judges. Second-year law student Fred Marcinak, who is organizing the competition, said the S.C. justices would not rule on whether the Pledge is constitutional, but would instead pick the winner based on who gives the best argument. “But it’ll still be interesting to see their reaction to it,” he said. USC’s law school sponsors the annual competition. The winner receives $750 and the runner-up receives $250. In June 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Michael Newdow, an atheist who challenged the constitu tionality of San Francisco ele mentary schools requiring teach ers to lead their students in the Pledge each morning. Five months later, Congress passed a resolution supporting the Pledge and opposing the lower court ruling, and thus “reaf firmed the role of religion in na tional life,” Marcinak said. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments March 24 regarding the Pledge for the first time in histo ry. A decision on that case is ex pected by June. ♦ LAW, SEE PAGE 3 Academic team sweeps tournament BY ALEXIS STRATTON THE GAMECOCK USC’s Academic Team defeat ed nationally ranked Maryland as it took first place at the Duke March Madness Academic Tournament. Team members Erick Bousman, Joe Stanton, J.R. Fennell and Eric Douglass beat out Duke, North Carolina State, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Virginia Commonwealth. Stanton, the team’s vice presi dent, said this was the first time the team had gone undefeated at a tournament. “I’m very pleased with the re sults,” said Stanton, a second year English student. “Any time we come out with a win it’s a big deal, especially since we’re kind of an up-and-coming program.” While some members expect ed a positive outcome, coming out undefeated was especially sweet. Douglass, a second-year law student, said defeating Virginia Commonwealth and Maryland, both top-15 teams, was “a big step for our team.” “Just going undefeated was good,” he said. “It’s a hard thing to do in one of these types of tour naments.” Treasurer and fourth-year his: tory student Fennell said he was surprised they beat everyone. “I think it’s kind of a confidence booster for us,” he said, attribut ing their success to a “good group effort.” Stanton agreed that everyone on the team made great contri butions to their victory. “I think we had some very strong perfor mances from everyone,” he said. Two USC teams competed at thetoumament, which was held last Saturday at Duke University. It was USC’s first visit to the tour nament, and team members hope that they made a lasting impres sion upon their competitors. “I think now we’ve proven we can compete with some national ly ranked teams, and I think now we want to take it up another notch,” Douglass said. “Our goal for next year is to break into the top 10 and win the regional cham pionships.” Douglass said he thinks other teams will take notice of them af ter this showing. “Beating teams like Maryland and Virginia Commonwealth are accomplishments because those ♦ TEAM, SEE PAGE 3 WHaf^-lAside I ♦,Columbia man + ML GMMNMiMt David Stagg says MORE SEE PAGE 5 applies fey Residential reality show. FOR see no evil, write no evil. FOR MORE SEE ^MUKEWOUMi USC baseball MORE SEE PAGE 3 . PAGE 4 looks to improve in SEC standings at W AIumni group should ♦WEBM.IIWU ‘Big Brothel Vandy. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 8 IpUcy aiT|eaf. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 4 auditions bring reality TV to Columbia. 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