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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2004 Police alert USC of carjackings Students voice safety concerns after 2 carjackings in less than 2 weeks BY JON TURNER THKIIAMKCOCK' The USC Police Department has issued a safety alert after two armed carjackings occurred on campus in less than two weeks. USCPD posted the alert on its | Website April 5, five days after the ' second crime was committed. Police records show that on March 20 two black men at tempted an armed carjacking in the Bull Street Garage. Two sus pects fitting that description suc cessfully stole a car from the East Quad Parking Lot March 31. Police records list the suspects as slender, between 5 feet 8 inch es and 5 feet 9 inches tall and from their late teens to their ear ly 20s. “We’re still on the investigation right now,” said Maj. Eric Grabski of the USCPD. Students were concerned about the carjacking, as well as the uni versity’s seemingly delayed re sponse, more than two weeks af ter the first armed attempt. Grabski said the crimes had been reported promptly. “We worked in conjunction Wltn rUDIlC Affairs with that alert,” he said. “We pro vided the infor mation to Housing not long after, and why this infor mation just came up today I’m not exactly sure, but I know we’ve been working on it since. “It was a collaborative effort,” he said. “I can’t give you an exact reason why it didn’t get into print until yesterday. I can tell you that we were in touch with the admin istration of the university, and we tried to get that out in the most timely manner possible.” Jennifer Williams, a fourth-year biology student with a parking space in the Bull Street Garage, said she hadn’t heard about the car jacking attempt. “I was already nervous about my stuff getting stolen, like keys and stuff,” she said. “But I never thought about actually getting hurt.” She added that if it had hap pened to her she would have been terrified. “I’d also be kind of pissed that ut>o nasn i uone any thing to tell people about it,” she said. Williams said USC should do a bet ter job informing students of local in cidents. “It’s kind of the same with any thing that happens around campus," she said. “I mean, we don’t hear anything about it. First-year biology student Melanie Schad said she doesn’t live on campus but often comes downtown on weekends. She said she wished the university had been more prompt with their warning. “The main point is that as soon as it happened they should post an alert,” she said. Second-year English student ♦ CARJACKINGS, SEE PAGE 3 “I was already nervous about my stuff getting stolen, like keys and stuff. But I never thought about actually getting hurt.” JENNIFER WILLIAMS FOURTH-YEAR BIOLOGY STUDENT Dorm.duties Housing predicts no wait for seniors BY MICHAEL LAFORGIA AND ALEXIS STRATTON THE GAMECOCK University Housing officials expect to offer housing to every upperclassman for the 2004-2005 school year, with the opening of West Quad residence hall provid ^ ing close to 500 extra rooms. | Last spring, 550 upperclassmen were put on a housing wait list for this year. By the middle of August, all wait-listed students were offered campus housing. Housing Director Gene Luna said West Quad, a $29 million pro ject billed as a “residential center for sustainable futures,” will add the 500 beds needed to accommo date all upperclassmen. He said most juniors and seniors were matched with their preferred roommates. Two of the quad’s three resi dence halls should be completd this semester. Each of these halls will house 210 students. In addi tion, a third, 80-student hall will be finished this summer. ™ use will seek “green” certifica tion for West Quad from Leadership in Energy and Environment PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK West Quad, the newest addition to on-campus living, will help ease the housing pinch this fall. Design. The quad will be one of a handful of certified “green” resi dence halls in the world. Luna said Housing received about 200 applications from stu dents interested in living in West Quad. “Some students want to live there because it’s going to be some of the nicest housing on campus,” Luna said. “It’ll be ab solutely full by fall.” Jeena Godsey, a second-year ♦ HOUSING, SEE PAGE 3 The way of the cross PHOTO BY JASON STEELMAN/THE GAMECOCK Stanley Worthington, a third-year mechanical engineering student, portrays Christ during the 2nd Annual Ecumenical Way of the Cross, a traditional lenten devotion of Jesus’ last hours. U.S. Marines killed as violence spreads to several Iraqi cities BY HAMZA HENDAWI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NAJAF, IRAQ — Iraqi insurgents and rebellious Shiites mounted a string of attacks across the south and fought pitched battles against Marines in the turbulent city of Fallujah on Tuesday. Up to a dozen Marines, two more coalition soldiers and at least 66 Iraqis were reported killed. Reports from the city of Ramadi, near Fallujah, said dozens of Iraqis attacked a Marine position near the governor’s palace, a senior defense official said from Washington. “A significant number” of Marines were killed, and initial reports in dicate it may be up to a dozen, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. authorities also launched a crackdown on radical Shiite cler ic Muqtada al-Sadr al-Sadr and his militia after a series of weekend uprisings in Baghdad and cities and towns to the south that took a heavy toll in both American and Iraqi lives. The fighting marks the first major outbreak of violence between the U.S.-led occupation force and the Shiites since Baghdad fell a year ago. Two more coalition soldiers — an American in Baghdad and a Ukrainian in Kut — were killed in fighting. The deaths brought the three-day total to up to about 30 Americans and 136 Iraqis killed in ♦ IRAQ, SEE PAGE 5 PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS “No America, no Israel,” shout University of Tech students during a protest In support of Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. The words on the street BY JUSTIN CHAPPELL THEOAMECOCK “Outsourcing,” “metrosexual” and “hip-hop” are three of the newer words to evolve in the English language and become dic tionary entries through an estab lished process that seems like a catch-22. The Oxford English . Dictionary’s listings consist of P words that have “caught on,” meaning that there are examples of a word in use in several differ ent publications during a “rea sonaDie span of time.” It’s a straightfor ward ap proach to doc umenting lan guage that aims to record words that aren’t fads. But publica tions — whetner tney are news 41 papers, magazines or novels — are generally only going to use words already list ed in the dictio nary and under stood by a mass audience. With these two strongholds in place, it seems likely that new words would nev er develop and English would remain infinitely stagnant. But it’s evolving — so quickly that OED updates entries every three months with more than 1,000 additions and revisions. Growth this abundant hints at the possibility of a breakdown in the process. “Lobbyists in Washington cre ate words to advance causes, and reporters pick up on them,” said USC journalism professor Doug Fisher, who specializes in lan ♦ WORDS, SEE PAGE 3 |[ % CHEESE McDonald’s despite past'employee 5 is misguided. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 8 ♦ GUIDED BY VOICES Vocal group Carolina Alive has history of making beautiful music. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 9 ♦ BACK IN THE ACTON The Pat McGee Band returns with new album ‘Save Me." FOR MORE SEE PAGE 9 ♦ CANCELING OUT Softball splits doubleheader with Georgia. FOR MORE SEEPAGE 12 Index Comics and Crossword 11 Classified 14 Horoscopesn Letters to the Editor 8 Online Poll 8 Police Report _ 2 Entertainment News_ 2 USC Calendar 2 The Ganieeock (sprinted on recycled pigier. Visit us online at www.dailygamecock.com