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V University of South Carolina MON HAY APRII 1Q OC\C\A VoL97,No.89 www.dailygamecock.com IVI Wl N Ur\ I, nriML -L ^ r Since 1908 Sorensen touts merger agenda BY KEVIN FELLNER THE GAMECOCK USC President Andrew Sorensen defended his position on the pharmacy school in a pub lic letter last week, reiterating his stance on not relocating fac ulty members and students to the proposed Charleston school, which would be a merger of USC’s and MUSC’s pharmacy programs. tk The letter responded to an ex ternal pharmacy school recom mendation to merge the USC School of Pharmacy with the phar macy school at the Medical University of South Carolina with the new school’s primary campus site located in Charleston. Second-year professional stu dent Bryan Amick said pharmacy students who oppose the merger appreciate Sorensen’s effort to communicate and cooperate with them but that Sorensen hasn’t re sponded to all of their criticisms. “We still have concerns that he hasn’t addressed the inaccuracies and shortcomings of the recom mendations to move much of the program to the Medical University of South Carolina’s campus,” he said. Amick said he doesn’t think students have misunderstood Sorensen’s message so much as it has been that Sorensen hasn’t firmly committed to preserving certain aspects of the pharmacy program in long-term future plans. Sorensen wrote that the recom mendations that haven’t been ful ly considered would be referred to two faculty consulting committees and one joint student committee. Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees will meet Wednesday. The agenda hasn’t been publicly released yet, but the merger recommendations are expected to be discussed. Sorensen and MUSC President Raymond Greenberg supported some of the report’s recommenda tions, including ones that would move administrative offices to Charleston and would provide clinical education at the primary site but the first four years of study at both schools. In his April 15 letter, Sorensen confirmed his position on the re location of faculty to the proposed Charleston campus. “President Greenberg and I have unequivocally rejected this recommendation,” Sorensen wrote. “In future years, once the merged college is operational and making good progress, faculty from one campus, if they choose to, may wish to locate at the other campus in order to enhance their professional opportunities or to ♦ PHARMACY, SEE PAGE 3 Spring fling PHOTO BY MARK SCHIllING/THE GAMECOCK USC quarterback Syvelle Newton stood out in Saturday’s spring football game. Newton led both sides of the team to touchdown drives, completing 16 of 27 pass attempts. Hunley crew laid to rest 140 years later Thousands congregate in Charleston to honor fallen Confederate soldiers BY ALLYSON BIRD THE (lAMECOCK CHARLESTON — Saturday, just after 9 a.m., Charleston began lay ing to rest the third and final crew of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley in a service at White Point Gardens and a funeral and inter ment at Magnolia Cemetery, 140 years after the submarine met its murky demise. Market Street and the sur rounding hotspots of downtown Charleston were unusually dead for a spring Saturday morning, but if you followed any of the Confederate soldiers or the hoop skirt clad women to the Battery, i you’d know where everyone was. Police boats in the harbor sat ittentively while a sailboat bear ng a Confederate flag paraded just jff the sea wall. Intermingled with housands of spectators, long lost battalions' bayonets pointed to the sky only to be dwarfed by media satellite dishes. Before the service, the crowd usually conversed. One old wom m chided a re-enactor for refer ring to the Civil War as just that, saying it was more appropriately ‘the Southern War for ^dependence.” Smiling, he igreed, and said, “No, it’s the War bf Northern Aggression.” A plane lew overhead, bearing the image bf a Confederate flag and the mes sage “Dump Beasley.” But the tone wasn’t all political. Even state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, chairman of the Hunley Commission and the face associated with the project, kept a low profile and did not speak at the first portion of the service. He stood uniformed among spectators before leading the four-mile pro- v cession from the Battery to the cemetery. Aside from cell phones ringing “Dixie,” the service finished in an hour, unhindered. Then, the eight caskets began moving down East Bay Street, escorted by a line of Charleston police, a legion of Confederate re-enactors and a pla toon of mourning women in black period clothing. Storeowners stepped to the sidewalks with their potential patrons who were fixated on this once-in-a-lifetime parade. By 11:30 a.m„ the Battery was empty. ♦ HUNLEY, SEE PAGE 4 rnu iuot mlltoUin emu/ i nc u«rvicouui The funeral procession for Hunley crewmen departs White Point Gardens Saturday. Homecoming falls off pace BY JON TURNER ■ IK GAMECOCK Plans are underway for next year’s homecoming celebration, but the homecoming committee has already run into a couple of hitches. Just two weeks before the end of the semester, the parade and float-building positions on the homecoming committee haven’t been filled yet, leaving committee members crunched for time. “These are really important positions that need to be filled before we leave for the summer, because the more work we get done now, the less work there will be later,” said Kim Ballard, a first-year public relations stu dent and homecoming commit |jee communication chairwom “I myself was a late joiner of E—■— the homecoming committee,” she said. Homecoming Commissioner Kai Wright, a third-year English student, said the positions weren’t filled because there weren’t enough people interested. The parade job includes com ing up with a budget, finding po lice officers and calling the city to organize the parade route. The float-building chairperson is in charge of the float-building party on Thursday night during homecoming week. “We’re looking for people who are energetic and very in novative,” Ballard said. The committee also has to deal with student apathy. Fourth-year math student Lulu Kuo said she didn’t feel like she was a part of the celebration. “I think homecoming is just ♦ HOMECOMING, SEE PAGE 3 PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOC Lara Bratcher, left, Ben Edwards and Amanda Marshall were honored with some of USC's top awards Thursday. Students shine on Awards Day BY Z’ANNE COVELL THE GAMECOCK USC’s annual Honors and Awards Day, held on the Horseshoe Thursday, recognized more than 250 undergraduates “ who have excelled in academics, c leadership and service. The ceremony culminated with USC President Andrew Sorensen’s presentation of the university’s most prestigious honors, the Algernon Sydney Sullivan and the Steven N. Swanger awards, to three outstanding fourth-year students. Ben Edwards, a philosophy stu dent, and Lara Bratcher, an anthro ♦ AWARDS, SEE PAGE 3 Bateman teams’ success unprecedented BY ALEXIS BASS THE GAMECOCK Two student teams from USC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications beat out 62 oth ers nationwide to advance to the finals of the Bateman competition, a national public relations contest. The USC teams are two of only three teams to reach the finals, which will take place in Detroit May 6. “I’m so excited at the caliber of work the students produced, and our sending two teams to the finals is unprecedented in the 31-year history of the contest,” said Shirley Staples CArter, director of the school, in a news release. USC’s past experiences have been positive, as a USC team won the national competition in 2002. Seven USC teams have won hon orable mentions. The Bateman competition was named after J. Carroll Bateman, former president of both Public Relations Student Society of America and International Public Relations Association. It is na tionally sponsored by PRSSA and a client, which this year was Ford Motor Credit. This year’s goal was for each team to develop and im plement a detailed public relations campaign to educate 17- to 23-year olds about credit. USC’s teams started working on their campaigns before the spring semester began and sent their re sults to PRSSA headquarters in ♦ BATEMAN, SEE PAGE 3 he Lack of work-study void in iob market.”FOR MORE SEE SEE PAGE 7 ♦ BURYING HISTORY Hunley ceremony brings Charleston closure. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 6 ♦ CAT SCRATCH FEVER USC baseball team falls to Kentucky. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 10 ♦ SOPHOMORE SENSATION Ben Sinclair says Syvelle Newton should play ahead of Dondrial Pinkins. FOR MORE SEE PAGE 10 Index Comics and Crossword_ 9 Classified_ 12 Horoscopes 9 Letters to the Editor 6 ■HHBHPM Online Poll 6 Police Report 2 Entertainment News2 USC Calendar 2 The Gamecock(sprinted on recycled paper. Visit us online at www.dailygamecock.com