Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Ephedrine CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 all stdres had 60 days to clear ephedrine. The ban angered manufactur ers, who pointed out that the FDA allows several products to be sold it knows are harmful to health, such as alcohol and tobacco, and ephedrine’s warning label is enough to allow consumers to make their own decisions about the product. “The .FDA’s ban couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time,” USC professor Gene Reeder said. “Nobody should lose their life just because of false claims printed on a bottle.” Reeder pointed out that while ephedrine was on the market, there was no age limits placed on who could buy it. Since ephedrine was frequently mar keted in colorful and sugary en ergy drinks, it posed a danger to children. Gas station employees across Columbia said that, for the most part, they didn’t notice much of an increase in sales after the an nouncement. Some stores in the area, including the DCP Food Mart on Assembly Street, haven’t removed the items from their' j shelves. Ephedrine-free dietary sup plements have been springing up to replace the void in the market . — supplements that supposedly have similar effects to ephedrine but do not actually contain the substance. These include Keratin, Green Tea Extract, Yerba Mate Leaf and Synephrine. “It’s interesting that the gov ernment allows alcohol and to bacco, products that kill millions every year as opposed to the 155 ephedra has killed, to remain on the market,” Metts said. “I guess it just goes to show that it’s all about the money: The govern ment collects huge amounts of taxes on alcohol and tobacco, something they couldn’t do with ephedra.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Graduation CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 in two years. They’re more able to do the college work.” He also said that with the LIFE, Hope and Palmetto schol arships, students have another reason to stay focused. About 95 percent of in-state students have one of the three scholarships. All three scholarships require the student to take 30 hours a year and maintain a 3.0 GPA. “Those scholarships are worth a lot of money to a lot of families, so there’s a lot of incentive for those students to get that 3.0, so that’s dramatically improved the retention rates which ultimately improve the graduation rates,” Pruitt said. For such a high retention rate from freshmen to sopho mores at USC, the university has many programs in effect to help freshmen adjust to college life. Pruitt said the award-winning University 101 program is the na tion’s hallmark program for freshmen. The summer orientation pro gram attracts about 98 percent of USC students. Orientation gives students “the first good start because they get their scheduling, and they get oriented as to what’s expected,” Pruitt said. USC also provides first-year students with the interactive First Week, including icebreak ing activities that involve faculty members. Another factor that encour ages freshmen to complete their education is that, according to Pruitt, they are goal-oriented. “One other thing we do is when students coyie to USC, they declare a major — they are goal-directed,” Pruitt said. “Once a student is goal-direct ed, they set their aspirations to getting a degree in a particular program of study, knowing what they want to do after grad uation.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu r 1 — Yearbook CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “Just the marketing ap proaches that have been used at different campuses, the product itself, economic factors; the whole state of the economy as with anything a variety of fac tors that weigh in," he said. The Garnet & Black year book was consolidated with the student literary magazine in 1994 to form the Garnet & Black magazine. Brewer said a yearbook might overlap with some of USC’s other student publica tions, such as the Garnet & Black magazine, The Gamecock student newspaper and the Freshman Record, a type of yearbook for first-year stu dents. First-year criminal justice student Patrick Campbell said he didn’t see the point of a USC yearbook. “I bought all of my high school yearbooks because high school was small. That’s why when you look at them you can relate to the stuff inside it," he said. “But since it’s a college in a much larger area, it’s harder to get a feeling for the stuff inside it." But first-year business stu dent Matt Sparr said he would buy a yearbook for his senior year. “I just don’t really think it would be worth the money to keep buying one every year," he said. “But there will be a ton of people after I leave college that I’ll probably never see again in my life. It would be nice to have the memories.” Brewer said the yearbook could be student-run or US could hire a graduate student to produce it as an assis tantship. “This is totally in the ex ploratory stage," Brewer said. “This is not anything we are committing to or close to com mitting to.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Jf^jifit SUITES SJ^J^| I I , W W W. COLLEGESUITES.NET | I 2 y_.Ct««y{ Rules: 1. Expires April 27.2004. 2. One winner will be drawn April 2Sth. 3. Winner does not have to be —___- - —_ present to win. 4. 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