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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Barbara Bush has set out to help her father campaign for re-election. Bush daughters enter media spotlight with campaigning, fashion magazine interview BY SCOTT LINDLAW THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MARQUETTE, MICH. - After years of zealously guarding his twin daughters’ privacy, President Bush has turned a public spotlight on them by making both active players in his re-election. Daughter Barbara Bush gingerly stepped out as a campaigner with her fa ther Tuesday, while twin sister Jenna jets off to Alabama and Georgia on Wednesday to raise money with her mother. Jenna’s debut came Friday when she accompanied the president on a bus tour through Pennsylvania. The sisters also work at the presi dent’s re-election headquarters in Arlington, Va., though campaign aides are vague about their roles. The president held Barbara’s hand as he left the White House Tuesday morn ing, personally escorting his 22-year-old daughter onto the campaign trail. Barbara said nothing publicly and tried to find her footing in the delicate choreography of a presidential event. She waited for her father to escort her up the steps of Air Force One as they left Andrews Air Force Base in the morn ing, and she stood at a respectful remove while Bush posed for photos in Minnesota with a member of the mili tary. Eventually, Bush gestured for her to step in and join them. The young woman, who recently graduated from Yale University, stood just behind her father at a rally in Michigan. She wore a stylish tan jacket and powder-blue pants through the day. “I love that you’re here, darlin’!” Bush said at their second campaign stop, in Duluth, Minn. Barbara and Jenna make a splash in August with a pictorial layout in Vogue magazine, posing in vivid hues of silk and satin. Barbara Bush said she want ed to be a participant in her father’s re election. “It’s not like he called me up and asked me,” Jenna said in the Vogue in terview. “They’ve never wanted to throw us into that world and I think our decision probably shocked them. But I love my dad and I think I’d regret it if I didn’t do this.” The president told the magazine: “The thing I’m most excited about is that I get to spend the last campaign of my life with two girls I love. It’s an experi ence we’ll be able to talk about for years to come.” The girls’ grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, writes them “very, very sweet letters,” Barbara told Vogue, “and now he’s into e-mail.” The former president has a com plaint, though: “It takes them a month to answer. They’re very naughty girls.” GEM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The university will contin ue mailing hard copies of im portant announcements to stu dents’ physical addresses. Officials say the transition to the new system will be com plete by Sept. 30. Blaney said the new system might soon make it possible to send personal messages to stu dents, including e-mails con taining confidential informa tion. She also predicts the sve> tern will increase the hUmber of official university commu nications sent to students as other offices see the benefits of contacting students via GEM. All incoming freshmen were briefed about the new system in orientation, Blaney said. She added that the regis trar’s office will soon make available a list of answers to frequently asked questions and the university will remind students of the changes through VIP. “This is just a way to make it easier for everybody to get those important messages,” said Kimberly Stewart, USC Computer Services public in formation coordinator. “We encourage students to check that GEM e-mail box at least once a week.” While all messages in a stu dent’s GEM inbox are auto matically deleted 30 days after receipt, students can perma nently save important e-mails to personal folders. For this, GEM allows users 10 megabytes of storage space. “If it’s not your favorite e mail account, fine, but you still need to check it,” Stewart said. Officials at Computer Services said GEM’s servers, which gave students login problems in the past, were up dated last fall and USC has moved to a new storage area network to alleviate long waits for Webmail access. Comments on this story? E mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu PHOTO BY MELISSA WALLACE/THE GAMECOCK USC will use an enhanced e-mail system to better assist students.