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Graduate students seek release from work ■ GRADS ways, get the best of both worlds. Continued from page 1 “I’m still kind of living the college life,” White said. He gets to study and work on a college campus, going for the right reason, though. doesn’t have a boss (although he has He said he hopes most students an adviser) and gets to interact with are in graduate school because they students. want to be there. For Laughlin, undergraduate “They want to learn. They want school was quite different. Laughlin to make themselves better,” said he had to play catch-up for the Laughlin said. “There are those who first two years of his master’s in are doing it just for a pay raise. You piano pedagogy, which worked into can always pick those out.” his doctorate, because of the band Not every graduate student’s focused curriculum of his alma experience is the same. However, mater, the University of North most will agree that the workload Alabama. Fortunately, he said, he is more rigorous than as an had an “absolutely fabulous” piano undergrad and often more than teacher, and that helped him get they expected. where he is today. “It’s a lot to balance,” said Elyn But don’t be fooled: USC grad Blackman, a first-year master’s students aren’t just behind desks or student in English and library confined to labs, practice rooms and science, noting the challenges of classrooms. managing coursework, life at home, White said he has to have an working for a professor and other outlet, something separate from the responsibilities. physics work that engrosses him Fully immersed in his studies at daily. For him, it’s music. Physics the physics department, White said student by day, White is a disc “you don’t have time to really do jockey on the side with weekend anything else” besides your graduate gigs and a weekly radio show on work. WUSC. “It’s something you have to get Blackman, too, has her own used to,” he said. In graduate WUSC radio show and was station school, “you have to be willing to manager as she completed her just drop most other things because undergraduate degree in philosophy you have to get the work done, or at USC last year, else they’ll drop you.” Laughlin takes a break from Yet, graduate students, in some music every now and then to serve a r——— tennis ball or two, although he said that when the school year starts up, he spends a lot less time on the court. “Oftentimes, people in graduate school have strong leadership skills,” said Christine Ebert, interim dean for USC’s graduate school. The graduate school puts on special programs to help encourage this leadership and also develop professionalism, including various workshops and meetings called “Friday Forums.” Graduate students can also get involved in an organization formed especially for them, the Graduate Student Association, and can be spotted around campus and Columbia in other organizations. Ebert said that although the exact numbers have yet to be counted, there are approximately 7,000 graduate students enrolled at USC, probably half of which are part-time. And, despite seeming overworked and underpaid, Laughlin, Blackman and White remain focused on the prize. Receiving his doctorate last spring, Laughlin returned to USC after being unable to land a university position. An uncertain future awaits him, but he continues looking ahead and looking for work. “I’ll start back up (applying) in September or October,” he said of the job search. Laughlin is versatile; when faced with unemployment this summer he took up construction work while teaching piano lessons on the side. Blackman, though just beginning her graduate work, hopes to be a librarian. And there will be no more detours for Ryan White. After enjoying a brief break from school, he’s now moving on to bigger ancf better things and hoping that he’ll get his degree within a few more years. But for White, the final result is well worth it. “The reward is really good. I’ll have a doctorate,” he said with a smile. “I’m a real scientist at that point.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews®gwm.sc. edu ALEXIS STRATTON/THE GAMECOCK Mark Laughlin has a doctorate in piano pedagogy from USC and has returned for his master’s in . Music Theory. "They want to learn. They want to make themselves better,” he said about graduate students. “There are those who are doing it just for a pay raise. You can always pick those out.” ■ GASTON Continued from page 1 officials said. Second-year economics student Andrew Imbeau was picking up his 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse from a repair shop in Charleston on Saturday after flood waters damaged it a few weeks ago. Imbeau, originally from Florence, had planned to spend some time at Folly Beach and enjoy dinner with friends at Applebee’s on James Island. But when he looked up from his plate of riblets and saw the forecast on TV Saturday evening, Imbeau’s plans changed. “There was a big tropical storm coming right at us,” he said. “I was like, ‘Check please.’” After taking a circuitous route around the city to 1-26, Imbeau and his friends were back in Columbia by about 10 p.m., he said. USC’s 2003-2004 Online Fact Book reports that, of 19,439 in state students enrolled at the Columbia campus last year, 1,822 came from Berkely, Charleston and Dorchester counties. Some students braved darkening skies and stayed in Charleston on Saturday night. Second-year criminal justice student Joseph Jacobsen was celebrating a friend’s 21st birthday on Coming Street in Charleston when Gaston made landfall early Sunday morning. Jacobsen, who grew up in Charleston, was unimpressed by Gaston, this season’s seventh named storm. “It was just a big thunderstorm, basically,” he said. “I slept through the biggest part of it.” Jacobsen added that the excitement of the coming storm may have added to the party’s mood. “People were pretty crazy last night,” he said. Jacobsen said the biggest inconvenience in the storm’s aftermath was snarled traffic. Utility trucks blocked traffic lanes Sunday afternoon, and strong winds knocked out stop lights all over the Lowcountry. Flooding in low-lying areas caused Charleston police to close some streets downtown. Like Jacobsen, many Charlestonians took the storm lightly, especially those who lived in the area when Hurricane Hugo brought 135 mph gusts in late September of 1989. Several took advantage of the cool weather and cloudy skies to run downtown. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockneivs@gwm.se. edu Welcome To Our New 2004 Pledge Class! Natasha Achberger Ashley Adams Rebeka Arrants Erin Blackmon Courtney Connell abeth Dunbar ^ sley Firestone Abbie Floyd Ashley Forchione Meghan Gilchrist Morgan Haynie Mary Ellen Hiller Whitney Jones Lassiter Keating Ryan Khandan-Baran Alyson LaVigne Charolotte Laird Abby Lavelle Laura Lebar Jennifer Leslie Ainie Mkjor Kelli Masters vJill Mateosv Crystal Matthews . Sarah Monteith Morgan Motley Amy Myers Abby Page Katie Platzbecker Ashton Pratt Elizabeth Probst Jessie Richards pififfWssi i Anna Smith i; Caroline Smith Connie Smith | Lauren Smith Marley Smith Taylor Sock Kendra Till Ashby Welch Caroline Welsh Allison Wilfong Sheila Wright We Love You! The Sisters of Alpha Delta Pi Where you can request your own blood and health tests without a doctor’s order. -*- We are Columbia's only direct lab test and health testing company supervised by a board-certified physician on site. How does it work? Visit our location and order from our extensive menu of blood test and health tests. Pay by credit card, check or cash. No health Insurance is accepted. Your blood is drawn on site. In two business days your results are sent confidentially in the mail after being reviewed by a licensed, board-certified physician. Other health tests are done on site. ♦""All lab and health tests from our center should be discussed with your physician**" ■ VOTING Continued from page 1 follow through and vote. “We can’t really make sure that students actually go out and vote, but registering to vote is a step in the right direction,” Rainey said. The student organizations on campus representing the two main political parties, the College Republicans and the Young Democrats, are planning registration drives as well as other activities to encourage students to participate in this year’s election. According to the College Republicans’ co-chairman Randy Dargan, the group wants to be the most visible political organization on campus. To ensure visibility, the College Republicans will be holding registration drives at every home football game this season, and the organization’s new elephant mascot will be parading around campus as members volunteer to wear the costume. Dargan said the Republican group is also working to help local Republican candidates by bringing them to campus to speak to students. According to Dargan, making the local candidates known and stressing their campaigns is imperative due to intensified competition of local politics. “A lot of local candidates are going to have tough local races,” Dargan said. Young Democrats President Katie Day said her organization would be holding voter registration drives on Sept. 7, 15 and 23 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The group will also have a table on the Pickens Street bridge Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. where students will be able to register to vote and learn more about the Young Democrats. Day said the Young Democrats are planning an event for late October to remind students that absentee ballots are due. On the day of the election, the organization will have a table set up in front of the Russell House to remind students to vote. Day said the Young Democrats are considering working with the College Republicans to speak to some of the University 101 classes about the importance of voting. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknevts@gwm.se. edu Oh lord, What Were They ThlnMngP Buy the DVD August 31st © 2004 Comedy Partners. All rights reserved. TM. ® & Copyright © 2004 by Paramount Pictures. AM rights reserved.