The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, December 03, 2004, Page 4, Image 4

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ARIANA CUBILLOS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The body of a park gardener James Hipolite, lies on the steps of a national monument near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday. Witnesses said the man was shot when U.N. troops fired in response to shooting near the palace as Powell was meeting with Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue on Wednesday. The body remained there a day after he was shot. Dozen killed in Haiti prison riot during Powell’s diplomatic visit By AMY BRACKEN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — U.N peacekeepers patrolled the streets of Haiti’s capital as gunfire rang out Thursday, a day after a prison riot and shootouts killed a dozen people and left scores injured during a visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell. City workers dragged the bullet-riddled body of park gardener James Hipolite, 24, from the steps of a national monument in front of the National Palace on Thursday morning. Witnesses said the man was shot the day before when U.N. troops fired in response to shooting near the palace after Powell met with Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue on Wednesday. Jordanian police working with U.N. troops fired several shots from the palace in response to shooting nearby, s'iid U.N. spokesman Toussaint Kongo Doudou. An investigation was being conducted into the gardener’s killing, Kongo Doudou said. “The situation of security? There is none,” said Ulrich Balthazar, a security guard at Independence Park who said he witnessed Wednesday’s shooting. “We’re demanding Latortue leave because he cannot lead the country. We need someone competent.” Latortue was named to head an interim government supported by the United States following a three-week rebellion that forced ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile on Feb. 29. Despite sporadic gunfire Thursday that wounded at least three people in different parts of the capital, merchants returned to the streets and business was running normally. U.N. peacekeepers patrolled streets on foot and in vehicles, and the entire 6,000-strong force was on alert for more violence. Wednesday’s bloodshed, likely orchestrated to coincide with Powell’s visit, underscored the daunting challenges confronting Latortue’s government, which has promised to hold elections late next year. More than 100 people have been killed in political violence since Sept. 30, when Aristide groups stepped up protests demanding his return. Tensions have also been mounting between the interim government and former soldiers who led the rebellion and want the reinstatement of the army, which they say Aristide illegally disbanded in 1994. They also want back pay and refuse to put down their arms. Latortue has accused Aristide of orchestrating the violence from exile in South Africa, a charge Aristide has denied. Aristide claims the United Stated forced him to leave the country, a claim U.S. officials deny. “They have to forcefully take on those armed individuals of the kind who were firing this morning,” Powell said late Wednesday before leaving the strife-torn country. Seven inmates were killed in a prison riot that broke out as Powell left the country late Wednesday, prison director Fritzner Pierre said. Armed with knives and rocks, they tried to break free as gunmen outside opened fire, said Pierre, who believed the disturbance was connected to plans to transfer some inmates. Pierre said the slain inmates were killed by other prisoners for refusing to go along with their escape plan. Many being held there are members of Aristide’s administration but there was no immediate information on the identities of those killed. Nor was it clear if any arrests had been made in the killings. The prison uprising came after shooting broke out in the Aristide stronghold of Bel Air, blocks away from the National Palace. Gunshots, including several long bursts of automatic fire, erupted in front of the palace shortly after Powell entered. A palace security official- said a shot was fired from a passing car, and U.N. forces guarding the palace returned fire. Balthazar said that was when the gardener was killed. In addition, five people were killed in shooting around Bel Air and scores were wounded, according to a count of bodies and patients at Port-au-Prince General Hospital. ■ DEANS Continued from page 1 where Donna Richter acts as interim dean. Sorensen and Vice President for Research Harris Pastides are expected to make an offer to a finalist in each search within the coming weeks. Becker is overseeing dean searches for both the South Carolina Honors College and School of Music, as deans Peter Sederberg and Jamal Rossi, respectfvely, have announced they will be leaving those positions in 2005. The provost will consult with Sorensen for final hiring decisions, as he did in hiring his first dean at USC, Mary Ann Fitzpatrick, who received the offer in September to lead the newly merged College of Arts and Sciences. She will begin her tenure in January. Hospitality, Retail and Sports Management College Dean Pat Moody, who is the chairwoman of the Social Work dean search committee, said she thinks the university’s process in recruiting and interviewing is intense. “Our goal is to find an excellent candidate as quickly as we can but to also do a very thorough job,” Moody said. Deans typically serve as the head of a dean search committee. The process at USC involves having the committee write a description of the person and his or her qualifications and goals who they would like to have fill a particular position. The description is circulated in academic journals like the “Chronicle on Higher Education,” and administrators use their personal contacts at other universities to get the word out that a position will be available for application. “It’s mostly done word of-mouth,” Becker said, adding that he found out about his job from a professional contact. Once applications are received, the search committee is in charge of finding which of the applicants could potentially fit the dean description and begins a vetting process. “We’re always open to nominations,” Moody said. “Certainly if faculty want to nominate potential candidates, we’ll be willing to review those.” Becker said the --- vetting process can be problematic because sitting deans at other universities might not want to let administrators at tneir universities know that they are thinking about leaving for a better offer, or at least a different offer. So committees often conduct private interviews away from both campuses. The committee then names three or four finalists to bring to campus to meet .■ i with students, faculty and administrators and to have faculty members evaluate them through an interview that typically lasts two full days. Becker said interview questions give candidates the best idea of what the vision of the administration is for the university and the specific college and that a —:- candidate gets the best perception of the strengths and weaknesses of the program. “I see this institution as taking academics very seriously ana leadership just as seriously,” he said, adding that growth initiatives like the research campus make any dean position at USC more appealing in what is a competitive process to attract top candidates nationally. Sorensen, with the help of recommendations from the search committee, then offers the job to one of the candidates. Officials say the process, which takes about six to nine months, is similar at all universities, except that some use private firms to seek potential candidates. USC rarely uses such methods. Becker said that when he chaired a search committee at his former university that a private firm was used and wound up choosing all candidates with whom he was familiar anyway. Deans choose to come and go from the position for many reasons. The public health school, for instance, is looking for a new dean because its last one, Harris Pastides, was offered his current job as USC’s vice president for research. “I think the thing that made me look at this job very seriously was that there were these obvious challenges and obvious opportunities in the field of education in South Carolina,” said College of Education Dean Les Sternberg, who came to USC from Bowling Green State University in 2000. He said the state’s position as struggling with equity and achievement in public schools weighed heavily on his decision because he knew the education college here would be providing a significant portion of the state’s qualified teachers. Sternberg, who serves on the pharmacy dean search committee, served under four presidents and six provosts in his six years at Bowling Green and said that turnover in the administration is OK because faculty-student relationships are what matter the most in a particular college. “I don’t think students would have any particular consternation over a dean leaving,” Sternberg said. “They might react to a large number of faculty leaving in a particular department or area because a dean leaves, but those cases are very rare.” Becker said he sees the changing dean situation as just another part of his job. “I don’t see dean searches as a bad thing,” he said. “It’s just part of the natural life of the university.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gam.sc.edu “I don’t see dean searches as a bad thing.” MARK BECKER use PROVOST, ON HIGH TURNOVER RATES IN ADMINISTRATION Save up to 58% with Collegiate Funding Student Loan Consolidation * Fixed Interest Rates as low as 2.875% * Lock in lowest fixed rate in history * No Fees or Credit Checks ‘ * Additional Savings While in Grace * Federal Parent Loans also qualify ■ DEAL Continued from page 1 funding through the U.S. Department of Defense and with that research, produced the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) project. King was a part of that research and after graduating from the incubator program, he started IDV as a subcontracting entity of VTB and then began transforming the technology capabilities to personal computers. “Actually, when the project started (in 1996) he brought in some key knowledge,” Dougal said. “That is the neat thing about this, there are a number of people participating here and this work has been going on for a number of years.” If the product does well, and King obviously believes it will, Lisa Rooney, the Director for the Intellectual Property Office, says the university and the students who are responsible for the development of the program oyer the past eight years are eligible to receive some of the proceeds. “Any revenue that comes in is divided among inventors,” Rooney said. “And some of the inventors are students and they will actually be seeing part of the revenue that I will be getting.” Some American universities hold significant licensing deals like tfie University of Florida and Gatorade, but Dougal feels that because this program currently has no consumer applications, large revenue may not be conceivable. “From the student perspective this is extremely exciting because they can get employed in South Carolina and work at a company like this,” Dougal said. “The things we are good at teaching are the areas they need employees so this is a great opportunity.” Determining who receives money though, may be a little more complicated than one inventor though, Dcugal says that because there have been so many students assisting with the program “it will be quite complicated to figure out” who gets money. The VTB project is still active at USC and Dougal said currently there are about 12 undergraduates and 30 graduates working to create new innovations for system design industry. “The thirty graduates students is the most in the engineering school and may be the most graduates in the entire university to work on one project,” Dougal said. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknesvs@gwm.sc. edu ■ SUMMIT Continued from page 1 of students,” he said. “But what’s happening, now, is more of those students are getting lost in the shuffle.” More and more talented students in need of significant financial aid are applying to out-of-state schools, Pruitt said. “One of our goals is to keep that — intellectual capital — bright students — even if they are poor students. That’s why we’re looking at this program, because we knew we needed to do more for this kind of student.” Scott was among representatives from USC who worked with College Summit over the summer. “I thought this would work great with USC,” he said. “They flew me out to Denver to work with a delegation of students from South Carolina.” Scott said attending College Summit convinced him of the program’s effectiveness. “Whenever you send a kid to college you have, in a sense, broken that poverty line, so hopefully their children will go to college, and their children’s children will go to college,” he said. “That’s how you fix a community.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknet!s®givm.sc. edu ■ FUND Continued from page 1 USC President Andrew Sorensen has been a spokesman for the program since his first year at the university. He said he is consistently impressed with how much money the Family Fund network of supporters has been able to procure. “The generosity of our faculty and staff is unprecedented,” Sorensen said. USC falls below the national average in faculty member pay and is roughly equivalent to the national average for public universities. Mauer said most universities with similar programs usually target $100,000 to $200,000 a year as a suitable goal. She said USC has 25 departments with 100 percent participation, nearly doubling the 13 at this time last year, and has 85 departments with increased participation from previous years. The theme for the campaign is “Be a Part of the Tradition” with that tradition of solid fundraising extending to the alumni. With more than 210,000 living alumni, USC ranks ninth nationally among public schools in percent of alumni who donate annually and tops Clemson’s endowment by a market value of nearly $100 million. Mauer said she sees faculty and staff members getting energized by the campaign through the weekly departmental updates that her office circulates. “It’s about understanding where Carolina is right now and where it can go from here,” Mauer said about the key to increasing participation. The development office promotes the campaign just like alumni campaigns by sending solicitation brochures to all departments, including nonacademic ones. Regional campuses also participate in the Family Fund campaigns. Comments on this story? E-mail ^_ | SAVE AN ADDITIONAL j ! 1.25%* ! | ON YOUR STUDENT LOAN j | INTEREST RATE j Reference Promo Code: NDEC04 *.25% rate reduction with set-up of automatic payments. ■ 1 % rate reduction available after 36 months of on-time repayment. ■ __ _ _ _ _ ___ __ __ _ _ MU. _ ... _ 1-800-918-7587 WWW.CQLLEG1ATEFUNDING.COM 2910 Devine Street 254-7900 Solving Problems Including: DU1 Criminal Defense Auto Accidents Cromer Law Offices A General Practice ol Law J.L. 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