The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 21, 2005, Image 1
IN THIS ISSUE
♦ NEWS
Ukraine elects
new president
Former Prime Minister
Viktor Yushchenko will
become president Sunday,
having beaten a Kremlin
backed candidate and a
poisoned assassination
attempt.
Page3
♦VIEWPOINTS
IA chance to
get involved
Adam Beam says students
should get involved with
| USC’s many organizations,
f and that the organization
fair is a great place to start.
Page 4
♦ THE MIX
-As seen on TV
Learn more about the
current trend of TV shows
being released on DVD.
Pages
♦ SPORTS
Gamecock men
hit SEC road
The Gamecock Sports staff
previews Saturday’s crucial
game at Mississippi State.
Page 8
WEATHER
♦ TODAY ♦ SAT.
High 5 6 High 5 7
Low 33 Low 44
for extended forecast, see page 2.
INDEX
Comics and Crossword...7
Classifieds.10
Horoscopes.7
Letters to the Editor..4
Online Poll..4
Police Report..2
Six football players
charged with larceny
■ Pinkins, Newton
among athletes arrested
after Nov. 22 incident
By STEPHEN FASTENAU
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
USC announced Thursday that six
football players will be charged in
relation to the Nov. 22 theft of $18,000
worth of laptops, video
equipment and framed
photographs from Williams
Brice Stadium.
Senior offensive lineman
Woodly Telfort was charged
with grand larceny, which
alleges that he stole items
worth more than $1,000.
Sophomore quarterback
Syvelle Newton, seniors
quarterback Dondrial rinkins and
defensive lineman Freddy Saint-Preux,
and former student and linebacker
Rodriques Wilson were charged with
petit larceny.
USC officials said all computer and
video equipment had been returned.
The players were arrested Thursday
afternoon and attended an arraignment
Thursday evening, The Associated Press
reported.
Officials could not confirm that all
NEWTON
the stolen wall display items had been
returned.
Warrants were obtained and served
by the USC Law Enforcement and
Safety Division in partnership with the
S.C. Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
One additional player, whose name is
being withheld, will also be charged.
USC Athletic Director Mike McGee
said in a statement Thursday that
returning players charged would be
suspended from the team pending the
resolution of the
charges.
Telfort was
suspended prior to
the charges for his
involvement in the
thefts. Both
Telfort and Saint
Preux were already
suspended for the
season-opener for
their role in a season-ending brawl with
Clemson.
“USC Law .Enforcement has worked
with the athletics department during
this review and has determined that
charges will be filed against six of our
former or current student-athletes,”
McGee said. “Regrettably, a few of our
student-athletes made a very poor
decision during the course of a
frustrating situation, and they must now
face the consequences.”
The thefts took place shortly after
McGee told players that they would not
be attending a bowl game as a result of
the brawl. The athletics department
made an announcement soon after the
thefts that five of the stolen laptops had
been returned. The announcement later
proved to be false, a mistake McGee
took responsibility for.
“I appreciate Dr. McGee’s
acceptance of responsibility for the
initial report from the athletics
department that inaccurately
— reported that ail or the stolen
equipment had been
returned,” USC President
j Andrew Sorensen said in a
news release. “I feel the
actions we are taking are
H appropriate, and I look
forward to the final
disposition of the matter once
all student disciplinary
proceedings have been concluded.
The charges come on the heels of the
announcement Tuesday that McGee
will retire in June.
The investigation, led by Sorensen,
spanned nearly two months. Both Lou
Holtz’s retirement and new USC
football coach Steve Spurrier’s
subsequent hiring took place under the
cloud of the investigation.
♦ Please see THEFT, page 3
PINKINS
CHARLIE DAVENPORT/THE GAMECOCK
Dondrial Pinkins, a former team captain, was arrested Thursday in
connection with a November larceny at Williams-Brice Stadium.
EMILY WAGGONER/THE GAMECOCK
Ordinances state that drivers who park on lawns can be fined.
Officials toured Greene Street to remind students of the rules.
Officials caution
Five Points renters
to curb violations
By TAYLOR SMITH
STAFF WRITER
Columbia will hold USC students
living near Five Points to stricter
standards when it comes to loud music
and litter in yards, city officials said this
week.
Columbia Public Safety Inspector
Harold Reaves visited USC students on
Greene Street on Tuesday, but instead of
fining them for violations, he discussed
their rights as residents and the actions
they can take to protect those rights.
Reaves conducted “The Greene
Street Sweep,” with Student Life
Director Jerry Brewer, Student
Government President Zachery Scott
and Kathryn Fenner, a private practice
lawyer in Columbia.
“Basically the importance of the
Green Street Sweep is to educate the
residents of their responsibility and their
landlords’ responsibilities in keeping the
property presentable and the area safe,”
Scott, a fourth-year political science
student, said.
The two-hour tour of the Greene
Street area served as a time for the group
to pass out fliers warning residents of
city ordinances that new inhabitants
generally have problems with.
The flier named offenses such as
housing more than three unrelated
persons at once, litter in a resident’s
yard, and unreasonably loud noises or
music coming from a residence.
“My philosophy is that if I can keep
you from doing it, then it is easier than
coming out there and fining you,”
Reaves said. “These residents are part of
the university, but they are part of the
community as well.”
Fennejr said local landlords have been
known to prey on student-residents and
the living conditions of some of the
apartments do not match their costs.
Fenner, who lived on Greene Street
when she attended USC from 1977 to
1981, said the area was “pretty bad”
back then, but now, several ordinances
that were passed after significant
lobbying from her neighborhood
association have created a place that
“residents can be proud of.”
“We are trying to make sure that
everyone is safe,” Fenner said. “And you
might have gotten away with
(violations) in the past, but now they
can use this against you.”
Reaves said The Sweep is new for the
city, but said he hopes future events will
increase residents’ and students’
awareness. He emphasized that size will
help combat how well the transitory
college-age residents are informed of the
rules that apply in their new living
community.
“The people who live there year
round know who the safety officer is,”
Reaves said. “If we can educate them,
crime prevention techniques as well,
then everyone is better for it.”
The Sweep, Reaves said, was not
designed to appeal solely to residents.
He said Columbia is also working
closely with landlords.
“We are ^working with landlords to
make sure their properties are being kept
up to standards, and if we are finding
that the property owner is not keeping
the property up to standard, then we
will step in and make them,” Reaves
said.
Fenner said the neighborhood
association has gotten reports of
♦ Please.see ORDINANCE, page 3
3 6 Kappa Alpha members
reprimanded, official says
By TAYLOR SMITH
STAFF WRITER
A national official of the Kappa
Alpha Order fraternity has confirmed
that 36 members of about 70 at the
USC chapter were censured for policy
violations within the organization.
Todd Shelton, media-relations
officer for the fraternity, said K.A.
decided in December to reprimand
more than half of USC’s chapter for
violations of fraternity policy.
“Thirty-six were implicated, but
there were not 36 involved,” Shelton
said. “Some people were not
forthcoming (about violations), and
that is a violation in itself.”
Shelton flatly denied that any
hazing took place within the fraternity
last semester, but said a number of
K.A. fraternity members were placed
on an involuntary alumni status,
which prohibits them from
participating in any function of the
USC chapter.
Shelton said the violations “were
related to alcohol and misconduct”,
but that there was no underage
drinking and no subsequent
investigation by USC or Columbia
police departments.
“The violations were just ICA.
policy and would not have been
anything handled by someone else,”
Shelton said.
Although no one was expelled or
suspended for the incident, Shelton
said he would not go into the specific
violations because of “individual
privacy issues.”
Student Life Director Jerry Brewer
said his office, which oversees Greek
Life, has said that USC generally allows
national organizations like K.A. to
handle their own disciplinary policy,
“and unless it is a violation with the
school, we let them handle it. And like,
with this case, that is what we are
doing.”
Shelton emphasized that USC’s
K.A. chapter has incurred no other
disciplinary action against it in recent
years.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu
Readership program lacks funding
By SOREN KORNEGAY
THE GAMECOCK
Unless the USC Board of Trustees
raises Student Activity Fees $2 by next
semester, the school will no longer be
able to provide free New York Times,
USA Today and Wall Street Journal
newspapers.
Student Government’s
announcement came Wednesday after it
was determined that, without a new
source of funding, the school’s
newspaper program would be
discontinued. The program, known as
the Collegiate Readership Program, is
responsible for distributing free
newspapers to students at various
locations around campus.
Initially created two years ago using a
one-time financial surplus, the
newspaper readership program has been
in financial trouble for much of the past
year. The second year after its inception,
members of Student Government,
including President Zachery Scon, a
fourth-year political science student,
had to solicit donations from the deans
of various colleges within USC to make
the program financially possible.
Scon said he believes that without
the fee increase, an important part of
students’ education might be neglected.
“The purpose of the program is to
encourage students to become more
aware of current world events,” Scon
said. “Studies have shown that students
who are aware of current events are
more likely to vote or be engaged in the
political process.”
Many students agree that the free
newspapers are an important pan of
their day.
First-year business student Leize
Marie Baschon said she likes having the
papers around.
“It is definitely worth a $2 fee increase
to keep the newspaper program running,”
she said. “The paper is an important pan
of my morning routine, and when it is
free I read it far more often.”
First-year biology student Cale
Bonner said the free newspapers are
helpful and imponant but that their
distribution method could be improved.
♦ Please see PROGRAM, page 3
Surf club escapes landlocked city
By ALLYSON BIRD
THE GAMECOCK
Columbia isn’t renowned for its
great surfing, as it’s about 100 miles
from the coast. But that didn’t stop
about 60 USC students from forming
the new Carolina Surf Club this year.
Fourth-year English student Adam
Schaffer started the club as a way for
students to “meet each other and go
surfing and snowboarding for cheap
and party.”
The group on Thursday night held
its second meeting this semester to
discuss the plans and cost of its
snowboarding trip to Sugar Mountain
ski resort in North Carolina next
weekend. ^
“I don’t have $65. I’ve got to start
donating plasma really quick,” Schaffer
said, launching the group on a tangent
about the going rate for plasma
donations in Columbia.
The surf club is nearly evenly split
between men and women but not in
levels of experience.
“The majority has no idea how-to
surf,” said Schaffer, who has been
surfing since he was 11. “Even the
officers don’t know how to surf.”
Second-year computer science
student Eric Robbins has never surfed
but joined because his friends are
members.
“Why not? I can learn how to surf,”
he said.
And that’s the idea, Schaffer said.
Lessons are free, and all members who
tried to surf last semester learned.
The club made surfing trips to Folly
Beach, Cape Hatteras, N.C., and
Cocoa Beach/Sebastian’s Inlet, Fla.,
last semester. Each trip costs members
$30, including transportation and
lodging in beachfront houses.
The club’s sponsorship from Salty’s
in Five Points and fund-raisers help the
group afford the trips.
The group has held Greene Street
bake sales and helped with promotional
campaigns.
When Schaffer announced that the
Sugar Mountain cost does not include
food, a few members mentioned
pancakes.
The breakfast food became a Surf
♦ Please see SURF, page 3