Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Animals no problem for USCPD By TAYLOR SMITH STAFF WRITER The USC police department faced a rare scenario with the seizure of a goat in the Greek Village this week. Despite the rarity of farm animals on campus, the USCPD has a policy in place to deal with them, director Ernest Ellis, said. Ellis said situations “that need that kind of care” are rare. Although Ellis never made mention of any other incident involving an animal the size of a goat, he said that if an officer were put in a situation where force was necessary, then it would be taken. “If an officer or a person were in danger,” Ellis said. “Then the officer may take steps to ensure that safety.” Ellis said that USCPD rarely has problems with students’ pets because of the school’s fish-only pet policy. “We have general public that comes through campus with pets, but they are on leashes,” Ellis said. “So it’s unusual that we have this problem.” He said USC’s law enforcement arm is capable of handling such an incident. “Our policies and procedure say that we will contact the appropriate shelters,” Ellis said. If a student loses a domesticated farm animal (or other large animal) on campus, Ellis said, they should, contact USC police about the status and location of the animal. “Anybody that made an inquiry, we would direct to the animal control or humane society,” Ellis said. USC police has a great relationship with the city’s animal services, Ellis said, TAYLOR SMITH /THE GAMECOCK USC police found this goat tied to the doorknob of Alpha Delta Pi’s house in the Greek Village. The animal was shivering and lying in its own feces. It was transported to an animal shelter off-campus. USC Police say they're rarely called to deal with animals on campus. but he would encourage students to keep their animals harnessed. “It is my understanding that animals on campus should be leashed,” Ellis said. “But when it comes to the policy of animals living in dorms, I would refer you to Housing.” USCPD does not have the capability to hold and care for large animals, so Ellis emphasized the reasoning behind the department’s procedure and policy. “Any time we are contacted, we will respond to the scene, and we will contact animal control because they know how to deal with those things,” Ellis said. Such was the situation with the goat and the Greek Village, he said. “Because of its conditions,” Ellis said. “The officers secured and removed the goat, where he received proper care.” Comments an this story? E-mail gamecockneivs@gwm.sc.edu Price isRighf for USC student By SOREN KORNEGAY THE GAMECOCK Laura Aboyan, come on down. Aboyan, a fourth-year public relations student, appeared Monday on “The Price Is Right,” a game show in which contestants drawn from a live audience compete to guess the retail costs of various products. Competing on the show had been a long-time dream for Aboyan, and that dream came true as she won several prizes worth thousands of dollars. A lifelong fan of “The Price is Right,” she went to California for a relative’s wedding and decided to make a short trip to Hollywood to view an episode taping firsthand. “When I got tickets to the show, everyone was telling me that I didn’t have a chance of getting selected,” Aboyan said. “I could not believe it when they called my name.” As she approached the stage, Aboyan came face-to-face with the man she had been watching since elementary school: Bob Barker. Since he first hosted the show in 1971, Barker has been a fixture on “The Price is Right,” and Aboyan was ecstatic to see him in person, she said. Her experience would only improve as she went on to bid on and win a digital camera. She advanced to win a 2005 Ford Ranger during her 15 minutes of fame. Her loss in the game’s final rounds did nothing to dim her enthusiasm for the experience, or for the prizes that will soon be hers. “It happened four days ago, but I still cannot believe it happened to me,” she said. Despite the whirlwind of excitement that has followed her since the show was taped, Aboyan is still a little nervous about the show, scheduled to air Feb. 24. “I hope I don’t look too goofy on national television,” she said. When asked if she had any regrets about her conduct on the show, which is famous for airing the exaggerated celebrations of winning contestants, Aboyan would only say that she was too conservative. “I should have kissed (Bob Barker),” she said. Comments on this story ? E-mail gamecockneirs@givm.sc. edu ■ PRESIDENT Continued from page 1 ♦ Steven Byrd, third-year political science and anthropology “I’m telling everyone I don’t have three things,” Byrd said. “Any good candidate has more than three things." Byrd said he favors installing safety cameras and improving lighting around campus. He supports building a new student health center. Regarding the size of the candidate pool, he said, “Anything that increases voter turnout, I’m in favor of.” ♦ Bill Daniel, third-year biology student Daniel wants to increase SG’s communication with students and create new student clubs, such as a Shag n.ih “We have all this money from student activity fees," he said. “Why don’t we put it toward (new clubs)?” Daniel said he thinks USC needs more police on foot and wants to feature an internship fair for all students. ♦ Randy Dargan, third-year hotel, restaurant and tourism management student Dargan said he considers his not being in Student Government a distinct advantage. His ideas include revamping safety by renting Personal Arm Devices — push-button alert systems that can locate students automatically in an emergency — and by providing an extension of the current shuttle system to get students home from Five Points and the Vista on peak party nights. “I feel my ideas are real enough and confident enough,” Dargan said. ♦ Preston Grisham, fourth-year public relations student Grisham said he wants to increase business partnerships with the university to provide more internships, co-ops and job shadowing opportunities. He also wants to implement a Grade Forgiveness Program so that students can repeat and replace a failed course within their major. “The power of Student Government is limited to dealing with student activity fees and dealing with the Board of Trustees,” Grisham said. He said he wouldn’t promise to build more parking garages but to perhaps I-- I TH#%AMECOCK Write for us. gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu . _ turn to private developers who could make them accessible to students. ♦ Ben Havird, third-year accounting student “Putting the right people in the right room” is the first step in alleviating parking and safety problems, Havird said. He also supports the College Summit program, which sends mentors into low-income communities to motivate students to go to college. He said he hopes the program would both make current students mentors and recruit future USC students. ♦ Yvonne Miller, fourth-year public relations student Miller could not be reached for comment Thursday. Last year, Miller defeated Mark McLawhorn in a runoff election for SG vice president. Miller garnered 65 percent of the vote in that race. ♦ Neal Truslow, third-year business management and marketing student Truslow said he thinks the student activity fee should roll over to the next semester if students don’t take advantage of the programs it covers. He also wants to add call boxes, improve lighting around campus and insure that students aren’t given more parking passes than there are spaces. “I hope that the fact that there are eight candidates will get groups who weren’t interested in Student Government more interested,” Truslow said. ♦ Justin Turner, third-year broadcast student Turner wants to give on-campus parking only to upperclassmen and to decrease tuition. “I will call every influential person in South Carolina and tell them this has to change,” he said. He also wants to promote new clubs on campus and strengthen communication with alumni. Turner has made his cell phone number available on his Web site, saying, “You can call me 24 hours a day. You can call me from Five Points. Tell me you’re having a good time.” ♦ Justin Williams, third-year public relations student Williams proposes making an SG class where officials can work and other students can become involved. He also said he wants student groups to participate in random nighttime campus walks with reflective vests and walkie-talkies to “serve as a deterrent for people who are hiding in the dark.” Williams said he hopes to provide free roadside assistance to students by increasing the price of a parking decal. He supports allowing students to take extra hours without extra cost. Comments on this story ? E-mail fftmecocknews@gwm.se. edit b'kinis 2499 waIRshorts 10.00 sandals §5.00-10.00 sand skate shoes $19.95 r“S?«I"»S™!eS2'8849 Mrs 10:00-7:00 mon-fri 1:00-5:00 Sun ■ HELPERS Continued from page 1 “I’m seeing more of the election process close up and what it takes to run a successful campaign,” she said. She said the most challenging part of running a campaign is finding new ways to get students aware of the issues. “Considering only 10 percent of students vote on campus, just finding new ways to advertise, to motivate students to vote,” she said. First-year business student Jack Ellis said he considers himself knowledgeable and experienced when it comes to politics and campaigns. He worked on his father’s congressional campaign and is a member of Freshman Council running for Student Senate. He is working on Preston’s campaign because he “figured it would be good to get some more experience under my belt. Tommy is a good guy, and I agree with his political stance of being treasurer.” He said the candidate sought his help on the campaign because of his past experience. “I can do pretty much all the odd jobs, and I’m interested in it.” He says that the most challenging aspect of working on a campaign is “actually getting volunteers to do what they say they’ll do. “If you can get a couple motivated people, that’s the best thing you can do to actually plan, have a strategy, do everything like that. Actually getting people who volunteer to put up your signs and take them down after the election is over with is actually something tough to do because everyone has their own stuff.” Ellis said campaign helpers aid a campaign immensely. “The candidate would lose immediately if it was just the candidate.” He said the best part of working on a campaign is that “you meet some interesting people along the way.” The campaign has given him a chance to explore the campus and bond with the other volunteers, he added. “There’s never a perfect campaign. There are always screw-ups, and little things that happen. And it’s just the experience,” he said. Ellis said on-campus campaign tactics range from posters and signs to wearing T-shirts supporting a candidate. He said if a candidate has about 20 friends, and they all walk around campus wearing the candidate’s T-shirt, the candidate is not only going to get votes from the people who got free shirts, but also from people around campus who notice the people wearing the shirts. “Some people who don’t even know who that campaign person is, they’ll vote for him just because they saw the name. Statistics prove, I think around 90 percent of people that don’t care about what politics are going on, they’ll just vote for whatever name they recognize the most,” Ellis said. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockneu's@gwm.sc. edu ■ IMBALANCE Continued from page 1 student, said he sees posters up around the engineering buildings advertising for Society of Women Engineers. The absence of women is noticeable in engineering courses, though. Smith said there are typically only three or four women in an engineering class of 30 students. He said females weren’t treated any differently than males in his classes. “It doesn’t really matter that girls are in any of your classes” Smith said. “Nobody is discriminating against the girls.” r : For Bigham, being in classes with mostly guys is a nice break from classes with a large number of women, she said. “It’s nice to have classes with guys because they don’t gossip as much as girls. There’s less drama,” she said. “At first I was worried that the guys would have formed their own social groups,” Bigham said. But now she said she feels like she is on a more equal plane with her male counterparts. “We study together and hang out” she said. Comments o?i this story? E-mail ga7ftecocknews@gwmje.edu -1 TH#S&AMECOCK Online five days . a week. Righteous. www. dailygamecock. com mmgmggggggggsgaggggggmggBSgggm mi mi—r ] . .~