The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 23, 2005, Image 1
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY23, 2005 ......n,.,., ,,--.-'.
Errors confound mail system
• USC postal officials
| blame US. mail system
for late deliveries
By WES WOLFE
THE GAMECOCK
USC postal services personnel say
late mail delivery results from flaws
within the greater postal system, not
from any particular fault of the USC
branch.
The problem, Assistant Postal
Services Director Garland Jackson
said, is random mistakes within the
federal postal system.
“There’s rejly no rhyme or reason
to how the date -— to how it’s delayed
within the system,’ Jackson said.
“Things may come in the next day,
and some days it may be a week to
come in, or it gets hung up, or it gets
| missorted or misdirected to another
location.”
When letters and packages arrive
in the central USC processing facility,
they are sorted and carted to the
Russell House for distribution among
student mailboxes. On Friday,
according to Interim Postal Services
Director Scott Reynolds, all student
mail reached its destination by 10:30
a.m.
Reynolds said the US Postal
Service claims a 94 percent success
rate delivering mail in three days.
T I III
airport and it off-loads. But if it’s
coming from a small town in South
Carolina it travels by truck to
wherever.”
Reynolds agreed that mail that
comes from further away can arrive
faster than in-state parcels.
“That’s the irony of the thing.
Sometimes you’ll get stuff from New
\r _ I
JdLIUUU dUUtU
that mail
within the
state should be
delivered by
the next day,
but that such
prompt
delivery may
be an
impossible
goal, since it
has to travel by
In most cases you’re
going to find that out
of-state material
arrives quicker than
in-state.
GARLAND JACKSON
ASSISTANT POSTAL SERVICES DIRECTOR
quicker,”
Reynolds said.
There are
several
problems that
could cause
mail to be late
to student
P.O. boxes
beyond
■ normal
transportation
road.
“In most cases you’re going to find
that out-of-state material arrives
quicker than in-state,” Jackson said.
“Say, for instance if stuff coming in
from New York coming into
Columbia goes direct from airport to
time. ror
instance, the person sending the mail
could fail to address it properly,
leaving an incomplete post office box
number or the wrong zip code.
“A lot of the problem is that
parents and relatives and friends,
when they’re writing to students on
campus a lot of times, do not put the
exact address,” Jackson said. “So if
they don’t address it T400 Greene
St., a student P.O. Box’ — with that
on it — it can be confusing and get
misdirected. Some of it goes into the
city instead of coming here to us.”
One piece of mail took nine days
to get from Aiken to USC. The issue
was the way it was addressed, Jackson
said.
“Obviously whoever wrote this put
the post office box on the bottom and
when they zipped this it may have
read that zip as the five digits instead
of the 29225.”
Still, sometimes the mail will arrive
late, even when everything is
supposed to work like clockwork.
“Here’s one — six days from
Plantation, Fla., and it’s absolutely
right,” Reynolds said. “It has the right
zip, the P.O. box numbers,
everything’s correct on it, but it took
six days to come from Florida.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockneivs@gtvm.se. edu
NORA ELKIN/THE GAMECOCK
Ryan Herald, a third-year economics student, checks his
mailbox in the Russell House post office.
A GOOD CAUSE _
CHRIS LIVINGSTON/THE GAMECOCK
First-year chemical engineering student Chris Robbins gives a blood sample to determine his compatability in the Delta Zeta sponsored bone
marrow drive. Robbins is accompanied by DZ member Shannon Murphy, a second-year exercise student. The drive drew 325 for testing.
Marrow drive draws 325
Delta Zeta sorority\ American Red Cross unite to help student
By JON TURNER
NEWS EDITOR
More than 300 students gave
blood Tuesday for marrow tests,
surprising members of the
American Red Cross and Delta Zeta
sorority who arranged and operated
the drive on behalf of third-year
psychology student Caroline Terry,
who suffers from leukemia.
Terry needs a marrow transplant
to finally rid herself of the leukemia
driven into remission by heavy
chemotherapy, but first she must
find a donor, a daunting task when
the chances of an individual match
are about one in 20,000.
Organizers had only planned for
about 100 tests Tuesday, and they
quickly found themselves swamped
with hundreds of volunteers.
Students lounged about the third
floor of the Russell House for as
long as two hours, killing time
III TUI#* l#K»lll> .
during the peak of participation.
The drive received so many
volunteers that it ran out of
supplies, forcing it to close an hour
and a half early.
“It was hard to turn people
away,” said Christi Woodham, a
fourth-year cardiovascular
technology student and DZ
member.
Woodham said the turnout had
been encouraging and that DZ
would probably organize another
drive mid-March.
“It was good,” she said. “We’re
extremely tired and worn out, but
we’re happy to have had so many
people.”
Third-year English student and
DZ member Amber Cheek said
she had never anticipated such
support from the USC student
body.
“We didn’t have snough
brochures,” she said. “We had to go
back to the American Red Cross to
get more brochures. And we ran out
of supplies. We had to get more
supplies. Juice. We ran out sf juice.
We ran out of everything, and we
-were just constantly running
around, trying to piece things
together.” .
Cheek said Cocky had played a
major role in the drive’s success,
literally pulling students in off the
street for testing.
“People don’t care as long as
Cocky is there,” she said. “He
helped us a lot, and then Dr.
Sorensen actually showed up, and
people wondered, ‘What’s going
on, why is Dr. Sorensen at that
table?”’
The drive eventually tested 325
people and accepted about $200 in
donations. The testing was
expensive, though. The American
Red Cross pays for some, but it
enforces a strict one-to-one
minority-to-Caucasian ratio. Only
about 100 of the 325 people tested
were minorities, leaving DZ with
bills of $65 for each of the 125
disproportionate tests. Any
donations they can collect will go
toward paying those costs.
Third-year business student
Katie Brennan was among the
students who volunteered to be
tested Tuesday.
“I give blood a lot, and I know
it’s a one-in-a-million chance, but
wouldn’t it be cool if I were a
match?” she asked.
Brennan said she had never met
Terry, but that she was happy to
help out any way she could.
Terry, a third-year psychology
student, finished a light dose of
chemotherapy Wednesday as
preparation for a possible marrow
transplant. She said people had
been calling her all day.
“It makes me happy,” she said.
Comments on this story ? E-mail
gamecocknews@giDm.sc.edu
Officials ponder
USC honor code
By TAYLOR SMITH
STAFF WRITER
USC officials are
working to discourage
cheating with a new, legally
binding, academic honor
code.
Dennis Pruitt, vice
president for student affairs,
is collaborating with several
experts on academic
integrity to develop an
academic honor code for
USC that would be
enforced by university
officials and students alike.
“The leap from (the
current system) to the
honor code could be
substantial,” Pruitt said.
i ■ .. 1
“And we need to work on
being sure that faculty and
students want that or a
modified version.”
Schools like West Point
and the U.S. Naval
Academy have historic
honor codes, Pruitt said,
and if there are violations,
then expulsion follows
shortly thereafter.
“The problem is that
even places with well-known
honor codes like the Naval
Academy and West Point
have dealt with scandals,”
Pruitt said. “So there are a
lot of things to look out for.”
USC already has a social
♦ Please see CODE, page 4
.. "■. " i
DEAN DIALOGUE
NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCK
Mary Ann Parsons, dean of the nursing school, looks
at a promotional brochure for the college’s program.
Parsons to leave
with confidence
By TAYLOR SMITH
STAFF WRITER
After leading the
College of Nursing for
almost 15 years, Mary Ann
Parsons will soon be
leaving, but she has faith
that the university will find
a talented successor.
As Dean of the College
of Nursing, Parsons has
seen increased attendance,
collapsing budgets and
three university presidents
since 1990, but she believes
-- ■ »
the creation of the South
Carolina Health Sciences
division will benefit the
college more than any
other change.
“There was a lot of hard
work and creativity in the
’90s,” Parsons said. “We
faced a lot of budget cuts,
so that was tough, but we
have gotten here.”
The new dean will face
some challenges, Parson
said, including filling some
♦ Please see PARSONS, page 4
i«* mig iooui. -
♦ THE MIX
When Irish eyes
are crying
The sober depiction of Irish
life, ‘Dancing at Lughnasa,’
will open Friday at Longstreet
Theatre.
Page 10
♦ SPORTS
Once, Trice, three
times a Gamecock
The Gamecock explores the other half
of Rocky Trice, a junior forward on the
men’s basketball team.
Page 13
INDEX
Comics & Crossword..12
Classifieds..15
Horoscopes.12
Letters to the Editor..9
Online Poll..9
Police Report..2
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