The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 28, 2005, Image 1
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28,2005
Students question efficiency of campus call boxes
By JON TURNER
NEWS EDITOR
With several Student Government
presidential candidates campaigning on
safety issues, the sufficiency and efficacy of
USC’s call-box system has been called into
question on multiple occasions.
“If I see one, it makes me feel like it’s nice
to have, but if I ever got into a situation
where I need one, I m not so sure it would
be right there,” said Leah Smith, a first-year
accounting student.
During his campaign, SG President-elect
Justin Williams promoted student
responsibility for campus safety issues. He
pointed out that the call boxes served several
purposes.
“They’re strategically placed so that you
can mash them as you run, and the police
can track where you’re going,” he said.
“Also, to a certain degree, they act as a
deterrent.”
Williams said he’d used a box once when
someone broke into his car.
“I think they are a good investment,” he
said. “They’re not just for when you’re in
trouble.”
Campus Safety Director Ernest Ellis
said the call boxes were far from the only
means the USC Police Department
employed to catch criminals at work
around campus.
“We do have regular uniformed patrols,”
he said. “We have bike patrol units.
Depending on the need, there may be
plainclothes officers on surveillance.”
Ellis said the department monitored
security cameras in several parking garages
“on a regular basis.”
Call-box placement, he said, was mainly
at the discretion of the campus safety
committee, but he said the system had
definitely grown during the last decade or
so.
Ellis said the average call-box response
time was about two to three minutes the last
time it was tested.
Smith said she wasn’t sure a panic button
would be much help in a crisis.
“I think someone could take me away in
45 seconds, before the police could get
there,” she said.
Smith said she generally felt safe around
campus, but she did make a point to walk
with company after dark.
“I never walk by myself,” she said.
USC has about 70 campus call boxes,
with a heavy concentration in the northeast
corner near the Horseshoe and Capstone
College. Boxes have also been placed as far
south as the Athletic Ticket Office off
Rosewood Drive and as far west as the
Colonial Center.
Williams said he doubted there was a
need to bulk up the present system.
“It’s easy to say we should expand them,”
he said, “but I don’t know if adding more
would be efficient.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu
Sj&f&yjips;
• Use the USC Campus and
Call Box Map to identify high
traffic and well-lit areas.
• Plan your route ahead of
time. Tell someone where you are
going and when to expect you.
• Know where emergency call
boxes are located and how to use
ttiem.
• Never walk alone at night.
• Plan ahead and park in a
well-lit place.
Source: 2003-2004 USC
Campus and Call Box Map
—-DEAN DIALOGUE- j
NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCK
Charles Bierbauer, right, dean of the College of Mass Communications
and Information Studies, watches students in the school’s newsroom.
College plans relocation
beyond Coliseum confines
By TAYLOR SMITH
STAFF WRITER
College of Mass Communications
and Information Studies Dean
Charles Bierbauer sees a bright future
for the school under the Coliseum.
Bierbauer began serving as dean in
July 2002, shortly after the merger of
the School of Library and
Information Science and the School
of Journalism and Mass
Communications.
“I think it has gone well in terms of
allowing the two schools to each
retain their identity and culture, while
at the same time realizing the points
they have in common and
opportunities the merger has created
for them,” Bierbauer said.
Bierbauer said one of the challenges
facing the newly merged college two
and a half years ago was effectively
combining and emphasizing the
identities of the two schools.
Budget cuts made the merger more
difficult, he said, but failed to disrupt
the process.
“It would have been easier to come
here as a dean and not have to go
through the merger and the new
^ budget system,” Bierbauer said. “On
™ the other hand, by all these things
happening at once, we really got a
fresh start.”
After successfully fulfilling his role
as coordinator of the merger,
Bierbauer said he and the college are
facing new challenges. He emphasized
the importance of collaboration with
other colleges to benefit the university
as a whole, citing partnerships with
scientific and healthcare fields.
Bierbauer said knowledge of mass
communication and information
distribution could contribute to any
student’s education.
Space is another challenge facing
the school, Bierbauer said, pointing
out that the dark rooms underneath
the Coliseum could be a discouraging
factor for students.
“I worked for nine years in the
basement of the White House, so I
can work without a window in here,
but there is a morale factor,”
Bierbauer said. “People are affected by
their surroundings. There is a reason
why the suicide rate in Finland is
higher in the winter when it is dark
and gloomy.”
With more than 1,500
undergraduate students admitted in
fall 2004, the college is large, but still
♦ Please see DEAN, page 3
IN THIS ISSUE
^ ♦THE MIX
‘Curse’ on the
box office
Christina Ricci stars in Wes
Craven and Kevin
Williamson’s new horror
flick ‘Cursed,’ which doesn’t
live up to ‘Scream’
potential.
Page 6
♦ SPORTS
Pearce, USC
pummel Niagara
The Gamecock baseball team
notches its third sweep in as
many series at home against
the Purple Eagles behind the
strong hitting of senior Steve
Pearce.
Page 8
FLORIDA 65, CAROLINA 66
CHARLIE DAVENPORTYTHE GAMECOCK .
Senior guard Josh Gonner kneels after what he said was the worst loss he has experienced since he has been at USC. The
Gamecocks lost by one point in the last minute of the game against the Florida Gators on Sunday. See Sports, page 8.
Syrian politicians
court U. S. favor
• Saddams half-brother captured by
Syrians, handed to Iraq in ‘goodwill
By TODD PITMAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi
officials said Sunday that Syria
captured and handed over
Saddam Hussein’s half brother,
a most-wanted leader in the
Sunni-based insurgency,
ending months of Syrian
denials that it was harboring
fugitives from the ousted
Saddam regime. Iraq
authorities said Damascus
acted in a gesture of goodwill.
Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan,
who shared a mother with
Saddam, was nabbed along
with 29 other fugitive members
of the former dictator’s Baath
Party in Hasakah in
northeastern Syria, 30 miles
from the Iraqi border, the
officials said on condition of
anonymity. The U.S. military
in Iraq had no immediate
comment.
Syria is under intense
pressure from the United
States, the United Nations,
France and Israel to drop its
support for radical groups in
the Middle East, to stop
harboring Iraqi fugitives and to
remove its troops from
Lebanon.
The capture of al-Hassan,
who was believed to be
operating from northern Syria
to help organise and finance
militants in Iraq, was the latest
in a series of arrests of
important insurgent figures
that the Iraqi government
hopes will deal a crushing blow
to violent opposition forces.
A week ago authorities
grabbed a key associate and the
driver of Jordanian-born terror
leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and
believed to be the inspiration of
the ongoing bombings,
beheadings and attacks on Iraqi
and American forces. Iraqi
officials said they expect to take
al-Zarqawi soon.
Iraqis welcomed news of al
Hassan’s capture.
“I hope all the terrorists will
be arrested soon and we can live
in peace,” said Safiya Nasser
Sood, a 54-year-old Baghdad
housewife. “Those criminals
deserve death for the crimes
they committed against the
Iraqi people.”
“I consider this day as a
victory for Iraqis,” said Adnan
al-Mousawi, a resident in
Mahmoudiya, south of
Baghdad. “By God’s will
Saddam will stand in court
with his officials and this will
be the end of the unjust
dictatorship.”
♦ Please see CAPTURE, page 3
• Opposition party representative to speak
on democracy, nations role in bombing
By SYDNEY SMITH
STAFF WRITER
A representative from the
Syrian opposition party will lead
a forum discussion encouraging
political change and democracy
in Syria at 7 p.m. in the Nursing
building 125.
The Professional Society of
International Studies and
Students Defending
Democracy will play host to the
discussion with Reform Party
President Farid Ghadry.
The groups also cooperated
to bring Iraq democracy
advocate Ali Ramadan to USC
last semester. The groups select
speakers whom they believe
support democracy and anti
terrorism to lead discussions.
Ghadry, a well-known activist
and native Syrian, often speaks
on Syrian and Middle Eastern
affairs on national and
international news programs,
like “Hardball.”
Syria is undergoing
investigation by the U.N.
following the Feb. 14 Beirut car
bombing that killed former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq
Hariri, a leading proponent of
change. U.S. leaders and Syrian
opposition party members have
strongly hinted at Syrian
involvement in the attack, but
Syria has denied aiding or
abetting terrorism.
U.S.-based democracy
supporters founded the Syrian
Reform Party as a result of the
September 11 terrorist attacks,
according to the Reform Party
of Syria Web site,
www.reformsyria.org. The
party’s leadership includes
second-generation Syrians from
Europe and the Americas, and
native Syrians who advocate a
peaceful, secular “New Syria”
that would “embrace
democratic and economic
reforms,” the site said.
Jeremiah Bush, of
Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies at USC, helped
bring Mr. Ghadry from his
home near Washington, D.C.,
to help involve USC students in
the Syrian democratization
effort.
Ghadry will discuss Syria’s
alleged role in the Hariri’s
assassination and accusations of
Syria’s support for the
insurgency in Iraq. He will also
address U.S. foreign policy
toward Syria and the larger
issue of democratic reform in
the Middle East. The forum is
not strictly formatted; rather,
Ghadry will allow the audience
to steer discussion. Last
semester’s discussion leaned
♦ Please see SPEAKER, page 3
- .. 1 www.dailygamecock.cbm ■ ' ■»