The University of South Carolina ^ _ _ . _ __ _ T . . _ _ _ _ VoL98,No.75 • Since 1908
1 MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2005 ......
Richter to head public health school
Search ends for Pastides’
™replacement afier two-year
interim, interview period
By TAYLOR SMITH
STAFF WRITER
USC named former interim dean
Donna Richter as the new dean of the
Arnold School of Public Health Thursday,
putting her in charge of the only school of
public health in South Carolina.
The search for a full-time dean started
in November 2003, when the school’s
previous dean, Harris Pastides, left to
become vice president for Research and
Health Sciences.
“Last year was difficult because he was
serving as dean and vice-president,” Richter
said. “And that is difficult for anyone.”
In December 2003, Richter began as
^Rnterim dean of the public health school.
She has been with the school almost the
entire 30 years since it was established.
“I have been at USC since 1974, so I
guess I am a long-term Gamecock,”
Richter said.
Since joining up in 1974, Richter served
as assistant dean of the school from 1983
to 1994 and also as chair of the school’s
department of Health Promotion,
Education and Behavior.
A recognized author of several books,
Richter is also an established researcher in
the prevention of infectious diseases,
including HIV and the health-related
needs of people living with HIV.
“Dr. Richter was identified during an
extensive national search,” Pastides said in a
USC news release. “The expertise and
^^leadership she has already demonstrated as
■^interim dean are key to our plans for the
♦ RICHTER, page 3
-,
USC police
report fight
involving RA
By JON TURNER
NEWS EDITOR
Last week police responded to a fight
involving Bates House resident advisor,
► former Student Government senator and
former SG treasurer candidate Jenna Cook.
Although the initial incident report by
USC police officer Christopher Knoche
categorized the incident as an assault upon
first-year public relations student Jared
Gleim, the individual report issued to Cook
and signed by officer Jesse Simmons listed
the offense as mutual combat.
Gleim refused to comment Sunday, but
Cook, a third-year biology student, said the
altercation had involved mutual combat.
Police took photos and statements. The
report mentioned visible injuries on Gleim
and that Cook appeared unharmed. Cook
said Gleim had been the first to strike, and
that she had only retaliated in self-defense.
“That wasn’t the situation,” she said. “I
was struck first, and I did go back the next
day, and it was just simply defense. 1 ran to
get away from the situation. It’s what
anyone would do if they vtere scared.”
Cook said Sunday she had discovered an
B injury when she woke up the next morning.
“I didn’t know my mouth was bleeding
until I woke up the next morning,” she said.
She said she didn’t understand the
discrepancy between the two reports, and
that “they understood that it was mutual.”
Neither Cook nor Gleim have pressed
charges.
During her SG treasurer campaign, Cook
advertised herself as more personable than
her competition. “I think I am more of a
people person, she said then.
Cook would not say how she and Gleim
began to fight.
“If I were dangerous to the university or
any of the students, we would already have
been removed,” she said.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu
Ik
NICK ESARESTHE GAMECOCK
Donna L. Richter was named dean of the Arnold School of Public Health. She had
been serving as the interim dean since December 2003.
• College looks to grants for financial solvency, to new
building to resolve space issues 30 years after founding
By TAYLOR SMITH
STAFF WRITER
After being named Thursday as the new
dean of the Arnold School of Public Health,
Donna Richter’s role in the school will be
slighdy changed, but her future goals for the
college will not.
Richter has worked in the public health
school since 1974, but has served as the
college’s interim dean since December
2003. She said the challenges facing the
school now are no different than those
facing the school then.
“We used to think we were young, but
with our 30-year anniversary, we are
maturing,” Richter said. “We are challenged
to ramp-up our research program and
understand our new budget system.”
The new system is still being “tweaked,”
Richter said, but it has affected graduate
students’ tuition payment. Until last year,
she said, both in-state and out-of-state
students paid in-state tuition and also
received monies for their research work
done.
“Things are a little shaky. The rules of
engagement have been changing,” Richter
said.
Although the public health school was
the first college of public health in the
nation to start an exercise science program,
Richter said research should be improved
regardless of budget strains. Although she
and the school have exhibited an exceptional
ability to win grants, having received grants
from the National Institute of Health and
gifts from the W.J. Kellogg Foundation
♦ DEAN, page 3
' KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK
The USC men’s basketball team fell in a disappointing 53-52 loss to the Ole Miss on Thursday in Atlanta, but now prepare to face Miami (Fla.) in the NIT.
♦ See the postseason basketball tournament insert for more details.
Hostage helps recapture Georgia courthouse escapee
By DANIEL YEE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — The hostage who helped
end the 26-hour manhunt for a man
accused of killing a judge and three others
had long talks with her captor during the
13 hours she was held in her own
apartment, police said Sunday.
Police wouldn’t release details about
the woman, describing her only as a white
female in her 20s to 30s, but they said
they were impressed by the way she
handled herself.
“She acted very cool and levelheaded.
We don’t normally see that in our
profession,” said Gwinnett County Police
Officer Darren Moloney.
“It was an absolutely best-case
scenario that happened, a complete
opposite of what you expected to
happen. We were prepared for the worst
and got the best.”
Suspect Brian Nichols, 33, surrendered
Saturday after waving a white towel to the
heavily armed SWAT team that had
gathered outside the woman’s apartment
building.
Nichols did not say anything when he
was arrested but was “very calm, very
compliant with officers’ directions to him
in securing his arrest. He was very
cooperative,” Gwinnett County Police
Chief Charles Walters said Sunday.
Nichols allegedly overpowered a
courthouse deputy escorting him to his
rape trial Friday and took the deputy’s
gun, then entered the courtroom where
his trial was being held and killed the
presiding judge and court reporter.
He also is accused of killing a deputy
who tried to stop him outside the
courthouse and a federal agent during his
flight from authorities.
Police say Nichols drove a stolen
vehicle to the woman’s Gwinnett County
apartment complex, which he may have
picked at random, approached her as she
was entering her apartment and
introduced himself as a wanted man.
He apparently told her, “If you do
what I say, I won’t kill you," Georgia
Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon
Keenan said.
The two had some “pretty in-depth
conversations” before the woman was able
♦ PRESSURE, page 8
JASON BRAVERMAN/THE GWINNETT DAILY POST
. A building at Bridgewater apartment complex in Duluth, Ga., where Brian
Nichols surrendered to police, is shown on Saturday. Nichols, a suspect in the
courthouse shootings of a judge and two other people, waved a white cloth and
surrendered to authorities Saturday, but not before police said he killed an
immigration agent and held a woman hostage for hours in her own apartment.
IN THIS ISSUE
♦ THE MIX
Dinner &
A Concert
Trevor Dunn, Shelly
Burgon and Kevin Green
perform a show with free
food from four restaurants.
Page 10
■ f
♦ SPORTS
Broomwork
The USC baseball team completed a !
two-game sweep of in-state rival
Clemson, defeating the Tigers on the
road Saturday and Sunday at home.
Page 13
r • r
INDEX
Comics & Crossword..12
Classifieds.14
Horoscopes.12
Letters to the Editor..9
Online Poll..9
Police Report..2
.. www.aaiiygamecock.com.. .. ~.
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