Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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The University of South Carolina Vol 98, No. 92 • Since 1908 --—— - FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2005 - USC lobby begins push for funding P • State Student Association meets with legislators to discuss rising tuition costs BY JON TURNER NEWS EDITOR ; The newly formed South Carolina y State Student Association on Wednesday began its lobby for higher education funding. Students met with S.C. legislators before adjourning to a pie social reminiscent of the event’s theme, “Higher education wants a bigger piece of the pie.” “The first SCSSA lobbying campaign went amazingly well,” said Meghan Hughes, USC SCSSA liaison and a second-year public relations student, in a feiews release. “I couldn’t have asked for a more N| successful turnout,” she said. “We’re well on our way.” i ne oc.oo/'i delegation mciuaeu ujc Student Government Vice President Ryan Holt, Treasurer Tommy Preston, and, briefly, President Justin Williams. Preston, who made a USC lobbying effort a central plank of his February treasury campaign, also called the event a success. “This is the first time we’ve had a student-led effort of this magnitude,” Preston said Thursday. “Even today we’re receiving e-mails and calls from legislators and their staffs, who are just telling us how much they appreciate it and encouraging our involvement.” Preston said SCSSA had won support f* from several community leaders, including ' Richland Sen. John Courson, Lieutenant Gov. Andre Bauer and USC President Andrew Sorensen. “Sen. John Courson has been the main one that’s been in touch with us,” Preston said. “He made sure that we knew he supported us and that he was going to do everything in his power to make sure we got [ *e tesuutrag needed." Sorensen has also been an advocate of USC lobbying efforts, organizing a State House event earlier this year. “He said that it’s great to have university officials over(at the State House lobbying, but the greatest thing would be to have students over there, and we’re just taking heed of what he said,” Preston said. Preston said the event’s main goal was to found a USC presence at the capital. “The most important thing was just to go I there and make sure legislators knew students weren’t apathetic, and we wanted to make sure our voices were heard,” he said. ♦ LOBBY, page 5 SG legislation would require textbook lists By CHELSEA TITI FOR THE GAMECOCK A Student Government Senator has ^ proposed legislation asking that professors post textbook lists on Blackboard before classes start each semester. 1 “In 311 age of rising tuition cost, and rising room and board cost, it is only fair to give each and every student the right to a good deal and a fair price on textbooks,” said Sen. Adam ’iper, a third-year political science student. Piper proposed the legislation so bookstores and students would receive the textbook lists simultaneously. Piper said the legislation would help make it convenient for USC students because once they receive the book lists, they can begin comparing prices of various bookstores and Internet sites. Such a practice would help students purchase their books more cheaply, Piper said, saving students hundreds of dollars each semester. Piper said that because students would be able to view their book list before school starts, they would have time to shop for the best book deals. Princess Holman, a second-year political science student, said she wouid prefer to get her shopping out of the way. “I would rather have my books early, instead of waiting for school to start,” she said. “I already search for cheaper prices now. I go to Half.com,” she said. We need to make it easier to be a student and to be a successful student,” Piper said. He said the aim of the bill is “to make it easier financially and time-wise on students, to be able to buy their books and not have to ♦ BOOKS, page 5 NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCI (Left to right) Community organizer Jamaal Ferguson, S.C. Senator Joel Lourie, a democrat from Richland County and Josie Brown, a USC Law School professor, answer questions about the Put Parents in Charge Act being debated in the S.C. House of Representatives. Housing lifts ban on portable electric grills By KELLY CAVANAUGH ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR University Housing has approved an RHA resolution to legalizing George Foreman grills on campus beginning in the fall. “It thrills me to death that we were able to do something that makes a difference in the everyday lives of students on campus,” RHA President Terrill Wilkins said. Wilkins, a second-year history and political science student and former chairman of the Committee on Housing and Campus Concerns, said the idea for the policy change came from recurring requests during hall reviews conducted by the CHCC in previous semesters. “That was always something that came up, students asking ‘Why can’t we have a Foreman grill?”’ Wilkins said. Residence Life Director Tim Coley told Wilkins that the George Foreman grills were not banned because of safety concerns but rather annoyed roommates, Wilkins said. “They were getting complaints from the roommates to the grill owners and they were saying ‘Hey, my roommate has this grill, and he’s not cleaning it regularly and because of that we have bugs in our room,” he said. Wilkins said the committee researched the idea and did not feel banning the grills altogether was a reasonable solution. One argument in favor of the grills, he said, was that they are easier to clean and safer than the stoves provided in some campus apartments. Another was that they promote healthy eating among students. Zach Smith, a fourth-year grill, or have one and have been keeping it under wraps because of the housing policy,” he said. Former RHA President Adam Hark said he is “most pleased” with Housing taking RHA’s request into account. “I think this shows that RHA is by far the leading student organization in affecting policy changes at this university. I don’t think Student Government can always do that,” Hark said. Hark said he predicts students’ reactions will vary from apathetic to enthusiastic. “I don’t think anyone will be unhappy that Foreman grills are legal,” he said. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gam.sc. edu international studies student, said he thinks the legalization of George Foreman grills is “awesome.” “I’ll be cooking up a storm, I cooked some chicken up today, and I wish I could have used a Foreman grill,” Smith said. Smith said he plans to cook often next semester, and that he likes Foreman grills because they are convenient, cheap and easy. “Those Foreman grills, they pack a punch. They’re better than those s—ty stoves we have in Woodrow,” Smith said. “I think other students are going to realize the Foreman grill is a knockout.” Wilkins said he thinks students will like the rule change. “I personally know a good many people who want to purchase a Foreman NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCK USC Housing has lifted the ban on portable electric grills in dorm rooms. Students have been using the grills in their rooms despite limitations. Filmmaker to follow dreams to California By JONATHAN BENNETT FOR THE GAMECOCK Hollywood may soon be home for USC’s Pierce Cook, an avid filmmaker and director. Cook, a graduating media arts student, said he hopes to be accepted to a graduate school near Los Angeles to get closer to the movie industry and gain some real world experience. A life-long Irmo resident, Cook said he has wanted to make movies since fourth grade, when “Jurassic Park,” a movie about cloned dinosaurs that escape their cages and wreak havoc on an island, debuted. “I saw ‘Jurassic Park’ 20 times that summer,” Cook said. “I think even (Roger) Ebert has only seen a movie eight times.” Since then, Cook said, he hasn’t gone a day without thinking about movies. In sixth grade, Cook got his first camcorder and immediately made his first three movies, “Hamster Wars,” a parody of “Star Wars.” “They were pretty terrible, and too long. About five minutes each, it was just me, a hamster and a camcorder.” Cook said. Cook continued making movies starring his friends, although they often had to improvise special effects. “Since we did not have any way of adding music to our movies after we recorded them, I always had somebody running behind the camera with a huge PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Graduating media arts student Pierce Cook plans to go to the California Institute for the Arts to study film. boom box playing music,” Cook said. “They would press pause between scenes.” Cook said Steven Spielberg has had the most impact on his movie making, and calls some of his movies “Spielbergian adventure dramas,” mixtures of fast action and stirring emotions.. Cook has made more than 25 movies, including his latest and first feature length film, “Tin.” “It really started out as ipe just wanting to make a real movie, and I got together with the producer and the writer, we came up with an idea, a script, and made ‘Tin’ in just a few weeks time.” Cook said. “Tin” is about a young man released from prison after serving time for assault and his struggles picking up a life he violently left behind, Cook said. In 2002, one of Cook’s films, “Le Promenade,” a short movie about a man walking his toaster, was a finalist at the Toaster Film Festival, Cook said, where films must include a.toaster in some way. Cook said he hopes to get accepted to the California Institute for the Arts, one of the nation’s most prestigious film schools and alma mater of stars such as Steve Buscemi, Tim Burton and Benicio Del Toro. “Cal Arts has a very interpretive sort of film school. They let the director shape projects using his own imagination and direction,” Cook said. And coming from a school where Kathy Bates teaches theater helps one gain a certain amount of respect in the field, Cook said. Fame and fortune is not what Cook is looking for in Hollywood, he said. “Ten years from now, I’d like to be on a beach somewhere with a few movies under my belt,” Cook said. “I just can’t imagine having a day job.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockneavMgwm.se. edu ——' — www. aailygamecock. com . » 'i OPEN FORUM ADDRESSES EDUCATION • Students, faculty members, parents discuss Put Parents in Charge Act By TAYLOR SMITH STAFF WRITER Students, faculty, parents and a A legislator gathered at the Moore School of I Business on Thursday for an I informational forum discussing the I disadvantages of the Put Parents in ■ Charge Act, soon to reach the S.C. House i of Representatives. Organized by USC’s College of Social I Work, the forum was moderated by 1 Tanya Brown, a social work professor, and 3 featured a four-member panel who discussed the bill’s problems and answered t questions from the audience. The panel J was comprised of Josie Brown, a professor / in USC’s School of Law; Jamaal Ferguson, community organizer for Fair Share; Richard Miller, director of the S.C. Education Association; and S.C. Sen. Joel Lourie, D-Richland. After passing the House Ways and Means I Committee, the bill, which would provide tax credits for parents paying tuition to private schools, is expected meet resistance. “This is the most important debate on public education in our lifetime,” Lourie saiji. “Never in the history of our nation has a statewide program like this been proven to work.” The panelists argued the proposed legislation would hurt S.C. While Brown attacked the bill from a historical/legal perspective, Ferguson dealt with the issue from the perspective of his organization’s lower-income constituency. “I don’t know any low-income families that are willing to pay $10-, $11-, $12,000 for mition to a private school,” Ferguson said. “There is an array of problems they aren’t thinking about.” PPIC would operate on a dollar-per-dollar basis, in which money given to the Scholarship Granting Organization created by the new law would go to the private school of the donor’s choice. Miller argued that moneys diverted to the SGO’s will put more money in the hands of private schools but less in the hands of statewide agencies like law enforcement, hospitals and road repair. If implemented, the program would annually remove $250 million from the General Fund that sustains those programs, Miller said. “This is another activity of the ‘haves’ having more and the ‘have-nots’ having less,” Miller said. “This bill doesn’t do anything for the greater good.” The panel took questions from students and parents in the audience about how to ♦ FORUM, page 5 THIS ISSUE ♦ THE MIX Truckers deliver the goods A review of Southern rock jam-band Drive By Truckers’ energetic show at Headliners on Wednesday. Page 8 ♦ SPORTS Series slip USC's baseball team falls to the rival Clemson Tigers on Wednesday at Sarge Frye Field, evening the final season series tally to a 2-2 tie. Page 12 INDEX Comics & Crossword.. 10 Classifieds.. 13 Horoscopes. 10 Letters to the Editor.. 7 Online Poll.. 7 Police Report..;. 2