Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

College gets money for AMBER training By ALBANY GAULT THE GAMECOCK USC’s College of Mass Communications and Information Studies has received a $200,000 grant to train law enforcement officials and broadcasters on the AMBER Alert system. The National AMBER alert training has 25 one-day training sessions August-October 2006. Training will take place at USC’s Newsplex facility. Law enforcement officials, television and radio broadcasters and AMBER Alert coordinators from all over the U.S. are coming to Newsplex for training. Featuring state-of-the-art multimedia equipment and an international partnership with the German media group Ifra, the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies describes Newsplex as a “prototype multi-media micro newsroom for demonstration, research and training in next generation news handling tools and techniques.” The objective is for individuals to be trained in various areas to work together using the system most effectively to get a child home safely. The most difficult time for a child is three hours after abduction, said Hugh Munn, a public relations professor in the CMCIS. Part of the training session will consist of child abduction scenarios where the trainees will work together through steps to find the best way to get the child home safely. Fifteen faculty and staff members are conducting the training, including Munn and Randy Covington, director of Newsplex. “USC is the best school to hold the training because we have the faculty with the training and there is no other place like the Newsplex in the country,” Munn said. Munn has also worked as the chief spokesman of the S.C. Law Enforcement Division for 24 years and has developed experience working with the media and law enforcement to find ways of making crisis communication more effective. Covington was unavailable for comment because he is overseas at the German Newsplex. Recently Newsplex played host to eight people, nicknamed the “working group,” who were shown an overview of the training session and responded with positive reviews and suggestions. The group consisted of a news director, a public information officer and a member of the S.C. Broadcasting Association. Before the actual training there will be a “dress rehearsal” Sept. 8, 2005, for local media and law enforcement to gather at Newsplex. The rehearsal will be a one-day training session on the AMBER Alert system lasting from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. AMBER stands for Americas Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. The system was created in 1997 as a remembrance of 9 year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockncws@gwm.sc.edu ■ ... Undergraduate Research Opportunity Professor Ron Prinz in the Psychology Department (in collaboration with Parenting and Family Research Center) is offering a two part undergraduate research opportunity for course credit and pay ($$). /Rising sophomores and juniors are invited to apply to enroll in Psychology 589, Intensive Observational Methodology, for the Fall 2005 semester. Students in the class that demonstrate proficient observational coding of parents interacting with their children will be invited to be a part of an NIH research team as paid observers. ■ WIRELESS Continued from page 1 Many individual networks, including those in the Close/Hipp Building, the Carolina Coliseum and LeConte College are not likely to coalesce into one unified wireless system by Aug. 14. “We’re trying to work with those colleges and departments so that we are one unified wireless network. Our goal is to make all that seamless so that you can get on with the same username, the same wireless and wire network,” Meyers said. The wireless status of the Greek Village might also be delayed. Meyers said that since the university does not technically own those individual buildings, it might take longer to get those independent sorority and fraternity organizations on the unified wireless track. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc edu ■ FUEL CELL Continued from page 1 of the city, as well as partnerships in the international arena, it is not just us talking about us.” The research campus is a reality, Coble‘said, and the city’s mission is to help fill it with companies and research opportunities that will benefit more than just USC or the city. Attracting new research minded entities will do more than create needed jobs in the midlands area, but also create a better opportunity for a breakthrough in several research areas. “We need to have the infrastructure in place so when the breakthrough occurs, the economy begins to breakthrough as well,” Coble said. “Let’s say the university hires a great professor that researches and produces a breakthrough technology. The university will give a patent to the company that it has formed and the company will produce a product and the wealth is created through that.” Coble said he feels justified in a hydrogen fuel cell push because this will hopefully create a new energy source that is more environment-friendly, less reliant on middle-eastern resources and endorsed by President Bush. Above all, he said he believes people are interested in the possibility of hydrogen fuel cells. Despite recent gains in the fuel cell effort, Pastides said he is not worried that other research efforts will fall to the wayside. “Do I worry about overwhelming other core strengths? No, Columbia is in catch-up mode, and I don’t think the coach goes out and says ‘I want to score a lot of runs tonight because I can save them,”’ Pastides said. “What you don’t want to do is leave the other disciplines behind, and you know if you need more space we will find more space down the road.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu