The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 07, 2005, Image 1
The University of South Carolina Wednesday, September 7,2005 " VoL 99, No. 13 • Since 1908
---*
Friends, fellow riders remember fallen student
Jason Reynolds
FOR THE GAMECOCK
Friends and teammates of fourth
year art student Dylan Mitchell were
mystified Saturday when he never
arrived at the Horseshoe for an
afternoon bike ride he’d planned. Not
until several hours later did they receive
news of Mitchell’s death.
Mitchell died Friday after doing
the thing he lived for the most.
Riding home after a group bike ride,
a 2003 Pontiac Vibe collided with
the real of Mitchell's bicycle around
8:40 p.m.
fhe 21-year old Fort Mill native
died around 9 p.m. at Richland
Hospital.
Friends remember Mitchell as a free
spirit, an impressive artist and an avid
cyclist. Mitchell joined USC’s cycling
club and eventually served as the club’s
Webmaster and secretary.
No matter what the situation,
former president of the Carolina
Cycling Club and USC alumna
Stephanie Lareau said her friend was
persistently upbeat and free spirited.
“Dylan was the person we could
always count on to lighten the mood,”
she said. “He lived life to the fullest.
Whether spending hours on his bike
or hours working on his art, Dylan was
happy. He always had the most
random away messages that would
bring a smile to your face.”
Mitchell came to USC as a
mountain biker but quickly converted
into a road cyclist.
Phillip Hare, president of the
Carolina Cycling Club, met Mitchell
in spring 2004. Mitchell quickly
spiked from the designation of a Cat
5 cyclist to the nearly pro level of Cat
2.
“To do that in less than a year is
pretty amazing,” Hare said. “Not only
do you have to do a lot of racing, but
you have to have good results in those
races to move up that fast.”
After reaching Cal 2 last month,
friends said Mitchell’s hard work and
dedication to his sport quickly lead to
a sponsorship, riding for the John
Deere Team.
“Most of us were taking 15-20
hours of classes, but Dylan spent 15
20 hours training on his bicycle,” Hare
said.
Using his artistic sensibilities,
Mitchell even painted the rims of his
sunglasses bright green and yellow to
match his John Deere racing
uniform, and fashioned his own
bike.
“Dylan had just constructed the
coolest campus bike to ride to ahd
from his apartment,” Lareau said.
“Using parts from old bikes and his
keen sense of design, he created the
ultimate campus bike.”
“You never new what he was going
to do next,” Hare said of Mitchell’s
IMTCHELl# 8
Special to THB GAMECOCK
Dylan Mitchell, a member of USC's
cycling club, died Friday. He was 21.
MUSIC
DEAN
SETTLES
INTO ROLE
Tayloe Harding holds high
hopes, plans for 25th best
public music school
Sydney Smith
FOR THE GAMECOCK
On July 1, 2005, Tayloe Harding
began his new job as dean of USC’s
School of Music with high hopes and
detailed plans, leaving his old job at
Valdosta University.
Harding identified his three major
goals.
The music school is already around
the 25th best music school at a public
institution in America, he said.
One of his tasks is to make sure
that everyone who supports the
school is aware of its school’s
standings.
Harding said he wants to make sure
the school is well-connected with the
Columbia community.
He sees the need to “make
programs we already have more
sensitive to the needs of the people of
Columbia and the Midlands
communities.”
Harding said he seeks to better
communications between the school
and everyone else, from the whole
university to the whole country.
Dcnn«8
INSIDE
Viewpoints
Tom Benning discusses his eye
opening trip to flood-ravaged
states and his new take on cam
pus ‘problems'; Steven Van
Haren says axing freshman park
ing would ease the pinch.
n
il
The Mix
Curtain call
USCs Workshop Theatre
begins another season as one
of Columbia’s premier, non-prof
it community acting troupes.
5
Sports
Odom’s return
USe men’s basketball coach
discusses his time in Kuwait
during Operation Hardwood.
AshUigh Quick/THE GAMECOCK
USC President Andrew Sorensen speaks with volunteers and hurricane evacuees in the Naval Reserve Center on Tuesday.
Evacuees find shelter, help
Naval Reserve building,
area churches house
New Orleans natives
Gina Uasselli
FOR THE GAMECOCK •
Some evacuees from Louisiana have
a new home in South Carolina: the
Naval Reserve building on the corner
of Pickens and Blossom streets.
“The people who are here today are
people who got here by their own
means,” said Ginger Crocker, manager
of the reception center. “The Brooklyn
Baptist Church has been taking care of
them and brought them here to
register with the Red Cross”.
Pamela Smith, from New Orleans,
drove here with some of her family
once they decided to evacuate, but not
realizing the magnitude of the
hurricane, did not pack anything.
“I’m out there with just the clothes
on my back and my purse,” Smith
said.
She and her family were turned
around at the Mississippi Bridge and
were forced to endure long hours in
traffic and few rest stops. After a day
and a half they arrived at her sister
Rolanda’s house in Columbia.
As far as Smith knows, her and her
mother’s house are completely
underwater and have been that way for
days.
She said she is thankful that she was
able to get in contact with the other
members of her family who went
elsewhere to get out of Katrina’s path.
“We talked to the last one who was
missing from our side of the family
this morning,” Smith said.
Smith said that despite having her
family safe, “I think I’m having a
nervous breakdown, I just haven’t
identified it yet.
“I’m having problems sleeping ... I
think it’s the uncertainty,” Smith said.
“We have no idea when we’ll be able to
go home. I just want to go home. I just
want to go home.”
William Young, a New Orleans
evacuee, said, “I’m still so homesick,
but I couldn’t think of a better place to
evacuate to.”
Young said he endured a 24-hour
drive with members of his family —
including his wife, who is a week
overdue — to get to South Carolina to
stay with his brother.
He hasn’t had a chance to call
anyone there to find out how their
house stood up against Katrina but he
was concerned because “we had just
finished the nursery.”
Despite not knowing when he will
be able to go home and having
brought very little with them, Young
said they have almost everything they
need.
Young said he went into a K-Mart
in Columbia and was talking with a
woman about everything he and his
family had gone through. She
proceeded to help him get food and
clothes for his expected baby and
family. She also contacted him the
next day and got his wife an
SHELTER • 6
COMING
HOME TO
RUBBLE,
. RUIN
Gulf Coast residents
struggle to accept
hurricane destruction
flllyson Bird
FOR THE GAMECOCK
BILOXI, Miss. — Her friends want
her to name the baby Katrina, but as
Wendy Bryant stands — arms
akimbo, belly swollen — in front of
the pile that used to be her parents’
Victorian rental home, she says no
way.
The pile between the tree with the
tin stuck in its blanches and the
wooden board against the power line
— that’s her own home and office.
Bryant lived on Howard Avenue,
just off the shore where barnacle
bottomed casino barges wound up
inplace of now-gone beachfront
homes. Blue spray paint marks the
side of one tall building: “Thank you
Biloxi Fire Police Department. Mom
we’re OK.”
Just down from Bryants property,
city workers wait for a bus to take
them to the police station for another
round of cleanup. Saturday is the fifth
day of this, and they’re jaded.
“Don’t listen to the T.V. about the
body count,” says a man named Sam,
pointing to a funeral home parking lot
across the street. “Those three white
refrigerator trucks are filled with
bodies.”
Bryant points to where bodies
turned up near her house. She wears
her long brown hair in a ponytail and
a gold cross around her neck. She’s
thankful she fled to her sister’s home
in Wool Market, knowing the low
barometric pressure from the
hurricane would’ve sent her into early
labor.
Three of her family members sift
through her parents’ rubble. They had
RUBBLE • 6
Hyman explains ‘4-strike* athletics department policy
Stephen Demedis
FOR THE OAMECOCK
When USC’s Athletics Department
unveiled its new drug policy in mid
August, some within the university
community skeptically received the
plan.
Critics of the new plan viewed the
increase in the number of “strikes” an
athlete could receive in drug testing
from two to four as an unethical
method of keeping star athletes on the
playing field.
Before the change, after one failed
test, student-athletes were given a
warning and were then dismissed after
the second violation.
When Eric Hyman arrived in
Columbia as athletics director, plans to
revise the policy were already in
motion. After review, Hyman found
that the two-strike policy left little
room for assistance for athletes.
“I found the two strike policy to be
too restrictive,” Hyman said. “I am
here to do what’s best for the student
athletes at Carolina. I want to give
them the support and the help that
they need. I want to make a
difference in their lives, so that they
can see the value of living a clean
life.”
The new plan allows for punitive
and educational measures to be
implemented with each failed drug
test. After the first failed test, the
athlete receives a warning and is forced
www. dailygamecock. com
to attend mandatory counseling
sessions.
A second failed test results in a
suspension for 25 percent of the
season, and a third failure merits a
365-day suspension. At anytime
during the process, a coach can opt to
dismiss the athlete.
After the first strike, the athlete is
tested every seven to 10 days for a
year.
Hyman said the plan not only
allows educating athletes about the
harmful effects of drug use, but also
provides athletes a way out of illegal
drug use.
“The policy is just not educational
and punitive, but it is also
preventative,” Hyman said. “Drug
testing gives them a reason to say no.
Ultimately, I want to help them by
giving them a valid reason to say, ‘I
can’t do it,’ because they might be
tested.”
USC athletics’ new policy is similar
to policies set forth by USC through
the Office of Student Affairs.
“The university’s first obligation in
dealing with drug problems is to
educate the university community,”
the policy says.
While the university does not
conduct random drug tests on
students, the Office of Student Judicial
Programs has devised punitive
programs that include possible
POLICY • 8