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The University of South Carolina Friday, September23, 2005 VoL 99, No. 20 • Since 1908
Students up in arms over Facebook group
Cries of racism surround
USC student’s posting
that references 'Negroes’
Stephen Fastenau
NEWS EDITOR
Several USC students have become
angered in the past week over a group
on the popular Web site
thefacebook.cdm that they believe is
racist.
The group, titled “Northerners
Dress Like the Negroes Do,” came
under attack by several students, black
k and white alike, as a war of words took
^ place on the group’s message board.
Fourth-year marketing student
Kevin Ekman, the group’s founder,
said he created the group in response
to a group criticizing the way
Southerners dress.
The name of the group originall
included the term “coloreds,” bti
Ekman said he changed it after bein
threatened by numerous peopl
through Facebook’s messaging systerr
“I didn’t really think it was racist,
Ekman said. “It was more going aftt
Northern people. I wasn’t out there t
get black people. I mean, I guess
could have chosen a better word t
use.
Third-year retail student Chiquit
Martin, who sent messages to Ekma
asking him to change the group
name, said she wouldn’t have ha
much of a problem if Ekman’s wor
choice had been different.
“Those two words (negroes an
coloreds) I got really offended b
because I can’t believe somebody in th
year 2005 still uses those terms,
Martin said. “I was kind of ofifende
by the whole name and description of
Y the group. If it had, like, black people
t or African-American people, it would
5 have been different. I wouldn’t have
e took it offensive, ‘cause it’s just
somebody’s opinion.”
Third-year political science student
r, Grant Smaldone, who is white, posted
3 a message Sunday inquiring why the
I name of the group had been changed
3 from “coloreds” to “negroes.” He also
rebutted a previous post in which the
a term “cracker” had been used to
a describe the founder of the group,
s His statement drew three other
i responses, two opposed to the group
I and one in favor.
“Why did you guys change the
i name?” Smaldone said on the group’s
Y site Sunday. “I think coloreds sounds
e funnier, but I guess Negroes works
well too. I can’t believe the little Negro
i girl used a racial slur and called us
‘crackers.’ Some of them colored folk
are still racist, I guess. Weird ...”
Those comments were followed by a
post from Ronnetta Alexander, no
longer listed on Facebook, who said
she has no respect for anyone who uses
the words mentioned in the group’s
title and that “any African-American
believes the word Negro or colored is a
racial slur, so I feeF calling you a
cracker doesn’t do ... your group
justice.”
Joshua Caldwell, a second-year
computer science student, fiercely
opposed Alexander’s comments,
claiming in his message he had “no
problem with black people” and said
he’d rather not “spend the rest of my
life in prison for committing a hate
crime.”
Ekman said he received several
FflCCBOOK • 3
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Williams addresses students;
devotion resolution defeated
Claire Hughes /THE GAMECOCK
SG President Justin Williams
delivered his State of the Student
Body address Thursday night.
President outlines plans
to help students through
television, grade revision
Students will have a chance to
I correct some bad grades and be
f better connected to Student
Government via television if
Student Government President
Justin Williams gets his way with
policy goals he outlined Thursday
at his State of the Student Body
Address in the Russell House.
Williams, a fourth-year public
relations student, addressed a
number of concerns at the annual
event and revealed efforts by the
executive staff and the Student
Senate to improve pn “academics,
transportation and student life.” In
his speech, Williams encouraged
professors to continue to use the
Internet as a teaching tool,
advocating the full use of
Blackboard as a tool to post course
| materials. He also called for
professors to post their course
syllabi on the USC Registrar’s
online master schedule. “This will
eliminate students signing up for
mess • 2
Senators defeat bill
that would discontinue
prayer before sessions
Tensions rode high Wednesday in
Student Senate chambers as that
body debated and ultimately defeated
a resolution that would omit a
devotion from weekly meetings.
After several rounds of questions
and speeches mired by motions to
limit and extend debate, the
resolution foiled by a vote of 8-21,
with one abstention. Several senators
applauded at the result and were
chided by Vice President Ryan Holt.
“It is my honest opinion that our
business schedule should be kept to
business,” Sen. John Rabon, a fourth
year English student, said in his
opening remarks. He and three other
senators sponsored the resolution.
“Here at Carolina, we come from
different states, countries and
religions. Our senate should
represent that to the upmost,” said a
statement by Sen. Nicole Modeen, a
third-year international students
student, who sponsored the
resolution but could not be present.
The resolution met strong
criticism from a handful of senators,
who approached the resolutions
validity from a variety of angles.
Sen. Chris Floyd, a fourth-year
international business student, called
into question the number of
complaints about the devotion
coming from outside the senate.
Rabon admitted that to his
knowledge no one had come forward
in opposition.
RCSOLIITIOn • 3
Justin Chapura
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Viewpoints
Chase Stoudenmire
| implores students to
bring back the lost
art of the secret
admirer; Aaron
Brazier spotlights the
often-exploited,
always underappreci
ated graduate student
4
t l
INSIDE
The Mix
Curtain call
Theatre South Carolina will open its sea
son at 8 p. m. Saturday with Arthur
Miller’s “A View From the Bridge. ”
5
t 1
Nick Esares /THE GAMECOCK
Derrick Huggins, director of Parking Services, at his desk on Thursday.
Directing
Traffic
Parking chief plays bigger role than you might think
Jess Dauis
STAFF WRITER
Whether it’s parking a car,
having USCPD
respond to a call or
getting maintenance to a fix a light in
dorm rooms, USC students can’t go a
day without directly feeling the
impact of one administrator.
Derrick Huggins, who has served
as director of Vehicle Management
and Parking Services at USC for five
years, says there’s more to his job than
students realize. His behind-the
scenes efforts help keep everything
from maintenance to mail delivery
running smoothly.
Besides the more visible aspects of
his job, organizing university
parking, Huggins and his team of
employees are in charge of all
transportation on campus.
Maintenance of USCPD vehicles,
post office vehicles and the fleet of
Carolina Shuttle Buses is a daily
responsibility for his staff. In a motor
pool located on the west side of
campus, VMPS even has its own
supply of bio-diesel to fuel the shuttle
buses, and recently received a
$32,000 grant for ethanol to fuel
other USC vehicles.
Over the past few years, new
programs have come out of Huggins’
HUG6II1S • 2
Michael Ainsworth / The Dallas Morning News
Hurricane Rita evacuee traffic is
stopped on Interstate 45, early
Thursday near The Woodlands, Texas.
The 40-mile distance from downtown
Houston turned into a seven-hour trip.
Thousands
of evacuees
flee as Rita
approaches
Hurricane’s march on
Texas coast stirs residents
into agonizing exodus
dlihe Graczyh
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — Hurricane Rita
closed in on the Texas Gulf Coast and
the heart of the U.S. oil-refining
industry with howling 145 mph
winds Thursday, but a sharper-than
expected turn to the right set it on a
course that could spare Houston and
nearby Galveston a direct hit.
The storms march toward land sent
hundreds of thousands of people
fleeing the nation’s fourth-largest city
in a slow, bumper-to-bumper exodus.
“This is the worst planning I’ve ever
seen,” said Judie Anderson, who
covered just 45 miles in 12 hours after
setting out from her home in the
Houston suburb of LaPorte.
In all, nearly 2 million people along
the Texas and Louisiana coasts were
urged to get out of the way of Rita, a
400-mile-wide storm that weakened
Thursday from a top-of-the-scale
Category 5 hurricane to a Category 4
as it swirled across the Gulf of Mexico.
The storm’s course change could
send it away from Houston and
Galveston to Port Arthur, Texas, or
Lake Charles, La., at least 60 miles up
the coast, by late Friday or early
Saturday.
But it was still an extremely
dangerous storm - and one aimed at a
section of coastline with the nation’s
biggest concentration of oil refineries.
Environmentalists warned of the
possibility of a toxic spill from the 87
chemical plants and petroleum
installations that represent more than
one-fourth of U.S. refining capacity.
USC to research impact of Hurricane Katrina
Engineering, biomedical
departments team up
to study storms aftermath
Chelsea Hadauiay
FOK THE GAMECOCK
USC is funding and spearheading
18 research projects in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina.
Almost $400,000 has been set aside
by USC to fund these projects. USCs
Office of Research asked for research
proposals within days of Hurricane
Katrina.
www. dailygamecock. com
Faculty members responded quickly,
said Harris Pastides, vice president for
Research and Health Sciences.
“In the immediate aftermath the
faculty came together and everybody
wondered how they could help, but as
a research and scholarly community we
looked at ourselves and ... we decided
the best thing we could do was to
prevent this from happening in (South
Carolina),” Pastides said.
The research projects will focus on
aspects of coastal resiliency, recovery of
natural processes, and ecosystems and
societal changes caused by the
rebuilding of communities.
■ Pastides said he believes knowledge
i
gained from all fields, such as natural
sciences, engineering and the
humanities, is crucial for developments
in tools, data and models that will
allow improvements in coastal
resiliency.
The criminal justice department will
work on a project assessing the law
enforcement response to Katrina, and
the engineering department has a
project tided “Data on Levee Breaches
and Closure Procedures” led by Hanif
Chaudhry of the civil and
environmental engineering
department. Ivo Foppa from the
RCSCMICH • 3
, I