The Daily Gamecock 3/25/10

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SEC Power Rankings See how the week’s games have shaken up the current standings for college teams around the country, affecting their SEC potential.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010

VOL. 103, NO. 114 ● SINCE 1908

Alumni march on Statehouse ‘Garnet army’ demonstrates great enthusiam, addresses problems with educational funding Rebecca Kneisley

THE DAILY GAMECOCK

Carolina alumni represented another “garnet army” in their march to the Statehouse to show legislators their support and advocate for public higher education during the annual Carolina Day on Wednesday. Since 2004, Carolina Day, sponsored by the Carolina Alumni Association’s Carolina Action Network, has served as a day for alumni, current students and anyone interested in the University to meet with their local legislators and promote support for USC and public higher education in general. However, the message of the lobbyists leading this year’s event was clear: Carolina Day this year was not a day to ask for funding. It was simply a day for the alumni to show legislators their strong support for their alma mater. “Things haven’t been good at the Statehouse during tough economic times,” said Shirley Mills, a lobbyist from the University, in her speech at an advocate Chad Simmons / THE DAILY GAMECOCK briefing at the Capital City Club before the attendees headed to the Statehouse. Students and representatives gather at the Statehouse Wednesday morning to Mills said in light of the revenue situation, it was unrealistic to ask the support the University and promote higher education. Statehouse for specific funding. “They were considering putting us on the cut list, but the Salkehatchie “We’re going to show support for our flagship enthusiastically,” Mills said. campus gives people from Allendale and Walterboro counties an education “Just seeing this army coming over there means we’ve had a successful day.” Charles Bierbauer, dean of the College of Mass Communications, said the opportunity that they might not otherwise have,” Parnell said. Advocates from the Carolina Alumni Association said legislators must realize group is a “new manifestation of the garnet army.” “You can be as enthusiastic as they are at basketball games,” Bierbauer said to the importance of the University to the state as a whole. Martin reminded attendees of the significant role the University plays in the state’s economy. those gathered at the advocacy briefing. According to Mills, the day of advocacy is “vitally important” because Carolina students and alumni contribute $400 million to state revenue, funding for Carolina and public higher education in general has been cut by 50 according to Martin. John Bordereaux, a member of the Alumni Association for 35 years, said it percent in the past two years. “Legislators are in a tough position,” said Casey Martin, another University is vital for the University to receive funding because the University represents the state to the nation. lobbyist who spoke at the event. “They are not gleefully cutting funding.” “We want to be on legislators’ minds when the economy starts fixing itself,” Representatives from some of the campuses of USC’s smaller branches such as the Salkehatchie campus and the Union campus, who attended Carolina Bordereaux said. Bordereaux said that while USC was considered a good university 31 years Day, said that they wanted to make sure they maintained a place in legislators’ ago, it is a great university now. minds as well. “The academics of USC are so strong and are growing by leaps and bounds,” Michele Lee, the business manager at USC Union who has been attending Carolina Day for three years, said that her school is the smallest in the system Bordereaux said. “Our goal is to be one of the top 50 universities in the nation.” Bordereaux said the Alumni Association is key to the success of the and that she viewed the advocacy day as “a good chance to come and meet University. people,” and that “not a lot is discussed about changes that need to be made.” “We want legislators to remember us because we are one. We are strong. We “It’s just a chance to meet the legislators so that if changes need to be made are unique,” Bordereaux said. down the road, we’ll have that relationship,” Lee said. Dustin Parnell, student government president at USC Salkehatchie, said that he would like to talk to legislators about his concern for keeping his school Comments on this story? E-mail sagcknew@mailbox.sc.edu open.

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Mix Tape: Grill Edition The warm weather brings out more than bikinis. Grills abound in today’s Mix tape, where zesty food gets students pumped for summer.

Superintendent hopefuls participate in education forum

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Seidel Says College days don’t have to ruin the child within yu. You’re never too old to engage in a little childChelsey hood fun and pleasant Seidel immaturity. Second-year

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From left, Sarah Baxter, mechanical engineering, Edie Goldsmith, School of Medicine. Seated, Cathy Murphy, former Carolina chemistry professor now at the University of Illinois.

Grant finances heart valve study Collaborative research may lead to health breakthroughs Derek Legette STAFF WRITER

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An investigation on how the injections of nano-sized rods of gold may assist with problematic heart valves is being conducted by scientists at USC. Dr. Ed ie G oldsm it h, a n associate professor i n t he depar t ment of cell Biology and anatomy of the School of Medicine is one of the people engaging in the research. “Our current work stems from initial studies we conducted using gold nanorods to measure how cardiac cells deform or pull on t he proteins surrounding them, often referred to collectively as the extracellular matrix,” Goldsmith said. “W hile we init ially conducted experiments in two-dimensional films of collagen, a major extra-cellular matrix protein in the heart, we wanted to make similar measurements on cells in a more

native, three-dimensional environment.” After combining cardiac cells, gold na norod s a nd col lagen i nto t h ree dimensional gels, somet hing similar to “Jello,” as Goldsmit h said, it was observed that the gels with nanorods were softer than gels without nanorods. Goldsmith said her lab has an National Institutes of Health grant to study heart valve development and that she knew of several valvular heart diseases which result from changes in the mechanical properties of the valves including fibrotic or degenerative valve diseases. “We decided to conduct some pilot experiments to see if injecting nanorods into isolated heart valves would change their mechanical properties,” Goldsmith said. Her team obser ved t hat t he introduction of negatively charged gold nanorods into these valves made them softer than the valves which weren’t treated with the nanorods. This “golden” operat ion does not f u nct ion as one Heart ● 3

Tw o c a n d i d a t e s f o r state superintendent, Kelly Pay ne and Brent Nelson , p a r t ic ip at e d i n a f or u m discussion organized by the College Republicans , along wit h Treasurer candidate Curtis Loftis and Columbia Tea Party representative Allen Olson in Callcott College Wednesday night. “We’ve been really wanting to reach out to dif ferent parts of the University and we f ig ured t he educat ion g r oup wou ld b e a g o o d place because we’re all here for school and education is important to everybody,” said Daniel Brennan, a fourth-year political science student and Chairman of t he College Republicans. Approximately 20 people were in the audience, and Bren n a n sa id it wa s t he smallest meeting the club has had all year, attributing the

lack of attendance to the nice weather outside. There were not any prepared questions for the candidates, and the forum took the shape of a questionand-answer session. Members of the crowd were called on to address any concerns they had about the candidates. Brennan said he hoped this would get more students involved. “I t hink [t he for um] is really important,” Brennan said. “We’re one of the lowest r a n ked publ ic educ at ion systems in the country so I would like to get some good questions to the candidates.” Bren na n sa id t he st ate superintendent position is important and the current leadership hasn’t had a lot of success. “ We’r e ho p i n g t o g e t someone in there that can actually say they’re going to do something and actually have results to prove that t he y ’ve done t hei r job,” Brennan said. Olson took t he f loor first and made an opening st atement st re s si ng t h at he wa s n’t t here to st a r t controversy. Forum ● 3

Richard Pearce / THE DAILY GAMECOCK

Superintendent candidate Brent Nelson speaks Wednesday.


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