UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
VOL. 116, NO. 43 • SINCE 1908
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2014
‘I’m here because I need you’
Clarie Randall / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Lieutenant governor candidate Bakari Sellers told students Tuesday that he needs them to “make history.”
Bakari Sellers asks students to imagine what Carolina ‘can be’ Bakari Sellers remembers getting a call from an anonymous number in the USC School of Law parking lot as he was walking to class. It was thenSenator Barack Obama, asking for his endorsement. “I told him I was running late to class, so it would have to be a short phone call,”
Lois Carlisle
@LOISCARLISLE
Sellers told a room full of students, his face in his hands. Obama asked what the subject of the class was. “By that time, I was already [working] at the capitol and I hadn’t been to class in, like, six weeks, so I told him it was ethical law. But I forgot that was what he used to teach.” According to Sellers, he chatted with the senator on t he subject before conf ir m ing t hat he wou ld endor se Obama’s candidacy. The rest is history. W it h o ne we e k until Election Day, U S C ’s C o l le g e Democrats hosted the Democratic candidate for lieutenant gover nor Tuesday n ight. Sellers, 30, Associate Profess of Nursing Joan Culley i s a USC -t r a i ne d law yer and former shares tips on how to prevent getting sick member of the South Carolina House of Brittany Franceschina
Expert: prepare for the flu, study up on protocols
Representatives who gave up his seat to run in this election. “I’m here because I need you,” he said to the crowd of students in the Russell House Theatre. “If I’m going to make history, then I need your votes.” At the age of 22, Sellers had already made histor y when he became the youngest elected representative in the State of South Carolina, and the first black representative elected since 1876. When Sellers told his parents he was going to run for office when he was 20 years old, his mother said she’d vote for him, but his father said he’d “think about it.” According to Sellers, he was the youngest member of a state’s legislation in the U.S. at the time. And for that reason, Sellers caught the attention of then-Senator Barack Obama before the 2008 presidential election. For Sellers, the School of Law parking lot is not the only place that holds fond memories. He said the USC campus feels like a second home. His father, Cleveland L. Sellers Jr., was the Director
of the Department of African American Studies in the 1980s. “I grew up in Gambrell Hall,” he said. It was there that he formed a close relationship with the pursuit of knowledge and change and curiosity. “You should check out the [Gambrell] basement sometime.” Sellers, who said he “jumped ditches for fun” when he was a child in rural South Carolina, has come a long way on the political spectrum. Now, he wants to put greater emphasis on education in this state. “I’m tired of turning on late night TV and seeing South Carolina made fun of,” he said, adding that he wants to “restore dignity and pride to the state” and plans to do so by way of legislation. Sellers said his favorite piece of legislation was a domestic abuse bill he worked on that was never passed. According to Sellers, more women are killed by domestic abuse in South Carolina than any other state and one SELLERS • 3
@BRITTA_FRAN
If you’re worried about Ebola, talk to Joan Culley. The associate professor of nursing is a nurse researcher in the field of informatics and nursing systems, her primary field of research is emergency preparedness, and she’s familiar with the best ways to deal with patients with infectious diseases of all kinds. Culley teaches classes on this topic and was recently funded with her second National Institutes of Health grant to look at triage during mass casualty events. She gained expertise in these areas when she was a nurse corps officer, a field she retired from as a captain in the Navy. “I spent a lot of time at the Bureau of Medicine in Washington looking at their disaster and readiness plans and helping to develop education, training and disaster preparedness drills,” Culley said. The most recent wakeup call that has forced medical experts such as Culley to look at the way we handle infectious diseases is the Ebola virus. According to Culley, this is not a time to panic, but it is important to look at policies and procedures that are in place for all contagious and infectious diseases while making sure they are up to date and are communicated to the health care professionals involved. “The people involved are not just doctors and nurses. They include the people who clean the unit, police officers, airport workers and an even larger string of people,” Culley said. “How do we effectively communicate to all of these people what they need to be concerned about and what they can do about it?” Only one person in the U.S. has died of Ebola, and there has been concern surrounding it, but Culley said people should actually be more concerned about the flu. The flu vaccine is readily available, but Culley believes that not enough students take advantage of it. “I have gotten my flu shot this year, and I think it’s important to do so,” said first-year education student Christine Rossi. “People are extremely worked up about Ebola, but they don’t consider how many people die of the flu each year and that there is a readily available vaccination to prevent it.” One point of concern is the lack of knowledge about the difference between isolation and quarantine and which is appropriate for a situation. Isolation is used when someone who is ill is kept out of contact from those who are not ill. Quarantine is when people who have been exposed are removed from contact with others for 21 days in order to monitor them and see if they get sick. This information is important because DISEASES • 3
Diabuddies aims to help diabetic students Fraternity president starts club to provide for others with diabetes Amber Stanton @AMBS____
Brandon Picow was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 11 years old. P icow, now a t h i rd-yea r glob a l s upply chain and operation management student and g president of Alphaa Epsilon Pi, is starting a group nts with diabetes. He said since at USC for students ’s been very passionate his diagnosis, he’s se money and getting about helping raise RF, formerly known involved with JDRF, as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Picow, a Colu mbia nat ive, said he’s lucky to have his parents around ng happen or if he should somet hing cause according to needs t hem. Because ifficult for students to Picow, it’s often diffi manage diabetes, and it’s easy to forget ng out of supplies on that you’re running k and club meetings. top of coursework re so busy. I worry “College kids are s,” Picow said. about my diabetes,” h up on “It should be high imes the list, but sometimes it’s not.” P ic ow s a id t h at utwith so many outof-state st udents, s, the program D i ab udd ie s w i l l ser ve as a buddyy system for diabeticc students who don’t ’t have parents closee by, i n c a s e t he y run out of insulin
or supplies. USC alu m nus and JDR F board member Jonathan Barbrey and Diabetes Care Specialist for Novo Nordisk, will also be involved in Diabudd ies. Novo Nord isk ma nu fac t u res pharmaceutical services and products, such as diabetes care medications and devices. He will also be able to provide supplies to members of Diabuddies. “It’s kind of an unknown problem,” Picow said. “If don’tt know what I If I wasn’t wasn t from here, I don would do.” Picow also hopes that Diabudd Diabuddies will act as a support group for students with stude diabetes in which they can ge get advice from students who face th the same problems, such as worrying worryin about telling a girlf riend about abou t heir diabetes or feeling like th they can’t go drinking with their frie friends. “A lot of times it’s hard for kids about having to talk with an adult abou diabetes,” Picow said. “I’m much more of an approachable person than a doctor or someone like lik that.” A c c o r d i n g t o P i c o w, h i s f r at e r n it y b r o t he r s h a v e for raised over $10,000 $10, JDRF after sselecting t he fou ndat ion t h e i r a s ph ila nt h ropy fall. They last fall ho p e t o r a i s e sa me t he amount or again this more ag year. P i c o w ’s f at her i s a l so Courtesy of Mari Kate Freeman
DIABETES • 3 DIAB