NEWS 1
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
VOL. 106, NO. 30 ● SINCE 1908
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
DISASTER RESPONSE PROGRAM TO BECOME AVAILABLE IN SPRING
Daniel Hou / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
The Gamecocks are 5-0-1 for home games this season.
MEN’S SOCCER PREVIEW USC VS. FIU
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Regan Freeman/ THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Emergency management will allow graduate students to get jobs in governmental, profit and nonprofit sectors.
Patrick Ingraham @PATTYMILLS11
T he Un i v e r s it y of S out h Carolina announced Monday that emergency management has been added as a concentration to its Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. The addit ion of t h is concent rat ion means more graduate st udents have t he cha nce to be employed i n g over n ment a l , prof it a nd nonprofit sectors that help in planning and responding to disasters. T h e M PA p r o g r a m a t USC is the oldest accredited MPA program in the state, w it h over 1,50 0 g raduates since its founding in 1968. This particular program will be the fi rst of its kind at any accredited MPA program in South Carolina. M PA p r o g r a m d i r e c t o r Christopher Witko said that the program has been in the works since 2014. “Th is is somet h i ng we started working on last fall,” Witko said. “It takes a long time for these programs to get approved … we got the final approval about a month ago.” A ccord i ng to t he Sout h Carolina Emergency Management Div ision (SCE MD), Sout h Carolina
is vulnerable to nearly every major natural disaster, save volcanoes. The state is also su scept ible to nu merou s man-made hazards like nu c le a r e m e r g e n c i e s a n d homeland securit y t hreats. That v u l nerabilit y was more than evident from the unprecedented rainfall and subsequent f looding on the weekend of Oct. 4. SCE MD Director K im Stenson believes the field is constantly expanding and the need for qualified, educated and capable professionals is always there. “Emergency management as a profession has g row n t remendously over t he last 20 years,” Stenson said in a press release. “The disaster response and recover y prog ra m s t hat ex ist today are extensive and detailed. The modern emergenc y manager has to have a solid educat ional fou ndat ion coupled w it h rea l-world experience in order to make t he best recom mendat ions about people’s safety in times of crisis.” “It w i l l at t rac t people already working in emergency ma nagement a nd pla n n ing t hat want to improve t heir skill set and knowledge, and it will also attract undergrads who wa nt to have more
marketable skills for their fi rst ... ‘real jobs,’” Witko said. T h i rd-yea r hospit a l it y management student Dylan Sm it h t h ink s t hat t he concent rat ion would be an excellent program for many students to pursue after they graduate. “I’m kind of in a flux with my major right now … But it def i n itely sou nds l i ke something the state could use, especially right now,” Smith said. “The more people we have who are prepared for things like [the flooding], the better.” W it ko bel ieves t hose look i ng for employ ment in emergenc y management will have a leg up if they go t hrough t he program, but, more i mp or t a nt ly, t h at it will positively impact South Carolina and the Southeast as a whole. “We think that it will help in the future — governments, non-prof it s, compa n ies, etc. — respond in a t imely a nd ef fect ive ma n ner to emergencies when t hey arise,” Witko said. “Having more people with the sk ills and k nowledge in this area can only be a good thing for the state, and really, for the region.”
Freshman creates
custom costumes Sam Breazeale @TDG_ARTS
It ’s not d i f f ic u lt t o find creative Halloween c o s t u m e s o n U S C ’s campus — the school’s size and the innovative nature of college students usually ensure that a huge variet y of pop cu lt u re references, puns and cute Halloween staples are all covered in any given year First-year undeclared business student Emily Adams, however, takes t h e c r e a t i v it y a s t e p further: for the last six or so years, she has made her own costumes from scratch, sewing together fabric and adding details to make sure she ends up with a perfect, persona l ized out f it to show off on the 31st. Adams began by helping her mother make
costumes when she was as little. In the eighth grade, de, she decided to make one herself, and since then, she hasn’t missed a year. She’s covered all of the spooky bases,, ce from a witch to a piece of c a nd y cor n , wh icc h his is her costume for this ne year. “[My favorite one his is] honestly probably this en one,” Adams said. “Even ks. though it sort of sucks. My mom a nd I were ke, making it, and I was like, nd ‘I have ten minutes,’ and ly so we made it in literally ten minutes.” n, In this writer’s opinion, es the candy corn dress does ng not look like something en that was made in only ten minutes. Adams has even i n s pi r e d s o me of hee r SEECOSTUMEPAGE4
Crime report shows uptick in drug violations Ben Crawford @BENLCRAWFORD
On-campus drug v iolat ions reports rose dramat ically last year, according to t he university’s 2015 Annual Security Report released earlier this month. I n 2 014 , t h e m o s t recent year for wh ich dat a is ava i lable, 129 cases of u n iversit y disciplinary action were drug violations, up from a mere 4 4 i n 2013 — a l most a 30 0 percent increase. There were 801 cases of disciplinar y actions taken against t hose v iol at i ng l iquor l aw s on c a mpu s , w it h 718 of t hose occ u r r i ng i n campus residence halls. Additionally, of the 129 v iolat ions i nvolv i ng dr ugs on campus in 2014, 124 of those cases took place in residence halls. Instances of burglary in residence halls stayed c o n s t a n t w i t h 2 0 13 incidences, with three reported cases. There were 62 reported cases when the security report began gathering data in
2011. Additionally, vehicle thefts nearly doubled in during that time period, from 32 to 60. A t ot a l 110 a r r e s t s were made at residence halls in the past year, up from 77 in 2013. Unlike ot her recent yea rs, however, no arrests in residence halls in 2014 resulted from weapons p o s s e s s io n s — t he r e were si x i n st a nce s of violations due to illegal weapons possessions in 2013. The vast majority of ar rest s consisted of d r ug a nd a lcohol violations. T h e r e p o r t , mandated by the federal government under the Jea n ne Clea r y Ac t , shows informat ion and statistics gathered during the 2014 calendar year. The Universit y’s Division of Law Enforcement and Safety ( DLE S) compi les t he m aj o r it y of t he d at a used in the report. The u n iversit y uses t he repor t as a n ef for t to ensure safety for current a nd f ut u re Ca rol i na students.
Quick Hitters: Today in Gamecock athletics • Gamecock w ide receiver commit Bryan Edwards suffered a torn meniscus in his game Friday and will miss the rest of his senior season • T h e S o u t h C a r o l i n a w o m e n’s basketball team announced it eclipsed 10,000 season ticket sales this year two years after setting a goal for 5000 • South Carolina’s Nov. 7 football game at Tennessee has been scheduled for 4 p.m. on SEC Network. • Tuesday’s men’s soccer game at Stone Stadium will be a pink out. Students are encouraged to wear pink for the 7 p.m. game and the fi rst 200 will receive free pizza. — Compiled by Will Helms, Sports Editor
Leland McElveen/ THE DAILY GAMECOCK