UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018
VOL. 110, NO. 03 ● SINCE 1908
NASA and pandas: Shutdown impact Larissa Johnson @LALARISSAJ
As of 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the U.S. government is officially shut down. The good news — it won’t really affect you. As many as 800,000 government employees could be furloughed, or sent home without pay, but all necessary functions will continue. Traffic lights still work, the mail still goes out, comptrollers still direct planes into landings. If the shutdown drags into a week or longer, it could start to create delays in flights or passport processing. But for now, the most you might be missing is few creature comforts.
Astronaut tweets
New breweries
No more ast ronaut t weet s: NA SA’s Twitter account is well known for its breathtak ing photos and livestreams of s p ac e w a l k s , a nd went v i r a l i n A u g u s t w h e n it s a c c o u nt f o r t h e m o o n (@ N A S A M o o n) b l o c k e d @ NA S A Su n f or t he e c l ip s e . W h i le astronauts will continue to perform spacewalks to conduct maintenance on the International Space Station, social media staff isn’t considered “necessary” during a shutdown.
No approvals for new breweries: The Hu nter- G at herer, a rest au ra nt just a block from the Horseshoe, opened its ow n brewer y on Friday near t he Columbia airport. The opening was just in time — under the shutdown, the A lcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau won’t be processing requests for label i ng, rec ipe s or brewer ie s. The official Columbia website lists 22 breweries, so the city is in no danger of going thirsty. Courtesy of Tribune News Service
Larissa Johnson / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Panda cams
Federal grants
No live panda cam at the National Zoo: While the Smithsonian has said it will remain open Monday, it doesn’t have the funds to stay open longer than about a week. That means the two cameras live-streaming Mei Xiang and her children, which often have over a million viewers per month and maxed out bandwidth with the birth of panda twins Tian Tian and Bei Bei in 2015, could turn to black. Panda enthusiasts don’t have to be too worried — the San Diego, Atlanta and Memphis panda cams will continue to broadcast.
Fe d e r a l g r a nt ap pl ic at io n s a r e n’t processed: On a more serious note, most requests for federal research funding w il l be put on hold. The Nat iona l S c ienc e Fou nd at ion a nd Nat ion a l I nst it utes of Hea lt h, a mong ot her federal organizations, won’t give out any new grants or grant payments. USC professors or students who were looking to get money could face an even longer wait than typical. Courtesy of Tribune News Service
Courtesy of Tribune News Service
Education student Dialogue presents issues, receives Social answers few questions Justice Award Meghan Crum @MEGCRUM98
Daizha Green has always stood out among her peers. Affectionately dubbed “Mama Daizha” at a young age, Green consistently took care of the people around her, and her mother, Sonia Green, noticed that kids just seemed to just gravitate towards her daughter and her home. “She always had that nurturing nature about her,” she said. Green has always loved kids, and plans to be a teacher for children up to eight years old after she graduates. “If I could impact the lives of the classes that I teach each year by just giving them the desire to learn and just letting them know that they are worth every good thing that will come to them, if they are attentive and just have the desire to learn… that’s what I want to do in the future,” she said. Now, the fourth-year early childhood education student is the only student at USC to receive the MLK Social Justice Award for her work toward racial equity in the classroom and on this campus. She was honored at a breakfast on Friday alongside three faculty members for exemplifying Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophies and working towards equity for all. Green is the co-founder and president of REACH SEEAWARDPAGE2
Courtesy of Amaiya Green
Daizha Green is the co-founder and president of REACH.
Steven Tapia / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
More than 300 students, staff and faculty attended the Thursday night dialogue.
T. Michael Boddie @THEHUMANBODDIE
The Russell House Theater was packed w it h st udent s, faculty and staff on Thursday evening ready to discuss a racially charged incident that occurred on campus earlier in the week. The “Community Dialogue,” held by the Office of Mu lt ic u lt u r a l St ude nt A f f a i r s a n d t a g g e d w it h # Not O nO u r C a mpu s , lef t some concerned students with more questions than answers regarding t he incident, its consequences and their safety. As people f lowed into the t heater, t here was a sli.do polling system projected on the big screen allowing for a thread of anonymous answers or suggestions focused on the question: “How can we move forward? What solutions can we implement?” Shay Malone, Director of Multicultural Student Affairs, took the stage. She introduced an acronym, ROPES, to the people in attendance as a sort of g u ide to how ever yone should conduct themselves in the dialogue. “R is for respect ... O is for open-mindedness ... P is for participation ... E is for expectat ion ... and S is for safety,” Malone said. “We’re gonna learn here today.” Next to the stage was John Dozier, USC’s Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Associate
Provost for Inclusion. “The racist remarks that littered our walls have affected us during the week that we celebrate, we ack nowledge, t he work ... of Dr. Mart in Luther King,” Dozier said. Dozier said that USC’s law enforcement is cont inuing to invest igate t he incident that circulated social media on Tuesday a nd prompted Thursday evening’s dialogue. “While it is important for us to get to the bottom of who might have done this, we can be sure that whoever it was is likely paying attention right now,” Dozier said. “A nd to that person, I just want to let you know that your hatred has no place here at the University of South Carolina.” As Dozier went on to discuss what OMSA and the Office of Diversit y and I nclusion do in terms of support ing underrepresented students, “a host of prog ra m m i ng,” such as Welcome Table SC c o nv e r s at io n s t h at b r i n g st udents, facult y and staf f together to talk about their personal experiences. It was arou nd t his point that the projector behind the podium was getting f looded with questions and comments, a l mo st a l l of wh ic h were either ignored or not noticed by the person at the podium. “Swept under the rug” Instead of conducting the dialogue by taking comments one-by-one, the facilitators
introduced themselves then moved forward into repetition of t he quest ion on t he projector: “How can we move forward?” A nswers appeared on the screen behind the podium. But neither Dozier nor others who took the stage, including Student Body President Ross Lordo, turned around. The comments weren’t part of the d ialog ue — a m icrophone was being passed around the audience so that individuals would have a chance to voice concerns. What comments appeared on t he projector were d i f f e r e nt f r o m w h at w a s heard from the crowd or the facilitators. “Holding people ac c ou nt able a nd not j u s t sweeping it under the rug like they did with the girl who did black face last February,” one anony mous comment read. T h i s com ment wa s ne ver acknowledged. Dozier said, “I don’t suspect that this will be the last time we will experience someone littering on our walls.” There lies the problem for several students in attendance, one of whom was third-year public relations student Kayla Driffi n. Her parents, aunt and other relatives are alumni. “Most of my family came here, and they were dealing SEEDIALOGUEPAGE2