dailygamecock.com ZACH MCKINLEY // THE GAMECOCK
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
News
Students came together to bring TED talks to USC starting this year. PG 2
VOL. 111, NO. 10 l SINCE 1908
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2018
Arts
One of the South Carolina State Fair’s most famous vendors has been a family affair for 50 years. PG 5
Sports
South Carolina’s game against Texas A&M was full of offensive miscues. PG 8
SG prepares to launch new programs for students Hannah Dear @HannahCDear A f ter mont hs of developi ng c a mp a ig n pl at for m s a nd ac t ion p l a n s , St u d e nt B o d y P r e s id e nt Tay lor Wr ig ht , a lon g w it h t he St ude nt G over n me nt e xe c ut i ve board, cabinet, senate and Freshman Cou ncil are preparing to lau nch several new programs they hope will benefit students for years to come. “ It ’s been f u n to go f rom t he c a mp a ig n pro c e s s , w here we’re developing a f lat platform, to early during the summer, early fall kind of planning forward and now I think it’s around the time where things are starting to fall in place which is pretty exciting to see,” Wright said.
SARA YANG// THE GAMECOCK Student Body President Taylor Wright reflects on his campaign platform as he creates an action plan for the semester.
The fou r t h-year publ ic hea lt h student said newly-elected members of Student Government are beginning
to work well w it h t he ret u r n i ng memb er s , but he ac k nowledged getting everyone to share the same
goal is the most challenging part of his job. “Finding ways for people to kind of specialize in their areas, we have senate, we have cabinet, Freshman Cou ncil, const it ut iona l cou ncil, finding ways for people to connect as one organization, as one student body has been kind of difficult,” Wright said. Patrick Ellis, third-year political science student and speaker of the student senate, is impressed by the work new senators have put in to creating quality legislation to help the student body. SEE GOVERNMENT PAGE 4
Students bring creative TEDx talks to the university Hannah Dear @HannahCDear
MADISON MACDONALD//THE GAMECOCK Darla Moore School of Business integrates R, a programming software, into their business analytics concentration to help students be more competitive.
USC’s TEDx club began t wo yea rs ago w it h a few s t u d e nt s w a nt i n g t o s e e students share and learn from each other’s creative ideas. Now, it has grown into its f i r st T E D xUof SC e vent , which took place Oct. 3 at the My Carolina Alumni Center. “It’s actually been going on for about a year and a half now, so this event has been a long time in the making,” said Sean Powers, a fourth-year supply chain and operations management student and part of the TEDx club executive team. “We’re excited to have been able to part ner w it h t he u n iversit y to put t h is on , a nd we lo ok for wa rd into the future having more student involvement in the organization.” T h i rd-yea r u ndec ided student Michael Senator was brought on to the project a year ago and now serves as t he club’s president. A f ter all this time, he is thrilled to see TEDxUofSC finally happening and looks forward to the future of the club. “We’re really hoping the success of the TEDxUofSC ... will really help just spread awareness of t he club and help motivate other people to actually join,” Senator said. SEE TED PAGE 3
Moore School adds new software program Meghan Crum @megcrum24
The Darla Moore School of Business, a highly-ranked business school for publ ic u n iver sit ie s ac ross t he cou nt r y, is c u r rent ly refocusing its undergraduate business curriculum to include t he use of statistical software. The new curriculum is designed to give students experience in data a n a l y s i s a nd prov ide a b a s i s i n business analy tics for the f ut ure. Business analytics is a concentration usually seen in graduate curricula, but the Moore School has integrated R , a prog ra m m i ng sof t wa re for statistical graphics, and other tools into its undergraduate program. The Moore School claims to be the only undergraduate business school to do so. The change is an effort to give students a competitive edge against other interviewees who have not yet learned how to analyze data using platforms like R. “We’ve really seen that a lot of companies are looking for students who are comfor t able w it h usi ng
statistical programming, and so we really just saw that it would be a good thing for students ... to really just be more competitive,” said Stacey Mumbower, director of the Center for Applied Business Analytics. The use of R was first introduced in t he Moore School by clin ical assistant professor Leslie Hendrix. After teaching an advanced statistics class using Excel, Hendrix realized that her students would benefit more from learning to use R in place of the Excel program. She piloted the first Moore School courses using R in the spring of 2018. “It’s really important to learn the computer coding with R because part of what we want to teach is something that can lead into other opportunities for t he st udent s,” Hend r i x sa id. “Once they learn the language of R, they’ll pick up on any other language very quickly.” Hendrix said that the program was a success, and that soon after, Dean Peter Brews made t he use of t he program in the class a requirement. “We are drowning in data. People know that there is data out there, but they are not sure what it tells you, what knowledge can be gained from it or how decision mak ing can be
improved by deeper analysis of the data,” Brews said. Lear n i ng t he basics of cod i ng and business analytics are now part of the regular sequence for Moore students. Program leaders see this as a necessary step in preparing students for success in the workforce. “Virtually every business executive I meet, when I mention data and I mention that we are trying to train our students to do better analytical work than has been the case up until now, it’s almost uniform, ‘That’s wonderful, when can I talk to them?’” Brews said. Fourt h-year real estate st udent Patrick Nealon was able to use his background in business analy t ics from the Moore School to earn a p o sit ion at a compa ny over t he summer. “It’s another skill that I guess a lot of students don’t have,” Nealon said. “It definitely helps to have some technology knowledge because that’s what they want to see out of young kids coming out of school.” Brews hopes that students will see the benefits of the statistics courses and complete a full concentration in business analy t ics. I n t heor y, st udents will be able to use their