UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
VOL. 110, NO. 08 ● SINCE 1908
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018
Influenza virus hits USC students hard Meghan Crum @THEGAMECOCK
Courtesy of Ross Lordo
Tori Richman / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Bass was sworn in as Student Body Vice President on Wednesday, Feb. 7.
VP Dani Goodreau resigns, Joseph Bass sworn in Larissa Johnson and T. Michael Boddie @LALARISSAJ AND @THEHUMANBODDIE
St udent Body Vice President Dani Goodreau submitted a letter of resignation to Student Body President Ross Lordo on Wednesday evening around 7 p.m., immediately after the weekly student senate meeting. “While my job is done, the fight is not. True democracy lies within the hands of the people,” Goodreau wrote in a statement. “For this I ask of you all: continue. Continue to stand loud against the attacks on our campus, our scholars and the beliefs that define us as Carolinians. Continue to lift each other up and stand strong in unity.” Goodreau is serving as finance director for public relations firm
Starboard Communications and working for a political campaign. Because the position is not officially confirmed, she cannot release details about the campaign. G ood reau wa s elec ted on a t icket alongside Lordo during last year’s election, focusing on veterans’ services and mental health throughout the campaign. During Goodreau’s tenure as vice president, she saw more than 70 pieces of legislation passed in the senate. She was a strong representative for diversity and the non-traditional student, according to Lordo. “We thank Dani for her service to the student body and wish her well in all of her future endeavors,” Lordo said in a statement. Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Bass was immediately sworn
in as student body vice president. “I am eager to get started working in the Office of the Vice President,” Bass wrote in a statement. “Although only two months remain in the term, I am sure that there is a lot of work that can be done for the student body.” Bass is a third-year mechanical engineering student who has served in the student senate for two years. Lordo said that he is excited to welcome him to executive office. “We have the utmost confidence that he will be a staunch advocate for students and and will successfully fulfill the duties of the office for the remainder of the term,” Lordo said. There w ill be a vote nex t Wednesday on a replacement for the president pro tempore of the senate.
While South Carolina just topped 100 f lu deaths and the CDC is proclaiming the worst flu season in a decade, the University of South Carolina has seen only a quarter of the flu cases it had at this point last year. For students, though, it seems like everyone on campus is sick. “My whole floor actually all went through some version of sickness last week,” said Rachel Yanders, first-year international business student and Capstone resident. “We all shared bleach … and cleaned everything.” At this time in 2017, USC Student Health Services had diagnosed about 370 students with the flu. Now, they’re just reaching 80. “It’s not as bad” as last year, said Van Haygood, the director for Clinical and Ancillary Services at USC. As typical with the flu, victims nationwide are mainly children and those over 65. The community nature of a college campus facilitates the spread of the virus, but young adults are also naturally more resistant and healthy. “This is a kind of a community within a community,” Haygood said. “In the dormitories everybody tends to pass stuff back and forth, everybody that goes into and out of Russell House uses the same door push ... if you can’t use soap and water, carry hand sanitizer.” This year, there’s been an 11 percent increase from last year in students getting the flu shot. It is still available for free for students at the Center of Health and Well-Being. “I just reordered the flu vaccine ... and we’ve been ordering it about once a twice or week every week since we started,” Haygood said. SEEFLUPAGE2
Law School highlights political corruption in SC Larissa Johnson @LALARISSAJ
Lily Bardol / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Corporate leaders spoke on a panel at the Darla Moore School of Business about diversity as a core business strategy on Feb. 7.
Executives talk diversity, inclusion Juliana Morehouse @THEGAMECOCK
A panel of speakers gathered at t he Darla Moore School of Business to discuss what it means to create environments of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and how to go about doing so. Deborah Hazard, t he Clinical Assistant Professor at the Darla Moore School of Business, served as mediator for the event. She saw this as a great opportunity to engage in meaningful conversation about important topics. “I think one of our nation’s great strengths is the variety we posses in terms of the shared talent and creativity and culture of vision,” Hazzard said. Ed Martinez, the keynote speaker and president of the U PS Foundat ion, opened a discussion about what diversity should mean to employers and companies. “Diversity is not a replacement for talent” Martinez said. “We expect smart.” Ma r t i nez has ex per ience work i ng w it h employee engagement, corporate relations a n d g l o b a l p h i l a nt h r o p i c outreach.
“One area of keen interest to us is really identifying people that bring diversity of thought to the company,” Martinez said. Sa r a h Ba st ia n work s for Eastman Chemical Company and leads the Catalysts Eastman Resource Group Career Development and Retention team. During her first year with the company, she saw a need to increase diverse participation in t he work place. She now guides the Eastman Diversity Committee, with a focus on increasing women’s involvement. “It never feels like you have to hire candidate X because they’re diverse; I’ve never felt t hat pressure,” Bastian said. “I have felt that we need to make sure our candidate pool is diverse.” M ichael Ellis ma nages GEICO’s Emerging Leaders Program. He has served in many capacities with GEICO, often acting as a mentor. “It’s about people and it’s about process; and people always always always come first,” Ellis said. Speakers were in agreement that diversity and inclusion in the corporate world most often involves defi ning what integral attributes each person can offer.
The most common word heard in the USC School of Law on Tuesday night was “no-brainer.” But no matter how much t hey ag reed on reducing corr upt ion, t he four legislators and two lobbyists on a panel discussing money in Palmetto State politics were pessimistic about the likelihood for legislat ive change in the remaining four months of this legislative session. Panelists Rep. Gilda CobbHunter (D-Orangeburg), Rep. Gary Clary ( R-P ic k e n s), S e n . M i k e Fanning (D-Fairfield) and Sen. W i l l ia m Ti m mon s (R-Greenville) were there to discuss nine bills that they’ve introduced, accompanied by Lynn Teague of the League of Women Voters Sout h Carolina and John Crangle of t he S .C . P rog re s sive Network. Marcu rius By rd, t he president of the School of Law’s American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, co-hosted the event with the Progressive Network. “This was a great opportunity for us to work with them in the community and with the legislators,” the third-year law student said. A mo n g t he d i s c u s s e d bills — which range from redef i n i ng “lobby ist” to forcing criminal politicians to pay t he costs of t heir replacements — few have a chance of reaching Gov. Henr y Mc Master’s desk , let alone escaping the death sentence of being sent to a subcommittee. According to moderator Bret t Bursey of t he S.C.
Prog ressive Net work , though, this is the best time for change — in the midst of a scandal over the October indictment of powerful GOP player Richard Quinn. “Right now no one trusts t he G ener a l A s sembly,” Fanning said. “The people deserve to have faith in us.” B e y o n d t h e f i v e -y e a r Quinn investigation that’s ex pa nded to i nclude si x lawmakers, South Carolina state government is routinely ra n ked among t he worst states for integrity. It received an F from the Center for Public Integrit y in 2012, moving up to a D- in 2015 when gerrymandering was removed from consideration. Gerr y mandering is essentially encouraged in Sout h Ca rol i na bec au se the redistricting process is determined by the legislators themselves, which over the years has led to a district map where 77 percent of legislators faced no major opposition in the general election. Clary introduced a bill to create a citizens committee to redraw the map, but said it’s unlikely to pass this session. Even on t he panel, t he system
to choose t he committee members quickly became an issue. In response to a question about political bias on the committee, Timmons said, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Tim mons, who campaigned in 2016 on the idea that state government is broken, discussed three pieces of leg islat ion he’s proposed — two of which he openly admitted were non- st a r ter s. T he t h i rd would require all campaign contributions to be put into a specific type of bank account w it h t he ear ned interest going to the State Ethics Commission. It’s earned 17 co-sponsors, enough to get out of subcommittee and onto the Senate floor. The measure would earn about $100,000 for the commission, or 12 percent of its current appropriation. Cobb-Hunter and Fanning wou ld go a step f u r t her a nd g ive a c ut of e ver y campaign donation to the Ethics Commission. As their partner bills in the House SEEPANELPAGE2
Kyle Radzak / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
S.C. Progressive Network President Brett Bursey moderated Tuesday’s panel at the