dailygamecock.com UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
VOL. 116, NO. 14 • SINCE 1908
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
Student ejections fall back Not all awarded tickets claimed by kickoff for season’s first 2 games Hannah Jeffrey
@HANNAHJEFFREY34
W hile the Gamecocks were inside battling Texas A& M, 104 people were ejected f rom W i l l i a m s -Br ic e du r i n g t h i s ye a r ’s s e a s on opener, according to the USC Division of Law
Saturday, USCPD Capt. Eric Grabski said. And of the 246 ejected in the fi rst two weeks, 144 were students who will not be returning to Williams-Brice this season, Student Ticketing Coordinator Adrienne White said. “We know when we have a home opener and we’re playing a rival team that we’re going to have higher arrests,” Grabski said. Last year’s season opener against UNC saw 151 ejections, a higher number than the fi rst two weeks of this season combined. Last weekend, most charges against students were related to alcohol, fighting, smoking and public disorderly conduct, White said. “There was a lot of alcohol usage,” she said. “And the amount of females in particular that I saw being wheeled out from passing out on Thursday and on Saturday was about the same.” But every game is different. The Gamecocks are only t wo games into t he season, so t his week’s numbers can only be compared to those of the week before. However, Grabski said, these numbers are comparable to years past. In the days leading up to each game, students were in a frenzy requesting tickets and securing their seats in the stadium. USC students put ever y t hing on hold to log onto t he st udent
Students ejected in season openers
2012 75 ejected
Enforcement and Safety. Ejection numbers rose last weekend when USC played ECU, with 142 ejections from the stadium
2013
151ejected
2014 104 ejected 0
50
100
account manager and wait in the virtual line for however long it took to get in. The fi rst game of the season saw 15,690 student ticket requests for the available 11,000, White said. In order to be awarded a ticket to the first game of the season, students needed to hold seven
150
200
loyalty points. Of the 11,000 tickets awarded, at least 9,500 students scanned theirs at the game, White said. This left 1,500 unused. And before the Gamecocks took on the Pirates EJECTIONS • 3
Bidding ongoing for Bluff Road lot Vulcan Materials, university set to bid on unused lot Collyn Taylor
@COLLYNPTAYLOR
Wit h t he lot behind u niversit y housing up for auction, a bidding war has emerged to see who gains control of the Gregg area on Bluff Road. The area has two primary bidders: the Vulcan Materials Company and t he Universit y of Sout h Carolina Foundations. Vulcan has expressed plans to build another quarry on the lot. Sustainable M idlands has come out lobby ing against t he quarr y, say ing t hat it could halt developmental growth that Columbia is going through. “This area has seen a resurgence in business investment and residential housing, student housing,” Sustainable Midlands’ Executive Director Stephen Stokes said. “We’ve seen this become a cultural center and a desirable place, whereas in the past it’s been more industrial. The thought of opening a quarry right in the middle of that flies in the face of all the progress that this area has come.” Sustainable Midlands has supported the universit y acquiring this land, saying that the university obtaining the lot would be beneficial to both the students and the community. T he u n iver sit y is pla n n i ng to take the Gregg lot and turn it into intramural recreational fields. Also, a spokesman from the university said that they could turn the field into a driving range for the men and women’s golf team. “Its our intention here to see that t here is a happy balance bet ween the community and the needs of the environment,” Stokes said. “If USC
Malique Rankin / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
The university is looking to purchase the land, hoping to make it into intramural fields and a driving range for the golf teams. were to acquire the property, we want them to do with it what they will if it is in the best interest of the students and the residents of the area. I have no doubt that they are going to do what is in the best interest of the students.” If a quarr y were approved, t he quarr y would have to be made by placing dynamite into the ground. That would impact bot h football practice facilities on Bluff Road and
the student apartment complexes due to the noise, shaking due to blasts and unsanitary conditions due to soot accumulation. A doctor at the forum held Tuesday night said that if students and athletes were exposed to dust accumulation it could cause respiratory illness. “That is a qualit y of life issue,” Stokes said. “We are really looking at trying to keep the momentum that we
have already built in this area and keep moving in the right direction.” A ccord i ng to Forbe s, t he c it y of Columbia has seen a 1.8 percent increase in job growth since 2013, and Stokes believes that if the city continues to undergo the same type of growth, that more restaurants and businesses will continue to move into BID • 2