The Daily Gamecock: September 2024

10% University discount at Lunchtime (11-2) with Carolina Card!

Mon-Sat Sunday 10-5

Editor-in-Chief Kate Robins encourages students to seek out new opportunities this semester.

Members of USC’s community share concerns on how a state House bill focused on DEI programs could effect campus.

USC and Lexington Medical Center open a new College of Nursing building to help with a nationwide nursing shortage.

USC receieves $123.3 million to freeze tuition for students and build a new Health Science Building.

Columbia community members organize a Facebook group to restore an old baseball stadium on Assembly Street.

The Daily Gamecock highlights key moments through some of its most memorable pictures from August.

The university’s board of trustees approves USC Next, a campuswide plan that sees major renovations to different areas of USC.

USC launches a new service that transports students between Russell House and Campus Village during lunch.

The City of Columbia uses state funds to revamp Columbia area by adding a new parking garage and hotel.

South Carolina football showcases new faces on offense with five transfers who are looking to make their mark.

SOCCER LEADERSHIP

Fifth-year players return to the pitch to achieve a years-long goal of winning a national championship.

Gamecock fans share the ups and downs of dedicating time and money to athletes’ name, image and likeness.

Women’s indoor and beach volleyball player Jolie Cranford starts 2024 season playing for both teams.

28 CHANGES TO NIL

South Carolina passes law allowing student athletes at affiliated universities to profit from their name, image and likeness.

30 O-LINE IMPROVEMENTS

Gamecock football’s offense line hopes to develop chemistry after multiple injuries in the 2023 season.

32 MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE

Gamecocks to face notable in and out of coference teams for the 2024-2025 season.

35 KILGORE BROTHERS

Family duo reunites on South Carolina’s field for the first time in several years to play football together.

36 STUDENTS AT OLYMPICS

USC students reflect on time interning at NBC during the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Honors College students form LGBTQIA+ club to encourage inclusivity in all environments.

Shop owner renovates an older building in Five Points to a new store containing different kinds of plants and produce.

42 SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE

Potential new sorority members should prioritize building connections over looking at a house’s online presence.

Students need to put more effort into creating a more environmentally-conscious community at USC.

46 GET TO KNOW US

Editorial staffers share their favorite order at an on-campus sandwich shop.

Columbia advocates share what can contribute to an increased number of cat colonies.

Columbia’s Magnificent Apartment Community

Life is better under the Oaks! Beautiful 21 Oaks offers cutting edge amenities, meticulously groomed grounds, spacious floor plans designed with you in mind, and a dedicated staff that contributes to a higher standard of living. Only steps away from Williams-Brice Stadium, it’s the perfect location for Saturday’s in South Carolina. Live to tailgate, live 21 Oaks.

3 Bed, 3 Bath

1,107 sq. feet 3

Bedrooms, 3 Baths

4 Bed, 2 Bath & Super 2

1,108 sq. feet 4 Bedrooms, 2 Baths

2 Bedrooms, 1 Bath (Split 4x2)

4 Bed, 4 Bath

1,372 sq. feet 4 Bedrooms, 4 Baths

Don’t wait for opportunities to find you this semester Letter from the Editor:

Kate Robins | Editor-in-chief

One of the things I love most about being a journalist is that I always get questions.

Each semester, my friends never fail to text me asking about construction happening around campus or why there’s multiple police cars on Greene Street.

I love that part of my role as a journalist is to help people feel more informed. But I would never be where I am as a reporter if I didn’t take initiative and learn the answers to those questions in the first place.

But this concept doesn’t apply to only journalists. Each day, we are all faced with a choice: Are we going to let the world make its mark on us or are we going to make our mark on the world?

Freshmen, you are entering a whole new chapter of your life. Throughout your first few months on campus, you’re going to find that USC will meet you halfway.

There will be opportunities where people come to you and ask if you would like to join their club. There will be events where you can meet your new best friends. And there will be career fairs where you can network.

But the best experiences are the ones when you take the initiative to seek them out yourself.

Don’t wait for your new friend on the floor of your dorm to ask you if you would like to grab lunch. Take the first step and ask. Don’t wait for your professor to explain the attendance policy. Read through the syllabus first. And don’t wait for a club to ask you if you would like to attend one of their interest meetings. Reach out to them and ask about how you can join.

Sophomores and juniors, you’re probably thinking, “I have so much time left.” And don’t worry you still do, but as I embark on my last year at USC, I can tell you it goes by quickly. It’s easy to think, “I’ll just do that next semester.” But next semester eventually won’t be an option.

Seniors, the countdown has started. Pretty soon we’ll be looking back on our last year wondering how it went by so fast. If you’re like me, you’ve already started reflecting on your time at USC. If there are a few last things you want to accomplish, do them now and leave here with no regrets.

Whether it’s taking the initiative to invite someone to grab a cup of coffee or reaching out to a company to ask about internships, I encourage everyone at USC to join me this semester in seeking out opportunities before they find us.

We only have so long at this university, and we might as well make the most of it.

Forever to thee,

Kate Robins

Photo: Nick Hill

Students, faculty express concerns over campus culture, classroom dynamics with DEI bill’s uncertain future

OLIVIA HELFEN | STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENT BEAT WRITER

Legislators, university officials and concerned citizens gathered in February to discuss proposed bills that could affect higher education in South Carolina.

The discussion sparked back-and-forth conversations about House Bill 4289, which aims to remove DEI within higher education in South Carolina. The meeting even drew the attention of university officials, such as Julian Williams, the vice president of the Office of Access and Opportunity at USC.

Williams said during the meeting that the university believes DEI is important to its mission.

“Diversity is America’s strength,” Williams said. “And we believe the same goes for our campus and our state.”

The bill could impact higher education through its admissions and faculty, and potentially affect the classroom setting in South Carolina if it is passed by the Senate and signed into law. One of the main aspects of the bill is that universities would not be able to consider an individual’s background when offering a job or admission to their university and cannot ask for statements of beliefs or ideology.

But some students believe the bill could cause more harm on campus than good.

A complicated history

Another major part of the bill is that universities would have to release a statement every January highlighting how they complied with the law and which programs on campus support diversity, equity and inclusion. The bill does not explicitly state that certain things cannot be said in classes, but it could potentially limit the conversations that will be permitted regarding race, ethnicity and gender.

South Carolina is not the first state to discuss bills that restrict these ideas, nor is this the first bill to be seen in the state legislature. Thirty states have had anti-DEI legislation introduced. And of that, 10 have passed in at least one chamber and three have been enacted, according to NBC.

H. 4289 was first introduced on April 6, 2023, and since then has been revised and voted on nearly 20 times. Throughout the changes and revisions, the content of the bill at its core has remained the same with only minor changes being made to the language used. The language changes have been focused on making the bill more specific and detailed than its original form.

The support for the bill originates from the idea of protecting young adults from potential harm to their education, said Rep. Josiah Magnuson (R-Spartanburg), who is one of the legislators sponsoring the bill. He said he believes the bill is necessary because of DEI’s potential dangers when promoted in higher education.

“DEI is the practice of what we call critical theory, it’s a Marxist idea philosophy,” Magnuson said during the February meeting. “And it’s implementing the belief that group identity determines your privileges and your responsibilities rather than relying on individual rights and your god-given talent.”

Concerns over campus culture

Genesis Ragland, a fourth-year information science major, is the president of the Freedom Riders Organization on campus. The organization advocates for social justice issues and aims to educate people about how those issues affect the campus community.

Ragland said she is worried that if the bill passes, there could potentially be

a decrease in the number of minority students wanting to come to campuses in South Carolina and a potential decrease in the security of students who are already here. She said she believes the issue itself isn’t the language in the bill but the language backing the bill.

“Personally, I probably wouldn’t even want to go to a campus that isn’t really focused on diversity,” Ragland said. “It was hard enough as a Black person to be here around a predominantly white institution.”

Ragland believes the bill will likely discourage diverse students from coming to USC, leading current students in those groups on campus to feel less supported, she said.

“It was an extreme culture shock for me, coming from a predominantly Black, I guess you could say county,” Ragland said. “It could affect a lot of people deciding to come to campus, people interacting, not making friends.”

She isn’t the only one with these concerns, though. Will Gunter, a third-year political science and philosophy student and vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union on campus, said he has concerns about free speech being limited in classrooms.

“I think that one of the most important things about (higher) education … is that you’re able to learn from all sorts of different experiences … and the risk of not being able to have that authentic experience to see different people’s perspectives, even if you might disagree with them, it’s really important to be able to learn from other people and see their perspectives on things,” Gunter said.

University spokesperson Collyn Taylor said the university is “committed to maintaining diversity and welcoming campus environments for all.” And that USC is having conversations with the legislature about the bill and its potential impact.

“As always, our policies will remain consistent with federal and state law,” Taylor said.

Inside the classroom

The bill doesn’t specifically target student organizations, but it does open the door to restricting them, said Kirk Randazzo, a political science professor. If organizations are made to support minority groups, the bill could put them at risk of being restricted on campus, he said.

“I think the bill in its current iteration could have implications on (minority) groups,” Randazzo said. “Those organizations would be difficult to continue operating … or risk running not in compliance with this bill.”

Randazzo has been following this bill closely, he said. He said he believes the bill could compromise the university’s ability to confront controversial issues in a classroom setting.

“I think people may just avoid discussing controversial subjects out of fear of violating this law, and that’s really part of what a university is supposed to do,” Randazzo said.

“To confront

controversial or difficult issues in order to create a broad understanding of what’s acceptable.”

Limited speech in the classroom would likely come from a “chilling effect” that this bill would cause, Randazzo said. A chilling effect is a societal ramification, where individuals censor themselves to ensure that they don’t accidentally violate the law, Randazzo said.

USC requires its students to have a “Founding Documents” credential. Within these courses, there are many different documents, including the Emancipation Proclamation, that students must read for the course.

If H. 4289 is passed into law, it could put professors who teach these courses in a potentially compromising position, where they must decide between teaching these essential documents or refraining from mentioning anything DEI-related in the classroom, Randazzo said.

Randazzo said he and other professors have worked to make USC’s campus more inclusive, where difficult conversations can be had. But if that is limited, it puts the integrity of higher education at stake, he said.

Educating the student body

Ragland and Gunter are worried about how aware and informed students are of the bill and its potential effects on campus.

Ragland said she believes the bill is known on campus, but individuals are not well-informed on its content or potential backlash. Gunter, on the other hand, doesn’t believe that students are aware of this bill, despite efforts to raise awareness.

But both agree that it is important to show up and spread awareness about the potential issues the university will face if this bill passes.

“There’s a lot of activism that can be done, but having this kind of shared community of people who want to protect these values, regardless of political affiliation, regardless of different group or party affiliation,” Gunter said.

Discussing these issues is not the only way to spread awareness. There needs to be better standards for education to prepare individuals to be in a world where there are issues that they need to stand up against, Raglan said.

Despite the bill’s broad language, Ragland, Gunter and Randazzo believe the likelihood of the bill having any potential positive outcomes for the university is low. But

there is the potential for students who may currently feel underrepresented to be given more of a voice, but that is a bit of reach, Randazzo said.

Randazzo said he believes that at its core, the bill is an anti-DEI bill. He thinks it could prohibit universities from considering an individual’s background or perspective when making decisions, he said. But there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding how it will affect the university, he said.

The bill still need to pass the Senate, which will resume discussion surrounding the bill in the next legislative session in January.

ILLUSTRATION: ABBY SHORT

USC opens new training facility to address nursing shortage

colin elam |ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Ten years ago, Jeanette Andrews, the dean of USC’s College of Nursing, realized the college would run out of space and began pitching an expansion to the nursing school’s Columbia building.

And on Aug. 12, Andrews saw her plan become a reality as she joined several other university officials to cut the ribbon to a major expansion to the school’s nursing facilities.

The University of South Carolina and Lexington Medical Center opened their new satellite clinical education building during the ceremony. The new training facility will help the university enroll more students in its nursing program, university President Michael Amiridis said.

The 52,000-square-foot facility contains classrooms, study spaces and the Center for Simulation and Experiential Learning, which has four sections where students will replicate various clinical scenarios in a controlled environment. The new simulation lab is three times the size of the college’s current lab and will open the previous space for graduate research.

The need for the project also stemmed from a nationwide nursing shortage, said

Tod Augsburger, the CEO of Lexington Medical Center.

“Over the next 10 years, the nursing workforce will face dramatic changes, including the expected retirement of more than one million nurses nationally,” Augsburger said at the opening. “South Carolina itself is facing the ninth highest projected nursing shortage in the country.”

Through this partnership, Lexington Medical Center will provide USC with space and clinical instructors, while the university increases its faculty and the size of its nursing program, said Melissa Taylor, the vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer for Lexington Medical Center.

“It helps organizations like us, that are looking for nurses,” Taylor said. “We need to increase the total number of nurses that schools are graduating, and this partnership will allow us to do that.”

When the center encouraged the university to increase the enrollment of nursing students, Andrews said the program had limitations.

“I said, ‘Sure, we have the students, we have a lot of interest in our program,’”

up-and-coming, upper-division students to get a lot of good simulation experience.”

The College of Nursing has made other efforts in recent years to increase the amount of graduating nurses. Three years ago, the college started the Master’s Entry to Practice Nursing, a five-semester program for students with bachelor’s degrees in non-nursing fields, Andrews said.

“We’re also putting new nurses in the workforce, from people who (are) choosing nursing as a second career,” she said.

The college is also aiming to increase its graduate enrollment in order to produce more nursing faculty to train future students, Andrews said.

“There’s a shortage of nursing faculty around the country and in South Carolina,” Andrews said. “So having more nurses with doctorate degrees allows us to enroll more students.”

Figuring out how to keep nurses in the field is part of solving the shortage, Taylor said. This could include making hours more flexible and increasing the variety of jobs available.

Andrews said. “But we just didn’t have the classroom space or the simulation space.”

The West Columbia hospital then offered the land, which the new building sits on, she said. After about six months of planning and a 14-month build, the project has been completed.

The building will allow the university to almost double the amount of undergraduates in the field, Amiridis said.

“Capacity is the problem,” Amiridis said. “Having the capacity in order to produce the high-quality students that we want, with the high-quality experience that they get. So that’s why facilities are important, and that gives us the ability to do it.”

Fourth-year nursing student Charlotte Burts said she is excited about the opportunities the facility will give students and the increased space it will provide.

“Seeing the really large, new classrooms is really exciting,” Burts said. “I think it’s gonna be a really good atmosphere to learn and be able to collaborate with other nursing students. The sim lab is also beautiful and amazing. I think it’s a really good opportunity for students, especially

“Perhaps they don’t want to work 12 hours on the floor anymore,” Taylor said. “But are there other positions that we can give them to keep them in that field longer?”

The two institutions commemorated the opening of the building with a ribbon cutting ceremony, with speeches from Augsburger, Amiridis, Andrews and South Carolina Sen. Nikki Setzler (D-District 26). The event was a significant moment for Setzler, he said.

“As a life-long, diehard Gamecock and a longtime advocate and supporter of Lexington health and the Lexington health system, this is a special day for me to see these two institutions come together to do what they’re doing here,” Setzler said.

The university is open to partnerships with a variety of groups, Amiridis said. And Setzler said he believes more partnerships between USC and the Lexington health system are in the future.

“We know this is the first — not the only, not the last — but the first in many new partnerships between these two institutions,” Setzler said.

The main entrance of USC’s new nursing building at Lexington Medical Center stands on Aug. 19, 2024. The new training facility will help the university enroll more students in its nursing program.

Photo: delany kral

A unit of health serving departments dedicated to meeting the emotional, mental, and physical needs of the Gamecock community.

CAMPUS RECREATION

With a focus on physical wellness, we offer a variety of services, programs, and facilities to inspire an active and connected USC community, providing opportunities to stay engaged and healthy.

COUNSELING AND PSYCHIATRY

Prioritizing mental health, we recognize its crucial role in overall well-being and academic success. Our dedicated support is readily available to assist you through any challenges you may face on your personal journey.

EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING

HEALTHY CAMPUS INITIATIVES

Our team provides diverse health education, outreach, and prevention services through peer mentorship, wellness coaching, a licensed dietician, and other resources.

STUDENT HEALTH CENTER

Providing comprehensive healthcare services, our clinic supports students with routine check-ups, specialized treatments, and empowering skills for lifelong wellness, ensuring a healthy campus community.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION AND EDUCATION

Dedicated to promoting healthy, low-risk behavior and a safe Carolina community where students' academic and personal success is not impaired by substance misuse.

State budget allocates $123.3 million to university for new Health Science Building and tuition freeze

olivia helfen |STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENT BEAT WRITER

South Carolina legislators ratified the state budget on June 26, allocating approximately $170.3 million to the entirety of the University of South Carolina campuses.

The University of South Carolina, Columbia, received $123.3 million, while the remaining $47 million went to the other satellite campuses. The money will be split among a variety of projects, all decided by the yearly budget made by the board of trustees.

The allocations are split into two types of funds: recurring and non-recurring. Recurring funds are given each year to the university, while non-recurring funds are given as needed rather than annually.

The recurring funds mainly aim to keep tuition stagnant for in-state

students. The Columbia campus has been able to freeze tuition for in-state students for the last six years straight. Tuition for out-of-state students has also only been increased twice since 2020 because of the fund.

The non-recurring funds are split among other projects on campus. A large portion is going toward USC’s new Health Science Campus, which is scheduled to begin construction in early 2025. The remaining money will be dispersed to other needed projects on campus.

FILE — People arrived on the South Carolina Statehouse lawn as early as 2 p.m. for Donald Trump’s late afternoon appearance on Jan. 28, 2023. Recently, South Carolina legislators ratified the state budget, allocating money to the University of South Carolina.

Photo: Calista Pushman

‘Let’s

make

a

run at it’: Local community members increase efforts to ‘Save Capital City Stadium’

Ten years ago, fans and teams made their way out of Capital City Stadium’s stands for what would be its last game. Plans for grocery stores, Walmarts and student apartment complexes on the Assembly Street site came and went. But nothing could ever stick.

Meanwhile, local baseball teams from community leagues to Gamecock club baseball have been traveling and searching for places to play, some even driving right past the abandoned field on their way to various other locations in and around the city.

Chris Dorsey coaches American Legion baseball, one of the oldest baseball organizations in the country. After the last game of his team’s season, he was driving by the stadium and decided someone should try to revitalize the property. And that someone, should be him.

“We just ended our season, and something just came over me, and I said, ‘I need a field. This field is sitting here. Nobody’s ever going to be able to do anything on it, because it’s got some wetlands problems, and it’s just so expensive for a developer to come in there and do anything’. I said, ‘Let’s make a run at it,’” Dorsey said.

Dorsey then started the “Save Capital City Stadium” Facebook group to “test the market” and see what kind of action and interest he could get from the community. Within a few days, the group had grown to 600 members. It now has 1,600.

Dorsey had a meeting with Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann in early August. With him, he outlined what steps they needed to take to get the idea off the ground.

The first was creating an unsolicited proposal, a written application to an agency for a new idea to start a contract with the government. Dorsey sought the Facebook group’s help. And on

Aug. 14, Dorsey turned in the group’s unsolicited proposal with more than 125 letters of support.

OVER A CENTURY of impact

Baseball has been in Columbia since 1867 when the first documented match took place. Several teams had their roots in Columbia, with teams from the Senators to Skyscrapers to Commissioners.

The stadium was built in the 1920s on top of an old, drained pond. The original wooden grandstands are gone, but the stadium remains on that site.

Early teams played at various stadiums around Columbia. In 1927, a fire destroyed a portion of an existing stadium. Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss donated the funds to a new stadium that would be called Dreyfuss Field, which is now Capital City Stadium.

“Dreyfuss Dell, as the stadium was first called, was a soggy home for minor league baseball for the next eight decades, off and on, depending on whether the town had a team,” said Margaret Dunlap, Richland Library’s local history manager.

The stadium would go on to host many teams. One of the most notable in Columbia baseball history, Dunlap said, is the Reds.

The Reds was a long-running team in Columbia. One of the biggest players to arise out of the team was outfielder Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer who played for the team in the 50s.

Frank Robinson went onto various other teams and now holds 10th place for the most home runs of all time players in the MLB.

Robinson was also one of the only two Black players on the team. His arrival on the Reds in 1954 was one of the first moves to integration in the City of Columbia.

Billy Routh, a member of Save the Capital City Stadium group, said his father was an

announcer while Robinson played on the team.

“They started their broadcasting careers at Capital City Stadium for the Columbia Reds,” Routh said. “And this was at a time when Frank Robinson, who would later go on to become a major league Hall of Famer, played for the Columbia Reds in 1955. I actually have an audio recording of my dad calling Frank Robinson at bat in 1955.”

The stadium served a large role in its community outside of the players and teams. Members

of the ‘Save Capital City Stadium’ group shared fond memories of what attending games at the field was like for them.

Tim Graves grew up in Columbia and still lives here. He spent a lot of time at Capital City Stadium when he worked as a clubhouse manager for a team that played at Capital City.

Graves remembers a local celebrity named Dave, who spent a lot of time at the stadium and was known for his team spirit and rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

“Everybody loved Dave,” Graves said. “There wasn’t anybody at the Sarge Frye field that didn’t love Dave, and I guess because of his love

EMMY RIBERO | NEWS EDITOR

of baseball, that ended up winding up him being over at Capital City Stadium as the person that you know everybody loved again over there.”

Members of the group, including Dorsey and Graves, agreed Dave should be honored in the stadium somehow if it were to be rebuilt.

“I think it’s best to just make sure that you know his, either his jersey, or his likeness,

and they were going to completely bulldoze it,” Graves said. “We were very sad when they were talking about having to do that, to a point where would have been some tears being shed if that ever came to fruition. And thank God it hasn’t come to fruition and now we’re doing what we’re trying to do.”

The community wants it to remain a baseball field and that is also

expressing a desire to donate their time and help him navigate applying for funding sources. But the future of the stadium is still unknown.

John McNabola, president of Gamecock Club Baseball, said he reached out to Dorsey to discuss how the stadium could benefit Columbia and its team.

Gamecock Club baseball has had trouble finding places to practice around

our teams have always been like, ‘Hey, why don’t we try and look into revamping that stadium?’” McNabola said.

The unsolicited proposal, with the letters, was well received, Dorsey said. But there are still obstacles the group needs to overcome. When Dorsey submitted the proposal, to his surprise, other developers became interested in the property.

“After 10 years of it sitting there, and all of a sudden after I get this storm going, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, we have other people ... you have to do a request for proposal now,” Dorsey said.

He said he is the only interested party trying to make it a baseball field but is unsure who the others are.

The request for the proposal will take a couple of weeks. Despite the setback, Dorsey said he is going to continue to push forward. He wants the project to be for the community that made it happen, he said.

“This is going to be a community,” Dorsey said.

“This will be for Legion, for Gamecock club teams, for community events, community teams.”

A composite image of old and new photos of Capital City Stadium, located in Columbia, South Carolina. The photos range in time from 1958 to 2024, showing the changes the stadium has undergone over the decades.

PHOTOs: JATIN PATEL, Courtesy of Richland Library Local and Family History Center

The Daily Gamecock’s featured photos

University of South Carolina cheerleaders run and carry flags spelling “CAROLINA” during the football team’s entrance on Aug. 31, 2024. The Gamecocks played Old Dominion for the team’s first game of the 2024 season.

Junior drum major Brayden Russell directs the Carolina Band in a performance on Greene Street on Aug. 30, 2024. The band performed a mix of gameday songs and pop music to celebrate the start of the 2024 football season.

A member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority runs to greet a potential new member during Bid Day on Aug. 25, 2024, at Colonial Life Arena. The arena was full of excitement as many sprinted to find their new home.

PHOTO: DELANY KRAL

PHOTO: SEBASTIAN GODUN

PHOTO: SEBASTIAN GODUN

Upgrades to student housing and Thomas Cooper Library: Here’s everything inside the university’s new master plan

colin elam |ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The University of South Carolina’s board of trustees approved USC Next, a new master plan, on Friday, which includes plans to develop underutilized areas in the core of campus and create new facilities for teaching, research and student housing.

One component of the plan is USC President Michael Amiridis’ idea of “activating the historic core,” said university Architect Derek Gruner.

“What that really means is going back to the Horseshoe district and the Gibbes Green district, the spiritual heart of our campus, and looking for ways to get more students living in that core and learning in that core,” Gruner said.

The university worked on USC Next for over a year with Sasaki Associates, a design firm that has worked with the university for 30 years.

While creating the new master plan, USC and Sasaki engaged with community members and created an online survey to ask students about their habits on campus, Gruner said. The feedback allowed USC to see where students usually congregate

and how they get from place to place.

One result of the survey was a plan to improve the section of Devine Street which connects Thomas Cooper Library to Main Street, he said. Those improvements may include adding trees for shade and creating a safer pedestrian environment.

“Devine Street … is one of those realizations that came out of that process,” Gruner said. “We started to realize how many students were walking from the fountain area in front of Thomas Cooper, through to Main Street, through an area that is sort of a service yard right now.”

The plan is based on a predicted enrollment growth of 2% each year, he said.

“It’s something that the university I think is going to be very proud of,” Gruner said.

Housing

One project related to that goal is the replacement of the McBryde residence hall, which has already received some approvals and will enter a design phase soon, Gruner said. The university plans to

build both residential and research space in the location.

“What we see … is a modern residence hall that will greatly increase the number of students living in the core of campus,” he said.

USC plans to find a private partner to redevelop the 14-story Rutledge Building at the intersection of Bull and Senate streets into residential units. The university is open to creating either student housing or general housing, Gruner said.

Thomas Cooper Library

A comprehensive renovation of Thomas Cooper Library is also in the works, Gruner said. The project aims to modernize the building, address its maintenance needs and change how its interior space is used.

“The library of the 21st century is different than the previous centuries,” he said. “What students expect out of a library is different. It is more of a collaborative study space.”

Academic buildings

The Science and Technology Building’s East Tower will receive 16 classrooms, four labs, faculty offices and study spaces. Construction could start as early as September, Gruner said.

The additions, which come after the university renovated 40% of the building to create instructional chemistry labs, are expected to be complete in fall 2025.

USC will also build a new School of Medicine and research facility in Columbia’s BullStreet District.

Construction will begin in the first quarter of 2025, and the university expects students to arrive in fall 2027.

The building is the first step in creating a new health sciences campus, Gruner said. The project will cost $300 million and take up 308,000 square feet.

FILE — USC’s smokestack is pictured during the morning hours on July 8, 2024. USC’s board of trustees approved a new master plan in August that will see different areas of campus be upgraded.

Photo: NICKOLAS HIL

USC launches ‘Lunchtime Express’ during weekdays

CARRIGAN WOODSON | STUDENT GOVERNMENT BEAT WRITER

USC launched a new shuttle service called the “Lunchtime Express” which transports students between Russell House and Campus Village starting this semester.

The shuttle is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to those who have a valid USC ID.

Brian Favela, the director of Parking and Transportation, said the initiative originated from a student thesis project, gaining strong support from the university administration including Parking and Transportation, Student Government and USC Dining. Favela collaborated with Director of Business Affairs Joseph Fortune to bring the concept to life.

The idea to create a lunchtime shuttle on campus came up in a conversation between Favela and Student Body President Patton Byars. As they discussed potential students needs that might have been overlooked, the student thesis came up. Byars said he thought it was a great idea and pushed for its implementation.

“Russell House gets overextended so much, especially the first two weeks of school with freshmen, which is not a bad thing,” Byars said. ”However, we can facilitate a little bit better to get students to one, try different places to eat but two, not put so much constraint on one area so that everyone can have time to eat in an efficient manner, so you’re not waiting in line for 30 minutes for food at Russell House.”

The 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. lunchtime window is where administration is trying to create a better experience for students, Fortune said.

“One of my hopes for the shuttle is to inform students about the other options they have outside of the Russell House,” Fortune said. “There’s so many dining locations around the campus. The Pavilion ... is our largest dining hall, with over 650 seats and so that’s why we’re trying to drive traffic that direction.”

The Pavilion, located at Campus Village, is USC’s largest all-you-care-to-eat dining hall on campus.

The Lunchtime Express has the capacity to accommodate 15 to 20 students

per trip. If more space is needed, the shuttle size will expand, and if necessary, administration will look into adding an extra shuttle.

“It’s one shuttle, but we’re watching the ridership,” Favela said. “If we get to a point where we feel like we need to add an extra shuttle, we will do it.”

The shuttle will serve as a pilot to see if students will use it, Byars said. Once students use it, he will have a greater opportunity to advocate for its expansion.

USC Dining is keeping track of the students who ride the shuttle via their Carolina Cards. Students who swipe their card to get on the bus will receive a ticket for their name to be put in a drawing for various prizes in the spring semester.

“We’re trying to incentivize (students) in that way by saying, ‘Hey, by coming to lunch during the 11-2 hour, you get to put your name in the bucket for many prizes

for the spring,’” Fortune said. “And those prizes will be announced on social media on April 15th.”

Byars said the incentives for the lunchtime shuttle are there so students will ride it, especially for the freshmen since a lot of them live in Campus Village. He also said students who take the shuttle 30 times or more during the fall semester will qualify for Masters Tournament merchandise in April.

In addition to the Lunchtime Express, Student Government has involvement with other shuttle services on campus.

“Byars is also advocating for the Night Express, the night shuttle service too, which we are gonna put into play in spring,” Favela said.

There will be about four or five stops, Byars said. Stops will be located at Five Points, the Vista, near 650 Lincoln outside of Greek Village and on campus right outside the Horseshoe.

The Night Express shuttle service will start in January 2025, on the week before the first day of classes spring semester, Byars said.

Byars worked with many members of USC administration on implementing shuttle services with a broad range of hours for students as an effort to improve student safety.

“This is a safety initiative just as much it is a transportation one,” Byars said. “I’m excited because it’s going to run for long past my time here, which is what it should be, and that’s what’s important about it.”

The Lunchtime Express runs on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., traveling between Russell House and Campus Village. The Russell House stop is located at the turnaround in front of the Thomas Cooper fountain, while the Campus Village stop is located on Whaley Street at the bus pullout in front of Campus Village Building 2. Students must present a valid USC ID to ride the shuttle.

Students walking to board the lunch shuttle, which is heading to Campus Village, on Aug. 26, 2024. Campus Village, which opened in the 2023-2024 school year at the University of South Carolina, is the newest residence hall on the west side of campus.

PHOTO: NICKOLAS HILL

New developments in Five Points aim to increase safety, tourism

MARLEY BASSETT | NEWS WRITER

The Five Points neighborhood has seen a total of $5 million allocated in the past year for new developments that are looking to increase safety and grow tourism in the area.

A new parking garage and boutique hotel with office spaces are planned to be added where the old Wells Fargo bank used to sit at the corner of Devine and Blossom streets. Main Five Points roads, such as Harden Street, will also be under construction to make them safer, said State Rep. Seth Rose (D-Richland).

In the most recent state budget, the South Carolina legislature allocated $2.5 million to build a new parking deck in the old

Wells Fargo bank lot. The deck would hold 400 to 500 spaces and be close to many Five Points landmarks.

Rose said the $5 million allocated over multiple years to the City of Columbia for the Five Points neighborhood would be used to fund the construction of the parking garage.

“We have $5 million right now, and it is my understanding that ... parking for the parking garage would go — the funds will be used for that site — and the recruitment of these five star hotels,” said Rose, who represents Five Points and its surrounding areas.

The parking deck would help attract new businesses such as a boutique hotel, office

spaces and businesses that are hoping to open a location in Five Points, Rose said. He added that the new parking garage would allow for pedestrians to be closer to businesses within the area.

“We’re trying to bring businesses that we want down there that thrive and want to employ people,” Rose said.

“We think the pedestrian-friendly environment and having ample parking is something that would be obviously huge to the commercial district and those that are bringing businesses or looking to bring businesses to the Five Points area.”

Charlene Slaughter, the director of communications for Experience Columbia,

said the improvements will help boost tourism in the area by allowing tourists to be closer to one of the biggest and most well-known districts in Columbia.

“It’s a big benefit for us just to, again, continue the messaging to talk about our districts and talk about things to do to have lodging in the area and parking in the area,” Slaughter said.

The newparking in Five Pointswill also aim to help local businesses, such as Papa Jazz Record Shoppe, to increase their revenue by allowing more customers to be closer to the area.

“On the days when we actually make our money, which is like Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays, that’s when we’re really tight (on parking spaces). Or, during the holidays, there’s a real shortage of spaces when everybody’s actually making most of their money,” said Tim Smith, the owner of Papa Jazz Record Shoppe. “So it should be really beneficial.”

In addition to the new parking deck being added to Five Points, Harden Street, one of the main roads in the area, is being redeveloped to be safer for pedestrians.

The project, which started in April, is expected to be completed by October 2024. Once finished, the road will include a bike lane, a median, a lane for commercial vehicles and crosswalks for pedestrians.

Rose said the improvements will make Harden Street safer for pedestrians, including college students.

“I was able to allocate $5 million in funding for a Harden Street road project that’s currently underway, which is going to slow down traffic via more pedestrianfriendly environmental Harden Street,” Rose said. “It is addressing what the South Carolina Department of Transportation calls, and has ranked as the most dangerous stretch of blocks in the entire state for pedestrians.”

Slaughter said Experience Columbia is ready to have more things to tell visitors about the area.

“We’re excited for anything that we can continually talk about to raise awareness of Columbia as a place to travel to in the South, you know, things that will pique the interest of visitors of all ages,” Slaughter said.

The outside of the former Wells Fargo building off of Saluda Ave on July 21, 2024. The City of Columbia announced that $5 million allocated in the past year will go towards new developments.

PHOTO: NICKOLAS HILL

“Damn

“This

“Five More

“Cab

Rates as low as $975

South Carolina football’s wide receiver room set to feature new faces

Brendan Dougherty | ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

FILE — Redshirt junior wide receiver Jared Brown and senior wide receiver Gage Larvadain listen to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains during South Carolina’s annual Garnet and Black Spring Game at WilliamsBrice Stadium on April 20, 2024. This season marks both players’ first one with the Gamecocks.

South Carolina football’s offense will have a number of new faces on the field in the receiver room for the 2024 season, hauling in five transfers with the potential for consistent productivity.

The Gamecocks saw many of its offensive playmakers move onto the professional ranks or leave the program through the transfer portal this offseason.

Xavier Legette, who was the Gamecocks’ eading receiver last year, was taken with the No. 32 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers. Fifth-year wide receiver Ahmarean Brown, who also had

experience returning punts and kicks, signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cleveland Browns.

The team lost a pair of receivers to the transfer portal, as redshirt junior O’Mega Blake and redshirt senior Antwane Wells Jr. committed to play for UNC Charlotte and Ole Miss, respectively.

South Carolina will return just one wide receiver who recorded more than 150 receiving yards last season — sophomore Nyck Harbor, who totaled 195 yards on only 12 catches. Because of this, the team added five new players to its receiving corps this offseason — sixth-year Dalevon Campbell

(who transferred from Nevada), senior Gage Larvadain (Miami-Ohio), redshirt junior Jared Brown (Coastal Carolina), senior Ahmari Huggins-Bruce (Louisville) and redshirt freshman Vandrevius Jacobs (Florida State).

Huggins-Bruce has since departed the Gamecock program and returned to Louisville for the 2024 season.

This will also force redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers to throw to a plethora of new faces throughout the campaign. Head coach Shane Beamer initially announced that Sellers would be the Gamecocks’ starting quarterback on Aug. 20.

The Gamecocks had a productive passing attack during the 2023 campaign, finishing sixth in the SEC in passing yards. Former South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler, who is now a member of the New Orleans Saints in the NFL, threw for 3,186 yards and 19 touchdowns last year.

Rattler had a variety of pass-catching options during his final collegiate season, including Legette, whose 1,255 yards in 2023 was the second-highest singleseason receiving yardage total in Gamecock football history.

South Carolina’s passing attack generated much of the team’s offense, accounting for 76.5% of its total yards from scrimmage last season. But the Gamecocks were forced to start fresh during the offseason, which has created an open competition for playing time ahead of the 2024 campaign, Beamer said.

“We’ve got more depth in athleticism and competition than last year,” Beamer told reporters on Aug. 1. “If you ask me today ... ‘Who are your top six receivers game one?’ it really truly is still to be determined.”

Brown joins the Gamecocks as an established veteran in the wide receiver room, having been a consistent performer for the Chanticleers. He has recorded 700 receiving yards each of the past two seasons and scored 10 total touchdowns during that time frame.

Brown said South Carolina’s wide receiver room has struck a balance between camaraderie and competition.

“Everybody in that room wants to play, and it’s still a competition in that room,” Brown said. “I feel like everyone is coming along, we’re all competing and we’re all going to do work.”

Larvadain is coming off a season of playing Football Bowl Subdivision football at Miami-Ohio after spending his first two collegiate seasons at Southeastern Louisiana. In a contest against Massachusetts last season, Larvadain put up 273 yards on only eight catches.

Each of the team’s receivers is eager to prove themselves and compete for a role on the team, Larvaidain said.

“We’re all hungry,” Larvadain said. “It makes it easy to go out there and compete when you’ve got a group of guys who are just so eager to go out there and help each other get better.”

Campbell joins South Carolina with the most college football experience of any wide receiver, having spent the past five years at Illinois and Nevada. He said he is excited to join the group and continue learning from wide receivers coach Mike Furrey, who was hired on Feb. 29.

“He’s a hard coach, and he has expectations that he wants you to meet, and you’ve got to have an expectation for yourself that is higher than his, and he (will) push you to that,” Campbell said.

“The way he talks, the way he (does) things, you want to run through that wall for him, and you want to be the best for him and for the team.”

Jacobs, who has the least experience as the youngest of the bunch, tallied three receptions for the Florida State team that went undefeated during the regular season and won an ACC Championship last year. Now a Gamecock, Jacobs said he has been impressed with what he was seen from Sellers during preseason practice.

“I feel like LaNorris can make any throw, I feel like he can make any read, so that’s how I feel about (former Florida State quarterback) Jordan Travis too,” Jacobs said. “It’s a pleasure, a privilege, playing with him, so ... he’s going to make me better.”

PHOTO: TAYLOR KITCHENS

‘We’re not done’: South Carolina women’s soccer fifth years return with big goals, hope to futher program

Griffin Goodwyn | Sports Editor

South Carolina women’s soccer forward Catherine Barry faced a big decision at the end of the 2023 campaign.

Barry had just completed her senior season. She started in all 21 of the Gamecocks’ matches, led the team with nine goals and five assists, served as a team captain and could have decided to achieve her dream of becoming a professional soccer player. But she ultimately returned to South Carolina for another season. She had “another gear” to reach at USC, she said.

“I know I’m being pushed every day by my teammates. I have an amazing coaching staff that are ready to pour into me every single day to help push me and get me to be where I need to be,” Barry said. “I just felt like I had another year, both to kind of prove who I was, what I was capable of and to continue to grow before I went to that next level.”

Multiple players followed suit, deciding to use their fifth years to achieve both personal and team goals, as well as give back to the Gamecock women’s soccer program.

Five Gamecock players — Barry, forward Corinna Zullo, midfielder Brianna Behm, defender Hallie Meadows and goalkeeper Taylor Fox – announced they would return to the team for their fifth years via a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. All five players were granted an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA after the COVID-19 pandemic shortened collegiate sports seasons in 2020.

Head coach Shelley Smith said it did not take much convincing for South Carolina’s fifth-year players to return for another year.

“I believe that these guys want to play. They want to keep playing, and we have a program that they’ve poured a lot of their heart into — and time,” Smith said. “I’m thankful for the devotion they’ve shown to South Carolina, this team, and they want to be a part of it.”

For Meadows, whose collegiate career spans 48 matches and 35 starts, the decision to play her fifth season of college

soccer was a “no-brainer.” She said she was motivated after the team fell short of the goals it set at the beginning of the 2023 campaign.

Meadows said South Carolina’s players “want it all” this year after failing to advance far in both the SEC and NCAA tournaments last season.

“I remember, at the end of last season, we were like, ‘We’re not done,’” Meadows said. “We didn’t really reach the goals we wanted to reach, and knowing that we had more left in us, we had the opportunity to come back and knowing the people we were bringing in, we were like, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s run it back.’”

Both senior midfielder Lily Render and junior defender Gracie Falla said they believe the fifth-years’ presence will provide benefits to the team as a whole. Render, who will serve as a team captain alongside Barry and Meadows this season, said the fifth-years’ return to the program is a testament to

the family-like environment it has built in recent seasons.

Their experience playing against teams with a variety of skills and strategies also allows younger players who can benefit from their knowledge, said Falla, the reigning SEC Defender of the Year.

“They’ve experienced a lot of things that also happened, and so they’ve been through it all, and so they know what it takes to win those championships,” Falla said. “Having that back is a huge asset for us.”

Smith said using an additional year of eligibility can also be beneficial for players with professional aspirations. Both goalkeeper Heather Hinz and defender Jyllissa Harris took advantage of the fifth-year granted to them by the NCAA and now play for the Houston Dash, a team in the National Women’s Soccer League.

Barry could similarly further her personal development after playing five years at South Carolina, Smith said.

“Players that return — and Cat’s a good example, she wants to play at the next level, so she knows you always need to prove yourself. And having good competition to play against is going to get you there,” Smith said. “I think they’ll take advantage of the fact that they have one more year here and really focus on being a pro and working with our strength and conditioning staff and everything else that’s offered to them.”

The ultimate reason each of the Gamecocks’ fifth-years returned to the team, though, is because of their collective goal to further the growth of the program and “leave it better than we found it,” Barry said.

“I think that was hard for a lot of us to pass up, and I think that’s evidenced by the fact that we have five girls coming back from our original class, so I think that’s pretty remarkable,” Barry said. “I know that we’re all really excited for what we’re capable of this year and to have one more year to give back to this program.”

FILE — Fifth-year forward Catherine Barry runs the ball up the pitch during South Carolina’s match against Furman on Aug. 18, 2024, at Stone Stadium. Barry is one of five players returning to compete in their fifth year for the Gamecocks.

Photo: Taylor Kitchens

Deals and donations: How Gamecock fans get involved with NIL

MINGO MARTIN |ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

During South Carolina’s 2023-2024 athletic season, Garnet Trust, the official NIL collective of Gamecock Athletics, landed two large donation match campaigns during its football and men’s basketball seasons in an effort to encourage more Gamecocks to get involved with donating.

The challenge was to “inspire more Gamecock fans to join the surge of those already investing in University of South Carolina athletes,” according to the university’s press release for the football campaign.

The NCAA changed its policy in June 2021 to allow athletes to receive financial compensation off their name, image and likeness.

Now that three years have passed, fans like Jeff O’Hara — the co-owner of CB18 Bar and Grill and a Gamecock fan involved in NIL — and Brad Sales — a Gamecock fan who donates monthly towards NIL at South Carolina — believe the meaning behind NIL in college sports has drastically changed.

But both believe NIL has become another donor-funded industry in college athletics when it was originally originally intended to be centered around player sponsorships.

“The fact is: this is college sports today — without money, you’re not going anywhere,” Sales said. “I think this completely turned into, the perception is, if you don’t give as the average fan, you will not be successful.”

Sales said he believes the NIL space was originally supposed to help college athletes gain sponsorships and create a brand for themselves, not to receive donations from fans.

“I think NIL was rolling out for a lot of situations like (EA Sports’) College Football 25,” Sales said . “I think it was rolling out for (fifth-year punter) Kai Kroger wanting to go do a commercial with Kubota.”

O’Hara said he believes the original design of NIL wasn’t to obtain money from the average fan. But he said he understands the need for universities,

collectives and fans to be aligned in their vision.

He also compared the market to the “wild west” with its lack of uniform rules. If a program doesn’t have a large donor fund in the NIL space, it will be left in the dust, O’Hara said.

“When NIL was first created, it was name image and likeness, and it was an opportunity for players to be able to capitalize just on that: their name, image and likeness,” O’Hara said. “And somewhere along the way, it has gotten a little bit misconstrued about schools paying players to get there and things to come.”

Garnet Trust and the Gamecock Club

The South Carolina Statehouse passed a bill in May 2024 that allows in-state colleges and universities to have more oversight over their athletes’ NIL deals. The change allowed for greater collaboration to exist between Garnet Trust, South Carolina’s official NIL partner, and the Gamecock Club, Gamecock Athletics’ in-house nonprofit organization that has financially supported the university’s athletes through scholarships since 1940.

Garnet Trust is an extension of what the athletic department does through the Gamecock Club, said Hilary Cox, the executive associate athletics director for strategic initiatives for Gamecock Athletics.

“It is really important that we’re all kind of in lockstep from a priority standpoint,” Cox said. “They basically handle what we call ‘deliverables’ that our athletes have to do associated with, basically working hand in hand with the Gamecock Club.” Deliverables are marketing activities athletes complete that help promote the Gamecock Club, said Jeremy Smith, the director of operations with Garnet Trust.

The Gamecock Club has taken the lead in donor funds for NIL at South Carolina now that the university is allowed to be more involved in the NIL dealings of its student-athletes. Cox said the donors are

the “lifeblood” of their operation. And the change in state law allows the athletic department to make sure those donors are taken care of, such as incorporating a subscription-based streaming service that features exclusive Gamecock Athletics’ content.

With these changes, Garnet Trust has conceded the donor-funded side of NIL to the Gamecock Club, opting to focus solely on finding sponsorship deals for Gamecock athletes. The collective also partners with Steel Hand Brewery to sell a “Gameday Lager,” where a portion of every beverage sold goes directly to Garnet Trust to benefit Gamecock athletes.

“In March, we were 80% donor funded. Now, we’re not doing it, or we’re not participating in these donor funds, right?” Smith said. “We’re having to educate the donor that they should be going to the Gamecock Club for NIL.”

Smith said that in a world with ever-changing rules, vision can get misaligned and can sometimes break down, forcing both Garnet Trust and the Gamecock Club to pivot whenever those regulations are modified.

“Way back at the building, everybody’s on the same page,” Smith said. “But to the customer, to the fan, to the donor, to the business, it sometimes can get a little bit confusing.”

Cox said the Gamecock Club and Garnet Trust are in constant communication to ensure their vision stays on track. The two entities talk every day and meet several times a week to troubleshoot any issues they may run into.

While communication is constant internally, Cox said it’s difficult to be fully transparent with the public and Gamecock Athletics can’t share NILrelated details because of recruiting.

“You can’t go out and say how much money you’ve raised or how much money you’ve earned because then the other schools can either use this against you or, you know, try to beat it down or something,” Cox said. “It is a really delicate dance of trying to share as much information as possible ... you’re at the top, and there’s a lot of pressure here.”

Pressure to get involved

Donors see their direct impact in NIL through player recruitment in college sports, O’Hara said.

That knowledge comes with pressure.

“You look at Tennessee’s recruiting class right now, they just landed David Sanders, the No. 1 offensive tackle in the nation. He went to a school based

on what NIL offered,” O’Hara said. “How much you willing to give? You know, if you’re not willing to give it all, ultimately, you can’t really have expectations on our athletic programs.”

Sales said he wonders if the pressure is this high everywhere, and he wishes there was more transparency regarding where his money is going.

“I love to see some sort of financials,” Sales said. “Where is this money going? So, maybe a quarterly newsletter, a monthly,

that says, ‘Okay, we were donated X amount this month. Here’s where some of it went. Here’s where some of it went. Here’s one story that was able to touch ... Those are the types of things that make me and other average fans continue to give.”

Gamecock fans make their mark

Sales got his start in the NIL space, with help from O’Hara, by facilitating a one-time NIL deal for former Gamecock

catcher Cole Messina during the 2023 season. He was looking for a way to get involved, he said.

Sales saw a post O’Hara put out on X, formerly known as Twitter, looking for someone to help with individual NIL deals. O’Hara’s idea was that NIL could be great for local businesses to reach their target audiences directly and help their business.

O’Hara has found multiple ways to get himself involved from hosting “Garnet Nights Unplugged” — a live call-in show featuring Gamecock players that took place last season at CB18 — to taking his profits from his Gamecock-themed Airbnbs to put into NIL deals.

“I said, ‘Hey, how I like to do our NIL is I’ll take my players who have the exact week I’m looking for with Gamecocks fans help them promote local businesses,’” O’Hara said. “And, in turn, they get to make those marketing and revenue and advertising dollars that these big corporations will typically, you know, you would eat right off of an algorithm.”

Small individual deals like these are important, Smith said, because they align heavily with the original intent of NIL and are extremely helpful for the average athlete.

“(O’Hara) created a lot of these opportunities for athletes like Cole (Messina) to capitalize on a moment within their career and capitalize on that name image and likeness,” Smith said. “It helps a lot more athletes out than many people know.”

O’Hara participates because he is a “superfan” who wants to support his favorite college sports teams. For him, he wants to see the University of South Carolina to be known as a place where student-athletes have creative ways to be able to earn money.

“The more money you generate in NIL, the better product you’re going to put out on the field,” O’Hara said. “Just like in Netflix, you pay that subscription service, you’re going to see better movies.”

Cox said it’s a personal decision on whether or not to donate at the end of the day.

“It’s individualized,” Cox said. “That takes time, so that’s just what we’re kind of trying to work through database, work through questions, work through fans, and try to help explain, one by one, in hopes that that person will turn around and then go share that with the next three people.”

Photo graphic: grant richa

South Carolina volleyball team adds new, yet familiar, beach volleyball face to roster for the 2024 season

Alicia Caracciolo | sports writer

Gamecock volleyball’s newest crossover athlete is no stranger to Gamecock Athletics.

Junior outside hitter Jolie Cranford has become a two-sport athlete, joining the indoor volleyball team after two seasons on the Gamecocks’ beach volleyball roster.

Cranford enjoyed playing on the beach but missed the indoor game. After working with the indoor coaching staff, she secured a place on the team. This makes Cranford one of three players on both volleyball rosters for the Gamecocks.

Three crossover athletes is the most that Gamecock Volleyball has seen in more than six years.

Starting in the sand

Cranford started playing volleyball with an indoor club team when she was 11 years old. She continued playing indoor volleyball for the next six years before restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic first led her to beach volleyball.

Cranford’s indoor volleyball club started to train beach volleyball to maintain their skills, and she found it “really fun.” She went through the recruiting process for both sports, but since not many players start their careers on two rosters, she did not consider it an option, she said.

“I did, at the time (of recruitment) like indoor more, but I wanted to go to an SEC school and beach brought that option.” Cranford said.

Cranford made immediate contributions for the Gamecock beach volleyball program, starting 27 times as a freshman and 35 times as a sophomore. She earned a .661 win percentage across her first two seasons with the team.

Even though Cranford is halfway through her college athletic career, she said she is satisfied with her decision to focus on the beach team at the start of her time at South Carolina. Spending two years focusing on beach allowed her to demonstrate her commitment to the team and develop as a player, she said.

Transitioning to Indoor

Cranford is not the only volleyball player on two rosters. Graduate outside hitter and teammate Riley Whitesides, who plays both indoor volleyball and beach volleyball, has helped guide Cranford in her collegiate indoor journey, Cranford said.

Whitesides helped Cranford realize that playing both variants of volleyball was possible at South Carolina. Cranford decided to join the indoor team after talking to Whitesides in January, she said. Indoor volleyball and beach volleyball,

that I’ve played against because, again, they can master the game in so many ways.”

Another difference between beach and indoor volleyball is the number of players on the court at one time. Beach volleyball matches have players compete in pairs, unlike the six-person teams that line up on either side of the net during an indoor game. Cranford enjoys having more teammates to celebrate with indoors and the energy of the gym, she said.

Another difference between beach and indoor volleyball is each sport

on April 7, 2024.

despite their similarities, are two technically different sports requiring different techniques. The indoor game emphasizes strength, while beach allows for flexibility and developing a player’s own route to success, Cranford said. The indoor game emphasizes power while there are several ways to succeed on the beach.

“You don’t have to really look or play a certain way to be good (in beach),” Cranford said. “I’ve found a lot of respect for a lot of the people

uses different balls and players move differently indoors than they do on sand. Cranford said her jumping abilities have significantly improved since she started playing beach volleyball. But transitioning between seasons can be challenging, she said.

Whitesides said the schemes and scouting of indoor teams, which are tactics employed to exploit the weaknesses of opponents, play a large part in the indoor game and are a significant difference from that of beach.

Whitesides said Cranford has done well adjusting to the indoor game.

“It’s a completely different sport, and it’s really, really a challenging thing to cross back over,” Whitesides said. “Jolie has made it look easy. She really has. She’s done a great job.”

The indoor game

Cranford, Whitesides and freshman outside hitter Maggie Elliott are the three indoor players that compete for both the indoor and beach teams. This is the greatest number of dual-sport athletes on the roster during Tom Mendoza’s six years as head coach for indoor volleyball.

Mendoza said he likes having a few dualsport players on his team that develop a high level of ball control skills during the beach season. The technical side of the beach game emphasizes precision in ball placement, a skill that can be valuable indoors. Mendoza believes the two important attributes players can possess at the collegiate level are a desire to commit and to put in the time, two things he saw in Cranford, he said.

“Once we felt comfortable that that was the type of person and player she was, then it made a lot of sense for her to join our team,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said he has a day-by-day mindset for Cranford as she approaches her first season with the team, but he has his eyes set on helping the program return to the NCAA Tournament.

“The SEC has gotten harder and more competitive every year that I’ve been here. It’s now the top conference in the country,” Mendoza said. “There’s no question that our goal is to make it back to the NCAA tournament.”

Whitesides said she is happy that Cranford was able to join the indoor team after having conversations with the coaching staff and advocating for her.

“We’re so grateful that we’re doing two sports together because we are very best friends,” Whitesides said.

FILE — Then sophomore beach volleyball player Julie Cranford dives for the ball at Wheeler Beach

The Gamecocks team took home a win against the Beakers, 5-0.

Photo: Emma Wyatt

South Carolina passed a new NIL law in May. Here’s what it means for USC, other in-state universities

griffin goodwyn|SPORTS EDITOR

On June 30, 2021, the NCAA drastically changed its stance on amateurism, granting student-athletes at affiliated universities the ability to earn financial compensation from their name, image and likeness.

Just under three years later, more changes in the NIL space were made in the state of South Carolina through the passage of a new state law, H. 4957. The law, which was signed by Gov. Henry McMaster on May 21, 2024, permits instate colleges and universities to have increased oversight of its student-athletes’ NIL deals, allowing them to operate “on a level playing field” with schools in other states that have adopted similar laws.

Lawmakers and college athletic department personnel spoke about what the law means and how it benefits student-athletes across the state of South Carolina.

State Rep. Seth Rose, D-Richland, was a co-sponsor of H. 4957 when it was first introduced to the state legislature on Jan. 25, 2024. The law replaced a previous piece of legislation that restricted how student-athletes could be compensated for NIL. H. 4957 grants institutions the right to both directly and indirectly oversee NIL deals involving its student-athletes. It does not, however, require that student-

athletes engage with their college or university as part of these deals.

Those restrictions were exacerbated by a lack of intervention by the NCAA in regulating interstate NIL laws.

“When the NCAA did not act and created this ‘wild, wild west,’ we actually were limiting and penalizing South Carolina colleges and universities with athletics programs because other states — our rivals — did not have language that prohibited them from being involved,” Rose said.

There are numerous ways universities could increase their NIL involvement under the new law, Rose said. A studentathlete could, for example, have a

photoshoot or commercial filmed at USC’s campus or athletic facilities. They could also have representatives from USC’s legal team look over their NIL contracts.

He added that it could be used as a valuable recruiting tool for some institutions since the law provides student-athletes with more protections than schools in other states.

Hilary Cox, Gamecock Athletics’ executive associate athletic director for strategic initiatives, said the passage of H. 4957 extended additional benefits to USC’s athletic department, gives it more avenues to interact with student-athletes in the NIL space.

Photo: Delany Kral

FILE — The Gervais Street side of the South Carolina Statehouse is pictured in Columbia, South Carolina, on Aug. 29, 2024. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed H.4957 into law on May 21, 2024, permitting in-state colleges and universities to have increased oversight of its student-athletes’ NIL deals.

This is because the purpose of state NIL laws are to permit institutions to go beyond what is outlined in the NCAA’s official rules, she said.

H. 4957 also allows for greater collaboration between Gamecock Athletics and Garnet Trust, its official NIL collective.

Mark Bonnoitt, Garnet Trust’s director of development, said the law has helped the relationship between Gamecock Athletics and the collective to grow stronger. The closer ties between both organizations have been demonstrated through benefits offered to donors, as they are now able to earn priority points for the Gamecock Club through donations to Garnet Trust.

Bonnoitt added that H. 4957 allows student-athletes to promote more than just the collective, providing them with additional means to be supported financially.

“Instead of just the players doing stuff for Garnet Trust, they will be able to do things to promote the University of South Carolina, to promote Gamecock Athletics, to promote season ticket sales, to promote whenever they have an event coming up,” Bonnoitt said.

The legislation and its impact on Gamecock Athletics has been positive overall, Cox said, as it helps the athletic department fulfill its responsibility to protect student-athletes and support them on and off the field.

“Previously, we weren’t really able to help them too much … It doesn’t make sense when we’re doing so much for our athletes and providing them so many benefits in all these other areas,” Cox said.

“We just wanted to make sure that our athletes had all the proper information and we could give them all the resources they needed.”

But not all collegiate athletic departments are created equal.

Outside of South Carolina and Clemson — two schools that are members of Power Five conferences — the state is home to an additional 10 NCAA Division I and 15 NCAA Division II programs.

Schools in the Power Five — which consists of the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac12 and SEC — typically generate larger amounts of revenue and have larger budgets, which allow them to offer more resources to student-athletes. Because of this, schools outside of the Power Five

conferences have to be more creative when it comes to providing NIL services.

Drew Emory, Winthrop Athletics’ assistant athletic director of compliance, said student-athletes at the university are not frequently approached by businesses and other third parties for NIL deals.

D.J. Burns, a former Winthrop Eagle and Big South Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, is an example of a player who struggled with this issue. While attending Winthrop, Burns was unable to strike a NIL deal with Burns Chevrolet, a local car dealership in his hometown of Rock Hill.

Nicholas Clark, the Altius NIL general manager at Coastal Carolina, said taking the initiative to seek out relationships with local businesses is pivotal for smaller schools’ NIL success.

“When it comes to recruitment, retention, education and engagement, you got to work to your strengths,” Clark said. “In my role as the general manager of NIL, what can I do to leverage the resources I do have and put our studentathletes in the best position to succeed?”

Even in cases where a smaller school doesn’t have money in its budget to hire NIL personnel for its athletic department’s staff, a lack of resources should not stand

in the way of its abilities to help studentathletes promote their brands, Clark said.

“Every school is responsible for providing their student-athletes with a pathway to opportunity, so what you can’t make up for in personnel, you make up with resources,” Clark said. “Will people’s budgets be able to cover the cost of that? (It) depends on who you’re talking to. However, there’s always a way to get it done.”

But despite the benefits H. 4957 provides South Carolina institutions and their student-athletes, Emory believes more action should be taken to regulate the NIL space and clearly define what the NCAA and individual institutions are allowed to do.

Emory said any action taken to address the “gray area” created by individual states’ NIL legislation will make the concept more black-and-white again.

“I ultimately think that any form of regulation is going to bring it further and further away from the ‘wild west’ to clearly define what is right (and) what is impermissible in these situations,” Emory said. “Now, with these ... guidelines coming out, it’s definitely going to help it bring it to a more stable space, I think.”

South Carolina football’s offensive line looks to improve after injury-riddled struggles in 2023

JohnBaylor Altman | Sports Writer

Offensive line play was a source of struggle for the South Carolina football team during the 2023 year.

The Gamecocks allowed 41 sacks last season, nine of which came in the team’s season opener against North Carolina on Sept. 2. South Carolina also had six offensive linemen suffer seasonending injuries, which prevented it from developing chemistry as the unit’s rotations were shifted each week.

The Gamecocks’ lack of consistency also affected the team’s ground game, resulting in it finishing at the bottom of the SEC in rushing yards per game. South Carolina averaged 85.1 rushing yards per game in 2023, which was at least 10 yards fewer than the second-least productive rushing offense in the conference. The team also averaged just 2.8 yards per carry.

These struggles, along with the addition of new transfer players and freshman to the roster during the offseason, made South Carolina’s offensive line a topic of discussion throughout the preseason.

But head coach Shane Beamer and Gamecock players said theyare confident the team’s offensive line play will improve during the 2024 season.

set to feature a mixture of veterans and newcomers this upcoming year. Sixth-year Jakai Moore and redshirt senior Vershon Lee are expected to provide experience to the unit, and sophomores Tree Babalade and Trovon Baugh head into the year having already played multiple games against SEC competition.

number of new faces in the position group, including three transfers — sixth-year Kamaar Bell (who transferred from Florida Atlantic) and

redshirt seniors Torricelli Simpkins III (North Carolina Central) and Aaryn Parks (Oklahoma). Freshmen Josiah Thompson and Kam Pringle could also make an impact this year.

“It’s completely different this time last year compared to the first series of the North Carolina game last year,” offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said during a press conference on Aug. 21.

Injury prevention was a focal point of South Carolina’s offseason preparations, Loggains said. The team changed some of the ways the players stretched, lifted and practiced. The strides made in that area stem from the team’s core values, he said.

“I think that the overall philosophy of the program has helped because we have been able to stay healthy,” Loggains said. “There have been a lot of changes that way, from the way coach Beamer has run the schedules to the way the strength staff does things.”

The offensive line focused on being a close knit group, despite the team’s differences from last season, Lee said.

“What’s different with this group is we’re taking the stuff off the field serious,” Lee

said. “We’re communicating a lot more. We’re making sure each other are okay. It’s a brotherhood.”

The offensive line’s improvements could positively impact the running back room, senior running back Raheim Sanders said.

“It starts with the O-line ... Them having self-confidence in themselves, they’re doing the right thing, is an effect on us. And everything we do is going to affect on them,” Sanders said. “I feel like just trusting them, and they’re trusting us. We are going to have a bright future on that.”

Sixth-year quarterback Davis Beville said the team’s offensive lineman have shown their work ethic and determination to get better heading into the new season.

South Carolina’s offensive linemen stayed in Columbia during the month of May to work with the team’s strength and conditioning staff, Beville said.

“That’s a group of guys, I’d say, they’re working harder than anybody on the team. They stayed through the month of May. They took that time when we had off and really grinded their butts off,” Beville said. “I got to hand it to them. Those guys are playing their

tails off, and I am excited to see what happens this year.”

South Carolina revealed its depth chart on Monday for its regular season opener against Old Dominion. Three positions along the offensive line have confirmed starters — Bell at left guard, Lee at center and Cason Henry at right tackle.

Starters have yet to be revealed at the other two spots. Both Simpkins III and Baugh are in the mix at right guard, while Babalade and Thompson — the lone true freshman listed as a starter, potential starter or backup — are competing at left tackle.

Thompson — a Dillion, South Carolina, native and On3 Preseason All-American — has similarly shown a level of work ethic that could result in playing time, Simpkins III said.

“He wants to work, and he’s going to work. He’s showing us every day that he’s ready to work, and he’s coming in ready to work, ready to learn. He’s learning from the coaches, older guys, newer guys who are older,” Simpkins III said. “He’s working to be the best of his ability.”

FILE — Then redshirt senior running back Mario Anderson rushes in for a touchdown during South Carolina’s game against Mississippi State at Williams-Brice Stadium on Sep. 23, 2023. Baugh, now a sophomore, is one of several lineman for the Gamecocks.

Photo: Sam Schorr

South Carolina men’s basketball’s 2024-2025 schedule features notable opposition within, outside conference

The South Carolina men’s basketball team is coming off a historic season.

The Gamecocks earned a 26-8 overall record — tying a program record for most wins in a single season — and made it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017.

With another year of Gamecock basketball around the corner, the team’s 2024-2025 schedule features more marquee matchups against conference and non-conference opponents. Here’s a breakdown of the top games to watch this upcoming season.

Non-conference play

South Carolina will kick off its 20242025 campaign against North Florida on Nov. 4. But arguably its most notable non-conference game — outside of its

in-state rivalry matchup against Clemson — will take place on Nov. 16, when the Gamecocks will travel to Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana to play the Indiana Hoosiers.

The game will be the first time the Gamecocks have faced the Hoosiers since 1973, and the Hoosiers hold a 2-1 advantage in the all-time series between both teams.

Later that same month, South Carolina will travel to Fort Myers, Florida, to participate in the Fort Myers Tip-Off, which runs from Nov. 25 to Nov. 27.

During the tournament, the Gamecocks will play their first game against Xavier and, depending on whether they win or lose, will then face Michigan or Virginia Tech.

South Carolina will then take on ACC competition twice before the end of the

new year. The Gamecocks will participate in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 3 against Boston College, a team they have played twice and yet to beat in program history.

The second notable ACC opponent South Carolina will play against is Clemson. The Gamecocks lead the overall series between both teams by a 92-81 margin, but South Carolina lost the most recent edition of the rivalry 72-67 at Littlejohn Coliseum this past season.

Conference play

The Auburn Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide went a combined 3-0 against the Gamecocks during the 20232024 season. One of those losses was South Carolina’s biggest defeat of the season, a 101-61 loss to Auburn at Neville Arena on Feb. 14, 2023.

The Gamecocks’ next pair of major conference games will be against the two teams who are playing their first seasons in the SEC this year, the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners. South Carolina will play Oklahoma at the Lloyd Noble Center on Jan. 18 and Texas at Colonial Life Arena on Feb. 22.

On March 8, the Gamecocks will close out the regular season against Tennessee.

The Gamecocks will open conference play on the road against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Jan. 4 before playing two crucial home games against opponents from the state of Alabama. South Carolina will play Alabama on either Jan. 7 or Jan. 8 before taking on Auburn on Jan. 11.

Jaydon Ford | Soccer & Volleyball Beat Writer

South Carolina football reunites family on field, in stands

Juggling three boys was a tall task for Tammy and James Kilgore Sr., so putting all their boys in the same sport just made sense.

The Kilgore brothers, have reunited for the 2024 season to play together at South Carolina. Gerald and Jalon Kilgore spent their childhood partnering up, even off the field, against their older brother when any brotherly rivalry arose.

As they got older, it became harder to keep the brothers on the same team, especially when it came to college, since Gerald was over a year older than Jalon. Despite starting their college football careers apart, Gerald and Jalon have been reunited on South Carolina’s football team.

Growing up, Jalon had to play up in an older division for the boys to stay together. The boys did everything together, from school and sports to church activities.

When the boys got to middle school, James Sr. said he took a job in the school system that allowed him to coach the boys during the school year and even train them together over summer break.

As the Kilgore brothers grew up, they played four sports. Tammy and James Sr. knew they could not stay together forever.

But their parents said that even when they were on different teams, they were often at the same complex just on different fields.

“I can remember days where my wife would sit at the game with Jalon, and I said, ‘Well, just call me on the phone when he gets ready to bat,’” James Sr. said. “So then I would run across the complex and then go over there and watch him bat and then cheer him on. Then I’d run back to the other side, and I’d go back over when Gerald was getting ready to bat, and I’d be there for him to watch him.”

While they always had sports in common growing up and through high school, their journeys to collegiate football were very different. Gerald and Jalon’s eldest brother by three years, James Jr., had gone through the recruiting process for cross country at Clayton State. Gerald was the first to be recruited to play collegiate football since he was older than Jalon.

Gerald played as a quarterback through high school and eventually committed to Georgia Southern. After Georgia Southern fired its head coach during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gerald was informed the team was moving in another direction and ceased his recruitment.

Gerald had already shut down his recruitment to other schools, so he landed at Tennessee Tech, a mid-major school. There, Gerald began the transition to play cornerback. His father said his greatest gift has always been adaptation.

“Gerald was the most talented (brother) as far as everything came easy to him,” James Sr. said. “When he goes out there, they’re thinking, well, he’s changed from quarterback to safety. It doesn’t matter because, with him, he adapts so well.”

After redshirting his freshman year, Gerald recorded 37 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and five pass breakups in one season. His performance proved to be enough to attract the eyes of the South Carolina coaching staff.

But South Carolina wasn’t new to the Kilgore family. While Gerald had already gone through his recruiting process and was well into college, Jalon’s was in its early stages. Michigan was next on the list to visit the weekend after Jalon’s recruitment trip with the Gamecocks, but he didn’t go. He knew South Carolina was where he needed to be.

“(Jalon) came in, and he said, ‘Mom and dad, I woke up, I was praying, and I’ve made my decision that I’m going to South Carolina,’” Tammy said. “We said, ‘You sure?’ But down on the inside, I’m jumping for joy. Because that’s right here near home, it’s not that bad of a drive. I love the environment.”

As Jalon started his first year in the secondary with South Carolina, Gerald earned a regular role with Tennessee

Tech as cornerback. With both boys in college, Tammy and James Sr. couldn’t race from one end of the park to the other to catch glimpses of their sons. They had to get creative to show their support.

The pair made a decision that one of them would always attend home games, but not away games, to be fair to both boys. A two-and-a-half hour drive to South Carolina and four-and-a-half hour drive to Tennessee Tech became a weekly routine for the Kilgores.

But they don’t have to anymore. After his breakthrough redshirt freshman year, Gerald entered the transfer portal and committed to South Carolina. Reuniting the brothers after their time apart was a huge benefit to the Kilgore family.

“It was a family-type environment,” Tammy said. “And so that’s what helped us to really like South Carolina because of that family feeling. So we knew that if he went off to that school that they still had some of the values that we taught here at home, that it was still being taught there in South Carolina.”

Both Jalon and Gerald will receive four tickets each for their family to come and support South Carolina. James Sr. said family members are already deciding when to see the boys compete together again in Columbia.

“So everybody’s lined up. ‘I’m going to this game. I’m going to that game. I’m going to go to the LSU game. I want to go to the Alabama game.’ And so we got a little spreadsheet going, and we’re marking down everybody’s name so we don’t over-give tickets,” James Sr. said.

As Tammy and James Sr. start to arrange their travel arrangements for both home and away games this year, Gerald is settling into South Carolina with the help of his brother. Their bond is already working its magic back in Columbia.

“I’m seeing it, I’m watching it now, how his spirit is and his joy that he has about South Carolina that I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be something special,’” James Sr. said. “It should be something special to see.”

Emma Edwards | Sports Writer

FILE — Redshirt sophomore defensive back Gerald Kilgore (left) looks toward the stands while walking back to the locker room during a weather delay at Williams-Brice Stadium on Aug. 31, 2024.

The Gamecocks’ first matchup against the Old Dominion Monarchs was briefly suspended in the second quarter due to lightning in the area.

Photo: Sebastian Godun

USC students gain work experience, expand horizons as interns at 2024 Summer Olympics

Griffin Goodwyn | Sports Editor

Fourth-year mass communications

student Ali Tunney spent the afternoon and night of July 26 in Paris. But she wasn’t there vacationing with family or friends to cap off the summer before her senior year of college: She was working behind the scenes to help orchestrate NBC’s broadcast of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Tunney spent most of that day in the Trocadéro area of Paris, which is where NBC’s broadcasting tower and live sets were located throughout the Games. Her tasks included finding products for the makeup team, setting up wardrobes and even holding umbrellas for Peyton Manning, Kelly Clarkson and NBC sports commentator Mike Tirico as they reported live while it rained in the city.

After helping finish preparations for the opening ceremony, she and her coworkers took in the event from the Café del’Homme, a restaurant that overlooked the Seine River, where athletes from around the globe floated by on boats.

“We were all eating dinner, and you just turn your head to look out the window, and the Eiffel Tower is right there with the opening ceremony going on,” Tunney said.

Tunney and an additional three USC students spent the duration of the Olympic Games, which lasted from July 26 to Aug. 11, working as interns for NBC, the organization that owns broadcasting rights for the Olympics in the U.S.

The experience provided these students with an opportunity to learn more about working in the sports industry and new skills they hope to apply to future internships and jobs, they said.

Lifelong dreams

For all four interns, working at the Olympics over the summer was not their first interaction with the Games.

Fourth-year broadcast journalism student Lauren Ciuci has always been a fan of the Olympics. Growing up, she would watch American gymnast Gabby Douglas and skier Lindsey Vonn, who Ciuci developed a unique affinity for.

“I would ski a lot when I was younger, so watching her in the Olympics was always fun to do,” Ciuci said. “I just remember in elementary school and middle school, if there was a project, and we had to pick someone that we thought was inspirational, I would always pick Lindsey Vonn for her outspokenness and confidence.”

Third-year hospitality management student Trevor Lazarus said he similarly watched the Olympics with his parents when he was younger, but his ties to the Games run deep in his family. Lazarus’ father started working in sales for NBC after graduating from college.

“Both my parents sort of work in sports by association. My dad has worked on Olympics in the past,” Lazarus said. “So when this opportunity came around, it was sort of like a, ‘I’m going to do it.’”

Fourth-year sport and entertainment management student Olivia Donofrio also developed connections to the Olympics through her parents.

Donorfio’s father was employed NBC for about 13 years, she said.

Each student underwent a series of applications and interviews before learning they were selected to work for NBC. Even though each of their specific recruitment processes was different, the confirmation phone call or email they received was immediately met with emotion.

Donofrio said she was working at Columbia restaurant Market on Main when she received a call from a phone

operations department, which entailed assisting with administrative duties and running various errands. Tunney primarily worked at the Olympics’ International Broadcast Center, but she also had the opportunity to work at multiple sports venues, such as the Stade de France and Bercy Arena. She said she liked the job because every day was different. Her

She said the opportunity to explore Paris, which she described as “a culture shock in the best way possible,” made her first trip to Europe a more memorable experience.

“We were able to tour the Palace of Versailles or go to the oldest-running champagne house in the entire world. These are experiences that I just can never get out of my mind, and I hope I never will,” Donofrio said. “Even after long days

in Stamford, Connecticut, and is where roughly 80% of NBC’s Olympics content is broadcasted from, she said.

Ciuci worked with NBC’s programming department as part of a 10-week internship. For the first seven weeks of the internship, she focused on other NBC sports properties, including the NBA, NASCAR and IndyCar. Then, she worked closely

major sporting event he has worked at twice.

For Donofrio, she realized that preparation and effort can have a powerful impact on those involved with the Olympics.

“I was able to get a little bit more of a deeper understanding of how many hours go into just something that could be an hour of someone else’s day. But for them, they thought it was the best hour of their life,” Donofrio said. “To know the other side of things — it took weeks, even months, to prepare for this — it was insane.”

Tunney, who has always wanted to work for NBC, said she is looking forward to potentially working at another Olympic Games, should she be given the opportunity.

“People have told me, ‘Once you get a glimpse into the sports world, it’s really hard to leave it,’” Tunney said. “But I think, once you get into the Olympic world, it’s really hard to

RIGHT PAGE — Fourth-year sport and entertainment management student Olivia Donofrio (left), is pictured with a fellow intern during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. Donofrio worked as a hospitality guide as part of NBC Sports’ corporate events team

LEFT PAGE — Fourth-year sport and entertainment management student Olivia Donofrio (far left) is pictured with fellow interns in front of the Eiffel Tower during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Donofrio handled ticketing and accompanied guests to athletic events as part of her role as an intern.

RIGHT PAGE — Third-year hospitality management student Trevor Lazarus throws up the ‘Spurs Up’ hand sign in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Lazarus worked as a hospitality guide as part of the NBC Sports corporate events team.

Photo: Courtesy of Ali Tunney

RIGHT PAGE — Fourth-year mass communications student Ali Tunney is pictured with Olympic Gold Medalist and University of South Carolina alumnus Quincy Hall during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Tunney was an intern runner for NBC Sports.

Photos: Courtesy of Olivia Donofrio

Photo: Courtesy of Trevor Lazarus

Q+ Honors College serving LGBTQIA+ celebrates all identities, encourages inclusive environments

As the Queer+ Honors Caucus meeting starts, students enter the room and grab a sticker with their preferred pronouns. Their backpacks — some bare, some decorated with pins of all colors of the rainbow —` hit the floor and coursework is forgotten. For the next hour, they will learn about and celebrate their unique identities.

The Queer+ Honors Caucus, or QHC, is a student-run LGBTQIA+ serving club, created during the previous school year. Second-year interdisciplinary studies student and club community director Isa Webster said the goal of QHC is to provide a space within the Honors College that emphasizes the importance of queer professionals and academics in an inclusive environment.

While there are other LGBTQIA+ serving

one of its core tenets is intersectionality, Webster said.

“A lot of organizations dedicated to queerness do care about inclusion and diversity for all,” Webster said. “But it’s something that is so central to QHC that I feel like we really do create a home for everybody that struggled to find it elsewhere.”

QHC first started with about eight students from the Honors College. They were inspired by their service learning course, Coming Out in Prime Time, and with the help of their club advisor, Ryan Dawkins, they created a club of their own.

“We want to be involved,” third-year pharmacy student and club event planner, Sun Helen said. “We’re passionate about it, obviously, and it just kind of led to us making our own space based on what we saw, what we wanted and what we didn’t necessarily get from other places.”

Khufu Holly Jr., a second-year biomedical engineering student and the club’s secretary, said they saw a need for a queer club within the Honors College because there seemed to be no place for queer students to come together and be themselves.

Holly Jr. said they hope that all members feel a sense of acceptance

“For me personally, it’s an amazing thing to be around all these people, these incredibly smart people, incredibly talented people and see all of them develop and become more themselves,”

Holly Jr. said.

Instead of having a hierarchy, QHC is led by an executive board.

The club’s senior members divide responsibility evenly between them in a horizontal power structure. “We work together to create something that we all feel equally empowered in,”

Webster said. “That’s something that we hadn’t seen ever before in USC.”

QHC meetings vary from social gatherings to educational seminars, where they invite professionals to talk about LGBTQIA+ theory and health equity.

Second-year Educational Director and psychology student Ramona Birch said some of her favorite memories are from QHC’s educational meetings.

Last year, QHC collaborated with the Black Honors Caucus in an educational event. Bobby J. Donaldson, associate professor in the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences, came to speak to both organizations about his role in the civil rights movement as a gay and Black man. QHC also hosted an LGBTQIA+ health meeting, where an associate professor in the Arnold School of Public Health, Emily Mann, came to speak at a queer poetry event during poetry month.

“Being able to see people genuinely interested in learning more both about the history of their identity and then also how they can sort of expound upon it or live comfortably with it,” Birch said. “I feel like is my favorite thing to see during our events.”

create something out of nothing like we did.”

While it is based in the Honors College, QHC is open to any USC student.

“Most of us are Honors students,” Helen said. “But we’re trying to do stuff with the community, and obviously you don’t need to be an Honors student to help out and have a big impact.”

QHC hosted its first event of the school year on Aug. 23. Helen said they were happy to see so many freshmen attend and begin to make friends within the club.

“That’s exactly what I love to see. Just our purpose being fulfilled,” they said. “And I just really hope to see that momentum keep going this year.”

QHC hosts meetings on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Honors College. Students can find out more or sign up to join on QHC’s Garnet Gate profile.

Simone Meyer | Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

Same soil, new roots: Plant store opens in Five Points

Eva Flowe | Arts & Culture Editor

Jonathan Vang had his eye on a brick building near the Five Points train trestle for a couple of years before he decided it would be the perfect place to open a plant store.

The building, which was previously an eye doctor’s office, had been empty for a few years after flooding. Vang lived nearby, and when he finally decided to rent the space, he had to do a lot of work to get the property ready.

“When I came in here, it was like a scene out of Jumanji,” Vang said. “There was vines and all these ceiling tiles were gone, AC was broken.”

Now, the vines that once sprawled throughout the building have been replaced by houseplants. Vang opened his store, Blossom Plant and Produce, on Aug. 15 after a soft opening on Aug. 3.

The store opened with a selection of indoor plants and products to care for them. Many of the plants are tropical. The shop also carries produce, like local tomatoes and peaches, as well as boiled peanuts.

Vang has been passionate about working with plants since he was a kid, he said. He has always wanted to be his own boss and work with his hands, and he wants to teach his kids to do the same.

“They’re 3 and 5, but I’m starting to teach them how to work with their hands, to understand what work means,” Vang said. “Not just playing on the tablet and stuff like that, because I think it’s important to stay grounded and be close to your roots.”

Vang has also brought on Billy Guess, a local plant enthusiast to help care for the stock. Guess said he saw an article about the business on Facebook and drove over to talk to Vang, wondering about a job. Guess previously worked in landscaping, garden design and art, and he said he was excited to be hired in order to learn even more about plants and his local community.

“In my last position, I kept being promoted and promoted further and further away from the customer and from the plants,” Guess said. “This is back down to base level: order plants, sell plants to customers and that’s what I like doing.”

Guess said the store is a great place for college students returning to school to get houseplants for their dorms and

apartments, at any difficulty level. And once the fall months come around, Vang is hoping that colorful pumpkins and chrysanthemums will pull in more traffic.

The shop is available for private events. Vang also wants to host oyster roasts and bluegrass music nights. General manager Genevieve Taylor said she is excited to see them offer more services after construction finishes.

“I’m hoping that we’ll be able to kind of fulfill a need among the local communities and neighborhoods regarding the needs, being a place you can shop for a plant, for a gift and being able, of course, to bring fresh produce,” Taylor said.

For his next renovation project, Vang is building an overhang to expand the plant selection, which will include outdoor plants that can be seen from Blossom Street, as well as building a stage for community events. The store, located at 1924 Blossom St., is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1 p.m.to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

A row of plants sits inside of a shop on Aug. 19, 2024. Blossom Plant and Produce is new to Five Points and is located at the former site of an eye doctor’s office.

Photo: Nickolas Hill

A sign above a brick building reads “Blossom Plant and Produce” on Aug. 19, 2024. Blossom Plant and Produce, located on Blossom Street, is new to the Five Points area.

Photo: Nickolas Hill

Cat crowding: How advocates say students can help with overpopulation

Eva Flowe | Arts & Culture Editor

USC graduate Lauren Cunningham has cared for and volunteered with stray cats for years, including fostering and adopting.

She has fed stray cats behind a Hardees and has taken care of kittens abandoned behind a barn. Each cat comes from different circumstances and has a different backstory, she said.

“I’m a cat mom,” Cunningham said. “I have two indoor cats and then an outdoor cat that actually started as a stray that just started coming up to our house for food, and then my family’s also currently fostering a four-month-old kitten.”

It is hard to say how many stray and feral cats live in a single city. But it would not surprise Dawn Wilkinson, the executive director of the

if Columbia residents are seeing more of them.

Many factors can influence cat population growth, including lack of veterinary care, lack of predators and weather, Wilkinson said. Additionally, organizations hit a roadblock when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, preventing them from continuing their spay and neuter efforts, Wilkinson said.

“When COVID occurred, a lot of spay and neuter clinics had to shut down, us included, and we’ve been trying to play catch-up ever since,” Wilkinson said. “It took a decade to get there, and so it could very well take another decade to get back to where we were.”

Not enough veterinarians

according to the Charleston Animal Society.

The veterinary shortage can be attributed in part to the high-stress nature of the career, which deals with long hours and life-or-death situations, and short staffing only makes that worse, according to the Guardian.

Wilkinson said that many South Carolina vets retired around the time the pandemic hit and haven’t necessarily been replaced. Furthermore, the veterinary shortage may be felt in South Carolina because the state lacks a veterinary school, though Clemson plans to open one in the next few years.

“The veterinary shortage has many different causes, and they’ve kind of all come together over the last five or six years of not addressing any issues,” Wilkinson said. “Now we’re kind of in this predicament where that’s caused a lag behind in spay and neuter of animals.”

A policy change

Cat population control faces several challenges in South Carolina, and the most effective method is spaying and neutering community cats, Wilkinson said.

South Carolina lacks a significant proportion of large predators, such as coyotes, bears and wolves, Wilkinson said. This means cats do not have predators hunting them while they live outside, which is a form of population control in other parts of the country, Wilkinson said.

Columbia city ordinances changed in 2017 to protect community cats — a term that incorporates both stray cats, who may be socialized, and feral cats, who are not.

Previously, cats were often brought in off the street and euthanized as a method of population control. Now, the policy is to engage in Trap Neuter Release efforts, and community cats are protected by the ordinance, which allows free-roaming

cats to live in Columbia as long as efforts to spay and neuter the cats are occurring.

Trap Neuter Release, commonly called TNR, is the process in which cats are trapped, brought to clinics to be spayed or neutered and released back into the community. Cats often receive a rabies vaccine during this process as well. This is the most effective way to keep cat populations down, said Victoria Riles, the superintendent of Columbia Animal Services.

Riles said that many people’s instinct is to feed the cats but not take them in to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated. She recommends that people not feed community cats if they cannot offer or find them other care because it leads to the creation of cat colonies. And once the cats begin to gather and live in the same place, kittens will follow two months later.

“You definitely need community involvement to do TNR. The cats can’t spay and neuter themselves,” Riles said. “If you’re experiencing this within your

community, be an active participant and community member and work to get the cats spayed and neutered, because spay and neuter has proven to actually decrease numbers, whereas euthanasia has not.”

What students can do

There are a variety of Columbia area groups that engage in TNR, foster and adoption efforts, including some that come to campus. Students who live off campus can also help in TNR efforts by bringing cats into Columbia-based organizations that do reduced-price spaying and neutering for community cats, Riles said.

Pawmetto Lifeline spays and neuters feral cats for $50. Anyone looking to spay or neuter community cats can also apply for vouchers through the Richland County Community Cat Diversion Program that can be used at Pawmetto Lifeline and the Humane Society to reduce the cost of getting veterinary care for the cat. When people bring cats in to be fixed, they will most likely need to keep the cat overnight after surgery to keep an eye on

separated from their mothers, fostering is an effective way to give cats care even when shelters are full. Columbia Animal Services also typically has 10 to 20 adult cats available or adoption, Riles said.

Another option is volunteering for organizations such as Cat About Town, a Crenshaw county-based nonprofit that helps track, manage and care for stray cat colonies and helps place cats with foster families.

Cunningham said volunteering with Cat About Town and another organization, Fostering Felines, meant a lot to her as a USC student. It even helped her to adopt one of her cats.

“That’s a relationship I’ve continued past graduation, and I really appreciated that, even as a campus student. Fostering Felines and other community organizations allowed an avenue for me to get involved and be around cats,” Cunningham said.

Karen Lee Wells, the co-chair and foster coordinator of Cat About Town, said that the organization is always looking for volunteers to help trap and foster community cats and that people should always consider adopting. shelter cats.

“Even if you don’t adopt from us, it doesn’t matter to me, adopt a cat with a shelter, adopt a cat from the rescue,” Wells said. “You’re really saving two lives. Because you’re saving the life of the cat that you adopted, and you’re opening up a space for another cat to be saved.”

Illustrations: Olivia Abner

Column: ‘RushTok’ changes how new members connect with sororities

Kara Rottmann | Assistant Opinion Editor

Social media trends come and go, and sorority recruitment is the newest viral sensation. Sorority norms, like many things, have had to adapt to the increasingly digital world.

When sororities were brought to USC in 1929, recruitment was exclusively in person. Now, things are different.

Recruitment chairs have begun marketing their sororities like a business, showing off the product of sisterhood. And commercialization of sorority recruitment has taken away from one large aspect: genuine connection.

This side of the internet, known as RushTok, began to gain attention in 2021 at the University of Alabama and provided a never-before-seen look into sorority recruitment. The process for girls to be recruited into a sorority has been brought to light more than ever. Girls participating in rush at schools nationwide can now upload their experiences, get-ready-withme videos, outfit-of-the-day videos and viral dance videos through TikTok.

These videos receive a lot of views — and fast.

These new social media influencers can also spark consumer interest through brand deals and sponsorships. For example, Morgan Cadenhead, known for her platform “Bama Morgan” on TikTok, turned social media into a career. And this isn’t just on an individual basis in terms of sororities. Every single Panhellenic chapter at the University of South Carolina has an account on Instagram and several other social media platforms.

As RushTok gains more popularity, so does sorority recruitment. In 2024, USC had 2,318 girls sign up to rush. This is the largest number that USC Panhellenic has ever seen.

USC potential new members, or PNMs, can now scroll through a sorority’s TikTok page and see what life might be like in the sisterhood. They can see all the best of what the members project.

When watching these videos, it is easy to think, “That chapter looks fun” or “These girls look like they are best friends.” This leaves a lingering question: Are PNMs

influenced to join a sorority based on how viral they are, rather than where they feel they fit in the most?

Before recruitment even starts, sororities will have a work week. As I observed during my own work week in my chapter, sororities have a content hour built into their schedules where social media posts and TikToks are planned based on other internet trends. These videos may go viral, but it’s impossible to grasp what a person is like through a camera or a 15-second viral video, especially since these videos are staged.

This creates a false sense of what rush should be.

After watching RushTok videos myself, I thought I knew exactly what the sororities would be like before recruitment even started. Round one, also known as Go Greek, allows the PNMs to watch videos of each chapter and score them accordingly. Each chapter receives videos of the PNMs answering questions from a list of prompts sent out. Before I even had a chance to talk to any active members of these chapters, my selections were already biased because of what I saw on social media.

Round two, or Philanthropy, is the first in-person round of recruitment. Chapters have a charity cause that they fundraise money for throughout the year, which they showcase to PNMs during round two. When I walked into these chapters and got to sit down with active members, I realized that everything that I thought I knew was wrong. It is impossible to build a connection over the phone, especially when the only engagement is with the tap of your finger.

Wanting to join a sorority should come from your own personal interest, rather than content posted on social media. Sororities will never be one-size-fits-all. A chapter that one girl loves may not be the best fit for another. That’s okay. That is how recruitment is supposed to work.

The whole point of rushing is to learn about individual chapters, see which ones interest you and figure out how you click with them through conversations with active members.

The specific personality of the women in these chapters gets lost in the staged atmosphere that social media creates for sororities. Rush is a difficult time period to navigate. It is unbelievably stressful due to the long days required to rush. These PNMs may have just left home for the first time in their lives. The one thing that eases that anxiety is knowing that you’ll find your place.

In-person parts of recruitment are an important aspect of fostering connections. It helps you find a place where you can be

your authentic self, something that can get lost over the internet.

So, to the PNM who is thinking about what chapter suits them best, follow your heart and where you feel like you belong. Base your decision on the connections that you have built in those chapters.

After all, the number of likes and the amount of followers a chapter has on social media will never compare to real friendships between you and potential sorority sisters.

A photo illustration of a person looking at a “RushTok” video on a phone. Morgan Cadenhead, known as”Bama Morgan” online, gained popularity on social media after documenting her sorority recruitment experience.

Photo: Sydney Dunlap

Column: It is up to us to create a more sustainable community at USC

Morgan Dunn | Opinion Editor

Sustainability is a choice made every day that shapes our community, bringing a better environment and a cleaner atmosphere.

As students at USC, we are a community. As a community, we must take care of our environment. But it is also the job of the university to ensure that it is fostering a sustainable society for its students as community members.

“For better or worse, we become our own mini-society within the USC Columbia campus,” said Jessie McNevin, the associate director of sustainability at USC. “So some of the issues that we face in our bubble are the same things that are happening on a broader scale everywhere else, but we can play with things on a smaller scale.”

Sustainability is important because of the benefits it provides society. The United Nations has a list of 17 sustainable development goals that can be achieved when sustainability is practiced. What’s special about these goals is that they are not just about the environment.

Some of the goals include quality education, life on land and gender equality. They show that ending poverty and other challenges needs to happen alongside efforts to protect the environment. The list is meant to be followed by countries everywhere to ensure productive sustainability practices and higher functioning societies around the world.

One simple practice for students is to start using reusable items. Non-reusable packaging and items create waste, a huge factor that leads to pollution. This is because plastic packaging sent to landfills typically ends up in our wildlife and streets as it does not decompose. This creates litter, harming the wildlife, and decreases the quality of the environment. Reusable products decrease the amount of plastic waste, helping to clean up our carbon footprints.

University students everywhere produce 640 pounds of waste per year. Globally, there are 3,825 tons of waste produced every minute. About 75% of air pollution is human-generated. Waste

causes air, water and soil pollution which is unhealthy for us and decreases the quality of our communities. We should all be taking it upon ourselves to minimize our own waste to create a clean and healthy community.

A clean campus makes our environment more beautiful. When sustainable practices are put into use, like keeping the campus clean and litter-free, the greenery around campus can flourish. That is the beauty of USC, said Jason Lambert, the associate vice president of Facility Services.

“If you’ve been to any other campus in the SEC, a lot of them don’t have the kind of trees we have,” Lambert said. “The trees on campus are a good part of what makes USC, USC.”

The facility services at USC have been making efforts towards becoming more sustainable. Lambert said his team wants to be good stewards of their resources and they are, “taking every opportunitywe can to

be more sustainable.” Lambert mentioned efforts meant to improve sustainability in buildings.

These efforts include replacing the air coolers in Thomas Cooper, making them more efficient energy-wise and the green garden initiative that is decreasing the energy used in the five buildings on campus that use the most energy. Those buildings are Close Hipp, Swearingen Engineering Building, 1600 Hampton, Jones Physical Science Center and Thomas Cooper Library.

The Office of Sustainability is an example of a good initiative that promotes environmentally friendly involvement opportunities. Larry Cook, the director of Sustainable Carolina, said the office was founded in the early 2000s.

The office aims to bring sustainability efforts to campus by offering opportunities through their events, for students to learn more about how they can be sustainable. Since then, the office has been flourishing, giving students the opportunity to learn about sustainability and get involved with it. While the university has a large responsibility towards fostering sustainability, students can also take it upon themselves to advocate for it. Students who are passionate about this could join organizations, such as the Office of Sustainability, or they could volunteer at the Sustainable Carolina Garden.

“It’s not that you have to be the best, but you have to show that you’re kind of working toward advancement,” Cook said.

What makes a sustainable community is the passion of those within it. When people begin to care about the environment and show it with their actions, goals are accomplished. This is something anyone can do, no matter their background or major in school.

“There’s room for everybody, and I think the positive and passionate people within the sustainability sphere is what keeps me coming back,” McNevin said.

As citizens of the world and members of this community, it is our responsibility to practice sustainability to keep the environment clean and properly functioning.

The University Greenhouse sits behind the University President’s House on Aug. 20, 2024. The greenhouse houses a variety of plants and is mainly used to grow potted plants for events around campus.

Photo: Sebastian Godun

When I go to Beezer’s, I always get the Blackjack, a bag of Garden Salsa Sun Chips and a small drink. I have been going to Beezer’s since freshman year and after trying many sandwiches and combos on the menu, this order became my favorite.

My go-to Beezer’s order is a Double D with extra mayo (the extra mayo is important), Harvest Cheddar SunChips, a large Starry and a jumbo chocolate chip cookie. It’s definitely my go-to because you get a great mix of savory and sweet. Plus,, I’m a simple guy.

My go-to Beezer’s order is the Sicilian with a drink and cookie. During my journalism class last spring, a lot of us would go to Beezer’s for lunch multiple times a week. After some trial and error, it just became the sandwich I liked the most.

Grant Richa

Assistant Design Director

Nickolas Hill

Senior Photographer

Mingo Martin

Assistant Sports Editor

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Kate Robins

MANAGING EDITORS

Macaila Bogle, Jenna Swenson

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Savannah Nagy

OUTREACH DIRECTOR

Sydney Dunlap

NEWS EDITOR

Emmy Ribero

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS

Colin Elam, Nat Campbell

SPORTS EDITOR

Griffin Goodwyn

ASSISSTANT SPORTS EDITORS

Mingo Martin, Brendan Dougherty

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Eva Flowe

ASSISTANT ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Simone Meyer

OPINION EDITOR

Morgan Dunn

ASSISTANT OPINION EDITOR

Kara Rottmann

BEAT WRITERS

Carrigan Woodson, CJ Leathers, Jaydon Ford, Olivia Helfen, William Miller

DESIGN DIRECTOR

Abby Short

ASSISTANT DESIGN DIRECTOR

Grant Richa

SENIOR DESIGNER

Olivia Abner

CO-PHOTO EDITORS

Taylor Kitchens, Delany Kral

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

Nickolas Hill, Sebastian Godun

ENGAGEMENT DIRECTOR

Elena Keller

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

Awani Bildikar

COPY DESK CHIEF

Elise Lo

ASSISTANT COPY DESK CHIEF

Fernanda Lemos

STUDENT MEDIA DIRECTOR

Sarah Scarborough

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF STUDENT MEDIA

Sydney Cranmer

ART DIRECTOR

Krista Larson

ADVERTISING ADVISOR

John Burbage

FACULTY ADVISOR

Brandon Shulleeta

CREATIVE SERVICES

Chloe Ehlers, Lily Ferguson, David Olsen, Savannah Nagy

AD SALES TEAM

Ariana Herbas, Biffy Skeels, Delany Flanagan, Kylie Kurinsky, Maria Jose,

Sofia Sabatino

Sofia Sabatino, Marisa Tartamella

CONTAC T I NF ORMATION

Offices located on the third floor of Russell House

EDITOR

sagcked@mailbox.sc.edu

NEWS sagcknews@mailbox.sc.edu

OPINION sagckopinion@mailbox.sc.edu

DESIGN sagckdesign@mailbox.sc.edu

ARTS & CULTURE sagckarts@mailbox.sc.edu

SPORTS sagcksports@mailbox.sc.edu

PHOTO sagckphoto@mailbox.sc.edu

SOCIAL sagcksocial@mailbox.sc.edu

NEWSROOM 777-7726

JO IN OUR TE AM

Want to join The Daily Gamecock? Check us out at garnetmedia.org/join

TD G E MA IL E DI TIO N

Get our news delievered right to your inbox. Subscribe online at dailygamecock.com/subscribe

The Daily Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper at the University of South Carolina. Dailygamecock.com, along with a daily email edition, is your online source for The Daily Gamecock's coverage of all things USC. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, for news updates around the clock. Opinions expressed in The Daily Gamecock are those of editors or authors and not those of the University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Daily Gamecock. The Office of Student Media is the newspaper’s parent organization. The Daily Gamecock is supported in part by student activity fees.