Palooza attracts students, protestors

Hundreds of students came to the Russell House and Greene Street Thursday for "Pastides Palooza: An Inaugural Celebration," an informal celebration for Harris Pastides, USC's new president.

While enjoying entertainment acts including Nathan Angelo, the Palmetto Pans Steel Drums Band, Sound Check and Cocktails a capella groups, students enjoyed pizza from multiple chains and restaurants in the Columbia area.

Overall, most students enjoyed the event held in honor of Pastides.

Candance Phillips, a second-year business student, attended "to support our new president, to show him we're happy that he's here."

"It's a very nice event," Phillips said.

"It's nice to have all the students out here," Phillip's friend, Chanelle Johnson, a second-year business student, said.

Some students attended to enjoy certain acts perform, not just because of Pastides' installment.

"Really, my friend and I heard about Nathan Angelo playing and we wanted to see him play," Caroline Gunter, a USC alumna said.

Pastides enjoyed using the event to meet USC students and talk with them one-on one.

"I never knew how many hundreds of students I would get to meet," Pastides said. "There were many, many students who greeted me and patted me on the back and said, 'Nice to see you.'"

The celebration was tinged with controversy, due to the event costing $13,000 to put on, while a number of student organizations' funds are frozen due to recent budget cuts in reaction to the faltering economy.

"I think it was really nice that they did it for the students," Isabel Arias, a second-year business student said, "but it was not worth $10,000. Maybe a couple thousand dollars."

Upon hearing how much it cost to host the event, Apoorva Srivastava, a second-year biology student, said, "$13,000? That's ridiculous. The music's not even that good. They should have spent about two thousand dollars for it," Srivastava said.

A group of at least 10 USC students protested the event and were thrown out of Russell House and the celebration on Greene Street. At the end of the celebration, the protestors talked to students across the street from Preston dorm, holding signs reading, "Let us buy food, too!"

"Food is essentially the staple of student organizations, because student organizations use food in their fundraisers to support their clubs," said Lauren Smith, a third-year studio arts student.

Along with talking to students, the protestors encouraged students who were unhappy with the event to sign their petition against it.

Part of the petition read: "spending our student activity fees to provide for President Pastides' honorary event is unspeakable when the students who provided the money can't spend it on food for their organizations."

At 5:30 p.m. the sheet had about 70 signatures on it. Smith was somewhat disappointed with the number of names on the petition and expected numbers to be higher. Smith said that after Pastides Palooza was over, the group of protestors would show the petition to high-ranking USC officials like Dr. Dennis Pruitt, the Vice President for Student Affairs.

Tonight was the first time this group of protesters spoke out against the event and student organization budget cuts.

In response to these protests, Pastides said, "I feel honored by the students by their attending the event. It's an appropriate celebration. But I feel troubled when groups of students feel ill-served. If students have any concerns, they have a very receptive president who is ready to listen to them."

Pastides said that he did not know when student funds were going to be unfrozen, but said he thought students deserved and needed an answer.

The celebration ended with representatives from Student Government reading the Carolinian Creed aloud on Greene Street giving Pastides a copy of it.

In closing, Pastides said, "not only will I uphold the Carolinian Creed, not only will I work to make the university the best it can be, but I will work 100 percent for the students of this historic university."