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| GUIDE TO GRADUATE LIFE
A Useful Guide to Life in the USC History
Department
Moving To Columbia According to the University's Off-Campus Housing Services, rental rates in Columbia are approximately:
In order to search for off-campus housing, try the following websites: USC Off-Campus Housing Services Apartment Guide
Electric & Gas: South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&G) Water: City of Columbia Phone: Bellsouth (also for dialup or DSL internet) Cable: Time Warner Cable (also for high speed internet) Registering Car in South Carolina For information on registering your car in South Carolina, visit the Department of Motor Vehicles website. The process is long and painful. You have been warned. Registering for Classes/Paying Tuition You will use the University's website VIP (Visual Information Processing) for registering for classes, paying tuition, updating personal information, checking your financial aid status, entering direct deposit information, and on, and on, and on. It is IMPERATIVE that you are familiar with VIP. The schedule of classes is not available on VIP, however. For this, visit the Master Schedule of Classes website. As an current student at USC, you will automatically be issued a username, which you will need to login to all campus computers, email, and Blackboard. The University has an email system called Gamecock Email System (GEM). All University email will come to your GEM account, so it is important to check it, or forward it to whatever email system you choose. Note that for whatever reason, Hotmail and GEM do not seem to like each other, and there are sometimes problems when trying to forward email to Hotmail accounts. To access GEM, go to http://webmail.sc.edu/. For more information on using GEM or obtaining your username and password, visit the Computer Services webpage. Professors can post announcements, assignments, grades, and other information electronically through Blackboard. Check with the professors you take courses from and TA for to see if they use Blackboard regularly. You have a few options for on campus parking. 1. Buy a reserved spot in one of the parking garages (about $45/month) 2. Buy a general parking decal for $40.00 for the entire year. This enables you to park in certain lots (including the lot on Greene Street behind Gambrell Hall) beginning at 4:00pm Monday-Friday, and the general satellite lots on the outskirts of campus (including the lots by the Strom Thurmond Center, Coliseum, and Barnwell Street). Campus buses run regularly from these lots. 3. Feed the meters that are throughout campus or pay for hourly parking in the Bull Street Garage. This garage is the closest to Thomas Cooper Library, and you do not have to pay if you leave after 7:00pm. For more information on campus parking, visit Vehicle Management and Parking Services. Parking is a SERIOUS problem here at USC. They continue to increase enrollment while taking away valuable parking lots, so parking comes at a premium. If you can walk, ride a bike, or take public transportation, that is probably the easiest way to go. For more info on the public bus system that services campus, contact the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority at 255-7133. You will need an official University-issued student I.D. card to use campus facilities, including the libraries, health center, fitness centers, and to attend athletic events. You can deposit money on this card for copying, vending, meal plans, or purchases in the bookstore. You can obtain your student I.D. at the Russell House. For more information on the card, please visit the Carolina Card website. Health Center and Student Health Insurance Students requiring vaccinations, medications, or medical care can visit the on-campus Thomson Student Health Center (located behind the Russell House). This is a full-service health center run by a medical staff of physicians, nurse practicioners and nurses. The health center has on-site pharmacy, laboratory, radiology, and physical therapy services. Every full-time graduate student (6 credit hours or more) is required to have health insurance coverage for the entire academic year. Students who cannot prove adequate coverage through their own private health insurance companies must purchase the University's coverage. For more information on obtaining a hard waiver (proving that you have your own coverage), enrolling in the University plan, or information on the health center itself, please visit the Student Health Services webpage. There are several places to make copies on or near campus. The cheapest option is in the Gambrell computer lab, in the basement, where photocopies may be made for $0.05 per page. Thomas Cooper Library has photocopiers on main floor, the fourth floor, and on the mezzanine. These copies are $0.10 per page, and you can use your Carolina Card. The library is currently converting to exclusive use of the Carolina Card, though some still require the old copy card. Check with Library personnel for more information. USC has several different libraries for student use:
Each of these libraries has different hours and circulation policies, so please visit the individual library website for further information. The library's catalog is available online and is accessible via USCAN. Note that USCAN frequently "times out" after only about 5-10 minutes of use, requiring you to start the search again. It can be a frustrating process to continually get errors, but it will work if you perservere. As history graduate students, you will most likely use the Thomas Cooper and South Caroliniana libraries the most, so here is some helpful information on each: Thomas Cooper
Library The majority of the floors in the library are located
underground. Thus, when you walk into the building, you walk in on
the floor, one floor down is the 5th floor, the next floor down is
the 4th floor, and so on. The topmost floor of the library is called
the mezzanine. If you are interested in using materials that are not in the University's holdings, you can request them via interlibrary loan. To do so, you must first register with the interlibrary loan department at their webpage: InterLibrary Loan In the interests of getting your materials quickly, you should
provide the interlibrary loan department with all the information
that they request, including a complete citation. Note that if an
item is not in Thomas Cooper but is still on the Columbia campus
(for instance, a book located in the Law Library or the Business
Library), you cannot make an ILL request but must go to that library
to use the item. Always check USCAN before placing a request.
Thomas Cooper Library makes study carrels available to graduate
students for no fee. These carrels must be renewed on a term-by-term
basis. Books may be checked out to a carrel and kept there
indefinitely, although they are subject to recall. If you are
interested in a study carrel, speak to a staff person at the
circulation desk. The largest computer lab on campus is located on the 5th floor of Thomas Cooper Library. Annex Because the current holdings of the library exceed the capacity of the shelves, the library is in the process of moving materials out to an annex. These materials are still available, but they must be requested via Library Annex Materials that are at the annex are still listed in USCAN. In order to locate these materials, it may be useful to "virtually" browse the shelves of the library by doing a call number search in USCAN.
South Caroliniana Library When doing research on South Carolina, the resources are almost exclusively housed at the South Caroliniana Library (at the very end of the horseshoe). South Caroliniana Library IS NON CIRCULATING. Their hours are restricted to 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, while Published Materials (Books Division) remains open 8:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. Saturday hours are only 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Please check the Caroliniana website for more information.
The graduate student lounge is in Gambrell 248B. You can obtain the passcode from the History Department Office. Every graduate student has a mailbox, located in this room. You should check your mailbox regularly. There is also a refrigerator, microwave, and a bulletin board for announcements. The lounge is for current history graduate students ONLY. Abuse of Department policies will constitute a loss of privileges. The History Department has its own computer lab for graduate student use, located in Gambrell 217. You can obtain the passcode from the History Department Office. This computer lab has a printer and Windows and Macintosh computers outfitted with Microsoft Office. The lab is for current history graduate students ONLY. Abuse of Department policies will constitute a loss of privileges. All teaching assistants are assigned cubicles in the teaching assitant office, located in Gambrell 103B, which they will share with at least one other TA. You can obtain the passcode from the History Department Office. This space should be used for office hours and grading purposes. The main form of departmental communication is two email listserves, GradHist and ApplHist. GradHist is for all graduate students, regardless of area of specialization, while ApplHist is specifically for public history students. To subscribe to GradHist, send the following command in the body
of an email to listserv@listserv.sc.edu: To send a message to this list, use the address
To subscribe to ApplHist, send the following command in the body
of an email to listserv@listserv.sc.edu : Any graduate student can order business cards through the
University. For pricing and ordering, please see Beverly Edwards in
the History Department. Please note that this takes approximately
two weeks to process.
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| Last updated by •Chris Scott at August 8, 2005 | ©2004 University of South Carolina Board of Trustees |