We began INSIGHT as a way of providing current information about projects, activities and programs of the Strom Thurmond Institute. The newsletter takes the place of our annual report and is distributed to individuals and groups both on campus and around the state. INSIGHT is one of three newsletters produced at the Institute. The others are THE ECONOMIC SITUATION and THE COMMUNITY LEADERS LETTER. All are currently produced and distributed in printed form. During the coming year, we will begin distributing electronic versions of these newsletters via our World Wide Web home page. That site is: http://www.strom.clemson.edu We selected INSIGHT as our first electronic newsletter. We will produce a limited number of

printed copies for those who do not have internet access. There are significant advantages of this format for INSIGHT which the Leadership team of the Strom Thurmond Institute determined in the past year as we examined ways to deliver our materials, information and ideas to the widest audience in a cost-effective manner. As part of our cost-tracking procedures, we discovered that on-campus mail sorting and delivery was consuming a disproportionately large amount of money. Coupled with our expanded www capabilities, the shift to electronic format for campus distribution of newsletters, program event announcements, and reports seemed to be the most promising. This publication begins that process. We will be working out production bugs on INSIGHT.

As you use our electronic publications, we encourage you to send comments and suggestions that you believe would increase your utilization of these publications and our material delivery effectiveness. I'm sure during the coming year we will experience problems as we expand our electronic capacity. But the potential advantages and opportunities of interactive electronic newsletters coupled with cost savings from less printing and campus mail distribution costs merit an evaluation of this approach. Thanks for your interest in the Thurmond Institute. Robert H. Becker Director and Professor

Y'all come, and bring your friends and neighbors with you, plus that good retirement income. South Carolina's invitation to retirees isn't couched in such crass terms -- the advertisements stress quality of living and beautiful surroundings -- but a new study shows that those who have kicked the work habit and moved into this state are, indeed, acting as magnets for friends and relatives, and they are bringing big bucks into the communities where they choose to live. Each year, retirees are credited with bringing into the Palmetto State the equivalent of 10,000 new factory jobs in their annual household spending, and that's enough motivation for state and local governments to want to know how these folks are settling into their new surroundings and what they bring with them that enhances the economy of South Carolina. Ken and Sheila Backman did the study as a five-years-later follow-up on their initial inquiry into retirees who have moved from another state into South Carolina. Ken Backman leads the Regional Development Group at the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs at Clemson. Sheila J. Backman is a professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management.

They found that more than 41 percent of the retirees studied in 1995 reported annual family incomes of more than $60,000, compared to 28 percent acknowledging that amount of income in 1990. And, Ken Backman said, "about 25 percent of this group of New South Carolinians have had friends or relatives who moved to the state since their move." Does that indicate a satisfaction with South Carolina as a place to live after the family is raised and the age of retirement is reached? Apparently so, Sheila Backman said. "After living in South Carolina for five years, the majority of this group feel that their new community has been about what they had expected in terms of climate, housing values, daily cost of living, recreation and leisure opportunities, closeness of relatives, closeness of friends, cultural opportunities, employment opportunities and outdoor recreation opportunities," she said. Nearly half, she added, "claim that the pleasant attitude of the people and the availability of shopping opportunities were better than they had expected." Typically, Ken Backman said, many of the retirees (39.6 percent) live in suburban areas or small towns (29.9 percent), and only 6.3 percent live in rural

areas. He said that 48.4 percent of those studied choose to live in traditional neighborhoods while 19.5 percent have settled in what they believe is a retirement community and 18 percent in resort areas. "Wherever they live," he said, "the vast majority of these in-migrants feel that they are part of their new community. Only 16.7 percent feel otherwise." And most of them (all but 26 percent) volunteer their time to help their new neighbors. According to Sheila Backman, the New South Carolinians give between one and four hours a week to religious organizations (81.4 percent), human services (60.7 percent) or recreational activities (63 percent). As a measure of how well the 125 respondents sampled liked living in their communities, nearly 66 percent said: "I would move to another community if I had to, but would be reluctant to leave here." Another 13.4 percent answered, "I would never leave this community." Do all these New South Carolinians understand that y'all is plural? "Don't know," the Backmans said. "We didn't ask. Maybe next time."

Dixie Goswami, senior scholar of the Strom Thurmond Institute, has accepted an invitation to serve as a visiting fellow at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University this year. "This appointment," said Institute Director Robert H. Becker, "will allow Dixie to build on her ongoing work with the Annenberg Rural Challenge, the single largest private investment ever made in the reform of our nation's rural schools." She is the coordinator of the Bread Loaf/Annenberg Rural Challenge Network of exemplary rural schools in New Mexico, Arizona and Alaska, and coordinator of the Bread Loaf Rural Teacher Network. The Bread Loaf Rural Teacher Network, funded by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, awards teachers from rural communities in South Carolina and five other states fellowships to attend the Bread Loaf School of English, the graduate program of Middlebury College in Vermont. Teachers in the BLRTN attend Bread Loaf during the summer months. During the regular school year, they use telecommunications technology to conduct

collaborative projects that link students in varied rural locations. "One of Goswami's strongest beliefs," Dr. Becker said, "is that students are the most underused resource in our communities. This belief led her to create a nonprofit organization, called Write to Change, which promotes school and community projects that link writing, technology, and public service. Write to Change provides training, materials, and technical assistance to schools and communities that request this service. "An important goal of Goswami's is to encourage schools to use the community as a focus of study, a laboratory for learning about local workplaces, environments, and cultures and/or conveying information and insights to the public. Student projects return immediate benefits to the community and to students themselves. Write to Change conducts school residencies, staff development workshops, and sitespecific seminars, in rural and urban communities." In 1995, Write to Change received an endowment from a private trust, and Strom

Thurmond Institute facilitates the work of Write to Change by providing logistical support. Write to Change has supported school and community projects that include brochures and flyers prepared by junior high school students for the American Diabetes Association and the American Red Cross local chapters. In South Carolina., Write to Change projects include "A Young Naturalist's Guide to Living Things of the Lowcountry, prepared by McClellanville 2nd graders. The project won a SCETV Nature Scene Award. Currently, a group of Wade Hampton High School students (Hampton, SC), supported by Write to Change, are using telecommunications technology and the Internet to collaborate with Laguna Pueblo Middle School students in New Mexico on a study of the impact of the uranium fuel cycle on communities where the nuclear industry has mining, processing, or disposal sites. Students involved in this project will survey and interview members of these communities, consult experts in this field, and publish their findings for their communities.