University of South Carolina Libraries
quote, Unquote ‘I want to be through one of these man... I would not mind it picking up a bit.’ Bill Mix, visiting in Beaufort fflie 0amcock Editorial Board Sara Ladenheim • Editor in Chief Kenley Young • Managing Editor Emily Streyer • Viewpoints Editor Corey Ford • Assistant Viewpoints Editor Brad Waiters • Editorial Contributor Kiki McCormick • Editorial Contributor Hodges' critics need to focus on Gert Che attacks on Gov. Jim Hodges for his leadership with the South Carolina coastal evacuation for Hurricane Floyd con tain nothing but political garbage. Critics of the governor claim he should have opened the two eastbound lanes of 1-26 for westward traffic when he ordered the mandatory evacuation in stead of waiting another 10 hours.. Hodges closed eastbound traffic on 1-26 to allow Charleston area residents to evacuate inland in a westbound direction. Repub lican state representatives from the Charleston area and Mayor Joseph Riley, a Democrat, lambasted Hodges for his indecisive manner in conducting the evacuation. Riley even went as far as to say that the governor ran the risk of “killing” Charlestonians. However, Hodges made the right decision by waiting to open all four lanes of 1-26 for westbound traffic. Never before has the Southeast seen an evacuation of this magnitude. During the evacu ation for Hurricane Hugo in 1989, only the South Carolina coast was evacuated. The evacuation for Hurricane Floyd - undoubted ly the biggest scare for SC since Hugo - saw four states order mandatory evacuations: Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Opening all four lanes creates another problem. If eastbound traf fic is prohibited, then barricades have to be set up by the Highway Patrol to enforce this order from the governor. The barricades, in turn, keep emeigency personnel from answering a critical situa tion. This problem shows why Gov. Carroll Campbell’s move in 1989 was a failure. Displaying honorable leadership, Hodges did acknowledge the mistakes in the evacuation. Yet Hodges’ critics need to turn to more important issues, such as preparing for future hurricanes - including Hurricane Gert. Housing focused on safety for Floyd Even though Hurricane Floyd spared Columbia and much of South Carolina, USC administration and organizations should be commended for the judicious precautions they took and for their comprehensive coverage of the storm. In retrospect, maybe canceling classes for two days was an ex cessive and unnecessary recourse. But it’s comforting to know that the USC administration was concerned enough for student safety to take those measures. And because many students elected to stay in their dorms and weather the hurricane, university Housing provided storm safety information to those students by placing periodic updates under dorm-room doors all day Tuesday and Wednesday. The Residence Hall Association also kept students posted with storm information that was readily and easily available on the RHA channel (channel 8). WUSC, too, was on air throughout the hurricane. Many DJ’s stayed at the station, riding out the storm and issuing bulletins and emergency broadcasts to campus residents. Hurricane Floyd didn’t exactly pulverize Columbia, but univer sity administration and organizations understood that the threat was very menacing and very real. The Gamecock applauds their preparedness and their commitment to student safety. About Us The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The University of South Carolina and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters and nine times during the summer with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of The University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the oublisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is the newspaper’s parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. Address The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, SC 29208 Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Student Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803 Editor gckedesc.edu 777-3914 News gcknewsesc.edu 777-7726 Viewpoints gckviewsesc.edu 777-7181 Etc. gcketcesc.edu 777-3913 Sports gcksportsesc.edu 777-7182 Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Submission Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcomi from all members of the Carolina community. Letters should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be ar opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Both must include name, phone number, profes sional title or year and maior. if a student. Handwritten submissions must be personally delivered to Russell House room 333. E-mail submissions must include telephone number for confirmation. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub lished. Photos are required for guest columnist and can be provided by the submitter. Call 777-7726 for more information. The Gamecock Sara Ladenheim Editor in Chief Kenley Young Managing Editor Emily Streyer Viewpoints Editor Kevin Langston Brock Vergakis News Editors Clayton Kale Associate News Editor Rachel Helwig EtCetera Editor Todd Money Jared Kelowitz Sports Editor Kristin Freestate Copy Desk Chief Sean Rayford Photo Editor Rob Lindsey Encore Editor Stuoemt Media Ellen Parsons Director of Student Media Susan King Creative Director Kris Black Julia Burnett Betsy Martin Kathy Van Nostrand Creative Services Will Gillaspy Online Editor Corey Ford Asst. Viewpoints Editor John Huiett Asst. News Editor Ann Marie Miani Asst. EtCetera Editor David Cloninger Asst. Sports Editor Greg Farley Asst. Photo Editor Casey Williams Asst. Online Editor Brad Walters Graphics Editor, Copy Editor, Editorial Contributor MacKenzie Craven Charlie Wallace Philip Burt Senior Writers Lee Phipps Advertising Manager Sherry Holmes Classified Manager Carolyn Griffin Business Manager Erik Collins Faculty Adviser Jonathan Dunagin Graduate Assistant College Press Exchange Campus Issues University prepared for worst Hurricane Floyd left our campus with out a problem, but the preparations that it inspired demon strated in vivid terms the maturity and ci vility of our students. Beginning Monday, the university began . .. . .. r ms the university making requests of _ ’ the students to pro- ;P^.dent. Palms j tect them from harm. can reac*le<^ We know that these a* 777-2001. requests were incon venient, disrup tive and unsettling. Throughout every stage of these planning activities, however, stu dents exemplified the best attributes of Car olinians. On behalf of your university, I want to commend all the students. You made us proud. Special thanks also go to the student I leaders who helped coordinate the Uni versity’s planning, especially the resident advisers (RAs). USC has more than 6,000 students living on campus. The projection that Floyd might pass directly through Cre lumbia compelled us to ask students re siding on campus to seek alternate resi dences during the storm if those places were outside this area and away from the coast. We also opened the Blatt P.E. Center to stu dents who wanted to remain on campus but not in their residences. Various other sys tematic announcements and postings made day and night in the residence halls kept the students apprised of the latest news about the campus’s preparations, including resi dence plans, special parking arrangements and emergency medical assistance. The RAs played a key role in this entire effort. You are well-trained professionals, and you demonstrated that all week. We also thank the teams at The Game cock, WUSC-FM and Gamecock Cable Channel 8 for your assistance in keeping students and the entire university commu nity informed. You made your technology a great help by disseminating information promptly, widely, and clearly. To every one associated with those media outlets, thank you. These days, the Web, of course, pro vides an increasingly important communi i cation forum. As soon as meteorologists suggested tii;it Hurricane Floyd could threat en Columbia, our staff placed a hurricane advisory on USC’s home page. They up dated it regularly 24 hours a day with the latest university announcements and in cluded links to local and national advisories. My thanks go to the university team that kept the Web information current and clear and to all those noted above who so fre quently made the community aware of it. The university’s preparations for the hurricane, it is worth mentioning, followed a thorough emergency readiness plan we developed a few years ago. Although many of the information sources noted above re quire electricity, we also were ready with other approaches in case we lost electri cal power. This experience gave me con fidence in the readiness plan’s ability to keep students, faculty and staff informed and out of harm’s way and our grounds and facilities protected. Our thanks for carry ing out this plan so well go to the teams from the offices of Risk Management, Fa cilities and Grounds, and Public Affairs. We also owe special thanks to the administra tive leaders who guided the university’s work implementing the plan, particularly Mr. Lyles Glenn, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Dr. Dennis Pruitt, Vice President of Student and Alumni Services and Dean of Students; Mr. Jerry Brewer, Director of Student Life; Mr. Gene Luna, Director of Housing and Judicial Program; and Mr. Emie Ellis, Director of Law En forcement and Safety. These offices and individuals and the i team of staff they represent demonstrated during this week their total commitment to the well-being of the students, faculty and staff, and their concern for our campus. Besides the steps already noted, they in creased security patrols, readied back up utility systems, secured vulnerable build ings and followed through on numerous other preparedness steps. Some even stayed on campus 24 hours a day. In our many meetings, it would have been impossible for me to say whether our administrators and staff were looking out for their own families or for USC’s students and personnel. Their sense of obligation to ensuring safety at the university is that deeply held. The threat of this hurricane, of course, necessitated our canceling two full days of classes. This fact challenges our facul ty and students as classes resume and they catch up on those studies. I appreciate the extra effort now re quired of the students, and thank the fac ulty for their special work at this time as the preeminent work of the University resumes. The hurricane was a threat, and I am grateful USC avoided it. But above all, it made me more grateful than ever for USC’s good fortune in having the stu dents, faculty and staff who make Carolina great. Thank you. College Press Exchange Letters Vice President praises paper for storm news To the Editor I wanted to personally thank you for the tremendous effort conducted by you and your staff in covering Hurricane Floyd, quite possibly the biggest and most urgent story thus far of the fall 1999 academic year. While we narrowly missed Floyd’s fury, The Gamecock kept us all apprised of the latest coordinates and probable strike lo cation of the hurricane. The safety infor mation, including shelter locations, that was provided was very thorough and well com municated to faculty, staff and students. All aspects surrounding the storm were ad dressed in an expert manner. The dedication, diligence and expertise that you and The Gamecock staff showed during this time of emergency for USC is something that the Carolina community owes a great debt of gratitude. Thank you for all that you did to ensure we were all well-informed and, therefore, as safe as pos sible. Should we face another storm before the end of this hurricane season, we know that we can confidently turn to The Game cock for quality, up-to-date information. Dennis A. Pnritt, Vice President, Student and Alumni Affairs 'p. I National Issues Recall our freedoms, sacrifices No, no patri- “ otic holi day lies around the cor ner. The great American cele bration of inde .pendence in July will not occur in the next few weeks or months. Memorial Day, the unofficial' kick-off for the nation’s summer season, is not any time soon. Not even Flag Day will be coming in the near future. But the time is always appropriate to deal with the fundamental principles of these underrated, patriotic celebrations. Every year around these holidays, syndi cated columnists and political pundits write and proclaim how much the ideals of freedom, justice and sacrifice person ally mean to them. In the days leading up to the Fourth of July, the columnists sing praises as to how freedom is the essential ingredient for American perpetuation of our ideals. Conservative writers acclaim the Fathers for upholding the righteous purpose of Christianity, while liberal writers assert that the Framers’ initial in tent was to halt government interference with the personal lives of the citizens. Around Memorial Day - in reality, an even more important holiday than In dependence Day - the journalists display their gratitude for the nation’s veterans and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in war. Yet soon after Independence Day and Memorial Day leave us, the pundits proceed to elaborate upon the ills and defects of the nation. Resembling mem bers of Congress, journalists degrade themselves by engaging in partisan poli tics instead of offering objective mea sures to improve the country. Honestly, however, 1 am just as guilty as the rest of the columnists. Now, the commentators are not necessarily in the wrong when they discuss the problems of the nation. Any citizen can point out something wrong within his or her community or state. Inequalities among the races and classes still linger despite the progress the federal government started in the 1960s. And the most critical issue facing the government has to be the campaign corruption with money and debasing, negative carhpaigning. Despite the Unit ed States’ self-perception as being the modem world’s superpower, one can say problems abound here simply because our society does not represent a utopia. Still, America undoubtedly has to be considered one of the greatest nations ever conceived in the history of the world. In many aspects, forms of democ racy have lived only as a philosopher’s dream, but in the U.S., that dream be came reality when a irrniin nf determined leaders forged the most effective form of representative government in history. Columnists and the people alike must value the freedoms they possess and give thanks to those who preserve it. Independence Day cannot be celebrated solely on July 4. Columnists cannot af ford to lose sight of that day’s signifi cance by writing about the nation’s bless ings only near the Fourth of July. The same can be said for Memorial Day. Nowadays, the country only thanks veterans with annual columns of grati tude in newspapers and rusting, decaying statues and memorials. The veterans should not be blamed for the injustices of war; that fault belongs with the govern ment. The ideals of this nation being the world’s greatest sometimes merely por tray a misconception; the maltreatment of the Native Americans and African Americans shatter the American myth that this nation possesses a near perfect history. But often, we take the many freedoms we do cherish for granted. The ideals of human liberty and the unity of mankind -- both proclaimed as American principles - must never fade from the minds of the people. Every day should be celebrated with reverence to freedom and the sacrifice of men and women in the military. By giving thanks for our freedom and sacrifices, we strive to be the beacon of light for an oppressed world.