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Quote, Unquote ‘I think that the proposal that we’ve given to faculty senate has a lot more merit than some of the proposals in the past.’ Heather Hornick, SG Academic Affairs director, on drop/add date proposal Page 4 _ Monday, March 5,2001 %ht (Bamecock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Broc|( Vergakis Editor in Chief Brandon Larrabee University Editor Erin O’Neal Spotlight Editor Kyle Almond Sports Editor Brad Walters Design Editor Cristy Infinger Asst. University Editor Valerie Matchette City & State Editor Amanda Silva Spotlight Editor Martha Wright Copy Desk Chief Charles Prashaw Asst. City & State Editor Aubrey Fitzloff Asst. Viewpoints Editor Faculty senate should act on drop date extension It’s unfortunate Student Government President Jotaka Eaddy’s greatest proposal, to extend the drop date, won’t happen dur ing her term. The faculty senate committee is holding up the extension of five days before receiving a “W.” The Committee on Standards and Petitions has had the proposal for two weeks. This isn’t a hard proposal to pass. SG Academic Affairs Direc tor Heather Homick said many of the faculty she’s talked to sup port it, and students are overwhelmingly behind the proposal. The number of students who signed petitions supporting the change is almost three times the number of students who voted in the SG elections. There’s no reason not to pass the proposal and pass it soon. The proposal won’t be approved until April, and it isn’t known whether it can be implemented for the fall semester. This behavior is expected from student senate, not faculty senate. Obviously, vague faculty goals are more important to the senate than passing a proposal that will make a meaningful differ ence in the lives of students. USC football players should be punished, behave like adults Reportedly, members of the Gamecock football team were involved in a fight at Jungle Jim’s last Thursday. If the alle gations are correct, then the members of the team who were involved in the fight should be very ashamed of themselves. Not only are the members of the football team representatives of this university, but they are also supposed to be adults. And, therefore, they should act like it. No matter how drunk you are, that’s not a valid excuse for getting into a fight with someone, particularly when you’re a member of the football team and you’re supposed to be a shining example to the rest of the student body. Also, just because you’re a football player, that doesn’t make you Billy Badass and allow you to pick fights with anybody you want. From witness reports, the fight broke out when a football player bought a fraternity brother’s girlfriend a drink. How silly is that? Are we in middle school? These football players should be punished by the Athletics Department for fighting in a bar at Five Points. 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 publisher 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. Stuoent Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803-777-7726 Editor in Chief gamecockeditorOhotmail.com University Desk gamecockudeskOhotmail.com City/State Desk gamecockcitydeskOhotmail.com Viewpoints gamecockviewpointsOhotmail.com Spotlight gamecockspotlightOhotmail.com Sports gamecocksportsOhotmail.com Online www.dailygamecock.com Submission Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome from all members of the Carolina community. Letters should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an opinion piece of about 600 words. Both must include name, phone number, professional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten submissions must be personally delivered to Russell House room 333. E-mail submissions must include telephone number for confirmation and should be e-mailed to gamecockviewpointsOhotmail.com. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style and space Anonymous letters will not be \ Jbiished. Photos are required for guest columnists and can be provided by the submitter. The Gamecock Ann Marie Miani Travis Lynn Jennie Moore Sean Rayford Katie Smith Photo £Mon Mark Yates Mackenzie Clements Page Designers ,iai<ln ^r10n Ashley Melton Betsy Baugh Copy Editors Sara McLaulin Charles Tomlinson Community Affairs Senior Reporter Sttjoorr Mbna Erik Collins Carolyn Griffin Faculty Adviser Business Manager Ellen Parsons Sarah Sims Director of Advertising Manager Student Media _ Jannell Deyo SS. «■*■«"** Kera Khalil Sean De Luna Denise Levereaux Todd Hooks Nicole Russe|| Melanie Hutto Advertising Staff Emilie Moca Martin Salisbury Sherry F. Holmes Creative Services Classified Manager Only two letters to the editor per student will be printed in a semester. Staff columns take priority over guest columns, unless the guest columnist offers expertise on a subject, a if the subject's relevance is limited by time. Guest columns and letters may b^ submitted by e-mail to gamecockviewpoints©hotmai£ com. Call 777-7726 for more information. I'p Be LOST WiWOOT 5PECm£S/ Letters Gamecock’s issue should not be SG To the Editor. Government isn’t meant to be faultless: it’s made up of people. I’d like to ask The Gamecock if they’ve done everything they are capable of in their job? Student Government IS ludicrous to most students, but is it the people in student government who make it so? I guarantee that if different students were officials, they would not stop your criticism. SG is the largest organization on campus. Its membership is made up of every single student in the university. SG officials don’t have any real power. They aren’t bribed or lobbied to change their vote; no one cares if the president vetoes a bill. The real question isn’t whether students are really represented by officials. From what I have observed, no one cares what the officials do unless it’s something ludicrous to gossip about and read in Viewpoints. What does SG do for the university? How does it make our education a better experience? What role do you play in making someone else’s education a better experience? I don’t understand why students are reading about frivolous SG gossip when they are misinformed about issues that actually will affect them. I have overheard three different students talking about tuition increases due to 15 percent bud get cuts. Our tuition will not be raised, and the budget cut amount is not finalized. This means two things. First, laige budget cuts may not mean you pay more, but they could be devastating to USC. Second, the budget cuts are not finalized. That means we still have a chance to stop them. Maybe The Gamecock should look into these headliners. It is a lot easier to be, as Spiro Agnew said of the press, “nattering nabobs of negativism” than to take action and make a difference. Kathleen Young Second-year Student College of Engineering Member of Nithya Bala’s campaign staff Gamecock hardly source for serious issues, student says To the Editor Kudos to The Gamecock, sole defender of the free world (“Senators have problem with First Amendment,” March 2). They are tree advocates of the First Amendment, ensuring that this widely ignored part of our Constitution remains intact. The Gamecock, being so widely respected and read, should tackle even big ger issues: world hunger, AIDS, the decrepit condition of humanity. I suggest that the next staff editorial be an endorsement of good weather. Surely, weather cycles would come to their senses and stop this pesky rain, snow and wind that callously force university students to buy coats, long-sleeved shirts and pants. The Gamecock valiantly draws the line between good and evil. It alone can protect the integrity of this country. I have done my part, engaging fellow students in debate about The Gamecock. Sure, they always walk away. Most people would argue that this is due to indifference or boredom. But I see the real reason: they walk away because they fear the radical notions of 77ie Gamecock, the guardian of life, liberty, and the American way. Nirav Mehta Fourth-year Student College of Liberal Arts USC fans don’t want Fogler any more To the Editor I would like to agree with Craig Smith’s letter from Friday. Fogler needs to move on. When I came to USC three years ago from Nevada, I was excited to see the NCAA tournament team in action. Sadly, after three disappointing years of basketball, Fogler needs to accept responsibility for the mediocre play on the court. I believe that we have the players to compete out there, but they are not being utilized well. Has anyone seen our offense? Is it a wonder that when only one or two people actually move around that it is hard to score? At the Tennessee game last Tuesday, I heard someone behind me telling Tennessee fans to go home because the game’s over, but there was one minute left. I thought, he hasn’t been to one of our games before. The program and the uni versity needs someone to energize the school and the community — i.e. Lou Holtz (can he coach b-ball too?) Has anyone else noticed the attendance at our games? If we can only fill half the seats of our 12,000-seat arena, then how are we going to fill the new 19,000-seat arena? Our Athletics Director, Mike McGee, needs to bite the bullet and relieve Fogler of his coaching duties, buy him out of his contract and start searching for a replacement. Maybe he should give Pitino a call before he commits to UNLV or get Cremens out of retirement. Fcgler,go back to UNC. We don’t want you here anymore! Burton Hilton Third-year Student Darla Moore School of Business Gamecock is risking libel, humiliation To the Editor In the past weeks I have found myself agreeing with The Gamecock endorsing candidates for SG, not necessarily with their choices, but with their right to make such endorsements. I was somewhat disturbed, since I generally dislike any and every opinion The Gamecock chooses to make. On Friday, March 2, there was a happy return to normalcy by way of the editorial opinion, as it became clear that the malicious advertisements on Monday and Wednesday concerning Norm Jones had originated from The Gamecock staff. Those at The Gamecock purport to have been informed by “sources” that Norm was responsible for the heinous crime of trashing 1,000 copies of the Gamecock. Who are these sources? Are they reliable? The Gamecock's readers have been given no way to tell if it really was Norm who was responsible. I feel that he was not, having known him personally for some time, but I fear that a majority of those who read Friday’s opinion will take this opinion as fact. Claims such as these c t’t reasonably be made with no support. If there really is evidence, show it to us! Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Norm was in fact responsible for the destruction of the papers. How does it follow that he should resign or be fired? The Gamecock has stated often that it is not controlled by SG, but do they realize that SG is not controlled by The Gamecock? I believe President Jotaka Eaddy was wise to discount such nonsense, and 1 hope the rest of The Game cock’s readership will do likewise. Wally Altman Third-year Student College of Science and Mathmatics Not a crime to trash school newspaper To the Editor For about one week now, The Gamecock has launched an attack on Mr. Norm Jones, alleging that he has violated tenets of the First Amendment, should resign from his position as SG’s Attorney General and should submit a letter of apology to The Gamecock. These statements are being made because the editors of The Gamecock believe Mr. Jones is responsible for throwing about 1,000 Gamecock newspapers in the trash. Mr. Jones does NOT owe The Gamecock ANYTHING. As The Gamecock has been quick to point out, SG does not control what it prints. Similarly, The Gamecock does not control SG. Therefore, The Gamecock can ask for Mr. Jones’ resignation until its ink runs out, and he still doesn’t have to honor that request. “But he did something wrong,” you might say at this point. My answer is, “No, he didn’t.” First, despite the presence of numerous slanderous ads against his char acter, The Gamecock has provided no evidence that Mr. Jones actually did trash issues of The Gamecock. The editors have merely aiiuueu iu cuiuuymuub buuivres wuu say Mr. Jones did so. Notice that no one but the editors knows who these supposed sources are, and furthermore, how exactly they know that Mr. Jones is re sponsible. Second, assuming that these sources are reliable (or even existent, for that matter), Mr. Jones still hasn’t done any thing wrong. If I take one copy of The Gamecock and throw it away, then I haven’t done anything wrong. Similarly, if I take two and throw them away, no one asks me to resign from anything. If I take 10 and throw them away, I still don’t have to answer to anyone. Does one assume that after a certain number, throwing away issues of The Gamecock becomes a crime? If so, how many can I throw away before I’m thrown behind bars? Throwing newspapers away is not a crime or unethical. It is, at worst, wasteful. Mr. Jones doesn’t need to resign. He doesn’t need to apologize. He may need to learn to recycle, but no one has yet even presented proof to that effect. Instead, I propose that The Gamecock apologize to Mr. Jones before he gets smart and begins contacting lawyers about slander and li bel. Richard Joy Third-year Student College of Engineering Jj I Student complaints Candidate campaign immature, annoying o v e over, drunken Five Points beggars. Get out of the way you beautiful Z i p s h e e t uisuiuuiurs. new pest rode into town last week. These annoying creatures are like exotic bugs that comes out of a cocoon, consistently pestering those around it for a week before dying as suddenly as it came. Phil Watson is a third-year College of Journalism and Mass Communications student. Reach him at gamecockviewpoints ©hotmail.com. 1 111 IdlKUlg about the vermin-people who plagued campus with Student Government campaign fliers last week. I remember walking past the Russell House one sunny day last week. One of the candidates (you know who you are) parked a BMW with balloons and signs | on it trying to convince us to vote for her. Just the thought of someone trying to lure in voters because of a nice car is enough to make me go ape. But to add insult to injury, N’ Sync, or some other flamboyant boy band, was blasting through the BMW’s speakers. Simply said, it made me want to take a knife to the car’s tires. What was this candidate thinking? What could this person’s logic have been? “Maybe if I show off a really nice car and play really detestable music, people will like me more and vote for me.” Then, as if being exposed to the Backstreet Boys wasn’t enough, I was harassed by some of this candidate’s friends. “Have you voted yet?” NO! And I don’t want a little piece of paper that has the candidate’s name | on it! LEAVE ME ALONE! These people are more aggressive than a Zipsheet guy, a used car salesman and Bill Brasky put together. Want to know what really made my blood boil? At least three times in one week, one of those campaign children slipped pieces of paper under my door. This is ridiculous. I only wish I could have been walking out the door while they were doing it. There would have been drama. Putting pieces of paper under doors is simply rude. No one’s going to vote for you because you slipped paper under his or her door. In fact, if you litter my room with your papers, I hope you lose. I’m not much for voting in SG elections. I really don’t care who wins | or loses. But this time, I voted. It was after I woke up one morning and saw a piece of paper that had been put under my door. At that very moment, I got online and voted for the guy running against the candidate who put the paper under my door. race u, jvj ciccuuiis aie uuu. n b basically a platform for overzealous kids who want a false sense of power. I even read about an SG member who threw away a bunch of copies of The Gamecock the other week. Grow up, junior. What are you trying to do, have a miniature scandal? Do you hope you’ll have to testify before the student senate? | Do you want your face all over the front of The GamecocK! I hate to be the one to break it to you, champ, but SG is just not that important. Get a life. Find a new hobby. Quit “playing politician,” because there are only about nine USC students who give a rat’s ass about you and your fake little games. Do you all think your little friends passing out propaganda for your “campaign” impress me? Do you think you’ll make a better candidate because you have a nice BMW and a Backstreet Boys CD? I’m not impressed. If you want to play your little politician games and live on false hopes of one day getting into the real game, go ahead. Just leave me alone. I h I