University of South Carolina Libraries
SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL B Create message boards at Should The Gamecock www.dailygamecock.com or endorse candidates? send letters to the editor to www.daUygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Results published on Fridays. , IN OUR OPINION Let us be adults Last night, the Residence Hall Association Senate unanimously passed a resolution endorsing “popular sovereignty” for dorm visitation policies. The purpose of the resolution is simple: It allows the students and staff of a residence hall to select their own visitation policy. That means everyone gets treated equally, from freshmen to seniors, from Wade Hampton (one of the most restrictive policies) to Preston (24-hour visitation). There’s nothing hidden or revolutionary in the proposal. Guests still have to be signed in, there still will be some form of visitation policies, and the roommate contract still trumps a residence hall’s visitation policy. It S time I e University officials love to university e remindstudents, whenever they students run their own lives mess up’ ^ wp’re supposed to be including adults. But, when it comes to giving visitation us tbe freedom that comes with policies, adulthood, they seem to become protective parents, wrapping us in regulations we don’t want or need. , It’s time the university let students run their own lives, from Student Government elections to student organizations to student residence halls. Committees, boards and administrators that try to tell students how to run their lives are either relics of the 1970s or restraints that should have been lifted after junior high. But, in this case, there should be no question. If students are old enough to drive, vote or smoke, they’re old enough to pick their own visitation policy. Otherwise, college is just high school with a little more reading. Winners and Sinners LISA SIMPSON She might prefer Vassar, but at least she recognizes that USC (not Clemson) is the best South Carolina school. VONETTA FLOWERS U.S. women’s bobsled team member is first black athlete to win Winter Olympics gold. Hitler noticeably displeased. RUDY GIULIANI Made an honorary knight by Queen Elizabeth. Just make him king, already. BOB JONES UNIVERSITY “Actively” recruiting minorities. Don’t mind those hoods — they’re just ceremonial. PFIZER Sues Manhattan restaurants for using the “Viagra” name in seafood dishes. It was a hard sell anyway. TAMPA BAY BUCS Finally settle on ex-Raiders coach John Gruden. And all it cost was their future. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In Monday’s paper, it was reported that Jacksonville State’s softball team scored two runs off two RBI doubles. The runs were scored off a double and an error by USC. Only one earned run was charged to pitcher Megan Matthews. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Mary Hartney Editor in Chief Ginny Thornton News Editor Kevin Fellner Asst. News Editor Mackenzie Clements Viewpoints Editor Carrie Phillips The Mix Editor Justin Bajan Asst. The Mix Editor Chris Foy Sports Editor J. Keith Allen Asst. Sports Editor Brandon Larrabee Special Projects Martha Wright Design Editor Page Designers Crystal Dukes, Sarah McLaulin, Katie Smith, David Stagg Kyle Almond Copy Desk Chief Copy Editors Crystal Boyles, Andrew Festa, Jason Harmon, Jill Martin, Paul Rhine Mark Hartney Online Editor Corey Davis Photo Assignments Photo Technicians Robert Gruen, Candi Hauglum Kelly Petruska Community Affairs CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com University Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com City Desk: gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 bUI IUKIAL BUAKU Kyle Almond, Mackenzie Clements, Chris Foy, Mary Hartney, Brandon Larrabee, Carrie Phillips, Ginny Thornton, Martha Wright STUDENT MEDIA Erik Collins Faculty Adviser Ellen Parsons Director of Student Media Susan King Creative Director Carolyn Griffin Business Manager Sarah Scarborough Advertising Manager Sherry F. Holmes Classified Manager Creative Services Derek Goode. Todd Hooks, Earl Jones, Jennie Moore, Melanie Roberts, Beju Shah Advertising Staff Betsy Baugh, Amanda Ingram, Denise Levereaux, Jackie Rice, Stacey Todd i ne uameuucK is me 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. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for one dollar each from the Department of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 YOU WERE AHOtWPIC FIGURE SKATING ||v JUDGE? JUST TOE TYPE Of CREATIVE , Z H EMHflg WF LA/E AT ARTHUR ANDERSON/ _Z _ CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS IN YOUR OPINION Treasurer’s role is mostly as adviser I read with much interest the editorial in Monday’s newspaper endorsing Terrance Beeks for student body treasurer. While I feel it would be inappropriate for me to endorse any candidate, I’m compelled to respond to a key issue The Gamecock cited in choosing to endorse Beeks. The editorial board quoted Beeks as planning to “distribute funds based on performance, [which] ensures that lazy groups will get moving and wisely use the money they’re given.” Unfortunately for Beeks, the student body treasurer nas no autnority over activity fee allocation. That duty is strictly assigned to the members of the Student Senate Finance Committee. Even the chair of the committee isn’t allowed to vote, except in the rare event of a tie. According to Student Government Finance Code 340.10, the SG treasurer serves only as an adviser to the Finance Committee during the allocation process. Therefore, it would be helpful for the treasurer to know how and where clubs have spent money in the past. It would also be nice if he or she previously had attended the grueling 12-hour allocation process. Think about that before you make your own choice for SG treasurer. HYDRICK HARDEN SC TREASURER, FOURTH-YEAR ACCOUNTING STUDENT Students should vote for referendum The Student Senate Judiciary Committee encourages students to cast their vote today or tomorrow via vip.sc.edu. We aren’t, however, writing with the sole purpose of asking students to vote for the candidates running for office. We are writing in support of the referendum that will be on the same ballot. This year, we have worked on and revised the Student Government Constitution. Currently, the SG Constitution is inaccurate in current procedures and has typographical errors, making it difficult to read clearly. We don’t want the new constitution to mimic past mistakes. We have removed clauses that SG has no power to enforce. We have clarified confusing issues, such as SG’s relationship with its judicial branch, Carolina Student Judicial Council. We have incorporated structural changes that greatly enhance the ability to read the constitution. We want USC to have a more efficient constitution that can be accurately understood by SG outsiders. Currently, you must be familiar with how things are really run to interpret the constitution, which can be misleading. The Senate unanimously approved the revised constitution on Feb. 6. Now, we ask the student body to review the amendments when you go to vote for candidates. And we ask students to vote “yes” for this referendum. SARA MARENO STUDENT SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRWOMAN, FOURTH-YEAR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES STUDENT Candidate leaves bad impression . As we get closer to SG elections, candidates continue to press hard for each vote. We all must understand that candidates are busy running around, talking to as many students as possible. It’s nonetheless important that candidates follow up on their appointments with student organizations, especially when the organization is a group of politically minded students who will surely cast their votes on election day. As the chairman of USC’s chapter of the South Carolina Student Legislature, I was contacted by four candidates for speaking engagements and arrangements were made. Though SCSL is a small group (our membership is limited based on the population of the university), we are very active. We will probably have more students voting in SG elections than most organizations three times our size. Of course, I can’t voice an opinion for the entire SCSL delegation, but I must note that Ankit Patel, a candidate for president, didn’t show up for his Thursday evening speaking engagement. Can we really expect any candidate (for any office) to uphold his or her platform when he or she doesn’t even keep campaigning appointments? It’s something worth considering. Hats off to David Bomemann, Brook Bristow and Terrance Beeks for their input and participation with SCSL. ADAM L. SHAW THIRD-YEAR POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENT Endorsements are just value judgments Readers, beware of The Gamecock’s endorsements! The Gamecock is right about its first responsibility to report the news. However, it blunders in its assertion for the privilege of making endorsements. In a Monday editorial, The Gamecock explains, “With every responsibility comes a privilege.” I think it’s necessary to add that for the privilege to take effect, the responsibility must be handled with integrity, competence and consistency. However, The Gamecock can’t seem to report with journalistic integrity, leading me to wonder why it can handle the extra “privilege” of endorsing candidates. The debate coverage—The Gamecock takes pride in cosponsoring the event—was filled with incomplete testimony and muddled explanations about every candidate’s platform. The “Meet the Candidates” articles have hardly been comprehensive. I also remember the poor advisement forums coverage, which had misquotes and ignored two of the three forums in the series. I have met faculty members who refuse to speak to The Gamecock for its reputation for misquotations. If the Gamecock editorial board reviewed its own articles dealing with the elections, the endorsements are hardly informed. The lack of journalistic integrity The Gamecock displays renders its endorsements worthless. The Gamecock makes a second mistake when it points to First Amendment rights. Though the First Amendment gives us each the right to explain what we think, it also adds the burden of responsibility to choose what we say and to decide what’s appropriate and what isn’t. The idea that The Gamecock produces such endorsements just because it can is ridiculous and detracts from its validity as a serious newspaper. I have never seen a reputable newspaper say point • blank, “We support this candidate.” Perhaps this is because blatant endorsements of this kind aren’t appropriate. These endorsements from The Gamecock should be considered with a lot of scrutiny. They are value judgments from people without the qualifications to tell the student body how to vote. GINNY WRIGHT COLLEGE OK LIBERAL ARTS SENATOR, SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH STUDENT Editor's Note: Many community and college newspapers around the nation, including The State, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Tar Heel and The Florida Alligator, endorse candidates for elections. Endorsing doesn’t help candidates Oh, no! The Gamecock has released its endorsements for the upcoming Student Government elections. What are we going to do? I know: Let’s hold a sit-in. How dare the newspaper exercise its First Amendment rights? Don’t get upset about The Gamecock’s endorsements. It’s the paper’s First Amendment right, but do you really think it helps the candidates? I urge you to take the endorsements with a grain of salt. As we all know, The Gamecock isn’t the most reputable paper in town. If I were a candidate, I would be upset with the endorsement. I would rather be endorsed by Maurice Bessinger. So before everyone gets angry because your candidate wasn’t picked as “the best,” remind yourself that the selections were probably made by one person who had enough power to exert the proper influence over the rest of the editorial board. Are you really going to let one person tell you how to vote in this election? BRIAN PHILLIPS FOURTH-YEAR CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDENT Submission Policy Letters to the editor should be less than 300 words and include name, phone number, professional title or year and major, if a student. Bring letters to Russell House 333 or e-mail gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style and space. Anonymous letters will not be published. Outside submissions supporting or opposing a candidate or a party in any election will not be run the day before or the day of an election. Call the newsroom at 77^7726 for more information. 28 days isn’t long enough BETHANY MITCHELL GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Learning about different cultures shouldn’t stop when February is over. As Black History Month ends, I’d like to commend the NAACP and AAAS'for providing activities throughout the month showcasing African-American culture. But I want to challenge these groups — and other minority groups—to keep the functions going. We can’t settle with one month to encompass all of black history. The government thought it was throwing a bone to the black community by giving us a month to celebrate our history. Thanks, • but no thanks; we got the shortest month of the year. More than 40 years ago, that might have been great, but today, it just doesn’t cut it. USC requires us to take several history courses as prerequisites, depending on your major. How many of those pniiropfi artnallv fnnis on hlark history? The most we learn is that blacks were slaves for 400 years and counted as three fourths of a man. Women didn’t even count that much. But what those history classes fail to mention is that this country was built on the backs of blacks, and it wouldn’t be the place it is today without them. But we don’t even deserve a full month or a year? We get lucky on leap year because we get an extra day. I apologize to other minorities because the government didn’t have any more short months to hand out. This society tends to forget the foundation that helped build this country. We owe Western expansion of railroad construction to Asian Americans, who risked their lives doing so. They were more than the stereotypical movie characters portraying the happy and elated house workers. We should also learn more about Native Americans. After all, this is their country. All we know is that “whites” felt they were taming “savages” by stealing their land and slaughtering their people. It was supposedly all in the name of Christianity, but I think it had more to do with just plain evil. I know just as well as the next person that February will always be Black History Month and that won’t change. I know that other minorities probably won’t get that much national credit. But as students at this university, we don’t have to stop the learning here. After February is over, I want to continue to see events for black bLUUClILO. I WcUll IU 5CC uaiui Americans constantly displaying pride in their heritage regardless of the month. I want to see other minorities rise up and let their voices be heard. The only way we will ever be able to learn about others and their cultures is by learning it ourselves. We can’t count on USC to teach us in HIST 112, because it won’t happen. And don’t be satisfied with 28 days to learn about events that took centuries to take place. Other minorities, I hear your voices, too. All of our ancestors built this country. Now, it’s time for the rest of the world to know it. To white students, this isn’t a ploy against you. But you should know the truth and never assume by what you are taught. There are always two sides to a story. The truth and real history of our wonderful country is out there; it’s just a matter of your willingness to explore it. Mitchell & a third-year broadcast journalism student.