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« ^ THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, March 22, 2004 9 « .. n .. “Itlfpary to think that just one Unlme.r iflinolShcident could put us out Should Spain have withdrawn of business forever.” its troops from Iraq following STEPHEN WAfcDON the Madrid bombings? first-year electronic journalism student www dailvsamecock com and wusc disc jockey on the impmUIuew i www.aauygamecocK.com. fcc regulations could have on Results published on Fridays. independent stations _::; In.our.opinion Race still an issue at USC The reaction of Zeta Tau Alpha to the actions of Tim Tice at the March 2 Big Man on Campus fund raiser shows a desire by the sorority to make things right, but also underlines the work that yet remains to be done on race relations at USC. ZTA was in many ways blindsided by Tice’s performance, and it was impressive that it issued an apology within hours of the event. The sorority is correct to suspend the fund-raiser until it decides how to modify the event in a way that ensures it has control over the content. t_;_11,* rn-I^^v__ XX UlliV/UXiJ J X XVsVs O UV/IIU1IO are similar to the Jackson debacle in that the organizations left picking up the pieces never saw the catastrophe coming, but nonetheless should have had measures m place to guard against “free speech.” . The university has also acted in a timely manner in appointing Michael Goodwin to the Office of Greek Life, but the move cannot be viewed as anything other than a stopgap measure that was belated at best. If the administration is serious about improving relations between black and white Greeks, they will make it a goal to name a permanent minority staff member by fall rush. The legislation pending in the Residence Hall Association senate that encourages fraternities and sororities to cross the racial barrier is good from a ^purely symbolic view, but if we want real systemic change there must be far more specifics on cooperation between whites and blacks. This is something Student Government must tackle, keeping in mind that legislation won’t change the hearts of people on campus, but making a statement that ignorance will not be tolerated is the necessary first step. Carolina must acknowledge the most malevolent cancer is the self-segregation many of us implicitly endorse by our limited associations. I---~ ----*-1 it we want real systemic change there must be far ^ more specifics on cooperation between whites and blacks. SOUND OFF Create message boards at www.dallygamecock.com or send letters to the editor to gamecockoplnlons@gwm.sc.edu Gamecock.Corrections A story in Wednesday’s news section should have said that the RHA senate meets in Calcott. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. About. The.Gamecock Editor in Chief Adam Beam Copy Desk Chief • Gabrielle Sinclair Design Director Shawn Rourk Asst. Design Director Staci Jordan News Editor Michael LaForgia Asst. News Editor Alexis Stratton Viewpoints Editor Patrick Augustine The Mix Editor Meg Moore Asst. Mix Editor Jennifer Sitowski Sports Editor Wes Wolfe Asst. Sports Editor Jonathan Hillyard D Photo Editor Morgan Ford Asst. Photo Editor Johnny Haynes Page Designers Erin Cline. Brad Senkiw, Mary Pinckney Waters, Chas McCarthy Copy Editors Allyson Bird. Jennifer Freeman. Jessica Foster Steven Van Haren Wire Editor Z’Anne Coveil Online Editor James Tolbert Senior Writer Kevin Fellner CONTACT INFORMATION Offices pn third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu News: gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu The Mix: gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports@.gwm.sc.edu Public Affairs: gamecockpr@yahoo.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor's Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Director Scott Lindenberg Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Creative Director Susan King Business Manager Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Sarah Scarborough Classified Manager Sherry F. Holmes Production Manager Amber Justice Creative Services Whitney Bridges. Robbie Burkett. Burke Lauderdale. Paul Koska Advertising Staff Robert Carli, Kate Femino, Latoya Hines Carolina Love, Jesica Johnson. David Weatherford Public Affairs Kimberly Dressier The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of South Carolina. It 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-activity fees. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 each from the Department of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. .Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Tax: 777-6482 « BUNCH T (w > CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Teachers live in own world There’s something about teaching a class that just makes a professor go insane. I don’t mean insane in the certifiable, Jack Nicholson in “The Shining," be long down on rtuii street kind of insane. That would actually be pretty fun (mi nus the eleva tors full of blood, but USC elevators get stuck so often, I’m sure that we’d never ac tually see the Diooaj. I’m talking about a different kind of crazy. I don’t know quite how it works, but when they stand up there in front of the class, chalk in hand (and on then back, front and sleeves), profes sors enter some sort of alternate universe which we mere students cannot understand. Not that we want to understand, mind you, but professors seem to think so. For starters, as soon as a fac ulty member stands up in front of a group of students, he imme diately thinks that they care about what he has to say. All of a sudden, the years he spent doing crossword puzzles, reading Cosmo, and passing notes that said “Do you like my tweed jack et with elbow patches? Check yes or no.” during class disappear, replaced with fuzzy memories of being an attentive student who stayed after class to help the teacher get the chalk off her dress. This never actually hap pened, but professors firmly be lieve that it did, and thus expect us to pay more attention than they ever did. But it’s not just that they think we care. It’s that they think we’re obligated to care. Professors get mad when we don’t come to class, don’t turn in papers and don’t participate in class discussion. We’re already paying thou sands of dollars every year to earn a second-rate. South Carolina low-level higher educa tion, and our professors think they’ve been insulted when we don’t show up to class? Shouldn’t I get to choose how much I get out of the federal gov emment’s/my parents/some guy named Pell’s money? If I were a professor, I would take less class discussion as a sign that more students are improving their vo cabulary through the New York Times crossword puzzle or The State’s bridge column, and leave it at that. But participation, attendance, punctuality and actually doing work aside, the teacher/student disconnect is nowhere more vast than in the area of time manage ment. And I don’t mean because they expect us to do homework in advance (news flash: we don’t), but because they think every last sin gle second of class time is vital. Seriously, how many times have you had a professor start teaching new material with five minutes left in class? And then they always get confused when, for some reason, they don’t man age to fit 40 minutes of lecture into the 9:50-9:55 block of time. At this point, even the people doing the crossword puzzle are bored enough to have packed up, but the professor is always des perate to get that last chalk smudge on his face before going back to his office and falling asleep. Not that I’m saying that the only thing professor’s do in their offices is fall asleep. I-’m sure they get the New York Times for free, too. And that crossword puzzle is hard enough that it takes a Ph.D. to finish it. GRAHAM CULBERTSON Third-year English student In.your.opinion St. Pat’s festival doesn’t give back I wanted to write to you to clear up a mistake in your ar ticle, “St. Patrick’s festival comes to Five Points,” in Wednesday’s paper. The charity group that cre ated, organized and ran the event for free for 20 years is not holding an event on April 12 — that was last year. This would be the second, not 22nd year that the Five Points Association has organized a . St. Patrick's festival (using just over a half-million in tax dollars from the city.) I am confused how they say it is their 22nd annual event lnni .. A il. A.T Uinl they had no rainy day money, as they just begun. They used that excuse to get $3,000 in ac commodations money, an ad ditional $50,000 for bail out money and over $450,000 from the restaurant tax this year. Of course, they also fleeced over $200,000 away from the charities from the 2001 and 2002 festivals. Of course they say they will give money to charity (fictions it might be, since they can’t offer even one specific charity), if there is any money left over after ex penses and after they establish a rainy day fund (I thought they got $50,000 from the city for that?). With all of this money slushing, I mean sloshing, around, couldn’t they at least guarantee a portion of the pro ceeds go to charity? Maybe they can scrape the bottom of the fountain and give that money away. JOHN CLAYTON FOURTH-YEAR HISTORY STUDENT Fraternity should protest all raoism While I was at a movie the ater Friday night, a preview for a movie titled “White Chicks” came on. It depicted the humorous antics of two black men, played by the Wayans brothers, as they dress ud like unoer-middle class white women. As everyone in the theater laughed and enjoyed the com edy on screen, I finally began to gain some perspective on the stance that Kappa Alpha Psi and its president Rodney Hollis has been taking. If Kappa Alpha Psi is not al ready up in arms against this movie “White Chicks,” I’m sure they will be as soon as they’re done with their list of demands. They’re taking a no ble stand in trying to crush this use of race bending for the sake of humor. Personally, I expect them to do nothing less than lead a campus-wide boycott of this movie and Columbia Studio until the callousness of the movie’s subject matter is real ized and apologized for. I’m so thankful that Kappa Alpha Psi has made me realize that race-bending is unaccept able under all circumstances, and I hope to see strides taken by this organization to open the eyes of the rest of the USC stu dent body on the damage done from presentations such as “White Chicks.” JONATHAN WOOTEN SECOND-YEAR CHEMISTRY 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. E-mail letters to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. Letters will be edited for space, possible libel and style. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777 7726 for more information. WWW. dailygamecock .com Because news still happens on Tuesdays & Thursdays. Now updated five days a week. Time is now to examine racism A recent Zeta Tau Alpha fund raiser has sparked heated feelings at USC. There appear to be two camps — one who thinks people are blowing the situation out of proportion and feel that the fund raiser’s cause 3UUU1U UC UCJU above all else, and the other camp, which does not debate the goal of the fund-raising AA11CA Kill IK A DUSTIN LEE culture here at ™ . . USC that ac Third-year . . , history cepts racial student degradation. I have spo ken with people on both sides of the issue who were directly in volved with the incident in some facet. The minority community is upset primarily about the follow ing: If no minority students had been present at the show, would anyone have even been offended? Unfortunately, the black commu nity is probably correct in their assumption that the answer would be “no.” Blackface is a degrading thing in black history in the United States — see D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation.” This film will explain what minstrel shows were and how blackface has tra ditionally been used to degrade blacks and promote racial stereo types. The imminent white response has been, if black people would have painted their faces white, would it have been a big deal? Probably not, simply because there is not more than a century of degradation and racism asso ciated with blacks painting their faces white. The black community has had to deal with a dominant culture at USC that is so tied in with racism and stereotypes that it does not even recognize when something is offensive. The ma jority accepts that they are cor rect, and feels it absurd that any one could be offended by such things as blackface, or other sym bols traditionally used in a derogatory fashion. Racism exists in every facet of American soci ety. Tim Tice has a constitution al right to do his act, but the scary thing is the general cultural ac ceptance of his actions. Some argue that ZTA’s cause _i_..i j 1_1_i j _ l__l_ ouvuiu uc uv.xu uuu v x, uxx ciox. Ignoring a problem does not make a problem go away; it actually breeds more contempt on one side, and acceptance on the oth er. Though this analogy will re ceive criticism from many, I feel it is necessary: The Ku Klux Klan had a cause that they believed righteous, and in their minds burnings, beatings and the like were unfortunate side effects of achieving this cause. In the 1960s, the KKK burned my grandparents’ store in a small South Carolina town because my grandparents felt the need to help black people. The Klan took this as a simple side effect of achiev ing their mission and goal, while my family felt the obvious impli cations and damages. Though ZTA’s cause is not a controversial issue such as the goal of the Klan, saying an inci dent should be ignored because it helps achieve a larger goal is naive. America is a great country, but the fact is, inequality still ex ists, and injustices must be cor rected. USC is not alone in deal ing with these issues of inequali ty. This goes deeper, into the very socialization of Americans and the values they are taught. It is hard to imagine what a minority student feels like until one has to live in his or her shoes for a day. f College.Quote.Board THE GOOD FIVE CENT CIGAR I'NIVEBSltV OF RHODE IKUND "In pi United States, we debate the decision to go to war on a 1^^ dailjfbasis and it is one year later. When we discuss what has come out of the way, the reason that we were given by our gov emmlft is lost in the sensationalism of capturing a fallen leader and hidden under a veil of aggressive patriotism akin to the same impulses that drove the Sedition Act.” NORTHERN STAR NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY “Drivers and passengers of DVD-equipped cars no longer are just playing movies to keep children occupied. They’re playing pom for all the surrounding cars to see. It’s distracting to the driver and also for people passing by who can see it through the windows. If car manu facturers are going to continue adding televisions and DVD players to their vehicles, new regulations need to be made so the driver and any one outside the vehicle cannot see the televisions.” ’’* * * courtesy of u wir^