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Can We Think? What is a college degree? Is it a piece of paper saying that John Henry has finished four years of classes or com pleted 124 credits? Or is it proof a period of mental growth and maturing? This week we talked with several of the foreign students of the campus. We found that they had worked in colleges which had requirements that made ours look rather easy and we wondered if their system was not better than ours. For example, we see freshmen enter college; oftentimes he has never had to make any big decision for himself-his family or his teacher have always been there to help. He is required to read books for the first time that should have been read long before. All of his life, his mental ability has been underestimated. Now he is left to his own way-passing or failing is up to him. For a while he gets along all right; then a test comes up, so he crams a lot of facts into his head, tries to think of what answer the professor would want on each question, and gets through the test. The question is, "Has his mental process been improved through this ex perience?" "Has he learned to think for himself or is he a parrot for his instructor ?" After four years of similar experiences, the student has usually become a good interpreter of his instructor and a good memorizer. He may make excellent marks, but not have learned to question for himself and have the curiosity and stamina to find the answers to his questions. Unless he is an English or philosophy major, he probably has not read many of the world's great thinkers and has no wish to do this. This is where our education often fails. We do not instill the wish for knowledge into the student. We do not make him a lifelong student. We teach him to remember, but not to formulate. The answer, you say? We do not know. Perhaps several courses in philosophy might help-perhaps the professor can fashion his classes so that the student learns to consider processes and methods rather than just subject matter or scattered facts. With some research, educational leaders can find the answer. We are preparing our students to make a living, now let's set out to help them make a life! O.T.E. Offers Taken Today marks the end of the 'Y' finance, membership campaign for this year. if no one has come to you for money, then what about offering it at the 'Y' office? The success of the campaign, the vital program of the 'Y' depends on you. This group is worthy of the support of every student on the campus. The force behind many im provements on the campus, the organization will carry on its program of work this year as in the past, maintaining its record of invaluable service to the campus and to the individual. To do this it must have members and money, so if you have contributed neither, your Presence will be welJcomed at the 'Y.' 0. T. E. JACK WALTHER' The Last Ligh' It is growing late. The lights in style and his deep perception of the dormitories have 'shed their human nature have spreadl he last rays on a slumbering campus. yond the small region where he Only mine remains. lied andI . . ." Yes, he does have a beautiful style. Yes, he does "The pure beauty of author's have a deep insight, but all those CROWING FOR A GREATER UNIVERSITY OF SOUTII CAROLINA Member of Associated Collegiate Press Dis,tribustor of Collegiate Digest Founded January 30, 1008, with Robert Elliott Conzales as the first editor, "The Gamecock" is published by and for the students of the University of South Carolina weekly, on Fridays, during the college year except on holidays and during examinations. The opinions expressed by columnists and letter writers are not neces sarily those of '"The Gamecock." Publishing does not constitute an endorsement. The right to edit is reserved.n EDITOR ..--------OLGA EDWARDS MANAGING EDITOR .---TOM P'RICE BUSINESS MANAGER PAULA FIELD ASST. BUSINESS MANAGER Elliott Wardlaw NEWS .......olto CAMPUS Babr.erc SPORTS .~ .Tneae SOCIETY .............AnraCnde EXCHANGES...........MayBowot COPY .....y Sit FEATURES ..cicSuheln CIRCULATION Jh aah 3TAFF REPORTERSRuhBre,KnPwl COLUMNITS Barbra Mc arb .arkalerc Bobby cMaho, Lawon YaeBobNncy Smihe h Barbara McSwain OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP LEADERSHIP Coeds who are in doubt about the provisions of the Alpha Kappa Gamma point system, or who have questions about it, will be given the opportunity next week to meet with the AKG executive board and have all questions an swered. The system, which was set up last year by AKG and passed on in a coed election, prescribes points ranging from five to 20 for jobs and offices available to girls. Under the present operation, no girl may hold offices totaling more than 20 points and no girl may hold two 20-point offices. If a girl finds that she is carrying more than her allowed number of points, she is on her honor to lighten her load voluntarily. The organizations to which the girl belongs are asked to allow her to drop the offices which give her too many points. In setting up the system, AKG was attempting to give Carolina coeds the benefit of a plan which many other schools have found helpful for their coeds. The pur pose is to give a larger number of girls the opportunity to develop their leadership abilities by limit ing the number of offices that already-established leaders may hold. The originators of the plan worked on a theory which has proven itself true at Carolina: some people continue to be elected I to office again and again, while . others, who also have the possibili ties of effective leadership, are neglected and overlooked because of the more forceful personalities of their opponents. The idea behind the plan is not n to prevent the natural leaders e from being elected heads of organ-t izations; it is to allow others to be elected, too! The protection of t the girls already involved in many e organizations is also sought. We f all know of girls who have fingers c in so many campus pies that they t scarcely have time for studies or relaxation. These, who do the ( most, are usually given the most n to do . .. at least this has been a so in the past. Now the point sys- o ten offers hope of rest to those e girls. They can plead "too many a points" and the organization will be forced to recruit new leaders, g who may have been needing just e such a chance to prove their worth. Cl So, the system seems to be ideal N in two respects: it limits office- P holding for those who are working y too much for their own good, and " it will give more responsibility to T those girls who have been over- a shadowed by "habit-elected" lead- C ers. tl Remind your~ organization of the f' l)oint system next election day. If tl everyb)ody cooperates and makes the p)lan a success, he will be help- tI ing every girl involved and the " school, too. 1f sj b ti lights have gone and mine 're- a mains. 1 I must pass this test tomorrow t but my eyelids arc like opposite n~ p)oles of a magnet. They yearn with I a will of their own to close and a defy their owner. My mind seeks to adjust to a drowsy world. It d must conquer itself to stay alert. f Each sentence I read must knock ~ loudly to gain admittance behind its doors, and once there it is juggled precariously before it is trapped. Somewhere in the night a train~ howls. It is the cry of a witch, spitefully designed to awvaken a sense of loneliness and dlesp)air. Through it all my bed beekons with the spirit of a siren 0 waiting to tempt her sailor onto the rocks. I arise to survey the damage in i the mirror. It is an honest but i cruel mirror. It reflects a haggard I mec. There is the nose, framed i njE the angle of two rivers of dried h silt. Above them the eyes strugglo 0 between themselves to achieve the E brightest hue of red. The lips, like 0 fragments of Poe's leaves, are c withered and sere. Like a lost soul C I flee from myself and return to 14 my task. Tomorrow things will be differ- d ent. Tomorrow these pages will t achieve a certain patina which will a embed itself in the soul and a awaken the intellect with their i luster. They will have ceased to a play this role of torture and will d fade into the memory as the sourcet of "pure beauty and deep percep- I tion of human nature." For this, a dlear Professor, I thank you- c tomorrow, but not tonig. a 111111 I 3f a CopyrgM 1950 by ESQUIRE. bt. "Suppressed Book 3etsy Knowlton Why Not The " . and we don't even have legaphones!" said the cheerlead rs when they were explaining i heir financial situation one day. Last year the band went on two rips with the football team with 1 xpenses paid by student activity ee. The faithful cheerleaders ac- i ompanied the team last year, too, Georgia Tech, Miami, George I Vashington, Baylor, and to i harleston, but they got the ioney out of their own pockets for < 11 of it but the transportation for E ne game - Miami. The band got I verything: transportation, hotels, 1 nd food. This year for the Georgia Tech t ame, not only did the band get I Kpenses, but each member also re- i ived five dollars spending money. I o expenses of any kind will be f sid for the cheerleaders this : ear. They have already traveled r ith the team to Furman, Georgia ech, one to George Washington, s id they are planning to go to 1 harleston. They are terribly sorry r aat their personal financial straits t Arbid thema to go to any more of -f ae. out-of-town games. s Don't get the wvrong idea, e aough. The band is a wvonderful p stitution for Carolina. It is per- d >rming better this year than it o ier has before. The cheerleaders e ay that the band cooperation has een at its best. No one begrudges i: icem their expenses for the game, t it even the five dollars spending t oney. i Still, the cheerleaders are getting f rawv deal. They like being cheer- n aders. It's fun. But no one told t ie when they were elected it t ceant paying their own expenses I r out-of-towvn trips. That isn't II they pay, either. c Whenever the goal posts are t ecorated for a game, it comes to 1: ive dollars. The cheerleaders pay., a 3EORGE LaBRUCE Honor. . .AIN Evolution, you say? Go homne,i Ir. Darwin, and read your phil- I sophy to yourself if you will - ut spare us this agony! What?e Ion't cheat? Well, if I just hap- r en to see the answer on someone's e aper, that's not really cheating. v wouldn't look in the boo0k or my t otes or anything, but if I just e appen to be able to see the answer It n - What? You say this isbee eathi my dignity? Well, the rest p f' the class cheats, if you want to d all it that. You say only a few f them do; well, it seems like a >t to me. Last spring the HIonor Board a rew up a new system of opera- I on for the Honor Principle. Right a ow we are hearing and reading i bout it, or should be if interested v, our own wvelfare. This is another h Lep in the fight against the stu- i ent's desire to get better marks irough the medium of cheating. s is not unthinkable that such h1 dould be the case; rather, we ac- c apt it quite calmly as everyday bi eurrence that students wil cha .. II I' " w O .p.W.d ho. A Nov.bw 1930 sw of ?QUIM -of-the-Month" Cheerleaders? )f course, the expenses for the pep allies vary. The cheerieaders save hemselves a little cash there by "unning off the stencils themselves or song sheets for about seven iours. You remember all the posters or all the baseball games last pear, including the big one on the iorseshoe? Every game cost about ive dollars. Why do the cheerleaders keep n shelling out dollars for every ame? That's a good question. 1aybe they are loyal or something ike that. Anyway, it runs them nto money. They were not elected o office in order that they might ear the financial brunt of keep ng up school spirit. Yet they do ear the financial brunt entirely or the publicity, decorations, and ersonal travel for a tremendous umber of the athletic events. The money should come from omewhere - the same place the and money comes from. Last Feb uary Don Johnston discovered at lie Southern Collegiate Color Con erence that Carolina was the only chool in the South at that confer nee that did not pay travel ex enses for the cheerleaders and id not have a pep club. It was nie of the few that did not use ard tricks for the bigger games. He came back and helped organ ~e the Pep Club. He tried to sell lie card trick idea. No organiza ion was willing to help raise the eeded two hundred dollars. As or getting the cheerleaders paid, obody seemed to know who had he authority. At other schools he athletic association foots the ill. In the meantime the cheerleaders ontinue to pay personally for hings that, by all rights, should e taken care of by other means, nid it's costing them too much. oral Evolution r given the chance, and yet we ave a'n honor system here. We realize more of the offend rs would be caught if we had a roctor' system. We realize less heating wvould go on if someone ,as there looking for it, hoping ) catch someone. We know, how ver, that enforcement of this na ure is not desirable since it en ourages breaking of the rules and romotes distrust among the stu ents. I heartily denounce the saying: He who cheats, cheats only him elf." Wo must appreciate our re ponsibility to our fellow students, or when we cheat, we cheat them lso-if it be to a lesser degree. Vhat more terrible example can re set a freshman than to have im see an uIpperclassman cheating 1 class? Why, then, do we have an honor ystem? Why do we allow dis onesty under our noses? What an we do about it? The answer as many facets. When ,we go to ork: when we atr if, for o..r The.Price Of Things By TOM PRICE Spirit Rehashed Ever since we have been a member of the student body at this venerable institution we have heard wails from our colleagues concerning the lack of spirit that exists among those attending the university. By "spirit" we mean the kind that gives with the old "Rah-Rah" and the "Yea-Team Yea" and, not the kind that is dispensed from the famous little stores with the red bull's-eyes on the side. We have always contended that although the student spirit at Carolina could be improved it compares favorably with the spirit displayed at other institutions. We cited attendance at the basketball games of the Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia, and a 1949 pep-rally at the University of North Carolina (32 persons showed up to send "Choo-Choo" Juytice and company off to battle) as examples of poor spirit displayed at other schools that have been reputed to have better spirit than we have. We realize that just because spirit is poor at other schools, there is no plausible reason why it should be poor at Carolina. We do point out, however, that the spirit dis played at Carolina during the past two years is better than average, despite arguments to the contrary. A large nuinber of Carolina students were in Atlanta for the Georgia Tech football game, and an even larger number travelled to Greenville the following Friday for the Furman game. When the student body follows the football team on the road, the spirit is there. We have always contended that students will show en thusiasm and spirit as long as they are interested in what is going on, and will shrug their shoulders and say, "What the heck," when something that doesn't interest them is present. No amount of "ranting," "raving," or editorializing will change their minds. The following letter, which appeared in "The Mailbox," a column in the "Daily Tar IICCi," University of North Caro lina student newspaper, bears out our theory: Editor: Why not begin the new quarter right with a solemn resolution to somehow fill the pages of the "Daily Tar Heel" without recourse to the ubiquitous words "apathy" and "lethargy." All student newspapers write daily of the failure of some campus social function, some rooting sec tion, or some voting procedure, invariably attribut ing the failure to those terrifying attitudes, "apathy" and "lethargy." Face the facts! Students will support what they are interested in and will not support those things in which they are not. In a heterogenous student body such as at North Carolina, let's be content to leave politics for the politicians, dances for the (lancers, sports for the sports, without being faced each morning with head line statements berating us about our unforgivable you know what. Apathetically yours, Name withheld by request.. In the future, wve might attain better results if we praise what spirit we have and try to cultivate that without cram ming our spirit dlown the throats of those who dlon't want to be spirited. Second Story Man Now to change the subject to a lighter vein: The "Syracuse D)aily Orange" reports that a burglar looted a girls' (dorm early one morning, causing a hasty fire drill and frightening some 90 girls. Two girls (discovered a man in their room at 2 a. m. and sounded the alarm after first scaring the p)rowler off. When things calmedl down, it was (discovered that the p)rowler had left the following note for his victims: "You look very charm ing in your sleebp. Ha-ha-ha." The big surprise came later that same night when a dozen red gladiolas, a note of apology and the loot were receivedl by the girls in the dlorm. ,The explanation: the Prowler claimed he was trying to prove to his pals that he was a commando (luring the war. selves, t here will be' no proctor to ee I(1t u at a rd seQe if we cheat. Trhere wvill be0fl noueleador(o adt Honor lHoardI to reb,uke us wvhen wve eitiet Vlemrly h mlisb,ehave. WVe must grow up) morally as wvell as mentally and ohri ob ihns nid p)hysically. We must depend ~ onole nrtunothlvl our own integrity and our faith o h essfo vihw *lO in God and man to keep us in J j m)sllettlltth line. We must literally think thetif?hwscefltenehoo right wvay; believe the right things. stmwlbeIprsnlYfd This calls for a moral evolutionsoeoittntshrto,inl und evolution is a slow proces. Itianxeimtad Little by little we must removecopmiealet.e. sin the punishment of the polhce state crl oei sago n n and replace it with the satisfactionloktthdy beouOW)tt and peace of mind which is the true td oadlf ilmk oef dignity of man.inhorsuncsayadhe We avetw chice. n~ s o igthing tof he pihoet.a d