Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

%GAM CROWING FO UNIVERSITY OF Member of Associa Distributor of Founded January 80, 1908, with Robert Elliott Gonzales as the first editor, "The Gamecock" is published by and for the students of the University The opinions expressed by columnists and letter writers are not necessarily those of "The Game JACKIE SOUTHERLAND, EDITOR MURRAY SEAMAN, MANAGING EDITOR ELLIOTT WARDLAW, BUSINESS MANAGER News Editor . Ruth Barker Campus Editor .......... Tommie Herbert Sports Editor Ralph Gregory COLUi Rudy Thigpen, Mordecai CARTOONIST BUSINES Petede Hiers, Bobby REPORTOR: Jinx Wilson, Leo M. MacCourtney, Barbara Thompson, Mary Bloodworth, Chuck Davidson, Bob Cameron, Billy Watson, Bill Leggitt, Phillip Moody, An I The boy sat on the empty seats and lis tened and listened and listened alone. Look upward and to the right. There is printed a cartoon by Al Simson, Gamecock cartoonist. It is, perhaps, as I instructed, a little exaggerated. Look at the fellow on the steps. He is happy and grinning. He- is enjoying listening to a speaker. It is Friday at 10 a. m. The scene is the USC Field House. The listener is a Carolina student. The speaker is an im ported one. He is present because he has something to offer to the Carolina student body . . . perhaps he is bringing a little wisdom or a little entertainment; whatever he brings it is something that the assembly committee considers useful to us. But there is only one person present. This student is not meant to illustrate the small ness of the crowds particularly. Indeed I have heard that the audiences are not noted for their ability to fill the Field House. I, as well as the majority of the student body, have been among the absent. But this is not meant to be a tirade against us absentees. The solitary student with the grin on his face represents a definite sort of student. This fellow exemplifies those few who man aged to arrange their schedules as they wished, who managed to get in the courses that they wanted and that they should have. They are the lucky ones; they have a right to smile and look happy. The number of the lucky is few and does not count much more than the solitary listening figure in the drawing. I have not been through a registration line since I was a freshman, since the monthly assembly programs were inaugu rated, that I have not heard the groans, the complaints, and occasionally the somewhat hysterical "What will I do" of students who have been frustrated in the courses that they had planned on taking. The making up of the class schedules is no doubt a difficult and a confusing task. Not everyone can be pleased. Some will al ways find themselves substituting a course Rea Student council went on record Monday evening as favoring the addition of a student union building to the Carolina campus. KSK( is pushing the idea with investigations into the matter. If there is anything I can do, such as laying bricks, I am at your service, in a lazy sort of way. But may I make one little ole suggestion? Put in a cafeteria. This university has two cafeterias. One I have experienced, the other I have not. Wade Hampton is for the girls; It is for the dormi tory girls in that you have to have a meal ticket to eat there. This rule lets out us town students, who eat only one meal a day up here. Why should we buy a meal ticket and lose money on two meals? coc4C R A GREATER SOUTH CAROLINA ted Collegiate Press Collegiate Digest of South Carolina weekly, on Fridays, during the college year except holidays and examinations. cock." Publishing does not constitute an endorse ment although the right to edit is reserved. Society Editor ........... Norma Bergman Feature Editor Furney Hemingway Copy Editor ....... Patsy Hutto Exchange Editor . Don Hayes Circulation Manager . Bobby Smith Asst. Business Manager John Parasho 2NISTS Persky, Josef Euringer - Al Simson S STAFF Smith, Nedra Gilmore [AL STAFF Laurens Irby, Theodore K. Matthews, T. L. Buffington. Echo at the last minute for one that they had planned to schedule. This cannot be com pletely avoided. But the problem of fouled up schedules can be immensely helped, can be rectified to a great extent, at least, through one simple move . . . abolishment of the monthly as sembly programs at 10 a. m., Fridays. I do not think that the audiences can possibly justify the continuation of these assemblies. The students do not respond. Given an hour between classes they naturally study, cram, or loaf. They do not attend assembly pro grams. One program a month that could possibly appeal to a great number of students - this one hour a month throws many students from their planned course while in college. I say one program a month, for the religious programs often scheduled at this ten o'clock period do not appeal to all of us irreligious and irreverent students. Then, of course, there are some of us who come for one pur pose only . . . to study, to learn, to take the prescribed courses, to confiscate a diploma and leave; perhaps this is not the right at titude, but it is their right to decide their attitude. Always, also, we have with us those who are here for no definable reason and are interested in nothing, except to fill their lives with nothing. If these monthly assembly programs are worth while, they could be scheduled at night. Indeed, I think that outside speakers could add a great deal to our store of knowledge, and I think that they should be invited to our campus. Also, it cannot be disputed, they should be greeted with an audience that is not so small as to insult them and provide a laugh to the university's funds. My plan, which is merely an echo of the demands of many before me and many with me, is assembly programs at night, in the chapel, or in Drayton Hall. Programs few in number andl great in quality. I, and many others, want our ten o'clock period back for classes. How about it? -J. S. ily?! Then there is Steward's Hall. I have eaten there twice, no more. The food wasn't bad, in fact, on those two occasions it was rather good. But girls just don't go to that den of edibles. Don't ask me the why or wherefore. Maybe some gruesome murder took place there years before and the memory lingers still to ruin the coeds' delicate appetites. Or maybe there isn't enough room for all of the campus; so the boys have taken over. What ever the reason, Steward's Hall is dominated by the men and it is a rare day when a coed wanders in. Why separate us? Really, we girls aren't dangerous - very. How about having a place big enough for boys and girls, and how about putting it in the new student union building ?-JS C N~- 1, N OW ML Sr"__ SEE 'AN ECHO' Cumpus Opinion Plans are being laid already for a Coronation Ball in honor of the May Queen and her attendant and for the cam pus at large. Last year Student Council sponsored the dance with Ray Anthony furnishing the music. The turnout was good,. and the loss was relatively small. This year again Student Council wants to have a dance. This dance would be open to all the students, would have good music, and would round out the day's May Court festivities. The question arose as to having a local band or a big name band. Money, as always, was involved. The Studeni Council wants a well-known band. So this week the Game. cock asks the students what they want. Bill Novit, business administration: I am certainly it favor of having a name band, especially Ralph Flannigar because he seems to be quite popular with college students. It seems as though every other state school throws dances with name bands. They greatly improve school spirit, and there is no reason why Carolina should not have a name band, too. Betty Bellinger, education: We need to have something like that that the university could sponsor. All the other state schools seem to have big name bands. My nomination for the job is Gene Krupa. Murray Seaman, journalism: I think it is about time that the university's social functions get out of their ruts and be gin bringing a name attraction so that they would attract a bigger crowd and be more of a financial success. Madelyn Campbell: The Coronation Ball should be some thing different. It should be something big. Carolina only has a name band once a year, if then, and it should be at the Coronation Ball. Vaughn Monroe would be a good choice. If we can't get him, I would take Sammy Kaye. Why don't we get Mario Lanza to sing for us? (This with a chuckle.) ,e tter to 1Le 6itor Dear Sir, Since I am a transfer student, I have been more than usually reticent about publicly voicing my opinion concern ing incidents and policies at the university. Yesterday (Feb. 5), however, an incident occurred that should in all fairness be presented to the student body. If it accomplishes nothing toward a new policy, it will at least serve as a warning to others who will follow to tell them about the organization responsible for the incident. I am speaking of the Honor Council, and I am speaking out against its handling of a meet ing last night. A rather large group of students was called to the meet ing which began at seven. We had been called to cooperate ir the investigation of charges of cheating on an exam. As the evening dragged heavily on it became apparent that thE Honor Council had completely failed to arrange the meeting to accommodate the number of witnesses called. The stu dents were called in individually to answer the Council's questions, while the remainder of the group waited, and waited, and waited. We could only wait and fume impotently while the council deliberated over details in a manner be. coming an august body. The fraying and shortening of tem pers caused many of us to lose sight of the worth of such investigations and left us with only ill-concealed animosity for the council. There were three students still to be questioned when ] left. This was a scant fifteen minutes before midnight. Five hours waiting for fifteen minutse of interviewing hardly constitutes a fair balance of timing. I have every respect for the Honor System, both in prin ciple and practice; but the beauty of a system that really works, as it indeed does here, is no excuse for gross in efficiency and lack of consideration for the student as these faults manifested themselves last night. Several of the students concerned have assured me that I do not speak for myself alone in expressing the sentimentE contained in this letter. A re-occurrence of the conditions suffered in last night's meeting could result in such antagonism of the students as to cause a serious and permanent damage to a system thai we all respect. It is clearly the duty and the responsibility ol the present Honor Council to attain the efficiency of plan. ning and administration that will preclude the possibility of last night's blunder ever happening again. If the council hccepts this responsibility and sets its house in order, ther the meeting may have been a much-needed lesson and a worth-while one. If it refuses to recognize that duty, then the Honor Council could well become the Honor System's worsi enemy. Mark Foster 308 Preston Box 1374 MORDECAI PERSKY Long-R unge Flops Agai After seven years of ignoring the University of South Carolina's long range program, the state budget and control board probably doesn't expect to startle anybody with its de cision to go right on ignoring. And USC goes hustling right along with its inadequate facilities, seemingly with nobody to champion its cause, while appropriations for badly needed ' dormitories, land, gymnasiums, drill fields -- as well as the more and more conspicuously absent student activities build. ing - are passed off with a single impartial stroke of indifference. The funds appropriated for maintenance and operations, carefully checked and sagaciously cut, are allotted separately. On the surface it looks like the legislature is toying with Carolina, playfully appropriating just enough money to keep us going year after year, thus affording themselves the op. portunity to frustrate our hopes for bettering our present situation by time and again returning the long-range pro. gram un-gratified. With an eye to opening a few eyes to the full implication of the rejection of the long-range program, we are setting down the program's top points. They are, in the self-liquidat ing category, a women's dormitory, two men's dormitories, and residences for the university faculty and staff. In case the term self-liquidating assumes a new connotation under the influence of the inclusion of men's dormitories under that title, the term means that such projects pay for themselves in time, and are, therefore, only a loan. These projects are to be financed at least in part by state funds: additional land (which is available through the fed eral government's slum clearance program), athletic drill fields, remodelling of existing facilities (old dorms, chapel, classroom buildings, Steward's Hall), gymnasium for men, air and naval science building, completion of school of edu cation, gymnasium for women, shops and warehouses, chapel, auditorium, music building, power plant distributing system. The projects are listed in the order of their importance as calculated by the administration. The weeping necessity for each one would make enough material for a trio of columns the length of this one. If Carolina has any friends in the current legislature, it is high time some of us gaw them wind of this truth, and of how true the truth really is. MURRAY SEAMAN Immoral Evolution When former Interior Secretary Harold Ickes died two weeks ago the biggest accolade heaped on him was that he was "honest." Editorial writers and radio commentators all over the country played up the lack of scandal and misuse of Mr. Ickes' office. This is gratifying to know that a man in the position to spend hundreds of thousands of American taxpayers' earn ings is of high integrity. At the same time this seems to me a sad commentary on our times. The mere fact that writers made such a big deal out of the fact that here was an "honest" man. I may be a simple, naive soul adrift in a hard world but I always have been of the opinion that a man's honesty (especially one occupying a governmental position) should be taken as a matter of course. It no more seems to me that an honest man who does his job to the fullest of his ability deserves awards than does a parent who sacrifices for his child; it's their duty. In these strange times it seems everyone from cabinet official on down to college athletes is not to be trusted. The dollar sign for personal gain has blinded men as to what is right or wrong. It is gratifying to find a man like Ickes. It is refreshing to see that the press hasn't been able to rip apart a man's character and his achievements after his death. I don't know too much about Mr. Ickes or what he did while in office, but he truly must have been a good maW to have the American press unable to dig up something do' grading out of his past. Franklin Roosevelt died seven years ago and still his name comes up for smirching at intervals 13 the papers. Undoubtedly the "smear" columnists are accurate in manY of their criticisms and their words have more effect on chiselers than we think. What surprises me Is that so mianY men can be led so easily from the straight and narrow. Have things become so twisted, has life become turned about so that men with responsibilities to others can no longer be trusted to carry out their jobs without constant surveillaned Granted, money is nice stuff to have around. Any perso1 without a surplus knows this. But what has caused peelk to cast aside all other values, especially self respect, in favor of it? Has the gleam of green taken the glow away froml honor and satisfaction away from a job well done! I have no fears that there are no more men like H{arold~ Ickes in the federal government. Men who every day do their work and return home without a pat on the back are of the same dye that cast him. I just hope that these * never get to the stage when they expect praise for sm doing their job. We have been encumbered with incomlputo officials for long enough ; now is as good a time as an ridl ourselves of them. Now is certainly the time for Mr Harold Ickes' sucessor, to step to the fore and show the 0Yi