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Editorial Commentary FrIday, September 22, 1967 Lion On I There's a lion on the loose in the Univer sity community-a lion that stalks only by night and attacks the alone and unwary. A member of The Gamecock staff was attacked and beaten Monday night in a darkened stairway behind Russell House. He was struck on the head with a stick a blow hard enough to break the weapon. When he fell to the ground, his four as sailants began kicking him about the head. It was the fourth such incident since the beginning of the fall term. Four incidents-single happenings-but they point up much larger and potentially more dangerous deficiencies in University City. We believe three major inadequacies lie in areas of personal attitude, lighting and police numbers. Embryonic Spirit Last Saturday night was spirit night at Carolina Stadium. It was evident in spectators, cheerleaders, the Marching Gamecocks Band and, most of all, the football team. There was spirit of an intensity which we have rarely seen at Carolina-enough to be evident even from the 29th row of the end zone. The Gamecocks didn't give up last Satur day night even in the face of penalty after penalty, loss after loss. This is the kind of team in which we may take the most pride win or lose. The entire production-from jets over head to alma mater at the game's conclu sion-was a feat to remember. We hope for a winning season. But win ning or not, each of us must take caution. We must not let that so-evident embryonic spirit die in the University community. The Show Is On The show went on at USC this week, but very few people were there to see it. Student Union opened its first nightclub of the school year, featuring in two shows nightly the Sounds Unlimited, a group of variety singers who have just come from a performance at one of the top coffeehouses in the country. Their performances were, in our opinion, excellent. The less-than-a-dozen people who attended were well aware of their excellence. But the ridiculously small turnout is an embarrassment to the entire University. The nightclub may move next week into a permanent headquarters on South Main Street. It is a much larger building to ac commodate several hundred students. But if the students attending continue to number among the minute, the operation may not be continued. The student nightclub is an excellent op portunity for good entertainment at low cost. We urge that each student make a point to visit the club at least once in the coming weeks. And we believe that once you've been there, you'll want to go back. We SwE Okay. We didn't believe it either when Ti Chief Photographer Chip Galloway brought into the' office. We figured It was a reaill Bhat Chip's a nety reliable guy, and If hc a he Loose According to police, attackers of this type usually operate in teams of three or four, seldom exceeding that number because they then become too conspicuous. University students, faculty and staff have been urged many times not to walk the campus alone by night. This is an open invitation to any attacker. Caution cannot be emphasized too strongly, but in the past the word has gone unheeded. Second, lighting facilities are generally inadequate. Dark areas are the second in vitation for a potential assailant. Steps were taken this week to include additional campus lighting in the Univer sity's 1968-69 state budget request. In addi tion, the City of Columbia has informed the University that lights will be installed in the College Street area between the major campus and Capstone House within two weeks. These steps are commendable. In any community, crime is an inevitability. But with adequate lighting the type of crime which has menaced a portion of the Univer sity Community in recent days can be di minished. We suggest further that checks on present lighting systems be stepped up. In the stairwell where our staffer was beaten, there were light fixtures. They were not functioning. All lighting systems-particularly in criti cal areas such as stairways or, in the future, tunnels-should have protective devices to guard against extinguishing. University police officers, as a matter of routine, check the lights on their "beat" each night and report all lights not burning. We urge that the Maintenance Department make an even-more-concentrated effort to restore these lights to working order as soon as the damage is reported. A third area of concern is police numbers. Two campus policemen patrol the campus by night. In the recent past the University has adopted a walkie-talkie system and empha sized the "walking patrol" method to in crease mobility of its police forces. But added mobility cannot compensate for the basic deficiency. Two night policemen are not enough to patrol and protect a city of 11,000 inhabi tants-especially a city where much travel is on foot and by night.' Hiring of one additional policeman was authorized last week. It is a (lent in a grave problem. But a program to drastically in crease the size of our present police force is an immediate necessity if the residents of the Carolina Community are to receive any sort of adequate protection. Incidents such as those of the past week are not reason for panic-but they should induce alarm and caution. The police cannot be expected to shoulder the entire burden for protection of any com munity. We therefore urge each inhabitant of Uni versity city to be aware and on guard. Do not hesitate to report "suspicious charac ters" to the University police. If an area is inadequately lighted, report it to the proper authorities. But above all, do not venture out at night alone. Do not invite trouble which could mean grave injury-or death. ar It Really Happened me Gamecock threw a liquor bottle and cui this picture day night, we tend to b,elieve I posed job. Carolina Stadium does not ha, .y. sameone Rush, By JOHN CARBAUGH Editorial Assistant A controversial issue, by its very definition, has many aspects, only one of which is presented on the editorial p a g e of this paper. The G a m e c o c k is the only means through which s t u d e n t opinion may be given wide cir culation at this University. For that reason, it is impera tive that other aspects of an issue be given an opportunity of ex pression. In this manner, students will have more than merely one aspect of an issue at their dis posal when forming their various opinions. It is with the intent of pro viding other aspects of exist ing issues and possibly of rais ing new ones that this column is written. In last week's The Gamecock there was an editorial and edi torial cartoon expressing an ob jection to the present rush system at USC. As an alternative to the present rush system, a deferred rush system was proposed. There are, however, some posi tive aspects of the present sys tem and some negative aspects of the proposed deferred s y s t e m which, we notice, were overlooked. Under the rush system pres ently used, each freshman or up)perclassman m u s t not only choose to go out for rush, but also must have demonstrated that he or she is academically mature and capable of par ticipating in fraternity or sorority life, either by having a rank of five on the undlergradluate entrance e x a m (for entering freshmen) or by achieving an average of 2.00 for boys, 2.25 for girls (for upper classmen). Students who have demon strated that they can handle any extra "burden" thrust upon them by fraternity or so rority rush and pledgeship are thus the only ones who are permitted to participate in rush under the present system,. In order to enable each new pledge to "adjust to college life," fraternities and sororities set up I~E J 2 m. Ioweer, e riterte, n *-w ha-iaHo." Sweet Taste of Victory In My Opinion... Dne More study halls in which freshmen are required to study and are given help by the ready-made friends that upperclassmen fraternity or sorority members become upon pledgeship. In this way, a full semester's -ompensation is given for the leven evenings that the prospec :ive pledge is dislocated from his )r her studies. And what of the atmosphere in vhich a pledge spends his or her irst semester. For the fall se nester 1966, the all-fraternity tverage was above both the all nen's average and the non-fra ernity men's a v e r a g e - the atter, incidentally, brought down he all men's average. Letters To The Editor BOARD PLAN c'ar Miss Carroll: As a freshman I wish to make suggestion to the committee hat makes up our schedule in -egard to the Board Plan. For twenty-three meals we ~ave had to shell out the green ituff to get nourishment here. 1t no time di(l we receive any lotice that we would need money *or these meals. For those of us vho paidl in advance through the nail, we merely assumed that >ur meals were taken care of ipon arrival at Carolina. Why veren't we informedl? Since I for one did not p)lan n paying, I had to write home or twenty-five extra dollars vhich very easily could have >een lost or stolen in the base nent of the Russell House which vas our post office for a few lays. Next year I hope the adminis ration will warn unwary fresh sen. BETSY ANNESE BEWARE AWARE? )ear Miss Carroll: Aware, a legal campus organi ation, is notedl for it,s extreme iberalism. This is good-to air 11 views such as inviting Julian fondl to speak here last year. Last year, though, in a public iscussion at the Wayne Morse ssembly, the Aware dlelegation r member advocated disregard ig the law instead of redressing by democratic, legal means. 'his year, the Aware display in he Russell House p)assedl out timeographed sheets telling of the wondlerful" effects of LSD. The se or possession of this dIrug a federal offense andl its after ffects are lasting and appalling. n addition, their poster was trewni with illicit pictures of un lothed women andl children. Students with any sense should e cognizant of the grave impli ations of joining such a "lih ral" organization as Aware. JORN ROCKROEM Time The above rankings apply for the academic year 1966-67 ahso. It would seem, therefore, that an entering freshman would find in fraternity or so rority life an atmosphere very conducive to the maintenance of a good scholastic average. For those freshmen and for any upperclassmen who prefer to wait, there is a strong second semester rush system in use pres ently. It would seem to be more prof itable, however, for the potential pledge to take advantage of the positive assets of a first sernester pledge training program. Enough of the advantages of the present rush system. A look At the proposed deferred rush ;sytem has led us to the conclu sion that such a system cannot possibly work here, nor has it Korked elsewhere. To wit, such a system would greatly overburden second se mester r u s h . Furthermore, there would be semester-long rushing, either openly or se cretly. For freshmen and fraternity ;orority people alike, this would nterfere with studies and school ictivities throughout the semes er. Rather than help the freshman idjust to college life, rush undler deferred rush system w o u 1(1 rtarnm greatly not only his or her hanc.e to a dlj u a t andl succeed icademically, but also would help to lowver the present high fratern ty-sorority acadlemic standings. A quick glance at the facts serves to prove that the hugaboo >f dleferredl rush has plagued us ror too long. The advantages that in entering freshman derives rrom his or her pledgeship during rirst semester far outwveighs the to-called inconvenience of eleven svenings of rush. Founded Jan. 30. 1908 with Robmert Elliot :oek Is publiished by anrd for the stinrtentsa of buring the college year excepit during hiolidt The opilnions expressed herein do not nleer ton. the facualty or the atuident bondy as a Offiees of The Gamecock are Ina Roonm 30 ampuas. Phones are 76- 4219 ( Editor-ina-('hi arnd 765-8178 (Newsroom). The Gamecock Is reparesented nationally :lie. Inc. The pubticaion Is a membetar of, 'olleglate Press Assarciatioan. SubhscrIiption ri EDITOR-Il Ginny ( ASSOCIATE Don Cau BUSINESS MANAGER Mary W. McMillan 4SST. MANAGING EDITOR .. iNIEWS ED)ITOR ................. SPORTS ED)ITOR ............... FBDITORlIL ASSISTANTS ..J &SST. NEWS ED)ITO)RS .. Mona 4SST. SPORTS EDITORS ........ P'ACULATY ED)ITOR............ SOCIAL~ AFFAIRS EDITOR.. F'XCHIANGE EDITOR ........... :3HIEF PHO(TOG,RAPHIER ....... 4DVERTISING MANAGER.. )FFICEJ MANAGER...... Our Man Hoppe By ARTHUR HOPPE A new furor has arisen over capital punishment. Advocates argue that we must kill people who kill people in order to teach them that killing people is de spicable. And each certainly learns that lesson. Opponents, however, contend that capital punishment is no de terrent whatsoever-Lo other pros pective killers. This simply i-*. true. One prospective victim whose life is owed today to the threat of capital punishment is Mrs. Irma T. Pettibone of Elysia, California. Her case was brought to light in a letter from her husband, Homer, to the National Commit tee for a Sane Capital Punish ment Policy. The text follows. "Dear Sirs: Nag, nag, nag. Irma was driving me out of my skull. At 11:02 p.m. on the night of August 23, in a parox ysm of uncontrollable rage, I took my .38 revolver out of the night stand drawer, took a bead on Irma's left ear and squeezed the trigger. "That is, I started to squeeze the trigger. Suddenly, I blanched. 'You fool!' I cried to myself. 'Don't you realize that if you are caught, convicted by a jury after three or four trials, sen tenced to the extreme penalty, lose your appeals in the State Supreme Court, Federal District Court, U. S. Circuit Court, U. S. Supreme Court and Governor's Clemency Hearing, you may pos sibly die for this deed, within two to twelve years, in the gas chamber?' "Unf or - tunately, b y the time I had j u di - ciously c o n - sidered all t h e deterrent facets of capi tal punish ment and reached m y decision, Irma had packed HOPPE and gone home to her mother." Being a good Christian and a good citizen at heart, Mr. Petti bone accompanied his letter with a check for $10 to help the Na tional Committee for a Sane Capital Punishment Policy fur ther its work. In a postscript to his letter, Mr. Pettibone agreed wholeheart edlly with the Committee's unas sailable logic. But then, on a plaintive note, he added: "To tell the truth, though, I'm not sure that the present system dloesn't give a man more to think about." (Our Man Hoppe is syndicate4' nationally by Clhronicle Features Syndicate, San Francisco, Calif.) Go,nzales, as the first edlitor. The Game the l'niversity of South Carolina weekly iy an<d exarninatlions, sartly reflect the views of the. adiministra it of thet Ruassell House on the U'niversity ef). 7ti5-4220 (Hittness anti A,iverttaIng) by National E'tucational Adivertising Her asso iateti Colh-Kiate Press antti the H. C. tes are $4 per year. J-CHIEF arroll EDITOR hman MANAGING EDITOR Carol Mullnax ............... Sally Zalkin ............ Mary Jane Benaton ...................Carl Stepp ohn Carbaugh, Margaret Niceley ault, 1,yn Johnson, Greta Medlin ... eyward Addy, Jay Bender ........Jimmy Wannamaker ...........Mike Krochmalny ............Sherry Brown .............Chip Galloway ................ianne Wilson ..... .......... John Roiols