Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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GAMECOCK "it isa ewipaper's d"ty prit the news. nd raise beLe WIRURIF.STOREY aILL GRANT, KiAK BlJ, OUTLAW ART FRANK Emeial PagE AdVertisIg MaNager October 3, 1974 Senate's quorum rule Needs quick revision Twice during the past year, the USC Student Senate has had to delay action on Student Government Association (SGA) budgets submitted to it at regularly scheduled meetings simply because a quorum was not present at that meeting to enable the senate to act on the budget. According to the rules of the student senate, two thirds of members of that body must be present to constitute a quorum. No official business of the senate may take place unless a quorum is present and voting on the issue at hand. The fall budget was submitted to the student senate for approval last week, but no action was taken on it because a quorum was called for and a head count revealed that therewere three or four people short of a quorum, using a two-thirds attendance requirement for the quorum. If the quorum was set at a simple majority, as most legislative bodies do, the senate would have been able to complete its assigned business last Wednesday. Now, it must take the time to rehash the budget again this week and there is always the chance that a two-thirds quorum will not be present again. Proponents of using the two-thirds attendance figur< argue it assures the student body that no action will bi taken by a bare handfull of senarors. The etically, thi: is a good argument, but the practical application of i has presented numerous complications. One of thes4 complications is that it enables a bill to be delayed o even defeated simply by a small handful of senator walking out of the meeting, leaving one behind to call fo a quorum. If there are 45 senators present at a meetini and a bill is proposed which is favored by 35 of them, th 10 opposed to the bill could hurt it more by walking ou of the meeting and have someone call for a quorur check than they could hurt it by staying and votin against the bill. Another argument used by proponents of the tw< thirds figure for a quorum is that many times a senato will have to leave a meeting and will not be there t represent his constituency. Student senate meetings ar on Wednesday night, the same time every week and a senators should take extra pains not to schedule othe activities at that time, if they truly desire to represer their constituency. The senators who are concerne enough to remain at a meeting to vote on issues brougi before them, should not be penalized for senators wli do not care enough to stay or are too busy with othe things. It is right for a majority of senators to mali decisions affecting the student body if those senatoi care enough about what is going on to remain at tEi meetings. The Senate Rules Committee is reportedly col sidering making the recommendation that the studei senate switch back to using simple majority as quorum. This, coupled with some means of making ti senators remain at meetings unless there Is a vat excuse for leaving, would serve to assure the senato self avowed desires to effectively represent the studen at Carolina. -WN( Let's m4 The other day it dawned on me that I had not yet registered my car with the University. Then it dawned on me that I couldn't afford to register my car because I had spent all of my money paying parking tickets I had received for having an, unregistered vehicle. Prior to this I had experienced visions of never graduating because I kept flunking my courses. It wasn't that the work was difficult; it was that I never made it to class because I spent all of my time trying to find a parking place. This may seem a bit insane, perhaps, but no more insane than spending hours searching for non existent parking places. It was this never-ending search, along witli re-occurring nightmares, that forced me to face an unpleasant realization. My financial affluence, or lack of it, rested on my finding a place to park. I lost money in wasted gasoline and I lost money paying parking tickets on those days that I decided to save gas and park anywhere. This is known in some circles as the "I'll show you I can park anywhere I damn well please" syndrome. This syndrome is countered with the university's "Want to bet?" response. And so as the tickets kept mounting, I tried to come up with a solution to the parking problem. I was going to come up with a reasonable, feasable plan but decided against it. After all, those have been suggested frequently LETTER Ignorance revealed In ROTC attack r TO THE EDITOR: r I am certain Mr. Osbourne will be positively ecstatic to know that I e (ROTC member that I am) did understand his explanation. (Letter of Monday, Sept. 30) I would like to reassure him it was g not too complicated. Actually, I found its . simplicity and childishness rather amusing. of. Osbourne says "the function ofthe ltary Is to kill people." as rIf this sta mnt automatically will 0silence all op ition (who could epossibly defend killing?.) and completely close the issue forever. rNow, the purpose of the military is to defend the state and if people have to be killed, well, that's un dfortunate, but that's the way i' 's. I ithink that self-defense is a ojustification for killing and there have been cases in history where, if the military had not been ready to kill (e.g. WWII), Mr. Osbourne 'Smight not now be in a position te Lecomplain. Unless one wishes to argue thai * the United States hasn't got at enemy in the world, it is patentl) absurd to do away with the only t thing that keeps the enemies a away. Mr. Osbourne doesn't give tereason for disliking the military: idAll he does Is reveal his ignorance of the most basic conditions of the real world. l isa second contention, namely that more highly educated peoplt know that there are bette ike a parkii Ei and are consistently rejected by various administrators. So I decided to make a game out of it - on an experimental basis, of course. The name of the game is "Let's Make A Deal" with the contestants being randomly selected from students, faculty and ad ministrators. The emcee would be none other than fast-talking, foot in-the mouth Lucky Lackie. The game would follow the televised versions' format with one major difference. All of the deals would be with parking places, with the least desirable deals resulting in the -least desirable places. The big deal of the day would be any parking place of the contestant's choice for as long as they were at USC. And, naturally, losers would be given a home version of the game. Imagine a typical deal: L.L.: "Well, Carol Coed, you look just lovely today dressed as, a B lot decal. Earlier in the show yoq traded in a years' supply of Slater food coupons and won a parking place at Dunbar Funeral Home. Not bad, considering all of your classes are in the P.E. center. And Edward. Campus Opinion solutions to problems than killing, is, in this context, laughable. Soldiers in this country are ordered into war by civilians - civilians with doctorates and law degrees; highly educated civilians. It wasn't the military that committed us in WWII, in Korea, or in Japan. It was the highly educated civilian Mr. Osbourne has so much respect for. They set the policy; ultimately, it is they who Issue the Edwards offers si TO THE EDITOR: To the regret of many of m: fellow students, Pug Ravenel ha been declared ineligible to run fo aGovernor. To their even greate regret, Bryan Dorn now bears th standard for the Democrati Party. Where does this leav Pug's supporters? Lost? No, nc at all. BI plan to vote in good conscienc n n Nov. 5 for Jim Edwards. I hay tg deal! leen Berlin Columnist even though the Dunbar people are just dying for you to pai'k there, you now have a chance at the big deal of the day. Well, Carol, what will it be? Door number 1, door number 2, or door number 3? C.C.: Uh, could you repeat the choices, please ? L.L.: Why certainly Carol. After all, I'm a liberal in favor of the students (smiles to the audience who applaud and cheer wild):y). They were door number 1, door number 2, and door number 3.. C.C.: Well, I'll take door number 3. L.L.: Oh Carol, I'm so sorry. You didn't get the big deal. But you do have a reserved parking space in Bangor, Maine. And don't worry , northerners are good about picking up hitchhikers... Ridiculous? Perhaps. But no more so than the present situation. And at least this way we could dress up in costumes like stop signs, meter maids, and parking tickets. Is there an alternative? Maybe, But at the present time it's hidden behind one of the other doors. 5....ROTC e 0 order to kill. Check your history, Mr. Osbourne. Look at. WWI. It was the soldiers who won peace. They won it at the cost of their lives. It was the highly educated, selfish, short-sighted diplomats "who know better" that went to Ver sailles and lost it. If this is too complicated to follow, please let me know, and I'll try to explain it more simply. PerRot udents alternative been a supporter of Jim Edwards all along. It hasn't really been in vogue to be a student and NOT Ssupport Pug Ravenel, but that was the path I choose. I have no r quarrel with Ravenel, I just rhappened to believe in Jim Ed ewards as the most acceptable ecandidate. e Look to Jim Edwards. I think t you'll be impressed by what you find. B JULES SMITH