Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Another vi Earlier this week, an article appeared on the Entertainment page of The Ganecock, headlined, "Homecoming....Annual ex citement turns to apathy." This writer would like to refute several statements made in that article which were an inaccurate misrepresentation of the at tendance figures cited and a gross misinterpretation of the so-called "apathy" which writers Cromer and Dugas said was so evident. The writers of the article ob viously did not take the time or the trouble to -become "involved" in the very thing they werecriticizing; student apathy. If these writers had become involved they would have seen the excitement, the spirit and participation which went into the building of the floats. They would have appreciated the coordination of entertainment, the time and effort taken to put on Cockfest, which was attended by - more Carolina students (more than 4,000) than ever before despite the poor record of this year's Football team. Cockfest, the floats in the parade, the coordination of the parade and the concert were primarily the result of the efforts of the fraternities and sororities on the South Carolina campus; the same ones who are criticized for "not doing anything for the LETTER.. Rqvenel crucified by old guard TO THE EDITOR: Sitting in the gallery of Columbia's Township Auditorium Monday morning I cannot but view the people of South Carolina as an aged prostitute with no past and little future. Amid the cigar smoke and bombast of the convention floor one could not help but see the self-satisfied look on the delegates faces. The fat red faces among the delegations and those darting from group to group plotting strategy were satisfied. They had won once again. But what about the people of South Carolina-? What of the thousands of individuals in this state who tasted progress in government offered them by Charles Ravenel.- What is their recourse? Regrettably they haven't any. For all their praise for Mr. Ravenel and all their regrets that he cannot run, the good delegates of the South Carolina Democratic Convention come off no better than scavengers who would not only steal the ideals of Charles Ravenel, but who would take them and claim them as their own. And as for our Republican friends, what will they do for us. Mr. Edwards declares himself a liberal at least 19 times every day. It seems he is attempting to con vince himself of this. Secret law suits and refusals to reveal campaign contributions hardly constitute progress. And the courts; what can be said for that grand bqgly of legal wizards? Clement Haynesworth declares we must follow the lettei of the South Carolina State Con stitution. In the sixties he was nol ew of Carc students." Yet, thfe flavor of the article seemed to degrade the "Greek" effort. At least there was an effort made by someone, and it was a successful effort. The writers of the previous ar ticle were correct in their assessment that the past few homecomings have been failures for the most part, but to put this year's effort on a level with the past three years is an injustice to the people involved and an insult to the people who attended and ap preciated the concert, Cockfest and the Homecoming parade. This writer believes that one of the reasons homecomings of the past have not generated much student enthusiasism is because there was not a parade and the glamour and suspense surrounding the selection and crowning of a Homecoming queen. The previous implied criticism of Cockfest as a "high school pep rally" is taken by this writer as a compliment. Perhaps "apathy" that was cited as being so evident today would be recaptured if we did indeed go back to the "Way We Were," which was the theme and the spirit of the parade. In fairness to the writers of the previous article, they did not totally destroy the Homecoming Contempor so ardent in his strict in terpretations attempting to preserve segregation in this state as long as he possibly could. John Marshall and Earl Warren did not contribute to greatness of this nation by adhering to the letter of the law, but rather by adhering to those principles which they felt would best serve the people of this country. Charles Ravenel has been crucified not by the people of this state but by the old guard who arc determined to maintain things as they are and have been. It is a sad day for the people of South Carolina. Jack L. Babb Contemporary U. has been salvalged TO THE EDITOR: I am pleased to announce thai the aims of my committee have met with satisfactory success. Contemporary University (CU has been salvaged. Its offices arn presently located on the first floor o the Humanities Office Building, anm it is now supervised by Ms. Phylli: Fleishel, whose fresh and in novative suggestions have please4 the members of my committee. It remains to he seen whethe1 such suggestions may eventually be realized without resistanc4 from the upper echelons, anm especially whether studen projects under CU will bi strangled for lack of funds in late semesters. Nevertheless, the time ha come to fromally dissolve m: committee to save CU. I wish t< express my admiration for thos persevering few who struggled t implement its aims; I also wish ti latment the fact that the geat hbull lsnas '74 J effort, but the tone of the article implied that the efforts made by the Homecoming Committee were in vain. Again, the very apathy the writers of the previous article were talking about shows through in their (the writers) own viewpoint, which appeared to be, why bother with the whole homecoming festivities to start with? Is this not apathy on the part of these writers themselves. The criticism of the concert was somewhat justified. The evening was billed as a night of "solid gold" but it fell far short of that billing. The Dovells rendered a night club routine which was at. times amusing and at times grotesque. Chubby Checker really got the crowd going pretty good and the previous article made note of this, but it said that only "200 strong" were still on hand at the end when Checker did this rendition of "The Twist." This writer was there and the 200 figure is about 20 times off what the actual figure was. There were at least 2,000 people, left, if not more than that, and every group that played at the concert received a standing ovation from most, but not all, of the crowd. Is a concert really so terrible if the people there enjoyed it? Another insinuation by the writers is that Cockfest has 2ry University... Campus Opinion of students were not motivated work for its preservation. ostensibly seems to bear out t notion that only a few know and "what is best" for the bloated mass. Let us hereafter work together preserve "education in the futt tense." T IM B EA L Housing departmen~ -regulations unfair TO THE EDITOR: Here 'at USC is maintained poiyof the double standar4 weesome students are aj parently above the universit housing policy while other studeni must fall in line with til regulations. U,ider a notice to all residen from Robert A. Stewart, director Housing, It was stated that student must "Pay the cost replacement or repair for ar , breakage or damage to his or h< room, its fixtures or al purtenances, and a pro-rata sala Sof cost for any damages to cor munal property when ti responsible person cannot I determined." omecomin Bill 0 Colun become a Greek and Alumni affair. Is this the fault of the Greeks and Alumni or is it the fault of the rest of the student body? Not only did the Greeks not discourage par ticipation in the parade and in Cockfest by other organizations, the Greeks went out of their way to encourage it. (It should be noted there that I am a member of a fraternity.) The selection of the Home6oming queen, although not mentioned in the article I've been referring to, is something which is an accurate indication of students who do nothing to change the system, yet sit back and criticize what has happened. Once again, the crowning of a black homecoming queen was greeted by some insipid individuals with boos and I'd be willing to bet the ones booing are the same ones who did not 'rote in the election of a homecoming queen. If more people voted for Ravenel to A recent occurrence of wantor it destruction by members of the he USC basketball team to universit) do property in the Bates House Dorr has resulted in the suspension o: the breakage or damage clause ir to their special case. ire Instead of the payment by thosc who were responsible, the atheletic L department has graciously offerec to foot the bill. Why should those responsible not pay, and wh3 it should the athletic departmeni pick-up the tab for damages? I' can only be answered by saying that some people are above othern on campus while others in ouw nation, are above the law. NAME WITHHELD B a REQUEST GAM) Is "It isa m ewspaper's duty Ii a BILL GI e BILJ. OUTLAW eEdiMorial Page 34ev W acvtittes uitlaw mnist one person to be homecoming queen, be she black or white, she deserves to receive her crown without booing. This year's Homecoming must be viewed as a success and future homecomings will hopefully, carry on with what has been rejuvenated this year. Next year, I believe it would add to the gallantry of the affair to have the floats displayed during halftime and if Cromer and Dugas don't like the theme, the Greeks or the Alumni efforts in volved, let them write their mothers about it and keep such rubbish away from the eyesight of apathetic people such as myself. Accuracy defense presented BY CHUCK CROMER and TERRY DUGAS Of The Gamecock staff In defense of our recent column concerning this year's annual Homecoming activities, we feel compelled to offer an explanation. After being verbally and physically lssaulted over the at tendance figures for the Cockfest events, we will ' identify our sources. The powers that will cite ticket sales to support their figures for Cockfest. Unfortunately, those figures were unavailable at press time last week. So, in order to obtain a valid crowd estimate, we asked the head of the sound and lighting crew and his stage manager for an opinion. Their figures have proved to be accurate in the past but, to double check, we relayed their estimate to an official of Cockfest, who agreed. Any estimate of crowd size at the iIntramural field concert will be a guess but there we used the same procedure as at Cockfest. After obtaining four respected opinions, we relayed their estimate to a member of the Homecoming committee, who also agreed. We have faith in our sources, having ,been proved accurate in the past, and will rely on them in the future. BCOJCK i priat the mews, and raise bell." WILDUR F. STOREY ART FR ANK Advertising Mamager