The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 21, 1974, Image 10
Senate should
Change attitude
Some members of the USC Student Senate are making a deliberate
(and somewhat' successful) attempt to curtail the powers of the
president of the student body, Leigh Leventis. In recent weeks, ob
vious measures and remarks have been made in the senate which
have specifically been aimed to present Leventis in a bad light to the
senate.
The pity of the situation is these measures have been totally un
called for and are merely the result of several senators attempting to
shift the real power in the SGA from that of the president to heads of
certain committees within the senate, such as the Student Senate
Finance Committee.
An example of this "power grabbing" is a measure which was in
cluded. in the SGA's budget (which took the senate three weeks to
pass) which required any item not already allocated in the budget to
be submitted to both the Student Senate Finance Committee and the
student body treasurer for their approval seven days in advance of the
actual need for the funds. (Leventis vetoed this portion, but it was
overridden.) This places the control of the purse strings in the hands
of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman and student body
treasurer. If they do not approve of a project the president desires to
accomplish, all they have to do is not approve his request for funds.
In running an effective and student oriented administration, the
president of the student body must and should have the power to ap
propriate funds as he sees fit, without having to obtain "permission"
from the Student Finance Committee. This is not to say, however, that
he should not be held accountable for any and all the money he (the
president ) spends.
On the contrary, the president must and should be held accountable
for all of the money he spends on his projects, but the Senate Finance
Committee should not be the one to determine what projects the
president can and cannot have. His accountability for funding should
come after, not before, the fact. If it is determined after the fact that
he is misusing these funds, then and only then, should the student
senate step in and censure him.
An attitude now prevails in the senate which virtually has the effect
of overriding or being against anything Leventis is for. While the
senate should not be'a "rubber stamp" for the president, it shoidd at
least make the attempt to cooperate with him.
The senate overrode the Leventis veto on the measure we were
referring to above by an overwhelming margin. Many of the senators
present at that meeting either did not realize what was going on, or did
not care.
Another slap at Leventis taken last week was the approval by the
senate of all committee appointments made by Leventis and approved
by the Senate Powers and Responsibilities Committee except one,
Leventis' ex-roommate Ray Snyder. Snyder has been requested to
appear before the senate for questioning by the senate before they will
grant approval of his appointment to the committees. Several
members of the senate said they feared Snyder might have too much
"power" if appointed to these committees and wanted to know the role
Snyder played in the operation of the summer SGA. This is an obvious,
meaningless and malicious slap in the face to Leventis and an insult to
Snyder.
The purpose of the student senate should be to provide a checks and
balances system in the operation of student government and to in
troduce meaningful legislation on behalf of students. The senate has
misused its checks and balances authority and has passed only one or
two bills whih have been helpful to the people they are supposed to
represent. It is past time for this senate to concentrate on passing
meaningful legislation, and spend less time bickering and power
grabbing.
WNO
GAMECOCK
"It bs a newspaper's duty Ie print the mews, and raise ben."
WILBUR F. STOREY
BILL GRANT. EMiav
BILL OUTLAW ART FR ANK
EmraIs Page Edber Advertlsing Mamager
October 21, 1974
TOMMY FOWL.ER Assignmnents Editor
TERRY COON Production Manager
JACK SOWEL..- - Production Supervisor
STEVE PARKER Sports Editor
RUSSELL JEFFCOAT__________Chief Photographer
DAVID HAVIRD Entertainment Page Editor
MOBY SALAHUDDIN Ass. News Editor
JIM HIERSH..__---.Ast. sports E4nta
LETTERk
Homecoming
TO THE EDITOR:
This letter is in reference to
your "insipid" writers Chuck
Cromer and Terry Dugas, whose
"poor planning and questionable
talent" was evident in their
fashionable way in giving a truth
ful view of homecoming 1974. (Oct.
14, Issue) There were so many
falsehoods in their article that it is
impossible to cover them in a
concise manner. Therefore, we
will attempt to cover them in
dividually.
To start with, the writers
statement that homecoming was
barely noticeable was probably
because the writers were not in
attendance at any of the activities
as spectators. God only knows
where the estimate of 200 people at
the "Night of Gold" came from,
when in actuality there were over
2,000 people there.
Dugas was the only one to show
his face all weekend. He was
present at cockfest and attended it
in a capacity as an employee of
sound and lighting. His view of the
performance that night was from
inside the dugout behind the stages
on the field. His crowd estimate
was given to him from the. sound
man long before the show began.
He did not even ask the director for
the correct figure, which was well
in excess of 4,000, and not 2,500 as
reported. So how can these round
about town boys make any kind of
judgment other than whether they
need to shave or not, and that is
questionable.
We feel, as do most who took part
in this year's homecoming, this
was the.best and most successful
homecoming the school has seen in
many years. To belittle such
festivities and call them
"highschoolish" is only showing
the ignorance and prejudice of the
so called members of The
Gamecock staff.
The theme "The Way We Were,"
was not intended to be nor received
as, by the intelligent observer, "a
grease hair and bobby sock
theme." If Dugas and Cromer had
opened their eyes they would have
noticed this fact.
It was clearly evident at Cock
fest and the parade that the theme
entailed skits and floats concerned
with cavemen, westerns, and other
eras. We could go on and on and
talk about the collective greek
muscle and alumni receptiveness
from homecoming, but we know
that every organization on campus
was asked to participate in the
homecoming festivities and that
homecoming is geared partially
for alumni. All we ask is that our
student newspaper not let personal
vendettas block the truth from Its
readers as was done by Dugas and
Cromer.
In the future please don't ask
blind men for crowd estimates and
try attending a university activity
before you attempt to cut it down.
Those of us who worked so hard to
make homecoming a reality this
year, do not appreciate the untrue,
biased opinions of these writers
and the newspaper itse!r
BOBBY HARTIN
Parade Co-Chairman
BOB SWELGIN
Cockfest Director
Bomb scare
TO THE EDITOR:
Monday morning, Oct. 14, a
female voice called the night garnd
...Homecoming,
Campus
Opinion
at South Tower saying that a bomb
would go off in the building at 2:25
a.m. The call came in at 2:10 a.m.
At 2:20 a.m. the Campus Police
came to the building and pulled the
alarm. According to estimates
made by several residents, the
building was not completely
evacuated until 2:30, five full
minutes after the bomb would have
exploded.
As residents we would like to
protest the procedure followed by
security guards and the Campus
Police. The whole affair was
assumed to be a prank even though
there was no evidence to support
the assumption. Why wasn't the
alarm pulled when the call came
in, not ten minutes later?
The city police were not present.
Neither was a bomb demolition
team. To find the bomb, Campus
.Police turned over all the trash
cans in the building scattering
trash everyehere. If there had
been a bomb and if the campus
police had found it, what would
they have done with it? Flushed it
down the John perhaps?
Dorm guards should be given a
procedure to follow in the event of
this type of emergency. The
building should be cleared before
the bomb is to go off, not after.
Residents should be moved from
the immediate area. Proper
authorities should be notified.
Adjacent buildings should also be
cleared to protect those residents.
A bomb threat shouldn't
automatically be considered and
treated as a prank.
EMILY STRAIT
MARGARET WELLS
NANCY KULINSKI
DEBRA JONES
GAIL McCUTCHEON
Column provides
hearty laugh
TO THE EDITOR:
I would like to express my
gratitude to Mr. Bill Outlaw for
providing me with one of the
heartiest laughs I have enjoyed in
years. His reply to the article
written by Chuck Cromer and
Terry Dugas concerning the recent
Homecoming activities must go
down in the annals of humorous
writing as a classic.
As I turned to the editorial page,
searching in vain for something
The Gamecock's 1k
The Gamecock weleemes letters
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must be signed with. 'the writers
ether aliases will met be used, be
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IlmItatioas. Addresi:. Campus 0
Columbia ZMea.
Bomb scare
worthwhile to read in the
Gamecock, I was immediately
struck by the name of Mr. Bill
Outlaw, printed in large bold type
with the title "Columnist" un
derscoring his name. Surely,
anyone so proud of his name and
title must be an intelligent fellow
with something worthwhile to say;
it would require a great deal of
conceit to make such a show and
not possess the requisite abilities to
back it up.
But, alas, such proved not to be
the vase. It seems to be Mr.
Outlaw's opinion that things would
be better around Gamecock
Country if only people would go
back to "the day we were", con
cerning ourselves with the im
portant Issues of the day, such as
how many people attended Cock
fest and the need for greater at
tention to be paid to the election of
a Homecoming queen.
After all, are not high school pep
rallies at a university to be ap
plauded as an indication of that
rare and sought-after commodity,
known as "school spirit"? Cer
tainly the idea of criticizing the
annual Greek and Alumni party Is
tantamount to treason. How dare
Cromer and Dugas write such
rubbish and then have the nerve to
print their opinions so as to be put
in Mr. Outlaw's eyesight! (I hope
ror the sake of the freedom of the
press that the Outlaw who wishes
to be free of the opinions of others
is not thesameBill Outlaw who is
listed as the Editorial Page
Editor). The climax of the gen
tlemen's article was his candid
admission to us that he was a
member of a fraternity. While I
laud his candor, the confession was
hardly necessary; Mr. Outlaw's
artidle has "Freddy Frat" written
all over it.
Looking beyond the absurdity of
Mr. Outlaws' values, the tragedy of
the situation comes to the surface.
A vast number of undergraduates
students at this institution do not
possess the slightest Intellectual
interest. This is a party school,
they will tell you, and they are
proud of it. Until this attitude
changes, all the buildings,
professors, programs and facilities
in the world will not make USC a
notable institution of higher
learning.
W. DAVID AVERS
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