The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 25, 1974, Image 10
GAMECOCK
*It is a newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell.'
WILBUR F. STORIY
The Chicago Times
BILL GRANT, Editor
BILL OUTLAW. ART FRANK.
Editorial Page Editor Advertising Manager
November 25, 1974
TICKETS...
USC has the best ticket method in the country for ticket
distribution.
A remark attributed to USC
ticket manager Ray Faircloth,
February, 1974.
According to the athletic department, it now appears
that USC's method of ticket distribution has serious
flaws that need to be corrected. All for the benefit of the
student, of course.
A little more than a week ago the athletic department
announced it was, surprise, going to change USC's
much-discussed and much-defended digit-control
system of doling out tickets to the school's 13.
,regular season basketball games.
The athletic department is now saying what we need is.
the first-come first-serve system at USC. Under their
proposal, students, no matter what their ID number,
could enter the Coliseum at any time on distribution day
and pick-up tickets as long as they last.
Officials argue that the confusion inherent in the
distribution method created many unnecessary
"hassles" -for the student. It invited students to cut
classes, they said, and the way the system itself was
organized forced much confusion as to rules regarding
procedures and regulations.
The problem of just how to distribute 5,600 tickets to a
potential audience of 20,000 students is a headache of
ficials in both the athletic department and student
government, which had jurisdiction over ticket
distribution, have been grappling with ever since the
debacle following the Notre Dame game last spring.
There is, of course, an economic motive involved here.
The athletic department has to pay all those smiling
people who hand out tickets. If the "first-come, first
serve," system were initiated, there is an excellent
chance the 5,600 student tickets would disappear with a
matter of hours, especially considering how highly
regarded the USC basketball team is this year. Rather
than have to pay God-knows-how-many people to hand
out tickets all day, under the proposed system these
people could be dismissed within a short time, all at a
considerable savings to the athletic department.
Another disturbing aspect of the whole ticket con
fusion was the Athletic department's blatant by-pass of
established University procedure in the.way they went
about presenting the proposed change. Any
modifications in the way tickets are distributed must be
first approved by the Student Senate Athletic Com
mittee and then by the full senate. The athletic
department either tried to ignore the senate or had them
figured as a rubber stamp, because not only did they
release the "scoop" to unsuspecting Gamecock sports
writers but they had USC basketball schedule printed up
with the new ticket procedures on the back.
The uproar surrounding last year's Notre Dame game
pointed out the injustices in the digit-control system.
The system is unfair, in the sense that any ticket system
is unfair. But to implement a "first-come first-serve"
system would create more problems then it would solve.
The athletic department, as well as student govern
ment, would do well to leave things as they are until a
better, not a more convenient, system can be found.
WCG
LETTER.
Advisement procedures
frustrate P.E. major
TO THE EDITOR:
I am a very frustrated physical
education major. After three
years in the program, I am just
now beginning to understand why
people have always had the im
pression that P.E. was such a
"crip" major.
The administration of the P.E.
department is at the least, partly
the blame for this impression.
When the department is unable to
prevent chaos in its advisement
duties, changes should be made.
The P.E. department, similar to
other departments,' sets up an
appointment schedule for ad
visement. A few days ago I signed
up for an appointment with my
advisor for Thursday, Nov. 21, at 1
p.m. Arriving at his office a few
minutes before my scheduled
appointment, the secretary told me
to grab a-seat and wait. I waited
for about 45 minutes before my
advisor finally arrived. As I
walked toward his office, I noticed
a line of about ten students waiting
outside.his door. They had either
apparently forgotten to sign up for
advisement or they themselves
had been waiting for the prodigal
advisor to make a showing for their
own appointments. I was not about
to wait in this line, so I left in
disgust.
Since only a few days remain for
advisement, it looks like I won't
have a chance to be advised. My
"advisor's" schedule is tilled and I
don't think it is proper for me to
barge into his office and infringe
upon other people's rights. My
advisor could be the proverbial bad
apple in the bunch or this sort of
thing could be running rampant
throughout the department. If so,
changes should be made.
Later the same afternoon I
returned to see if the line had
dissipated, which it had. I walked
into his office and began to present
my case. After a brief shouting
match, he made his point clear that
he was being overworked, having
both advisement and pre
registration duties. If this man
feels that he is being unjustly
overworked, he should complain to
the department heads and not to
the student! If his claims are
justified, the department should
hire additional personnel, and if
not, they should hire another
person who is better capable of
doing the job.
RICHARD KREJCI
Student criticizes
GPR editorial
TO THE EDITOR:
In response to your editorial
"USC needs change In grading
system" of Nov. 14, 1974, I would
like, to say that I was shocked,
surprised and deeply hurt that this
editorial was signed by Bill
Outlaw. The entire article smacks
of middle class elitist bullshit,
rather than a sincere concern for
the welfare of either the average
Carolina student or this University
Throughout the article such tell
tale phrases as, "GPR should be an
accurate index of how his grades
compare with other students,"
"Counting NC's as F's in com
puting an applicant's "real GPR",
"Many students are given C's here
that might have been given D's
under a different grading system,"
"USC's reputation eems t eon
5..Advisement..
Campus
the line," "Buying a suit it K-Mart
or J.B. Whites," "Not many people
want to admit they bought that suit
at K-Mart," "A student flunking
out," "His GPR should reflect his
grade standing," "Raising the
GPR on the student who is making
bad grades," etc, etc, Ad
Nauseum.
Not one word was mentioned
about improving the Quality of
Education on this campus or in
attempting to develop a
curriculum that is relevant to a
student's Major, and the latter part
of the 20th Century. Not one word
was mentioned about the inequities
of a system that forces students to
neglect learning in order to
compete in memorizing contests
with their fellow educationally
deprived students. Not one word
about the failure 6f this University
to roperly prepare a student to go
out into the world and lead a
professional life. Not one word was
mentioned about the "Demi
God's" of Academia, the little tin
Gods who sit in their high and
mighty chairs of professorship and
terrorize incoming freshmen with
the threat of Academic failure,
rather than trying to help prepare
that person as fully as possible to
lead a useful professional life. As
far as buying suits at K-Mart or
J.B. Whites, students aren't a suit
of clothes, and while J.B. White's
may be a "Biggie" locally--95 per
cent of the people outside of S.C.
never heard of it and couldn't care
less where you buy yot4r coveralls.
I thought that the idea of
"Penalizing" or "Punishing a
student for "Bad Grades" went ou;
with the dinosaurs, that the new
thought was to lessen the extreme
tension of unfair competition in
order to prevent cognitive
narrowing and allow as full an
Intellectual development of the
individual as possible.
This fixation on the terms
"Flunking out" "Bad Grades",
''D's and F's" "Held against him",
etc, show a definite inability of the
author to gear his cognitive
abilities to lateral thought
processes, instead of the Archaic
Tunnel Vision of the Ancient Past.
As I understand it, 90 per cent or
the problems with the NC system
are Graduate Student problems, so
why should the great majority of
the undergraduate student body
have to pay the price for mistakes
of the Administrator and Faculty
of four years ago!
If the system has functional
problems, let's work to improve
the system, to make it more ac
ceptable, but let's not turn off the
Electric Lights of Education
because the power plant is
polluting the stream, let's repair
the power plant--this University
has come much too far to return to
the intellectually stifling era of
1801.
HI. FRANK SHERAL.V
.grading system
oSYS
opinion
Basketball funding
used for football?
TO THE EDITOR:
Something has been -following
me around all day. Perhaps it is
the trace of that memorandum I
saw on our departmental bulletin
board. Words there were to the
effect that: "The Dean wishes to
advise graduate students who are
on assistantship that if they wish to
obtain basketball tickets they will
be required to pay the customary
student fees." The "customary
student fees" incidentally, are
$52.50. (They include other things
such as the infirmary, but let's say
you don't plan to get sick and you
do plan to go to basketball games.)
I don't plan to defend this
semester's practice of giving
students on assistantship one ticket
-on its face it appears indefensible.
For instance, work study un
dergraduates could argue for a
similar priviledge. What is im
portant is the sheer economic
insanity of this whole thing.
Let us say that a student is on
assistantship and he receives, per
month, $200 for his work. Next
semester, he will have the
privilege of watching nine
basketball games for the
remarkably low price of a student
fee - $52.50. Try some quick arith
metic. Let's face it, folks, that's
almost $6 a game. People don't
have that kind of discretionary
income today. No one has it,
especially students! The very
same argument can be,made for
many undergraduates. Another
point is that this "privilege" is to
be levied upon us at registration.
Return again to poor Joe who
makes $200.and carries home $175.
He enters the coliseum (on the
Green Street side, no doubt) and
ends up at the throne of the
financial wizard. The wizard takes
$30 for tuition, $52.50 for fees, later
$60 for books. Add it up. Joe pays
$142.50. He is handed $32.50 in
change from his check and told to
"have a good year." Joe leaves
wondering how he is going to pay
his rent or food bills for January.
Well, now isn't this all madness.
You will see hundreds of students
deserting the program they love
best in sports (basketball) out of
economic necessity. Those who
remain will be the ones who have
really suffered to buy tickets or an
educationally and economically
elitest group that this university
appears, by some recent
statements, anxious to serve. The
great mass of us appear to have
little choice. Basketball shouldn't
cost a lot. Coach McGuire has a
minimum number of players and
coaches. Somewhere under the
surface, I get the feeling that you
and I are paying for Uncle Paul's
Big Red Machine. I wonder how
long we're willing to take it?
Maybe by next year we will be able
to see the Big Red Machine play
Appalachian State for a meager
price of $11.00.
Who is this whole thing designed
to serve? I believe I know and I
belfie you do, too.
WILLIAM P. RICEsa