The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 30, 1988, Page 3, Image 3
Shuttle
Service cut off by university;
greeks sticking it out anyway
Carl Stokes, system vice president for law enforcement
and safety, has said the university will have no further
involvement with the Five Points Shuttle started by the
rraternity ana sorority councils last weekend. Volunteers
will not be allowed to use university vans or buses. The
program is cut off. But they are going to try and rent
private vans to keep it running this weekend.
Calling the use personal and unofficial and possibly
hitchhiking, Stokes cited a State Budget and Control
Board law prohibiting such use.
If the shuttle was definitely illegal, then Stokes' decision
can't be contested, but it also should have been made last
week. But the law he used to cut off the shuttle service
isn't a cut and dry, specific, black and white law.
It prohibits personal or unofficial use of state vehicles
or equipment. But it allows the transport of "any person
... in any emergency situation, provided such movement
does not further endanger life. . ." If this crime situation
isn't an emergency, nothing is.
The law also says any vehicle may be used when "it is
clearly serving the interest of the State," which the shuttle
does by protecting the state's citizens and guests (i.e. out
of state students).
AVhflt is nprsnnal llSP? Tc it HpfinpH frnm thf ctsmHr?rvir?+
of the drivers and operators, because they aren't partying
and drinking, but volunteering their time to help other
students.
Is it defined from the standpoint of the riders? While
they go to Five Points for "personal" reasons, they ride
the shuttle to keep safe.
For that matter, what is official use? Here is a list of a
few official, non-personal, approved uses of university
vehicles:
The university uses ShuttleCocks to cart alumni to
the football games from the Faculty House. Is that official
use? Apparently so. Is that right? No double standard ever
is. And it's just as much hitchhiking as the Five Points
Shuttle.
The university uses many vans, buses and cars to
take students, faculty and staff off campus to attend
meetings and seminars. Some of these trips are official,
but many, under the guise of business, are for reasons just
as "personal" as those of the students going to Five
Points ? attend conferences to Hitch meetinoc HrinL- unH
party.
A specific example. Around 2 a.m. Wednesday, a
USC custodial worker was driving around the Davis,
LeConte and Preston buildings, honking the horn on his
little green "golf cart." Was he at work? No, he was just
driving and honking, looking and sounding like an
impatient child waiting to pick up his date. That was
definitely more a case of hitchhiking than the shuttle.
After USC President James Holderman fired
former Athletic Director Bob Marcum, it was revealed
that the former A.D. had used the Athletic Department's
plane to fly to sporting events around the country.
Personal use? You bet. But still official.
All of these are "official," but only because the
university's the one with the keys to the ignition.
Are we to believe that a program the university allowed
to go on last week with the use of vans is suddenly illegal?
If so, why?
The fact is that law really doesn't apply. And yet, we're
being asked to believe a law ? designed specifically to
prevent state senators from flying to the Super Bowl in
state planes ? puts students in the path of thieves and
rapists?
The shuttle drivers last weekend said they saw a girl
being chased by three men, and when they stopped and
picked her up, the drivers said she was crying and frantic.
And a student.
This service has already prevented one tragedy. Thinking
about that girl, one might also begin to think what The
Gamecock's headline would have been Monday if Stokes
had made his decision a week earlier.
Not a pleasant thought, is it?
rp| I
Ihe Gamecock
Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region ,
Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 1
Editor in Chief Photography Editors '
STEPHEN GUILFOYLE BRIAN SAULS '<
Managing Editor TEDDY LEPP ''
SON HA Datebook Editor '
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wAYNfc YANU Graphics Editor <
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KATHY BLACKWELL Comics Editor I
News Editor TRACY MIXSON 1
HAL MILLARD Adviser t
Assistant News Editor PAT MCNEELY *
STEVE PRADARELLI Graduate Assistant *
MARY PEARSON PHILLIP MCKENZIE 1
Features Editor Director of Student Media r
SUSAN NESBITT ED BONZA
Assistant Features Editor Advertising Manager t
TOM JOYNER MARGARET MICHELS 1
Sports Editor Production e
KEVIN ADAMS LAURA DAY a
Assistant Sports Editor RAY BURGOS
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BARBARA BROWN t
s
Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300
words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for style or possible
libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance.
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From 1981
Editor's note ? In 1985, the space shi
prise flew over Columbia on its way t
Space Center in Florida. USC alumnus*
can was The Gamecock's columnist at,
I guess it must have been going a fe
miles an hour, but it looked slow, real
crawled across the Monday sky over th
the Greene Street crowd.
For a couple of seconds, my brain di
the connection. I just gazed at the thin
with surprise and fear too, the way a
would look at his first helicopter befort
was my first space shuttle, but I didn't b
stood there.
I had read a sentence or two in a news
the Enterprise would be riding a jumt
gyback over Columbia on such-and-suc
such-and-such a time, but I immedi
forgotten the particulars. So when I
Letters to i
Heat illnesses
0,4:11 ? ~?:i~i~
sun pussiuie
To the editor:
Autumn days in South Carolina,
often with temperatures in the 90s,
can be associated with unexpected
problems for people involved in outdoor
activities. The use of alcohol
and certain other drugs can contribute
to the development of heat
related illnesses. Dr. Kendall O.
Fields Jr. of the Thomson Student
Health Center states that the use of <
alcohol, through a complex set of I
mechanisms, combined with high
temperatures can place someone at I
higher risk of having a heat stroke. I
According to Dr. N. Peter Johnson,
Coordinator of Alcohol and Drug
Studies at the School of Medicine:
"The body is trying to cool off in the
heat. Alcohol inhibits that process
because the blood vessels in the extremities
dilate, causing blood to
pool in the legs, and the person
becomes faint."
Fields states that some other drugs
can increase risk include cocaine,
aspirin, antihistamines, LSD, and t
certain antidepressants and r
medicines for stomach virus. t
Previous athletic training in high i
temperatures makes a difference. At c
i sporting event, for example, fans a
ire at greater risk than the athletes. e
Fields explains that under ordinary c
:ircumstances, a person who is unac:ustomed
to extended periods in the v
leat loses up to one liter of fluids per y
lour, including valuable minerals. J
While athletes trained to perform in a
ligh temperatures continue to lose c
>ody fluids, they become acclimated v
o the conditions more readily and do h
lot lose critical amounts of precious b
ninerals. f
High humidity also contributes to c
he problem by inhibiting the effec- p
iveness of the body's natural cooling r,
nechanisms. Lack of food and sleep tj
lso increase risk of heat-related il- r?
nesses. "An evaluation by the U.S. o
^rmy clearly points out an associa- b
ion between fatigue and lack of
leeep and a predisposition to heat e
troke," Fields states. r<
In addition to the use of alcohol or r<
ertain other drugs, previous athletic w
5: Monday
ittle Enter- i
o Kennedy I Andy
Dun
the time.
w hundred
slow as it And
e heads of J
Duncan
dn't make ?
g dumbly,
i bushman
; bolting.lt
olt. We all I??
paper that engine above my head, I
>o jet pig- casual glance, not expeci
h a day at look down again until the
ately had bleary smudge in the sky i
heard the the registrar sits.
the editor
training in high temperatures,
fatigue, lack of food and humidity,
the following conditions can also
place a person at high risk for
developing heat-related illnesses:
Age - infants and older persons
are at higher risk.
History of heart problem.
History of heat strokes - For
some unexplained reason,
some persons are more susceptible
than others, probably due
to something inherent in their
individual systems.
Along with abstaining from
alcohol or other drugs, getting plenty
of rest and taking into consideration
high risk factors, Fields recommends
wearing light-colored clothing during
these fall days with very high
temperatures.
Katie Aultman
Division of Alcohol and Abuse '
Doublespeak,
apathy typical
To the editor:
I cannot but smile at the increduliy
of The Gamecock towards the adninistration's
complacency on the '
>arking problem. Has it not yet sunk
n that the administration is not ac:ountable
to the students, that they J
ire quasi-civil servants who cannot
rasily lose their jobs despite gross inompetence
and/or apathy? 1
But I must say, they have given
vonderfully specific information to t
our queries. Take parking director c
. Baker, whom you quoted Sept. 19 (
s saying, "We do conduct surveys r
f lots, and they have shown us that e
ve still have availability." Actually, I ti
laven't a clue as to what that means, ti
iut luckily senior vice president of
acilities planning, D. Rinker, o
larified things when he "called the h
arking problem 'one of convenience p
ather than one of necessity."' Cer- p
ainly, sir, but, then again, nothing is si
eally necessary, now is it? Neither q
ollege, nor food, nor life and limb; N
arbaric man was denied these o
necessities.' So, of course,
verything has an alternative, and fi
ather than park near our classes and r<
:>oms, we should consider mile-long
ralks, increase risk of robbery and it
we all got
1 I looked ai
overhead ? n
have been here:
level of my ey<
shuttle and no
that it was 1:1'
bub of student
t0 ^00(*t0 ^
was bound tigl
I lied about i
^ shuttle go
^?^???J from where I 1
looked up with only a That night, I
ling glory, and I didn't but I couldn't r
craft had dwindled to a ween me and tl
tbove the building where And while I
just kept on go
rape, missing classes and applying sp
tor an administration job (which o\
comes with a parking space), to list a
few. so
Baker and Rinker are merely
reiterating attitudes we've been hearing
for years but which were best put
by housing services' director of administration,
James Smart, who,
when asked about the severe housing _
shortage, you quoted Aug. 29 as saying
"It's certainly not ideal, but then
you have to compare it to the alter- n
native, which is no housing." it
So stop complaining about lack of
housing, parking, football tickets
and the like and cease griping that the Tc
administration doesn't care or could
be doing better. Give them some H<
respect. After all, they could be even do
worse. Whenever I get frustrated at ye
the system, I remember what Mr. un
Smart said to me regarding the man- lea
datory meal plan: "That's our mi
policy. If you don't like it, you're
free to go to another school." H<
Hard advice from someone who th<
:ares... Gr
th<
John R. Hanson he
SCC junior Dc
otl
Sic
'Shout!': It's ma
Co
an arlvpntiirp the
Ari
stu
ro the editor: poi
I must address the response to Mr. fur
Andrew M. Robinson, whose article I
leriding Shout! magazine in The jor
jamecock Sept. 23, was in slight er- hisi
or. Mr. Robinson, I implore you to artxamine
the following account of my the
ravels Aux Antilles, the good for- it v
une of which is due to Shout!. we
I had been adjusting the springline ma,
if my Morgan 38 at a private dock in hav
Jegril for several moments when a spo
articularlv slim and well- beli
roportioned, dark-haired, bronze- alio
kinned woman in her early 20s in- alsc
uired about the origin of the mai
lagenta Zinc Oxide, which cleverly evei
oated my nose. witl
"Why, my dear lady, I ordered it env
om Shout!'s Spring break issue," I had
:plied.
Thoroughly impressed, she enticed
le into joining her at a local night
?W?VER, Hi H
p-me igfcFfe
liolt
^ r^\ *^11
%
t real high
t my watch while the craft was
ot by looking down, which would
sy, but by holding my wrist up to the
;s so that I could look past it at the
t fudge the revelation ? and saw
1 p.m.
., Greene Street was the usual hub:s
pounding from English to history
I to books; at 1:15 p.m., everybody
ht to the sky, not saying a word,
the motionless, I guess, because with
ne I found myself about 20 yards
"irst heard it.
picked up a Robert Heinlein novel,
ead it. The shuttle kept passing betlie
sentences.
was lying there, I thought: Icarus
ing this time.
>ot and later at her hilltop home
'erlooking the beach.
Now, my dear Andrew M. Robinn,
I owe quite a bit to Shout!.
Edward H. Charles
Chemistry junior
JSC ignores
irt majors
t HIV VUUUl .
How many times will President
alderman present a false front? I
? not mean to deride the man, but,
t again, he has put the name of the
iversity up on a pedestal while
iving the students below in the
re.
My complaint deals with President
alderman's recent activities with
: Koger Center for the Arts,
anted, he has gotten prestige for
; university; however, he has not
Iped a single student in the venture.
>es a single student, art major or
lerwise, have use of the center? Is
>an Art College in poor condition,
the point of falling down? How
tny city blocks are between Sloan
liege and BTW? How archaic are
: facilities that the art students use?
e any privileges granted to the
dents of the university that sup"t
the Koger Center with their
LU5;
admit that the number of art mas
(graphic design, studio, art
tory, music, theater and the other
-related majors) do not make up
majority of the student body, but
vould be nice to have the money
paid to come here to go into our
jors and our educations instead of
ing the Koger Center for the Arts
rting the university's name. I
eve the university has the right to
icate money where it sees fit, but I
> believe that President Holderi
is responsible for providing
ryone, even the lowly art major,
t a good education and a proper
ironment. It would be nice if we
a president who did.
Thomas C. Kelly
Art sophomore