University of South Carolina Libraries
The USC Name change is embarrassing, stupid; change it back to USC After a semester of living with it, it is now time to assess the wonderful change that has come over USC since it has changed its name to "The USC." Or lack of change. , The name was supposed to stress the unity of USC's nine system campus. But it's interesting to note that people in Spartanburg are beginning to wish that USC-Spartanburg was not a part of the USC system. So the unity argument goes out the window. The word "the" stresses uniqueness. So one must ask, is the University of South Carolina THE one, THE only USC? No, you have Southern Cal, Southern Colorado and others using the initials. The other main use of the word "the" is to stress definitive. So one must ask is the University of South Carolina THE best, THE pacesetting USC? Let's be realistic. The University of South Carolina sets the pace in some schools, but if you walked up to someone outside of the Georgia, North and South Carolina area and asked them where USC is, they'd say Los Angeles. Maybe you haven't noticed, but The Gamecock has been using USC all semester instead of The USC. Basically, we think the name change is stupid and embarrassing. Earlier this year, WIS-TV news did a story on the name change, and they contacted Southern Cal. Southern Cal officials, to paraphrase Susan Aude Fisher, said No, they weren't aware of the name change, and they just laughed when asked about it. And the national television audience that saw us get beat by Florida State was probably laughing when they saw "The USC" where Carolina should have been in the scoreboard. Students may not be really upset by this, but it is embarrassing. But it's guaranteed that students aren't going to say they attended "The USC." Students should make their opinion known about this issue. It makes us look silly; it may hurt us in the eyes of potential employers. And really, it's a stupid name. The USC. Yeah, right. Is our other nickname changed too ? do we attend The Carolina? Let's get back to where we belong. It wasn't worth the $1,966 we paid to get the smokestack painted. It wasn't worth any amount of money we spent to redesign our parking stickers and all the rest of the name-bearing USC paraphernalia. Let's stop being a joke and get back to business. This is the University of South Carolina, known and loved to those who went there as Carolina and USC. I v ~?SS&* '< '." fc. L rr*t I I he Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief Datebook Editor STEPHEN GUILFOYLE JENNY SHARPE Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor WAYNE YANG MICHAEL SHARP Assistant Copy Desk Chief Comics Editor KATHY BLACKWELL TRACY MIXSON News Editor Adviser HAL MILLARD PAT MCNEELY Assistant News Editor MARY PEARSON vci T V n TunwiC r?: ? ? Ua<ii. iVLwi^L, i v- luvmrmj 1/ucviui VI oiuut.il I itivuiu Features Editor ed bonza susan nesbitt Advertising Manager Assistant Features Editor margaret michels tom joyner Production Manager Sports Editor laura day kevin adams Assistant Production Manager Assistant Sports Editor ray burgos chris silvestri Assistant Advertising Manager Photography Editors barbara brown brian sauls teddy lepp 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. GREEU EFFEC \ I ; 1 ck? MflR^lles?"^ ' ' Letters to Big Bill lacks prbfundity To the editor: Bill Sengstacken's column in the Gamecock (Friday, Nov. 18) moved me with the sublime profundity of ? sudden urge to visit the toilet. U2 has finally let Bill down (I can't tell you how good that makes me feel inside). Bill is disturbed by the very mougni mai uz isn i going 10 continue to make sequels of War. The poor fool can't stand to hear brass instrumentation in a U2 song. Time is slipping through your fingers, Bill. Music just isn't what it used to be ? but wait, have you heard REM's latest hit, with its blatant exploitation of U2 trademarks? Maybe there is hope, Bill. Get lost, Bill. And Mr. Stipe, you're slipping! They're finding meaning "anc metaphor in your lyrics! Have yoi dreamt lately of waking up and fin ding Sting in the mirror? Look at thi; line: "I've a rich understanding oj my finest defenses" ? oooh! Shal we send this one off to Reader'; Digest? Bill, it's a shame you missed out or the humor, energy and terror ol Document, which you disgarded wit! the rusty cliche, "at besi uninspired." Give it a leash, man ? what can you possibly mean b} "inspired?" Such words are foi Popes, not critics. This kind of Freu dian slip, Bill, has often marked th< merciful end of a critic's career. Allow me to remind you that nex time your religiosity tempts you tc open yuui DiDie 01 music ciiucisui you might do well to recall the word: of your fellow man of letters, Johnnj Rotten ? "And blind acceptance is i sign ? of stupid fools stand in line!' Dan Jensei math and physics junioi U.S. stands for free speech To the editor: It is apparent to me that certaii members of The Gamecock editoria staff do not understand the meaninj of free speech. One of the beautifu things about America is that anyon can go into a public place and yel "down with the government," o whatever, and it is perfectly legal That's the kind of freedom that pec pie in the communist world ar fighting and dying to obtain. Only here in America, can ; theater show a controversial film and outside people are picketing botl for and against it. Only here can i college newspaper print an editoria like you guys did last week and ge away with it. Only here can I writ HOUSE r ^ < iI: I.- . . i 1 I Jlr BAmrfA Cc*?Sl)tUnorJ ji t*AL ine eanor \ this letter of rebuttal. Only in America can a student take a political sign into a ball game and hold it up alongside the dries saying saying ""Gd "j Cocks!" or "Hi, Mom." Everyone knows that I don't speak for the whole campus, but I do have 1 : the right to speak for myself, and ' that's what I was attempting to do at 1 the last two home football games, e You all may not agree with what 1 c say, but please respect my right to say ' it. Thanks. i ( i Janice M. Kraft management/marketing senior "USC's Conservative Gadfly" 1 I i ? Bill not such ! ; a bad guy i ? p To the editor: I I would like to know how prepared 5 Elizabeth Cassidy (letter, "Sengstacken Is A Whiner," Mon j day, Nov. 21) is to defend her counf try. As a civilian, she seems quite prepared to defend the National Guard. Some students at the university have been forced to make unpleasant sacrifices to meet their ever increasing financial obligations to this fine and reputable institution. Not everyone can send their tuition bill to Col. Cassidy. Perhaps if the National Guard wasn't advertised as a paid weekend camping trip, we wouldn't see so many disgruntled Guardsmen. And while I'm defending Bill Sengstacken, who took quite a beating on Monday, I have a few remarks for Monica Costello (letter, "View rattled, hum bugged" Monday, Nov. 21). First of all, I liked the movie, but that doesn't mean it makes a great album. I don't think experimenting with American blues is either "new" or "diverse." Both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones did it over two decades ago. But then, you are just a freshman, so maybe you don't i remember those bands. 1 And I can see why it might "get a under my skin" to hear a white Euro I pean male sing a song written for a e black American female. No sexism II or racism intended, but Bono simply r doesn't have the voice or the soul of Billie Holliday. ?- Don't get me wrong, I am very e much a fan of U2 (and the National Guard, for that matter), but I think it a is a cop out to release a live album after every tour. i a .1 t Philip Cook e media arts senior MITE HOUSE EFFEO^^ H I g 1 1 .?gg| 3II i a ft]#**! Alliance needs Sci to be realistic goi r? the editor: To the If Katherine Gilbert feels she a 'must" write a letter at least once campus very semester defending divestment ancj se( >f funds "in South Africa" (though when I 'in companies doing business with Dougla south Africa" is the right wording), preciat< (letter to the editor, Nov. 16), I hope curred n future letters she will show more interior iwareness of what the objections to za yr divestment are. chang Her only mention of an opposing impr0v point of view is when she speaks of j^ow "some right wing extremists" ing fro (unidentified) who "have used the toward argument that the (African National the Congress) is communist to discount tjieir w the fact that there is suffering in andsor South Africa." But the real opposi- see the tion comes from people who find suf- that na fering in South Africa just as abhor- back si rent as she does. Apparently, we also ramp g find it a good deal more abhorrent j than Steve Biko (d. Sept. 12, 1977), graspin whom she quotes approvingly as say- astonisl ing, "We blacks are, therefore, not fence n interested in foreign investment. If the oth Washington wants to contribute to i00k, 0 r\f q iiict cr^riptv in tut utvtiu^iiiwiii v/i ? juji that w South Africa, it must discourage in- where 1 vestment in South Africa. We blacks For t are perfectly willing to suffer the con- a chan< sequences. We are quite accustomed It was to suffering." sculptu Here is a more recent (June 10, COnsisti 1985) quotation by Mangosuthu appear( Buthelezi, Chief of the 5.4 million wall wj Zulu nation, who probably has much iron ra more right to speak in the name of this wa the blacks than Biko ever did. engravi "When I oppose divestment as an guitars option ... I receive mass applause objects (in the black community) for doing j ren so . . . Those who call for disinvesf- t0 v ment do so in direct opposition to seen black sentiment in South Africa. t0 ?>0, "Enlightened investment in South eVeryoi Africa strengthens the forces work- Then, ing for change . . . blacks are now fiuence gathering a bargaining power they scuiptu never had before, and their bargain- son w0 ing power will be enhanced by rapid hypnot economic growth, which increases white dependency on blacks." ask m< The issue, then, is not whether the return graphic injustices Gilbert mentions After ( should be "discounted" (obviously ancj tK*.,, oh/^,,1,4 K,,t how thpv ran . , mwj duvsuiu ukjij i/ui " -?-v 1 001 best be combatted. Our university there ^ foundations are doing their best to devil-w invest in companies doing enlighten- nQW j ed investment in South Africa, in the Every0 belief that this is the best way of put- and sa( ting pressure on the system. As long ^as as they turn a deaf ear to this point of j view, and even refuse to engage in good t two-sided debates with their op- guess. ponents (see the Nov. 11 The that's t Gamecock) her "Free South Africa ^now Alliance" should not be surprised at the lack of support for their movement here. Peter J. Nyikos mathematics professor UI yat h Is 106 10N ilpture re, mourned editor: . sophomore now living off i, I don't get to walk around ; campus as much as I did lived in Douglas ? oh, those s days ? so I am late to ap; some of the changes that ocover the summer, like the new of the Gamecock/Wild Pizltil then, all of the other es I've noticed were ements. ever, on Oct. 21 I was returnm the coliseum and heading s Russell House. As I passed ary, my thoughts meandered ay back to my freshman year ne late night adventures out to "acid sculpture" (who gave it me?), which is located on the de of the brick wall near the oing to Bates. looked for the familiar hand g the torn iron rail, I was hed to see that section of the tissing. Alarmed, I hurried to er side of the wall for a better nly to find the statue gone. All ac lpft u/ac a hnllnw cnarp he work of art once rested, hose freshmen who never had :e to experience it, I'm sorry. a dark-brass-sort-of-collage re with the major portion of it ing of an outline of a man who ;d to be coming out of the th his right hand holding the il nearby. Positioned around s a variety of other small brass ngs of faces, hands, feet, and many other strange lember it was particularly fun vith someone who had never e statue before. We'd return Liglas after a party to find te else asleep or passed out. while still "under the in," we'd trek out to see the re. Most of the time, the' per>uld freak out and just stare, ized by its strangeness, next day, the person would s if it was real, wishing to under normal conditions, hat, they'd start asking why w it was there. 1't personally know how it got hough I've heard stories of a worshipping fraternity) and don't know why it is gone, ne I spoke with was surprised idened with its disappearance, it stolen? Very unlikely. More s that it was removed by the iniversity. Why? I can only censorship of art. Whether rue or not I'll probably never Michael Haunstein business sophomore