University of South Carolina Libraries
'Brain drain' USC, Clemson trying to keep best students in South Caroline USC and Clemson University recently announced a plan t< offer a four-year tuition grant to all the valedictorians in all o South Carolina's many high schools. The plan is an effort to end the "brain drain" of Soutl Carolina's best students going to colleges and universities out o state. Now all the best students have to do is beat out the rest o their class for four years, and they've got four years of collegi paid for. The plan has its good points, but it might also pose a problen or two as well. Any effort to keep the best students in the state is to be ap plauded. Forbears, South Carolina's best and brightest hav< been lured out of state by promises of better scholarships. Mos probably, if they are valedictorians, they might also have som< kind of National Merit scholarship. This will be one of the few new programs at USC that has th< best interests of this state at its heart. New superconducting anc supercomputing institutes and centers may enhance the prestig< of the university, but it's not really what South Carolina need: right now. The state has a drastic illiteracy problem in rural areas hroueht about hv the "hrain drain" as well as other faetnrs Mm only do we have to keep the best and the brightest students in the state, but we also have to convince them to save and serve the best interests of the state once that is finished. But it also has a few problems. If the best and brightest have z chance to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology oi Harvard or any of the best universities in the country, should wt be asking them to stay here? If they can't get enough scholarship and grant money to attend these admittedly better universities, they might be selling out their potential by accepting a full tuition scholarship to USC. And the plan also shows you where the true priorities of the universities still lay. One of these valedictorians will be given the equivalent of four years of tuition. But a full scholarship athlete is given what is commonly called a full "ride." Everything is paid for: housing, some money for books, tuition, and if you're in the right sport, you live in the Roost and get three square meals a day. The Gamecock isn't saying the athletes don't deserve their grants. They bring a special notoriety to USC that is necessary to keep the university in the national picture. But it is also true that any of South Carolina's valedictorians deserves to be given onunl trpatmpnt TVip\; all Hpcpm;p a ridp uiliptlipr ic ic 1 n tVioi'r blVUUUViUi A. I1VJ Uli UVJVi V V U X 1UV y VY liVllivl ij 1J 111 lllVll best interest or not, and some deserve more. And lastly, it still shows you how far USC, and also Clemson, have to go to be big universities on the national scene. If we were better, we would be trying to figure out ways to steal other state's best and brightest instead of trying to fight it out here in our own state. The best and the brightest. It's nice to see we're making an effort on their behalf. Carolina must continually upgrade the status of its undergraduate students as well as adding nice institutes for the graduate students to work in, if it is to continue to prosper and expand and grow. 'WE'RE THE FEPS- EVERYBOPY UNE 0PAW GO QUIETLY TO THE BATHROOMS" ^CSsi [sS (Sal ? if The Gamecock I 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 ~ . c, , . .. , KELLY C. THOMAS ' ?> Features Editor , . . . SUSAN NFSRITT Advertising Manager NESBITT MARGARET MICHELS Assistant Features Editor D . .. XM tomjoyner r dr?"Manaser Snorts F/i*4 LAURA DAY kbvYn Assistant Production Manager KEVIN ADAMS RAY BURGOS Assistant Sports Editor A , , A . ... AA CHRK sit vfctpt Assistant Advertising Manager L BARBARA BROWN Photography Editors TEDDY LEPP JULIE BOUCHILLON Lelters Policy: The Gamecock will try lo print letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300 I 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. 5. ; For a soon-to I've got a friend who wants me to write about ' her in this old column of mine, but I've put it off and put it off for the longest time, not because I I really don't want to do it, but because I figured mentioning her would do her no good and could , probably do some harm. But, now that I've got that really long sentence ' out of the way (it's kind of like a disclaimer actual. ly), let me tell you about my buddy Sharon. First of all, she's a second generation buddy; her best friend at USC is one of my best friends, and we started having lunch together one semester two years ago. Hal, my good friend and her best friend, ' and I had a class together, media law, and we met ! Sharon after one of her advertising classes at least ; once a week. We would go to the Grand ; Marketplace, get a table on the raised dining area, chow down and talk. Actually, they did most of the talking, I did most of the listening, and if I did talk, it was to either verballv eaoe at some Herculean tale of one of Sharon's nights out or to offer some witty comment, which was normally ignored. Sharon likes to have fun. Every other time I'm down in Five Points doing something, I meet her ? she normally in Group or coming from it, my other friends and I maybe on our way there or to another of our favorite hangouts (read that seedy dives). She's a wild chick, and I tell her so. When we see her at Group, we normally have some pretty wild times. She even "saved" my life there once. She.'didn't literally save my life, but another Stick on a log Call the neighbors and wake the kids because I ? have a plan to solve the national debt and U.S. domestic problems within the next three years. It's a simple plan from a simple mind. Corporate sponsorship of the national defense ? that is all it would take. All the government would have to do is adopt a policy where U.S. corporations can sponsor and fund the national defense. For example Budweiser could put up the money for two or three stealth bombers. AT&T could buy a battalion of tanks, and Tide could sponsor helicopters ? lots of them. What we do is allow-these corporations to put up the money and let them put their logos on their project. So each bomber Budweiser buys could have a Budweiser logo, and the upkeep would be their responsibility. No longer would the government have to endure procurement scandals. No longer would our people suffer at the expense of a new missle system. Each corporation would be responsible for purchasing a defense product at the lowest possible cost, thus assuring the competent and fiscally conscious defense of our land. If we allow these corporations to do this we could take all the money that would have been spent on defense and put it into repaying the debt and supporting domestic programs that have been cut. It would take only a few years for the debt to Letters to the Foul fans, in Gameco* received Ali stay home To the editor: pearance, h For at least the past 15 years, I've last year's been fortunate enough to follow the year's 8-3 re USC football program. I say "at So, after ; least" because at the ripe old age of USC footba 22, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly does he get? what year' my interest in the the Gamecoi Gamecocks started. I do remember, a sarcastic c however, an exciting and talented short pass a; quarterback, Jeff Grantz, who led totally awfi the Cocks gridiron attack in the early groups of f; and mid-'70s. For many years Dickie" (Cai thereafter, the Gamecock signal back), while callers, though not lacking desire, against Nav; were somewhat lacking in high that most of caliber talent. Yet after years of Ellis and the names such as Bass, Beckham and the USC stu Harper, the Gamecock quarterback- I don't k ing talent began to rise. In my first "fans" are t year as a USC student, Allen Mitchell norant abou and Mike Hold split time at the all of the Gamecock quarterback position Gamecock c while the team posted its best-ever are not the j 10-2 record, including a trip to the The offense Gator Bowl. Missed block Then, in 1985, out into the well as a fev limelight stepped redshirt freshman add up to th Todd Ellis. In two short years he re- offense isn't wrote the Gamecock record book In conclus be-graduated I friend of mine was drunk and started pouring beer on people. He poured beer on this one guy who was turned away from me, and somehow the guy thought I was doing it. My friend, a short, devilish imp when he's really drunk, was unseen so he kept pouring beer on this guy. I myself had not even noticed the guy. I was looking away from him. He tapped me on the shoulder. He was beginning to steam and had his fist curled up when I turned to look at him. Right then, out of nowhere came my buddy Sharon, who put her arms around me and forced me away from the guy, putting about a million or so people in between me and him. I was still staring "back at'hlm, glaring. We guys have to do that, you know, to keep up the forms. "I could have>?handled him easy," I told ?o, solve the < Shrewd...,y ft I _J be erased, and all of the hurting domestic programs would get the attention they need. Picture it, if you can. A squadron of B-l bombers flying over the desert of Nevada, each with a different logo on it. There could be beer producers, phone companies, spark plug outlets and Goodyear tires. It would look like a stock car race in the sky, but the monetary benefit of it all would be the real advantage. It is Americanism in its truest form. It is capitalism, pure and simple. The critics of this new and semi-fascinating concept would say we were selling out our country to the highest bidder. Well, we would, but then again editor t ig attack better than any that Carolina students wh :k history. Twice he's ball fans be thankful ft [-American honors and quarterback that the he Gamecocks poised for have ever had, a man wh< nd-straight bowl ap- ed three offenses in four aving at least equalled yet is still destined to be mark of 8-4, with this first successful NFL qi cord. Furthermore, if you can' ill that he's done for the and give the team positr II program, what thanks don't come out at all. 1 He gets booed each time compelled to boo or :k offense stalls; he gets Gamecocks, stay at your ivation for completing a drunk, or better yet, go gainst Florida State in a Cooper and study. You ll team effort; he has missed, ins chanting "We want rolina's back-up quarter: the team holds a lead US y. What's even worse is this negative support for Gamecocks comes from ihlHTI dent body. mow if these so-called iv oo drunk or just too ig- tjIlULKUlcf 11 t football to realize that ; problems that the To the editor: iffense has had recently There has been so m >ole fault of Todd Ellis. coverage about the rece: must function as a unit. tabloid ? or shock ? :s and dropped passes, as Everyone on campus kn v bad passes by Ellis all the ratings-starved Geral e reason why Carolina's ultra-conservative Morton functioning at top form. I had seen it all until I wa! ;ion, I'd like to suggest The Grand Marketplace tc War^U!?9" -wmqmuHrmunoN f ' juddy of mine everyone, but I'd rather not get into a fight to begin with. "Thanks Sharon, you saved my life," I joked, and it's stuck. A few weeks ago, I introduced Sharon to a new beer, and she says she'll always remember me for that. It's called Sweet China, and it's an export. It's like a pineapple beer cooler, really, kind of sweet, but it's really beer. Sharon liked it and kept the bottle. Keeping it, she says, will give her one thing to remember me by. I'm writing this, as I said, because Sharon wanted to appear in one of my columns before she is graduated. But I'm also writing this because she is going to be graduated this semester so she'll be like all the others. Like Buddy, Andy, Marisa, Jeri and Gregg, she's heading out into the vicious, nasty "Real World." As my buddy Andy once said about his vanishing ice cream palace, "There's too much of that going on these days." So I write this to have something to remember her with. She was a genuine USC student, following all the history and traditions of this school ? a vicious partier, an opinionated sports fan who thinks castration is the best solution to USC's quarterback problems, a blonde with a big smile and a bigger heart. She'll be missed. lebt problem aren't we doing that now with the Arab oil money and the foreign investments that are keeping the United States afloat? Get the business in the hands of the people who know how to run a business. You just can't expect bureaucrats in Washington who probably can't balance their own tax forms to be able to buy the right defense products for the right price. They just don't have the mental capacity. But if you give the problem back to the people who really run this country, the corporate CEOs, then things will run a whole lot smoother. And we could divert all the defense money to other badly needed budgets. America is a trend setter and a model capitalistic nation, and what better way to help our own people, solve our debt and still maintain the safety of our children ? while boosting the economy as well ? than opening this area to the private sector? Spending $30 million for a bomber is only petty cash to corporations like AT&T. They can afford it better than we the taxpayers can. Put the country's future back in the hands of the people. They want it, they could do it, and it beats the hell out of letting stonefaced, old men interested only in politics decide what is economically feasible for our tax dollars. Let the businessmen of America run the business of America. ' M 10 are foot- "Shock-Evangelism:" the gospel ac>r the best cording to Brother Jim. Gamecocks Something must be said about 3 has learn- Brother Jim, who "preached" to years, and USC students at The Russell House the Cocks' on Thursday. Brother Jim's selfuarterback. righteous attitude was made aware to t come out me when someone walked up behind /e support, me and asked, "Is he a comedian or [f vnn fool ic ho corir?nc9" That ciimt nr-> tho at_ l? ;vu 4 VV1 *>-? "V JVI1VMJ. A 11UI JU111J up 111W Ul curse the titude taken by most of those who dorm, get listened to the Brother's "word." to Thomas Brother Jim's word, if it is spoken won't be from genuine concern for all of us sinners at USC, would be much more appreciated if it followed the tradiT. Bone tional route of kind, loving Chris!C alumnus tianity. I was brought up to believe that Christians were gentle and car# ing ? certainly not abusive. Brother ItllTlQ Jim was everything but that tradiJr & tional Christian. Brother Jim's message,-However, laUll didn't go totally unappreciated. Jim's "message" was amusing enough to hold my attention for uch media about an hour, when that bitter cold nt rash of finally chilled some sense into me. television. Thanks, Jim, for the laughs but not ows about for the message. Laughs are apdo or the preciated, but insults are resented. .I thought Iked out of Jay Cain > encounter international studies freshman