University of South Carolina Libraries
i Smoking Universities must find balance in controlling use of cigarettes Universities across the United States are taking action against cigarette smoking, a trend that reflects this country's move away from this unhealthy habit. Schools should discourage smoking, but they should also respect the rights of those who want to use cigarettes. Many schools have announced tougher smoking restrictions in the past few years. The universities of Nebraska, Texas and II; linois have imposed tough rules against smoking. At Penn State, ; smoking is banned everywhere except in a few residence halls. I Georgia State has stopped selling cigarettes in its bookstore. Stanford has even banned smoking at outdoor events. Universities are places of learning and have a responsibility to ; educate their students on health issues. School officials should ; see through the tobacco industry's smoke screen and make ; students aware of the health hazards of cigarettes. Countless studies have shown that cigarettes cause lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease. The American Lung Association estimates that smoking-related health problems in South Carolina alone amount to almost $230 million a year in hospital bills. Secondhand smoke has also been shown to be hazardous. Non-smoking students should not have to face the health risk presented by cigarettes. Universities should ensure that classrooms and eating areas are free of smoke. At the same time, smokers must be allowed to practice their vice in private as long as they respect the rights of others. If they want to smoke, they, as adults, have the choice to do so. USC, for example, has done a good job of providing a relatively smoke-free environment while retaining the right of smokers to light up if they wish. But the university could do more to alert students to the risks inherent in a smoking habit. I The smoking controversy will continue to flare up, and | America's universities will be just one staging ground in the battle between those who wish to smoke and those who don't The two sides will eventually have to compromise and find a delicate 1 - balance. s i t < "MY6O0PNKS-IT 100? C : d npi I C 1 he (jrameeock i . _ _ s; * ^^^^^^^|>^^^M C' r( fiesr Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region cl * Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 E : Editor in Chief Datebook Editor tF . ANDY BECHTEL JAN PHILLIPS ?. Managing Editor Graphics Editor f i?FF S^R^'iBliRY MICHAEL SHARP C ; Copy Desk Chief Comics Editor ; KATHY BLACKWELL TRACY MIX?ON P Assistant Copy Desk Chief Graduate Assistant * CARYN CRABB ROBERT STEVENSON News Editor Advjser h; MAR\ PEARSON PAT MCNEELY Assistant News Editors Director of Student Media KELLY C. THOMAS ED BONZA SUSAN NESBITT Advertising Manager ?5 l o'itnrov FHltnr " s< ' toddTunes" Margaret michels Assistant Features Editor Production Manager tommy joyner laura day Snorts Editor Assistant Production Manager kevin adams ray burg?s Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Advertising Manager chris s1lvestr1 barbara brown q Photography Editor S(J teddy lepp h Letters Policy: 7^ ?ii. lr> prinl all leHws rrt,i>ed. , e(UTN should h, ? a mavimiirn 25d ? 300 words Ions C.uesl ed.lor.als should no. exceed 5(H) words. We reserse .he riKh. .0 e.lers lor slvle or P5 possible libel. The Gamecock will no. withhold names under an> circumstance. ' bi ll^gjMfliic^Tr.bute ^y.jg Sexual harassui A friend of mine was walking back from the ~ ibrary one night this past week around 7:30 when .he was sexually harassed. Yes, that's right ? sexlally harassed. A guy was hiding in the bushes beside the reflecion pool. As she passed by, he called out to her: 'Pssst. C'mere." Needless to say, she was alarmed and started valking at a faster pace. "All I could think was, Oh, God, what if he rapes me,'" she told me later. She noticed two girls walking in front of her and isked to walk with them. She told them some guy vas bothering her. At this point, the guy in the bushes came out and old my friend to "relax" and that "it was only a p raternityJ prank." He dismissed her fears as silly. rr >he quickly told him that she didn't think it was it 'ery funny and that it's not guys who have to vorry about being raped on this campus. h< This isn't just one isolated incident. This kind of U larassment has happened to my friend before. H This past year, a USC construction worker, tf ollowed her into the bathroom. It wasn't late at o light. It was in the morning during classes. He m ooked under the stall she was in, stared at her for a hi noment and then left. She reported it to the cam- pi Letters use mourns r?"desv g* . ly face at USC. as Kratt goes pers?" ^ Janice; she ma social and p( ~o the editor: couldn't have t The character of life as a student at by Sen. Joe Mc JSC changed drastically this bably smiling c emester. The undergraduates are stench of his pn till viewed as a meal ticket by the adlinistration; the lighting around Even the sky i ampus is still deficient; the police in the chill damp till write parking tickets more than of classes. I, for nything else, but the mood, the very not alone, shal tmosphere of the campus has return to the st adically and irrevocably changed. conformity and IprKonc it'c nort r\f r\ofi/-??nl vinwpo u o pun kji nit liauunai olitical/economic transformation ssociated with the Ronald Reagan S< residency, but it reaches much eeper than that. It concerns the ll4 eparture of Janice Kraft. MT rO lll Reflect, if you will, on the impact tie had on all aspects of the universi- on nui / environment. 1. History ? who Ise could confound even the revionists by explaining that com- To the editor: lunism and fascism are one and the "Pro-lifers ofl ime, working together toward a farce. Elizabeth < immon goal? 2. Political science ? ing at both sides :volutionized the concept that anar- In her letter, ly is really a form of government. 3. coming to a cris conomics ? we should divest from not wanting to h le Soviet slave economy to help the nevertheless in ppressed Russian people, but we could see no "ot lould not divest from South Africa, would these girl; st we hurt the blacks who may or had the option lay not be oppressed. 4. Religion ? pregnancy, carry ublicly shouted down a nun-thrice term only to cai ho had dared dispute CIA reports, baby for the rest asea on tne nimsy excuse 01 tirst- ing some Kia sn and knowledge. 5. International doesn't love he Nations ? supported beating up scorned by peer luch smaller countries as a way to worse. . . going )lve differences. 6. Debate ? refer- alley" clinic for ; d to by an officer of the Athenian and not-always aciety (arguably a debating society) tion? You whc ; "bastardizing the concept of con- humane ? is tha ructive argument." 7. Athletics ? these young girls >mbined the sports of football and But Calhoun ? isketball with political advertise- choice activists a ent. 8. Logic ? often expressed keep their babies aw she loved this nation, under me turn that ques llie (which is Arabic for God) as it's are the pro-lifers ich a Nazi/commie police state. 9. through the immi ygiene ? exposed fluoridation as a trauma and inter >mmunist plot. And not to mention an abortion? I'll ;ychology. . . are. These so-ca Kraft's views were seen by some to thright" support* 1 a tad off center, but all will admit jeering at the wo I // / ? VjK ,'0^-. >... A lent common ****& E^ M' us police, who informed her that there was not iuch they could do unless she could tell them who was. About a week later, the same man approached sr and asked her if she knew him. She found a niversity Police officer and identified the man. ie was brought in. She discovered that it was not le first time he had done something like that. He, f course, denied it. Because my friend couldn't lake a definite positive identification and it was s word against hers, the officers told her not to -ess charges. Pardon me, but isn't voyeurism editor pice and flavor to the gut-wrenching decision, b ve academics regular- trances to the only escape, Or as one Horseshoe her, humiliating hCr and c remarked, "I liked last iota of self-esteem, de me laugh." Her these pro-lifers? Sham )litical commentary young girls info keeping ai een expressed better child and basically kicking :Carthy, who is pro- she's down, lespite the heat and A woman's body is hei ssent environs. needs to have the right choice for what she feels nourned her absence without being chastise mess of the first week women need our sup one, and I know I'm ridicule. 1 miss Kraft as we Am ark complacency of Journalism normalcy. John R. Hanson Officials n ZC economics junior , about crin ers rely I* # To the editor: nutation in 10 thejan on the holiday robberu Horseshoe, I would like to few points that Kelly Thon Fer real choices" is a address. Calhoun is not look- First of all, I would lil of the issue. , that $4,000 worth of valu she refers to girls stolen from my Rutledge i ;is pregnancy center The thief must have felt \ ave an abortion, but with the lack of security, tears because they not only robbed several o her choice." Where ments, but lived in mine > De it they had not days and was even seen of terminating the television in another apart ing the child for full According to Vice Pr re for an unwanted Law and Safety Carl S of her life? Marry- university does not beef i le doesn't love and during holidays. What thi r? Finding herself vide is three walking patr s and relatives? Or five motor units for back to a "back- campus, an unhealthy, illegal -guaranteed abor- University officials were > try to seem so naive in thinking that this t what you wish for security. I wonder if the th ? exactly how well our valu isks where the pro- protected? The way 1 see ire when these girls university is not going to r and need help. Let cent effort to provide pro tion around. Where ty, they should be held when a woman goes responsible, no matter easurable emotional housing contract says, lse physical pain of know a good lawyer? tell you where they illed "humane hirers are taunting and Mike men who made this Political science s< ;v- w fAf TAX W w? W-VJtt It place at USC reason enough to act? She was told, "We can't press charges, but we can see that he gets let go." They told her he would be fired. If it was known by the police ? and ultimately his employer ? that this man was a repeat offender, why was this man allowed to remain a USC employee? USC administrators tell .women not to walk alone at night, but incidents occur all times of the day, every day. My friend is not alone in her vulnerablilty. Every woman on this campus is vulnerable. All she has to do is walk out of her room. I realize, of course, that USC can't be allknowing, all-powerful and all-protective. But is it too much to ask for USC to take disciplinary action against sexual offenders, especially repeat sexual offenders who work for the university? Is it too much to ask that this university stress that sexual harassment isn't funny and that it's not just a prank in the eyes of some? There is hope with the existence of Women SltllHpnt q' ^\Pr\/ir?PC anrl it C rvrtc try roica t uiiu ico viiuiu iu iaiov awaicilC55 of women's issues and concerns, but a little more common sense and responsibility on the part of USC and its administrators is not too much to ask for. Abortion not rushing the r? -m Where .are federal issue ling these 1 unwanted g her when To the editor: This letter is in response to your r own. She editorial on abortion, which to make a characterized the right-wing's supbest to her Port f?r the reversal of Roe vs. Wade :d. These as ironic because "abortion is a matDort. not ter for the mother, not the govern ment, to decide." y Beckham Until the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court sophomore decision, the question of whether a woman could obtain an abortion was up to individual states. The issue C was, and continues to be, which government should decide and not tie whether government should decide. Therefore, there is no irony in the right-wing's opposition to Roe. Its position is consistent and firmly sup25 article ported by the concept of federalism ;s on the and the legitimate interests of inbring up a dividual states to regulate the actions nas did not of its citizens. ke to state Which do you consider big governables were > ment, each state deciding through apartment. majority rule that a particular type of /ery secure conduct is legal, should be restricted because he or is illegal, or a panel of federal ther apart- judges legislating from positions that for several afford little recourse for the majoriwatching ty? The right wing is sending a loud ment. and clear message that federal esident of jurisdiction should be limited to the tokes, the explicit authority found in the Conip security stitution and not based on some ey do pro- clouded notion of the right to olmen and privacy. tne entire n me pons are as you oeneve, your pro-choice position is not jeopardy. If Ro? is reversed, majority rule will extremely maintain the status quo. But you was ample should be aware that there are some ieves knew states that have statutes that will proables were hibit abortion on the day a reversal it, if the decision is handed down. On that day nake a de- the citizens of each state will again per securi- have control over an important issue financially facing our nation, and the United what the States will have 50opportunities to Anybody solve this difficult problem instead of only one. Stumbris Lawrence P. Rizzo ophomore Second-year MBA