The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 01, 1989, Page 3, Image 3
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