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Raises Congress should not receive pay increase until job is done The vote against the 51 percent pay increase for members was a victorious battle for American taxpayers, but the war has apnarpnflu met Kamin Din nr nm n1?>nn/4ir ----- ^ puivmij juji uvguii. 1 ian.1 ait an cauy ill LilC wui KS LU glVC V^UIl" gress a small pay raise. Speaker of the House Jim Wright has said he would favor a 30 percent increase in pay for members of Congress. Americans need to tell Congress they will not tolerate a pay raise of any kind because these lawmakers simply do not deserve it. Incentive is the key to the performance of any employee ? it's what makes people work hard. An increase in pay is a reward for a job well done. Employees who have worked hard and solved problems deserve a raise; those employees who fail to do their jobs and put off tough decisions do not get an increase in pay. Congress has not done its job. The federal budget is a mess. Deficits have grown more this decade than in the previous 200 years. Also, the savings and loan institutions are facing a financial crisis. The Department of Defense has been plagued with problems of wasteful spending. These are the issues that members of Congress should be considering rather than their personal incomes. Congress also needs to come to terms with the method of pay increases. As it stands, a commission suggests the raises, and the president adopts them. It is then up to Congress to vote against the raise; otherwise, it takes effect automatically. This backward procedure shows that lawmakers would rather duck the issue and hide any accountability. If members of Congress think they should receive a raise, they should sav so and pass a bill to that effect. Either way, Congress doesn't deserve a raise this year. If lawmakers can get down to business, trim the budget and eliminate waste, perhaps a pay increase is in order. Until that happens, Americans should not put up with lawmakers whose chief concern is the size of their bank accounts. Members of Congress already make much more than the average American. A pay increase of any size is completely unjustified and should be opposed at all levels. "REMEMBER WHEN PEOPLE (SOT RICH BY MAKING THIM6S FOR CUSTOMERS?" 7' Ill .11 I?I I The Gamecock 1 '1 Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 ""?J "If' Datebook Editor I BECHTEL JAN pH|LLIps Managing Editor Graphics Editor h S,tIR^.^L'RY MICHAEL SHARP ' Chief Comics Editor , KATHY BLACKWELL TRACY MIXSON I Assistant Copy Desk Chief Graduate Assistant CARYNCRABB ROBERT STEVENSON News Editor Adviser MARY PEARSON PAT MCNEELY Tr* Edc ?rS Director of Student Media KELLY C. THOMAS ED BONZA SUSAN NESBITT Advertising Manager ^.^"reS Ed,tor MARGARET MICHELS , HINES Production Manager Assistant Features Editor LAURA DAY C TOMMY JOYNER Assistant Production Manager Sports Editor RAY BURGOS C KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Advertising Manager Assistant Sports Editor BARBARA BROWN CHRIS SILVESTRI Photography Editor ^ TEDDY LEPP t g Letters Policy: The Gamecock will Iry to print all letter, received, l etters should he. at a maximum, 250 to 300 words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit letters lor style or possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. T k " My SEN0 Biased inquis A candidate for Student Government presidei asked me Thursday whether I enjoyed tf "debate" Wednesday in the Russell Hou: Ballroom. 1 sort of chuckled and asked, "Whs debate?" The event Wednesday was not a debate. It was not a forum for students to fire questior to candidates either. It was more of a chance fc each candidate's camps to drill the opposition. For those of you who weren't there, it wer something like this: Each candidate got a few minutes to mak opening remarks and present their padded plai forms of generalities of why they should be tagge president in Thursday's election. A panel of three unbiased leaders got t throw out a question to whichever candidate whos turn it was to speak. Then members of the audience, who wer supposed to be truly concerned, regular students got an opportunity to ask questions of whomeve they wanted, about whatever they wanted. The problem with this psuedo-debate was two fold. First, there was no discussion or interaction bet . . ween candidates so as to expand on tne issues. Secondly, but most importantly, about a third o the people asking questions were candidates fo other offices who were trying to align themselve with a presidential candidate, and another thirc were members of the camps of some of thi candidates. Elevator etiq As president of AWARE, USC's first com prehensive organization for students wit! disabilities, I am continuously made aware of ac cessibility problems by members of the organiza tion. One frequent and recurring complaint con cerns access to elevators during peak class times. There is an already large and continuously grow ing population of USC students who have mobilit) impairments. Most of those students us< wheelchairs. These disabling conditions make using elevators not an option, but a necessity. We al AWARE certainly understand that using elevators makes getting to class more convenient for students, but we would like to make a few requests so that getting to class may be possible for all students. First, if you can use the stairs without difficulty, please do so. Second, if your class is on the second floor of a building, and you are able, please use the stairs. (1 regularly hear many able-bodied students grumble about the student who ties up an elevator in order to get to the second floor.) Third, when the elevator arrives and the anxious mob of students begins stampeding toward the elevators, nlpaQP rpmpm tVirvco ctnrlontr wrUs^ r ^ I VUIVHIUV.1 U1UJV, JlUUVllU vv 11W V,dll I 1 VJ1 U Vtheir way to the elevator and who don't have any other methods of getting to class. For many people, the elevator is the only way to get to class. All of us who attend class during peak hours and who regularly use the elevators know the problems, out for those like the girl in my logic class who nust use crutches because of an accident, the realiy of the problem has become much more obvious. The university has been doing an excellent job in naking buildings more accessible to students who Letters to tfa \ Hiers touched StT' ? would (an lives oi many m special per on the US ro the editor: willing to J. Manning Hiers, founder of and he ah fRIO programs and University 101, laugh. 1 w ouched many lives at UbL, out he one more t ouched my life in a way that will be me. His dt reasured forever. He taught me to shall miss >elieve in myself and believe I can ac:omplish anything 1 have my mind et on. He showed me how to look at lifficult situations in a different 1-4 >erspective in order to achieve what I * *hought would be the impossible. Hiers was always concerned about 1*11111 lis students, and 1 can honestly say hat if it were not for the help Hiers To the edit ;ave me over the past four-and-a- l have bt lalf years at USC, I probably would for almost lot begin graduate school this June. 1 felt con I am proud to say that Hiers would plaint. . . i vTE COMMITTEE DOESN'T UNDERS itors ruin presi( it HBHQjPiElEwJV %^r Ifl d I??, 0 What you ended up with were 30 or so questions e coming as direct attempts by a particular camp to denigrate and zap their opposition, e These were not concerned students who didn't know who they wanted as president and were tryr ing to find out how a candidate stood on an issue. These were pre-planned attempts by friends and followers of candidates trying to make their opposition look bad. The forum, sponsored by the Athenian Debate Society and the NAACP, was supposed to be a chance for students to learn a little more about the f candidate^. so they could make a well-informed, r reasonable choice for president, s I'd bet there were probably only about 20 j students there who didn't already know who they s were going to vote for. It's kind of funny, actually, because what you had were about 200 people who < uette vital to h t : Guest Column " ( 1 t have difficulty opening doors. The electric doors > on the Russell House are a good example. But 1 evervone uses the plprtrir rlnnrc incfparl r\f tho I regular doors, and the problem is two-fold. j First, students who cannot open the door for > themselves are finding they have to wait for abJe- i bodied students to come through the door. This is particularly noticeable during the lunch rush at the 1 Russell House. Second, electric doors are expen- t sive, and a lengthy approval process exists for getting new doors on the needed buildings. Simply j put, if the existing doors (like those on the Russell t House) wear out, the university will be less likely to t consider putting them on other buildings where c they are needed. USC has also done an excellent job in providing i handicapped parking. Although it doesn't appear \ to be a problem with most students, some visitors i to USC seem to think these spaces are for anyone's \ e editor ly introduce me to his col- The Gamecock, in my opii his "goddaughter," and 1 very well-done college nc d still do) refer to him as The layout and stories are d eodfather. He was a verv well researched and nresente son to me and many others I was shocked and disappc C campus. He was always see the blatant spelling errc help in any way possible, word "alcohol" in the hea ways seemed to make me the story titled "Majority ish 1 could just thank him over 21; alchohol still banne< ime for all he has done for Feb. 1 issue of the paper. P :mise is a sad one, and we opinion of The Gamecock h him dearly. a nosedive. Any newspap Helen Moskos wishes to be taken seriousl; Education senior should not let an error like t by. It makes you look incoi If* CllQ kPSl unprofessional ? makes think you do not proofread ' rl Amninn before you go to print. LI OjJIOlOO If you want people to Gamecock as a professional or: tion put out by serious studei :en reading The Gamecock like one. Have a little pride, four years, but never have ipelled to write a com- Gail J jntil now. Nursir ITAND ME" lential forum were already members of a political camp, stumping for the swing votes of about 20 people. What a useless waste of time. It really wasn't the society's fault that this supposedly bipartisan forum turned into a political circus where friends of candidates tried to trip up the other candidates. The society and the NAACP honestly tried to give a true forum. Logistically, it would be hard to get a real debate out of five candidates. Under the circumstances, the forum probably was as good a way as any. But I have to shake a finger at the candidates for not policing themselves and their camps enough to keen the forum frnm turnino intrv a fiw_f/-?r_all_ bash-the-other-guy hour. Those at the forum would probably say, "Yeah, well it raised the issues anyway." Maybe. But the whole point was to give undecided students a chance to interact with the person who is going to be their leader for the next year. It was supposed to be a public forum for the public ? not a public forum for brown-nosing senatorial candidates and campaign workers. It was not supposed to be a bashing time; it was supposed to be an enlightening and informative time. It wasn't. If the candidates want to have an hour just to spout off their pre-planned platforms after set-up questions, let's do it that way, but it does no good for candidates to speak under the guise that they are talking to average, concerned students, when in fact the majority of the people there have already cast their votes. landicapped jse. I have been told, "Well, no one uses those spaces anyway." To which I reply, "You're right ? not if soneone has already parked there." Handicapped marking is made available by the university because here is a need for it. The federal and state governnents have passed legislation allowing for a percentage of spaces based on research statistics. Many persons with disabilities require the tssistance of another person to transfer them from i car to a wheelchair. That requires the extra space provided by most handicapped parking spaces. An increasing number of persons with iisabilities are driving themselves and need the exra space to either transfer themselves into a vheelchair or to let a wheelchair lift down from a /an. We ask that if you ever park beside a van in a landicapped parking space, please notice if the van las a metal wheelchair lift; if so, the driver or 5assenger will need at least one full parking space vidth beside the van in order to let the lift down to ?et in or out of the van. Many persons who have mobility impairments lave a great degree of difficulty walking and need he closer spaces to provide access. When it's raining, it becomes very difficult for persons with disabilities to protect themselves from he rain (many persons with disabilities are unable o manage an umbrella) and therefore need the dose spaces. It's important that all students become more inderstanding of one another's needs. Don't abuse vhat is available; instead, let those who need it use t. We shouldn't take advantage of the university's villingness to help. wspapen A(iS Pi^PS : usually # ,LIdhu,o m poor taste >r of the idline of To the editor: of USC The productive exchange of ideas "j" ID f hp \i/ itKin o iinu;arcihr A r ... ?..? TTuiuii a. uuivviou; VJ1I 4y good academic honesty. It is therefore in as taken poor taste, even irresponsible, for a )er that campus newspaper to accept an y simply advertisement for a "term paper hat pass service." npetent, All newspaper advertising departpeople ments must consider ethics when they /ery well run ads, since their choices may appear to reflect the values of the see The paper. A campus newspaper should publica- uphold the values of the larger its, look academic community, which clearly does not tolerate plagiarism. ?. Orwig Lynn Morton ig senior Department of English