The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 10, 1989, Page 2, Image 2
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
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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?"
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The Gamecock
1 '1
Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region
Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88
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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
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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,
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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
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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