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Housing Increase of 6.3 percent to add to burden of cost of education By approving a 6.3 percent increase in housing fees, the Board of Trustees has compounded the problem of the rising costs of education. The raise will hurt on-campus students where it hurts ? in their bank accounts. The latest increase is the second in two years for the nearly 7,000 students who live on campus. In 1988, the trustees voted to raise the cost of living in one of USC's residence halls 6.7 percent. The combined increases will leave students to face housing rnsK that arp nprrent hipher than two vears aen. The cost of on-campus housing is rising dramatically across the country ? between 7 and 9 percent. Clemson has already in- t creased its housing rates for next year by 7.2 percent. Living on campus is getting more expensive. Still, USC does not need to jump on the bandwagon and raise its rates. In fact, it seems that they are already quite high. For example, students living on The Horseshoe pay more than $1,000 a semester; next year, Horseshoe residents will pay $1,100 for their rooms. USC administrators said the primary reason for the increase was security. Much of the extra revenue is earmarked to hire more desk assistants and security guards to enforce visitation policies. USC security officials report that crime is actually \ down on campus. Security is a real issue tffat needs to be addressed, but residence halls are not the best place to start the fight against crime. The visitation policies are well enforced. Hiring more students and security guards to monitor who comes in and out of residence halls will not curb crime because crimes such as larceny and vandalism are often committed by the residents themselves. USC needs more security guards to patrol the cam pus, dui 11 uoes not neeu muic pcupic iu wine uuwu me names and Social Security numbers of guests. This latest increase could spur a mass exodus of students as on-campus housing gets more expensive than off campus. As visitation policies continue to be more puritanical and rates continue to be more expensive, students could decide that the benefits of moving off campus may outweigh the advantages of living at USC. YET?" s>i9t 1 The Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief Datebook Editor ANDY BECHTEL JAN PHILLIPS Managing Editor Graphics Editor JEFF SHREWSBURY MICHAEL SHARP Copy Desk Chief Comks Edl(or KATHV BLACKWELL TRACY MIXSON Assistant Cop> Desk C hiet Graduate Assistant CARYN CRABB ROBERT STEVENSON \Iowe FHitnr A _ Aaviser MARY PEARSON pAJ MCNEELY Assistant News Editors , e .. KELLY C. THOMAS E^ONZA SUSAN NESBITT . . ... ? . ?Advertising Manager F^ruS'd't0r MARGARET MICHELS . S Production Manager Assistant Features Editor , AlJRA DAY TOM NO JO\ NT R Assistant Production Manager Sports Editor RAY BURGOS KEV IN ADAMS Assistant Advertising Manager Assistant Sports Editor BARBARA BROWN CHRIS SILVESTRI Photography Editor TEDDY LEPP Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try lo print all letters received. I.ellers should be. at a maximum, 250 to 500 words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right lo edit letters for sty le or possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. m/hiawta ayjsnmriohi Excesses upst: The word has come down from the president ? USC needs a housing increase, a student activity fee increase, a tuition increase and who knows what the hell else increased. 1 don't know how to spell this sarcastically enough, but here we go ? heh heh heh haaa. Yup, James Holderman has assured us that in order to continue the quality of programs we have here at "This USC," he needs more money. So the question is who gets to pay? The students, who else? He wants our money, and there's iust about nothine we can do to stop him. You see, he's goi the Board of Trustees lined up right behind him. They rarely question USC's spending policies. Holderman says "money, money, money," and the Board nods. Holderman, giver of porcelain, wants more of your money. He needs to keep this university on its financial feet, and he's not willing to trim the excess, unnecessary programs to do it. He could sell off the university jets and fly coach from now on, but he's a part of the jet-set, you see. USC runs the rather expensive Bell Camp that is rarely used, but we need bucks for the library. USC has a parking division, but it's really a division designed to ticket students who can't find S.G. shouldn'i It's almost over. The banners. The buttons. The posters. The promises. The hoopla. Hurray. In case you haven't noticed, I'm talking about that wonderful institution we call Student Government. This is the same Student Government that Dan "D. J." Jensen horrified when he ran for president. It's shameless ? the very idea of him running for S.G. president. After all, what was he thinking? Did he really believe that his ideas and goals for USC were innovative . . .daring . . .revolutionary? He wanted to restructure Student Government. He wanted to change things. He wanted to make it better. Horrors. The gall. The nerve. The shrewdness. Let's face it. Student Government, for the most part, is a farce. It's loaded with hundreds of students on more than 30 committees, which usually accomplish nothing. They sometimes have good intentions that they suggest to our great university president, but we all know his attentive face and open ear aren't always what they seem. Why should he be attentive to Student Government if it doesn't wield any real power? Perhaps it Letters to Columns tend l Oi pp Aleutian Ch? to be iluity ?. ni hi ? * cruise missil on March 6, To the editor: the arrival 1 was appalled by Jeff North Bay c Shrewsbury's colunTn of Feb. 13 titl- La Mcaza, s ed "Oh, Canada, what a great coun- on Jan. 9, 1 try, eh?" Yet 1 was not surprised by It appears its exemplification of the unrelenting unresearchei conjecture and irrelevance currently Island origi printed in The Gamecock. neti, which His sole basis for it seems to be a of whitewoc trip during his childhood when he in Huron Ir was a cinematic aficionado. What is the poplar ti so perplexing is how this child pro- it Boys Blai digy who could not only digest the wood." Th significance of Checkpoint Charlie, Bob-lo whei but retain such a phenomenal name of th memory to regurgitate verbatim visitors wou heard at such an age a decade later cing "Boys could write such a piece of fluff. 1, for one I assure you that Canadians are pagandized well aware of nuclear weapons from authorities, age USC's fun< I I 1 1 e parking because there aren't enough spaces where c we need them. t Holderman has a private parking space (actually, he's got about three or four), so tickets are no problem for him. s USC runs a telephone service called ASKUS. r ASKUS provides a nice service, but it isn't a vital service. USC runs a service to rent out camping equip- r ment. That's a darling little service, but it just isn't 1 necessary. USC runs a program, which is getting bigger and 1 bigger, to study the freshman year experience. 1 [ hp spsirpfl of r: ?? I b serves a purpose as being the voice of the student f body. But it is not sufficient to be only heard. tl Can Student Government change itself to be e more effective? That remains to be seen. One person who proposed a radical change was taken off the presidential ballot on a mere > technicality. Maybe this should be inspiring. After ' all, the S.G. types were united for this cause. t Another candidate's efforts to propose a change in t our stone-age voting system were killed because some people only saw it as a campaign stunt. < editor ound test on Nov. 6, childhood experiences or th< onchitka Island in the escapades of Chuck Dear lin to the well-publicized cartoons draped in condorr f a B-52 with unarmed in an unrelated segment tc es over western Canada toon are in poor taste. I , 1984 ? not to mention adamantly against columi of nuclear warheads at sole purpose was to mentior >n Dec. 31, 1963, and at friend's name in the paper, i base north of Montreal I do not mean to lambast< 964. of The Gamecock fo that the whole piece was understaffed and press i. The name Bob-lo deadlines that produce this nated as Etiowiteedan- if you cannot find it too d means "people's island produce quality journalism )d guarding the islands" time periods, try reduci idian dialect. Because of periodical to a weekly issue rees, the French renamed nc, which means "white . ar is was transferred into International stud n adopted as the official y . ? e park in 1929 because lO lG< Id have trouble pronoun,B'd7?'o, care ,0 be pro- folld mCtTlC by uninformed pseudo- To the editor: whether it concerns As a soon-to-be alumr ml ding needs "hrow all that money back into the general till, and '11 tell you about the freshman year experience ? t was a pain. And it isn't necessary to study it, >ecause it's a pain 1 and most others.can and did landle without a study or a class. USC runs a huge public relations department, >ut that's not enough for Liolderman. Last year, le had to hire a private media consultant to help mprove his image. Nothing's getting cut; we're not watching the noney close enough. So without cuts, revenues leed to increase. We're certainly not going to get nore money from the state because there are nough legislators out there who think Holderman loesn't run a tight ship over here. They snicker up heir sleeves at any request for additional money. So where does the extra money come from? Look around next time you're in class. The guy itting next to you ? whose father, unlike Holdernan, didn't get a 12 percent pay increase last year - he's gonna pay it. The girl who sits at the front of the class, whose nother works in a mill and whose father has been aid off ? she's gonna pay it. But Holderman ? soon-to-be-maker of movies, hey say ? he's not going to pay it. And he's pro>ably the only one who can afford to. Lidieal change "hat's a stupid reason not to implement a mucheeded reform. What would happen, do you supose, if they unified for a worthwhile cause? Could hey possibly accomplish something? Probably ot. Success involves change. You're all too familiar /ith the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." "his seems to be the motto of Student Governlent. When faced with serious change, Student jovernment has repeatedly wimped out. I suppose :'s only natural to resist change when you're comlacent with mediocrity. What's the solution? Student Government whines that the student ody is apathetic. They seem surprised and ofended by our apathy. Do they honestly believe hat they've ever given us a reason to be anything lse? Once upon a time, a student ran for president >vho promised to eliminate Student Government. Mot surprisingly, he won. The surprising part is hat he kept his promise. Unfortunately, someone wrought it back. Maybe, just maybe, there is hope for Student Government to have the power to make a change. j drunken always have fond memories of "The i. Phallic USC." But surely my fondest is printed memory will be of my worthless stu> the car- dent parking sticker, those yellow am also parking tickets and my long drives is whose around the campus in search of a 1 a female parking spot. j the staff One of my fondest memories is the r being administration's response to the proed with blem printed in The Gamecock. The filler, but phrase "there is no parking problem ifficult to at USC" will always stick in my i in short mind, ing your As 1 begin to receive my alumni "we need money" letters from USC, I Juncker i w:ii rnovv that surelv thev can't be les senior serious for anyone who has paid for parking stickers, tickets and meters 1^0 knows that there is "no financial problem" at USC. >ries Rob Clarke ^ | wj|j Graduate student