The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 01, 1989, Page 3, Image 3
Problems I
Tuition, parking, safety among
tasks for new administration
Now that all the debates, flyers, runoffs and rumors have faded
away, it is time for Student Government to get down to
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up to their promises.
Marie-Louise Ramsdale, who will be inaugurated as S.G.
president Thursday afternoon, promised to work on many of
the problems that have plagued every student leader in recent
memory. Ramsdale, John Leary (who was elected vice president)
and the Student Senate must work together to find solutions
to these problems.
Tuition, which will probably reach new heights this year at
USC, remains a top priority. Previous administrations have
tried a variety of tactics ? marches on the State House and mass
mailings to legislators ? to urge state government to curb the
rising cost of education, but these efforts have had little effect.
Student Government officials need to live up to their promises
and tell state government that USC must receive adequate
funding.
Parking is another major concern at USC. Ramsdale, Leary
and the Student Senate need to prod the administration toward
alleviating the parking woes of students. Although parking will
always be a problem, Student Government can work toward improving
the situation.
Campus safety is also an important issue the new officers J
must address. Crime is actually down on campus, but it remains I
a serious problem. USC students should feel comfortable walk- f
ine around and living on camous. and it is the resnonsibilitv of 1
Student Government to work with the administration to ensure
that USC is safe.
Most importantly, the new Student Government officials need
to show they are dedicated to serving students. The fact that
about 1,500 students out of more than 20,000 took the time to vote
indicates that most students do not care about Student ^
Government. It is up to Ramsdale, Leary and other S.G. of- kZ
ficials to give students a reason for them to get involved. Otherwise,
apathy will continue, and nothing will get done.
Throughout her campaign, Ramsdale stressed her experience
in Student Government. Now is the time for her to prove it by
getting down to work on the problems that face students at fl,r
JSC. Z
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"IF WE KEEP PRETTY QUIET, MAYBE THE "
KHOMEINI THREATS WILL 60 A
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itesf Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region rej
Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Pei
Editor in Chief Datebook Editor soi
ANDY BECHTEL JAN PHILLIPS the
Managing Editor Graphics Editor dei
JEFF SHREWSBURY MICHAEL SHARP
Copy Desk Chief Comics Edjtor
KATHY BLACKWELL TRACY MIXSON
Assistant Cop\ Desk Chief Graduate Assistant
CARYN CRABB ROBERT STEVENSON ^
News Editor Adviser f
MARY PEARSON PAT MCNEELY
Assistant News Editors Director of Student Media l_
KELLY C. THOMAS ED BONZA
SUSAN NESBITT Advertising Manager
Features Editor MARGARET MICHELS
TODD HINES Production Manager
Assistant Features Editor LAURA DAY
TOMMY JOYNER A^n..D^.winn wa
Sports Editor rIv BURGOS* sit,
KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Advertising Manager dis
Assistant ports Editor BARBARA BROWN to
CHRIS SILVF.STRI m?
Photography Editor we
TEDDY LEPP ter
Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try lo print all letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to m(
300 words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right lo edit letters for style or tT
possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. wj,
? J Cc
Iji
npii
Strides in raci
Have you ever seen a clock tick backward?
Well, you're seeing it now.
The big clock hands of racial equality that were
st set in motion during the 1960s and had reachmaybe
6 a.m. on their way toward a full 24
urs, have recently faltered and started to slow.
)w it seems they are reversing their course.
They are ticking back around to the starting
int, and if something is not done soon, they will
nd us back to yesterday's evening.
Evidence the recent racial attitudes and incidents
it have become increasingly apparent:
?A former Ku Klux Klan leader was openly
cted to the state Legislature of Louisiana under
; guise that he is fighting for the rights of white
ople just like the blacks are fighting for their
hts when actually he is fighting for white
premacy.
?A new wave of racial bigots, the skinheads, is
:reasing in number and popularity. They preach
:ial separatism as the only way blacks and whites
a live together in harmony.
?Affirmative action and racially equal legislan
are being overturned by our courts and
allenged by our leaders.
?Racial incidents on college campuses, places
ually reserved for liberal and precedent-setting
;nts, are on tne rise.
?People are being shunned for what they
lieve in and who they know.
?Riots are cropping up in some areas of our
ies.
?Police are being charged with harassment and
lings of minorities.
Blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, Jews and
lers are being forced through subtle and not-so
btle ways to go back to the way things used to be
a time when races lived apart and feared one
other.
Letters to the
v j 1 noon in pui
)uote reveals ^ 0
quested us t<
nixed message became susf
eating a Fig
the editor: inmtigatior
\sif Kidwai's statement (in the ?, e na
mday edition of The Gamecock) a ma"ua
<< t a ? 11 u u. . realized my
it the Ayatollah ought not even f , , J
'er a single dime of reward for kill- ?"n e ' ,
; (Salman) Rushdie" is hardly a , ? a an 1
ging endorsement of the novelist's espise in
b b make a long
^ ,u , va 16 students.
Dne can suppose that Kidwai . , ? ,
iuld have no qualms if Rushdie Quire o r
re killed for purely altruistic th.en broke
,J t where we r
tsons as opposed to mere ,
:uniary ones. I can only hope that eac Person
, ., cm i / ,? must ingest
iwai s sense of toleration is per- ?
tal and that he does not represent son mus exe
: views of the USC Moslem Stu- ?ne pers?'n
. . tablets of f
nt Accnpmtinn
equal to tha
W. Redd Turner III cotfee)> ^hl1
History graduate student stud
then urinate
Hology lab
1 volume and
lumiliating When he oK
~ periment, 01
eluded hims<
i the editor: the group ("
As a fourth-year English major, I that was goir
is recently exposed to an academic and carry it
uation I found unethical and bathroom to
turbing. While taking Biology 102 it was disco
fulfill an S.C. College require- made up foui
:nt, 1 have been attending labs entrance of
ekly since the beginning of the measurement
m. Last Wednesday, after a full data." The>
>rning of classes that left me ex- and proceed
mely hungry, I raced to Coker the room, as!
th my Fig Newtons and Coca- and making j
>la, prepared to 3pend the after- I object I
al equality re\
Shrewsbury ; A 1
Great strides had been made between the '60s
and now. Even changes in attitudes have come a
long way. Not far enough, mind you, but still a
long way.
The reason for this reversal is two-fold.
First, it has to do with economics.
Second, it has to do with the U.S. government's
seeming indifference to the problems.
On the economic side, everyone in the country is
starting to feel the pinches and digs of current and
former economic mistakes. They are starting to
feel whatever they make is not enough and that
they may be losing what they've got. When people
start to feel like they are losing something they start
to look for reasons. They start to look for
scapegoats.
And that breeds fear.
Fear is the mighty motivator. It motivates people
to do and say things they may really not believe in.
When people are afraid, they fear those who are
different.
In the United States now, people are afraid of
losing what they've got, and they are blaming the
people who appear different to them.
editor
suit of science, only to several levels. In our.socie
ur lab manual had re- joy certain unalienable r
) abstain from eating for freedoms, and the right t
previous to the lab. I seems to be one of the fur
ricious ? what did my values in American
Newton have to do with Alongside this ordeal runs I
1 into the veiled mysteries that our bodies are our
al world? Had I read my possessions and no one has
is assigned, I would have to make us open ourselve
trepidation was well- against our will or even fore
hale second-hand smoke it
on the flippant note 1 so place. I assert that u
my lab instructor and bathroom is a private act, a
story short, in a class of invasion of privacy t
, each student was re- undergraduates perform
ink a liter of water. We their urine while the
into groups of four, gloats,
eceived instruction that
from each small group More importantly, in {
18 salt tablets, one per- decent grades, students
jrcise for 20 minutes and enough caffeine to keep th
was to swallow four hours and an amount o
Jo-Doz (caffeine about physician would recommen
t contained in a liter of enjoyed the experiment,
e the final person would takers felt bloated; the
conrol. drinkers began to speak ra
ent in the room would' sweat; the exercisers
into a Solo cup every 20 nauseated. The experiment
the next two hours and unhealthy and humiliatin
specific gravity, color, regret having been involve
pH of his own urine. any way. When I raised obj
ginally explained the ex- the T.A., he pointed oui
lr teaching assistant in- could have refused to reply
;lf and the professor in cop out answer because to r
everyone in the room") be penalized, and I'm sure
ig to have to pee in a cup will suffer.
aown me nail rrom the As students, we are pa)
the lab. Then, surprise, than $1,000 for the privili
vered that 16 students education. Speaking for m>
groups of four, and the enrolled to learn more <
two extra sets of world and to develop perso
s would "mess up the to serve as the brunt of joke
' exempted themselves pie who are supposed to b
ed to circulate around ting me. Never again wi
cing us if we felt all right ticipate in an experimen
iokes. unethical or degrading, ai
:o this experiment on students to examine their c
MP J
nER ifc l|
'ersing lately
It should be the government's first domestic
responsibility to head off these fears. It should be
its responsibility to send messages through
whatever means that we are not so different, and
there is nothing to fear.
But the government has shown an almost callous
indifference to what is happening around the
United States, and the messages it is sending is that
is it okay to distrust those who are different.
/\n example is ine recent u.a. supreme i^ouri
case that overturned the city of Richmond, Va.,
minority contracting quotas. This and decisions
like it have set the precedent that minority quotas
and hiring practices are unfair to whites.
They have sent the message that whites are losing1
their rights.
But the fact is, whites have not lost anything
because they have always had everything.
If all the rights in this country were an apple, the
whites own about 50 percent of it, and the rest of
the minorities split the rest. That means whites
already have a majority of the rights and therefore
cannot begin to lose rights until the rest of the
minorities have an equal share.
And we are not there yet.
Blacks and other minorities don't have equal opportunity
yet, and it is the people like David Dukes
of Louisiana and the skinheads who are playing on
the fear of the whites to feed the anti-racial fire.
They know if they tell people they are losing
what they've got, they can get them to fear others.
And it is working.
But it is working against us as a whole.
The government needs to send positive messages
to let people know we are all Americans ? not
black and not white, but just Americans.
Until all the rights in the country are shared
equally, whites are not losing anything and have
nothing to fear, but fear itself.
ty, we en- with a more critical eye.
ights and
0 privacy Carol Weir
idamental English senior
society.
^persona! Coach treats
sts use badly
:e us to in- v
1 a public To the editor:
sing the An open letter to Dick Sheridan,
nd it is an head football coach at N.C. State
o make University:
tests on Less than a week after USC head
instructor football coach Joe Morrison ? and
even before he is buried in his Ohio
hometown ? you announce in
pursuit of Raleigh that someone has "unofingested
ficially" contacted you about the
em up for coaching vacancy. One week later,
f salt no you say you're not interested in the
-1 v T ? IrxK on/1 turn it- zJ/M./n
U. 1>0 UI1C Juu """ LUI " 'I UWVV11.
The salt The USC Athletic Department
caffeine later names Sparky Woods from Apipidly
and palachian State University as its new
became coach. Officials neither confirm nor
was both deny they ever spoke with you.
g, and I But 1 refuse to believe they called
:d in it in you that quickly. Coach Morrison
iections to was a very special man, and I think
t that we they took the week of Feb. 5 to deal
. This is a with their shock and grief over his
efuseisto loss ? not rush out to replace him.
my grade The only people who wanted to bury
him, not praise him, were you and
ring more the members of the media who
ege of an reported your ill-timed, ill-mannered
'self, I am comments.
ibout the In short, Dick, you were out of
nally, not line, and you owe your employer, my
:s for peo- alma mater ? and especially Mor>e
instruc- rison's widow ? an apology,
ill 1 parit
I find Patrick Jean
id 1 urge 1988 alumnus
urriculum Pinellas Park, Fla.