Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Apathy Danger exists when USC students don't get involved, vote opinions Danger exists in not using the power every American citizens is given. That power is involvement and a right to have your say in the political process. And that power is an important part of who you could become at USC. But it also carries with it a degree of responsibility. Because a majority of students have been lax about their responsibility to exercise their rights to be involved and have a say in their life at USC, starting in 1990 freshmen will loose the right to decide what is right for them on moral questions in their own homes, i.e. dorm room. Although he did not totally get what he wanted, Rep. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, was successful in pressuring the board of trustees into agreeing to a plan to phase out all over night visits by the opposite sex in residence halls by 1992. Fair originally wanted all visits of the opposite sex ? even during daylight hours ? banned in the residence halls. That is why there are two residence halls which do not allow visits by the opposite sex at all. If residents in these halls have a visitor of the opposite sex, they have to entertain them in the lobby. Other issues are also important for students to be aware of because they affect their lives everyday at USC. The biggest one is tuition. Because students have been lax about voicing their discontent over increasing tuition every year, USC has the third highest tuition among universities in the Southeast Only 200 students from the entire USC system showed up in 1987 to participate in a march to the State House. There is a small minority of students who get out every year and try to make a difference on the campus and the community. Those are the students who are in Student Government, in the Res sidence Hall Association government, and in organizations such as Carolina Cares. But more students need to get involved. Last spring, only 70 USC students out of about 23,000 even bothered to show up before a board of trustees meeting to protest the proposed changes in the campus visitation policy. Those 70 students were really too late to make a difference. More involvement was needed at a much earlier time ? when Fair originally made his proposal to ban visits by the opposite sex in dorm rooms. There are more than 23,000 students on this campus. Its up to each student to get involved at USC. They can get involved by working through Student Government; drafting and signing petitions; attending board of trustee meetings which are open to the public and subject to this state's Freedom of Information Act; and organizing rallies on tuition and the visitation policy. Changes can be made with enough student organization and involvement. WHEN THE CONTT^^ BREA^CAMP^OJg^HE L^^TIME I &< t>trn rotx wfrw* I \ / ?" ?"i In n I " ' ~~ .g I The jpa^jeiiciB-1$ Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief MARY PEARSON || Copy Desk Chief \1) \J PAMME EADES VL^ News Editor RON BAKER Features Editor Assistant Production Manager CAREN CAMPBELL RAVRii?rns sPfflrts Editors A^erUsing Personnel DEBBIE JORDAN Advertising Manager D.R. HAYNES MARGARET MICHELS Photography Editor Campus Representive LESALVERSON Terence Green Gamecock Advisor Account Executives ERIK COLLINS Campus Representive Director of Student Media TERENCE GREEN ED BONZA Account Executives Production Manager TERRENCE MANIGUALT LAURA DAY LORRIE YONAS Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try lo print all letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer should include full name, professional title if an employee with USC or Columbia resident, or year and major if a student. An address and phone number are required with all letters sent. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for style or possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. Greeks need to^ I have neither the social grace nor the social status to belong to a fraternity. I do not have the haircut to belong to a fraternity. Sometimes I have wished I did ? well, the social status at least. But right now I don't have any longing for the "social" graces I see in certain fraternities. In April, a few ledger books used as Colgate University's Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE, or "Deke") fraternity records were stolen, and parts of the ledgers were reproduced and released to the press and Colgate University officials. The records had fairly detailed accounts of goings-on in the Colgate chapter of DKE. Sociologists eat up the kind of stuff in those ledgers, but Darwinists reading the trash may begin to feel they were wrong about mankind all along. Here are some highlights from the ledgers, which read like a guide to DKE etiquette: "Watch your sexual practices ? be careful of horrifying girls too much ? University is very sensitive to anything sounding like rape. Don't abuse women (too much)." "Going to have a crazy get together at the home of the virgin goddess with imported fuel and special guest star X who is tits enough to do the subway shuffle." For those of us who are not culturally literate, this means a party in the "DKE Temple" including imported alcoholic beverages and "gang-banging" (with or without mutual consent) a female. 'The girl who me and X ganged ? this babe and someone leaked it at dinner." The Politicians obsessei After a generation has dedicated itself to sex, drugs and rock V roll, it seems that our politicians have become equally obsessed. Abortion will definitely be the hottest issue in the 1990 session of the General Assembly. However, some lawmakers and breakers fail to realize that abortion is not a Democrat versus Republican, a we versus they thing. It is an issue that affects us all, and the decii sion should lie in the family/doctor realm and not the political arena. As one lawmaker said, "it might be best to listen to doctors instead of politicians." Personally, I'd definitely consult my doctor about a medical procedure before I wrote my congressman about it. Well, maybe our politicians aren't obsessed with sex so much as they are with NO SEX. Koop gave us the fact of the matter, and it was that if you don't want AIDS, don't have sex (or at least wear a condom). But we're dealing with a disease that affects everyone ? gay people, straight people, drug addicts and newborns. Not much gray area in life or death situations, huh? An equally important matter in the United States today is the massive drug problem that President George Bush has finally decided to tackle. He's no Nancy Reagan though. He has actually come up with what he calls an "effective and decisive strategy" that involves stopping our drug problem from the supply side. Yeah, that'll work. We can all be glad that Mr. Bush is finally f- zz ? I ' Letters to the e< Parking a circus on USC campus tiently in lin To the editor: tried to pay < "I don't have any garage spaces. I don t have anything." As near -lady at the USC parking office was her pro Welcome to the Greatest Show for parking on Earth, USC! Come in! it When th " - J L1? fry., 1; dee SlUUCiiis sciainuit iui pia- iitcusc yia ing spaces located nowhere near that her cai where they need to be! See Uni- sister's nan versity Police relentlessly write tion. Her ; parking tickets, and remember does not liv tickets will be slightly higher this and drives year. This, I believe, is in direct model car tl correlation to the fact that there By virtue will be more cars on campus and name, these therefore less available parking. aged to fou I went to the parking office, lo- versity park cated in the bottom of the Pendle- their lives n " " Yes, Excellency it is a checkbook. In their primitive culture, its Vi v -what passes for d^matic credentials.^^ remember to th Ron Baker Hjf wPjm P next sentence in the entry cannot be printed in a student newspaper as respectable as The Gamecock. "Drug dealing ? keep it in the house." Pledges are required to carry a "knife (long enough to reach a Negro's Heart)." Details of drug parties including excessive use of LSD, Ecstasy, alcohol and other drugs. The list goes on and on, but I haven't the stomach to continue it. Suffice it to say that there are constant references which degrade women, African-Americans, pledges, and any other people who have self-respect. (Incidentally, I have edited some of the punctuation, exclusively the use of capitalization and periods, of these entries to make them semicomprehensible. The words are the same as the original.) Aimmr nronlr tin'fkin KC\ milac kr/aokc U\sL\Jl V VW1J VJ1VA/IV TT 11.1 111 1 JV lllliV/J U1VOA.J out his letter-to-the-editor pen, let me say that in no way am I trying to say that this is the way i with sex, drugs, : li A taking part in the decision-making process, but it gives me pause when he talks about the efficacy of a diminish-the-supply strategy. Forget the Alamo and remember Prohibition, Herbert For crying out loud, the supply of drugs to America is greater than ever. Ten years ago, people would have to pay more than four times as much for cocaine as they do today because there's so much cocaine flowing into our country. So much for the War on Drugs, Mr. William Bennett Even Mikhail Gorbachev, in an attempt to quell rampant alcoholism through a similar ctratftrv ptu\pA nn rrpatino mnrc nrnhlf?m? than 0;? ??V?V he solved. He closed down wineries and stills to sober up his people, but the General Secretary was the one who experienced the rude awakening when, much to his surprise the DEMAND was HH.IIIIII I I.I I II HI II I. . .1.111 . .. I. iitor ii ' mi ;arage, to see if there The lady at the desk s ance of being able to should talk to Bill Bakei walking distance of of parking, but like mc lis year. I waited pa- cratic officials, he w e while some poor girl lunch, off her parking tickets. Now it was my turn, as I could figure this there was any chance o blem: She owed money Blossom Street garage s tickets and tried to pay but only for the spring i e lady punched up her I'm registered in the 1 te number she found tober, and then my soci r was listed under her number has to be picket tie. Why? Good ques- the lucky few to receive sister, was graduated, O.K., I say, what shot e at the same addresss, a completely different can't get a garage sp; lan her sister. then you shell out m< ' only of the same last Student (S-#) type park . ~:-i~ 1 Thie pntitlfc unn tn nai / pCHJl guis navt man- ???? v.?v? j 1 up the high-tech uni- ous minuscule pieces < ing computer and make unused pavement scatt< lore miserable. from your dorm as pos: ink of others fraternities generally work. I know better. But I believe it is the way they can (and do) work when their members and leaders aren't responsible or human enough to think about anyone other than themselves. We do have investigations on this campus about hazing and the like, but I'm sure there isn't anything like what Colgate is experiencing going on here. Yet Colgate's Dekes got the ball rolling with some such "minor" silliness, I suppose. The ledgers also mention an event called 'Tequila Night," in which Dekes competed to see who could drink the most shots in one evening. That doesn't sound too very unfamiliar, does it? But this kind of stupidity is hardly what those fraternities on (and off) this campus are all about. But how can a system which has degenerated into a club for those with no true feelings for people really help its own members become better students and citizens? it s very easy tor a young college student, just out of the confines of home and mommy, to become an almost-decadent hell-raiser. Maybe it's even natural. But irresponsibility and prejudice don't have to be "legitimized" and blown all out of proportion by encouragement from those who we young college students respect. A final paranoid note: Before any of you come after me with a knife (long enough to reach a Smart Alec's Heart) for writing this, please just spend a few minutes thinking about what I've said. For my sake, and yours. rock 'n' roll still there and Soviets began to die from ingesting medicines, inks and brake fluid. We should be able to look at our comrades' failures and learn instead of confining ourselves to repeating history. One would think that a Republican capitalist would fully understand the theory of demand and supply! After all, Gorby's drug fixation was just as complete and just as much a failure as was Nancy's. And, while half of the Soviets are tanked on fermented potato juice, they're rockin' back in the USSR as well. Metal fans gathered in the Soviet Union earlier this month to thrash to the tunes of Ozzy, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi and a host of others at the Moscow Music and Peace Festival. It wasn't exactly Woodstock, but just as rock music brought a generation of like-minded people together, this event has made the world just a little bit smaller, just a little bit more welcoming. As far as Stones fans in Columbia are concerned, however, a great tragedy has befallen the University of South Carolina. The USC would have definitely been The Place To Be had the Stones been allowed to play in our honorable stadium, but I guess that's water under the bridge. I wonder if Max Yasgur ever worried about football games on his farm? Somehow, I doubt it. -ii11111 1 ' 1 i: * i .. V > >fS a. /./'! > , ?v >. A- /, T $ ill aid the girl told my best bet was to park at r in charge Bates House. I live on the >st beaura- McBryde Quadrangle, as out to I wonder if President James Holderman has to park that far away from his front door? I wonI asked if der if Mr. Baker, over at parking, f getting a has to park at all. Or does he just ipace. Yes, leave the car running as he zips in ind only if and out of the office between ottery Oc- lunches. Inl ?>nr?nrth; LUi JVA/U1UJ I as one of i wonder if, since I live on the a space. Quad and have to park at Bates, do ild I do if I the people at Bates have to park at Pendleton street? And who, then, ace? Easy, parks at Blossom Street. Probably jney for a the residents of Capstone, ing sticker. Folks, I think I'll buy a bike, rk on vari}f dirt and sred as far Dan Popovitch iible. I was Journalism senior