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Bad P.R. Team doctor who failed to run USC drug program still on staff Fans who looked on page 79 of the football program guide ma; have seen something interesting. A picture of the medical suppor staff ? the team doctors. One of those doctors is Dr. Paul Akers, a general practitioner. He is the team doctor. Another is the team orthopedist, anothe the team dentist. It is interesting because former USC Athletic Director Bob Mar cum was fired^ after an internal investigation revealed that USC failed to routinely and randomly test athletes for drug use. At that time, Akers was in charge of USC's "Lifestyles" program, which was supposed to be a program of drug testing ANE drug education for all USC student-athletes. USC released a statement at that time saying Akers had beer relieved of his duties as team physician because of his failure to run the drug testing program. There were some people out there who believed that Akers had been fired. No such luck. A little while later, the university issued a statement that Akers had been "reassigned" and was working at the Thomson Student Health Center. Somewhere along the line, he once again became team physician. It is interesting because during his "first" tenure as team physician, drug testing was primarily his responsibility ? before Marcum's, before the coaching staffs, it was Akers' responsibility to run the program. President Holderman would like us to believe that Marcum was fired for failing to conduct the drug program properly. And now we have the Marcum trial, where he is contending that he lost his job because Holderman wanted athletic funds and he wouldn't give them. The drug testing was a convenient excuse, a dodge, Marcum contends. The OIllv lofrir-al thina anvnnp ran rr?nr1nHi? ic tViot AUore eVu-mlrl Photography Editor TEDDY LEPP Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to 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. | The Gamecock Editor in Chief Assistant Photography Editor WAYNE WASHINGTON JULIE BOUCHILLON Managing Editor Viewpoint Editor HAL MILLARD JEFF SHREWSBURY Copy Desk Chief Datebook Editor KATHY BLACKWELL JAN PHILLIPS Assistant Copy Desk Chief Comics/Graphics Editor ROBYN THOMPSON RQB LANE News Editor Graduate Assistant KELLY C. THOMAS KRISTIN FRANCIS Assistant News Editor Gamecock Adviser JEFF WILSON ERUC COLLINS Carolina Life Editor Director of Student Media ROBERT THOMAS ED BONZA Assistant Carolina Life Editor Production Manager LYNN GIBSON LAURA S. DAY Sports Editor Assistant Production Manager CHRIS SILVESTRI RAY BURGOS Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Advertising Manager BRANT LONG JEFFREY B. THOMPSON J ? ? ? V*iv VMkA VV11VIUVIV AO U1UI niiWO OllUUIU have run the program and didn't. Whether Marcum should have had more oversight of the program is something else, but it was Akers who wrote the program and it was Akers to whom the responsibility of the program was delegated. While he is team doctor, he is not responsible for the drug testing program anymore. That has been taken out of the team physician's area of responsibility. There are some who say people deserve second chances. But in these days at USC when all the news is being made in the cour troom and all the news is bad, that second chance may not be deserved. After all, what has Akers done to deserve this second chance? As so much else that has happened here, USC's credibility is hurt by having Akers retained as team physician. ii|' n' j|^ I PRUG ; TESTING i .nT7V7T? rrb. ! ? '?i i / i 111 ir JTTTH. O jiyu Fair brin^ "Robby and Linda, go to the rocket. kjw Robby and Linda, go to the rocket George Williams, meet your S ^ party at the front V The loud, crackling 'Jk voice filled in the gaps flk between the excited ^B2|^ voices of the crowds and the hard-sell voices of the modem day carnies. The air \ reeked of Italian saus- T age dogs, elephant ears and vinegar fries. Children smacked their lips clean of candy and caramel-coate That nauseated-from-excitement fe -abbed my stomach and I knew that Letters to t SCC shouldn't lower standards To the editor: I feel compelled to comment on the Oct 11 article regarding black enrollment in South Carolina College. First, I want to express how disgusted I am that Reenea Harrison chose to use such an offensive phrase as "lily-white" in her description of SCC. Ms. Harrison, if you are white there is no reason to use a degrading black phrase in order to show allegiance to the black community. If you are black, shame on you. How would you like a white person to describe a black-dominated group as charcoal black? But then we have different standards for blacks and whites, which brings me to my next comment. The buzz word for the '80s has been "increased minority enrollment." Hey, what's wrong with that? Everyone deserves a fair share of the pie, right? Right. The bad part of this increased minority movement comes to light when we examine Harrison's final comments: "Black students don't perform as well on SAT and ACT tests as while students . . . black applicants will judged more on . .. (other factors). What Harrison is really saying is that it is career and politically astute to have more warm black bodies in SCC, so we will lower standards for blacks in order to achieve this goal. Whenever policies such as this are enacted, blacks will fail to get the most imoortant Dart of the nie. RESPECT. I don't care if the setting is academic, government or business, whenever a black is promoted or placed in a lucrative position, the perception will be that skin color got him there, not merit. This really hurts the blacks who are accepted into SCC (or whatever) because they exceeded SENIOR HIGH rV ?s touch of i the State Fair. People brus ?|ggl hurry to ride the biggest ri blurred my vision, my ears ^ 1 v the different noises of shri] M from the roller coasters or people to try to sink a ball stuffed animal. But it all st m' i| slow motion. 0?,. -.* Like ants scurrying arou Jt scraps of food, we made oi exhibits. The stench of live our nostrils as we made ou Kl8Ej|L ings with arts and crafts. Fi colors protruded from the c my frames. And the three dime )mis breathed with the life of th< " thought Inebriated by the i ? suffocating us ? we v id apples. smell of urine and welcon eling phant ears slapping us in th I was at Breathing in the night' he editor x* j - i <-t;. the requirements for admission. tl I believe the SAT is an overused tool of measurement. However, if c we use it to measure one group it si should be used to measure all. u Why is it that blacks are the only o racial and/or ethnic group that is v> screaming for special considera- c tion? When was the last time we b heard the Jewish, Greek, Lebanese d or Asian communities asking for o special treatment because they en- tc joy a different culture? I would S< wager that the aforementioned A groups perform just fine on the ci SAT. Their cultural differences ju sure have not hampered them ir economically. bi If I were black, I would not let 01 whites treat me as if I were not capable of meeting standards that ei are set for everyone else. it] In closing, I would like to sav m that I am well aware of how risky in this letter is. A person cannot clear th their throat today without being m called a racist. However, if it is ra- ta cist to believe that everyone should ju have to live by the same standards, di then, yes, I am a racist lh th C. Henderson m re Graduate student kc Honors college must advertise To the editor With regard to Ms. Reenea Harrison's summary of the South Carolina College as portraying a "lilywhite image" (The Gamecock, Oct 11), we feel compelled to say that this is a big statement for someone r\ who has been involved with this ^ organization for less than a semester. We have never perceived the Tc honors college to be composed of bigots, but even if this were blat- let antlv true, the SCC is not well iss known enough among college stu- inj dents and applicants even to have pu an image! If we did not have this pa image of lily-whiteness before that sai article, Ms. Harrison has insured tat JUNIOR EL HIGH S& A S~ magic 10 v hed past me in their erately need des, bright lights stomachs' pi ; couldn't untangle ger. Content 11 screams coming Up, up, u the voices yelling for clouds, catc and win a furry biggest circl lemed to happen in Christmas I lights. The s nd a picnic with liice the mei lit way toward the moon was ft stock and urine filled ^ clouds r way to the build- On our fe< igures, shapes and aicd leaving ncVwwfa ? s noticed befoi visional works , , sir creators, or so I relaxed a liu trt that surrounded us V01CCS ,s a ears were su talked again past the was obvious. led the smell of ele- We trekke le face. us from the s aromas like desp- upon it in aw T iat we have it now! Does Ms. Harrison know the omposite breakdown of foreign j tudents in the SCC with relation > the whole of USC? If 30 percent i f USC's students are Northerners, I fould we make sure that 30 per- < ent of the honors college is 1 forthem? No! The answer to our I iversity problem is not to lower i ur standards or show prejudice < )ward some people. What the CC needs to do is ADVERTISE. < 11 USC enrollees should be re- ' ruited. Outstanding high school ] iniors and seniors should be sent ] (formation not only about USC, it also about the SCC. Let every- 5 le hear about the SCC. ' SAT scores alone are not 1 tough to indicate a student's abil- 2 v. That is whv the. SCC has ??t f inimum SAT requirements and * eludes an interview session in 1 ic admission procedure. These 1 inimum standards must be main- 1 ined, and all applicants must be * dged equally. The SCC should * scriminate only on the basis of r e admission requirements, not on 1 e basis of skin color. Vigorous c cruiting, not discrimination is the c sy to a diverse student body. F i] Joanne Veatch English junior ^ Honors college ^ Shannon Douglas h Media arts junior r Honors college n iensen lacks ; ompassion I > ine eauor: I am writing in response to the e ler by Dan Jensen in the Oct 11 g ue of The Gamecock. It is amaz- is * to me that you would want to S blicly display your lack of com- n ssion for the hundreds of thou- ft ids of victims who were devased by Hurricane Hugo. .EMENTARY HIGH WA THE ATUWTA cotfsrrf(JTO\l Columbia ed oxygen, we succombed to our leas and satisfied our human hunand nourished, we ventured on. p we soared touching the evening hing our breaths while riding the le. Columbia looked like one big xee, decorated with little white ky line was dark and majestic, untal monsters of the daylight. The ill and beautiful, not hiding behind Jt again, some of the magic evapora chill and a tiredness we had not re. The nausea in my stomach had Lie. No one seemed to notice. The ked as before and fresh elephant 11 being served. Our insignificance a 10 ine vcnicie uiai wouia remove night's mystic circle and looked re. Reluctantly you admit, "For some, Hugo was a tragedy." Congratulations on your astute observation! This terrifying ordeal was not merely "the fish story of a lifelime." It is a disaster that has left our state in chaos. When we all will be paying for this occurrence for years to come, how can you imply that we are "making Hugo out to be more than he was?" It is going to take South Carolina decades to recover from the lurricane. And three weeks later. i^ou arc bored with all of the publcity Hugo is still receiving. How inconvenient that you must ;ee hurricane updates on the news, lurricane headlines in the paper md hurricane pictures in magazines. Forget about the inconveniences that the people of Charleston elt when they had to stand in lines o receive food and clean water. Or he inconveniences experienced by he Sumter area when they were vithout telephones and electricity, low tiresome it must be for you to cad about the people of Myrtle Jeach who could not even shower >r flush toilets. Let me apologize >n behalf of the grief stricken pcoile of our state for inconveniencrig you, Dan Jensen. I agree with you that there arc a at of other things going on in the ? n..4 i ruuu iuuay. dul iiuw tiosc lO ome do these other events really it? President Bush's drug progam is not going to rebuild govemtent housing for the poor. Noriega 1 Panama is not going to restore /ildlife and our coastline, only me can do that Even the World eries cannot repair the destruction round our state. I am pleased to discover, howver, that I have seen hundreds of enerous people, unlike Jensen. It i wonderful to see the people of oulh Carolina working together to iplenish our land after this dreadtl event. Elizabeth A. Barrett English junior