University of South Carolina Libraries
Exit Palms too quick to purge those associated with Holderman The casualties of the Holderman regime are piling up. Two more administrators who have long association with Holderman are leaving. While Holderman is now widely known as a corrupt official, those under him, for the most part, have been faultless. So why is new President John Palms suspending USC's chief financial officer John O'Donnell and why is Chris Vlahopolus resigning under pressure? Vlahopolus and O'Donnell are taking the blame for Holderman's transgressions. That is blatantly unfair since no connection UAn TT-.1 J ! - J 1- mL! ixaa uccn uiauc uciwccii uicm auu nuiucniuui s misueeus. 1111s is simply guilt by association, pure and simple. By that logic, George Bush should have resigned from the Vice Presidency in 1987 for being around during the Iran-Contra mess. Arthur Smith will probably be soon to follow. Obviously, Palms is trying to demonstrate his break from the former administration by getting rid of the former administration. This restructuring is good for his public relations, but it is bad for the careers of the men he is forcing out. At least it distracts attention from the $90,000 Palms is spending on remodeling the President's House. Hopefully the students and supporters will see that all administrators from the Holderman era don't need to be nursed. Some ? - ? ? r " o talk abput the so-called "spoils-system," where a new leader gets rid of the old leader's personnel to make room for his own. Casting-aspersions on good people's careers is taking this system too far,'. ICiAMKCOCK | ( News: 777-7726 . Advertising: 777-4249 ] ? Kathy Blackwell Robyn Thompson Editor in Chief , Managing Editor ' , Chris Silvestri David Bowden Copy Desk Chief Viewpoint Editor Lucy Soto Kathy Heberger News Editor Carolina Life Editor \ Steve Johnson Renee Meyer 5 , * Sports Editor Photography Editor < Aaron Sheinin Tige Watts < Assistant News Editor Assistant News Editor, 1 Oct a via Wright Patrick Vellegas 1 Assistant Carolina Life Editor Assistant Sports Editor 1 Jennifer Jablonski Julie Bouchillon 1 Assistant Copy Desk Chief Assistant Photography Editor 1 Eric Glenn Wayne Williams 1 Darkroom Lab Technician < Comics Editor 1 Ed Bonza Erik Collins ( Director of Student Media Faculty Adviser Laura S. Day Ray Burgos 1 Production Manager Assistant Production Manager Renee Gibson Kyle berry Advertising Manager Assistant Advertising Manager i ; Carolyn Griffin 1 Business Manager 1 c Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be, at maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, pro- I fessional title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if j a student. An address and phone number are required with all letters sent. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible libel or in case of space limitations. The newspaper will not withhold names under any I circumstance. c ?j 1 w 111 Sw V W MPESIRl/cTiBLE ? CoHPoM MWEglAL'Social Securit With a continuing recession and acute concerns over U.S. competitiveness, you would think something would be done about the high costs of labor and capital in the U.S. Do people really think Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan can do it all? Not Senator Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyoming) and Rep. Tom DeLay (RTexas). Together, they are proposing a package which would cut Social Security and capital gains taxes. There is bipartisan support for the view that a capital gains tax cut would boost the economy, but Social Security is a much more emotional topic. The same people who rail against the middle class tax burden are often those who don't even want to hear there is something wrong with the c? a a... _ii :?>_ ; ouvim occuiuy system. /aiici au, u s i mining a surplus, isn't it? Let's take a closer look at the tax-transfer system the government wants us to use for our retirement fund. The Social Security tax, quite apart from its regressive nature, is a bad tax. It introduces a "tax wedge" into the labor market which raises the cost of labor to an employer and reduces the gains from labor to an employee. The clear result is employment is reduced below what it otherwise would be, translating into a lower gross national product and income tax revenue. This might not be so bad if the nation really got something in exchange for it Social Security is still represented as a retirement" savings program. If participation was voluntary, workwx v. primary sc raoer. collese what * # # 0 mean the are prejudiced ??? For exa ro the editor: News and I have reviewed your article of ieges that 3-29-91 about Professor Justiz iow ac which brought to mind a number that artich 3f issues I have thought about that Prof. USC. school, wh When I returned to Columbia in norities v 1979, I visited the Russell library schools, where a white female student was Did Wa :hecking out books. I was second program ai io be served. The phone in that de- a copy of 1 partment was ringing. The student find that I waited on the person ahead of me inferior. ind then went and answered the dissertatioi ?h?ne. tent or ha: By the time she returned, America tc mother white person had appeared, university < She looked at me and then looked jn 1985, it the new person and went to the ham Benrn ind of the counter where the white ment, a p< person was waiting. I left and went saying mai 0 reference. Upon watching me fired from leave, she yelled "may I help rights after pou?" ? a comment I ignored. have alwa; In reading the Gamecock News- sources, ai laper, I have not seen it since I make them .vas last on campus in December. For a n< your paper is possibly the worst still does i lewspaper I have seen put out by Black whei jtudents who had the greatest i would j imount of resources. hatchet jot I saw your article wherein you were the p( indorsed Dean Smith for the new him at the position of President of the Uni- they say i /ersity. Was Mr. Smith putting out here? lis own press. Nowhere was there Your ari 1 checking of credentials, a ques- hints and ions of what was he doing while many of y Holderman was practicing things for facts? esulting in his resignation? The Hoi And then his obnoxious granting granted to 2 rf honorary degrees to the Holder- tions. It's nans. I immediately called his of- Gamecock ice to inquire whether Lee Atwa- with investi er had ever been granted an hon- Question irary degree from USC. After excusable juesuoning wny a citizen wouia what abou isk such a question, after consider- Board who ible effort I finally got an answer, tions? Shou ^o, he had not (actually, he had, At the tii '.d.) Why the rush to give the Hoi- his educati larmon Aarrroao mhan tliom cKfrnlH -11 iviiuau uvgivvo niivii utviv jiiwuiu upcil IU <111 iave been a full investigation of statistics, v lis years in office? And the news- graduated c >aper offered no inquiries. no creden I saw the Justiz article and it ap- nowadays? lears to be what is known as sec- I work i indary research. Why is a news- the univers laper who is in the midst of its the univrrsi >HBiSWffiWi j|| (si Cm/IMY y : MANUFACTURING THE I pEpfecr G?NPOM'* | ;y begs for nee I ARTHUR C. MAYER Financial Columnist ers could determine their own level and method of savings. Instead, income is confiscated now in return for the promise of equivalent future payments indexed to future wage and price levels. Many of our senior citizens planned their retirements around Social Security and therefore did not taice measures 10 proviae ior tnemseives. inese beneficiaries are among the "human shields" of the welfare state, as many would-be budgetcutters have discovered. In reality, Social Security is little more than an income distribution program. There are no "savings" involved anywhere in it. The tax paid by today's workers is transferred to retirees who spend it The current excess of tax revenue over benefit payouts is used to absorb some of the federal budget deficit and take the heat off our politicians. No reserves are being built up for the day when the baby boomers start retiring. Benefits paid in the year 2010 will come out of GNP 2010. The entire system will collapse at that time unless something is done now to reduce the projected growth of benefits and to encourage private alternatives (such as expanded indii-Tp FDITOR A- ti.ilniw AhA -JL >urce merely a rehatch of minatory and sexist. Y )T articles have said. I paper is reflectiv< level of ignorance here university, ints to why for 13 years Mamie I mple according to U.S. Athletes d World Report, the colJustiz attended ranked Vipprl ademic credentials. Did UtCU U.1U.J 5 also state at the time Justiz was attending To the editor: a# thn /1.1/nfn iaiiai /vm A nri 1 T7' c oHitAriol iii at U1U 4UUld it/VCi U1I IIU- if o vuiu/iiai rr /ere at high academic gest bunch of garbage I read in The Gamecock itts contact his masters tainly are ties for a clo: [id doctoral, and receive It was a ridiculous, whir his papers presented and to show why collegi they were intellectually should be paid ? yes, P fas his reasoning in his First, the article starts i off, sources nonexis- lege athletes are suppos s it become a crime in tice, play to the best of t > attend a certain type of and still keep up their gr or college. keep up their grades? 1 , he was fired by Wil- tough about keeping a ett. A political appoint- average? Anyone wh riitical firing. Is Watts class should be able to ly of us who have been not, he or she should previous jobs have no college. then to be employed? I Here's more: "Som ys questioned unnamed have little money for oi ter all one can always vities . . . food and sh up. much for the sacrifice I jwspaper who in 1991 make to the schools, not capitalize the term wrong with a little pa i used as a proper noun, full-time work in the ( greatly question your Now that kind of puts a > done on Justiz. Who on things, doesn't it? arsons who worked with All these athletes I s University, what did think they get enough c ibout his performance ranks of students who \ 30 or more hours a we* tide includes a lot of long (we have little mon innuendoes, but how side activities too!), our staff have checked Another good one: "I to some universities Iderman story can be name isn't exactly fair t law student for her ac- tion." Fair compensat too bad the university said life was fair? N itself didn't follow up NCAA or any universit) gation. athlete diddly! And who . If Holderman is not sign with that "some uni for his conduct, then the first place? t the members of the If someone wanted m< rubber stamped his ac- and run around with a Id they not also resign? hands, or swim, or wh me Justiz was pursuing room, board and a free on, America was not I'd be glad to! It'd se I its citizens. And the picnic and more than fail /ere they for when he The editor alleges t >r for 1991? Are there shame the universities tials in newspapers this money on sporting don't share it with the al )art-time temporary at cause the masses are rej ity, and I have found to see "awesome athleti ty to be racist, discri- assumedly displayed by I ?^ , ^ YV< AIR , =f=^ ( } o.s. ' ^ i hpwio r^=] ? Pur on a f* ' S coND?M; ^ *?& z:A^Kp | W+ ded reform vidual retirement accounts) to Social Security. When Democratic Senator Moynihan introduced his payroll tax cut last year, Republicans opposed it for fear of enlarging the budget deficit Meanwhile, President Bush's capital gains tax initiative was thwarted by Congressional "fairness" demagoguery. Now, Wallop-DeLay, though not perfect, offers an excellent opportunity to promote economic growth with a capital gains tax cut and fairness through a Social Security tax cut for working people. If past experience is any guide, the capital gains cut would stimulate economic activity and raise revenue. Since labor markets are slower to respond than capital markets, the payroll tax cut would lose revenue in the short term. There are many politicians and voters alike who don't want to tamper with Social Security. Leaving it alone, however, will guarantee a fu ture meltdown while imposing a harmful tax burden on the nation's workers along the way. Our government should be urged to lower the excessive costs of labor and capital with tax cuts, reduce the budget deficit with real spending cuts and get Social Security off the road to disaster by scaling down benefit growth and allowing, if not encouraging, private alternatives. Defenders of the "status quo" wouldn't like it, but the rest of us would be better off. '' , '' /' ' | m our news- under-compensated athletes. Folks ; of the don't buy tickets to see ability (lord knows, USC's athletic deJaekson partment would never have been ^ j around this long), oirt They go to events to tailgate a little and maybe see some good [J 1 y hall from the school they support J If these athletes the editor speaks of were so "awesome," they would've bypassed college for a oo ttiA Kirr_ i .i i j ao pro career oecause mey wouia have ever have been drafted. Hint: truly awe(there cer- some ^ Bo or Jordan on the tube se second). for free ? they get paid for a ley attempt reason. i athletes Now let's look at this from an AID. ECON 101 point of view. College : off, "Col- sports are big business, no doubt ed to prac- But who's going to end up paying heir ability these salaries to these athletes? ades"Still The schools, that's who. So supWhat is so pose the NCAA sets a standard simple 2.0 "salary" for a Divison I school. 0 attends The school forks over to its athdo that; if letes (because if it doesn't, the athnot be in ietes either won't play or the school won't have any). ie players Who ends up forking out to the iitside acti- school (that money has to come elter isn't from somewhere, children!)? And the players <jo you know where? Right. From What's ^ supporters, which means MO' irt-time or MONEY, MO' MONEY, MO' >ff-season? MONEY for the schools and less 1 new twist for you and me. Does this system guarantee under-the-table, private ;hat don't "contributions" will stop? HELL an join the NO. vork 20 to it's a simple fact that everybody sk all year looks out for Number One, and if ey for out- 0ne stands to make his or her posi tion better by giving or getting a *ull tuition little cash in hand, he or she will one could do so. Case closed, compensa- So as we can all see, college ion? Who athletes are probably not as bad off either the as the editor would have had us ' owes any believe. Didn't anyone see "Field decided to 0f Dreams?" Isn't anybody glad versity" in just to be able to play the games at all, whether they're getting some 5 to suit up compensation or not? ball in my We need to nip this absurd idea latever for in the bud before we end up with a education, lot of self-absorbed, prima donna em like a "pseudo-athletes" who could care r to me. less aoout playing ine game, ana hat it's a like spoiled children when the make all game is not played exactly to their events and liking, will take up their balls and thletes, be- go home until their demands are illy paying met. ic ability," Christy Whitlock these poor, Political science senior