Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Justice Holderman got what he deserved, no matter what USC officials say Former USC President James Holderman was sentenced last week to five year's probation and 500 hours of community service : ana was oraerea to pay back taxes because he broke the law. Board of Trustees Chairman Michael Mungo also appeared at court and claimed Holderman was the victim of South Carolina politics. He said Holdeiman was encouraged to break the law by the actions of the community, Board of Trustees and politicians. He also said Holderman should not be punished severely because of the former President's work at USC and that the only reason Holderman was there was because of an anxious press. Shame on you, Mr. Mungo. Holderman broke the lawl He could have saved the world from environmental dangers, but he still would have had to face the courts. Just because you improve a university should not mean you are above the law. If that's the case, then this whole justice thing means nothing. Mr. Mungo, our forefathers fought so justice would be blind and non-partial. What would they think of you now? Also, Mr. Mungo, the press did not drag Holderman to court. Holderman put himself in court. Holderman broke the law; the press did not make him break any laws. We just reported how he was breaking it. The objectives of the press is to inform the public and sell newspapers. Just because Holderman gave the press something to inform and sell newspapers does not mean they're at fault. The reporters did their job by looking into records and uncovering one of the mysteries. Instead of babbling in the courtroom Mr. Mungo, you should take lessons in justice. , 1 Gripe of the Week WIS-TV's Children's Miracle Network telethon made NBA fans miss the pregame, halftime and part of the third period of Game One of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and Bulls. Good cause, awful timing. "THEY CAN'T SW THIS APM/fJISTKATtON HASMT PONE ANYTHING JO PROMOTE EQUALITY" 1 BOAMECOCK1 News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249 David Bowden Editor in Chief Tige Watts Aaron Sheinin News Editor Carolina Life Editor Rich Taylor Daniel Barabas Sports Editor Graphics Editor Tf T? Tl V 1^*.T j ujlj.il duuuiuuuuim Photo Editor Jennifer Jablonski Copy Desk Chief Ed Bonza Erik Collins Director of Student Media Faculty Adviser Laura S.Day Ray Burgos Production Manager Assistant Production Manager Renee Gibson Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Business Manager 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, professional title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if 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 circumstance. , thcagfifowe / - V '// Z/yy// Carolinian Cr The press has been inundated with reports ibout "political correctness," the effort to equalize ill cultures, races and genders by emphasizing nonrVestem history and culture. The belief that Westerr eulture needs to be de-emphasized has left Americar ligher education emasculated. However, this column is not a diatribe against Western-bashing educational trends in general. My criticism is more ipecific. T TSICc Parnlinn CrPf.H sppttiq lilrp a nirp iHp.5? tc emind the university of the high-minded goals sei )y its administration. The humanistic beliefs emphasized in the Creed are not the problem. Why loes USC need a Creed in the first place? Is the iniversity defending itself against hypothetica] eharges of racism by demonstrating its lack ol jrejudice? Every college and university in the United I tatesshouldbe pro-individualism and anti-bigotry rhe recent "creed-mania" sweeping American chools is an overreaction to the fringe groups thai lemand that all prejudice, real and imagined, be >urged from American schools through a change in he academic program. Now that the Creed is in >lace, I don't think it needs to be removed, but I dc vish the Creed's egalitarian values were actually Animal tests As a representative of the Physicians Com mittee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), would like to respond to Francis Abel s columi of March 29. Unfortunately, he misses the mail point ? that animals are suffering tremend qusly and in very large numbers in labs acros the country. And by relying heavily on anima experiments instead of more modem methods we are being led farther and farther away fron addressing serious concerns about humai health. The many advances that have been made us ing non-animal methods demonstrate that then are a myriad of alternatives available. It is j cruel lie to suggest to people affected by serioui illness that experiments on animals will lead t< a cure for their conditions in the foreseeabh future. If our concern is for the well-being of ou fellow humans, then animal experimentation i: always on the wrong species. We have seei many cases in which extrapolation of result: from animals to humans proved to be extremeb detrimental to human health. Animal testing is dangerous business. Dr Abel refers to the dangers of "untested" drugs However, many drugs that were "safely" teste< on animals have been found to be harmful tc humans. Everyone knows the story of the birtl defects caused by thalidomide, and this dru^ was deemed safe for pregnant women after test ing on animals. More recently in this country, Oraflex (an ar thritis drug) was given to primates at sevei times the recommended human dosage. The; showed no harmful side effects, but many sub sequent human recipients of the drug develope< AMp^.A^weer ?fi TUB ENORMOUS A =^5 1c?pAV? ECONOMIC ' - X MOPE "MAT l&U wil r<M i/v^unNft EOR eed doesn't refli ; David bowden reflected in the real USC. Students at USC are segregated in a hundred different ways, into majors, ) GPA categories, etc. Some of this is good and some t is bad, but it certainly contradicts the Creed* s stated s goals. r For example, South Carolina College, USC's * Honors College, adopts a higher standard of I admittance than USC requires for "regular" students, f The Honors College fosters elitism by making a special group within the student body that I supposedly receives the best teachers and best classroom instruction. This seems to contradict the i Carolinian Creed call for the "dignity of all persons." t Instead of raising the educational standards of > a few, why not make the effort to raise the standards i of all? It stands to reason that the "regular" students i would benefit more from the best teachers than the "smarter" Honors kids who already do well in r school. To "demonstrate concern for others" and not necessary fi ; MELISSA B. GOLDMAN [1 ? Guest Column tl ?, ? 1 n incurable liver problems and died. There are numerous other examples, including the swine flu vaccine; it sailed through the animal tests - only to cause paralysis in human recipients. ? 4 _ 4 ^ _ J 4 4 _ 1 s ^eaerai approval 01 a arug oasea on animai exi periments should by no means be equated with s its safety. 3 In the area of cancer research, many re3 searchers are trading in their rodents for more sophisticated testing of cancer-fighting drugs, r Tests on hundreds of different strains of human s cancer cells growing in test tubes are much fasi ter and less expensive than the tests on rodents, s David Korn, chairman of the National Cancer / Institute's advisory board, admitted in the September 17, 1990 issue of Time, "Maybe we've . been using the wrong system (mice) as the screening device." 1 ) In contrast to what the March 29 editorial imi plied, the vast majority of medical research I does not involve animals at all; numerous ad vances have been made using non-animal methods. Advances in medicine without animals - include: i The discovery of the relationship between i cholesterol and heart disease, the number one - cause of death for Americans. i Discovery of the relationships between jy 4## ">/ OUT TO FACE ULEN6ES OF :.REAUTlES, ultwimkofme.. pi A POSITION M^?UF... IJfp tstt set real USC "support their work and development" would be more in line with the Creed. Another example is the effort by some to raise admission standards atUSC. Being apublic school, USC should be open to all students who are able to do college-level work. As President Palms himself has noted, USC will never be on par with Harvard and Stanford, so why try by isolating some of the best students or rejecting students the university would once have accepted? Y et another example of USC elitism is the way in which the university's main branch treats the branch campuses as lesser schools. Classes taken at a branch campus do not easily transfer to USCColumbia, the implication being that the branch courses are inferior. The branch campuses have a lot to recommend them; they shouldn't be thought of as the vassals of the main campus. These observations are sure to upset some members of the administration, but that is not my goal. I am trying to reconcile the huge gap between the idealistic vision of the Carolinian Creed and the way our school really operates. I want to go to a University of South Carolina that practices what it preaches. jr research smoking and cancer and nutrition and cancer, the number two cause of death in Americans. Development of a vaccine against yellow fever. Development of anti-depressant and antipsychotic drugs. Discovery of the mechanism of AIDS transmission. Dr. Abel does not address the problems associated with using animals taken from pounds in research experiments. It is very difficult to trust the results from such experiments when the history of these animals is almost always unknown. The r.nn found in cr effects of disease, ace and differing life histories create a significant lack of experimental control. Any human study that was this poorly controlled would be rejected from the outset. In addition, the docile, wellsocialized animals that researchers look for are also the animals most likely to be adopted from the pound. Certainly the few approaches mentioned here are not viable options in all areas of research. Development of alternatives in other areas depends largely upon the willingness of experimenters to reduce and eventually eliminate animal use. Scientists and researchers must realize that these animals are not volunteering to be "sacrificed" in painful experiments. Much valuable time is wasted on these cruel and outdated methods of research, and in the process, we deplete funds that would be better spent on more sophisticated technologies. Melissa B. Goldman is the director of public affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, P.O. Box 6322, Washington, D.C., 20015.