Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Honors President undercuts one part of school to promote another President John Palms was gracious enough to write an article for this paper describing the achievements of the university. However, when Palms mentioned South Carolina College (the honors college), he said the following: "The honors college offers a superior education to young people who might otherwise attend academically acclaimed schools outside of South Carolina." This was an unfortunate choice of words. To say South Carolina College is a "superior education" for those who want to go to an "academically acclaimed" school is insulting to the rest of the university. It is sort of like saying, "USC stinks, but at least we have the honors college." Two things are disappointing about Palms making this comment. First, the "regular" university class system is not bad at all. Nationally acclaimed professors teach classes at USC, plain old USC. Many of these professors also teach in the South Carolina College, but one should not think SCC has a monopoly on the best professors. USC is a great school, certainly among the best in the Southeast. It is not on par with the Ivy League, but few Southern universities are. This school is among the country's leaders in international studies and business courses. A more positive outlook fivxm T T O C ?n tLrt firof ot/%r* f /\ In r* n ? UUiil 11IC UJV. pitMUL-llL Id lilt 111SI Sltp LU uttuiiiuig a nauuuai power in other academic areas. Second, South Carolina College is very good, but cannot honestly be compared to truly "acclaimed" institutions of higher learning such as Harvard or Stanford. Such comparisons have been made by USC administration before. It is both a slight to the regular campus and false advertising to potential applicants to speak of the honors college in such glowing terms. This is not meant in any way to slight the students and faculty of the honors college. As stated previously, SCC is a fine institution and has an important place as part of the university. However, the USC administration ? President Palms in particular ? should not sell the rest of the campus short to promote the honors college. SCC should be judged on its own merits, not in relation to the deficiencies of USC as a whole. Friday on Viewpoint - Hospital care in America: Fill Out This Form Please - Dennis Shealy shares the secret of the universe ; Outraged readers write spiteful letters Gripe of the Week It is a shame that some professors insist on assigning huge amounts of unnecessary reading to students. It is not so much the number of books assigned as the knowledge that the majority of books will be of no use on the course's tests. Reading is an obvious part of the learning experience, but professors should be cognizant of the fact that books are expensive and students should not have to buy texts they won't need to fulfill the course's requirements. i GAMECOCK" News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249 Chris Silvestri Editor in Chief Dave bowden Brant Long Managing Editor/Viewpoint Editor Copy Desk Chief Tige Watts Oct a via Wright News Editor Carolina Life Editor Aaron Sheinin Teddy Lepp Sports Editor Photography Editor Patrick Villegas Gordon Mantler Asst. News Editor Asst. News Editor Tracey Davis Rich Taylor Asst. Carolina Life Editor Asst. Sports Editor Virginia Marshall Greg Rickabaugh Asst. Copy Desk Chief Asst. Photography Editor Wayne Williams tric ^eenn Comics Editor Darkroom Technician Renee a. Gibson Laura S. Day Asst. Media Director/Advertising Manager Production Manager Stacie Lewis ray Burgos Asst. Advertising Manager Asst. Production Manager Erik Collins Carolyn Griffin Faculty Adviser Business Manager Lara Chapman Asst. Classified 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. |mjte^rrih.e. i 'S W T * " university sr It is not a quick and easy clean up job sitting in the lap of John Palms. We're understaffed. There's nowhere to park. We can't get into the classes we need because they're all full. Budget cuts are threatening tc make it even tougher to get into classes, not tc mention the cuts to maintenance, student activities and student services. In short, this university ain't big enough for all of us. None of this is John Palms' fault, poor guy, but he is the direction we are all looking in for the solution. I'm not trying to add to the already developing ulcer, I'm sure he must be suffering from at this point, but I do have some questions. With enrollment as high as it stands now, why are we encouraging students with dismal grade point averages to float around taking classes if they're unable to get into a major? The university will allow students to continue taking classes with a GPR as low as 1.23. The absolute minimum GPR to remain in any college of USC is a 2.0. What happens to these poor people when they can't get into a major? Presidential1 This past week, George Bush vetoed a $3.86 billion budget for the District of Columbia because it allowed money to be spent on abortions. Bush called spending money on abortions "unacceDtable." Now sit and think about this. George Bush, the man who asked America to read his misleading lips, doesn't want to spend a small amount of money on abortions. Instead, he would rather stick it to us taxpayers to support these unwanted children. Bush and the other self-righteous nincompoops in Wichita, Kansas fail to realize one thing ? abortion saves us a lot of money. Everywhere in the grand old USA is under some tough financial times, except for maybe Utah. Is it very sensible to stop funding for abortions? Most people who have abortions, especially _ rv n f 1. i _ _ t_ _ - mi t in ux.., are irom oroicen nomes. iney nave no money and that may be one reason why they get in so much trouble. Now these poverty-stricken women can't get an abortion because they have no money. So they sit around for nine months and give their baby away, loading more burden on our finan | YOU'RE PAMN RIOHT WE'RE NOT MOVING... 1 THI? IS THE LINE. I FOR. NEWSHOES. . i* ' ";ii iS ....:.. iiov ?* " :ij; " vo lould not low PI SHELLEY MAGEE l ^ M&m. Sure, the university makes money, but these students get the education they came h for? And we get overcrowded classes we a get into, yet we must take to graduate, beca these people have to take classes somewhere. Perhaps the university should be channel more of these borderline students as freshn to the university's branch campuses. It's < thing to have a student's GPR drop al they've already been admitted. But why ad freshmen with low grades and test scores wl they could go to Sumter for a year first and if they can handle it? It is an already existing policy that stude who perform well in their first year at Sun veto doesn't i tirf watts B-< * cially weak government. And George Bush says spending money abortions is unacceptable. During his campaign, Bush said he suppo adoption not abortion. Gee, George how mt of your adopted kids would be black, addic to crack, born premature and expected to 1 only six more months. I guess none. Let's not kid ourselves anymore. No c wants children who are "different." When 5 go to the orphanages or foster homes, you do see any Beaver Cleavers, Laura Ingalls or Th< dore Huxtables. Would it really be more acceptable to sp( $1 million per each unwanted child until they 18? It's kind of sad we want to spend all t money for children who would eventually c up in prison, anyways. Don't swallow the thinking that abortion er standards or Aiken, etc., can transfer relatively hassle free to USC proper and pursue a major field of study. Maybe this function could be used more effectively to weed out some of the students ? who are not cut out for the four year university 'experience. This is also a way in for students whose high school performance may keep them from being admitted to Columbia when they actually have what it takes to do well here, do Everyone gets a chance. All you have to do lere is prove you can cut it. in't Now I know it's not all this cut and dry. I use also know some efforts are being made in this direction. But we need some results and we ing need them a lot faster than anything we're seenen ing right now. Easy for the columnist to say, one right? fter The USC hardly needs to become a school mit for the elite, but there's no need to lead students hen down the wrong path ? that costs time and see money for everyone. After all, this is higher education we're talksnts ing about. That means higher costs, higher iter learning and higher standards. make sense ? an easy way out of a hard situation. A person has to carry around that guilt for the rest of their lives. They have to think about how they didn't allow a person the chance to live. So people who have abortions don't need these self-righteous, self-centered, insensitive, baby-doll waving, anal-retentive abortion pro testers waving their' religion in their faces. What's the deal with Operation Rescue in Wichita? I support their freedom to protest and on I'm actually supportive of it. They have a political thought and should be allowed to voice it. rts IJrvitfAt/Af thnw ohrk.,1/4 U ^ 1a. U.v/jr onuuiu UC aiiuwv^u UJ VOICC II te(j peacefully. Once they start blocking entrances ve to abortion clinics, they begin to overstep their bounds. No one has any right to stop someone )ne from doing something legal. fou 1 applaud Judge Kelly for starting to arrest ,n't them. Operation Rescue no longer was protesteo. ing peacefully. They were violently jamming their beliefs down everyone's throat. These pro;nd asters were becoming more violent then the ac,?re tual act of abortion. hat Until the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. jnd Wade, abortion is legal and cost-efficient. Let's be sensible and not let self-righteous bigots tell is us what to do.