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Student Loans Affordable education should be top issue for voting students As a college education becomes increasingly unattainable fc those not in the upper middle class of American society, students a well as parents should be concerned for the prospects of the futur work force. Because of growing disparities between rich and poor, an econc my based on demobilization, and the addition of a recession, man students are finding themselves in a bind. The cost of college has grown beyond the reach of the averag middle class student and with the threat of diminishing funds fc financial aid, many students are having to take out student loans. CfnHant Inane nnna aKiinHant in tha ' ara Karrlor tn oaf of fh \ oiuuuu luaiio, uiiV/V/ auuiiuaiu 111 uil ovo, aiv^ uaiuu i\^ ai 111 undergraduate level. After years of lax enforcement, and an abun dance of loans, students simply defaulted on the loans, neve intending to pay them back. Now, the government is telling us if we default on our loam they are going to garnish our wages while we are in the work fore until we pay them back. Presidential candidate Bill Clinton has been the only candidate t latch on to this issue. The Clinton/Gore higher education program as presented in on of their position papers calls for a Youth Opportunity Corps, national apprenticeship program, worker retraining programs an the establishment of a National Service Trust Fund. The National Service Trust Fund would maintain the Pell Grar program but would scrap the existing student loan program. Thos who borrow from the fund would pay it back either as a small per centage of their income over time, or through community service a teachers, police officers, health care workers, or drug counselors. The plan is a rather noble idea, but begs the question of enforc ing payment or national servitude once a loan from the fund i made. A student could simply opt not to pay feeling that he was nc in the right frame of mind when he made his initial decision, or th? present circumstances have changed. Still, Clinton is to be commended for at least addressing th issue, which is admirable in this campaign of mudslinging ani uncertainty. This idea of funding higher education should be a major issue especially in these hard economic times. We, the college students o today, will be the leaders of tomorrow. But how can the people run ning this country think there will be an American future if fundin for higher education is cut? How can they honestly hope to ge away with not making student loans more accessible and easier t< pay back? Decided to re-enter the presidential race. All you can eat at Stuffy's! Pressed the wrong #'s on TIPS - just wanted to drop French. Lawrence Mitchell gets all the attention. School wasn't doing enough to promote him ac a Woicman ranrAtrlaia Ten years was enough. Going to Europe to find himself. Can now tailgate with the "regular kids." He's going to Disney World anyways Damnit! Could never break the habit of giggling when someone said "Gamecock." co ck Editor in Chief Greg Rickabaugh Managing Editor Patrick Villegas Copy Desk Chief .Jay King News Editors Chad Bray J.T. Wagenheim Viewpoints Editor ....Jack Dunn Features Editor Lee Clontz Sports Editors Nancy Salomonsky Tim Thorsen Photo Editor Stephanie Newlin Graphics Editor Ryan Sims Cartoonist Paul Jon Asst. News Editor Melissa Tennen Asst. Features Editor Jennifer Fuller Asst. Sports Editor Rob Rodusky Asst. Viewpoints Editor C.E. Holman Asst. Photo Editor Lea Clayton Asst. Graphics Editors Kristin Buehlman Gregory Perez Asst. Copy Desk Editor Brian Garland Production Manager . . .Laura Day Asst. Production Manager .Jim Green Faculty Advisor ....Erik Collins Advertising Manager Renee Gibson Student Media Coordinator Jim McKellar Graduate Asst Brian McGuire Darkroom Technicians.. Erin Galloway Rika Hashimoto The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be 200-250 words. Full name and professional title, or year and major if a student, must be included along with address and phone number. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible libel or space limitations. The Gamecock will not withold names under any circumstances. riewpc Accessibility tc It is 6 p.m. on a weekday, and you have not been feeling well all day. Thinking you may be sick, you walk to the Thomson Student Health Center tn hp pvaminpfl hv nnp nf thp staff doctors. You arrive at the front door ,r and try to open it only to find it s locked and all the lights turned off 1 e inside. The health center is only open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 4 p.m. to 8 y p.m. on Sunday, and not even open at all on Saturday. For a major university with over e 25,000 students, these hours seem a little ridicu,r lous. Many students are displeased with the health e center's hours. A large number of students have become sick or injured in the month and three :r weeks classes have been in session and have been unable to receive treatment due to the 5' insufficient operating hours of the health center, e forcing students to visit one of the major hospitals unaffiliated with USC. 0 If students do not have access to medical attention when they need it, the health center's e purpose is completely defeated; therefore, the a money students pay to have professional medd e Death doesn't t s I almost died. This is what I have s decided to write about in this column: >t how I almost died in a car accident. That day, July 3rd, I was driving Iffl home from fixing salads all day. I was Haai e so tired I did not notice the wet roads ^ g ^ or how fast I was driving. I was driving down a hill, two miles shy of my home, and I besan to hydroplane. ' Panicking, I pressed hard on the brake and turned the steering wheel to avoid leaving the road. My l~ efforts failed as the car began riding on the grass. S All I could see was the grass rising before me, jerking my body forward. My seatbelt held me 0 from flying through the windshield when the car was stopped by an embankment. After the impact, I sat still, trying to breathe. For a few seconds, I could not, and a wave of profound weakness washed over my being. Finally, I could breathe, but each breath was labored. Since this was the boondocks, I realized I stood a good chance of not being found in time. With that thought, I leaned on the steering wheel as I undid my seatbelt. A few minutes passed before a beige pickup truck pulled up with a man rushing from the cab. My aims fell exhausted from the wheel, and the weakness was growing. I kept closing my eyes, because it actually made me feel better. Forty minutes after the crash, the ambulance arrived. My body was shifted onto a stretcher while the splintering rain fell upon my face. By this time, my right side was throbbing dully. I was so relieved to be in the ambulance that I Candidate 'toys Last week, two of my friends and I were reminiscing about our childhood toys, about the hours of joy and happiness they gave us, and how they stimulated our imaginations. I felt that our toys could be used to ASS cure many of our social ills. After explaining what I meant, my friends said I should run for president on the issue of absurd reformation. So after days of begging from my "volunteers," and thousands of phone calls, I've reluctantly decided to throw my hat in the ring. I'm dissatisfied with the games the other parties are playing. I am hereby declaring my candidacy for that Washington playroom called the Oval Office. How do I differ from the other candidates? Simple, I think that our childhood toys have created some of our problems, and when used properly, could be used to solve them. Toys are our greatest untapped resource. So, here is my platform for Building Blocks for a Better America on... Health Care: I feel that Mr. Potatohead caused a great trauma to our generation's selfesteem. As children we were all teased about something, whether it be our weight, height, looks, brains, etc. We could never escape our organic bonds, but Mr. P could. If Mr. P ever looked ugly, you could always slap on another nose, mustache, mouth or ears. If only we had that luxury ? So, I'm calling for a federally-funded plastic surgery program to help combat PTPD (Post-Traumatic Potatohead Disorder). To combat the high costs of health care, every home will be supplied with the game Operation. Each person can then practice the dreaded "bread basket" operation. In a few years >ints ) 24-hour medical < mm^W I ical attention is, in a sense, wasted. I understand the economy is still not doing t0 a mo well, and schools, especially state colleges and t0 ^ P'n universities, are forced to cut back on many of Also "^Icplpfr the programs they offer to the students. This most likely explains the health center's hours, an(* a n but there is still no excuse. To cut funds for ate such an essential and fundamental student need, student ensuring one's health and well-being, is simply ^ie absurd. Ensuring students' health should be one fessi?na of the university's main objectives, and funds attentioi should be allocated accordingly. Thou A student's health is also a factor weighing hours 0 heavily on his or her academic performance. jlces 31 discoun After all, a student who is sick for a prolonged counte(j period of time or even a short time, such as Thes< overnight and who does not receive medical helpful attention could be subject to academic problems woui<j \ ranging from lack of an ability to concentrate in accessib >ecome me Irresponsible driving a i jflHlK HHR ST. NEWS EDITOR M did not care that they cut my clothes off. My find the first bout with pain was the I.V. needle which felt crazy, c like a knife being stuck into my arm and twisted es, and around several times. Steve, a paramedic, said i rem my veins were too small. closing In what seemed like minutes, I was at the hos- though pital and in the emergency room, flooded by There \ nurses and X-ray machines. A doctor came, pok- because ing at my swelling belly, causing me to cry out. I write a told him I needed to breathe and I could not, and The i I wanted to cry. cathars When another doctor came to tell me they had awarene to operate and needed me to sign papers, I felt car. In relief. I felt like I was living in a dream, and I lost no remembered vaguely how often I wondered about at how death, my death in particular, and who would cry. wearim Seeing my mother's face with the fear in her Peoplevoice, I almost felt as if I had willed the accident that. It upon myself as if I did not care about the way I this to I drove after I knew how dangerous it was to drive I hea fast down wet country roads. I did not want to lucky. I die. without I emerged from the operation, as if the dream age like were still continuing, except then I felt real pain, face. Th and I had no control over the pain, my body or pie whc anything. During the initial days, I hallucinated olds. % i 1 i wiui senuus camp ^ff IliP^ ? because of home medical schooling, every American would be a qualified surgery, and end on treat today's existing doctor shortage. as any ( Public Housing: I'd do away with all forms M Art: of shoddy, low-cost housing. Instead, all public Endowr housing will be constructed from Legos, Lincoln followi Logs, and Tinker Toys. With the increased Play-do demand for building materials, the Lego coipo- Defe ration would hire new employees, and in the open w process lower the unemployment rate. ried abc Animal Rights: I'd change the Endangered solution Species Act to include the protection of Sea Nerf bu Monkeys, and Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Stealth Legal Reform: Today's adversarial system sure ma doesn't work. Instead of trial by jury, I'd advo- ^nd rate trial hv Pine lark Dunn killed Professor . . wnaia( Plum with a spatula in the pig pen. After being er found guilty, you'd go directly to jail without passing Go, and you would most certainly not . ,. collect $200. j^0 Deficit: No problem. Pay it off with ?^S ! x, sess the Monopoly money. before Energy/Environment: I would get our greatvourseb est physicists to look into ways to harness the energy of the Slinky. If it can go down twenty ^ flights of stairs with a simple nudge, just think looking what the Slinky submarine could do? Toys To reduce the energy usage of fax machines become and photo copiers, I'd require all companies to complex use Silly Putty for their reproductive purposes, people If it can lift a comic off a page, I'm sure it did? I :are needed class to failure for missing an unacceptable number of classes. I know it is unreasonable to expect the health center to be open and operating 24 hours a day and seven days a wpplf hut tn k-ppri thp hmirc hpino maintained now is preposterous. The best solution is to extend the health center's normal operating hours >re reasonable time: for instance, 8 a.m. 1. , the health center could provide a >n crew" consisting of either a doctor urse, or even just a nurse who can operfacilities 24 hours a day. That way, if a hurts himself or wakes in the middle of it feeling feverish, a certified health proil will be there to give him the medical n required. gh there is a definite problem with the f the Student Health Center, its other sere sufficient. It provides the students with ted pharmaceutical prescriptions and disX-ray testing. i facilities and resources are useful and to all of the students at USC, but they oe even more useful if they were more >le to the students. dangerous habit blue cats and became convinced I was floating to the ceiling every time I closed my eyes. What had I done to myself? I wondered. When my mother told me the surgeon thought I could have died and still had a chance of not making it because of infection, I wanted to sob. I could not. There was too much pain for me to : strength to do so. The drugs made me ausing me to curse at my father, the nurswhoever else came near, ember one of my friends yelling at me for my eyes. He continued talking to me as nothing were wrong. And there was. vas. I told him I did not want to die, I was 18 and still had to set old and novel a bunch of novels. reason I am writing this goes beyond a is but more for heightening people's| iss of how easy it is to lose control of a a matter of seconds, everything could be matter how old a person is. I just marvel fragile life is. I continually see friends not I seatbelts, drunk driving or speeding. people my age die because of angers me because there is no need for lappen. r about people my age who were not so was O.K. and emerged from my accident being killed or left with long-term dam: being crippled or left with a disfigured lese are things which happen to older peo> have had lives already, not to 18-yearaign issues would do wonders for IBM's annual report. Just think how much paper we will save. Education: Replace teachers with Speak n' Spell and See n' Say. H Trancnnrlatinn- All rare u/ill Kr made from die cast metal and powered by A A batteries. The combustion engine would be replaced by hamsters imills. This technology currently exists, 3eo owner can tell you. s: All submissions to the National nent for the Arts must be done on the ng mediums: Lite-Brite, Spirograph, h, or Etch-a-Sketch. nse: My foreign policy is quite simple: arfare. However, for those of you wor>ut dying in warfare will like my simple . All ammunition will be replaced with illets, Nerf Scuds, Nerf tanks, and Nerf Bombers. It doesn't eliminate war, but it kes it more fun. so, those are my stances on the issues. ) you think? id on a serious note, our political leaders creativity and flexibility to face today's is. Perhaps, our imaginations, fostered by e Mr. Potatohead and Silly Putty, poskey to our future. So, just think a little y'ou watch the presidential debates. Ask yes, what issues are important to me? en will you be able to find what you're for. and games. For adults, politics has the largest game of all, with the most c rules, and yields the largest prize. Few take it seriously, isn't it about time we