The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 07, 1992, Page 2, Image 2
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
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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