Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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V Newton Recruitment allegations overshadow basketball season, hurt Over the past few weeks, the USC Athletics Department has recovered from many crippling blows. The football team lost its first five games. Students and fans were upset, so they called for Sparky's head on a silver platter. Next, the Gamecocks staged a revolt and went to The Associated Press to tell how horrible this season had been. Now after the uprising, Athletics Director King Dixon will be reassigned to other duties and the Gamecocks have gone on a fourgame winning streaks. Bill JUSl wnen uie sun siarieu 10 rise again, uie uaiK eiuuus nave begun looming on the horizon. This time involving the basketball team. This past week, USC's NCAA Compliance Officer David Didion began an internal investigation into the basketball program's recruitment of Cortez Barnes. Sources have said Barnes, who is not enrolled at USC, may have received free practice gear from the coaching staff, and may have been living in The Roost dormitory free of charge. If the allegations are true, USC could face probation and could be excluded from television coverage and championship events, like the Southeastern Conference tournament. Within the past six months, Didion also conducted an investigation into Percy Eberhardt. Questions arose concerning a June 4-5 trip by Eberhardt from his Georgia home to Columbia and back with a USC assistant coach. USC penalized itself by limiting its recruiting visits and giving up Eberhardt as a recruit. This past year, one of USC's most promising recruits, Carlos Turner, was lost after an incident in which police say he stabbed his girlfriend numerous times. When Head Basketball Coach Steve Newton first came to USC, he said he wanted to "recruit the right kind of student." If the allegations are true, is the basketball program recruiting tne rignt kind of students and is Newton tne kind ot coacn to set a good example for these students? USC may have already lost one recruit this week because of the possibility of probation next year. Can the basketball program afford to lose any more recruits when it has to rebuild from the loss of seven seniors this past year? Three strikes and you're out. If Newton is guilty of these charges, he should quietly leave this university before the administration is forced to fire him. A first-year coach should not have recruiting violations. How can a program establish itself as a quality program in a new conference when its coaching staff ruins its credibility with possible offcourt improprieties. The basketball season begins soon. USC faces a horrendous schedule against some tough SEC teams. The team does not need the distractions of an investigation or the search for a new coach to ruin their focus. A solution should be handed down quickly by the investigating committee. If Newton has to go, get him out and replace him quickly or the season (basketball, as well as, recruiting) will be lost. "IBariftro rk 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 Graphic Editor Ryan Sims Cartoonist Paul Jon Asst. News Editor Melissa Tennen Asst. Features Editor Jennifer Fuller Asst. Sports Editor Rob Rodusky Asst. Photo Editor Lea Clayton Asst. Graphics Editors Kristin Buehlman Greaorv Perez Asst. Copy Desk Editor Brian (Garland Student Media Coordinator Jim McKellar Production Manager Laura Day Asst. Production Manager Jim Green Faculty Advisor Erik Collins Advertising Manager Renee Gibson Graduate Asst Brian McGuire Darkroom Technicians Erin Galloway Rika Hashimoto The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be no more than 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. The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the University of South Carolina and is published three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the fall and spring semesters and weekly during both summer sessions, with the exception of university holidays and examination periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of the University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Student Media Department is the parent organization of The Gamecock. Change of address forms, subscriptions, requests and other correspondence should be sent to The Gamecock, P.O. Box 85131, The University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. Subscription rates are $46 a year. First class postage paid at Columbia, SC. The Gamecock is a registered student organization of the University of South Carolina and is partially funded by student activity fees. iewpo hJoW liHAT ?V? Wor AQESIPENCM, XHOf AMERICAN PEOPLE i ALU THAT WAS SA VmNG mis CAM I I AB' ^ CH/ Get a graphics edit Despite recent events, my semester as The Gamecock's editor is something I will never forget. It's a far cry from my job at USC-Beaufort as editor of The Shrimp, the monthly tabloid which I spent two years of my college career working on and learning from. We printed 800 copies each issue for a small, but enthusi- L astic, student body. Many small colleges are not fortunate enough to have a college newspaper. And some larger college newspapers are of poor quality, while others are tremendous in size and quality. Here is a list of other college newspapers and how they compare to The Gamecock: The Lantern, Ohio State University. The Lantern is a lab newspaper under their journalism college. This newspaper has just recovered from a devastating semester last year when the entire staff either quit or was fired because of a disagreement over prior review. The adviser wanted to look over articles for potential libel before they were printed. The students wanted complete control of their newspaper. Now the university runs the newspaper as a lab class. The overall look is terrible. It is very gray with photographs played down to large articles. They use too many Associated Press phoMeal plans nee Have you used your meal card lately? I have. In fact, I use it three times a day, every day, every week. I have a 21-meal plan. r You may have heard of it: it's the meal plan that was on my freshman dining information card with the "best value" label that's usually reserved for the three-gallon Cokes at the Jiffy Mart. It's the meal plan that gives you the option of standing in line at a wide variety of dining facilities for three meals a day. It's the meal plan that guarantees I'll waste enough meals to feed a small Third World nation for a decade. I've discovered it is totally impossible for a college student to eat 21 meals in a week. I find myself going to the Grand Marketplace and loading up on Bar-B-Q flavored Fritos just to avoid wasting a meal. I cry myself to sleep with guilt if I skip lunch so I can go by the hot dog lady's cart. It's very difficult to get all my meals, though. For one thing, it seems all of USC's 20,000 students sprint for Russell House as soon as thev see*me walking out of Gambrell. I haven't even been to the Sidewalk Cafe ? it must have some real good food because most of Columbia eats there right after my logic class. Second, the card is on some kind of insane time schedule that totally eliminates my habit of eating breakfast at noon, lunch at 4 p.m., and dinner at 10 p.m. on the weekends. If you Christians should p Lately, I've been hearing a whole lot of talk about discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice on the campus. I'm against any kind of preju- r dice whatsoever, and it makes me very angry to see or hear any kind of social bigotry. The only thing that's any less mature, in my mind, is seeing Dan Quayle and A1 Gore in a debate together. L I suppose it's my upbringing that's made me feel this way. I've been a Roman Catholic all my life (and I'm proud of it, too) and we're taught not to discriminate against anyone no matter what their belief, race, sexual preference, etc. I can't understand why people who are gay or people who are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or of any non-Christian religion are discriminated against by people who call themselves Christians. First of all, I believe that gays are born the way they are. There's a lot of genetic evidence supporting this statement and, besides, why would someone choose to live a lifestyle in which they were going to be discriminated against? In addition, haven't you people noticed that most gays who appear on various talk shows and interviews say they've known they were gay since they were small children? It's almost the same as someone being born retarded or with downs syndrome. They deserve what the Constitution gives to all the people in America, and that's equality. The guys who stand in front of the Russell ints ~rm: 11 1 forget ^ q 7mm I ?5".?52!! out "iouR rfwmisca. IRACTE*?^ or! A look at other i EDITOR IN CHIEF | tographs and not enough campus photos. They don't even have an editorial page most of the time. That's the price a university pays for-prior review. B The Miami Hurricane, University of Miami. This is a real college newspaper. Their print quality is comparable to The State newspaper. They are an extremely upbeat newspaper and have graphics and color photos flooding their lively pages. It's hard NOT to be jealous of their awesome photography, good news coverage, special sections, and nice use of headlines. Florida college newspapers are typically upbeat and often have talented staff members. It was funny last month, though, when they forgot to put the name of the newspaper on the front page. How embarrassing! B The Crimson White, University of Alabama. The first thing that strikes me is the d to express m< * * COLUMNIST]^^ haven't had breakfast by 11 a.m., you have to use your lunch meal (even if the "GMP" hasn't thrown out the bacon and biscuits yet). It seems if I paid for 21 meals I should be able to eat all 21 at 1 p.m. Sunday night in a huge Marriot meal system blitz. Who wants to eat meal-system food every day, anyway? It's not necessarily bad stuff (College of Charleston- now that's bad food...), but it can't be particularly healthy to eat it all the time. I have my questions about the effect those magnetic card readers are going to have on me, too. With my luck, any kids I have could grow up addicted to greasy Gamecock Grill bacon burgers. The dining facilities make me a bit uneasy, too. It seems like only two lines at the Gamecock are open at a time. Bates cafeteria is just too dang far away. That picture of the ducks at the Patio makes me lose my appetite. The handicapped door at GMP never seems to open. Baker Street is always out of Carolina Hot iractice toleration, i rCSr COLUMNIST iflSr I House with their signs up and their Bibles in the air waving at everyone are going about it all the wrong way. They have the right to believe what they want to believe, but discrimination is just dead wrong. Besides, some of the statements these guys preach are ludicrous. For example, the statement that AIDS is God's punishment to the gays is probably the dumbest saying in the history of man, next to Bill Clinton saying he tried marijuana, but didn't inhale. Yeah, I suppose He's punishing unborn babies, too. It is wrong for Jews, Muslims, and people of any non-Christian denomination to be persecuted by these so-called Christians. I mean, sure their beliefs are different from Christian beliefs, but that's no excuse to put them down or tell them they'll burn in hell because only God knows that and I believe, like most Catholics I know and even some Protestants I know, that God is a little more complex than that. I know what the Bible says, but what you have to understand is people interpret the Bible differently. Moreover, Jesus Christ was not a bigot. In fact, He loved those who were diseased, unfaith 1 im college newspapers large amount of space they take up saying the name of the newspaper. They must be on an ego trip. The president could die and their headline would not upstage their own nameplate. ihe rest of the newspaper is really gray. They have nice color photos on the front, but they play them small and below the fold too many times. They need a good graphics editor to play with the design. The Tiger, Clemson University. This tabloid-sized newspaper comes out once a week. And all I can remember is my Clemson friend, Andy, calling me and saying how lousy it was and the little respect it was given. They have an interesting entertainment section called "Time-Out." But with no journalism college, it's hard to expect much from the newspaper. Their newspaper comes out on Friday, so news is often old. They do a good job of covering the news on campus, but their front page is often gray with no graphic appeal to it. They also need a graphics editor who can make the paper more upbeat. If you compare us to others, The Gamecock has a lot to be proud of. But of course, that's coming from me. >re flexibility Wings. Another problem I have is the fact I don't have a cash card. If I had a penny for every time I had to break a dollar to give the cash register lady a penny, I'd...be right back wnere 1 startea. 1 aon i get a cara, tnougn, because I feel like with 21 meals I shouldn't J need extra money. It's the principle of the thing. It's tough not to go over, though, because the pricing system of the food is screwed up. Watch the little LCD screen next time the cash registermeister runs your card through ? it looks like your price goes up, and then down, and then sideways. It doesn't help that prices at the GMP aren't listed. Your mealtime becomes a big toss of the dice- will the two cents in your pocket be enough money, or will you face the ultimate embarrassment of relinquishing your meal card until you pay the nine cent difference? I've decided what I'm going to do about the meal plan. I'm stockpiling Fritos and Rice Krispies. I'm filling up my Ecomug and dumping it into a beverage storage tank in my dorm. I'm stacking up Baker Street M&M cookies on my floor. I'm buying a little grill and having mini-cookouts every night on my LaBorde balcony. I'm going to be prepared when I dump my 21 meal plan. Of course, that 14 meal plan sounds a little better... lot discrimination ful to their spouses, and even those who hated Him and who betrayed Him. Furthermore, the Bible is often taken out of context just like lyrics in heavy metal songs. Christians too often don't practice what they preach. They believe in the teachings of Christ, but do nothing to live as He did. They turn right around and give gays, Muslims, jcw\ auu any uuiei giuup.s ui peupie, wnu aie too complex for their narrow little minds to comprehend, a hard time. People are entitled to believe what they want to believe and I respect that. That's what's great about America, but let s cut the bull, people. We're all equal in God's eyes and He's the one who will be the judge in the end. Believe what you will, but let's not break up friendships over these differences. That's what's wrong with this country and the world today. The Bible predicts Armageddon, and if we'ie not careful we could be headed toward a similar holy war in our country. I don't mean to sound like I'm overreacting, but this kind of tension can very easily lead to violence (look at the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland). The way to avoid this is to unite with one another despite our differences and litis applies to all situations of prejudices. It's like Axl Rose (a Christian music fan's worst nightmare) says in Guns n' Roses song "Civil War"?"What's so civil about war anyway?" That's right. Nothing.