The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 18, 1994, Page 3, Image 3
m
"?ail
Serving V
J.T. Wagenheim, Editor in Chi
Editor!
Wendy Hudson, Carson !
Nancy Salomoi
Merit
Lawsuit against Educatic
ignores that boys, girls ai
XTTThn'": smarfpr hnvc nr oirlc? A
/ debate has spurred FairTest,
?T the American Civil Liberties
Service and the College Entrance Exa
FairTest and the ACLU claim ETS ai
Board slant the Preliminary Scholastic
ship Qualifying Test to obtain more fs
The reason? Teen-age boys, who t
high school and college than females
test scores with a 60 percent split tov
The test, along with grades, recomi
is used to determine the 6,500 recip
r*\ The ACLU and FairTest claim the I
which, they claim, boys perform bettt
These allegations are both silly and
First, the disparity between the gende
60 percent of the financial aid to the gi
scribed as a wide range of scores. In fa
system into suspicion, because the odd
Second, the executive director of Fait'
tional Merit Scholarship pool with mal
targets male students, who sit in the sa
as their female counterparts, would be
It's difficult to believe ETS is going 1
dents a slight advantage over female i
such a test would be nearly impossibl
Third, the suit criticizes ETS, citing a s
~ when did one gender scoring higher th;
The fact is that girfs are going to th
up in the same houses with the same
claim boys are better at speed and gc
sexist if they weren't using it as critici;
Besides, the test is based on test sc
other achievements, so the test score
the equation.
If thp crnrp? wpip Kiocul in tK? .
IX UIV W "VXV l/lAJWU Ul UIV V/UIU '
arships granted to girls, FaiiTest would
There needs to be a legitimate invesi
jerk, quasi-affirmative action reactions re
Rural Olympi
*with resound
I've always been fascinated by
the Winter Olympics. The sheer
pageantry, the exotic locations
and the fact that I never had a
chance to do any of those
Olympic sports draws me to the
likp a hno fn a miirl nnHaip
^ See, I grew up in Greenville,
and our yearly allocation of winter
weather is rather thin. Two inches
of snow could shut down
Greenville schools for most of the
spring semester, and ice storms
cause bread and milk shortages all
over the city. The only really substantial
winter storms we've gotten
lately come during spring
break, when winter sports are the
' last thing we're thinking of.
Our lack of snow and ice meant
we had to improvise quite a bit to
simulate the sports that epitomize
the thrill of victory and the agony
of defeat.
My brothers and I used to ro
skiing through the mud and slush
that covered the ground after a
torrential one-inch blizzard. We'd
strap a couple of two-by-fours to
our feet and push ourselves along
with broken-off garden rakes.
Cross-country skiing was a very
short-distance event for us,
% because the planks would bury
themselves in the mud after a couple
of graceful moves.
Downhill skiing was even more
difficult; it's really tough to downi_?ii
-l_: - ... ...
nut siu wunout a suDstanuai nui
to ski down. In a surprise move
several bazillion years ago, North
Carolina and Tennessee sneaked
into Greenville and stole ail of the
good mountains, leaving us with
tiny little mounds of dirt.
Freestyle skiing, the precise
acrobatic skiing sport, is much
closer (in appearance) to what I'd
0look like skiing; the only difference
is freestyle skiiers carefully
plan their spinning, jumping
maneuvers, and I'd be flying
down the mountain with absolutely
no rnntrol iumoinc and snin.
ning by sheer gravitational force.
If the Olympic Committee 1
would slacken up the rules on the
biathlon, I could probably compete.
Take off that silly "you've i
gotta wear skis" rule, and I could ;
be tromping through the woods i
Rgaitcockli
Student Media Russell House-USC? Col
J.T. Wagenheim Nancy Salomonsky
Editor in Chief Carolina' Editor
Lee Clontz Tony Santori
Viewpoints Editor Sports Editor
Carson Henderson David Mandrel!
Copy Desk Chief Photo Editor
Gordon Mantler Chris Muldrow
Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor j
Wendy Hudson Nora D?y|e
News Editor Asst. News
The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the
University of South Carolina and is published Monday.
ednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semeslers.
with the exception of university holidays and exam
Periods.
pinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the
editors or author and not those of the University of
j South Carolina.
'lie Board of Student Publications and Communications
is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of
[Student Media is its parent organization.
fcock
'SC Since 190S
ef Lee Clontz, Viewpoints Editor
lal Board
Henderson, Gordon Mantler,
isky, Tony Santori
mal Testing Service
re equal
s if the question isn't silly enough, the
an anti-standardized test group, and
Union to sue the Educational Testing
imination Board.
ad the College Entrance Examination
Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarivorable
scores from male candidates,
ypically have lower overall scores in
, are beating teen-age females in the
/ard males.
mendations and other achievements,
ients of $25 million in financial aid.
. . i t _ ?
est ts Daseu on speea ana guessing,
;r than girls,
insulting.
:r groups isn't that significant. Boys win
iris' 40 percent. This can hardly be dect,
a 50-50 split would call the grading
s against such a split are astronomical,
rest claims the test "helps stock the Nae
fish." To create a test that somehow
me classrooms with the same teachers
: an amazing act of test-writing ability,
ar, far out of its way to give male stustudents,
when the exact science for
e to determine.
ex-discrimination education law. Since
in another indicate sex discrimination?
e same schools as boys and growing
opportunities. The same people that
tessing would refute such a claim as
sm themselves.
ores, grades, recommendations and
:s obviously aren't the only factor in
direction, with 60 percent of the scholn't
have said a word,
igation into the test before any kneesuit
in the watering down of the PSAT.
ics hit home
Ulg lllUU
I
' " Chris Muldrow
GRAPHICS EDITOR
with my .22 squirrel rifle, competing
with the big boys.
Skating events are even more
daunting to me. I can still remember
trying to piddle around the
roller rink, holding on to other
skaters, the wall, the ceiling,
arcade games and anything else I
could hold to maintain my balance.
Once, I grabbed the handle
of a fooseball machine; it slid out,
my skates rolled under the table
and my butt landed on the floor
with a resounding thud. (And if
you've never heard a resounding
thud, you've missed quite a thud.)
Add ifP and cKam-Klad^d cL"it**c
*.*? u&tu v7iiiu i/iuuwu
to my skating skills, and you'd have
a slip-sliding ball of frozen terror
on ice. Of course, 1 don't think I'm
aggressive enough to compete in
figure skating anyway; my crowbar
skills have grown rusty, and I don't
have any husky bodyguards....
Bobsledding this year will be a
little closer to home because
Geoff Bodine of NASCAR fame
designed the sleds. I'll feel a certain
connection to the sledders as
they push the high-tech sled complete
with STP and Hardee's stickers.
I wonder if Bojangles will
have bobsledder cutouts in their
lobbies now.
I used to try the luge at home
with a few modifications to adapt
to our lack of a luge track. 1 tied a
Slip-N-Slide to the chimney,
sprayed it down with a hose, let it
freeze and slid down at breakneck
speeds on top of an aluminum
trash can lid.
So maybe my Olympic torch
svas a roll of toilet paper soaked
in kerosene and masking-taped to
i broom, but the Olympic spirit is
there.
T'j'y *7'7oa Chns Carroll
/ /- / / ZO Coordinator of Student Media
tising. 777-4249 Laura Day
777-6482 Production Manager
umbia, SC 29208 ^
Keith Boudreaux Gregory Perez
Asst. News Production Asst.
p?ii? D . Brian McGuire
Emily Peterson Graduate Ass[
Asst. Photo Renee Gibson
Jimmy Debutts Advertising Manager
Asst. Sports J- Taylor Rutland
_ , , r, . Asst. Advertising Manager
Paul Jon Boscacci ?rik Co|Hns
Cartoonist Faculty Advisor
Letters Polky
The Gamecock will try to print all letters received.
Letters should be 200-250 words and must include full
name, professional title or year and major if a student
Letters must be personally delivered by the author to
The Gamecock newsroom in Russell Mouse room 321.
The Gamecock reserves the right to edit all letters for
style, possible libel or space limitations. Names will not
be withheld under any circumstances.
Viewpoii
Guess wHo<> 3eBii A BAP&
^ ^r,,rn >? "i w,
Papl
"voting is tne nonest ana inaepenat
for ]
Holocaust denu
Three months ago, in the Nov. 15 issue of The
New Yorker, Timothy Ryback examined a difficult
decision presently confronting museum curators
in Oswie^im, Poland: what to do with 4,000
pounds of human hair recovered nearly half a century
ago from the concentrations camps at
Auschwitz.
The hair ? all that remains of the estimated 4
million men, women and children who were murdered
at the infamous site ? has been on display
at the Auschwitz Museum for almost 50 years, a
scathing testament to jhe horrors perpetrated by
one nation against an entire race.
There have always been those who have questioned
the propriety of keeping the hair on display,
but the present problem stands to render such con
(sic) for the Students, by the it.
Students ? Applications for the Absolute <
'94-95 Year avaible (sic) Now.'' by a few fri
Let's start with those SAT verbals. spirit at th
improved. A
Will Moredock ditional app
Journalism graduate student dent groups
founders asl
to provide
Do stands
IF* "1 don't think there can I
i ^ probably not in the test, be
tems i^ai y?u ^?r
KjXl "I think it's not just gender
and culture bias. The tests
experience through the sch<
ferent students get different
^Student personnel serv
troversies irrelevant: After half a century, the hair
is markedly deteriorating.
Museum officials are perplexed as to how to best
preserve the relics, for the hair is widely viewed as
one of the few remaining pieces of incontrovertible,
terrifyingly real evidence of what occurred in
places such as Auschwitz. Time and bureaucracy,
though, conspire against action, and the hair is
slowly turning to dust.
The same, Unfortunately, is true of Auschwitz itself.
In a few decades, there will be nothing left but
a few pictures, some ambiguous documented references
and the existing written testimony to bear
witness to the atrocity of what occurred in the
camps and elsewhere under Nazi Germany.
Given the incredible paucity of tangible evidence
of the Holocaust and the frightening rise in the
number of people who claim such a thing never
even happened, this slow deterioration represents
a horrifying prospect: the possibility that the Holocaust
will fade into nothing more than a symbol of
dubious authenticity, the final euphemistic casualty
of political-correctness.
CPU flier shows need Chairmz
for higher standards Absolute
To the editor: To the editi
The USC faculty senate recently I am writi
voted to raise admission standards, feel it is tii
And not a minute too soon! known. In <
A current poster in Russell House maintain a
for the Carolina Program Union biased repc
announces: "CPU is Programing hurt our ca
tits
>U / f
W6 But MouR \
>LE ?APPL? IS M?
MP
WILL fieoBABLf B&AK I?
PEtAcsf: /T is: or T<
INFE/VO& QuALlTH. X
&h/W\)X TftAPMS L
r;/ 1||
int and fearless exercise of your own fr
pour private gain, but for the public gO(
.1 J r~
u proves need ro]
Patrick Sharbaugh
1 .* COLUMNIST
4 ^ , 1 J'
Last spring, a Roper poll published in the Boston
Globe gave us a jolting indication of just how far
this process has already gone. The poll showed that
as many as one out of three Americans believes it
possible the Holocaust never took place at all.
Much of the present-day doubt can be attributed
to the men and women who call themselves "revi
sionist historians," self-styled authorities who have
cropped up all over the world to dispute, to varying
degrees, the assertion ? heretofore beyond
question ? that the Gennans exterminated an estimated
12 million people.
Revisionists reject every scrap of evidence, even
dismissing eyewitness accounts of inmates, S.S.
guards and camp officials as being either mistaken
or elicited under duress. Not surprisingly, many of
these revisionists are among the loudest voices
commonly heard on the subject of the Holocaust
today; the institutionalized news values of the mass
mprlin It
1I1VU1U ^UUl AlllVV. It.
There is another reason for the spread of ignorance
concerning the Holocaust, though. As the
years creep by and the hateful structures settle
slowly to the earth, as the number of men and
women who survived the horror of the camps inexorably
diminishes, virtually nothing rises to take
their place in the public consciousness. Holocaust
museums and memorials, invaluable as they arc, <
clearly are not enough; one out of three Americans i
are proof enough of that.
But even as the media give a voice to revision- i
111 defends leaders who would be inti
1. forming a new spirit org
t Carolina These students were choj
on proven abilities and spi
:>r: Plans for recruitment ah
ng this letter because I been and will remain to
ne to let tne trutn De students at U5C the oppo
uur group's attempt to become members once
low profile in light of organization became est
>rting, I feel we have The term for a group c
use rather than helped who gather in order to ii
success of a group is "stee
Carolina was organized mittee," not elitists,
ends who decided that We have remained loi
e university could be this semester, since our
ware that, at times, tra- not to appear exclusior
roaches to starting stu- because we're still organi
i are unsuccessful, the preparing for next year's
ked graduate assistants We hope you enjoyed the
the names of student we released at the C
1 1 A A 1 1
iraizea tests nave a gendi
oe. The biases are ^on'i
it in the school sys- a comp
tie test." People
arrie Ayn Hiser hM
Nursing freshman
bias, but also racial IP ' V< BfjAI "I can't
are based on your than I
x)l system, and dif- classes,
information." the bett
*r a
turie Aaronson
ices graduate student
I '*
;V; J I:
1||
kV/ as- $ *
0
ism out of proportion of its actual claim, they occasionally
provide us with shining examples of the
power they possess to document history and preserve
it beyond the reach of such cries. Steven
Spielberg's powerful film "Schindler's List" is only
the most recent and visible example of this power.
There have been others, and we can only hope
there will be more. Because not only are the media
capable of preserving the truth of history; they
have an obligation to do so. Not a history characterized
by tasteless subservience to tawdry sensationalism,
but a history of the things that matter,
things like the systematic liquidation of some 12
million living, breathing human beincs.
As members of a market society, in which everything
is ultimately reduced to the value of a dollar,
we are under a similar obligation. We must make
the decision ourselves. If it is tripe we ask for, tripe
we most assuredly will be given. We have been
charged by history with a profound responsibility:
to never forget.
But we cannot expect the directors, the authors
and the producers to continue to carry out this task
if in return we offer nothing but apathy It is indeed
far easier to ignore truths that make us uncomfortable.
But it is only by making ourselves regularly,
excruciatingly aware of such truths that we
can justify our own right to existence.
It has been said that the news is the first draft of
history. If so, then it is a matter of utmost historical
imperative that the voice of the novel and the
sensational ? the stuff we routinely call "news" ?
not be allowed to supersede reality as the history
of today.
Because in the end, we are only so many piles
of bone and skin and hair, hurriedly crumbling to
dust. When those of us alive today are gone, history
will judge us by what we leave behind, most
of which, unfortunately, will last forever.
crested in Clemson game, which was the first
anization. time in many years in which that
>en based accomplished.
n1. The only goal Absolute Carolina
ivavs have
ailow~afl has is lhe imProvemenl of spirit at
itunity to un*versit>'- Its functions are
the new done for the benefit of the entire
ablished. student body. We have not selfishly
f people formed in order to obtain blocknsure
the seating for ourselves. We just wish
ring com- to make the campus sports scene a
little more exciting by organizing
v profile themes ancj events in which all can
oun ing, enj0y piease |et us know of your
tary, but
izing and ldeas Go Cocks!
activities.
balloons David Culbertson
Carolina- Absolute Carolina chairman
er bias?
t think that you can know that without
lete analysis of the educational system,
need to look at things holistically."
Chris Goforth
International studies senior
say for sure. Some women did better
did. Maybe women study more for
because whoever studies more gets
er grades."
Rashan Lindsey
Media arts freshman
la m *i* ? 4Jr?x
>/'y^I Hold 'BouT
y^oBtti $u&T
I ?^' ^mcM
lulfflLJr Jr c/n/-/irdP
fV> \ J
anchise...a trust confided to you not
3d."
Catholic Bishops of the U.S.
1840
r understanding