The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 19, 1996, Page 3, Image 3
Friday, January 19, 1996
15a
Serving
Wendy Hudson, Editor in Chi
Tina Morgan, Brent 5
Edite
k Chris Dixon, Martha Hotop, Karen Layi
* Ryan Sims, Stephanie Sonnenfeld, Cece
O P I
Student gov
concerned,
As election season |K9VT
draws near, The
^ 7
? Gamecock would like to 5
encourage all concerned, gov
competent and intelligent e\
students not to run for
student government
positions.
To those of you who desire a bette
learning environment at thi
university, we strongly advise yoi
to concentrate on your studies rathe
than campus politics.
If you think there are more din
and distressing issues than narkini
and chili-dog costs, please rip up tha
filing form. This campus doesn't nee<
your help.
Lastly, the lot of you who jus
t want to make a contribution in an;
way you can, stick a sock in it an<
go home. Let's leave the governinj
to those who really know what the/r
doing. After all, new ideas shaki
things up. Leadership requiresi
stable environment, a dedication t<
the status quo. Those who rock th<
boat too much are destined to b<
disliked, distrusted and eventually
ignored. The Gamecock would lik<
to save you from this pain.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
DJ: students s\
The "plight" of WUSC seems to be
the newest controversy around campus
Instead of jumping on the "Trey didn'i
do it," bandwagon, I am totally for the
change of the station. It is about time
someone took control, because many o
the members of WUSC were out-of-hand
Let's open our eyes to the obvious
The majority of the students at the
University of South Carolina have i
different musical taste than WUSC's
alternative format. In a poll taken lasl
year, the majority of the students were
"country" oriented. Not only was the
majority neglected, but other musica]
tastes, sucn as ii&tf ana rap, receive
little support from the station. Students
should not be punished because thej
"cannot tell the difference between
Superchunk and Superman, or Alice ir
Chains from Alice in Wonderland. A
station as "prestigious" as WUSC should
be willing to cater to the needs of all
students rather than one particulai
group. Especially since a portion of each
student's activity fees are used to support
the radio station.
Since the students support the station
with our funds, we should be heard. It
has been said that the station manager
has the right to decide what format is
to be used. Since Lofton stated he
"worked to increase student involvement,"
he Should be more aware of the student's
preferences. If this were taken into
account, there would most likely be a
greater interest from the student body.
Lofton also said "It's those people
who come out and get involved in the
radio station that have the right to
determine what the station should be
about." It would appear from these
statements that Lofton is concerned with
student's opinions about WUSC, but in
reality his continual support for the
''tBaiffcocl? x
SfnHpnt M*?rlia RiisspH Hnn<;p-l JSC!* (
Wendy Hudson Robbie Meek
Editor in Chief \fatt Pruitt
Ryan Wilson Sports Editors
Managing Editor Allison
Tina Morgan Williams
Brent Seeliger Special Projects
Viewpoints Editors Ethan Myerson
Martha Hotop Graphics Editor
Cece von Kolnitz Karen Layne
News Editors Deanna
Chris Dixon McLendon
Stephanie Keith
Sonnenfeld Boudreaux
Features Editors Copy
The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the
University of South Carolina and is published Tuesday
through Friday during the fall and spring semesters, with
the exception of university holidays and exam periods.
Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of (he
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 Department of
Student Media is its parent organization.
Hcock
use Since 1908
ef Ryan Wilson; Managing Editor,
ieeliger, Viewpoints Editors
trial Board
te, Robbie Meek, Tyson Pettigrew, Matt Pruitt
von Kolnitz, Robert Walton, Allison Williams
N I O N |
erning not for
conscientious
XTitJTSH Government's also a
tremendous waste of your
tudent time. Think of the
eminent countless deadlocked
'ections committee meetings
dedicated to important
things like academics.
Everything will run much smoother
r it you just keep your opinions to
s yourself. We don't benefit from new
i methods or fresh insight,
r What this university needs are
more resume padders, those clever
e individuals who use their SG position
I as a springboard for their fiitures.
t They exhibit two of the most
i important qualities of public office:
ambition and self-concern. They never
t whine. They always stand on the
y same predictable dead issues, and
1 they always stick together .Without
I them we'd never get anything done,
e We need these people to make
a things run smoothly?without conflict
a or uncomfortable controversy. We
d can't afford to have the walls of the
a establishment shaken by problem
a solvers and concerned individuals.
f The professionals are handling things
a just fine. Don't embarrass yourselves
by trying to improve things.
lould be heard
i station's unpopular format shows
otherwise.
t The new direction the station is
} headed towards will benefit the student
i body as a whole rather than specific
f cliques. Hopefully students will support
change and show a greater interest in
5 a station that now ultimately belongs
; to them.
i
; David Hornsby
t WUSC disk jockey
i WUSC should keep
; present format
r
t I enjoyed seeing your pie chart in
i Thursday's edition of The Gamecock,
l which illustrated the wide array of student
i music tastes at USC. This diversity is
1 exactly why WUSC should keep its
present format. We play an enormous
l variety of music daily. Maybe The
1. ..1J :_i- ? j?;i l j?i_
. vjcuiicvuva. luuiu pi nit <t uimy scneuuie
that includes the D?Fs name, the type
i of show and maybe the DJ's musical
; influences, so people will know what's
on the air and when. I can't take credit
i for the idea, but I believe it's a great one.
I do not understand talk about the new
opportunity for the station people keep
mentioning. We already cater to the
i diversity of the student body with our
current free-form format. I apologize to
the 11 percent who think we should play
top 40, but the remaining 89 percent of
i the student body should know we have
i something to offer.
Rhett Power
WUSC disk jockey
.vs: 111-7726 Chris Carroll
vertising- 777-4249 Director of Student Media
X: 777-6482 Laura Day
Creative Director
^olumbia, SC 29208 Jeff A. Breaux
Tyson Pettigrew A" Dl"c,or ,
Robert Walton Sue McDonald
Photo Editors Jim Speehnon
Adam Snyder Graduatc Assistants
Jennifer Stanley Gene Crawford
Asst. News Sorin Nelersa
I tiev A rnnlH Production Assistants
Dipka Bhambhani Marilyn Edwards
Asst. Features Taylor
AchimHunt Marketing D,rector
Asst. Sports Erik Collins
Ryan Sims Faculty Advisor
Online Editor Jason JefferS
Cartoonist
Letters Policy
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 House 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.
i hat? this pi
i 5VtoOLl> STEMC
\ Of 6"i TMfie
^__JL ^
rad
QUOTE, UNQUOTE
"The reason why I love
can take
Budget WO1
Ah 1996, this year could not have
come soon enough for most South
Carolinians. This is the year conservative
states urvc uui uwii uui lcisii uui a.i uiie
democratic administration of Bill Clinton
and try to run him out of office in
November.
Oh well, I guess we all can have
our delusions of grandeur.
Just recently WIS, the local NBC
affiliate, sponsored the first Republican
debate between the presidential
candidates. The commercials leading
up to the debate said South Carolina
would be a key state in the November
election.
I have a great deal of respect for
WIS; they are light years ahead of the
other Columhia stations hut T can't
believe they were pretentious enough
to say our eight electoral votes were
important in deciding the fate of the
next four years.
I will admit the Republican
candidate who wins the primary in
states like South Carolina will more
than likely get the Republican nod for
the November election, but ultimately
it won't matter.
I have said before that Bill Clinton
will win re-election, and the recent
battle over the budget helped his chances
for a second term. The budget battle
brought out some aspects of the
Republicans on Capitol Hill they would
have probably like to have kept in check.
In the budget war, the Republicans
/T> 4-^ ~ cc
c,r lu unci
Welcome back! Carolina Productions
has been working hard to bring you the
veiy best of programming for the spring
semester. We have a full schedule
planned for the next few months and
we are very excited about the start of
our second semester.
Carolina Productions has experienced
a great deal of change over the past
year. We are a relatively new student
organization, having replaced the
Carolina Program Union and
Homecoming Commission. As the largest
programming organization at Carolina,
we are committed to providing the finest
in entertainment, educational, and
traditional events. Carolina Productions
offers programs that appeal to the diverse
student population and the Columbia
community.
What does Carolina Productions
have to offer you? Well, besides the
n l*
many programs we oner, Carolina
Productions can provide you with
organizational skills and unparalleled
experience. We are a student run
oiganizatian in every sense, which means
that students have the ability to decide
which programs to bring and how to
spend the budget we are allocated
through student activity fees. Our
students are exposed to exciting new
ideas, enhancing co-curricular
development. We are all volunteers,
responsible for the selection of program
that we feel will best represent the
diverse interests and needs of the
Carolina community. We leam valuable
skills in areas such as organization,
Ifipiwp
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working with the camp is b
away all the pain and just li
Nickie DeLucco, pharmacy freshman
es signal GO
have come I dvam I
across as being WILSON
> bitter and just jMETHTpnTT?}
driven to bring I
down Clinton.
(Even Bob Dole deserted his party's
stance after he realized the government
shutdown was hurting his fellow
veterans.) It seems the longer the
Republicans keep this up, the more
Clinton will look like the best of all
evils.
A i ? T J.1 LJ l .fiL _
miu siiius 1 oni uii uie suujtxi ui me
balanced budget, has anyone else
considered how asinine the concept of
a balanced budget is?
There are not many people in
America that can manage a balanced
budget. My parents don't have a
balanced budget because, like most of
our parents, they have a mortgage
payment to make every month.
For those of you who have credit
cards? same deal A credit card is used
when people don't have the money on
hand to pay for something, which
inherently defeats the idea of a balanced
j x nrc !?x t ? j x 1 -
uuugeu nie jjuiiii i am uying ui inake
is if the average American can't keep
a balanced budget, then why should
we expect our government to do it.
I guess what makes the whole
problem worse is that those waging
the battle for a balance budget also
know that it is an impossible task that
requires some sacrifices that most
Americans believe they can't make
diverse prog
running a | julye 1
meeting, and JOHNS
preparing a i
budget. The
best part is the exciting opportunities,
such as working backstage at a concert <
or getting to meet a well-known speaker ]
firsthand. ]
Carolina Productions is organized i
into eight separate commissions and
four committees. The commissions are i
each responsible for meeting a specific I
set of programming needs. The ]
commissions are: ]
Black Cultural, assigned the job of ]
bringing programming to USC that ]
reflects African-American culture and ]
interests, meets in Room 348 at 7pm j
on Wednesdays
Cinematic Arts, setting the movie ;
schedule for the Russell House Theater, ]
publicizing the movies and programming ]
other movie related events, meets in ]
Room 309 at 7pm on Tuesdays <
Concerts, bringing a variety of musical <
programming to Carolina, meets in (
D oao -i. n rrv. ]
ivuuiii &uo at /pm on luesuays j
Homecoming, planning all the <
Homecoming activities, meets in Room ;
348 at 7:30pm on Tuesdays i
Ideas and Issues, bringing ^
programming to USC that addresses
issues about which USC students are j
concerned, meets in Room 203 at 6:30pm <
on Mondays ]
Performing Arts, addressing the j
student's cultural needs through plays, j
dance companies and other performances, (
meets in Room 201 at 7pm on Mondays ,
'j / '
"TH'S gutflcfl CfWlT)
>fr<r, foncy' v>e *STiiiN^
'f"1 Alt I |
twflft TOf5! / rl
y - ^
~jn
6 CONSERVATIVE ^
ecause for one day you
lave fun"
P downfall
(i. e. raising taxes).
So with that in mind, our
representatives take another option,
cutting funding from existing services
to free money to finance the debt. The
first place they go to cut funding is
higher education and service
organizations like AmeriCorps. (They
can do that because they know that
college students don't vote in large
enough numbers to receive any
consideration.)
Ideally, cutting funding is not a long
term solution to our budget woes and
will hurt more citizens than it will help.
In a situation as dire as those in power
make ours out to be, the only way to
get revenue to balance the budget is
to generate new revenue by raising
taxes, or re-evaluating tax exemptions
Z*
ior Dig Dusinesses.
As I said before, American society
has a bad opinion of taxes, and we are
often swayed by new tax gimmicks
because we feel they will lessen our
tax load.
In gallops Steve Forbes with his
grand plan for flat tax.
Sure, most of middle-class America
will benefit some from a flat tax, but
not as much as those in Forbes tax
bracket who will receive a six-figure
tax cut if his flat rate is in place. I bet
those six figures could help balance the
budget.
But why should they? It will never
balance anyway.
f1/! m iV\ 4 nr
.lamming
Special Programs, bringing a wide
variety of programming, ranging from
comedians to novelty acts, meets in
Room 203 at 6:30pm on Wednesdays
Traditional Events, programming
events such as Breakfast with the
President, the Carolina Stepp-Off, and
participating! in other USC traditions,
meets in Room 348 at 6pm on Mondays
Each commission meets weekly in
the Russell House. The four committees
^Finance, Policy, Membership, and
Marketing) function on an oiganizational
level and are managed by the Vice
Presidents. The Commissioners, Vice
Presidents, and myself comprise the
Executive Council, which oversees the
actions of the board.
This semester we will be sponsoring
a variety of events for Black History
Month, Women's History Month,
Diversity Week, and International Week,
[n addition, we have a blockbuster movie
schedule, with recent hits such as "Get
Shorty" and "Waiting to Exhale" and
aider favorites like "Less Than Zero"
and "Midnight Run." We will also be
sponsoring comedian Mitch Mullany
and author Cornell West, and there are
nany of other exciting plans in the
vorks.
We will soon begin to select the
members of the 1996-1997 Executive
Council, so look out for the applications.
For those of you who are interested in
binding out more about what we do,
alease stop by our office in Room 235
)f the Russell House. We hope to see
/ou at our events!
- 3^
Columnist
advocates
Alexander
rnnjit tommy
1996.1 hope you touchberry
had a great
Christmas ||BUliiiiliflfli
break. I'm now
ready to embark on my final semester
at USC. I will finally graduate in May,
but I still have plenty of political and
social commentaiy to offer you in my
final weeks as an op-ed writer for The
Gamecock.
Today, I will offer commentary on
recent developments with the budget
debate and the recent GOP Presidential
debate in Columbia Also, I will comment
on Bill Clinton's latest lying conference.
First, the debate over balancing the
federal budget has raged on during the
holidays. Bill Clinton also refuses to accept
a reasonable budget plan. He continues
to hold up our economic futures. Clinton
says he wants to take the conservative
vs. liberal debate to the American people
during the upcoming elections. That's
fine with me.
If we have an honest debate between
two viewpoints, I am confident the
conservative argument will win in a
landslide. The American people are too
intelligent to vote for a return to the Med
Dolicies of biff government liberalism. We
vote for Lamar Alexander. I believe he
would be the best candidate to run against
Bill Clinton. I believe it would be
interesting to see a campaign between
two southerners, one who believes in true
southern values and one who believes in
Washington, D.C. values. Lamar
Alexander has the best message and, in
my opinion, would beat Clinton by a 6040
margin.
Next, Bill Clinton hosted a nationally
televised news conference Jan. 11. During
this lying conference, he made several
statements that can be proven false by
factual information. Luckily Newt Gingrich
1 1 It
quiCKiy responded witn nis own news
conference that day. Newt pointed out
many of these same factual inconsistencies.
Clinton repeatedly referred to the
GOPs policies on Medicare and Medicaid
as a cut. As Newt illustrated, the GOPs
plan is not a cut It is an increase ofl82%
over the next seven years. That's a
mathematical fact!
Another lie Bill put forth was the
amount of deficit reduction he has
accomplished so far. He said the deficit
had been reduced bv half since he took
office. Again not true! The deficit was
$200 billion in 1992, and it is about the
same for 1995.
Furthermore, Clinton said the
government had been shut down because
of the radical Congress. At the same time,
he blamed the budget deficits of the 1980s
on Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
Look, Bill, you can't have your cake and
eat it too! The budget problem is either
the responsibility of the president or the
Congress or both. I would say both.
When placing blame, we should look
at what each party has attempted. The
fact is, Ronald Reagan submitted a
balanced budget three times. The liberalcontrolled
house rejected his budget every
time. This led to compromised budgets
with more spending and greater deficits.
n11mti rr Plinf An'n flwnl
vyiixiiAjii s inst iwu jrcois, tuc
liberals controlled both the Congress and
the presidency. The result was a deficit
of $200 billion. This led to the Republican
revolution in 1994. The American people
finally realized the problems were
extravagant liberal spending policies.
We may finally get a balanced budget
this year. If we don't, then the American
people should try the one thing that hasn't
been tried yet Elect a Republican president
to go along with the Republican Congress.
If that happens, a balanced budget will
be passed in 1997.1 guarantee it!
have made substantial progress in the
_ past year, and we must keep moving
forward.
The budget must be balanced by
setting reasonable limits on the increase
in social spending, eliminating wasteful
programs, reforming beneficial programs
and decreasing the tax burden on all
Americans. We must also have a president
with a strong sense of morality, a president
who can truly lead our nation toward
moral and cultural renewal.
O 11.. r*i PAD 1:J 'i.
ocwiiuiy, oiA ui uie vj\jr uuiuiuates
for president participated in a recent
debate in Columbia I was quite impressed
with each of them. I thought Alexander
and Keyes were clearly the best, but I do
like Buchanan's honesty and willingness
to boldly stand up for his beliefs. I was
disappointed that Bob Dole and Steve
Forbes were no-shows. I would really
have liked to hear their views and
discourse.
You may remember last September
I announced in this column my support
for Buchanan's bid for the GOP
nomination. After closer analysis of the
issues, I have changed my mind. I still
like Pat a lot, but I now plan to cast my