Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Thursday, January 25,1996 18a Serving Wendy Hudson, Editor in Q Tina Morgan, Brent Edit Chris Dixon, Martha Hotop, Karen Lay Ryan Sims, Stephanie Sonnenfeld, Ceci O P I 4* at safety call boxes and university polic patrol at all hours on foot as well a in car. Student organizations als contribute to our safety. The Alph Phi Omega fraternity offers a rid home at night when students do nc want to walk alone. So with all of the good, the ba must follow. For instance, three year ago a garage space cost about $10( Last semester it cost $160. Was th increase in cost proportional to th increase in safety we all though would follow? Have the lightin systems improved or security officer been placed nearby? Until this ever at Woodrow, parking on the stree was the safest option because th THE UNIVERSITY Did you attend A U _ A. L.. rairr it not, wn? to do to attract time? CpJMMSgili; "No, I didn't be Melva Brow *& English freshme "No, I didn't kr Rod Atklnsc Computer scien "No. I was intei jMk 2:15 p.m. They ^KKS Humanities bt g*g JMg j 1HK JIN Spanish junior jypiu. inyi^ij "Yes. I went wit || f was on campus Claudine Mi iSaftotk ?, Student Media Russell House-USC? Wendy Hudson Robbie Meek Editor in Chief Matt p^tt 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 Copy Desk Sonnenfeld Ryan Sims Features Editor ? Online Editor The Gamecock is the student newspaper of tl University of South Carolina and is published Tuesd; through Friday during the fall and spring semesters, wi the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of tl editors or author and not those of the University 1 South Carolina The Board of Student Publications and Commumcatioi is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department Student Media is its parent organization. students, ui must contril The buddy system is back. IHU Last Friday a student's car was stolen from behind on Woodrow Apartments and found in a community carwash, torched from the inside out Her doors were The unlocked, but how could coult this happen in the middle but st of campus? to We've got several c< parking garages on campus. Have you been walking frar them at night by yourself? If s eas to forget about safety, but we shoul all take this robbery as a wake-u call. The university has provided man ways to help ensure our safety whil on campus. For example, there ar ifftcodt ? USC Since 1908 lief Ryan Wilson, Managing Editor, Seeliger, Viewpoints Editors orial Board 'ne, Robbie Meek, Tyson Pettigrew, Matt Pruitt e von Kolnitz, Robert Walton, Allison Williams N I O N liversity bute to safety ?PTW9Nl! cars in the garage spaces MmhmH were always being broken Safety into. Now what are we campus going todo? Although these HTTTflTB recent incidents have involved property university damage, it's important i do more, to remember there udents need remains a threat to be more personal safety. Walking tutious. in the garages is in itself a concern. Walking n anywhere on campus, especially at y night, should be a matter of safety, d As silly as it may sound, it all goes p back to what we were told when we were kids. Walk with a pal and don't y go away too far without letting e someone know when you should be e expected back. ? WKon wcs rrnf into tVio oar tn ?? livu TT V* gvv U1M/ UAW VtU W A1V?MA s out on our own for the first time, we were told not to wreck it and always o remember to lock the doors. It may a all be as simple as this, e We can't keep people from it breaking in or smashing our windows with bricks. However, we can demand d more security from a university that s demands $160 for a parking place. ). We can take advantage of the Alpha e Phi Omega shuttle service at night, e Tell your roommate what time youH it be in or call if your plans change, g Don't think of it as belittling your s freedom, a freedom you fought at it least 18 years to obtain. Think of it it as living to see another day to take e advantage of that freedom. @ OF SOUTH CAROLINA the Organization at would they have your attention next cause I didn't know about it. They need n the dormitories or Dost bulletins." n in low about it. They could put fliers in the is could give out information." Ml ce freshman ested but had classes from 10 a.m. until r should set up tables in Gambrell or the lilding, where students have classes." rson ;h friends because I wanted to know what i." Itt i student QUOTE. UNQUOTE "In the end, a people ai Students need Religion seems to be a quite popula topic today, except in the mainlim churches. As the general public, espe dally those in college, seem to be increa siiigiy musrroteu ui spun turn ty, mail churches are seeing a decline ii membership. This inverse situatioi worries many people, and confuse; even more. If ope turns on the radio, they fin* students are listening to songs askinj what it would be like if God was hen with us and how Paul became a faithfb follower of Jesus of Nazareth. Ads ii the paper tempt us to buy supplies c spiritual encounters, and the interes in angels seems to increase every day Though the interest may not be ii Christianity, there is a growing cravinj within students to be fed spiritually This push for religion is furthe evidenced by the strength o fundamentalist churches and groups Some people need a firm religiou tradition that leaves no doubt, an* fundamentalist churches offer jus that. They offer the faith upfront, an* either one accepts it or they don't Jus black and white. No gray. n_ i xi_* i i_i_ i* remaps ims is wnere me mam lira churches are making the mistake. W have been so caught up with matter of doctrine for the past 40 years tha we are losing touch with the real reasoi we are together in the first place: b worship God. We have been arguini over everything from the ordinatioi of women to whether to reunite divide* churches (a problem that first th Methodists and then the Lutheran and Presbyterians encountered). LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WUSC-FM ; I applaud your piece in the Jar 18 edition concerning the "Ne\ WUSC Doorways." I, too, agre that questioning or thinking ar no longer important, with regari to why the station was shut dowr I do not know who are the member of the new task force, but I am sur that they will decide the goals an vision of WUSC's future. Though WUSC's devoted alternative members have woi honors for their work and traine some of Columbia's most prominer DJs, they are small in numbers I, too, as an average student thin their format is no longer importan WUSC could be a powerful voic on campus. With WUSC's resource in the hands of the task force, 1 I* i less alternative, more averag format can be mandated. This wi not be easy, but we, as averag students, can exploit this weaknes and build a new station to last hundred years. C.H. Thompson, Ji International Studies Senic Upon reading the "In Our Ow Opinion" section in Jan. 16 Th Gamecock, I am utterly disgustec It concerned the recent shutdown ( WUSC-FM, and once again th I ews: 777-7726 dvertising: 777-4249 \X: 777-6482 Chris Carroll 1 Columbia, SC 29208 Dutaof SwdaA Medu Laura Day Tyson Pettigrew Creative Director Robert Walton Jeff A. Breaux Photo Editors Ail Director Adam Snyder Sue McDonald Jennifer Stanley JimSpeelmon Asst. News Graduate Assistant Lucy Arnold Marilyn Edwards Dipka Bhambhani Taylor Asst. Features j Marketing Director Achim Hunt Erik Collins Assl SPorts i Faculty Advisor Keith Boudreaux Jason Jeffers Circulat.cn Editor | Cartoonist ? Letters Policy ly J, The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be 200-250 words and must include full tie name, professional title or year and major if a student, of Letters must be personally delivered by the author to The Gamecock newsroom in Russell House room 321. QSf The Gamecock reserves the right to edit all letters for style, possible libel or space limitations. Names will not be withheld under any circumstances. CKAD_ / /' . / I MAN WAl re judged not by how they tre but the least among them." David Beasley in his State of the State Address reason, push to r The mem- I CARSON e bers of our I BUSH congregations I i- are getting y tired of hearing about how one comi mission feels this way while another a committee voted the other way, and s students wonder why all this is important. They are looking for i guidance and meaning, and all they g are getting are arguments having e nothing to ao with the questions they il are answering. Even worse, the i questions students are asking, such if as matters of sexuality, the church is t ignoring because it is divisive. Since r. the students are not getting what they a need out of the church, they leave. a Many of the people turning to either the spiritual or the fundamentalists r groups started off in the mainline f churches. Ihe number of youths leaving i. the church once they graduate from s high school is outrageous, and the \ church seems to be frozen as to how t to remedy the situation. i If there is so much interest in t spirituality on the college campus, why aren't the mainline churches pouring e resources here? First, the resource well e seems to be getting low, and the funds s are limited. Turbulent events, such as t the "Re-Imagining Conference" where ! some say a few things were done that 0 fly in the face of Christian doctrine, a have brought church members to a designate where their money goes 1 (designated giving) instead of letting e the church decide (unified giving). s Since campus ministry depends more on unified giving, its funds have been 1 111 1 snoula be less i. Gamecock editorial staff brought v forth the flawed argument that since e the station is paid for by student e funds, it ought to better serve the d student body. How many times are l we going to have to explain this before s it registers? Here's an analogy that e might help you folks at The Gamecock d understand our point better. The Gamecock is supported by student I, fees, is it not? Your argument states n that if you are supported by student d fees, you need to cater to the "average" it Carolina student. Do the 27,000 j. students at this university decide k what stories The Gamecock should t. write? If the "average" Carolina e student wanted to see pictures of s girls in bikinis, would The Gamecock a print tnemr Ur course not, its absurd, e The Gamecock's volunteer staff and 11 its elected officers decide the content e material. They must provide a s comprehensive view of what is going a on. So it is with WUSC. We are, by our constitution, an educational r. station. We bring new and innovative >r programming not only to USC but also to the Columbia community. In n a time when MTV and commercial e radio "spoon-feed" music to their 1. audience by playing rotation songs )f 50 times in one week, we are a choice e for those who want to explore and ? KIKG/) at the elite among them, 1 1 stay in cnurcn getting lower. Second, the hierarchies of the various denominations do not seem to have realized the potential for outreach on the campus. Somehow, they have not heard the desire of many to find a faith. Also, they do not seem to realize that if students stays connected with the church throughout college, they stand a better chance of seeking a church once they graduate instead of waiting several years or simply never looking. Well, it's high time we got off our butts and did something. The campus ministries here at the university are doing a great job with what they have. They just need the backing and support of their governing bodies in order to do more. This goes beyond funding. Churches need to be asking what can they do to help instead of calling only when they need the garden weeded and think it would make a great service project for the students. They need to be telling their senior-high youths there is a campus ministry, and make sure the student gets in touch with it once they get to college. The time to help students stay in the church is now. They are looking for something meaningful in their lives, and the church is not offering it. The church is withholding the very message of hope it claims to profess. All the confessions, all the doctrines and all j.i. ? 4.u:_~ me ti du.li/iuiio mean uu tiling 11 uiey cannot be implemented in the life of an individual, and the church is making that process very difficult. ; alternative broaden their musical horizons. WUSC is about having an open mind to music, not about excluding others to concentrate on one particular group. You say that we should program for the "average Carolina student." Do you realize what you are saying? OK, so we do a study and find that the "average" student is a white male in his early 2(ys. And what does the "average" white male want to listen to? "College Rock" and country. So WUSC now plays Hootie and the Blowfish and Travis Tritt Suddenly, thousands of "non-average" Carolina students are saying that we aren't playing what they want to hear, but they aren't in the majority, so they lose out, right, The Gamecock? The 27,000 students at this university come from different states, different ethnic backgrounds, different countries, and their tastes are as varied as their faces. WUSC plays music for all of them. Oh, one more thing - The Board of Publications and Communications has affirmed WUSC's right to determine it's creative content, so please stop repeating yourselves with this inane argument. Brian Roust Former assistant music director 3 Abortion issue divides men and women Usually in an HARRIS election year, an <*i&yist s "rst HHSmMIihbIH impulse is to abuse the i*i-i L_n_. n i i ii rv candidates veroaiiy. cut during ine ues Moines Register Presidential Debate, which aired Jan. 13 on SC ETV, I found . myself at odds not with the politicians but with a viewer's question. It was approximately, "What steps will you take to abolish abortion in the United States, and how will you deal with women who disobey this law?" Vague replies about the sanctity of -human life, the central importance of the family and a few obligatory "thou shall not kills" followed, but I found the question more revealing than any response. In the United States, we talk a lot about the sanctity of human life, the horror of fetus-killing. Rarely, however, do we wax eloquent about mutual responsibility, accurate information or available means of contraception - steps that could eliminate the need fix* abortion. And this particular question, submitted by an average citizen, revealed a few assumptions upon which the abortion debate in America is founded. This question pliminatps men's crucial role in reproduction. That the woman must physically undergo the abortion is incidental; the fetus has to grow in some body, after all. Nature's requirements for conception, however, are pretty straightforward; two parties are equally responsible for providing the necessary genetic material. The mutual responsibility ends at this point for the questioner, who by targeting the woman as sole perpetrator of the proposed abortion law, implies a lopsided division of parental responsibility. It follows, then, that a woman who apparently conceives independently has an abortion independently also. Now that the woman has acquired the godlike ability to spontaneously conceive, her presumption in ending the pregnancy makes her a murderer of the most malignant variety - a murderer who dares to play God by destroying what she has created (a great Old Testament motif). This question, in constructing the woman as a criminal and pardoning the man by virtue of silence, communicates the dire threat the pro-choice movement presents to this patriarchal society. In this sense, an abortion ban functions primarily as a punitive measure, a corporal punishment of the female body. It encourages violence against women not only by forcing women into dismal economic and marital situations but by intimating that female behavior must be checked by male control. Interestingly, male behavior remains exempt from government scrutiny. But what about positive measures we might take to eradicate the need for abortion? Such possibilities are obscured by a rhetorical smokescreen created by people preoccupied with the pathos generated by this controversial debate. Many resist such measures in the name of morality, but simply banning abortion does not end the problems that lead to it. Abortion has never been the root problem in and of itself; it is the horrific symptom of deeper social ills. For the sake of the Constitution and the preservation of human rights, abortion cannot be banned by law. But those who wish to overturn Roe vs. Wade have little respect for such rights. They do not seem to understand the preservation of individual liberty and the blatant disregard of unborn life are not mutually exclusive. A deep reverence for the rights of the unborn and the born ought to spur action toward diminishing the conditions that make abortion the unhappy choice for many women - poverty, misinformation, unavailable contraception and a gross lack of emphasis on equal responsibility, marriage, sex and child rearing. An abortion ban minus such actions and minus the investigation of underlying assumptions of female culpabihty and male absolution will engender a breeding ground for more unwanted pregnancies and continued female subjugation; such a tactic says nothing about responsibility and does nothing for qualitative change in societv. Letters to the Editor welcome! Responses should be 200 to 250 words long and delivered personally to Russell House room 333.