Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

?ie(5 Serving t ISC Chris Dixon, E Stephanie Sonnenfel Editor!* Achim Hunt, Bryan Johnston, Karen Ben Muldrow, Jennifer New elect! logical, sit The Elections Commission has issuer! the rules and regulations of the 1997 Student Government Elections. The race has officially begun. Several changes have been made since last year, the most important being the lack of penalties against candidates whose campaign materials is found out of bounds of regulations, as long as it is immediatelv removed. Smart move on the election commission's part to change this one rule. With only five infractions, a candidate can easily get kicked out of the race. Especially in the past, when infractions were given for the smallest misdemeanor, like a poster covering part of another candidate's. It was unfair to penalize candidates because of practical jokes any number of students could take into their head to play. It is quite easy to remove campaign material and place it illegally elsewhere. Candidates should not be held responsible for the actions of random students. The elections commission showed reason and grace in recognizing this and allowing a grace period Clinton's 1 needs a li In last night's state of the union address, Clinton finally addressed something of importance: college tax breaks. After years of putting the iooiip nf finnnrinl niH fnr rmllfw students on the proverbial back burner, Clinton has come up with a plan to ease the burden of college tuition. And, he's managed to make his whole college-tuition tax break really appealing. His plan goes something as follows: He's offering a $1,500 per year "Hope Scholarship" tax credit far the first two years of college. Then, he's offering $10,000 per year in tuition tax deductions for lifelong learning; penalty-free IRA withdrawals for education; and a Pell grant expansion for lower income students. Sounds like a perfect answer to a complicated problem such as financial aid. But, it could be a big problem, which is disappointing to say the least. Student Media Russell Houi Chris Dixon News: Editor in Chief Advertisii Stephanie FAX: Sonaeafeld Viewpoints Editor Achlm Hunt Karen Layne B?7" Jennifer Stanley Johnston News Editors SP?rts Edltors John Lyons Mark Hopkini Kelly Copy Desk Chiei McPherson NUAi Thorpe Features Editors Photo Editor The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the Ur Wednesday, and Friday during the Fall and Spring se' periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock ate those of the i Carolina. ' The Board of Student Publications and Coramuracab Student Media is its parent organization. The Gamecock will try to print all letters rec include full name, professional title or year a delivered by the author to The Gamecock new reserves the right to edit all letter for style, poi withheld for any circumstance. amecock Since 1906 ruut Id, Viewpoints Editor il Board Layne, John Lyons, Kelly McPherson, Stanley, Nikki Thorpe. on codes tart move so the mistake could be corrected before an infraction was recorded. Usually during elections, candidates are admonished to behave themselves and act ethically. They have been told time and again to have a clean campaign. But now we would like to encourage all noncandidates to behave maturely during this campaign. The little follies of the student government campaign usually end up as the direct result of pranksters. Hopefully, students will show a bit of that elusive maturity and leave well enough alone. We know the student government elections are not foremost on everyone's mind. We could actually go so far to say that some students really do not care one iota about the elections. However, even if some students do not support the elections, we remind everyone of the Carolinian Creed: "I will respect the rights and property of others." It is the candidates's right to run in this election and campaign materials are their property. Learn it and live it. plan OK, ttle work Clir.tcn's plan requires families to take the credit plan or the deduction. Word is, the wrong choice could be a bit pricey. A family with an income of $60,000 with a $3,000 tuition bill could save $1,500 with the credit and $840 with the tax deduction, according to The State newspaper. Ok, so the plan is a good idea, rather, a good intention. Yes, going to college is still a privilege in the U.S. Getting the chance to be educated past the boundaries of high school has become so accessible in the last few years that there's only one hindrance-money. Sure, there's financial aid out there, but in all honesty, it's sometimes just not enough. It's going to take a lot of arguing, adding, subtracting and thinking to revamp financial aid, but in the long L/\ 1\ 14- in 1 Uil, ll< Will UC WU1H1 ll-J uot, like getting a college education. ie 1JSC Columbia, SC 29208 777-7726 Adam Syader ng: 7774249 0{{ice Manager 777-6482 Jmob Jefrrp" Cartoonist Bea Muldrow Melissa Sellers Graphics Editor Online Editor NHdu La Rocque Laura Day Asst. Viewpoints Creative Director Regiaaa Greea Kim Goldea Asst. News A?t. Advertising Jessica Nash Manager Asst.Features J?r*V ^ollias w namtt a a Fa/?iiltv Anvicrtr Jen liMKOMOi | Asst. Photo I livenitv of South Carolina and is published on Monday, <estr~ ?ith the exception of uniu.aty holidays and cxarr.s edilon or the author and not thoie of the University of South cms is the Publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of I I'/'li'l eived. Letters should be 200-250 words and must nd major if a student. Letters must be personally sroom in Russell House room 333. The Gamecock ssible libel or space limitations. Names will not be VIEWP /yna M \S0tt\t N? ^ v ?v_ c: ? UP _ La We have around: i Rudeness I was in Charleston last week, attending the Garth T* 1__ A. -..I T | DrooKs concert, wiieii i had a most disagreeable encounter with a couple of rude people. Almost everyone in the Coliseum was sitting down after Garth came out, except for the two ladies right in front of my sister. Now we had very good seats, so there was absolutely no reason to remain standing. After about the seventh song, my sister and I asked the ladies to please sit down. They finally did sit down, but after about five 'minutes they were right back up, at wnich point I said to them, "We paid to see Garth, not your fat rear-ends. Please sit down." Well, they remained standing the rest of the show, but we enjoyed the concert anyway. My whole point in relating this story is that there are way too many rude people out there in today's society, and something has to be done. Standing up right in front of people, blocking their view, is just plain rude. There was no one in front of the ladies blocking their view. I know that we could have stood up To the editor: While students returning next fall consider where they want to live, we offer a report on the Preston college initiative. USC's first residential college remains an ongoing experiment with which more students should be better acquainted. What's visible on the surface does not tell the whole story. Residential colleges are taking hold in large universities, where they provide a "college within a college" small enough for students and faculty to know each other by name. A residential college on the campus of a research university like USC goes a traditional small liberal arts college one better, however, by mixing students with faculty who are not only more experienced adults but J -i_! 1_ _1 1 !i.U proaucuve scnoiars Keeping up wiui their fields. Preston's three dozen non-resident faculty assoc^at?^ ( and several graduate associates) provide its capital. Our residents enjoy the volunteer support of a group of faculty who care about the total life of undergraduates. They come from diverse disciplines. They share an enjoyment of young people at an age when horizons are wide, energy bubbles, prejudices and habits unfixed, creativity is uninhibited, and possibilities are limitless. JOINTS VE AVPrt) W CROTVWS.y > 2-17 Q/117 TXC \ X 4 28,000 students, ai student body votes Manlsha Shroff, SG 1 V too prevalf Fred Leach as well to see over these women, but that would have kept the people behind us from seeing. I thought on the way home about all the rude things I see people do. I therefore compiled a list of the rudest behaviors that occur in everyday life. I run in to some of the rudest people at the grocery store. I'm not sure why there is a great proliferation of rudeness there, but there is. As a shopper, I have had people cut in hunt of me in line many times. This also frequently occurs in amusement parks. I think folks who cut in line at Disney World should be forced to be the ones who follow the horses in the Main Street Parade. When there is a line, some people apparently think that they are too good to wait in it. Nothing makes me madder than someone cutting in line. As I said in my last article, I used to work at a grocery store. When I ii i i would see someone jump aneau 01 someone in my line, I would tell them that they just cut ahead of someone, and I didn't allow that in my line. ?mm Preston has become a multi-use facility with provision of faculty offices and a seminar room for regularly scheduled classes, the installation of live-in principals and the Senior Common Room lounge for the faculty associates. Next year the plan is to introduce two more graduate student resident tutors and positions for upperclass peer leaders. Faculty and students provide the complementing elements of the College as a whole: its "senior" and "junior" members, each with their own respective rights and responsibilities. The coming and going of faculty, acting as sounding boards, advisors and friends, serves to give residents more scope and opportunity. Their presence helps to humanize the academic life. But it does more. In numerous instances, diverse faculty experience has helped us take the shortest route to get things done ? and to give residents more ownership of the College. As principals of the College, we are acutely aware that Preston can get better as it evolves. Preston has developed well so far, amply repaying the generous investment of funds and of faculty and staff energy. The non-hierarchal government, spirited college dining room and banquets, student- and faculty-led weekly interdisciplinary seminars, community service projects, teas, facebook and I ) STAR WARS m i -i y 35 L nd no more than 1< in (SG) elections. Elections Commissioner V ;nt in to da1 I I think the victims greatly appreciated 1 my vigilance. i Another place where people are 1 excessively rude is on the road. I i don't know how many times I have been trying to change lanes, and 1 someone will deliberately speed up i so I can't get in front of them. I i usually return their rudeness with a rude gesture of my own. People 1 often will not let you in Sunt of them during traffic. < Often times people who drive expensive cars think that they own the road. These are the people who will not let you in, or who will change lane? right in front of you unexpectedly without a signal. Someone who owns an expensive Japanese or European luxury car is no better than someone like me who owns a Ford pickup. I wouldn't trade my truck for any car in the world, except for maybe a 1965 Mustang with Shania Twain in the front seat. I have just discussed two places where rudeness is often observed, but sadly, it also exists here at USC. I will give you a couple of examples. The people who occupy the parking office are terminally rude. Parking is enough of a hassle already, literary zine, listserve discussion list, garden, ski trips, Friday Night at the Movies ? all testify to creative participation in abundance from both residents and faculty associates. Preston, with its own local domain and University-linked home pages on the Web, is the first site on campus that we know of officially to offer our resident students the opportunity to put up their own personal Web pages. Check out Preston.sc.edu/index.html. We have our own official photographer, theater group, duly appointed Preston Poet and late night poetry readings. The Art Committee frames and hangs student works. The Junior Common Room Committee oversees the use of the commodious lounge. But this is only a start. Preston is positioned to develop, step by step, along still more innovative paths. The Office of the Provost and the Division of Residential Life together encourage Preston to depart from older ways of doing things where appropriate, and to break free from constraints or procedures which no longer serve well enough the purposes for which they were developed. We are encouraged to pursue selfdetermination in as many areas as occur to us, creating our own procedures to govern and to enable ^3^ 0 percent of the ^'s society without having to deal with the people there getting attitudes with students who have to pay $160.00 a semester to park. I got a parking ticket a couple of weeks ago because my commuter 3ticker fell out of my window. I went into the parking office and told them I would not pay the $15.00 fine because I had a sticker, and their suction cups must have been defective or else it would have stayed up. The lady began to tell me that it was my responsibility to make sure it stays up, but then she said that she would turn it into a warning. That is the only good thing that the parking office hat. ?ve* done for me. I was in the computer lab in Gambrell the other day to check my e-mail. The computers were all taken, so I had to sit to wait for one to become available. After about ten minutes, this guy walked in and sat down. Shortly thereafter, a computer became unoccupied, and I got up to go and sit down, but the guy got up and hpat mp to it. and told mp t.hnt. he got there first. Needless to say, I was quite irate, and if I were Dennis Rodman, he would be singing soprano. the diverse initiatives of our changing mix of residents. Preston wrote a government constitution last year, but we believe in the need continually to rethink the structures of self-governance in ways that support the contribution of the greatest number of residents possible. In the recurring struggle with apathy, Preston tries to support potential leaders with a quieter voice on one hand to temper the ambitions of those too much attracted to wielding the power of leadership on the other. For two years residents have wrestled with proposals to set up our own judiciary body separate, in a way to be negotiated, but connected to the University judicial system in place. Change, a fact of life, is a fact of Preston. We have often said that Preston is a work in progress ? that It ic not n?w what will become as more students, both current and future residents, step up to use and to reshape its resources. The fun is in building something new: a pilot community within the Housing system but independent in ways for residents and associates to negotiate. Kevin and Becky Lewis, Preston College Principals.