Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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We'll be presenting a daring new initiative to reduce waste, odor pollution, and expenses with potty training. Wednesday, June 17,1998 I lit? Sen inn ^ Carolina Coi EDITORIA Rosalind Harvey Kiki McCormick, Marcus Amaker Lancaster's not becomi As most know, the Use-Lancaster's Masters of Education Teachers ge program has been in with checkix hot water in the past text! few months. Degrees have HKi been handed out like Stop the pro candy, and there is degree from nothing anyone can uxjr do about the i,uuu 1 plus master degrees earned with money instead of hard work. Yes, we should be embarrassed about the negative attention the Lancaster satelight brings to USC. Hopefully, the attention drawn will help this university look over all of the programs offered across the state. But it also gives us an opportunity to ask the administration, "How in the world could something this big be overlooked? Is anyone in charge here?" This situation affects the students on this campus because it cheapens the value of our USC degrees. There is the possibility that a stigma, not only of easy work but of underhanded dealings, will be attached to a master's degree from the education department, all caused by this Lancaster incident. Employers will think a USC graduate hasn't worked as hard for his or her degree and might even think the graduate knowingly cheated. We are not suggesting that this is an isolated incident, though, as much as we would like to. Unfortunately, the education m Hit 6a Setting the Carolina Con The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The UniversiI Friday during the fall and spnng semesters and eight times du exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those i Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communication Media is the newspaper 's parent organization. The Gamecock Rosalind Harvey Editor in Chief Bryan Johnst Kikl McCormlck Viewpoints Editor Amy McConr Jennifer Stanley News Editor Rebecca Whl Marcus Amaker Features Editors Sarah Gariba Susan Meyers Stanley Student Media Ellen Parsons Director of Carolyn Griffi Student Media m G,Mn Lee Phlpps Advertising Manager ?rjk CoUins Sherry F. Holmes Classified Ad Manager Vi imecod! 7i munity since 1908 LBOARD t, Editor in Chief Viewpoints Editor actions V a tt m ing to department suffers from a lack of orgaitting degrees nization. It's very x)ks instead of difficult to find out boo&s. who is in charge of any given program, and the rules for blem before a said programs often USC becomes change without tbless. notice (and, seem ingly, without reason.) So something is seriously wrong with their system. Hnuiraror fr?r a nrncrram tn mn. tinue like the Lancaster program has is an absolute disgrace. If they are not going to live up to USC standards, then maybe USC should sever the ties with such an institution. According to The State newspaper, the professor in charge of this scam was allowed to retire, and USC officials have decided to honor the degrees awarded in this program. Ohvimislv TISC needs t.n re evaluate their decision and brush up on their reading. The Carolinian Creed comes into mind. To preserve its reputation and the value of the degrees of its graduates, the education department needs to get its act together. Yet, the blame can't lay solely on the department itself. The university needs to anti-up the standards of each and every department ii} the USC system. We pay to get a quality education at USC and as students we should demand that. How come that wasn't done in Lancaster? mecocR pSI i munity since 1908 \y of South Carolina and is published Monday, Wednesday and ring the summer with the exception of university holidays and if the editors or author and not those of The University of South s is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student All numbers area code 803 on Sports Editor The Gamecock lick Photo Editor Editor 777-3914 Viewpoints 777-7726 fin.line Frlitnr ? News 777-7726 Idi Copy Editors Etc. 777-3913 Sports 777-7182 On-line 777-2833 in Business Manager Student Media Creative Director Advertising 777-1184 r . . . Classifieds 777-1184 Faculty Advisor fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 EWPOl The Gamecock i [F m ? BDhich ONE I! WILLING TO! FROM SM TIPS has s Richard M. Gregg Columnist Recently, the USC administratioi (motto: less schooling for more bucks announced that in the future al grades will be reported electronicalh The reasoning behind this move is ti lead the school into the 21st centurj So naturally, the school uses a systen that would make two tin cups con nected by a string seem advanced. 0 course I'm talking about TIPS, whicl stands for Totally Inept Pea-braine< System. Now I don't know if receivinj your grades solely through TIPS wor ries any of you but it sure scares th< s? out of me. Anyone who has dealt with TIP' knows that it is not the most reliabl system in the world. It also has the uncanny ability b crash when I'm just about to finis! registration for the next semestei One time (and I am not making thi up) it would not let me register for j mandatory first year graduate clas that could not be closed, except in th little fantasy world that it operate in. When I tried to find a human a USC to help me out, the genera response I received was "Huh?" Instead, the computer decided t pick my classes for me, and m; schedule ended up including Ya] Herding 236 and Intro to Custodia Services 101. Now while no one ha more admiration for the yak than do, this seemed to be a bit off of m major (unless I transferred to USC :nts > C0N6KE55 STOP KIPS OKING f k tudent fight South Yemen, where the Yak is a God I second only to Tiger Woods). Of course, half of the time, I can't even get past the 3,816 security quesi tions so as to access TIPS in the first ) place. As a matter of fact, Fort Knox 1 doesn't contain as many security r. measures as this baby, a A recent attempt produced the i following conversation: TIPS: i "Welcome to TIPS. Please enter your - nine-digit security code." Me: "O.K." f (Enters the number). TIPS: "Please l enter your secret ID code." Me: "Let i me check on my underwear band" (my mom always taught me to put all I crucial info on it. Enters the num ber). TIPS: "Please enter the cube e root of 5843." Me: "What? Where is my calculator?" (After searching 3 frantically, I find it and enter the e number). TIPS: "You forgot to put it in the form of a question. All of your o information will now be deleted. Have a nice dav." Me: "Arrrrrrph" (as r. I slump to the floor, sobbing hysteris cally.) a For those students who are feels ing particularly adventurous, there is e TIPS on-line or, as it's better known, s the web pages from hell, t I say this with the knowledge il that if Beelzebub ever got his hands on me (which is almost a certainty), 0 he would subject me to trying to navy igate these pages for eternity, while k blaring Barry Manilow tunes in my d ears. s Or possibly Kenny G. Anyway, my 1 one experience at the computer keyy board yielded me 45 minutes of frus! tration, permanent high blood pres "The first five years of the 90's were not very supportive of higher education." Dr jobn Palms Page 3 wwenmrnvcom t^HrrL. gQgg| college press EXCHANGE _ .. 1?f. ing ror nie sure and several hundred dollars of therapy bills. I was simply trying to find out what my final exam schedule looked like for the spring semester. After going everywhere from The School of Spam Preparation to the sign-up for intramural professional wrestling, I finally reached the exam schedule page where (and I swear I am not making this up) it showed every one of my finals occurring on the same day at the same time. Luckily, the paramedics reached me in time and got my heart pumping and my doctor said that I can start eating Jell-0 again soon. As you have probably surmised by now, my experiences with TIPS has been less than stellar. Ok, so they have stunk. This is why I have decided to start the quash-TIPS movement (or Q-Tips, for short). Let's head off those inevitable Rs and Ls that we students will be sure to get if TIPS is the sole provider of grades. Write to me in care of The Gamecock and add your voice to the growing mountain of discontent festering on campus. All right, so I'm the only one fest*?rincr ricrht nnw hi it T Ifnnw that. there are others beside myself who would like to see a rogue computer repairman chop off TIPS' floppys. Join me in this quest for purity and righteousness. Only, this will have to wait until I get back from the yakmating season in Nepal.