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Look for Guerman Abaev as he discusses the improprieties of American businessmen in Moscow. Hie 6a Serving lire Carolina Con EDITORIAL Jennifer Stanley, Sara Ladenheim, 1 Rob Gioielli, Vie Kurt Johnson, Assista Kamieen Mc^ormic Campus needs ov Anyone who has ever had a IHHHmLba car, thought about Campus pa\ having a car or inadequa borrowed some- poorly distr one else s car r J knows what a CTITJEIJT headache parking on this campus A bettershutt can be. and senio\ There are not garage spac enough spaces, . ? : .. the garages cost to be,tutu too much and too many of the lots are on the edge of campus. These are just a few of the complaints students have about parking at use. With new buildings going up all the time and the university taking away many of the central campus lots to increase green space, it looks as if things are only going to get worse. This is something USC is going to have to deal with in the very near future, and all signs indicate that they are addressing the problem. The question is whether their solutions will be enough and whether they will come soon enough to help those of us who are at Carolina right now. It's not really a question of building more lots or more parking garages. Most of this school's extra space is devoted to parking, especially on the outskirts of campus. We could create more spaces in the center of campus, but then we would be stuck in a sea of as~ij. o i.: 11., i pililll. ou piacutmiy cum aeauiei.ically, more lots are not the answer. New parking garages are expensive, and that's something we just don't have the money for. The federal government had to pay for the Bull Street Garage, our newest. Although USC will probably have to add another garage and more commuter spaces in the future, more parking is not the answer to our problems. What we need is better use of the parking we have. First, there are the commuter spots. They are all on the outside of campus, and it takes up to half an hour to walk from one of those lots to many classroom buildings. There is the Gamecock Shuttle, but it is quite possibly the worst excuse for a mass transit system known to man. The buses are chronically late, overcrowded and unprofessionally run. Many people have simply learned not to depend on the shuttle because of all these problems. What we need is a new comprehensive bus system on this campus. The network should not just run from the parking lots to classSfetMBa ~ Selling the Carolina Can, The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The' I niversitj rrklay (luring die fall and spring semesters and Cue times during perkxls. Opinions ex|*vssed in Hie liamettx'k are those of theed Tlie Board of Student Publications and Communications is tin.' pi tlie newspaper's parent organization. The Gamecock Jennifer Stanley liililnr in CbteJ Rob Llndsey Sara Ladenhelm Maiuwim lulilttr Jessica Barfl Rob GlolellJ Vktipiiiits litlilttr Jackie Posto Josh Lonon IVegs lUlilors Todd Money Erin Reed Rosalind Ha Kristin Freestate I'ealuns lulilor Bryan Johnston lulilunal Assistant Kurt Johnso Nathan Brown s/torts VAtUtr Brad Walter! Nlkki Thorpe li'atn htUnrs Kenley Youi Sean Rayford Ruth Nettles Brian Rish (Mime IjiUt/r Deneshia Gi Student Media Ellen Parsons Director of Carolyn Grll Student Media Jim Green Lee Phipps Advertising Manager Erik Collins Sherry F. Holmes Classified Ad Jeff Stenslar Manager 1 nek nmunily since 1908 BOARD Editor in Chief Managing Editor ivpoints Editor nt Viewpoints Editor :k, Editorial Writer parking A 1 email! ???room buildings, but HHI all over campus. rking is Students with a class e aruj in the Coliseum after ihntp/i a C^ass *n Gambrell shouldn't have to TTJ7TnBB| worry about sprinting down Greene le system Street. Our campus rity in is big and is only gogc need ing to get bigger. f j Services should be timed so a student leaving her house at 10:30 a.m. can catch the bus at 10:45 p.m. to make her 11 a.m. class. Buses need to be air-conditioned and able to hold as many people as need be. Right now the "ShuttleCock" runs on antiquated school buses that are easily overcrowded and feel like sweatboxes on hot, fall days. Similar sized schools already have systems in place that efficiently transport their students around campus and beyond to local hangouts. We need a service that people can use and depend on. The other way to improve current parking problems on campus is to reassess how we allocate garage spaces and parking passes. Right now any student of any year can get a space in either a garage or other kind of lot. This has erot to stoD. At universities o x around the country there is a severe limit on where freshmen are allowed to park. At many schools, freshman have to park on the outskirts of campus, if they are allowed to have cars at all. Because of the nature of our university, freshmen should be able to have cars, especially if they live far away from school. But a first-semester freshman should not be on equal footing with a senior when it comes to who gets the space in a garage. Spots in the Bull Street Garage are the most coveted on campus. But many of these are taken up by freshmen whose parents sign them up for it during the summer. By the time fall rolls around, the senior who has to pay for his or her own space is stuck in Blossom Street or down in the Tit" because Bull Street is full of cars fViof 1*7-111 Kp hcpH nnlv nn frVip wppIt LllUb 11XXX wv uuvu wiiy Ull W1V "" V/Vik ends. Yes, there are freshman who have jobs and need a car everyday. But more upperclassmen need this convenience. We should simply go to a seniority system to make things fair. Parking is a big problem, and it will not be fixed easily. But with some better work utilizing the resources we have now and making the system more efficient, much of the headache can be alleviated. rack ? ununity since l[X)N I of South Carolina and Is puWislu.il Monday. Wednesday and tlx- summer with the extvfition of university holklays and exam itors ix autlux and n<? those of Hie l iiiversity ot south Carolina. lWisher of The (iamecock. The Department of Student Media is All area ecxles are 8U.3 C.iyn Mtltirs Kditor 777-3911 n Viewpoints 777-772ft rvey hilJu. Miliums . ,, News 777-772ft IHnxkir n Asst VhllfMimts lirliliir 777-3913 I Assl Mux l-ilUiirs >g Slums 777-7182 Uncore liililnr a ham Asa lixunm Hdiliir Online 777-2833 Advertising 777-3888 flln Business Manager (Creative Director Classified 777-1183 Faculty Advisor ^ rn-MHl id Craduatc Assistant I Office 777-3888 VlEWP talking with close friends, my reaction c tended toward a "little brother" de- j fensiveness: I can pick on my little broth- ^ er as much as I want, but everyone else c had better leave him alone. The re- s suit was that, despite the criticisms I c have presented previously, I spent much c time abroad defending the United States. I love this country; it frustrates me when I see Americans behaving badly abroad. I began to wonder how I could be simultaneously proud of my country and embarrassed by my fellow citizens. One key to Americans' behavior is their affluence. Americans are largely perceived as being wealthy. While the "Beverly Hills 90210" concept of the average American teenager is a gross disStrange Yan The Horseshoe after dark can be a strange place. Avid runners ( and rabid bikers zipping by, and 1 all manner of ! ing oaks and JONATHAN SHARPE whtfe others guest columnist just want to ! get home with their safety and wallets intact. So there I am amongst them, jogging around the Horseshoe with some friends last Wednesday evening. None of us is the super-fitness type, and we're looking rough as we make our laps. Coming down the brick road toward us was a flock of suits. I figure they're faculty-administration types, getting out of a late meeting. SG's performance ^ * 4 has Deen suopar To the editor: I would like to congratulate Student Government for a successful beginning of the school year. Student Government was competent enough to place cardboard boxes in all of the residence halls so that we could place our old and used clothing in them before we left. Then, Student Government began trying to convince local food charities to accept left-over campus food. Now, Student Government has managed to really do something useful. One of the most //. >" ' p z [ " i A i^' . 0 . U.S. great* E2II5EI2335MIM t | columnist | ^ This column concludes a series that v has explored some of my obser- ^ vations of Americans abroad. Many Europeans felt at liberty to ^ criticize the United States or Ameri- Q cans to me while I was abroad. This openness may or may not have been a ^ hackward comDliment. but exceDt when 'PINT z less does ortion resulting from the voracious /orldwide consumption of our enterainment, the idea that Americans are wealthy is well-foimded. We have the ichest "poor" in the world, and our stanlard of living?the middle-class niceard-two-cars-three-televisions-and naybe-a-boat?is enjoyed by very few ther countries. We have freedoms in this country hat others don't. They range from ecolomic freedoms, which result in free loal phone calls and lower CD prices, to egal guarantees such as the State's lurden of proof, to liberties such as a ompletely free press. This may be a cary statement, but comparatively, iur government owns very little of mr lives. The ease with which Americans may ravel abroad is frequently an incenive to make our hosts cater to our needs ind desires in terms of language, food ind custom?when it should be the oth?r way around; the visitor should be dong the adapting. Plainly put, we're spoiled. That term, lowever. imDlies that we don't deserve t. And perhaps the present generations lave not personally earned it, but the nen who founded this country believed, kee sightin For a brief, devious moment I decided not to move out of their path-just to see if these well-to-do-types would scatter (strenuous exercise brings out my inner caveman). Well, they didn't. [ yielded, splat, splat, splat, into the mud. But I had been in a meeting with the faculty and administration earlier that day, representing the student body, and I recognized none of these faces. None but one, that is. As they passed on my right, I saw a man standing a couple inches shorter than me, leading the group in a light gray suit with a bright blue tie. He wore round-frame glasses and little hair on top. I knew this face. Just as I reached the rear flank, I placed a name with that face: none other than Rudolph Giuliani, mayor of the Big Apple! I sprinted up to my friends, babbling, "Gi-Giu-Giuuu~Ffrreakin' Giuliani! Rudy Giuliani!-pant, gasp, cough-Rudy Giuliani just walked by! Giuliani on the Horseshoe!?!" They looked at me incredulously, like, "sure, whatev__ ? er. IJ I (11 b i | phone numlvi important committees ot tne university was pondering a fundamental change to the USC grading policy. Such a change would affect students of all programs at USC campuses. Instead of being our voice of the university faculty, Student Government couldn't find anyone to make the meeting! The excuse our wonderful student leaders have come up with for missing this meeting is "the faculty meeting time conflicted with the schedules of the representatives we suggested." Another gem of enlightenment was provided by our Student Body Vice President Chris Dorsel. Mr. Dorsel quips "Whether it was our fault or not, Student Govern "I doi They c ^ ^ electn * not carry* "As much as I lament < flaws, I must say our ? Americans is the choi< tionally guaranteed." as I do, that all humans deserve the 1 economic and personal liberties we have \ in this country. It is in fact the great- s ness of this country which leads its cit- 3 izens to behave in a manner which dis- t gusts the rest of the world. 1 We have everything here. This coun- t try is so big, so providing and so insu- { lating that we don't know how to be- 1 have when we leave. We have not grown i up learning how to live in close quar- i ters with other cultures. A valid comparison between our states and Eu- i rope's countries ends with geography, i Recently, however, I have touched ! only briefly the importance of individ- 1 uality and choice, important themes i when visiting foreign lands. One has a 1 choice whether to be a traveler or a j tourist. It has nothing to do with how gs on the H By the time I turned around Giuliani and company were too far away for me to casually sidle up to. To catch him I would have had to sprint back, and looking as I did at the time, accosting the mayor of the largest city in the nation probably would have landed me at the bottom of a pile of heatpacking security. So we finished our jog. My bud dies sun weren t Duying it wnen we went to our respective dorms. I then proceeded to call some less skeptical folks to share my story with, but I got nothing but answering machines. So I mustered up the courage to call my Neighbor-yes, that's with a capital "N." How surprised was I when the actual president of the university answered his phone directly. I introduced myself as his next-door neighbor, the one involved with Student Government. He was quite friendly, asking me if I was settling in well. Then I told him about the sighting. Pause. JP: "Really? Hmmph. I wonder why I didn't know about that?" iccock will try to print all letters received. Utters should lx* 25<MOO words and r iters mast Ix* personally delivered by the author to The (iameixxk newsnxim n . The (iamecock reserves tlx* right to edit all letter lor style, possible libel or spj ment will probably get some of the blame for this." The university allows Student Government to collect over $1 million dollars of your money in the student activity fee. The student body president, vice president and treasurer all collect stipends of at least $1,500 a semester. What are we paying for? You couldn't find at least one student to make a meeting? Maybe you haven't noticed, but a meeting with the faculty to discuss grading problems is very important. Maybe r the quickest way to "have better relai tionships with the faculty" is to go to meetings when they ask for student input! Vt think they're necessary, io the job students did last year." Joey Schrage, mic journalism sophomore on security guards 0 1 I IT X at. ' overseas our countries greatest gift as :e we are constituong you stay or how many cities you risit or how much money you have to spend. Being a traveler begins before ?)u leave home and means showing a ;rue interest in other cultures by atsempting to integrate yourself into them ;o the best of your circumstances. One ilways has a choice in dealing with a lost who seems inhospitable, which itself may be merely a matter of custom? fou can catch a ball as you wish. As much as I lament our country's n t . x 11 a. i. i [laws, l must say tnat our greatest gut as Americans is the choice we are constitutionally guaranteed. We don't have to be ugly Americans; we each have the opportunity to take off our cloaks of wealth and freedom and trade them for passes with which to see the world from someone else's perspective. orseshoe JS: "Umm. I dunno. Well, I just thought, er, I'd let you know. Thanks, uh... Good evening." JP: "Thanks, buh-bye" JS: nervous chuckle "hehehe B-bbye." Now I had to tell the folks upstairs. They weren't sure whether to believe me, but they liked the part about calling up The Neighbor. I needed proof. To confirm the story I called up a local TV station. Indeed, Giuliani was in town doing a GOP fundraiser at Henry McMaster's place. The 11:00 news footage proved me right. There was Giuliani wearing his light gray suit and blue tie, stumping for Gov. Beasley and friends. So I called up my doubting-Thomas jogging cohorts. Now it was time to brag. "@#&*!" and the like came out of the receiver, [think: "geegoshgolly-well, I'll be a monkey's uncle."] I guess you just never know what you'll see on the Horseshoe after dark. nust include full name, professional title or year and major if a student 1 Russell House nx>m AM I-mail letters must include tlx.' author's telece limitations Names will not Ix- withheld lor any circumstance. So far, what has Student Government really done to earn its keep? Oh, yeah. The clothes project. Don't get me wrong. Helping the needy is a very worthwhile project. An organization with as many people and as much money as Student Government should or could be doing a lot more to benefit the one group of people who really need their help: the students of USC. Here's a piece ot advice: taxe care 01 Dusiness at home before you worry about your neighbor. Brian Gambrell Law Student