The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 18, 1998, Page Page 3, Image 3
Monday will feature a couple
of columns and some
stuff that might be of a
huge influence in you life,
so don't forget to read.
tk(B
Serving the Carolina
EDITOR!/
Jennifer Stanle
Sara Ladenheim
Rob Gioielli, V
Kurt Johnson, Assis
Kathleen McCorm
Teacher?
fault for
If you got credit
for classes with lit- HIHL
* tie or no effort on Teachers ?
your part, would r1nsee*
you want to re- ^am
take them once
they were shown to I
be under par? JKr ,
Even when your 7" '
meaningless cours- hold the Vi
es are still counted for thi
on your transcript
with a grade of "A"?
If you are honorable, you will
want to feel that you have earned
your credit. Especially if you are
getting rewarded financially for
your completion of the bogus courses.
Right?
In most cases, yes. The situation
at hand, however, has other
variables.
Educators who took watereddown
courses at USC Lancaster
have been offered the chance to
retake them for free. Very few of
the 2,500 students have responded
We don t blame them, it was
USC's responsibility to ensure the
quality of their program, and they
failed to do so. Perhaps the teachers
sensed there was something
rotten, but it wasn't incumbent
upon them to research the situation.
Alumni j
devotior
We should always
be thankful HHUI
when someone Larry and
chooses to make donation \
large donations to fp
our university. But J &
Larry and Pat KTTnT
Wilson's recent $3
million contribution The Wilso,
to the College of En- comnu
gineering is espe- supporting
dally significant of their a
Wilson, a USC
alumnus, was critical
of the lack of computer programmers
and other technically
trained people in South Carolina.
He blamed the school system for
failing to prepare students for jobs
requiring technical skills.
This issue was particularly important
to Wilson, the CEO of Policy
Management Systems Corporation,
because his business has
had to recruit employees outside
of South Carolina. Well trained
people weren't available here.
the?
Ser,ring the Carolina Oi
The Gamecock is tlic student newspaper of The I hivets
Pnday during the fail and spring semesters and five times durin
periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the i
The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the
tlie newspaper's parent orjunizatkm.
The Gamecock
Jennifer Sunley Editor in Chief Rob Lindse
Sara Ladenhelm Mananing lldiior Jessica Bar
Rob Gioielll Vieupoiuti Hrlitor Jackie Post
Inch liinon taHH Unn.
Erin Reed Rosalind H
Kristin Freestate Features Hdtlor
Bryan Johnston Hditorial Assistant Kurt Johns
Nathan Brown sports toiitor Brad Walte
Nlkkl Thorpe phot,, Fxlitots Kcnley Yoi
Sean Rayford Ruth Nettle
Brian Rlsh ( Mine lulitor Deneshla (
Student Media
Ellen Parsons Director of Carolyn Gt
Student Media Jim Green
Lee Phlpps Advertising Manager Erik Collin
Sherry F. Holmes Classified Ad Jeff Stensls
Manager
SOUND OFF! Too lazy to
and bring it to the Russell
Watch this space for our new
1
I
amccodt
Community since 1908
\L BOARD
y, Editor in Chief
, Managing Editor
riewpoints Editor
tant Viewpoints Editor
ick, Editorial Writer
?not at
actions
They aren't reUUJHHI
sponsible for the
iot retaking quality of USC's
at USC- classes. Their job
~aster was to comP^ete the
^ requirements with
which they were
, presented, and
ese teachers, ?hey did so, proba?SponsibHity
bly sacrificing time
is" fiasco in rnmmntinp- t.n
Lancaster, if not
studying.
In a way, it's gratifying to see
teachers getting away with it. They
are paid so little, and those who
completed this program received
raises.
Besides that, we question the
use of teacher-training programs
in general. Veteran teachers
say the only way to learn to
teach is simply to get in the classroom
and do it.
And though we don't pretend
to be experts on education, we
do follow critiques of the field.
Recently, teacher-training programs
have been under attack for
being piles of politically correct
garbage, emphasizing multiculturalism
over content.
Until we have evidence that
these particular teachers are worse
than they would be if they took legitimate
classes, we won't judge
harshly their decisions not to retake
the courses.
prove
i to USC
Wilson has put
UiSflHIHI his money where
Pat Wilson's his mouth is in a
to the College number of ways.
^ He participated in
meenn%- the PASS ComTJTJTT1TMB
mission's attempt
to improve S.C.
yis should be public schools, as
mdedfor well as other
?the growth school improveIma
mater. ?Jent initiatives.
He has also
worked with Midlands
Tech to form an intense computer
science program.
And now, he has outdone him
self with the gift to the College
of Engineering, which will be used
to set up an information and technologies
department.
Bravo, and a big thank you, to
the Wilsons for their interest in
and active support for improving
the marketability of the South
Carolina student.
iity ol South Carolina and is published Monday. Wednesday and
j( the summer witli the excqxion of university holklays and exam
.xlitots or autltor and n? tliose of The I Diversity of South Carolina
publisher ol The (iamecock. lire Department ot Student Media is
All area codes are Kill
y (jlp) lilltlnn
neld Witor 777-3911
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arvey PuUic Rdatums Nt.ws 777-7726
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V^EWP
'WE'VE
Students sh
Iwas picking up my tickets today for st
the next two home football games, w
when I received a flyer announcing gi
ROB QKMELL] ^
columnist thought you hi
didn't have Cc
to advertise a tailgate party at every w
home game. The entire area around w
Williams-Brice is one giant tailgate par- &
ty, Tallyho's replacement site being the th
nexus of this decadence and depravity.
But upon further reading, I saw that
this was an alcohol-, drug-and violence- 0I
free event, sponsored by the USC Of- 0f
fice of Drug and Alcohol Programs. 0l
I then realized this was an "alter- w
native" tailgate party, for those who ai
don't want to participate in the booze- ^
soaked hedonism that is Tallyho. g(
This seems to be part of a larger initiative
to provide opportunities for those er
~r 1
internet cnai
A nyone who needs proof that cap- SF
ZA italism does not, in every case, m
JL mprovide for the best use of our re
resources e(^
? should have to
a look at the m
Internet. ^
In my Inbox
this .
morning ^u
was yet an- ^
other chain 011
letter. So a*
tired am I of *-y
EMILY STREYER f p a J1 ?
(mass-ad- afc
dressed e- be
mail), that I
have developed a habit of deleting much 1"
of the forwarded mail from my box with- W:
out reading it, unless I trust the sender if
to have sent something good. I tire of pi
unfunny funnies and witless witticisms, b)
but I reserve special contempt for chain
letters. is
Sometimes these chain letters ?f
promise good luck if you forward them.
Some threaten bad luck if you don't. le
Some attempt to demonstrate how
quickly sexually transmitted diseases av
N
Bible can take on a 'h
to
non-literal meaning th
w th
To the editor:
sr
I submit this letter in response to g(
the arguments made by Mr. Terrence ^
Wilson against Dr. James Kugel's as- ^
sertion that the Bible is not to be tak- ^
en literally.
As a devout Christian, I have often ^
struggled with interpreting the Bible's n{
various anecdotes, parables, and historical
accounts. Such struggles are
some of the primary reasons we have r *
tparViore rtf flnH'c u/nrrl
v k]
Whether they are priests, pastors, ^
rabbis, or ministers, they are educated ^
to be interpreters and teachers of the
Bible's various meanings. There are
,;w
OINK
GOT JUST ~T~h-\
YOU GOING.
v?j
i .
J
ould asser
udents on campus who don't drink or
ho actually like going to our football
unes sober.
Furthermore, this seems to be part
' a more general goal by the Office of
lcohol and Drug Programs to enturage
more responsible, substanceee
behavior. Well, I personally have
oblems with the idea of alcohol-, drugid
violence-free events, as well as re- "
jonsible behavior in general.
First of all, why are they trying to
[scourage these kinds of actions in the
rst place?
I think students at this university
eed to drink more, not less. Sure, we
ave Five Points, with its multitude of
illege dives, and the Vista, for those
ith a bit bigger wallet. And every i
eekend there are thousands of un- j
:rage drinkers who get annihilated in
ie privacy of their own dorm room, f
But is this enough?
I don't think so. For every student 1
1 a Friday night who gets kicked out <
a bar, pukes on himself, and passes
it on the sidewalk, there is another ?
ho actually remembers what they did j
id where they were and wakes up in ]
ie morning without feeling like they 1
)t run over by a truck.
Carolina needs more crazed drunk- i
mess and self-destructive behavior, j
n letters wa
iread, some are trying to find bone 1
arrow matches, others attempt world i
cords. I even received a letter start- <
I by a terminally ill child who hoped (
"live forever" by having his e-mail |
essage perpetually circulating through j
ie world. j
I used to forward them, thinking
ey were harmless fun, but around the ,
ne that I realized they were not at all ]
irmless, I received a chain letter which,
ice forwarded, released me from oblig- (
ion to all chain letters henceforth. I 1
ped "forward," bit my thumb at the
ids, and, guilt-free forever, have been
ileting all chain letters arriving in my j
ix ever since.
Are there people who actually be- 1
ive they will fall in love if they for- 1
ard a chain letter or be struck dead
they don't? Are they the same peo- !
e who think the Earth was colonized 1
r aliens returning to us on the Hale- 1
jpp comet? I hope this phenomenon (
not an attestation to the intelligence 1
our species.
The most common defense of chain
tters is that they're harmless fun. I 1
ive news for the technologically un- 1
vare on this one: They definitely are 1
(IT harmless fun Fl-mail falroc nn
I I ior
H tdi-plyini- nuinlx.T
ings in the Bible which we do need
take at their face values. However,
te Bible is also filled with statements
at are contradictory, are used sym- 1
ilically to convey God's wishes, or that i
mply do not apply to people today. 1
jch things, when taken literally
nnot possibly make sense, but do have i
;finite meaning when considered in i
ie context of God's plan. 1
In the Old Testament, God made
mself visible to Ezekiel. This was, by
) stretch of the imagination, an aweme
experience, however, God no longer i
? 4- 1 l. j;
jpecu & tu pcupie IIUI uues IKJ &pt?<irv. uiictly
to people as he did in Biblical
mes. For this reason, obviously, nothg
in reference to the physical manistation
of God can be applied in a mod n
context. ?.
IHmbhh^
"I'm
ar
^ Brat
%
E TOOLS ~T~0 <31
AGAIN'
' - *
? r t ,>- " '
>' -:%"'
' <JT> / -y-rsr
t right to a
"Before it's too late, \*
right to drink 16 beer
stumble into the gam<
down the bleacher stc
I want to go back to the good old days,
where everyone smoked, the drinking
age was 18 and the Golden Spur was a
bar.
We need to take these measures
to ward off the forces of good and decency
that are surrounding us. At
schools all across the country, administrations
are banning alcohol from campus.
At some schools, students themselves
are actually deciding that alcohol
should not be allowed in certain
halls of residence. In California you .
can't even smoke in a bar!
I, for one, propose that we at Carolina
take a stand. We need to say we
are not going to be brainwashed by those
people who call for more responsible
behavior.
Before it's too late, we need to assert
our right to drink 16 beers at a tailnrr?4-/-v
?wlvr ir\f n r\ rro ?v? a n +
gate pai tj, bluuiuic mtu tuc game at
ste time anc
bandwidth--and when someone sends
a letter to everyone he or she knows,
who will in turn send it to everyone he
or she knows, that person is responsible
for clogging networks for what is,
in my opinion, a frivolous and wasteful
purpose.
I admit that the Internet gods have
aot designated me as their earthly representative,
and perhaps I have no place
deciding what is and isn't "important"
a-mail. But I ask that people think about
the resources they're using.
The worst chain letter of all is the
rirus warning. E-mail messages can't
barm computers. They may have viruses
or malicious programs attached, but
self-executing code does not exist.
A near-exception to this truth is the
security risk recently found in versions
of Netscape and Eudora Light, in which
a limit was not placed on the length
of the name of an attached file. This
made it possible for a programmer to
write a virus as the file name itself, and
when the mail program prepared a file
for possible execution by the user, it in
fact executed the code. In this case,
however, it is the mail program which
is authorizing the code to execute rather
c will try to print .ill litters received letters should lie 2S0-3O0 word
d written letters must he' personally delivered hy the author to the V
The tianiccock reserves the ri^la to edit all letter lor style |Kissihle
Secondly, there are certain commandments
made in the Bible that are
not to be taken individually as truth,
but in context represent an actual Christian
doctrine. In Leviticus chapter 20,
God makes commandments to the Israelites
in order to separate them from
other nations and followers or other
deities. Among these laws passed down
by Elohim as such decrees as "Do not
wear clothing woven of two kinds of material,"
and "Do not cut the hair at the
j _ _ l i i _.cr i_i_ _ _j
siues ui your neau or cup on ine eages
of your beard." In light of these instructions,
am I correct in assuming
that Mr. Wilson exclusively wears clothing
made of only one type of material
and that he was never shaven his face
nor trimmed his temples. It would be
my guess th^t neither of these assumptions
is absolutely true.
l excited about the future,
id the future, like I told
our players, is next
week, not next year."
d Scott, USC football coach
=~r
WASHINGTON POST
Lcoholism
e need to assert our
s at a tailgate party,
s at halftime, fall
ips and pass" out."
halftime, fall down the bleacher steps
and pass out in the middle of the third
quarter.
The right to inebriate yourself is
one of the cornerstones of a democratic
society. Sure, alcohol and other drugs
promote apathy, depression, mental instability,
violent behavior and a myriad
of other "problems."
But the day I cannot walk into a bar
and stumble out four hours later is the
same day I give up on American soci_i._.
T"> * J 1 _ _1_ _ i. T> 1
eiy. oesiaes, iook. at me; i ve Deen a
weekend binge-drinker for, three years,
and there's no permanent damage.
So stand up for your rights,
Gamecocks. When I go to the game
tomorrow, I want to see everyone passed
out in a pool of their own vomit. Exercise
your right to be a degenerate.
I resources
than the user. The code is not executing
itself.
The intriguing part about the "viruses"
about which well-meaning spammers
warn everyone is that the messages
are indeed viruses, but not in the
destroy-your-hard-drive sense. The
warnings share characteristics with
traditional viruses; they infect the user
(when he or she reads the message),
and the content of the message causes
the user to make and spread new
viruses, by voluntarily forwarding the
message to others in an attempt to be
helpful. Anyone who receives a virus
"warning" has already been infected,
and the best thing to do is tell the sender
the truth and then delete the message.
The cyberworld doesn't really exist
for most people-except for the ones who
have to fix a network when it crashes
from overloading. That is to say, it isn't
real to most people who use the Internet.
The Internet is valuable to our society,
and it takes a number of resources
to maintain this marvel. Let's not waste
them.
Send comments (no spam, please)
to The Gamecock, or esstreyer@mindspring.com.
.s anil must include full name, professional title or year and ma
tusscll House room 333 K-rruiil letters must incliKle die author's
libel or space limitations. Names will never Ire withheld
Lastly, there are several contradictions
in the Bible. We are almost all familiar
with the Old Testament instruction
that in conflict, we are to take
"an eye for an eye" and "a tooth for a
tooth." However, when Jesus began his
teachings, he instructed us that when
a man strikes us, we are to "offer him
the other cheek." Now, certainly, we
cannot do both of these things at the
same time.
It is in such instances as these that
we need to interpret God's meaning.
TViic ic tx/Viv vug V\o\/o
XlilO iu TT X1J ?? V UUt V V-ViUVUVV/U OVIiUlCU O
of the Bible, such as Dr. Kugel. If we
all took each word of the Bible literally,
this world would be even more spiritually
confused and lost than it is at
the present.
> Robbie Bell
Speech