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Quote, Unquote ‘We basically pull up the slack for the rest of the radio stations around here.' Jason Paddock, station manager, WUSC-FM Ffodav, August 27,1999 Whc 0amcoch Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Editorial Board Sara Ladenheim • Editor in Chief Kenley Young • Managing Editor' Emily Streyer • Viewpoints Editor Corey Ford • Assistant Viewpoints Editor Brad Walters • Editorial Contributor -1 Dorm rules should apply to all students In Capstone, one of the most requested dorms on campus, stu dents in previous years lived in a coed environment, bonding over such trials as window locks (despite uncontrollable heat ing and air-conditioning units), no sprinkler system and the many fire drills throughout the year. This semester, the bonding has been replaced by wide resent ment towards its lower-floor residents. Honors College students are now grouped together there for their sophomore years, much in the same way many are housed in Maxcy College their fresh man years. Many upperclassmen not listed on the Honors College scrolls were given a one-way trip to LaBorde, among other places, once this measure took effect. % T . 11. ITT /"■> 1 1 1 .1 inui uiiiy uu uie nunuib aiuueiua uic v^unvc nient lower levels of Capstone, but they were also granted the privilege of having the window locks removed, adding fresh air to their learning environment. Non-honors students must first per form community service (picking up the trash around Capstone, as trash thrown from open windows is the reason administrators give for keeping them locked) before having their locks removed. Hon ors College students receive this privilege but for the asking; the implication apparently is that non-honors students cannot control the impulse to jettison cups and other debris from their windows. Specialty housing is wonderful if the circumstances surrounding it are fair. NADA, Preston and the Horseshoe are prime examples of successful specialty housing assignments. Capstone’s situation this fall sends a dangerous message to non-honors students that their status as equal members of the student body is in jeopardy. The university can provide housing incentives to attract stu dents to the Honors College without doing wrong by the rest of the student body. We realize that, to some extent, it is important to offer Honors College students prime housing all four years, and that students who don’t get their housing preferences are bound to nurture resentments, but to make separate rules for groups of stu dents living in the same dorm is antagonistic. It crosses a line. For fairness’ sake, take the locks off all the windows in Cap stone. USC's e-bookstore great for students USC’s Visual Information Processing Web page has a new ad dition to the academics menu: USC has established a link to ecampus.com, a virtual college bookstore Web site. When users click on the ecampus.com link, they’re taken im mediately to a page that lists the classes for which they’ve regis tered and provides a list of required books and their prices, which are, in many instances, noticeably cheaper than area bookstores. Good job, USC! Finally, students have an easy-to-fmd alterna tive to standing in long lines. It’s a win-win situation for everyone - University Bookstore gets a percentage of the online sales at ecampus.com, and students save money. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the system isn’t trouble-free or that you should look only on ecampus.com for books. Just like any other bookstore, ecampus.com might not have a used book available that one of the “bricks-and-mortar” bookstores does car ry. It’s still important to shop around, but the university deserves our gratitude for giving students an extra place to go for books. About Us The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The University of South Carolina and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters and nine times during the summer with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of The University of South Carolina The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is the newspaper's parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. Address The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia. SC 29208 Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Student Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803 Editor gcked@sc.edu 777-3914 News gcknews@sc.edu 777-7726 * Viewpoints gckviews@sc.edu 777-7181 Etc. gcketc@sc.edu 777-3913 Sports gcksports@sc.edu' 777-7182 Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Submission Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are wel come from all members of the Carolina community. Letters should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Both must include name, phone number, profes sional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten submissions must be personally delivered to Russell House room 333. E-mail submissions must include telephone number for confirmation. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub lished. Photos are required for guest columnist and can be provided by the submitter. Call 777-7726 for more information. k i The Gamecock Sara Ladenheim Editor in Chief Kenley Young Managing Editor Emily Streyer Viewpoints Editor Kevin Langston Brock Vergakis News Editors Clayton Kale Associate News Editor Kristin Freestate Copy Desk Chief Rachel Helwig EtCetera Editor Todd Money Sports Editor Sean Rayford Photo Editor Rob Lindsey Encore Editor John Hueitt City Desk Chief Student Media Ellen Parsons Director of Student Media Lee Phipps Advertising Manager Susan King Creative Services Director Betsy Martin Julie Burnett Chris Black Will Gillaspy Online Editor Corey Ford Asst. Viewpoints Editor Ann Marie Miani Asst. Etc. Editor Jared Kelowitz Asst. Sports Editor Casey Williams Asst.On-Line Editor Greg Farley Asst. Photo Editor Brad Walters Graphics Copy Editor. Editorial Contributor MacKenzie Craven David Clonninger Charlie Wallace Phillip Burt Senior Writers Kathy VanNostrand Creative Sen/ices Sherry Holmes Classified Manager Carolyn Griffin Business Manager Erik Collins Faculty Advisor Jonathan Dunagin Graduate Assistant College Press Exchange mm ir tUEOiTOK rwE^TW'irw' ^.^vouTtiSwB^-srr euTJ(woM.„ J Misers / HpmEYhoUT L iV£&> A a?fiV fife 1| National Issues Solution to violence threefold Wichools I I opening . in past weeks, I have involuntari- 5 ly wondered 1 when and where the first shooting will occur. It’s a | \ morbid question, . but after last year, Wki McCormick we had best be is a week|y colum preparecL Trouble nist, appearing is, we as a society each Friday. She failed to find an- can be reached via swers to the ques- The Gamecock at tions raised by the gckviews@sc.edu Columbine ___... tragedy and sub sequent spate of copycat crimes. Worse, we failed to reach a comprehensive solution. Instead, we’ve got Band-Aids like Dutch Fork’s see-through backpacks and that silly Ten Commandments bill. I’ve been bewildered at the bewil derment of others over school shootings. We all stumbled around for a few weeks asking how such things could happen. So I wonder... If we took kindling, doused it with lighter fluid, struck a match and placed it on the kindling, would we all wander around with our heads in our hands wonderine how the fire started? Of course not. We know that when those factors fall into place, a fire erupts. We’ve got that concept, then: A conflu ence of certain factors is likely to produce a certain outcome. Sure, obstacles can change the outcome; say, for instance, the lighter fluid wasn’t easy to obtain, or the kindling was damp. Of course, the situa tion can still exist without a factor; for instance, if the lighter fluid is unavail able, the kindling might still bum. Or you could substitute gasoline. Still, the idea is sound, so we will repeat it. A confluence of certain factors is likely to produce a cer tain outcome. So why are we surprised when kids who are given little reason to value themselves, and whose minds are shaped by violent images, and who have easy ac cess to guns, start shooting? We don’t talk about the confluence enough. We end up isolating factors and discussing them as if they alone cause shoot ings. It is a waste of time to argue over which factor causes this sort of violence. Not one of them causes it. They enable it. Those are two very different concepts. The presence of kindling does not cause a fire. But the fire could not blaze without some matter to bum. It simply provides a necessary ingredient. So we must analyze these ingredients individually to determine how they can be made less likely to become part of a dead ly mix. One factor we blame is the availabili ty of guns. The gun lobby insists, quite rightly, that the presence of guns does not make people shoot them at others. And Rosie O’Donnell and company realize, quite rightly, that shootings are much less likely to occur with gun control mea sures in place. Guns are analogous to the lighter flu id here. People who want to kill can do so without guns. They can always look up bomb recipes on the Web. But the crux is this: Restricting access to guns makes killing more difficult. Lack of availability presents an important obstacle, which might -just might - prevent a tragedy. There fore, some meaningful form of gun con trol is Step Number One in our solution to school violence. Next, we have to examine how kids’ minds are molded. Let me explain how this to remove hair, the information she has gathered watching me will become useful to her and she will really shave. In the meantime, she tries to practice when she gets a chance. It is thus with violent media images. Kids spend hours daily watching shootouts in TV shows and movies, and “practicing” shooting with video games. So when that rare kid comes along who actually wants to kill people, he has a paradigm for go ing about doing so. His first instinct is to find a gun and shoot it. If his brain has not seen this done hun dreds of times, using a gun might still oc cur to him, but it will be a much more alien notion and seem like less of a possible re ality. Then he might settle his differences in a less deadly way, such as a fistfight. So Step Two is twofold: Violent im ages must be removed and replaced with more wholesome conflict-resolution sce narios. The burden lies partly with the en tertainment industry, which should self regulate to make its products more responsible. And the burden lies with par ents, who out of laziness allow children to be raised by the tube. And schools should teach conflict resolution and require stu dents to hold themselves to a high standard of conduct. No child should be forced to go to a school where he is daily taunted, even if he doesn’t show violent tenden Step Three involves a factor that hasn’t really been widely discussed, but which is perhaps the most important. The fact is that adolescents today have little to do to make themselves feel useful. They are told by society that the job of a teen-ager is to be cool and have fun. When they aren’t fulfilled, or when this silly dream doesn’t come true for them, they get upset and wonder why they are left out. This leads them to seek solace in the wrong things. Teens need a way to use their talents for the better good. Work that teaches and requires skills, or work that benefits oth ers, gives them feelings of usefulness and competence that increase their self-es teems, leaving them stronger people who can better deal with the stresses of grow ing up. And it eats up their TV-watching time. There are probably other, smaller fac tors, but I’m betting that if we as a society sufficiently addressed those listed here, we’d have a more well-adjusted, less vio lent teen population. ‘A confluence of cer tain factors is likely to produce a certain out come.’ works, using my daughter as an example, because it is analogous and because I like to talk about her whenever I find an ex cuse. My 2-year-old daughter cut herself try ing to shave yesterday. She soaped up her little legs and proceeded to scrape until it hurt. She did not think her legs unsightly; she probably doesn’t even realize that hair removal is involved. She just went through the motions because she has seen Mom my do it. She can’t imagine that there is a reason for it. It is just an act that has im printed itself on her little brain as “some thing people do,” simply because she has seen it done. Later, when she has actual motivation Letters Ventura formerly in the navy, not in the army To the Editor America used to be a place where you could freely criticize people if you had a fair reason to. Unfortunately, it has be come a haven for morons like Mark Pi nts to criticize people without even giv ing them the common courtesy to leant who they are [“Ventura a politician after all,” Aug. 25]. Anybody with half of a po litical pulse should know that Jesse Ven tura was a Navy SEAL - not Army Spe cial Forces. I hope he fine-tunes his literary focus to collecting the facts instead of pre senting material that was obviously hap hazardly composed and poorly thought out. If he doesn’t, in the future, it may be he whose “credibility will surely suffer.” Rob Beatty Medical Student To the Editor Jesse Ventura did not serve in the U.S. Army with the Special Forces. He served in the Navy with the SEALs. I know this factual error doesn’t change the argu ment, but it does cause me to wonder if Mark Piras really did his homework and knows the subject matter. Mark Jeffris International Studies Graduate Student GOP can’t complain about media this time To the Editor I recently read Corey Ford’s article in The Giuiiecock [“Time to end media scrutiny,” Aug. 25], and let me start off by saying I agree totally with the fact that candidates’ personal lives don’t belong in the media. They never have, and they never should be! However, Mr. Ford doesn’t have the right to criticize President William Jef ferson Clinton for doing the same petty maneuvers that the Republican Party pulled off with the “I didn’t inhale” incident in an attempt to kill his popularity with the public. Mr. Ford’s party spent the better part of $73 million ($73.4)! For what, may I ask? To investigate a MAN’S private sex life. Then Mr. Ford’s party has the gall to use the most vile, dirty and malicious stunt: to have a declaration of impeach ment issued to the White House because of a “sexual” affair. Then, against the will of the people, the Republican House im peached William Jefferson Clinton know ing that the public, whom these idiots are serving, doesn’t want an impeachment hearing and that the U.S. Senate will not pass the vote. So please, Mr. Ford, don’t you dare say Bill Clinton doesn’t have the right to bring up Bush’s past, because that’s kind of hyp ocritical for a Republican to say after all they dug up on the president. In conclu sion, I'd just like to say that the castration of President Clinton’s admittance to in haling should be nowhere near the light ness that should be taken with Gov. Bush’s refusal to answer questions of his drug use right out. David J. Breslin Computer Engineering Freshman Society Issues Most don't need SUVs to pick up loaf of bread If Abercrombie & Fitch were selling neutered puppy heads as ear muffs, half of you would be wearing them today. The need to drive a tank into _ . _. , . r , Paul Blake work five days a week seems to be >s a biweekly a trend in the up- columnist. He can per-class suburbs be reached via of America. Very The Gamecock at few people car- gckviews@sc.edu pool, and the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes remain empty (or full of violators with man nequins). No one seems to be thinking about the future. Every time I make a trip in my Geo, I am reminded of “advanced” societies’ lack of concern for others and for the environment. Motor vehicles are responsible for an estimated 20 percent to 25 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use, and they’re therefore principal contributors to global warming. So the bigger and less fuel-effi cient your car is, the more you contribute to global warming and pollute our breath ing air, not to mention that you’re being an annoyance on the road. While the environment worsens, car companies from Lexus to Nissan contin ue to produce “bigger and better” vehi cles that use more and more gasoline. Just recently, Ford released the largest SUV ever, weighing almost four tons and stretching 19 feet in length. While it’s sure to raise the quality of life in Saudi Arabia, it is certainly ticking me off here. At 10 to 15 miles to the gallon, some say it’s so powerful that it can pass anything but a gas station. Between 1988 and 1990, the fuel ef ficiency of new U.S. cars declined by 4 percent; Asian models (from Japan and Korea) declined by 6 percent over the same period. Furthermore, the new-car fleet (domestics and imports) showed a 6 percent weight gain and a 10 percent in crease in horsepower. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “... if this backslide continues, problems with nationwide fuel consumption will increase, and global warming trends will worsen at a pace faster than is generally being assumed by analysts.” lhese huge vehicles are hazardous on the road and should require commercial driver’s licenses. They block all visibility for normal-size vehicles and blind you at night when they come up behind you with the beams of a 747. Some people say they purchase these vehicles to “feel safe,” yet SUVs are three times more likely to flip over and go out of control than other vehicles. The anti-lock braking systems in these vehicles are also a safety concern. The number of accidents blamed by con sumers on the alleged brake defects is more than 3,550. However, more than 15,000 consumers have complained - a record for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to Consumer Reports magazine, more people have been killed in crashes between a car and a light truck (such as an SUV) than in crashes between two cars. So while you may feel safer, the rest of us in normal-size vehicles are join ing you in being less safe, just so you can feel cool when you hop a curb. Notice how manufacturers’ advertisements em phasize power, speed and luxury, and rarely mention fuel efficiency or safety. SUV ads often include the truck out in the wilderness, sometimes on a mountain overlooking streams and forests. Ironical ly, these are the same streams and forests being destroyed by the SUV that never leaves the pavement. The roads have been paved since Eisenhower, so it is not necessary for larger-than-life 4x4s and SUVs to get people from 12th Street to 18th Street for a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread I can’t wait until there’s agas crisis in this country, because I’ll be laughing my tailpipe off, from the bank to the gas sta tion, waving to you in my Geo Prizm. I probably shouldn’t be so harsh - you ' could easily take my life at that moment. Emissions and polluting the environ ment probably don’t matter to you any- . way; you can always just pay $1.50 for 12 ounces of purified bottled water. Keep it up <uid look for boxed air for $3.50, on sale soon.