Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Quote, Unquote The hard work, blue-collar approach, principles and ethics are the onty reason we’re 14-5.’ Sue Kelly, women’s soccer head coach Whe (Bamcock 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 Kiki McCormick • Editorial Contributor Response to online SG poll encouraging Computer Services, in an effort to implement an online vot ing system for February’s Student Government elections, performed a test run of the proposed system Tuesday. In the test run, students who signed onto the registrar’s Web site between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday and Tuesday were able to express their opinions on several proposals, including a late night shuttle from Five Points, a late-night shuttle around campus and a state lottery. While the votes are in no way binding, the fact that more than 1,150 students signed on for the mock vote is encouraging. In any democracy, a high voter turnout is essential to the elected officers’ representation of the best interests of the people. USC’s SG elections have traditionally been plagued by low vot er turnout, and while online voting isn’t a guaranteed solution, it’s the closest thing to it we’ve seen in a long time. The mock vote was also beneficial because it allowed SG the chance to gauge for the first time how people feel about the Safe Ride shuttle program between campus and Five Points. In fact, the university might consider using this method to poll students about other proposals, including changes proposed in USC’s Facilities Master Plan. The early numbers from this first-ever online vote at USC indi cate a successful test run, and we hope that Computer Services and the SG can get the system implemented by February. I . .. .11. .. . Results of SG Online Poll Should South Carolina have a state lottery to supplement funding for higher education? Yes: 877 No: 260 Should student activity fees be used to help fund a late night shuttle service around the campus? Yes: 853 No: 263 Should student activity fees be used to help fund a late night shuttle service from Five Points to campus? Yes: 599 No: 517 Do you think Safe Ride would be a useful service to the USC campus if funded through university funds rather than student activity fee funds? Yes: 897 No: 160 Mould SO use this online election process lor their elec tions in Feb. 2000? Yes; 1,086 No; 43 Should USC change its mascot? Yes: 123 No: 1,030 2000 Presidential Race Opinion Poll George W. Bush: 526 A1 Gore: 207 Bill Bradley: 117 John McCain: 67 Steve Forbes: 39 Pat Buchanan: 26 Alan Keyes: 18 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 onzanization. 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. Stuoemt Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803 Editor gcked0sc.edu 777-3914 News gcknews0sc.edu 777-7726 Viewpoints gckviews0sc.edu 777-7181 Etc. gcketc0sc.edu 777-3913 Sports gcksports0sc.edu 777-7182 Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Submission Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome 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 inffirmation. The Gamecock Sara Ladenheim Editor in Chief Ken ley Young Managing Editor Emily Streyer Viewpoints Editor Kevin Langston Brock Vergakis News Editors Clayton Kale Associate News Editor Rachel Helwig EtCetera Editor Todd Money Jared Kelowitz Sports Editor Kristin Freestate Copy Desk Chief Sean Rayford Photo Editor Rob Lindsey Encore Editor Student Media Ellen Parsons Director of Student Media Susan King Creative Director Kris Black Julia Burnett Betsy Martin Kathy Van Nostrand Creatrje Services Will Gillaspy Online Editor Corey Ford Asst. Viewpoints Editor John Huiett Asst. News Editor Ann Marie Miani Asst. EtCetera Editor David Cloninger Asst. Sports Editor Greg Farley Asst. Photo Editor Casey Williams Asst. Online Editor Brad Walters Graphics Editor, Copy Editor, Editorial Contributor MacKenzie Craven Charlie Wallace Philip Burt Senior Writers Lee Phipps Advertising Manager Sheny Holmes Classified Manager Carolyn Griffin Business Manager Erik Collins Faculty Adviser Jonathan Dunagin Graduate Assistant College Press Exchange Campus Issues USC: good school, no campus I always tell others (and myself) that the University of South Carolina is a good school. I must admit, occa sionally, I have thought about what it would be like if I went to other schools, but the grass is always greener on the other side. I firmly believe that this university is a good school, and I have enjoyed my time here. I came here because it was my state’s university and the price was right. The main reason for my doubts about Carolina stems from something that’s been gnawing on my mind since I was a freshman. I think the school is great, but the campus is terrible. I say to people, “The school is great, but we have no campus.” A lot of people say that it’s because it’s an urban campus, and I counter it with, “It was not urban in 1801 when it was found ed.” It seems apparent that the university expanded block by block, building by build ing. After the university expanded past the Horseshoe and Gibbes Green, it is almost as if university planners said, “Alright, we need another building. We’ll buy a block and build one.” Instead of planning for a future when the university would be larg er, both by area and student body, in the long term, university planners have only been looking to the short-term needs of the university. I am sure this is because of money constraints, but when it comes down to it, Carolina and the state should spare no expense when it comes to qual ity education. The more money you put into higher education, the greater your tax base when your citizens are more highly educated. The result of 200 years of short-term planning is a patchwork campus, sprawl ing and ugly. Not only was expansion planned in the short term, but the archi tectural diversity on this campus is not very appealing. When the major expansion of the university came in the past 30 years, a trend to design more buildings developed. I snicker when I read the brochures’ de scription of the Carolina campus as “A beautiful campus of old and new.” Ha! More like a campus of the old, the new and the ugly. At Carolina, you have your tradi tional college campus, the Horseshoe and Gibbes Greene; Tomorrowland, the mod em liberal aits and business buildings, along with Capstone and Columbia Hall; the huge sciences buildings, the green, yuck colored Wardlaw and Byrnes buildings and other buildings like the Bates motel, Swearingen and McMaster at the ends of the campus. You have the Carolina Coli seum, Koger Center and the School of Mu sic across the six-lane main north-south street in downtown Columbia. (There is a tunnel, though, chock-full of fun-filled graffiti for your viewing pleasure.) There’s the eye-soothing Towers, “called the Hon eycomb Towers because of their unique design.” If you ask me, that design was put there so inebriated freshmen can’t fall off the balconies. And everyone’s person al favorite, the busiest railways in Ameri ca running directly through campus. (For get to set your alarm? Don’t wony; there’s always the train.) But before you lose all hope and trans fer to Clemson (nice campus, by the way), our president, Dr. Palms, is putting Car olina on the right track. He and the uni versity have developed a Master Plan that details the plans for the university over the next 100 years. Of course, all these great projects will be completed after I’m dead and gone, so I would like to suggest a mini-Master Plan to be completed next summer by any and all means necessary — spare no expense! First and foremost, I see a college as being a sanctuary for knowledge, and to promote the acquir ing of such knowledge, students need to be placed in an environment that is aes thetically pleasing to the mind, something that fosters an inner peace. The bane of a college campus is open ness and easy access. There is nothing I hate more than walking to class and think ing about the test I’m about to take and, wham, I get hit by a car. I’ve been hit twice this week. To eliminate the presence of automobiles on campus, the first phase of the mini-Master Plan is to take out Greene Street from Pickens to South Main, Sumter Street from College Street to Catawba Street, and Bull Street from Greene Street to Devine Street. In doing so, all the parking lots at Petigru, Russell House, Longstreet and Callcott are taken out, too. The second phase is to convert . all the land to gieen space similar to Gibbes Green, with its small hills, live oaks and brick paths. Of course, there will be ac cess for university vehicles and food de liveries to the Russell House. And finally, the third phase will be to take out all the parking lots behind Pre ston, Legate and Maxcy. I do not know what those ugly green buildings are for, but if they are not used, they will go, too. Green space will be placed throughout these areas and opened up more so that there is easy access (by foot) from the Horseshoe to the Russell House. This would be a costly venture, but in the long run, I honestly believe that the money will come back when people start coming to this school, not for loyal ty and price, but for the actual beauty of the carqpus. Letters Military bristles at idea of baby-killing duties To the Editor In reference to Monday’s article, “Abortion on the military’s turf,” [column, Nov. 1], I must bring to light a couple of points where the author, Michael DiPres so, trivializes the service that our great na tion’s military provides. While the abor tion issue is very controversial, to simply imply that abortions should be left up to the military, which is nothing but a “sanc tioned organization of professional killers,” does not only a disservice to the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend our country, but also to the role the military plays in the conduct of American foreign policy. A little research into what the military does for the United States would have turned up a trove of information on what the purpose of our armed services really are. Nowhere in that research would you turn up anything that says the military is simply nothing but a group of killers. The military provides a means by which American policymakers can institute change in a foreign country when the normal diplo matic approaches fail. While many mili tary actions involve the force of arms, that employment of force is never used before nearly every other diplomatic option has been exhausted. It is usually those other diplomatic options that are also carried out by the military. Those actions include land mine detection, handing out food to starv ing families, building basic infrastructure, such as roads and schools, and most im portantly, providing law and order so that the indigenous government can even tually get back on its feet. Are these the actions of “professional killers”? I think not. Perhaps it is better to say those are the actions of “professional soldiers.” It is those humanitarian missions that make the Unit ed States military the most well-round ed, powerful military in the world. It is that military that gives everyone of us uni versity students the freedom to sit here in the comfort and safety of our campus and criticize their profession. But perhaps instead of using our freedom of speech to label them nothing but “professional killers,” we could better use that freedom to say thanks. Thanks for defending our country. Thanks for giving me the chance to go to the university of my choice. Thanks for allowing me to choose whether or not I want to have an abortion. But most importantly, thanks for giving me the freedom to write this letter. Donald R Taibell International Studies Senior To the Editor I am a student at this university as well as a cadet in the Army ROTC program. I am writing in response to Mr. DiPresso’s trou bling article in the Nov. 1 issue of The Gamecock. He has created a vile error in this report, associating the United States military with the abortion issue. Person ally, I am pro-life and believe that abor tion is wrong. However, who is he to delegate the duty of “baby killing” to the United States militaiy? The military’s main function is to protect our nation’s occu pants and interests, both foreign and do mestic. We are not crazed, head-hunting individuals who shed blood for the fun of it. We perform the duties that our nation’s leaders assign to us. It distresses me to know that one day I could be fighting, and pos sibly sacrificing my life, for a country of individuals who share his disgusting views. I am not instructing him to change his per sonal beliefs. I am just offering him, as a college student, the opportunity to research more into the activities of the United States military. However, with his present atti tude, it would be unwise to do this, be cause our soldiers, Marines and sailors do not appreciate ungrateful individuals who do not honor their personal sacrifices. To him, I wish the best of luck in his awak ening. David Gramling Political Science Sophomore Society Issues Year 2000: end of the world? I was dreaming when I wrote this; forgive me if it goes astray. I had whited until the dfter Christmas sales to pick up bottled wa ter, a kerosene heater and a hand cranked Pentium piDCessor, and now it was too late. TheMored were said out of any thing that didn’t require electricity,and the bunkers were already Tull ot well-armed survivalists. The end of the world was upon us all — the Apocalypse. I was running frantically looking for a place to bide as the world came crashing down around me. Jets lay in rivers belly up like fish in a dynamited pond. Fires burned untended everywhere. Madonna vowed celibacy. It was New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, and the Ahtichrist finally revealed himself to the masses. And, strangely, it wasn’t the sur prise some people expected it to be. It was n’t the Pope, the President or Jerry Fal well. It was none other than Dick Clark. I remember, as the sky was all purple and there were people running everywhere, smacking myself on the forehead Wfe should have known it all along! He introduced de bauchery to the United States television public with American Bandstdhd and has n’t aged a day since. In fact, he’s contin ued that tradition subtly, inducing drunk ards and fornicators to new heights on the last day of every year. It was all a part of the master plan. Archangel Gabriel charged through the hole in the ozone layer to blast his trum pet, leveling anything that was still stand ing. A little child screamed, “Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb!?” In a frenzied move, all the nuclear coun tries tried to launch their missiles at the ap proaching armies of the sky, but were foiled by the Y2K bug. The missiles exploded in their silos, and nuclear winter melded with the greenhouse effect to produce a climate with the stability of Ross Perot. The wind was blowing harder than a new intern at the White House. Nostradamus ran past me yelling, “Yeah, man, this is what I was talking about! Yeah, man, this is it!” He yelled it in French, but for some reason, I understood it perfectly. The polar icecaps melted suddenly, flooding the shores with walls of churning, foamy water An earthquake rocked every fault line, dragging whole cities into vast crevices. I ran farther, until I saw a collection of news reporters, in front of their cameras that didn’t work, rattling off commentary and on-the-scene coverage. Their faces were grim, but their eyes were smiling. They had the story of their lives. I ran and ran, until I stood in front of | the Sphinx, which snorted at me through ! a newlv restored nose, and asked me a rid die that I didn’t understand Gabriel dropped from the sky in front of me suddenly, and I saw his big, black, oblong eyes and screamed, knowing instantly that he was a Visitor. My mind said, “Prepare to fight.” People were lining up to be judged by dark-hooded apparitions with wings and harps. Over my left shoulder drifted a voice saying in an unexpressiVe monotone, “... and here the people line up, waiting for their turn to be judged. Exit polling has shown thus far that 73 percent of the people will be doomed, with a margin of error at three percentage points...” An asteroid plummeted from the sky, and in the moment before it embedded itself in the surface of the planet, 1 saw what resembled a bumper sticker on its side that read, “My brother killed the dinosaurs and all 1 got was this lousy T-shirt.” And when 1 woke up on a sweat-coat ed sheet, I could have sworn for a moment that it was Judgment Day. I $Kook my head, looked at the calendar and smiled. It was only November, I still had plenty of time to buy my bottfed .water.