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. Quote, Unquote ‘I’m ashamed to call myself a South Carolinian as long as it [the Confederate flag] is above the Statehouse’ Jonathan Bailey, journalism sophomore Wihe 0amcock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Editorial Board Kenley Young • Editor in Chief Brad Walters • Managing Editor Brock Vergakis • Viewpoints Editor Peter Johnson • Assistant Viewpoints Editor Sara Ladenheim • Editorial Contributor Emily Streyer • Editorial Contributor Hodges must take action on battle flag Gov. Jim Hodges will make his State of the State address tonight, and one item on his agenda will be the Confederate flag . Hodges said Monday that he will talk about the flag “with great specificity.” However, Hodges must do more than simply continue the never-ending stream of rhetoric on the flag debate, he must give a specific plan of action to take it down. Nearly 50,000 people marched on the Capitol as part of a uni fied front to celebrate Martin Luther King Day as well as send a loud and clear message to the lawmakers of this state {hat flying the Confederate flag will no longer be tolerated. The issue of the Confederate flag should have been settled a long time ago, but legislators ignored the voices of their citizens. South Carolina can no longer afford to ignore the loud cries of its people. In a state where the populace is generally apathetic in its political activism, a clear statement was made Monday. Those who participated in Monday’s march were part of the laigest demonstration in state history. ' This demonstration comes on the heels of numerous other or ganizations showing their support for the flag’s removal. Both Clemson University and USC’s board of trustees have called for its removal. The NCAA is considering moving a regional basket ball tournament out of Greenville with the full support of USC head coach Eddie Fogler. The Columbia City Council, Mayor Bob Coble and many S.C. cities have called for its removal.. It’s time for action to be taken. It’s time for the legislature to listen to the voices of its people. Drop/add date must be extended Students who chose to register for a Saturday class this semes ter got the short end of the stick on Friday, the last day to drop or add a class. Unlike other students who got to attend at least one class and look at a syllabus before deciding whether to keep the class, stu dents with Saturday classes had to wait until the deadline passed. Now, if they decide after attending class that they want to drop, a grade of W will be recorded on their transcripts, and they’ll be un able to register for another class in its place. This creates a problem for students taking only 12 hours. If they drop a class from this point on, they’re unable to pick another one up and they’re no longer considered full-time students. Some argue that, if the drop/add date were extended, students who enter classes after the first week would be too far behind. But in most cases, all students would have to do is concentrate espe cially hard on catching up with reading and notes they’d missed. The drop/add date must be extended, if for no other reason, to give all students a fair chance at deciding whether to keep a class. All students should ideally be able to attend at least one class to see whether they like it before they’re banned from dropping the class without receiving a W on their transcripts. If the administra tion won’t extend the date, it should at least require all professors to post their syllabuses online so that students can get a glimpse of what they’re jumping into before they’re stuck there. * 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. . The Gamecock Adoress The Gamecock Kenley Young Kevin Langston 1400 Greene Street fncoro fdrfor Columbia.SC 29208 Brad Walters “ !G|'^ Managing Editor Online Editor Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Brock Vergakis Peter Johnson Stuoekt Media Area code 803 Viewpoints Editor Asst Viewpoints Editor Advertising 777-3888 Clayton Kale Kelly Haggerty Classified 777-1184 News Ed,tor Patnck Rathbuh pax 777-6482 Brandon Larrabee Asst. News Editors Office 777-3888 Associate News Editor MacKenzie Craven Rebecca Cronican Asst. EtCetera Editor GAMECOCK Area code 803 Ann Marie Miani Shannon Rooke Editor gckeddsc.edu 777-3914 EtCetera Editors Asst. Sports Editor News gcknewsdsc.edu 777-7726 David Cloninger Robert Fleming Viewpoints gckviewsdsc.edu 777-7181 Jeff Romig Asst. Encore Editor Etc.&Encore gcketcdsc.edu 777-3913 Sports Editors Jared Kelowitz Sports gcksportsdsc.edu 777-7182 Kristin Freestate Charles Prashaw Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Copy Desk Chief Shawn Singleton OiMUMcmM tVu a~ Rene< 01'*"7 Chartie Wallace submission roucY Copy Edita Senior Writers Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome Amy Goulding Sara Ladenheim from all members of the Carolina community. Letters Travis Lynn Emily Streyer should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be atf Photo Editors Editorial Contributors opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Student Media Both must include name, phone number, profes- Ellen Parsons Kenton Watt sional title or yea- and major, if a student. Handwritten Director of AdvertisingManager submissions must be personally delivered to Russell Student Media Carolyn Griffin House room 333^E-mail submissions must include creative Director Sheny Holmes telephone number tw confirmation. Kris Black Classified Manager The Gamecock reserves the right toedit for libel. Ju|ie Burnett Erik Collins style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub- Todd Hooks Faculty Adviser College Press Exchange ► I'm sorry, bill there's no school) today, y /Oh. Too bad. I probably f would've learned some|ki ^useful for a chanty Campus Issues Attendance policy is pointless In an ef fort to make professors at USC seem more impor tant than they really are, the uni versity has an attendance policy that is completely unwarranted and unneces sary. Profes sors have the right to fail any student that misses more than 10 percent ot their classes. The administration says that the at tendance policy is put in place to benefit students. In reality, the sole benefit of an attendance policy is that it protects a bad professor’s feelings from getting hurt when nobody shows up to his or her class. If a professor is doing his or her job, a student will know he needs to be in class to succeed. However, way too many pro fessors at USC do a terrible job at teach ing the subjects on which they are sup posedly experts. If a professor can’t teach a subject properly, I see no reason in attending his or her class. The university realizes that many students feel this way, and if no grade penalty were put in place, many students wouldn’t bother to go to any of their classes. If a student can suc ceed without attending all of his or her classes, what right does the university have to tell us that a grade penalty should be ex acted? It’s not the students’ faults that they’re in a class with a lousy professor. If a professor is actually worth the amount of money we^pay them, then stu dents’ grades would suffer simply because they missed out on an important lecture. It’s not the responsibility of this school to make sure we attend class and get good grades. I’ve been told countless times by pro fessors how they don't really care whether we succeed or not because they’re still get ting paid. The university doesn’t care if we succeed in our classes or not because if we have to retake a course, that’s just more money for it. Perhaps that’s part of the rea son the school gives professors a right to fail anyone who misses 10 percent of their classes. But maybe that’s a much too cynical view of our campus administration. After all, if we don’t get good grades, it’ll be tough for us to get good jobs. And if we don’t have good jobs, the university can’t hit us up for large donations. Either way, they want our money. And it’s exactly our time and money that are being wasted when we’re forced to attend a class with a terribile professor. We’re the ones who are paying for this “wonderful” education, and we should feel free to do with it what we please, without fear of penalty. Can you imagine going to a restaurant and having to pay more for your meal simply because you didn’t eat it all? And the reason you didn’t eat it all was because it was a terrible meal. This is the same principle on which our atten dance policy is based. Customers would never stand for it at a restaurant, and we shouldn’t stand for it here. However, for those students who have come to realize just how pathetic the teach ing abilities of most professors here are, there is hope. Anyone who needs a science to fill their graduation requirements can register for a self-paced astronomy class. There are no scheduled class meetings in astronomy. Students only have to find time to go to the astronomy center, take their tests whenever they feel like it and attend labs that are offered throughout the se- , mester. Those of us who have taken this course know it’s not exactly a walk in the park to get an A, but it sure beats having to listen to a terrible professor lecture three times a week. There’s nothing worse than having to go through the struggle of pretending you’re awake in the big auditorium in Gambrell Hall simply because you don’t want your TA to catch you napping. If you’re caught catching some extra Z’s, it’s almost aguar anteed reduction in your class participa tion grade. Somehow, it s become lost on pro fessors that no matter how much they encourage it, no more than five people will ever speak in a class with 300 students in it. So if you’re going to take off participa tion points from the poor guy down front caught napping, you’d better take those points away from the other 299 people who weren’t caught. Or how about this revolutionary idea: Professors actually TEACH something in their classes that we’ll be tested on and can’t get anywhere else. We’ll come to class and your feelings won’t be hurt, and our tuition money won’t be wasted. Brock Vergakis is a junior journal ism major and Viewpoints editor. He can be reached via The Gamecock at gamecockview points@hotmail.com Letters S.C. should decide on Confederate flag The editorial board’s hatchet job (Jan. 10) on Gov. George W. Bush should sur prise no regular readers of The Gamecock, which has joined the liberal media band wagon for Sen. John McCain. Why is it not slick for McCain to praise his Confederate ancestors, call the Con federate flag a racist symbol and then re tract that and claim only that some see it as a racist symbol? The Gamecock could have easily described those positions as “bobbing, weaving and dodging,” but then again, it’s hard to do that when you occu py such prominent seats in McCain’s Amen Comer. I, for one, believe that Gov. Bush is right - South Carolinians should decide whether the flag ought to come down. Why should Bush elevate this state fight to one of national prominence? It has occupied our debate for far too long, and having the next president of the United States offer his opinion will just make it worse. Bush has the character to make the tough decisions. He has the courage to tell his party that it must show a compassionate face. I have seen this character and courage up close and persona] several times. It’s too bad the editorial board mem bers apparently were ill from the bad ban quet food Jan. 7. They might have had a clearer picture of the real George W. Bush, mjn ™ili;‘'nc Anwriranc -...Imiro_ David Hill Journalism Sophomore Career Center working to improve A review of your Jan. 12 editorial crit icizing the Career Center seems to focus on three issues - the Center’s Web site, ac cess to resources and services, and fees. . I agree with you that our Wfeb site needs some work. In fact, the Career Center de veloped a new Web site during the fall semester and is now completing the final revisions to that new site. One of the fea tures of the new site will be access to hand outs, such as resume writing, interviewing and job search. Regarding access to resources and ser vices, I must disagree with some of your statements. The Career Center does pro vide online listings of internships, part-time jobs and other employment opportuni ties at the following Wfeb site: htttp://wjl.re sumeexpert.com/0415. There is no charge to access these listings, although you must enter a password, gamecock. In fact, we have one full-time staff per son who receives information from em ployers and posts these listings to the Web site daily. As of Jan. 12, there were 26 in ternships listed on the site. You express concern thtjt we link stu dents to other universities’ Web sites for internship listings. One advantage of on line information is the ability to pool in formation from various sources. We see these links as adding options for students beyond the internships that are listed through the Career Center. I am perplexed that you perceive that students must make an appointment to see Career Center staff. The backbone of our service delivery is an “on-call” sys tem where students can visit the Career Center without an appointment and talk with our staff. We have two, sometimes three staff members available to see students between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. without an appointment. Students visit our office daily without ap pointments for resume critiques, to com plete career assessments and to gather in formation about majors. We do retain the appointment system for more in-depth interactions, such as ca reer counseling and assessment interpre tation. Student fees remain a concern for us, as well. The reality is that quality resources 4 like CareerConnections (formerly Resume Expert) and the Strong Interest Inventory are not free and we must chaige fees to students to help defray our costs, as do oth er similar institutions. Larry G. Salters, Ph.D. Director, Career Center State Issues King greatest Americai In the course of our na tion’s histo ry, community involvement and citizenry ac tivism remain the ingredients that cultivate change in an un just governmen tal policy or a negative public attitude. The joining of communal ac tivists with a nonviolent ap proach to solving society s wrongs creal the opportunity to bring change withe instilling fear in the citizens’ opponen Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. provid this nation - filled with injustices but so with the promise of hope - an almi perfect example of how a group of det< mined people can right the problems society in the most dignified mann Known as the one leader who qgai death threats and impossible odds uni' angered voices struggling to gain the i portunity for equality, King not only the freedom fight for minorities but lowed the United States to be the lea of the free world - without hypocrit: practices against segments of its own p ulation. If King were here today, he would cover that America still has many of problems he faced as a civil rights lea What would King think about racial inequities in corporate America the always-heated debate that accon nies the question of how to solve it? Would King cry out against the I rific number of children growing u poverty or would he, like most of nation’s politicians, say governn cannot do anything about the destitu of many children? Would King disregard the Confe ate flag atop our state’s Capitol in c to address other issues that lead to r ing but mere partisan bickering and, lock? King, undoubtedly, would coni all of these issues with his articulate tory, one that would in all likelihoc ritate and annoy apathetic, so-called i erate citizens. In a national dialogue absent of ous, courageous stands, his voice v once again lead us to discussing th ments of society without riot or wa Just like the video poker issue, 5 Carolinians of all races, religions an litical preferences joined ranks to c an enormous charge of momentum t feat the poker industry. And now, the stale must unite ii Voice to go beyond this controvers address working South Carolinians problems, which include the despain ucation system and inadequate healtl protection and providers. In order to fully labor to solve obstacles - problems difficult to n despite overwhelming public apprc South Carolinians must frame a co sus on the direction our society is to Monday’s rally at the Statehous be a starting point for resolving this The rally all but told us what we al know: The flag must come down. Compared with the pro-flag rally ly a week and a half ago, this rally sh the nation that South Carolinians, and white, want the flag taken d The flag must be removed throi honorable compromise and recor tory process reflecting the manner in King fought for equal rights. One matter King would not touched would have been the natior servance of his birthday. King would have, in his selfless ership style, discouraged celebrat his life and the thanksgiving of the fices minorities and the poor have to the cause of fighting injustice. With King’s compassionate vc our world today, possibly the ills world,might not seem so hopeless a spairing, thus earning him the riisti as the greatest American. Corey Ford is a sophomore lib era! arts major. H< can tie reached vie The Gamecock at gamecockview points@hotmaii.co