Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Quote, Unquote ‘We are not discriminating against off-campus stu dents; we are just trying to give first priority to students who live on campus.’ H Brian Phillips, student senator Whe (Bamecock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Editorial Board Brock Vergakis • Editor in Chief Kevin Langston • Viewpoints Editor Nathan White • Asst. Viewpoints Editor Patrick Rathbun • Editorial Contributor Brad Walters • Editorial Contributor USC plays favorites in quest for AAU In a recent interview with The State newspaper, USC Provost Jerome Odom said he and university President John Palms were making some tough decisions with regards to Palms’ goal to have USC join the ranks of the Association of American Universities. Those tough decisions refer to the allocation of university funding. Lately, it’s mainly been to USC’s four largest colleges: the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Engineering and In formation Technology, the Darla Moore School of Business and the College of Science and Mathematics. Meanwhile, USC’s other colleges have had to make due with leftover funds. So what is this saying to students enrolled in the colleges not cppinor vprv much mnnov nc q rocnlt of fhoco tounrh Hpr»icionc9 -o -J--- --1-o" Are they supposed to grin and bear it to sacrifice for the better of the university? The practice of playing funding favorites with certain schools is appalling. While the “Big Four” schools might make a lot of money in grants, this doesn’t change the fact that every student here - regardless of their college - deserves an equal education. All students pay the same amount of tuition to attend USC regardless of their college, and we should all be giv ,en the same benefits. A degree from the Darla Moore School of Business should mean as much as one from the College of Nurs ing or the College of Hospitality and Retail Management. Here’s an example of the fair way to dole out funds: An NCAA rule holds that, when a football team receive a bowl bid, it must share the money it receives for its bowl appearance with all the other teams in its athletics conference. So when schools such as Florida and Tennessee receive bowl bids, USC receives a piece of the pie. Our university would be well-advised to en force the same rule when funding its colleges. Instead, our administration s fight to have this university be come a member of the AAU has forced thousands of our stu dents to take a back seat to USC’s cash-cow research schools. Is this a fair price to pay for admission to the Harvard, Purdue and Princeton club? How can USC ever stack up to these universi ties if we simply cannot spread our money equally? While some colleges might look better in the eyes of the AAU, others will remain stagnant or perhaps fall in stature. Then, when the AAU takes a look at the big picture to see whether they want to ac cept us, how will we compare to these other universities? The AAU might very well boast several of the nation’s finest institutions of higher learning, but the ends of getting invited don’t seem to justify the means. We doubt the practice of pick ing funding favorites is encouraged by the AAU, and if it is, the AAU amounts to little more than an elitist honor society on a grand scale. 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. Adoress The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, SC 29208 Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Stuoeht Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803-777-7726 Editor in Chief gamecockeditor0hotmail.com University Desk gamecocudesk0hotmail.com City/State Desk gamecockcitydesk0hotmail.com Viewpoints gamecockviewpoints0hotmail.com Spotlight gamecockspotlight0hotmail.com Sports gamecocksports0hotmail.com Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 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 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 and should be sent to garnecockviewpoints0hotmail.com. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, styleand 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. IW UAMECOCK Brock Vergakis Amy Goulding Editor in Chief Sean Rayford Brandon Larrabee Pho,° Edi,ors University Editor Charles Prashaw , . Amanda Silva John Huiett . ... /e, . c ... Asst. University Editors City/State Editor 1 „ . . . John Bailey Kevin Langston Asst Clty/State Editor Viewpoints Editor Nathan White Jared Kelowitz Viewpoints Editor Daytime Sports Editor MacKenzie Craven Kyle Almond Meredith Davis Night Sports Editor Asst. Spotlight Editors Jason Harmon Miranda LaLonde Ashley Melton Ann Marie Miani Brad Walters Jennie Moore Martha Wright Katie Smith Sruoarr Media Erik Collins Robyn Gombar Faculty Adviser Melissa Millen Ellen Parsons Brantiey Roper Director of Nlcole Russel1 Student Media Advertising Staff Susan King Sean De Luna Creative Director Todd Hooks . , _ Melanie Hutto Carolyn Gritfm Emi|ie Moca Business Manager Martin Salisbury Sherry F. Holmes Creative Services Classified Manager College Press Exchange Campus Issues I expect more from my college Dear readers: I am dis gusted with the University of South Carolina’s College of Jour nalism and Mass Communications. I am now a se nior print major, and I expect to graduate in the spring of 2001. In the four years I have spent in the fallout shel ter we lovingly call the “J-school,” I have compiled a any extracurricular journalism work, you will be in for quite a shock. While the school might be proud of having its own practicum newspaper, it doesn’t really sim ulate a practical newsroom situation be cause it only publishes ten times a se mester. The senior semester experience is unchallenging and unrealistic. The person usually chosen as leader of that newsroom • is the one out of the pack who’s had the most experience at The Gamecock. Is this a mere coincidence? A bit of a history lesson here: The Gamecock was founded January 30,1908. According to the college’s history, the founding of The Gamecock increased in terest in journalism on campus. The Game cock editorially asked for a journalism col lege, but plans for starting one were stalled. The journalism school didn't come into existence until 1923, with their first de gree handed out two years later. Never theless, we are not affiliated with them, nor are they with us. Why? Would this not be a sensible relation ship? Instead, a tragic number of print jour nalism majors never show their faces at this newspaper. If they do, they collect a couple of bylines and split. Some of them use it as a springboard to better op portunities, but most of them just don’t come back. Too bad for them, because the people who work here will more than likely scoop them out of a job when their number comes up. Would it not make sense for the in structors and faculty of the College of Jour nal ism and Mass Communications to en dorse this newspaper and suggest to their students a tenure here? As students, we'd like to think that our instructors and ad visers are looking out for our best inter est, right? But thus far, I feel that our college has failed us in its obligation to pre pare us for our careers. How could they ignore a newspaper that gives the people who work on it invaluable experience? The journalism school at the Univer sity of Georgia shares a close relationship with its student newspaper, and that news paper is a production completely inde pendent of the university. Is it no surprise that their print journalism program is much better than ours? Our professors rarely mention The Gamecock and the experi ence you can get up here. Most of our staff get some very prestigious internships, and many of us get decent job offers when we graduate. It would be to the benefit of every print journalism student to write for The Gamecock. Instead, we’re usually frowned up on. Never mind the fact that we're students like everyone else. We should be nothing short of perfect every Monday, Wednes day and Friday. At least we’re showing some initiative. At least we realize that we’d be lost if we didn’t go out and find our own outlet for experience. This might be stretching it a bit, but couldn’t these instructors try to teach us something? Couldn’t they do more than laugh at our expense? The course mater ial is obviously insufficient if, as stu dents, we're still making these mistakes. Who is failing at their job in this situation? Wark with us, and I cannot see any side losing. I would not be half the reporter or writer I am if it were not for 77ie Game cock. I know for a fact that I owe any suc cess I see after college to the experience I have garnered at this publication. So why are we not accepted by our college? Why do they not endorse us? Do we embarrass them? Well, I assure you: That door swings both ways. _ healthy resume that I think I can be very proud of. However, not a single item on this resume comes from experience I have gained in the dungeon of the Coliseum. Frankly, if I were to go into a job inter view with only the experience and knowl edge I have attained thus far in my print journalism classes, I would be worth poodle squat to them. The program is not challenging in any respects. You don’t take your first writing class until your sophomore year, and then, you are only rewriting news briefs. Fur thermore, there are never enough class sections offered, and this leaves several print majors waiting an extra semester be fore they can advance in their major. As a print journalism major, if you have no out side experience, you will only see five by lines before you enter your final semester. Any decent newspaper would laugh if you brought them five bylines from a report ing class. By the time you reach your “senior semester” experience, if you have not done Kevin Langston is a senior jour nalism major and writes every Friday. He can be reached at game cockviewpoints ©hotmail.com. Letters Preston, Maxcy residents deserve nice housing To the editor Upon reading the editorial in the Mon day edition of The Gamecock about open ing Preston College to all students, I im mediately smelled fruit - sour grapes, to be exact. The people who live in “special” housing such as Preston and Maxcy col leges got there because they deserved it. I don’t mean to sound elitist, but the hard truth is we live in a meritocracy - life is n’t Tom Sawyer, where the person who does the least work gets the greatest gains and those who pull their own weight come away with their hands empty. By having strong academic records, the resi dents of Preston got their reward in a nicer residence hall. Many of the aiguments pre sented in the editorial could be applied to the new Greek village being built; the entire university will in no way get to ben efit from these. Some, in fact, would ar gue that because the Greeks have adequate housing in McBryde Quadrangle and South Tower, the money could be better spent renovating the Russell House, which is, af ter all, our student union. If the editor who wrote this editorial wished to be “sitting pretty in a spacious suite” in Preston, they should have attempted to get there the same way the majority of Preston residents got there - dedication, h;trd work, and mo tivation. While 1 don’t live in Preston, I applaud those who do for striving to ex cel. Justin Moody Political Science freshman University funds shouldn’t be limited to select colleges To the editor: Reading The State newspaper this past Sunday, I was disturbed by a column enti tled, “Piecing together a great university: What USC could be.” John Monk’s col umn dealt primarily with USC President John Palms’ campaign for the university to gain an invitation to join the Associa tion of American Universities. In the column, Provost Jerry Odom admitted, “One of the things that Presi dent Palms and I have had to do is make some hard decisions on what the most im portant colleges are with respect to the AAU goal.” As it is, extra money now flows to the university's four largest col leges - Liberal Arts, Engineering, Business Administration, and Science and Math. He concluded, “We've got so little mon ey that we have not been able to put very much into other colleges.” Now, this may not mean much to you, unless of course, you happen to be a stu dent in one of these “other colleges.” I am a public relations major. It upsets me that my education is not deemed significant by the administration. More than a thousand students are currently enrolled in the Col lege of Journalism and Mass Communi cations. And let me tell you one thing - we’re going places. We chose to come to USC because the faculty is renowned and the placement record is one of the high est in the country. I am in one 300-level journalism class that was originally intended to be split into three courses with a 60-person limit for each one. Because of a lack of funding for faculty, however, the class became a 180-person lecture taught by one profes sor. I have sophomore friends who are de clared journalism majors and still couldn't get into JOUR 201 this past semester. It’s not the college’s fault that even the most introductory courses are closed immediately. They don't have enough class room space to offer more sections, and even if they did, they don't have the mon ey to pay additional faculty members to teach the courses. I came to the University of South Car olina specifically for the College of Jour nalism. Looking at the numbers, I doubt I’m alone. Since 1995, enrollment has jumped. I’m assuming all students at the university are still paying the same amount for their education, regardless of major. It seems only fitting that we receive an equal ly valuable education. • ' ■ Rachel Moyle Public Relations/Ait History sophomore Social Issues Are you a Web addict? As college students, many of us cherish any time that isn’t spent in class. I think one of the greatest feelings in the world is knowing that you are done with class es for the day and inhaling that first breath of afternoon air on the way out of the building. Freedom, baby, yeah! You want to do something that will make you feel alive, something that will invigorate you. But first, you’ve got to check your e-mail. Wrong move, my friend. The next thing you know, it’s dark outside. And somehow, it all happened in what felt like the blink of an eye. Yup, for many of us, Internet addic tion is very real. We tell ourselves we’re not hooked and that we can log off at any time. Granted, we usually can bring our selves to log off when we need to get some work done, but after that, we just repeat the same old song and dance again. I know if I were cut off from checking my e-mail for a week, I’d feel incredibly disconnected from friends and family and what is going on in the world. It’s a little pathetic thinking about how we once had none of these amenities, and in just a few short years we've become entirely Web-dependent. We’re hooked, and we can’t escape. It’s just as bad as caffeine and nicotine. If the information travels too slow ly for our tastes, we shout at the screen and think about the wonderful day when computers can be hooked up directly to the brain so information can travel as fast as we are willing to accept it. Yeah, mat 11 oe preuy cool. Okay, so that’s a very scary and ex aggerated thought. But it is a fact that stu dents average 99 minutes of time on line each day. Just hearing this figure makes me cringe because I realize it of ten happens to me. Granted, I may spend no time at all online one day and then spend four hours online the next, but I do consider myself an addict. At least I’m being realistic. Many of you are in denial. Deep down inside, you’ve had the same fears about your own struggle with unplugging. You’ve told yourself, “Just five more minutes and I'll get my work done,” just like I have. You've realized that you’ve been sitting slack-jawed for the past 20 minutes and the drool is beginning to ac cumulate on your chin. But you ignore it. It never happened. You weren’t just in your own little uni verse back there, you were just, uh, rest ing your brain, weren't you? The truth is, there are so many cool Web sites out there where people can waste hours of time and lots of money. A prime example of this is eBay. First of all, let me say that eBay is the devil. There are so many cool things on eBay that I often find myself bidding on because of a spur-of-the-moment uige - an unhealthy Urce that I manage to snmphnw rpcict when I’m out shopping in stores. Pick your poison: Whether it’s eBay, Napster or AOL Instant Messenger, you are a slave to your computer. I could go off into a paranoid, futur istic rant about government conspiracies and computers that have us attached by puppet strings, but it’s been done before thanks to any number of different sources, i.e. Radiohead, “X-Fiies,” “The Matrix,” and others. The truth is out there - and it’s no surprise that the truth is that no body really wants to change. I could quit and do something more productive with my free time, but obviously I’m not dis gusted with my habit or I would. And I tend to look at the bright side of things - there are a lot of worse habits I could have, like smoking. As long as my online addiction doesn't become a daily obsession, my computer and I can co-ex ist. Pete Johnson is a senior journalism major and writes every Friday. He can tie reached at gamecockview points@hot mail.com.