The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 08, 2000, Page 6, Image 6
- — Quote, Unquote
% / * _ * j ‘The State lost their collective mind over the lottery issue.'
\/ "1 CkWTY^Ci I “Bubba” Kerry Maher
• / I I m/ I I I I II. Actor in pro-lottery commercials
I . in i ■ 1.1 . i —.i
10lC (Samecock Wednesday, November 8, 2000
We (5amecock
Editorial Board
Brock Vergakis • Editor in Chief
Kevin Langston • Viewpoints Editor
Nathan White • Asst. Viewpoints Editor
Patrick Rathbun • Editorial Contributor
Brad Walters • Editorial Contributor
Martha Wright • Editorial Contributor
Norton best choice
for journalism dean
Che last of the candidates for dean of the College of
Journalism and Mass Communications visited cam
pus last week, and now the administration is faced
with making the difficult decision of who will lead the col
lege into a new era of prosperity.
Of three strong candidates, one clearly stands out above
the rest. William Norton Jr. from the University of Ne
braska is the best possible choice among the three finalists.
Norton has experience managing Nebraska’s journalism
school, one of the best training grounds for journalists in
the country in a highly competitive region. Nebraska has
both an advertising program that has earned similar acco
lades to USC’s and an excellent reputation for training as
piring journalists.
However, if Norton is chosen, he won’t be inheriting a
program similar to Nebraska’s. Instead, he’ll be striving
to improve one. The journalism school has serious funding
problems, and — as another candidate bluntly put it — a
lot of infighting among thin-skinned faculty. Provost Jerome
Odom has, in effect, said funding the journalism school is
not a priority when it comes to our university’s quest to
join the AAU. This will be only one of the battles Norton
will face. However, we’re fully confident he will be able
to sucessfully lead the fundraising drive and will seek
other sources than university and state hand-outs.
The biggest challenge Norton will face will not be fund
ing, but instead the one thing he’s said he doesn’t like —
initiating change. One way or another, either he or the col
lege will have to change. There are some major differences
in USC’s and Nebraska’s programs. Nebraska doesn’t offer
public relations as a separate major from advertising, and
Nebraska doesn’t have a senior semester program for print
journalism students, but it still manages to produce a week
ly laboratory newspaper in its reporting class.
The advertising and public relations sequence is what
gamers the college its impressive national rankings, and its
enrollment boom reflects that. In the past decade, enroll
ment in that sequence has grown steadily while the col
lege’s faculty have decreased. To maintain the high quali
ty of the sequence, either more faculty will have to be hired
or fewer students will have to be admitted. Enrollment has
gotten so large that in 1999, the college graduated twice as
many advertising/PR majors as it did broadcast and print
majors.
Another change the new dean must face is implement
ing new media into the curriculum. To be truly competi
tive with other colleges, our students will need an oppor
tunity to gain more experience in Web journalism than they
do now: producing four online editions a semester for a
weekly newspaper. This should be part of a greater over
haul of the print program that has received a great deal of
criticism from this very newspaper.
Whether Norton likes it, change is coming, and change
is necessary. But if anybody can implement positive change
at USC, Norton can.
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
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Brock Vergakis MacKenzie Craven
Editor in Chief Spotlight Editor
Brandon Larrabee Amy Goulding
University Editor Sean Rayford
John Huiett Pho'° EMors
City/State Editor Charles Prashaw
„ . . . Amanda Silva
Kevm Langston Unh/ersity Editors
Viewpoints Editor . , „ ..
, . „ , .. John Bailey
Jared Kelowitz City/State Editor
Day Sports Editor Nathan Whi,e
Kyle Almond /}ssf. Viewpoints Editor
Night Sports Edita Tasha |saac
Mackenzie Clements Aubrey Fitzloff
Jason Harmon Miranda LaLonde
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Brad Walters Jennie Moore
Martha Wright Katie Smith
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STuoerr Meow
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Student Media Kera Khalil
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Sean De Luna Nicole Russell
Todd Hooks Advertising Staff
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Martin Salisbury Sherry F. Holmes
Creative Services Classified Manager
College Press Exchange
Election 2000
Apathy is only the sound of silence
Shelley once
wrote, “Pow
er, like a des
olating pestilence,
pollutes whate’er
it touches.” I would
argue the same
could be said for
apathy. It is highly
contagious, espe
cially among to
day’s young Amer
icans.
The tifning
might not be right
for this column be
cause the presi
dential election was
active.
I know many young people feel dis
enchanted by the candidates and their of
ferings, but apathy says nothing, and it is
not the answer. By making a conscious de
cision not to vote, you also make a con
scious decision not to be heard. Apathy
is not a form of protest. It is the absence
of expression or protest or feeling. It is in
difference.
Thinking apathy means something is
a grave mistake. Politicians do not see ap
athy as a way to express dissatisfaction
or disillusionment. Instead, they disregard
non-voters because they are of no conse
quence. We might be unhappy with the
lip service and broken promises candidates
deliver, but this goes unnoticed unless we
become more politically active.
Individual votes might not make a dif
ference in the grand scheme of elections,
but candidates pander to — surprise! —
voters. Young peoples’ poor turnout tells
politicians our concerns need not be ad
dressed. We are not on the agendas of politi
cians’ campaigns.
Ralph Nader’s 2000 campaign might
actually produce more young voters
than we have become accustomed to. The
campaign gained a lot of support from col
lege-aged voters. If Nader were the can
didate that could reflect and represent our
views, then we should have shown more
support. If he were the most suitable can
didate for younger people, then young
Nader supporters should have been more
vocal in getting the messages out to their
peers. In fact, it should have been the in
dividual’s responsibility to recognize the
suitability of Nader’s character and agen
da.
If you don’t know Nader or his views,
and you thought voting for Gore or Bush
was like choosing between the lesser of
two evils and therefore decided against
voting, then you will have no reason to
complain during the next administration.
It might be necessary for us to throw
all of our support behind Nader, or
whomever we feel is a worthy candidate,
so our voices can be heard and can echo
to the nation’s capital in 2004. If one finds
a worthy candidate, then one should ed
ucate, encourage and enlighten others about
the candidate’s promise.
But we should also be involved in
selective processes to find our candidate.
By remembering the impact the ‘60s
generation had on the conflict in Vietnam,
we should become empowered. Of course,
there is a ubiquitous sentiment that we
cannot make a difference. But we need
only look back 30 or 40 years to see stu
dents realizing the possibility and poten
tial of social and political reform.
If our generational apathy continues,
then we will see our fathers’ candidates
seeking and gaining office again and again.
I know this will change eventually, but we
are at the proverbial helm, and our inter
ests are unknown. Let’s not let our gen
eration go through their lives content with
being underrepresented and ignored. Let’s
not be the “void generation.”
All of this might sound idealistic, but
we must amend our inactive ways or
else suffer the fate of being disenfranchised.
luesuay ingiii, oui i suu icui i nccu iu voice
my opinion. This is exactly what we must
do as young people: speak our minds. It is
incumbent upon us to be counted among
the politically active voting population.
In the 1996 presidential election, the
government reported that less than one
third of young people age 18-24 actually
voted. And while this is a considerably low
figure, the 2000 election might boast a
similar number of young voters. This fig
ure is put into perspective, but nonethe
less inexcusable when one realizes that
America’s total voter turnout was lower
than 50 percent.
I’m not trying to separate myself from
the apathetic masses. I am just as guilty as
any non-voter. I did receive my first ab
sentee ballot this year, though this does
n’t mean I consider myself politically
Patrick Rathbun
is a junior journal
ism major. He
writes every
Wednesday He can
be reached at
gamecockview
points@hotmail
.com
College Press Exchange
X SA\D XM
ISNT.iT
Ti/we THer sAjp
SANve?
Have your voice heard in
Hit (Samecock
send your letters to
gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com
■ y I mm - m 1; I ■ 1 ■ 1
Student Activism
Our social
cure-all is
served hot
and fresh
I think I have made
a very important
discovery that
could spell the suc
cess or misery of your
student organiza
tion.
Well, maybe it’s
more of a realization
and not a discovery.
My eyes are now
open,and I have the
knowledge that can
help your organiza
tion rise to the top.
Are you having
trouble raising aware
ness and interest in your organization and its
cause? Are the turnouts for your meetings
dismal and dilapidated? Wfell, I am your knight
in shining armor, because 1 have the secret,
the common denominator.
Some of your organizations have already
caught on, and 1 am on to you. I walk through
out this campus looking at all the flyers
and reminders, wherever they may be, and
I notice that the university’s more promi
nent and successful organizations lure their
participants with one thing. Though their
meeting times and places are all different,
they share one simple and common element
that keeps them a notch above the rest.
This secret? This missing link? Tliis com
mon denominator? It's pizza.
That’s right, kids. University of South
Carolina student activism hinges on pizza.
How many times do you see a campus or
ganization publicize their event or meeting
and mention that free pizza will be served?
Nothing seems to grab the heart and atten
tion of this student body more than a free
slice of pizza.
So, II you re an up-and-coming organi
zation, dial up Domino’s or Papa Johns (nei
ther place provided their services for my en
dorsement) and get them to finagle some
slices for you and your cause. 1 guarantee a
much better turnout, and may your organi
zation enjoy all-new heights.
I think many of our more popular stu
dent organizations realize the all-impor
tant power of pizza, and this bothers me.
How are you supposed to really persuade us
that your cause is worthy of our activism if
you need pizza to get us there?
Shouldn’t you be confident enough in
your organization to think its purpose is wor
thy enough of our attention and attendance?
You don’t have much to lean on if the back
bone of your cause is pizza.
Can’t you see the shock on our faces
when, at the meeting (while we’re chowing
down) you actually bring up an agenda?
. “What? You mean you actually do stuff? I
just came for the pizza.”
Some of you wily organizations don’t
serve the pizza until the end of the meeting,
so you are simply torturing the attendees
with this tactic. How many times do you
hear, “I believe pizza was to be served”?
Don’t kid yourselves. You aren’t ap
pealing to our structure of beliefs or ideals.
You’re appealing to our appetites.
Nevertheless, we bite, don’t we? It’s cer
tainly a sad state of affairs when you need
pizza to get people to take interest in your
AnTtinr/ut inn
—c—
I’ve learned that the seed must fall on
fertile ground, so there must be some de
mand for this stuff, otherwise organizations
would be using brownies or ice cream as bait.
I just want to know here our sense of lib
eralism has gone? Where is our desire for
change? We are in college, right? This is
where rallies and protests should be in abun
dance, right? Gone are the days where
banners, speeches and marches are the
handle.
We don’t look for a true cause or pur
pose when we search out an organization
that appeals to us. We don’t follow our hearts.
We follow our noses. Maybe it used to be a
sense of rebellion and need for change, but
now, it’s food. More specifically, it’s pizza.
Let’s face it, our rebellious spirit is es
sentially nonexistent. That’s why we need
our bread buttered and our stomachs full.
Common labels placed upon our gener
ation are lazy and apathetic. Maybe our vot
er turnout would increase if they served piz
za at the voting districts. Maybe the social
cure-all we’re all looking for comes in 30
minutes or less, or your order is free.
Kevin Langston
is a senior jour
nalism major. He
can be reached
at gamecock
viewpoints@hot
mail.com