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Quote, Unquote ‘This represents an unacceptable conflict of interest — one that Dr. Palms should rectify immediately’ Doug Smith, S.C. House Speaker Pro-tem ....... ... .... 1 IDe (Bamecock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Brock Vergakis Editor in Chief Brandon Larrabee University Editor Erin O’Neal Spotlight Editor Kyle Almond Sports Editor Brad Walters Design Editor Cristy Infinger Asst. University Editor Valerie Matchette City & State Editor Amanda Silva Spotlight Editor Martha Wright Copy Desk Chief Charles Prashaw Asst. City & State Editor Aubrey Fitzloff Asst. Viewpoints Editor All syllabuses must be viewable on Web site Selecting*courses to take for the upcoming semester has nev er been an easy thing to do. However, this task could be I’nmp miirh pacipr if thp administration reatlired nrofessors to post their syllabuses online during advisement and registration. The course descriptions in the undergraduate bulletin hardly give an accurate picture of what a class is really going to be like. Students need more information to make an educated decision about which classes to register for. The best possible solution is to have online syllabuses. This way, students would be able to see what is really being taught in a class instead of what was written in a generic course description. Also, students would be able to find out how much work will be necessary for a particular class. This can make a huge difference in whether a student decides to take 15 or 18 credit hours. Some students would also benefit by learning what type of tests will be given. Some prefer classes with essay exams, while others prefer courses that offer multiple-choice ones. A student could even decide on a class by finding out whether a course is lecture-dominated or reading-oriented. Some professors prefer to give weekly quizzes while others only give two exams a semes ter. Every student prefers one of these schedules over the other. These are the things students want to know about before they register for a course. When students have to wait until the first day of class to find out they want to drop the course, it only cre ates aggravation for the students and the professors. Students are needlessly registering for courses they have no business being in. Students who want to, or need to be, enrolled in certain courses are being locked out by those who are just going the first few days to “test out” a course because there is no other way to accurately experience it. And, unfortunately, some classes don’t even meet until after the drop date passes. By the time these students finally do get a look at the course syllabus, it’s too late to add another class. All of these problems could easily be avoided if professors posted their syllabuses online. The technology is there for them to do it, and it would be wildly successful among students. The handful of professors who do post their syllabuses online for prospective students are to be commended for their student friendly mindset. Let’s hope they can persuade more of their colleagues to fol low their lead and join the 21st century. Posting syllabuses online won’t solve all of the problems associated with registration, but it’s a good start. 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 f 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 803-777-7726 Editor in Chief gamecockeditor@hotmail.com University Desk gamecockudesk@hotmail.com City/State Desk gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Spotlight gamecockspotlight@hotmail.com Sports gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online www.dailygamecock.com Submbsion Policy The Gamecock welcomes letters to the editor from any point of view. Letters should be fewer than 400 words, e-mailed or clearly handwritten and include the author's phone number, professional title, year in school and college, or place of residence if not affiliated with the university. Handwritten submis sions must be personally delivered to Russell House 333. Anonymous letters or those with pseudonyms will not be printed. The editor reserves the right to ^ edit for length, clarity, style and libel as well as the right to publish letters exclusively on The Gamecock's Web site. Submission does not guarantee publication. The Gamecock Ann Marie Miani Travis Lynn Jennie Moore Sean Rayford K*®* Photo Editors Mark Yates Page Designers Crystal Boyles Betsy Baugh Mackenzie Clements Sara McLaulin Jason Harmon Community Affairs Copy Editors Erik Collins Carolyn Griffin Faculty Adviser Business Manager Ellen Parsons Sarah Sims Director of .. .. . .. Student Media Advert,smg Manager Susan King Jannel1 °eyo Creative Director Robyn Gombar _ _ , Kera Khalil ■ Sean De Luna Denise Levereaux Todd Hooks Nico|e R Melame Hutto Advertising Staff Emilie Moca Martin Salisbury Sherry F. Holmes Creative Services Classified Manager Only two letters to the editor per student will be printed in a semester. Staff columns take priority over guest columns, unless the guest columnist offers expertise on a subject, or if the subject's relevance is limited by time. Guest columns and letters may be submitted by e-mail to gamecockviewpoints©hotmail.com. Call 777-7726 for more information. College Press Exchange r— ife $hht Movement Uw^^vears i I CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT THEY DONT PVIT IN HERE/ LETS PROTEST/ I | 2001 I CANT BELIEVE WHAT THE/ PUTIN HERE/ LETS PROTEST/ ■ Letters Abortion display is rude but necessary To the Editor Walking by the Russell House this past week, I was as horrified as anyone by the display of pictures on the lawn, but 1 found myself almost as horrified by some of the responses of the students. Many stu dents, foigetting that this university is a public place, seemed full of contempt for the oiganization that dared to display such graphic pictures on “their” lawn. I noticed that many people are ready to take away the First Amendment rights of this oiganization so they can continue to live in their bubble utopia and ignore an issue that exists in society. Abortion is an issue that sparks a lot of emotion and heated debate. People on both sides are impassioned turd full of facts, reasons and sentiments about why they are right. Whether the position is pro-choice or pro-life, the reality of abortion remains the same. It is this reality that the Center for Bio Ethical Reform was trying to convey. They could have set up their display in a hidden room inside the Russell House, but what kind of message would that have sent? If people choose to spend the entirety of their lives never being challenged or nev er being uncomfortable, they will exist in a passive, unrealistic world. It is important as active, intelligent citizens to be able to fully understand and realize the con sequences of our actions and opinions. The CBR was well within their con stitutional rights to exhibit their message on the lawn beside the Russell House. Their message was truly pro-life, not just anti abortion. The oiganization exhibited op position to many forms of killing that take place in society. The group also wasn’t to tally apathetic to the fact that there might be women on this campus who had pre viously had abortions. There was an ad vertised number to call for counseling. While the display made me horribly uncomfortable, it was a needed discom fort. It’s impossible to walk through lift sugarcoating the issues. For just a moment in time, this group removed the sugar to show a harsh reality that everyone must face. Kaitlin Bishop Second-year Student College of Journalism and Mass Communications SG faces adversity from Faculty Senate To the Editor For the past year, I, along with the members of Student Government, have been working to extend the current drop date from five days to 10 days. Together we have collected 5,707 student signa tures. The SG Research and Development Team has researched each AAU institu tion regarding its academic policies. We adapted previous proposals and came up with a plan that will benefit USC students <uid faculty with no cost to the university. The faculty I have spoken with, including members of Faculty Senate, have agreed with our proposal and supported SG’s ef forts. Now, the Faculty Senate Committee on Scholastic Standards and Petitions does n’t feel this proposal is worthy of a Fac ulty Senate vote and believes this change of policy would be detrimental to the uni versity. I understand that policy changes have the potential to cause negative ef fects. However, I don’t believe that will Ho thp rasp with this nrnnnsnl Fnrthpr more, 1 believe that by not recommend ing the drop date extension proposal to Faculty Senate, this committee is trying to stifle the voice of the students and is failing to move the university one step closer to our AAU goal. Heather Homick Academic Allairs Director Student Government Pi Kappa Phi thanks Carolina community To the Editor I would like to publicly thank the Car olina community, the brothers of Pi Kappa Phi Sigma Chapter and the sister hoods of Zeta Tau Alpha, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Zeta, Kappa Delta, Chi Omega and Alpha Delta Pi for their support of our chapter’s inaugural No Boundaries Week. With the support of the USC communi ty and these organizations, we raised more than $2,200 for Push America. Push America is the national outreach project of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, which seeks to raise money and awareness for people with developmental disabilities. Pi Kappa Phi is, and remains, the only fra ternity or sorority to have created, ser viced and facilitated its own philanthropy. With events such as No Boundaries Wfeek, we are able to help those with disabili ties in Columbia and across the United States. Finally, I would like to thank The Gamecock for its media support of the event. Thank you all once again! Gabriel N. Fluhrer Push America Chairman Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity Display only showed reality of abortion To the Editor I would be the first to agree with every one who says the pictures at the Genocide Awareness Project display are horrible and disgusting. The reason they are, though, is because they portray a harsh truth: what abortion really looks like. Abortion isn’t just some abstract thing tliat a woman does to her own body or to prevent the birth of an unwanted child. There is another tiny body involved, with eyes and hands and feet. Seeing the pictures reminded me of that other little person. It would be hard to look at those pictures and deny the hu manity represented in them. The purpose of this display was also to promote discussion of an issue that many people don’t know much about. Univer sities are great places because they allow for the exchange of ideas — exchanges that don’t just take place in classrooms, but all over campus. There is concent that pro-choice people didn’t have their own display. The only reason that no such demonstration occurred is because no one apparently cared enough to start one. Some odier letters have expressed con cerns and anger about the use of the term “genocide.” My dictionary defines genocide as “the deliberate and systemic extermination of a national, racial, polit ical or cultural group,” not just a single race. For instance, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime killed one out of every four Cam bodians. This has rightly been called geno cide, even though it isn’t the killing of a A whole nation or race. It is genocide be rai isp there was a group of people in Cam bodia that Pol Pot didn’t want to live. The group being killed in the United States consists of unwanted, unborn children. I understand that the Holocaust, Cambodia and abortion are not the same thing, and I don’t want to trivialize the atrocities that went on in Europe or Cambodia There are similarities, though, between what oc curred then and what is going on now. Many think this display has done noth ing good and has only caused scorn. Some feel this kind of display serves to anger or cause hurt, and that there are better ways of protesting. I disagree. Most peo ple who walked by the display didn’t seem to be offended or angry. They were thinking about it — de ciding how they felt. And all of the pro testors talked about “pictures of dead ba bies,” not “embryos” or “fetuses.” Obviously, the display did do some good. Putting these pictures away in some clos et will not make what is portrayed go away. If we feel so strongly about not seeing these pictures, we must stop and ask ourselves whether it would be better to stop the dis plays or to stop the atrocity that they por tray. Aubrey Rampey Third-year Student South Carolina Honors College Genocide exploited for political interests To the Editor As I walked toward Greene Street on March 22,1 was shocked to see the bill boards and images that were so promi nently displayed on the lawn next to the Russell House. On one billboard were enor mous photographs of victims-of the Cam bodian genocide and the picture of a dead child that had been killed by a machete. As a pro-choice woman, 1 was angered to see the conflation of abortion with geno cide. As a person of Asian descent, I was horrified that this group evidently believed we would feel sufficiently outraged (or disgusted) at their images of aborted fe tuses that we would ignore the hypocrit ically disrespectful way they chose to rep resent people. Certainly those who would seek to de ny a woman the right to choose what she can do with her body can muster enough respect for that child to discern her/his name? Surely their message didn’t need to be made on the face of a child resting on its own limbs. It is troubling, and incredibly hypo critical, that this group feels it is accept able to exploit the victims of genocide in an effort to further their own political interests. As a student of the University of South Carolina, I was disgusted that these people would be allowed to show these photographs in such an exploitive man ner. There is little question in my mind that if there had been pictures of dead white children, those billboards would not have been allowed to remain standing. Certainly, someone knew what was going to be dis played. Certainly, someone from cam pus administration walked by. Certainly, someone else feels as infuriated and sad dened as I. Linda M. Ziegenbein Graduate Student Anthropology Pop Culture . Movies should be scarier, bloodier to horror movies? I’m not talking about the trendy pseudo-horror flicks that make Michael Kerr fun of themselves is a third-year like the Scream student in the trilogy, I Know College of What You Did journalism and Last Summer or Mass the Urban Legend Communications. disasters. These Send responses to movies betrayed gamecockviewpoints the tradition of the ©hotmail.com: horror movie with parody and slacker wit. They weren’t scary, and, with the exception of the original Scream, none of them even succeeded in being funny. What I miss are the good old fashioned slasher flicks of the 1980s. (Considering also my love for hair bands, I think I was bom a decade too late, but what can you do?) I miss Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Leatherface and the granddaddy of all movie monsters, Jason Voorhees. Send Skeet Ulrich camping, and see how long he lasts with Jason in the woods. These were movie monsters the world knew. They sold action figures, Halloween costumes and satisfied fans with sequel after sequel after sequel. They were on posters, comic books, trading cards and lunchboxes. They were laiger than life, just like rock stars. Today’s movie monsters aren’t even monsters. Skeet Ulrich was just one example. Urban Legend attempted to strike fear in our hearts with, gasp, Rebecca Gayheart. C’mon now, the Noxzema girl doesn’t really compare to Freddy Krueger, does she? I’d go so far as to say that Chucky the killer doll was a more ominous movie monster than Rebecca Gayheart. The plot lines don’t compare to the old movies anymore. There are no more killers who get shot, stabbed, blown up, burnt and electrocuted but refuse to die. There are no more hockey masks, voodoo curses or killers coming back from the dead to stalk people’s nightmares while looking for revenge. Now it’s just regular people who get mad for one reason or another and start killing people. Where’s the fun in that? I wouldn’t even mind seeing a return to the genre of honor movies where giant mutant animals attack small towns. Jaws, of course, is the most famous and respected of the genre, but there are also classics like Alligator, Mosquito, Ants and Frogs. Speaking of mutants, what ever happened to the movies about a mutant race of humans? I guess the fall of the Soviet Union took away the fear of what would happen after nuclear fallout, but there’s still a whole lot of toxic waste floating around the world. I’d like to see a movie that poses the question: “What if all that toxic waste creates a subspecies of laige, violent and primitive people who can survive only by eating human livers?” I’ve seen C.H. U.D. and Day of the Dead, but I need more mutants. It’s only natural. The slasher flicks of old are timeless. Whether you’re watching Friday the 13th part two or part six, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to think to enjoy a slasher flick. You don’t have to look for hidden messages or elaborate metaphors. Wrestling and rock ‘n’ roll, with their sex and their violence, have returned. I hope slasher flicks aren’t far behind. ■-, Nathan White’s column will appear Tuesday at www.dailygamecock.com