Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Quote, Unquote ‘In the past, the Senate has been very supportive of higher education.' John Palms, USC president ■ Page 7 DThe (gamecock S<rvinj lh< €*colicia Communify jrmc< wt Brock Vergakis Editor in Chief i Brandon Larrabee University Editor Erin O’Neal Spotlight Editor r 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 Senate committee’s action ignores students’ interests It doesn’t look like students have much choice when it comes to finding an advocate on campus. Student Senate passes bills it thinks the students care about, but they have no real power. And, as shown by the re jection of a proposal to extend the drop date, Faculty . Senate has real power, but apparently doesn’t care to use it on behalf of students. Actually, a Faculty Senate committee doesn’t care to. The proposal never made the full senate; the Scholastic Standards and Petitions Committee shot it down. The committee said the proposal would cost the uni versity, but former SG Academic Affairs Director Heather Hornick said she contacted the bursar, who as sured her the proposal wouldn’t change USC’s financial policy. The committee said most classes meet before the drop date and “syllabi and other course information are increasingly available on-line.” Most courses meet be fore the drop date — but not all. A few courses have syllabuses online — but an embarrassingly large majori ty don’t. The committee also said it didn’t find any unfavor able effects from getting a “W.” We disagree. A law school or employer will likely pause before hiring someone who has eight Ws on his or her transcript. The school or employer would probably do so without knowing about USC’s absurdly short drop period, which is about one-third the AAU average. Finally, the committee said the policy might cause students to sign up for courses “with less intention of keeping them than before.” That’s ridiculous. Most de partments cap how many courses students may sign up for, and students must maintain 12 hours to be full-time. Otherwise, they lose scholarships, on-campus housing and other benefits. It’s disappointing that Student Government had the vision to propose something that actually means some | thing to students, only to have some nearly anonymous faculty members who have no accountability to students kill the proposal in a smoke-filled room. 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 a 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. 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 vvww.dailygamecock.com Submission Policy The Gamecock welcomes letters to the editor from any point of view. Letters should be less 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 univer sity. Handwritten submissions 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 tetters exclusively on The Gamecock's Web site. Submission does not guarantee publication. T« Gamecock Ann Marie Miani Travis Lynn Jennie Moore Sean Rayford Katie Smith Photo Editors Mark Tates Page Designers Crystal Boyles Betsy Baugh Mackenzie Clements Sara McLaulin ^son Harmon Community Affairs Copy Editors Student Media Erik Collins Carolyn Griffin Faculty Adviser Business Manager Ellen Parsons Sarah Sims Director of Advertising Manager Student Media c Jannell Deyo ££&» Kera Khalil Sean De Luna Denise Levereaux Todd Hooks Nicole Russell Melanie 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 gamecockviewpointsdhotmail.com. C$1 777-/726 for more information. V College Press Exchange SiGN MY PeTiTipn To ALUDW iNV/eSTMeNT oF SOCiAL SecURiTY FUNDS in The STOCK MARKGT? MAYBe NOW'S NoT A Good Time.... ACK... V J Social Issues Where did all the activists go? Protests, sit ins and peace rallies were commonplace during the late 1960s and early 1970s. College Ann Marie Miani students across is a third-year America came stuendinthe together to protest Co||egeof the Vietnam Journalis[tl and Conflict, the M Man” and dozens ass . , , . Communications, of other causes. It , Send responses to was a time when students were g^mecockviewpoints active in the •hotmail.com. community and wanted their voices heard. Now that we have entered the 21st century, where have all the activists at USC gone? I was driving down Sumter Street on Monday morning when I witnessed something remarkable. Hundreds of children, no more than 8- or 9-years-old, accompanied by their teachers and/or parents, were walking on the State House grounds and carrying signs with peace messages written on them. A cop stopped traffic to let them cross onto Senate Street. At first, I was annoyed by the holdup, but then I started thinking, “These kids know nothing about hate, nothing about the world’s injustices. It’s people my age who should be carrying those signs and holding up traffic.” Today’s college students seem to have no passion or fire to right the injustices of the world the way our counterparts did 30 years ago. We are too preoccupied with internships, jobs, money and career paths to worry about any of the world’s problems. Or even our own state’s problems, for that matter. If it were the 1960s and there were threats of budgets cuts and 30 percent tuition hikes, students wouldn’t sit idly by. They would have gone to the State House en masse and protested until they were arrested or politicians found another way to save money. Even if they weren’t successful, they could at least say they put forth an effort, not just signed a petition. What are we going to tell our children in 20 years? “Yeah, kids, when I was in college, I drank a lot and studied somewhat and had an internship or two.” What stories are going to come out of our generation? We, as a whole, have nothing to show. When people look back at us, what are they going to see? I’ll tell you what — nothing! And it’s not just that USC students are inactive on a national or state level; we’re also inactive on a campus level. I believe this year’s Student Government election turnout was the lowest in recent history. For cryin’ out loud, we have two days to vote on line. It’s not like we actually have to go to any polls. We can vote in our rooms at 3:30 a.rn. in our pajamas if we want to. Now, I realize SG really doesn’t do anything, and some people might question its point as an organization, but it’s the principle of the matter. If this trend continues, will 20-somethings vote in local, state and national elections when they are 30-or 40-somethings? I mean, come on, do “real” politicians do anything, either? For the most part, events put on by student organizations usually have a low to-moderate turnout. If we can’t get students to be active on our own campus, how are we supposed to be active on a national level? Sol raise the question again: Where have all the activists gone? Should it really be the responsibility of a 9-year old child to walk the State House grounds carrying a peace sign? The answer is no. So get out and try to change the world while you’re still young enough to do it. Before you know it, you’ll be 40 years old and have no stories to tell your children. Letters Abortion display not close to accurate To the Editor The nature of the “genocide” pho tographs is disingenuous at the root. What you’re looking at when these photos are shoved in your face or put in front of your dining hall are images of spontaneous, nat ural miscarriages, stillbirths and fetuses that were aborted because of physical de formity. If these “genocide” photographs were at all representative of the majority of abor tions in the United States, they would not be recognizably anthropoidic, because the staggering majority of abortions take place before advanced development. The president of Students for Life might acquaint herself with the definition of geno cide. May I recommend Marcel Ophuls’ fine documentary, The Sorrow and the Pity, or Lucjan Dobroszycki’s Chronicle of the Lodz Gheltol Even a dictionary would be a nice start. “Genocide” falls somewhere between “fanatic” and “liar.” JD Lightweis Fourth-year Student College of Liberal Aits Abortion pictures were over the edge To the Editor The other day while 1 was eating lunch, someone mentioned the anti-abortion demonstration that was consuming the east side of the Russell House. The whole discussion stirred up much animosity and anger inside. If there are those who didn’t seen the huge posters of dead fetuses and the aftermath of abortion, it was hard to miss. (Even though I don’t recommend seeing them.) They are sickening. All right, so these activists are completely against abor tion, but I think this way of showing it was a tad bit over the edge. If they want to voice their opinions, it would be better done with a little less extremity. Their huge posters and pictures only caused more controversy. Finally, the thought of avoiding a cer tain area on our campus makes me mad. There is no reason why I should feel nauseated and angry on my way to class. I’m not expressing my opinion on the abor tion issue, but I don’t think it is necessary to use such graphic pictures to try and sway opinions on the subject. People will think what they want, and those of you stand ing in front of those posters need to un derstand that. Jessie Rice First-year Student College of Criminal Justice Good luck to Palms in U.S. Senate race To the Editor The University of South Carolina triumphs again. Last week, USC President John Palms announced he was consider ing a bid for U.S. Senate, and 1 would like to commend the choice. Although I have disagreed with Pres ident Palms’ choices for this university in regards to the budget cuts, we all must ad mit that our president used his savvy po litical skills, connections and manner to convince the General Assembly and our governor to give us back our money. Not one other South Carolina university pres ident went as far or fought as hard as Pres ident Palms. I find it repellent that the board of trustees would pressure President Palms to make this very important decision. Pol itics is part of academia, and our board needs to realize this. Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia said, “The academ ic, world encourages and rewards outlandish schemes, new ideas, creativity. The polit ical world punishes all three.” Let our pres ident make up his mind and choose to rep resent South Carolina without pressure from the board. I suppose the Republi can members of our board of trustees see Palms as a threat to their own candidate, Rep. Lindsey Graham. President Palms would be part of an esteemed history of college presidents to make the jump to U.S. Senate, including Woodrow Wilson from New Jersey, J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and James Garfield from Ohio. I think he would be a fine addition to this list. Good luck, President Palms. Chrissy Stauffer College of liberal Aits Senator President of College Democrats Fighting the System Knowing loopholes can only help you I have a friend. Martini, who once rented One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from Blockbuster. “All I did was rent it, he said, James Bottle and I told them I js a third-year couldn’t find it.” student in the Now the video is Collegeof nine months over- Journalism & Mass due, and Martini „ . Commmcations. has the credit _ . . Send response to rating ora money ... . gamecockviewpoints laundering pimp. ttT.» 4 ... @hotmail.com. It s not like I’m a money laundering pimp. I couldn t even get a Belk card. Die. Blockbuster, die!” he said, flicking a cigarette in the bushes. Actually, what happened to the video is that another friend, John, found it in an empty fish tank and tried to use it for speech class. After giving the cassette to his T.A., John positioned himself beliind a wooden lectern and faced his class. As his lips parted to deliver the harrowing account of his family’s dog facing death at the hands of Piggly Wiggly’s electronic door, the camcorder began making a “rink, rink” noise and the video burst out and flopped onto the floor. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. John, naturally high-strung because of a chromosomal indifference to his overweight and peevish father, exploded on the T.A., broke the video across his forehead and quit the class. “Die, speech class, die!” lie said. Now, Martini hates all video rental departments and considers Blockbuster to be the Death Star. “It’s the Death Star, man. I swear. I’m going to blow that place up,” he said . “Yesterday, I tried to get a foot-long at Sonic. That special one with the onions and chili, and my card got denied. Even the little swipey-machine said ‘Denied’ So now I’m hungry. Broke. In college. And nothing’s funny.” Two weeks later, another friend, Randolph, came over. “What’s that in your hand, Randolph?” Martini said. “A video,” he said. “What video?” “GoldSnger. Want to watch it later?” “Let’s watch it now,” “Why?” It we watch it now, we can return it and say you picked up the wrong video. Then you get another one,” Martini said. “I never thought of that,” Randolph said. “I know you didn’t. These video people are dangerous, but if you’re cunning, like myself, you know their weaknesses. You know the loopholes. After we get the second one, we can return it and say it was broken. Then we get free popcorn and a coupon.” “Sweet,” Randolph said. “I know,” Martini said. “The Blockbuster Corporation must pay for what it has done. There is no mercy in my mind. No remorse. And slowly this solitary warrior will chip away at the mighty Jericho that is Blockbuster. A long but hopefully stunted time from now, the empire will crumble at our feet, leaving fields of free videos. Videos in so high a number you need a shovel to move through those needlessly hard to manage plastic boxes. However, until that day arrives, and it will, we must engage in what the Spanish call gucnn deguerrillas.” “Cool,” Randolph said. “It’s pretty fun,” Martini said. Want your voice heard? Send letters to the editor to gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com or visit www.dailygamecock.com