The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 05, 2001, Page 5, Image 5
IN OUR OPINION
Too much
team spirit
Though Williams-Brice Stadium has a capacity of
80,250, there were 83,019 in attendance at Saturday’s
football game, resulting in impassible walkways that
were inconvenient and also dangerous.
According to sources at the athletics ticket office,
11,500 student tickets are usually sold to each home
game, but 400 extra tickets to this past Saturday’s
game were sold as standing-room-only.
Traditionally, however, students sit wherever they
please, not in the seats assigned to them. As a result,
_ . . there weren’t enough seats in
The average tap thestudentsectionSaturday.
to go to the Hundreds crowded between
bathroom or get the fence and the bleachers
refreshments behind the goal post, while
lasted nearly an many more jammed the tunnel
hour, near the entrance at the corner
of the field. This made the
average trip to go to the bathroom or get
refreshments last nearly an hour.
One student, resigned to standing near the field’s
perimeter fence, was swept onto the field with the
dance team. “It was like a mosh pit,” said Katie
Wofford, a fourth-year liberal arts student. “A girl in
front of me passed out, and I thought I was going to
be crushed.” Therein lies some of the danger;
without clear paths to ill or injured fans, medics
might not be able to reach people soon enough.
The band contributed to the problem. Though it’s
necessary for band members to march on and off the
field, the intermittent stream of band members,
instruments and dance team members contributed to
the congestion. The blame for this problem lies with
officials who didn’t clear a path for them to pass,
leaving them with just as much hassle getting back
to their seats as other students.
To avoid dangerous situations and potential fire
hazards, fewer tickets need to be sold to the games.
And the police need to do a better job controlling the
crowd, whether this means blockading a path for the
band or escorting students to available seats — of
which there were some in the upper decks.
ALSO IN TODAY’S VIEWPOINTS
FRIDAY’S EDITORIAL, “WINNERS AND SINNERS,” AND “QUOTABLES”
CAN BE FOUND ON PAGE 7
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
In the Friday edition of The Gamecock, USC student Mark
Schnee was referred to as a fourth-year student. He is a fifth-year
student. The Gamecock regrets the error.
If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. Write us
at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com.
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Listening to USC’s students
CLAYTON KALE
CEKALE@HOTMAIL.COM
As deans sharpen their
axes for war, students
shouldn’t be forgotten.
The university has tightened
its belt as much as it can be
tightened. The budget will be
trimmed, and certain
“nonessential” programs will
be cut. The Gamecock has
reported that deans of the
university’s disciplines are
sharpening their axes for war.
Every dean of every college will
be busy writing papers on why
his or her field is the keystone
ofUSC.
The administration is
hearing from each department
to determine which programs
the university can base a
national reputation on. The
administration is basing the
cuts on a 10-question pop quiz.
The questions will help the
university measure the
revenue, productivity, impact
and demand of each
department. Each of the deans
will come wearing their Sunday
best and put on a good, albeit
thoroughly biased, show for the
administration.
Unfortunately, the ones who
could potentially feel the
biggest changes are largely
being ignored. The
administration should look to
the student body to measure
how much demand exists for
certain programs. The
committee in charge of
listening to the deans soon will
be taking a break from the
never-ending PowerPoint
presentations to hear from
students. But the three
meetings hosted by the
Strategic Directions and
Initiatives Committee aren’t
nearly enough to gauge student
academic interest.
More attention needs to be
paid to the students of the
university, because today’s
students are tomorrow’s big
dollar alumni. Holding
meetings for students to air
their concerns is a good start,
but the university can do more.
Already, students’ mailboxes
are filled with solicitations
from the university. Nearly
every week; students receive
something, whether it’s a
postcard-sized advertisement
for class rings or a brochure
sized advertisement for
Parent’s Weekend. The
administration could suspend
the next round of university
junk mail and seek student
comment instead.
Perhaps the university could
send a questionnaire to the
students asking them what
programs they find
indispensable, what classes
they would like to see offered at
the university and which
classes and programs are
useless. The administration
would be able to better judge
what classes are in demand if
they were to go straight to the
ones who have to sit through
the classes.Of course, not every
student would take the time to
fill out such a questionnaire,
but I’m willing to bet the life of
my cat that there would be
more response to a mailing
than to the three meetings
combined.
Student apathy is a constant
here, but by actively seeking
student comment, the
administration would get some
valuable feedback from the only
people who make this
univefsity exist.
The administration will be
faced with some tough decision
making in the coming months,
and they are to be applauded for
asking the deans for their input.
Indeed, the face of the faculty
could be drastically altered by
the conclusions drawn by the
board of trustees. But let us not
forget the students who chose to
come to USC. They’re as much a
part of the university as the
board of trustees, and they
should be considered when
major changes are on the line.
IN YOUR OPINION
Don’t blame
workers for service
As a food and beverage
worker, I feel compelled to
give a worker’s perspective
on the attitudes in the
industry. The problem, or
solution that is badly needed,
doesn’t lie in the hourly
workers themselves, but in
the owners and managers
who are sometimes one and
the same.
The amount of work that
goes into opening a food and
beverage outlet is enormous.
An often-neglected aspect is
employee management.
The components that make
or break people’s attitudes in
this industry are restaurant
design (does an employee
have to suck in his or her
belly just to get in the cooler?),
a job description (which is
only handed out 1 percent of
the time), verbal
encouragement (undermining
an employee is the norm) and
using common sense (which is
a scarce notion in food and
beverage outlets).
How would all you workers
out there who wear “Fortune
500” clothes to work like it if
you had to answer your
business phone located
between two walls by sucking
in your belly so you could
reach the phdne?
In most situations, the
blame is dealt out as follows:
owners are 60 percent at fault
and the managers are 40
percent at fault. The title in
many restaurant ads says it
all: “Now Hiring All
Positions.” TACKY. Low level
employees don’t have tacky
attitudes, they have tacky
jobs.
Because of low wages, a lot
of owners/managers think
they can treat their help like
garbage. So if you, the paying
public, ever get treated like
garbage, you can thank the
incompetent owners and
managers.
The next time you’re in a food
and beverage outlet, take notice
of the workers’ faces. Do they
look happy to be there or would
they rather be somewhere else?
If they aren’t smiling, reach out
and make them smile. You
might make their day.
JOSEPH MORGERA
SENIOR, HOTEL RESTAURANT
TOURISM MANAGEMENT
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are welcome from the Carolina
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phone number, professional title or year
and major, if a student. Deliver
handwritten submissions to Russell
House room 333. or send e-mail to
gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com.
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WE WANT YOUR RANTS
“The Rant,” a weekly feature that will run every Wednesday, is one more way you can let everybody
know how you feel. Send your anonymous, one- to three-sentence comments (no longer than 100 words,
please) to gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. And look for more ways to rant, via phone or our
www.daUygamecock.com, in the coming weeks.
NEWS HAPPENS FIVE DAYS A WEEK.
; NOW, SO DO W^.
http://WWW.DAILYGAMECOCK.COM
A few of
my least
favorite
things
PHIL WATSON
WATSONPHIL@YAHOO.COM
Annoyed by trains,
partial male nudity, and
whining about S.C.
The first days of school have
certainly been exciting. For me
they’ve beep a non-stop thrill
ride filled with many ironic
twists and turns. I can’t
complain, though. I like
surprises and new discoveries.
Life would be gloomy and boring
if we always knew how things
would turn out.
All the breaking news has
also added to my recent days of
surprises. Since I’ve been back
in.Columbia. Aaliyah died in a
plane crash, two attorneys were
. ambushed near Five Points,
Preston College decided to make
its reputation even more
masculine by splitting up into
“houses” and naming them after
characters from Harry Potter
books, and some sorority I had
never neara ot ceasea to De.
I ought to write my column
about all this thrilling news. I
could talk about how tragic
plane crashes are, how
dangerous Five Points is, and
how hard I laugh when I think
about Preston College.
This could be a great
opportunity for me to relate my
compassionate conservative
views to recent news.
Instead I’m going to go off on
one of my traditional rants and
talk about three things that have
irked me in the past week.
Like many other students, I
live near the train tracks. Some
nights, just after I drift off, I’m
violently woken by the hideous
screech of a train whistle and
the thunderous sounds of
thousands of pounds rolling
over steel tracks.
Usually, after I wake up and
realize it’s not the apocalypse, I
get angry. Sometimes I want to
destroy the tracks with a
jackhammer so trains won’t be
able to go over them anymore.
I’d probably go to jail, though,
and I hear it’s even harder to
sleep there.
I would think we’re through
with the barbaric practice of
using trains. In these modern
time's there’s surely more
prudent means of transporting
things. Using trucks, planes and
stem cell babies to carry goods
from place to place would
probably be less costly and less
annoying.
i saw anoiner ming inai
bugged me when I was walking
to class the other day. Some
shirtless moron was walking to
or from class with his books in
one hand and his shirt in
another. There’s a time and
place for everything. When
you’re jogging, hanging out at
the beach, or at home, it’s
appropriate to take off your
shirt, but not when you’re
walking to class.
This guy was in front of the
Humanities Classroom Building
when I saw him. Walking on the
main campus to or from a class
is no time to take off your shirt.
It’s a trashy practice that
everyone except females should
be discouraged from doing. I
know it was hot that day, but
sometimes it's best to deal with
the discomfort.
The whole thing reminded me
of the television show Cops. It
seems like every toothless
hillbilly that gets arrested for
domestic violence on that show
isn’t wearing a shirt.
I’m not saying this guy was a
hillbilly. He may have been <;■
♦ ANNOYANCES, SEE PAGE 6