Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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-. —.- ■ ■ - — IN OUR OPINION Protesting the flag rule Many students were surely offended on Monday when they discovered the university had prohibited a student from draping his American flag out of his window after the terrorist attacks of last week. Their outrage was understandable, and we encourage students to protest. We understand the reasoning behind the university’s policy. It isn’t intended to encroach on students’ right to free speech; it is, instead, intended to protect students’ safety. The solution to the flag controversy? The university should allow students to display their flags in this limited circumstance. But before people can follow a rule, it helps if it’s written in normal language. The policy’s legalistic tone is confusing at best when it says, “ [breaking the vertical plane of a window, balcony,-breezeway or similar structure is not permitted.” Basically, the policy means that students cannot put anything outside of their windows, which insulates the university from liability if students throw bottles, rocks or other dangerous objects out the window. But the recent controversy over the display of the American flag is a perfect demonstration of unintended consequences: A patriotic student was prevented from fol1 owing a presidential decree to fly the flag in a time of national crisis. The solution is simple: The university should revisit the policy while temporarily allowing students to fly their American flags in this limited circumstance. There is a way students can display their flags within the rules: They can attach it to the inside of their windows. The student forced to remove his flag, however, lived in the Towers, where concrete “honeycombs” block the windows. Until University Housing reconsiders the rule, students can protest it creatively. Call 777-MAIL (777 6245) to access the university’s voice mail system and dial 7-6094 for Housing and Residential Services Associate Director Andy Fink. A few hundred messages should do the trick. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS An article in Monday’s edition should have said the Greek Housing groundbreaking celebration took place at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. The same article said Student Life Director Jerry Brewer spoke at the event; he did not. The article quoted Tracy Bonds and referred to her as Sorority Council president, but Bonds was president last year and did not speak at the event. The name of the current Sorority Council president is Alice Kimball. Another article should have said a housing policy was based on an incident in which a water balloon was dropped from Capstone, causing a student nerve damage. The Gamecock regrets the errors. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. Write us at gamecoekviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Martha Wright Editor in Chief Mary Hartney University Editor Ginny Thornton Asst. Univ. Editor Victoria Bennett The Mix Editor Justin Bajan Asst. The Mix Editor Chris Foy Sports Editor Preston Baines Asst. Sports Editor Elizabeth Swartz Online Editor Aaron Hark Photo Editor Greg Hambrick City Editor Alicia Balentine Asst. City Editor Brandon Larrabee Viewpoints Editor Page Designers Mackenzie Clements, Crystal Dukes, Katie Smith, David Stagg Copy Editors Crystal Boyles, Corey Garriott, Jason Harmon). Jill Martin, Carolyn Rowe CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com University Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com City Desk: gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Spotlight: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 ID PUCE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, SC 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 STUDENT MEDIA Erik Collins, Faculty Adviser Ellen Parsons, Director of Student Media Susan King, Creative Director Carolyn Griffin, Business Manager Sarah Sims, Advertising Manager Sherry F. Holmes, Classified Manager Creative Services Todd Hooks, Martin Salisbury, Beju Shah Advertising Staff Betsy Baugh, Caryn Barowsky, Denise Levereaux, Jackie Rice, Stacey Todd ) Gamecock Community Affairs Betsy Baugh, Karen Yip 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. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for one dollar each from the Department of Student Media. THE (SOUTHERN METHODIST) DAILY CAMPUS IN YOUR OPINION The Gamecock fails once again Last Friday, the Association of African American Students and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. held a Candlelight Vigil in front of the Russell House. This event was welcomed and attended by our University President, Dr. Palms, and South Carolina’s governor, Jim Hodges. It is disheartening to know The Gamecock, USC’s student newspaper, did not run an article on the event. The Gamecock printed a picture on the front cover of Monday’s paper; however, it did not state who hosted the event. Also, The Gamecock didn’t even mention that the governor appeared and spoke at the event. The Gamecock even failed to mention that Palms spoke at the event. Now, I ask you... how often does the governor of our state and the president of our university speak at a student sponsored event? Too often, minority org anizations are inadequately represented in The Gamecock. When represented, our organizations and names are elonHnr'oH Anir nthor timo urn are only given headlines in the event of negative publicity. For instance, last semester an altercation in the ballroom occurred late Thursday night, yet it garnered front-page coverage the next day. The actual article slandered and mis quoted Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. as being the instigators of the afore mentioned occurence. It’s amazing how The Gamecock was given three days’ notice of the event and there were no Gamecock personnel present at the Candlelight Vigil. When The Gamecock was asked why there was not any coverage, we were told that there wasn’t anyone available to cover the event. However, Aaron Hark was able to produce a photograph for the front page. Don’t you think he could have produced a small article, since he was the only staff member on site? We were also told the governor’s appearance at a student sponsored event was old news for Monday’s issue; however, Friday’s groundbreaking for the new Greek housing was on Monday’s front page. It is time for The Gamecock to realize what news really is. It is not always showing the negative aspects of predominately African American events, but it should be commendation for their contributions and accomplishments. Instead of showing large color photos of oral sex, sexual bondage and submission, you should be showing the accomplishments of student organizations that truly care about what happens within the community. VICTOR JONES FOURTH YEAH STUDENT. SCHOOL OF LIFE SCIENCE; PHI BETA SIOtiA FRATERNITY INC. KIARRA SANDOVAL THIRD YEAR STUDENT, DARLA MOORE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS; PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS University acts disrespectfully You have got to be kidding me. The university required a student to remove an American flag from the window of his residence hall because hanging it there violated a university policy regarding objects breaking the vertical plane of windows. How easily I forget that university policy supersedes an order of the President of the United States to fly the American flag until Sept. 30 from our places of residence in a show of respect and as a showing of pride in our injured country. I’m fully aware of the rule in question, which, under normal circumstances, is a logical rule. However, I do not believe our university noticed that last week was far from normal. On top of telling students they cannot fly the flag, administrators showed a great disrespect for the victims 01 sept, n s norrmie tragedy, and also to the many students who were directly or indirectly affected by the atrocity, by not canceling classes on Tuesday. Since we are all affected by this attack upon our nation, the university showed a great lack of concern for all students. Ordinarily, I would laugh at a university thinking that its institutional policies were more important than our country, but in light of recent events I do not find these disrespectful actions very humorous whatsoever. CRAIG SMITH THIRD YEAR HONORS COLLEGE STUDENT, DARLA MOORE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Acts of harassment disheartening Indeed, everyone is still in shock from the terrible terrorist attack on our country that occurred on Sept. 11. It is comforting to know that Americans everywhere are volunteering their efforts in order to assist the victims of this horrific tragedy. USC students are not excluded from these efforts and are demonstrating the utmost concern to do whatever they can to help. For this reason, I find it extremely disheartening to learn in the recent student government meeting of alleged instances in which the international students at USC have been harassed and blamed for the evil that we witnessed last Tuesday. I do not understand how this ignorance can exist, especially at our university, where we embrace different nationalities and hold our diversity as one of the great advantages we have here as students. Do we not remember placing Japanese-Americans in internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor? How embarrassing for our country to commit such a cowardly act. We do not need to repeat such ignorance. We all have mixed emotions of fear, sadness and confusion, and it is only natural to want to put the blame on someone for all of our grief. However, this is not a time to be pointing a finger, but a time to unite in order to rid the world of any hate so that we can have a peace in our future world. This is a time for us to spread feelings of peace throughout our country and to stop discriminating against people because of their differences. AYA CODY FOURTH-YEAR STUDENT, FASHION MERCHANDISING Submission Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome from the Carolina community. Letters should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be about 600 words. Both must include name, phone number, professional title or year and major, if a student. Deliver handwritten submissions to Russell House room 333, or send e-mail to gamecockview points@hotmail.com. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style and space. Anonymous letters will not be published. Photos are required for guest columnists and can be provided by the submitter. Call 777-7726 for more information. Mr. Rogers and the mean Brit PHIL WATSON WATSONPHIL@YAHOO.COM • The neighborhood is much more comfortable than The Weakest Link. After trying out for The Weakest Link, I’ve decided Mr. Rogers’Neighborhood is a much better television show. The weekend before last was a good one for several reasons. One of the highlights was watching those redneck Georgia dogs lose to USC. There’s something about humiliating a football team in front of their own fans that just makes me smile. Sure, the game might have been close, but we won and Georgia lost. Another highlight of my weekend was trying out for The Weakest Link. What can I say? I’m no different than all the other Americans who will do anything short of selling their souls to get on television. I had watched The Weakest Link once or twice before and didn’t really like it. I especially hated the old English lady. At the auditions, hundreds of Columbia residents, hoping to find a temporary break from the monotony of their lives, put on their Sunday best and put their minds to work, all for the prospect of being insulted by that English lady on national television. We first had to introduce ourselves to the crowd. It was a diverse group of people. Lawyers, factory workers, students and lazy, unemployed nerds all showed up hoping to get their 15 minutes of fame. After the introductions, it was time to find out who the weak links were. We were all given a 20-question quiz. Some of the questions were hard, some weren’t. I got most of them right. I knew what band Slash was the guitarist for, and what a cornucopia is. I didn’t get them all right, though. QUESTION: What ancient folk dance is linked with a straight line of dots? MY ANSWER: The Hokey Pokey. Evidently, the Hokey Pokey isn’t an ancient folk dance. I also learned it has nothing to do with a pattern of dots. The biggest shock came when I was told the Hokey Pokey isn’t really what it’s all about. After the good folks from The Weakest Link graded our tests, they came back out and told us who made the cut. As they read the names, I kept my fingers crossed. When the entire list had been read through twice and Watson wasn’t one of the names called, I realized I was the weakest link, along with several hundred other people there. It’s probably for the best that I didn’t get make it. I would have crashed and burned. I probably would have ended up punching that mean old English lady. “I didn’t want to be on that stupid show anyway,” I told myself. “They probably just didn’t want me on it because they were afraid I’d win all the money.” The Weakest Link is trash, anyway. It’s just another reality game show. There’s really nothing interesting about it. And, as I mentioned earlier, the host is mean. It’s too bad Mr. Rogers retired recently. I’d love to be a guest on his show. He’s much nicer than that English lady. Plus I wouldn’t have to answer any questions. I could just be myself. Instead of hurling insults at me, like the old Brit, Mr. Rogers would tell me that I’m special and there’s no one else in the > world like me. ■ * viewpoints. Let everyone know the score. S ’