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THE LEADER Use campus to volunteer Threats of state budget cuts have caused USC officials to reassess what aspects of our university are most important. The Strategic Directions and Initiatives Committee will recommend changes in USC’s structure in its Dec. 7 report. Perhaps it is time for USC students to reassess what’s important to us as well. While administrators haggle with our departments and colleges, we must remember that some of the best aspects of college education are not found in the classroom. According to USC’s motto, “Learning humanizes character and does not permit it to he cruel.” In keeping with that, we should prove our education has taught us to shun ignorance and cruelty. USC students should take advantage of all the opportunities our campus offers to give back to our community and our world. USC’s fraternity and sorority councils will sponsor the 17th annual Clemson-Carolina Blood Drive from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day this week in the Russell House Ballroom. All donations will go to the American Red Cross. The USC Habitat for Humanity chapter is currently building its first house, working on Greene Street from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day through Thursday. On Friday, the house will be moved to its permanent location on Gervais Street. Students have been signing up in the Grand Marketplace to donate lunches from their meal plans or money from their cash cards to Oxfam Carolina. The deadline for giving through your campus meal plan has passed, but donations are always accepted. All of these service projects thrive on help and money from volunteers. Although we whine about being too busy and too poor as college students, studies show we have more free time and disposable income than any other age group. Skip that Starbucks latte and give to those who are hungry. Skip your apartment Mariokart tournament and help build a house for someone who needs it. Remember how lucky you are to have the option of higher education. Count your blessings, students, and give them to those in need. Students must remember that some of the best aspects of education are not found in the classroom. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In a Wednesday article on the artist Blue Sky, photos should have been credited to Michelle Williams. The volleyball story that ran on Friday was written by Courtney Keller. The Gamecock regrets the errors. 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 Andrew Rogers Asst. Photo Editor Greg Hambrick City Editor Alicia Balentlne Asst. City Editor Brandon Larrabee Viewpoints Editor Rene Moffatt Political Cartoonist/ illustrator Candi Hauglum Graphic Artist Page Designers Mackenzie Clements, Crystal Dukes, Katie Smith, David Stagg, Sarah McLaulin Copy Editors Crystal Boyles, Jason Harmon, Jill Martin, Carolyn Rowe, Paul Rhine TO PUCE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, S.C. 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 Scarborough Advertising Manager Sherry F. Holmes Classified Manager Creative Services Todd Hooks, Jennie Moore, Martin Salisbury, Beju Shah, Advertising Staff Betsy Baugh, Caryn Barowsky, Amanda Ingram, Denise Levereaux, Jackie Rice, Stacey Todd Gamecock Community Affairs Karen Yip 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 The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 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. \m s ^_—— 1 — — - „—jr-g TovM R^A*® (*V weWi- Defers*.):" Is VvOaIs.'*^ uA'aA Vi*, Av^'.caa ^,W'.c:'N««* ^.laf 61w&+U*£rC 2- « V^«'-«-!l" RENE MOFFATT/THE GAMECOCK An educational obstacle course DARRYL GREEN DRGREEN22@HOTMAIL.COM Increasing tuition rates takes higher education away from the poor. Don’t tell me they raised the cost of tuition again! It seems like every time there’s a problem, they raise our tuition. Problem with funding? Raise the student tuition. Problem with the budget? Raise the student tuition. Global warming? Raise the student tuition. Is there no end to the madness? This time, they couldn’t even wait until the end of the year. They raised it on us midyear. I guess they figured that, with football and classes, the students wouldn’t pick up on it. “Besides,” they probably said, “it’s only $100. They won’t even notice.” But we’re smarter than that, right? There must be other ways to raise money. I’m sure they can balance the budget without always relying on tuition to bail them out. Even I can think of a few ways they can raise money without burdening the students. 1) Eliminate the Shuttlecock. Hell, it never gets you where you want to go on time, anyway. There is not a student on this campus who can say he or she has gotten to class on time each and every time they ride the system. And it’s not the fault of the drivers. They do the best they can to accommodate students. There just aren’t enough buses going to each stop. Either add a couple more buses for each stop to ensure promptness or just get rid of the damn things altogether. 2) Eliminate the beautification projects. USC is already a beautiful campus. Adding more grass and trees at the expense of parking spaces doesn’t make it look better. It just makes it look like USC has great groundskeepers who can maintain plant life. After all, this is not the USC College of Botany. A parking space is much better looking than a bunch of trees and grass, especially when you are late for class and have nowhere else to park. 3) Take all the unpaid parking tickets I have accumulated over the years and find someone who actually gives a damn to pay them. This should raise copious amounts of cash. These are tickets I refuse to pay because of slackness, apathy and the unfair parking meter officials who try to squeeze every penny they can from us poor, defenseless students. And what is that about, anyhow? These people act as though it is a crime to give the students a break every once in a while. I mean, come on. We are trying to learn here. On a serious note, I wish there were something that could be done besides raising tuition every two weeks. Higher education is a dream that should be shared by all. It should not be a veritable obstacle course. It should be an exciting journey that government officials should be more than happy to help each citizen cross. Instead, our journey is fraught with the perils of rising tuition, outrageous textbook and meal plan costs and unreasonable fines and fees. Constantly raising costs tends to deter people from achieving the dream of higher education because many people are already struggling to put themselves through school. The more those costs rise, the more talented students fall by the wayside. The easier the access to higher education, the more prosperous and crime-free society becomes. Having well educated citizens tends to do that. --- IN YOUR OPINION Fan’s behavior is embarrassing The fans’ behavior: I’ve never been more ashamed to be a USC student and sports fan in general. When does it become socially acceptable to shout a player’s/ coach’s/ sports anchor’s name and follow it with “is a cocksucker” or “takes it up the ass”? When is it passable for students to come to a game so drunk they can barely stand? Or to force their way into rows already crammed with people? Or for guys to blatantly proposition girls they don’t even know? Allow me to offer a theory. It becomes acceptable when large groups of students inundate the stands in an already drunken state and proceed to oruiK enougn alcohol to kill a herd of elephants. My friends and I spotted at least 10 large bottles of Jim Beam lying in our section of the stands, not to mention dozens of other minibottles. Are these people so starved for enjoyment in their hollow lives that they require that much hard liquor to enhance the entertainment value of the game? If all this booze finds its way through inspection, then God knows what else slips through the cracks. No one should get into these games with alcohol or already intoxicated. I’m tired of taking the enjoyable but ineffectively passive-aggressive route of simply narrowing my eyes or making faces at these obnoxious, irresponsible idiots when they’re not looking. For next week’s game, and for the rest of our increasingly questionable existences, I urge my fellow students not to tolerate this sort of garbage. There is no justification to show off this sort of obnoxious arrogance and disguise it as team pride. Was this what Corey Ford had in mind when he wrote on Friday for Gamecock fans to “put up a good show”? On that note, did anyone else see our illustrious student body president make nearly constant use of his middle fingers at the Gators, the referees and anyone who disagreed with him? Next week, maybe USC fans can create an atmosphere that allows for actual enjoyment of the game and an opportunity for people to act like they possess higher brain functions. Our university’s motto states, “Learning humanizes character and does not permit it to be cruel.” Depending on your point of view, on Saturday we either saw too much humanization or none at all. ANDY FRASSETTO SECOND- YEARSTUDENT .HONORS COLLEGE STUDENT Criminal justice should be a college I am completely shocked at the article about the college of criminal justice that was in The State last Friday. As a recent alumna of the College of Criminal Justice, I did not see this coming. The “College” should have sent letters to alumni letting us know the hardships that the college was having, and maybe we could have written letters sooner. My plea goes out to those who have graduated and current students of the College of Criminal Justice. Do not listen to the voice of authority; make your own opinion and then fight! Fight for the College of Criminal Justice. If you don’t, then you will just be considered another graduate of USC in liberal arts. I hold my head high when I walk into a job interview and say I have my MCJ from USC. There are only a few universities in the country that offer an MCJ program. The professors may tell you that it does not matter... I am the voice of the “real” world telling you it does matter! FAITH VAVRA, MCJ (1998) BINGHAMTON, N.V. 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 gamecockviewpoints@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 {x)r more information. Taking away 112 tomato soup cans CHARLES PRASHAW CPRASHAW@YAHOO.COM Greedy, crusty old white men ‘whittle’ away at my parking meter money. Thank you, you greedy, old, crusty members of USC’s board of trustees. Thank you for increasing tuition on me once again. When am I ever going to see a tuition decrease, tell me, please? Yes, it seems silly, but I’m madder than Lou on the sidelines last Saturday about paying an extra $100 next semester for tuition. It’s just the principal of it. I’m 20 years old. I’m broke. I’m in college, and the last thing I want to do is pay even one more dollar to a university that is already putting me in the poorhouse. I already owe the government so much in student loans, let’s just tack another $100 on top of that for another couple of semesters. Thanks, you old, wrinkly white guys. (That’s right, there are just four nonwhite people on the board of 20). I know the university is facing a budget crunch, but you should have thought about that possibility before sinking millions into new arenas, wellness centers, law schools, etc. “Boo hoo, the General Assembly doesn’t give us enough money. It is their fault, not anybody’s at USC.” Give me a break. Don’t blame your lack of financial planning on the state government. When I screw up my checkbook, it’s my fault, not the bank’s. I also love what Mack Whittle, the chairman of the board of trustees, had to say about the tuition increase: “Hopefully, it won’t have that big of an impact. I know that tuition is the last thing the board likes to look toward, but given the surprise nature of this increase and this decrease in funding, this really leaves us very few ways to accommodate it.” Here is a way to accommodate it. Don’t pay the deans of the engineering and business schools so much damn money. Mack Whittle is a multimillionaire who is the president of Carolina First Banking Group; I, on the other hand, have 10 bucks. Do you see why I’m bent? Mack Whittle probably has a brand new Aston Martin. I, on the other hand, drive an ‘85 Blazer with bad brakes. Thank you, Mr. Whittle. It might not seem like a lot to you, but $100 is lot of money to me right now. A hundred dollars to Mack is a round of golf; to me it’s three weeks’ worth of groceries. jusi 10 snow uie uuaiu oi “trustless” members what $100 really means to a college student, I made a little list of things I could have bought next semester with my $100 if the board hadn’t raised tuition: 12,000 minutes on a parking meter that give 30 minutes to the quarter; 2,000 pieces of cheap gum; 500 packs of Ramen noodle soup; 166 sodas from the soda machine; 142 minutes of long distance; 112 cans of tomato soup; 100 4.5-oz. bags of Fritos; 59 gallons of milk; 57 loads of laundry; 33 packs of cigarettes; 32 boxes of cereal; 28 50 oz containers of liquid Wisk detergent; 28 cans of cashews; 25 issues of Rolling Stone magazine from the newsstand; 10 inflatable chairs; nine suitcases of Southpaw, which equals 216 beers or 36 six packs or 1812-packs; eight CDs at Best Buy; seven bottles of Jim Beam; six bottles of Hennessey; five suitcase of Killigan’s, which equals 120 beers or 20 six-packs or 1012 packs; five DVDs or, for the same price, seven VHS movies; five sets of sheets; five bottles of Southern Comfort; four bottle of Absolut Vodka; three dozen roses; two or possibly three N64 games; and one journalism and mass communications law book.