6 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, March 4, 2002
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IN OUR OPINION
Student voice
goes ignored
Since the announcement that the Horseshoe would
be designated as honors housing and would allow
honors sophomores access to its apartment-style
dorms, both honors and non-honors students have
expressed dissent. At least half a dozen residence halls
and numerous students have signed a petition in an
attempt to thwart the process. They’ve sent in
countless letters in protest. Student Senate passed a
resolution last week to express its disagreement with
the Housing Department’s decision. The students are
speaking. The only problem is that no one is listening.
Executing without asking
In fact, these efforts will go ignored because the
decision has already been made. The move to an all
honors Horseshoe has been in the plans for years,
according to Honors College Dean
The Students are peterSederberg. But the only
Spea ing. e Students consulted prior to the
*S decision were Honors College
that no one is
listening sophomores-not even the
Residence Hall Association was
consulted. A typical move behind students’ backs from
the administration on something directly affecting them.
We applaud the students Who started the petition
for their initiative. The amount of signatures shows
the student body has strong feelings on the issue and
isn’t afraid to let the administration know. It's more
than apparent that the students disapprove of the
change, yet nothing has happened.
Poor timing for action
Sederberg picked the right time to get this plan
passed. The timing gives opponents about two weeks
before rising honors sophomores get to select their
housing, making a reversal or compromise
practically impossible. But we hope its opponents
will continue to fight.
Today, a roundtable discussion will be held between
Sederberg, Housing Director Gene Luna, and members
of the RHA and Student Government. We hope
Sederberg and Luna will not overlook the students’
concerns when directly confronted with them.
At a time when the student body is criticized for
being apathetic, we ask why the university is doing
nothing in response to this outcry. Who's to blame
students for feeling disheartened? When they
actually do speak up, the people with the power to
actually do something look the other way.
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us
at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com.
ABOUT THE GAMECOCK
Mary Hartney
Editor in Chief
Ginny Thornton
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Kevin Fellner
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Viewpoints Editor
Carrie Phillips
The Mix Editor
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J. Keith Allen
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Festa, Jason Harmon,
Jill Martin, Paul Rhine
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Kyle Almond,
Mackenzie Clements,
Chris Foy. Mary
Hartney. Brandon
Larrabee, Carrie
Phillips, Ginny
Thornton, Martha
Wright
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Gamecock are those of
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Additional copies may be
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CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
Classes have become a chore
SHANNAREED
GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM
Cutting enrollment and
raising standards will
justify tuition increases.
I’m angry. I’m angry I’m
paying this much for a so-called
higher education. Bachelor
degrees don’t mean anything
anymore. I’m angry that
diplomas are as rampant as VD.
But most of all, I’m bored.
Where is the color, the
excitement? When we were in
high school we couldn’t wait for
this. Now it’s a chore to make it
to class at all. When did we
become so complacent, so
comfortable with mediocrity?
We sit day after day like
Stepford children, choking
down the bland gruel that
passes for education these days.
Well, I for one am not taking it
anymore. I’m not Tom Swift:
“No, sir, I don’t want another.”
People cry and moan over the
tuition increase, not because of
the increase in price, but
because it isn’t matched by an
increase in quality. Greed
feedsthe monster that craves
tuition checks as it can get. I
would borrow my life away to
pay for college, given that I’ll
learn skills I’ll use in life,
improve on what I’ve acquired,
and have a chance to flex and
build my intellectual muscles.
With the naivete of most
college freshman, I actually
believed my professors held the
keys like Willy Wonka to a world
I could only dream about. Well,
Charlie still ain’t cheery. I
believed they would teach me
new cultures and new theories.
Instead, three years and one
transfer later, I’m forced to read
“Frankenstein.” Correct me if
I’m wrong, but didn’t we read
Shelley in high school? There
are students who have read
‘Hamlet” so many times, they
could put Mel Gibson and
Kenneth Branagh to shame.
I’m sick with the bile-like
taste of essays gone by. The
constant regurgitation has me
angry. Is it too much to ask to
read something a little more
challenging than “Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde,” maybe a little
something that doesn’t have a
motion picture equivalent?
Raise expectations and students
will meet them. If not, maybe
they shouldn’t have been
admitted to college. This isn’t
kindergarten; everybody doesn’t
get a ribbon for participation.
I have a theory that would
allow administrators to cut class
size, solve parking problems,
raise overall academic
achievement and still be justified
in raising tuition: Cut
enrollment, and raise the
admission standard. I’m upset
that I have to sit in classes where
“status quo” has to be explained.
We need a better curriculum.
How about classes on how to
manage your money to pay off
massive student loans, or a class
on understanding the stock
market? Most of us don’t even
know what a 401(k) is, but we pay
hundreds of dollars for courses
with no useful information.
Teach me how to be an
employer, not just an employee.
We are caught in some sick
merry-go-round, and I want to
get off. So forgive me if I don’t
raise my hand in class. Forgive
me if I rent the movie; by now I
know which one corresponds to
the book. Forgive me if I don’t
jump at the chance to start the
class discussion. I’m too busy
reading handbooks on
networking (the last bastion of
true information, and guess
what? It’s free.) covered by a
well-worn copy of “Othello.”
Reed is a third-year electronic
journalism student.
IN YOUR OPINION (
Election process is
corrupt, illegitimate
Legitimacy is a word you
probably will not hear used in
correlation with the Student
Government elections of the
past two weeks.
To begin with, I have been
under the false impression
that The Gamecock is
interested in professional
journalism. Talk about a
misconception. The quality
and fairness of the reporting
of The Gamecock’s staff is
about as nonexistent as their
futures if they do not quickly
learn that The Gamecock is
not The New York Times.
Every student here at USC
pays for The Gamecock
though student fees. Go ask
the other candidates how they
feel about financing Patel s
campaign through the
journalistic joke we know as
The Gamecock. The story gets
even better. You see, The
Gamecock knew about David
Bornemann’s police record a
few weeks ago when they
interviewed him. Did they
report what they found
immediately like real
journalists would? No. The
pro-Patel paper held the
damaging information about
Bornemann until the day
runoffs began.
But what about the
candidates? I bet most of you
thought that your dorm was
the only place to escape the
barrage of propaganda that is
SG elections. Well,
unfortunately, you’re wrong.
Patel visited my room last
night. I can assure you it was
not a social call, either,
because the rest of Maxcy,
Capstone and the Towers got
the same visit. Are all of you
as excited as I about the fact
that the harassment you
endure during SG elections
can now be brought right to
your door? That’s not all that
can be brought to your door,
though. If you posted a sign to
the disliking of Senate
candidate Zachery Scott, he
ripped it off your door for free!
I had no idea that my College
of Liberal Arts representative
was so community service
minded. But wait, despite the
fact that you saw “Re-elect
Zach Scott as Liberal Arts
senator,” Scott is an
appointed senator from the
School of Social Work. Way to
pick up a minor just to get a
Senate seat. Let’s do a hand
count of the students in the
School of Social Work with
whom he’s consulted about
their needs. What? No hands?
Figures.
I hope Patel and Scott are
half as good at getting things
done for the students as they
are at cheating their ways into
office.
JUSTIN SIMMONS
FIRST-YEAR POLITICAL SCIENCE
STUDENT
Drinking article
was newsworthy
I would like to respond to
Emma Ritch’s letter in The
Gamecock on Friday. Who died
and made you Katharine
Graham? Why do you feel the
need to criticize the paper when
you obviously don’t know what
you are talking about? First of
all, the article wasn’t released at
a particular time to damage
Bomemann’s reputation; it was
only that The Gamecock sfaff
had proof of Bomemann’s
tickets just recently.
Also, Bomemann getting
busted twice for drinking is
news. A candidate for SG
president shouldn’t put on a face
for the student body that is
squeaky clean with a bow tie
and suit, then have a couple of
drinking violations behind
everyone’s backs. I’ve drank a
lot since I’ve been in college and
I haven’t even come close to
getting busted by the police for
drinking.
You have to be very careless or
just a plain idiot to get busted
twice for underage drinking. One
of Bomemann’s tickets was for
drinking at a massive party. Why
didn’t Bomemann just put his cup
down when the police arrived or
just leave the party? Ritch claims
all of this is just "bad luck," but if
you ask me, it sounds like her boy
Bomemann is a moron. An SG
president shouldn’t have a rap
sheet.
Also, the story shows that
Bornemann doesn’t even learn
from his mistakes. He even says
he plans to keep on drinking,
and he doesn’t turn 21 for
several more months. The
article wasn’t one-sided, either.
Bornemann got to defend
himself; so stop all your
complaining, Little Miss
Journalist.
CHARLES PRASHAW
THIRD-YEAR PRINT JOURNALISM
STUDENT, FORMER COLUMNIST AND
REPORTER FOR THE GAMECOCK
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will not be published. Call the newsroom
at 777-7726 for more information.
Rape
charges
cast
shadow
MARTHA WRIGHT
GA M ECOCKVIEWPOI NTS@HOTM AI L.COM
Former accusations
should halt senator’s
run for attorney general.
State Sen. John Hawkins
doesn’t think rape accusations
can hurt his political career.
Unfortunately, he’s been right.
Only 57 days passed between
the accusations to the case’s
dismissal and the order to destroy
all the records, but the charges
have nonetheless followed
Hawkins, a 33-year-old Republican
from Spartanburg. They
resurfaced before he was elected to
the S.C. House in 1997 and to the
S.C. Senate in 2000, and now
they’re back again as Hawkins
campaigns for the nomination
for South Carolina’s attorney
general, the most powerful state
law enforcement officer.
It wouldn’t be his first time in
law enforcement. It was about 12
years and three months ago when
Hawkins, then a new detective in
the Spartanburg County Sheriffs
Office, was arrested.
According to police records, a
woman said Hawkins, a
longtime friend, called her after
a party on Dec. 10,1989, just to
talk. She met him outside her
house, and Hawkins drove to his
father’s store.
1 he then-20-year-oid woman
told police he cornered her and
raped her, and threatening to
tell her boyfriend it was her idea
if she told anyone. Even so,
within hours, she had told
friends and police about the
incident and had a medical
exam that documented the
bruises on her thighs and arms.
Hawkins tells a different story.
In records made at the time, he
said he drove to the victim’s
house because she called, saying
she wanted to be with him.
"We made love," he said.
Hawkins was arrested and
charged with rape.
But on Jan. 25,1990, Hawkins’
accuser left the courthouse before
a preliminary hearing. Her former
husband told The State newspaper
that she was frightened by how
defense lawyers would portray
her. He also said she had little
family support.
The woman never testified.
Charges were dropped. And it’s
been 12 years and one month,
almost to the day, since a circuit
judge ordered all of the case’s
original files to be destroyed on
Feb. 5,1990.
But they weren’t. A copy
somehow survived and has been
duplicated hundreds of times for
his political foes and the media.
Still, the negative publicity
hasn’t made Hawkins shy about
taking on high-profile issues. This
Senate session, he’s sponsored
traditional Republican bills like
granting fetal personhood and
protecting prayer in schools.
Today, Hawkins maintains
his innocence and refuses to
comment further, saying that
discussing details could only
hurt his family and the family of
the woman who accused him.
And through it all, Hawkins is
marching on with his campaign
to win the Republican
nomination for attorney general.
But no matter what his record
is in the Legislature,
Republicans should shed this
albatross quickly. Hawkins’
legal baggage makes him poison
for a successful campaign, even
if he’s had luck so far.
An arrest, a woman’s bruises
and "one of the strongest rape
cases” a Spartanburg police
officer has ever seen haven’t
hurt Hawkins political career.
But it’s time they did.
{ 't
Wright is a fourth-year print
journalism student.