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4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, April 5, 2002 SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Create message boards at Should the SAT requirement b6 www.dailygamecock.com or dropped from the USC application? send letters to the editor to YES 32% gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com NO 68% IN OUR OPINION ! Cancellation When you walk through the Russell House and see several empty rooms, it might not be because no one is scheduled to meet in those rooms. It might just be that the organizations that are supposed to meet in those rooms simply didn’t bother to show up. To prevent this, the Russell House Advisory Board is considering allowing student groups to schedule regular meetings for no longer than an hour and a half. If the board approves, Vice President of Student and Alumni Services Dennis Pruitt could put the policy in place. The move would be unfortunate. The Russell House already fines those groups that cancel their meetings, a proper way of dealing with Limiting meetings those who don’t follow through, is a sweeping But t^e ngw policy is a S.°^'°n a j sweeping solution for an individualized . .. .. .. , .. .. individualized problem. Since pro em. wjien -s an h0ur an(j a half the appropriate length for a meeting? That might work for some groups, but things like movies and Student Government meetings in the Russell House Theater regularly surpass that limit. The Russell House’s predicament is understandable. Groups that consistently don’t show up waste university money, and they take up valuable meeting spaces that could be used by others. But these repeat offenders are the ones that should be punished — not everyone else. Gamecock Quotables “My preference would be never to renovate while there are still people in it, but we don’t have that luxury. ” CHARLIE JEFFCOAT CAMPUS ARCHITECT AND FACILITIES PUNNING AND MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR, ABOUT THE SUMWALT RENOVATIONS “So are you going to admit 3,000 across the spectrum or 3,000 of the best? We want to admit 3,000 of the best.” DENNIS PRUITT VICE PRESIDENT OF STUDENT AND ALUMNI SERVICES, ON THE FATE OF THE TRANSITION YEAR PROGRAM “This is the first time girls have competed down there for several years.” MICHELLE FIELDS COACH OF THE COQUETTES, ABOUT THE COQUETTES GOING TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IN DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. “If someone has a better solution, we’d be happy to listen to it.” CARMELLA CARR RUSSELL HOUSE DIRECTOR, ABOUT TRYING TO LIMIT MEETINGS IN THE RUSSELL HOUSE TO AN HOUR AND A HALF GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS A brief in Wednesday’s paper should have said Robin Poston, who was awarded a State Farm Companies Foundation Exceptional Student Fellowship, will attend Winthrop University to pursue her master’s degree in business administration. As a clarification to Wednesday’s editorial, the Board of Trustees is not immediately contemplating eliminating the SAT requirement for admission. Dennis Pruitt, who is vice president of student and alumni services and isn’t on the board, said he thought all universities in the country would eliminate the SAT requirement if the University of California did so. The Gamecock regrets the errors. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us atgamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Mary Hartney Editor in Chief Ginny Thornton News Editor Kevin Fellner Asst. News Editor Mackenzie Clements Viewpoints Editor Carrie Phillips The Mix Editor Justin Bajan Asst. The Mix Editor Chris Foy Sports Editor J. Keith Allen Asst. Sports Editor Brandon Larrabee Special Projects Adam Beam Contributing Editor Martha Wright Design Editor Page Designers Crystal Dukes, Sarah McLaulin, Katie Smith, David Stagg Kyle Almond Copy Desk Chief Copy Editors Crystal Boyles, Andrew Festa, Jason Harmon, Jill Martin, Paul Rhine Mark Hartney Online Editor Corey Davis Photo Assignments Photo Editors Robert Gruen, Candi Hauglum Kelly Petruska C< CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com University Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 EDITORIAL BOARD Kyle Almond, Mackenzie Clements. Chris Foy, Jason Harmon. Mary Hartney. Brandon Larrabee, Carrie Phillips. Ginny Thornton, Martha Wright 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 Derek Goode, Todd Hooks, Earl Jones, Jennie Moore, Melanie Roberts, Beju Shah Advertising Staff Betsy Baugh, Amanda Ingram. Denise Levereaux, Jackie Rice, Gloria Simpson, Stacey Todd 4 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. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 (>«.(..■/AOSTTVWK PAfniCteavTf w CtIHICAl. TRIALS A^N'T Tfel-P I 5 CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS In the Carolina communal i____ BRANDON LARRABEE GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Collective punishment hits the wrong people. If there’s one thing that can be said about the USC administration, it’s that it loves collective punishment. My first brush with that attitude this semester came because of vandalism in Preston College. No one stepped forward to accept responsibility for the damage, so the USC Housing Department decided to fine everybody $5.36. Now the Russell House has joined the fad of punsihing everyone for the crimes of a few. They’ve decided that, because a few slack groups didn’t show up for their meetings, all groups will face stringent restrictions on how long they can meet. If this collective punishment principle is such a great idea, I propose we expand it to everyone at the university, from the students to the faculty to the administration. You see, it appears that the women’s soccer team didn’t do so well last semester, so I propose we freeze all Athletics Department salaries. It’s too bad that most of USC’s other high profile teams had solid seasons. There was a team that didn’t do well, so no one deserves a raise — not even Lou. Recently, three former employees of the Institute for Public Service and Policy Research were convicted of misusing their office by filling out illegal travel vouchers. But only those three employees were forced to pay restitution for their illegal acts. Under our collective punishment policy, all employees of the think tank should pay for their crimes. Or perhaps all employees of all USC institutes should pay because, hey, you never know who might be the next to dip their hand into the till. And we’re still not in the Association of American Universities, so it’s time to cut all administration salaries. C’mon, guys, you’ve had 201 years and you still can’t get this university into the upper tier? Don’t expect any of these suggestions to be put into law in the immediate future. The administration probably isn’t eager to be subjected to collective punishment, and they shouldn’t be. Collective punishment always punishes those who are doing what they’re supposed to do. The Russell House policy will penalize those who are meeting. Why do groups who aren’t meeting care how long they can meet? The same is true of the housing fines. We were told that the fines were imposed to “send a message.” What message? That, if you vandalize a residence hall, you can get away with only paying five bucks as long as you keep quiet? Punishing everyone for the sins of a few has its roots in the mindset of authoritarian governments, not universities in countries where freedom and individual rights are supposed to be acknowledged. Individual punishment is rooted in the principle of individual choice and individual freedom. If you dispose of one, the other two won’t be far behind. Larrabee is a fourth-year print journalism student. IN YOUR OPINION Cycling is best form of transportation Do you have a bicycle? Is the chain rusting? Are the tires flat? Spring is here. It’s time to tune up your bike, pump up the tires, put a basket on the front and ride. Cycling is the future. Cleaner air, less traffic, more green space, firmer thighs, lower blood pressure and less coronary heart disease are the results of participating in cycling. In the nation’s highest-ranked state for risk of strokes and obesity, cycling is part of the solution. Less driving means less oil consumption, which reduces our dependency on oil producing nations and drilling in the Alaskan wilderness. Walk or ride your bike to school, the library, to buy groceries, to the Nickelodeon or to your favorite bar. Save the car for long trips or car pooling. Avoid road rage, air pollution and expensive car payments. Petroleum hydrocarbons pumped into the air by your car temporarily paralyze the lung cells of cyclists like me. Think again before jumping in your car to go to the store for a loaf of bread or a six-pack. Cycling is no longer a purely recreational activity. It’s a lifestyle. AMANDA MARTIN PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL WORK CIIADUATE STUDENT Not all colleges allow every minor This letter is in reponse to Shanna Reed’s column in Wednesday’s paper about choosing a minor. It was very entertaining and well-written, but quite»idealistic. I, too, once thought that students could minor in anything they desired, but this simply isn’t the case in the College of Criminal Justice. I wanted to minor in theater, because it’s always something I’ve loved to do. When I declared my minor last semester, nothing was said to me in regards to the subject I had chosen. But this semester, when I went to advisement, I was told that only one of the classes required for a theater minor can count toward my degree. One! When asked why, the adviser said, “No classes that are considered to be ‘training or skills’ classes may be counted toward our electives.” She went on to show me this clause in some book that I had never seen before. Why does the College of Criminal Justice discriminate against another school of thought? Why don’t they put this clause in the Undergraduate Bulletin where everybody can see it? And why does this college feel that they should remain to be a college when it obviously feels a need to restrict a student’s desires? CRAIG A. BROWN THIRD-YEAR CRIMINAL JUSTICE ai uur,.\ i SAT scores aren’t only student factor In response to Milyton Brittingham’s letter on Wednesday, your SAT score doesn’t set in concrete the kind of student you will be in college. Big deal — so you made it past the 1000 mark on your test. The work you do in high school helps to reflect the person you are regardless of your standardized score. For example, if Student A can make a 3.7 GPA in high school but can’t get more than a 970 on the SAT, it’s no big deal. Your GPA helps to balance your SAT score. Yes, it’s a good idea to up the admission scores, but you’ll have to look to the state before you look to the student for improvement. STEFFONIE SCHREIBER FOURTH-YEAR CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDENT Timing of cartoon was insensitive This letter is a response to the political cartoon in the March 29 issue. It was targeted at the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. I am one of many Catholic students at USC, and I found it appalling that this cartoon would be put in the newspaper on Good Friday. The Catholic Church believes that Good Friday represents the day Christ was crucified. It’s a holy day in the church, and many Christians find this day very important. The Catholic Church has admitted to wrongdoings, but it’s trying to find ways to keep sexual abuse incidents from occuring. I know it’s a hot topic in the news, but I feel like The Gamecock could have held this political cartoon for another day. It really bothered me to be reminded of this incident on a day that’s sacred to the rememberance of Jesus Christ. ALISON HOLLAND THIRD-YEAR NURSINU STUDENT Submission Policy Letters to the editor should be less than 300 words and include name, phone number, professional title or year and major, if a student. E-mail letters to gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. The gray color of conflict CHAU GLASS GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM There are no white hats in the Middle East. For the past several weeks, I’ve sat before the news networks with mouth agape, watching leader after leader explain how Palestinians could strap explosives to themselves and slaughter civilians in suicide bombings. The invariable answer is that these people aren’t human, but have somehow religiously morphed into evil monsters. In the whirlwind of emotion evoked from media images, it’s amazing what percentage of the populace has bought into the belief system that certain groups wear white and are by nature good, while their enemies wear black and can’t help but do evil. It seems easy for Americans to believe that Arabs are demonically possessed by their adherence to a false religion, but it’s impossible to think that such extreme acts could be carried out because a group has been , consistently oppressed for years and has grown more and more ilocnorjito I lived for two years in Israel. • When I arrived, my political views were pro-Israeli. I grew up ; in a society where my childhood heroes were the Hebrew figures of the Old Testament and in a church that emphasized that the. Jews are God’s chosen people. This is the worldview of millions of Americans. Add to this the natural sympathies evoked from the horror of the Holocaust and the consistent media portrayal of Arabs only as terrorists, and an American has few reasons to consider the plight of the Palestinians. However, I soon met a people who were violently driven from their homes, have lived in refugee camps for more than 30 years, are restricted in travel to an area roughly the size of Columbia and have no voting - rights. The Palestinians aren’t hate-mongering monsters. They are incredibly friendly and hospitable. But they are desperate, and desperation leads By the pious language of our leaders, one would assume acts of terror upon civilians are a ’ new inexplicable evil in warfare. Perhaps we should look in the mirror. The American military I thought it fully reasonable to sell diseased blankets to Native Americans in order to kill whole tribes in their westward push. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have often been justified as necessary: Taking war to the innocents, though completely deplorable, has always been a part of warfare. It’s now convenient to endorse “civilized war” when we have military superiority over the rest of the world. Though the predominate religious teachings in our country don’t endorse suicide, every freedom-loving American I know would also commit, and then label heroic, desperate acts of violence and sacrifice if confined for years without basic rights. This is the human | reaction, repeated throughout history. War is never really played by rules of fairness. It is not just. It is a bloody and evil iheans. The victorious declare the ends and propagandize their role in it. There aren’t sides with white hats and black hats in the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The sooner we come to this realization, the greater the probability that a just and peaceful resolution can come forth and the cycle of violence can end. Glass is a third-year English student.