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TOP 10
Preparations for
Summer School
The Gamecock staff creates the
weekly “Top 107 Submit topics to
gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.co
m
10. Pack for picnic lunch on
Horshoe.
9. Fight mutant squirrels for
lunch you packed.
8. Apply sunscreen for harsh
fluorescent lights.
7. Load up on Turns for GMP’s
new creations.
6. Fight the urge go beat the
heat in the rejecting pool.
5. Convince your body that even
though it is summer you really do
have to be up at 8.
4. Understand that Summer and
School go together like Lower and
Tuition...it just ain’t gonna
happen.
3. Read up on Third Reich in
order to know what to expect from
Patel’s Fourth Reich.
2. Realize that parking is still a
nightmare.
1. Start camping out now for
2002 USC Football tickets.
QUOTES
"When Ernie Banks said it’s
a great day for two, I don’t think
he meant it like this...”
RAY TAN N EFT
use BASEBALL COACH AFTER A
DOUBLE HEADER IX I HO DECREE
HEAT
WO ST walks all over the First Amendment...
with its stiletto heels
BY PHIL WATSON
GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM
Put the free
thinking minds
away everybody...
this is college
The women's studies program
has done it again, only this time,
I'm not the only one who called
them out.
In the past, I've been the only
one to speak out on the
questionable standards of this
department. This time was
. different though. When the
syllabus for WOST 797 said that
students MUST agree that sexism,
heterosexism and other forms of
institutionalized oppression exist
to be a part of the class, the
national media released the
hounds. And with good reason.
The department is basically
taking the option to disagr ee with
a certain theory away from
students.
It's interesting how those in
women's studies rely on free
speech like professional wrestling
fans rely on government cheese,
yet when the speech goes against
what they believe they turn as
vicious as rabid junkyard dogs
and want the First Amendment to
apply only to themselves.
This is a double standard and
hypocrisy, especially considering
the fact that universities are
supposed to be places where ideas
are freely exchanged. But these
professors say if you don’t agree
with what they believe, you can't
even be a part of the class.
Let's put the same situation in
a different class. A religion class
requires all its students to believe
in a certain denomination before
they can participate. A geology
class requires students to believe
that the universe was created in a
big bang. Or my even worse, a him
class requires students to believe
that Chocolat (that foreign piece of
crap your girlfriend made you take
her to see) is a good movie.
Stuff like this doesn't fly. In
America, you can’t tell people
what to believe, especially in an
academic setting.
The women's studies
department's intentions are as
shady as R. Kelly's sexual past.
What's the purpose of forcing
students to believe in something
they may not necessarily believe
in? Why would the department
want students to be strong-armed
into holding an opinion rather
than reaching the conclusion
themselves? Are they worried that
without the use of coercion,
students may not leave USC with
the exact same opinions as the
women's studies department
faculty?
If America is a marketplace of
ideas, and truth wins out in the
end, why require students to
believe a certain way?
USC is not the place for this. If
you want unconstitutional
intellectual coercion, go to an
Islamic school in Pakistan.
Watson is a fourth-year print
journalism student.
IN YOUR OPINION
Coliseum lacks
proper facilities for
handicaped
I attended the USC
graduation ceremonies in the
basketball arena on May 11th to
celebrate my cousin's
graduation and I was infuriated
at the lack of acceptable
handicapped accommodations
in the men's bathroom nearest
to my seat.
I am in a wheelchair and the
bathroom stall labeled for
handicapped use was wide
enough to get into but not deep
enough for me to even close the
door behind my chair.
What angers me most is how
easily that bathroom could have
been retrofitted. The
handicapped stall I used there is
one of the center stalls. The
handicapped stall needs to be
the one at the end up against the
wall, so that the door opening
can then be changed from
parallel to perpendicular to the
other doors.
This configuration is
| common because it gives the
I person in the chair much more
room to maneuver. It allows me
to open the door outward, go
into the stall, close the door
behind me, and then turn the
chair toward the toilet.
This retrofit can be
performed in almost any
restroom with multiple stalls
and I am annoyed that a school
as large as USC is either not
aware of the option or chooses
not to use it in all of its large
facility restrooms. I would be
interested to know what the
school has to say about this
issue.
WARD REYNOLDS
MOUNT PLEASANT. SO
WOST course
restricts free speech
A In a Washington Times
column by Ellen Sorkin, Ms.
I Sorkin claims that the course
"Women’s Studies 797: Seminar
' in Women's Studies" requires
! that students adhere to a
i particular ideology to take the
j course. »
One reported requirement is
that students "acknowledge that
racism, classism, sexism,
heterosexism and other
institutionalized forms of
oppression exist."
A second requirement is that
students taking this class
"acknowledge that one mechanism
of institutionalized racism,
classism, sexism, heterosexism,
etc. is that we are all
systematically taught
misinformation about our own
group and about members of
other groups.
This is true for members of
privileged and oppressed groups."
If the claims that Ms. Sorkin
makes are true, the University of
South Carolina should be
ashamed of itself. This includes
you, Dr. Palms, for overseeing a
department which allows such
crap to trample students' first
amendment rights. May I remind
you that as a taxpayer supported
arm of the government, the
University of South
Carolina is not permitted by we
the people to trample on our
rights. To require that students
say something with which they.
may disagree- and in a course
required by the university for a
"certificate of graduate study in
women's studies," according to Ms,
Sorkin's column - violates these
students' right to refrain from
speaking (an often-overlooked part
of free-speech rights).
President Palms, I look forward
to a resolution of this issue in favor
of free-speech rights. Such a
decision will require you to act with
a level of courage rarely seen by
university administrators today, not
only at the University of South
Carolina, but also in most college
campuses across the country. May
you find the courage to do what's
right.
MARK D. KALINOWSKI
NEW YORK. NY
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