University of South Carolina Libraries
□ the UAMEUUUiv ♦ tnaay, August it>, zuuz All T71TTT1~\/^\" VTfTCI ONLINE POLL B—^ B / B / fl J fl I I Should Derek Watson return 1 i B / B / I II -. I l to the football team? k Bf Bf I B W Bl Iky yes: 24% —B——^ ¥ * —B— —y — ^-1 —B— ' '—y NO: 76% f TH t?i§KAMEGOCK EDITORIAL BOARD Chris Foy. Editor-in-Chief Ben Bryan News Editor Carrie Phillips The Mix Editor J. Keith Allen Sports Editor Jason L. Rapp Viewpoints Editor IN OUR OPINION , USC housing still an issue In our last issue, the staff editorial that occupied this space dealt with a topic that occupied this space one year ago, Derek Watson. Today, we are again forced to visit another topic that occupied this space one year ago. Again this August, a small number of USC freshmen will move into housing that most of them don’t want and didn’t factor into their budgets: off campus hotel rooms. l This past year, it was only 90 freshmen in the " Assembly Street Holiday Inn. This year, 300 freshmen will be divided between the Holiday Inn, the Adam’s Mark Hotel, and Clarion Town House, none of which are technically on campus. Parents who expected their children to receive on campus housing have expressed their disappointment, and to its credit, Housing is allowing contracts to be broken without penalty. But that’s the only good decision USC made regarding this matter. USC shouldn’t even be in this predicament. Everyone on a budget knows that you can’t live outside your means. USC has a certain amount of freshmen housing available, and given its desire for \ freshmen to live on campus, should not admit more * freshmen than it can house. Simple enough? In order to increase its fiscal budget, USC instead chose to admit the largest freshmen class in school history, knowing that there isn’t anywhere to put them all. What’s more, the freshmen forced to live in hotels have to pay nearly double what freshmen in the Towers pay, and they won’t get the same college experience their on-campus peers will get, regardless of the length of their hotel vacation. Equally shameful is the spin USC is putting on this situation. The accommodations might be “top end housing,” but your freshman year isn’t about . amenities, nor is it about whether the rooms are I comparable to East Quad. It’s a unique experience of self-discovery and handling independence, and 300 freshmen anticipating that experience have been robbed. Ask them if the maid service is a fair trade off. Ask their parents about the price increase popped on them three weeks ago. If anything, freshmen housing is about not having enough space, having too many Palmetto bugs and deciding when the stench coming from your roommate’s sheets is enough to cause a confrontation. We don’t blame Housing for this. Someone, or some group, here doesn’t see the big picture, and Housing had to make do. Someone should have ^ learned from history, and kept this topic in the past. 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 •t STAFF Angel Sizemore Asst. News Editor Robert Gruen Photo Editor Lindsey Walker Online Editor Page Designers Shameka Holloway, Melissa Miklus, Miranda LaLonde ■Copy Editors fLaura Dalry'mple, Lyndsey Hicks. Ann Marie Miani Erin O'Neal PLACING ADS The Gamecock 1400 Greene St. Columbia. SC 29208 Advertising reps; 777-3888 Classified ads: 777-1184 Fax 777 6482 STUDENT MEDIA CONTACT INFORMATION 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, Earl Jones, Jennie Moore, Melanie Roberts, Beju Shah Advertising Staff Adam Bougoin, Amanda Ingram, Bianca Knowles, Denise Levereaux, Jackie Rice, Gloria Simpson, Stacey Todd 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 GAMECOCK POLICIES 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 Me^'a. Mf' BOTToJA-of-THe-HifM-iNN'iNG STRSTCH CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS New year, new you... right... PHIL WATSON GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM This new school year will un doubtedly be like others in the past — or like any others in the future for you freshmen and freshwomen. Old habits are hard to kill. Like many that want make the honor roll, you’re geared up with the right equipment and the right mindset to make this year a suc cess. Your No. 2 pencils are sharpened, and your Mortar Board is fresh and clean. You might have even bought a new scientific calculator to store all of those Spanish vocabulary words in or found a new ball cap with an extra large bill to cover your wandering eyes. You’ve made the promise to stay away from Five Points on weeknights so you can make that 9:30 a.m. class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you’re feeling good about your ambition. This is going to be the year you take control of your life and live up to your potential. You proba bly even double-checked the set ting on your alarm clock to make sure you have two hours to get ready for your first class at 9 a.m. You’re finally back on track for that 61/2 -year degree. It’s 4 p.m. a week later. The sunlight creeping through the blind? hits your face and you wake up. Your last class of the day ended 15 minutes ago, and you’re as hungry and poor as a women’s studies professor in Afghanistan. Too bad you bought that $100 calculator. Your vow to go to bed early came to an.embarrassing halt af ter you were checking out the newest installment of the bare ass bologna toss in the Vista until 3 a.m. This year will be like any other; you’ll scrape by on peanut butter and honey sandwiches and miss 59 percent of your classes that start before noon. If this year of college is going to be the same as the past five, you need to at least take my ad vice and get the right equipment. Forget the calculators, Palm Pilots and little dry-erase boards. Stock up on some stuff you’ll ac tually use. . I’ve prepared for the new semester with items such as the “circulator:” a chrome-plated, in dustrial-strength, freestanding, three-speed, oscillating fan fit for thugged-out, rich rappers such as the Big Tymers. I think any rap pers who would brag about hav ing a “platinum toothbrush” would also insist on having a chromed-out fan that’s strong enough to blow the top off an obese Waffle House waitress. Think a chrome fan is pimped out? I’m taking it even further this year by having a system in stalled in my bathroom. That way I can keep track of how many times Channel 93.5 plays Eminem’s “new rock” song while I’m in the shower. Keep up the good work, Dave. Another item I highly suggest getting is “The Executive.” I’m talking, of course, about a huge leather desk chair like Mr. Bums from “The Simpsons” or the pres ident of Phillip Morris would sit in. I might be living on Bi-Lo - brand macaroni and cheese, but when I sit in that chair and write my witty posts on Internet mes sage boards about Disney’s latest film, “The Country Bears,” I will feel important like a university parking meter maid and respect ed like a “Girls Gone Wild” star. Many of you who were so am bitious about being straight-A students will soon throw away the calculators, fancy pencils, and ambitions to make some thing of yourself. After all, this is college. Maybe you’ll sleep late, get a chrome-plated fan, a leather desk chair worth more than your car, and a way to entertain yourself while you spend time in the bath room. You might not do well in your classes, but maybe you wouldn't have done well anyway. Sounds justifiable to me. , Watson is a fourth-year print journalism student. IN YOUR OPINION Former student regrets sensitive survey I would like to address a letter of apology to students and staff that is long overdue. I attended USC in 1987 and 1989. While attending a soci ology class, I took a survey for a project I did on students’ sexual lifestyles. I researched whether knowledge of the dangers of unsafe sex impacted students’ behavior. Soon after I conducted the written survey, I regretted the private subject matter of some of the questions, al though I did not address my mistake. As I have grown older, some of the more serious ram ifications of this have become more obvious to me than they were 13 years ago, and I would like to offer an apology to any person that might have been negatively affected in cluding staff. Among my concerns is that the survey may have con tributed to a complacency among leadership regarding a student’s sexual behavior towards other students. It could have suggested in appropriate behaviors to some more impressionable students, and it probably damaged my fellow students’ perception of me. There are many other dan gers of the type of survey I took and i+s motivations, and I especially apologize for not being considerate of some of my fellow student’s sensibilities. MONICA SWANSON BARNUM. MINX. Student upset with board hike I am really pissed off with the Board of Trustees at USC. The “gestapo,” as I like to refer to them, seems to not give a rat’s ass about USC students and is only inter ested in the business side of our university. Those ass clowns go and raise tuition by 17 percent because they state that they are starving for cash to fund the university. un ok, tnat maKes sense, except for the fact that they just decided to go blow a few million bucks on a new are na and health center, nei ther of which were truly needed. But the tuition is sue isn’t the only example of how the board screws us. On top of building multi million dollar buildings at a time where we are de prived of funds, they decid ed to let our parking com plaints fall on deaf ears, and decided, “Hey, lets spend thousands on planting trees and stuff. Screw parking!” They don’t quite understand that this is an urban campus. If I rode my horse to class then I would love some green grass but, in the meantime, I’ll be using my car so quit the whole BS about green space and let’s get some parking. My whole beef with the Board of Trustees is that they don’t think before they act. I mean they actually have the nerve to sit there and say they doubt it will really be a burden for us because it’s only a thousand dollars more per year. I pray one of them would come watch a student work two or even three jobs for a sum mer hauling trash, serving food, etc so they can put them selves through school. Then turn around and say “Oh, it can’t be that much of a bur den.” To do so is flat out wrong. If they want to lend me a thousand bucks so I won’t have to go get a third job this sum mer then go ahead and raise the tuition all you want. I mean come on guys ... it’s only a grand it can’t be that much of a burden, right? WILLIAM CRAWFORD 2ND YEAH BUSINESS 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. # *• Welcome to USC’s new mall , BEN BRYAN GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM The first day of class this past year, I walked into the Grand Marketplace hoping to get a quick breakfast before my first class. By this point in my college ca- • reer, I was quite familiar with the process: Five items plus a 12 ounce coffee equals one meal from the meal plan. Well, I wasn’t that hungry, and I was pressed for time, so I grabbed four items, got my cup of coffee and quickly made my way through the line when I noticed that the cashier was deducting from my bonus bucks. I tried to correct her, but she told me that because I hadn’t got ten five items, she couldn’t ring me up for the meal combo. I of fered to get another item and just throw it in the trash if that would make it cheaper, but she insisted that she had already rung me up. I didn’t have time to argue, so I fi nally conceded and went on my way. The very next day, I again tried to swing quickly through the GMP on my way to class. Remembering my mishap the day before, I made sure to get my five items (one of which I had no in tention of eating) and my coffee and got in line. The cashier, a dif ferent one, rang it up to more than a dollar over the meal allowance. I immediately protested and counted my items for her, “One, two, three, four, five. See?” She pointed at my cup of coffee. “Six,” she said. A bitter debate en sued over the exact wording of the breakfast meal plan combo. In the end I lost the argument, of course, got to class late and decided I couldn’t afford to eat breakfast again for a while. I was angry at first, but then I realized the cashiers’ ploy, they were just try ing to save the university money. Yes, I’m sure that was their moti vation. While I can respect trying to squeeze every penny in these hard economic times with the budget cuts and all, college stu dents are not exactly the best place to go looking for extra rev enue. Admitting more students might help slightly, but there’s still the expense of having to build more housing for them. At the current rate, USC might run out of names for new dorms before they run out of space. I can hear it now: “Where are you living next year?” “North-by-Northeast Quad.” The naming rights to the new basketball arena are rumored to be going to Verizon. USC could probably land a couple more mil lion by doing the same to other buildings on campus. Why not try Cingular Sims, Bell South Quad or Capital One Capstone? The Russell House is already being overhauled, adding a mul titude of new stores. I guess there’s nothing inherently wrong with an academic institution be coming commercial, but I’m start ing to feel more like a customer than a student. Betore long, stu dents won’t even need to drive to Harbison for a mall experience. They’ll be able to be bombarded with subtle ads as they walk to class past Paramount’s Patterson, North Face Cliff apartments, Outback Bates House or Dollar General Wade Hampton. Why leave campus? Students could just do a few laps around the food court at the Sodexho Student Union and see how many free samples they can get before the ladies handing out oriental chick en on toothpicks start to recognize them. On second thought, maybe this scenario is a bit far-fetched. USC isn’t likely to replace the malls anytime soon. Unless it’s Christmas season, it’s much easi er to find a place to park at Columbiana Centre. Bryan is a sociology graduate student. K