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4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, April 14, 2003 SOUND OFF TTHITTT^/^TIVTmO ONLINE POLL Create message boards at I % /% / I—^ ■ I I I _ Who should get www.dailygamecock.com or I B'i ml ml I ■ ■ I I l priority housing at USC? send letters to the editor to llJWV I \/lll I k / www.dailygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com —■ ® ^ ®^ ™— “ ’ “®' Results published on Fridays. — ' IN OUR OPINION Fuzzy math in Housing USC’s “parking utopia” is now comparable only to its housing utopia, what with 550 upperclassmen on a waiting list and another record freshman applicant pool. University Housing Director Gene Luna said he could not remember the wait list ever being this long. It’s because the university now refuses to house extra freshmen in hotels — instead, it is displacing upperclassmen to make good on its pledge to guarantee freshman housing. Essentially, the university is externalizing'the costs of housing to individual upperclassmen. Housing proposes to solve the problem by building West Quad, which is slated for completion in 2004. But it’s also tearing down the Towers, freshman residence halls. And though West Quad will support 500 more students, USC will lose 1,000 spots with the destruction of the Towers. This comes at a time when some freshmen even live in apartment-style housing while juniors inhabit Capstone Hall. There obviously aren’t enough spots to go around. If the university is bent on reducing the number of housing spots, it could also reduce the size of the incoming student body. President Andrew Sorensen has offered such a plan. In the meantime, Housing shouldn’t shaft upperclassmen to place freshmen in on-campus apartments. If we accept too many freshmen, it would be better to place them in hotels. University Housing shouldn’t leave upperclassmen out inihe cold even as it assigns freshmen to prime spots on campus. College Quote Board DAILY LOBO scon DARNELL, UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO “Why is killing justified in times of war? Not to be oversimplistic, but simply because the other side is a threat to yourself or your nation in some manner; in a way, it’s self-defense. Other than that, killing another human being isn’t justified.” DAILY BRUIN DOUG LUDLOW, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES “If the Bush administration were to have a motto, it could easily be, ‘Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for your bank account.’ ... It’s completely inappropriate to be discussing a huge tax cut for the rich while soldiers, many of them poor, are dying. ” GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS A story Friday about fencing should have stated that USC’s fencing team does not participate in direct elimination rounds. The Gamecock regrets the errors. If you see an error in today’s paper, we wantto know. E-mail us atgamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK 4 Editor in Chief Jill Martin Managing Editor Charles Tomlinson News Editor Adam Beam Asst. News Editor Wendy Jeffcoat Viewpoints Editor Erin O'Neal The Mix Editor Corey Garriott Asst. The Mix Editor Meg Moore Sports Editor Matt Rothenberg Asst. Sports Editor Brad Senkiw Photo Editor Johnny Haynes Asst. Photo Editor Morgan Ford Head Page Designers Sarah McLaulin, Katie Smith, David^tagg Page Designers Justin Bajan, Samantha Hall, Staci Jordan, Julia Knetzer, Shawn Rourk Slot Copy Editors Crystal Boyles, Tricia Ridgway, Emma Ritch Copy Editors Jessica Foster. Alyson Goff, Mary Waters Online Editor Bessam Khadraoui Community Affairs Kiran Shah CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Director of Student Media Ellen Parsons Creative Director Susan King Business Manager Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Sarah Scarborough Classified Manager Sherry F. Holmes Production Manager Patrick Bergen Creative Services Derek Goode, Earl Jones, Sean O'Meara. Anastasia Oppert Advertising Staff John Blackshire. Adam Bourgoin, Bianca Knowles. Denise Levereaux. Jacqueline Rice. Stacey Todd The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of South Carolina. It 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 Communicatioi.s 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-activity fees. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 each from the Department of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene St. t Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 r CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Everyone loves being unique PATRICK AUGUSTINE GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Americans take pride in their individuality. I see the pain of families whose fathers, daughters and brothers will never return home from a battle in which they be lieved. I see a people who, while free, struggle under the weight of a history of oppression. I am looking at the Confederate flag on the grounds of the State House just a few blocks from campus, and in its cloth and stitches, I see an analogue for the deep prob lems in our nation today. More than being a symbol of heritage or hate, I see the flag as representative of the radical in dividualism that has grown up as an implicit value of American society in recent decades. The same forces that encourage us to view the banner in our own nar row conception of things, while rejecting that the other side has legitimate feelings about the is sue, are used to sell everything from sport-utility vehicles to the war on terror. I have never been chased by anyone driving a Taurus or a Camry while riding around Columbia. As a cyclist, however, I have been nearly killed numer ous times by drivers of SUVs. Is this because SUV owners are just angrier than people who drive station wagons? I think not. But, if you watch the commercials that market SUVs, they appeal to a common denominator — the desire for power. Whether they’re selling Humvees or Jeeps, the wizards of advertising, armed with their focus-group data, understand that the vehicles appeal to our in nate sense of freedom. We settled the West, and with nothing else to conquer, Manifest Destiny has become the Freudian pursuit of the biggest engine that can climb the steepest grade. Soccer moms and software developers alike love the beasts because they can see the road better — and be cause no one can push you around when your car weighs as much as several smart bombs. I think that’s why drivers get so angry when their absolute right to the road is challenged by a guy in Lycra taking up a foot and a half of the right shoulder. Learn to share. We have an even better, home grown example of individualism gone awry here at USC. Anyone notice the controversy over the Vegas-style sign that the Athletics Department placed across from the Strom? The city of Columbia seemed to think that other than just being ugly, the sign was ill-placed, as it inter fered with the promotion of Mayor Bob’s pet project, Inferno hockey. After all, the Carolina ■ Center isn’t on the corner of Blossom and Assembly streets, but that didn’t seem to bother Mike McGee, who has a long running disdain for working with the city. The university is by far one of the largest property owners in Columbia, and thus we have as much of a responsi bility to the community as city hall owes to us. Egos shouldn’t get in the way, and President Sorensen should be commended for reaching out to state and lo cal leaders. I don’t have a personal vendet ta against SUVs — heck, my car gets worse gas mileage. I simply think we need to consider how what we do individually affects others. To live as Narcissus is to live in a world of fear and dis trust and to reject the hope we have as humans of a better fu ture. Finally, my own view on the flag: Why have a public re minder of our private grief whip ping us all in the face? The mem ory of the past deserves better than ripping out the stitches of healing. Augustine is a third-year political-science student. IN YOUR OPINION No one would win in consolidation I am writing in response to the March 28 article “Sorensen: Bill wouldn’t serve USC satellites.” I agree with Sorensen 100 percent. I have a unique perspective about this matter because I started my collegiate career at USC-Sumter, then I trans ferred to Central Carolina Technical College and gradu ated; now, I’m back at USC Sumter as a sophomore to fin ish my degree. Consolidating the smaller USC campuses with the Board for Community Colleges and Technical and Comprehensive Education would be the worst thing for USC as a whole and for technical .colleges them selves. The missions of both techni cal colleges and the USC satel lite schools are different, as Sorensen pointed out. Technical colleges focus more on hands-on skill learn ing and experience and less on theory, whereas the USC satel lite schools focus on the first two years of a traditional four year college or university, fo cusing all or most of the time on theory. Technical college classes are vocational in nature, as Sorensen said. Classes such as automotive repair, welding or paralegal are all vocations that deal with hands-on expe rience. I really can’t see how con solidation would help “improve the quality'df higher education for everyone involved,” as one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Harry Stille, said. I can’t see where this would be truly possible, since USC and the technical college sys tem are so different. If the USC satellite schools were to consolidate with tech nical schools, the technical schools would lose out more. Going back to the examples I made with the different class es that technical schools offer, what would happen to those classes? More than likely, the stan dards for those classes could be raised higher, making it dif ficult for students to be in them. One would say that I just made a case for consolidation, but it must be understood that the contexts of education in a technical college are different from those in a USC setting. So the worst-case scenario would be that student enroll ments in these courses would be nonexistent and these cours es would be stopped. I really appreciate USC Sumter because it is preparing me for academic life when I transfer to USC-Columbia. Even though the campus is small, it is affordable. If I were to transfer to Columbia now, I wouldn’t be able to handle the tuition. To be quite honest, I think this bill has a better-than-aver age chance of being passed. Why? Because of our governor. Consolidation was one of his campaign items. With his support, I’m slire it would pass. But, in the long run, will it help? I would say not. RAY JEFFERSON SECOND-YEAR COMPUTER-SCIENCE STUDENT War protesters have been proven wrong After having a few days to let all the news coverage from Iraq sink in, I can’t help but ask where all those vocal war protesters around campus have gone. Where did all you “Food, Not Bombs” kids go? Run out of chalk for the overpass? Oh, that’s right, you run and hide when thousands of Iraqi peo ple storm the streets to thank us for being there. How about you climb out of your Preston commune, thank a soldier for protecting your pa thetic self from foreign conquest, and take a moment to appreciate the freedom that lets you be an id iot? Oh, and take a shower, you hippie; the egg on your face is starting to smell. BRYAN COX THIRD-YEAR ELECTRONIC JOURNALISM 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. Submissions are limited to two per person per semester. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for m^re information. Augusta knows howto have fun TYLERJONES GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Protests and golf make weekends interesting. The rains fell on Augusta, Ga., last week in biblical proportions. The clouds and unrelenting pre cipitation set a foreboding tone leading up to the “Martha vs. Hootie” showdown that was to oc cur at the gates of the Augusta National on Saturday morning. As a lover of golf and protest, I was braced for what could have been my dream of Political Sports Entertainment. I had visions of the good Rev. Jesse Jackson flail ing about in the midst of some in coherent oratory while the media let all cameras roll. The possibili ty of legions of beautiful feminists shouting at the corporate villains across Washington Road kept my interest as I marched to the side walk toward the site designated for political upheaval. a ciouaiess SKy wun an azure hue hung overhead as I ap proached some sort of semi-chaot ic barbecue for the Georgia State Trooper Association. There were, in the words of some hairy, hulk ing trooper, more than 100 police vehicles in attendance. For some one of my demeanor, that insane ly high number of neatly parked squad cars made me nervous. I cHecked my pockets just in case and walked over to the corner of the lot where Martha Burk and her three dozen supporters lashed out at the masculine powers that be. After composing myself in the sea of police, I noticed that what had been slated as a great rally for women’s rights was nothing more than a media carnival. First of all, there were more police and media than there were protesters — the ratio was perhaps as ridiculous as 3-to-l. Then, in the middle of Burk’s diatribe, a young man walked in the middle of the protesters with a sign that read, “Make Me Dinner.” The other side of his sign read, “Iron My Shirt.” What made matters truly comical was that the media began to lose interest in Burk and im mediately huddled around the hu morous misogynist. Being the objective voice mat 1 am, I figured a trip to the anti Burk protest would be the logical choice since, after all, there are other angles to this story. What I found was more political farce. Although the sheeted fools of the KKK were not in attendance, their name was referenced by a black man holding a sign that read, “Rainbow/Push Coalition (Jesse Jackson’s Organization) is the Klan with a Tan.” A motley as sortment of bozos and en trepreneurs littered the sidewalk hawking anti-Burk wares, but nothing of substantial political worth — unless you count Master’s patrons honking their horns in support as a mark of po litical astuteness. What had been a day of antici pation became a day of disap pointment. Not just for Martha Burk, but for the deranged politi cal junkie that manufactures the words you read this very moment. I was hoping for controversy, ar rests and angry lesbians hurling Molotov cocktails over the gates of the Augusta National, but alas, nothing transpired short of unin tentional comedic genius. As I passed the Elvis imper sonator protesting Burk, I thought to myself, “Isn’t this won derful? The war is over, there is no real controversy between men and women, and, sure enough, the multi-ethnic god that is Tiger Woods has found a way to rise above it all.” Jones is a graduate student in the College of Mass Communications» and Information Studies.