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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, April 30,2003 . 13 * SOUND OFF TTT^ WT) ATMm O ONLINE POLL Create message boards at I 1-4 % l\ I I * I II % I How wiU you spend your summer? www.dailygamecock.com or | | ' i %/ %/ | I I | | L TAKING CLASSES 7% ISLSKS2K-- lU VV1 1 kJ TK -- - " ■ - ... - -- ■■ ■" -■ w IN OUR OPINION Sorensen gets the job done A year ago tomorrow, the Board of Trustees announced that Andrew Sorensen would be the university’s 27th president. Although it’s too early to give a thorough evaluation of his tenure, Sorensen’s dynamic proposals to handle USC’s problems have clearly shown his commitment to higher education. Since Sorensen has become president, USC has seen its research money increase by $30 million. Ironically, the colleges that Sorensen has not been pushing for i __n _ l. ! i _ lid VC OCC11 LI 1C UIggeaL UlClCdOC. For the most part, whl],, Sorcnsr.n ls stressing Sorensen has ... .... . , been a great asset ^hch^ttgran^ for the university. CoUege of Liberal Arts has received the most money. Also, Sorensen’s plan for a 5-million-square-foot tt esearch campus is a step in the right direction for the university. The campus would combine educational and business interests for research. The idea is attractive, but tangible results have yet to be seen. Even with all the news conferences held and drawings of buildings shown off, Sorensen still has not gotten legislative approval. And Sorensen is not making any friends in the student body as far as tuition is concerned. He came out and opposed a legislative plan for a tuition cap, saying the cap would hurt USC during its budget crisis. If Sorensen is such a strong fund-raiser, he shouldn’t have to bank on raising tuition to increase funds. For the most part, Sorensen has been a great asset for the university. What he does in the next five years, however, will tell the full story of his effectiveness. Winners and Sinners SENIORS It’s about time you took that over priced piece of paper and made something of yourself. Good work, and congratulations. USC ATHLETES Congratulations to draftees Jocelyn Penn, Petra Ujhelyi, Langston Moore, Corey Jenkins and Andrew Pinnock. r PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE USC will finish this year with a bang when Dem Weekend 2003 comes to town. RUMORS According to local news sources, President Bush is supposed to be a graduation H speaker. It’s not funny to get our hopes up. ^ JACK OSBOURNE Following in the footsteps of his infamous father, the son of the “f— ing prince of darkness,” has entered rehab. FINALS No time at the beach, no days at the lake, no tanning in your back yard because you have to study and write papers. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS A story in Sports on Monday’s should have stated that Jocelyn Penn was picked ninth overall in the WNBA draft, not 10th. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK / 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 M Sarah McLaulin, Katie Smith. David Stagg 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 Kirpn Shah CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com tyews: 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 The Gamecock is the editorially independent Faculty Adviser student newspaper of Erik Collins the university of South Carolina. It is Director of Student published Monday, Media Wednesday and Friday Ellen Parsons during the fall and spring semesters and Creative Director nine times during the Susan King summer, with the exception of university Business Manager holidays and exam Carolyn Griffin periods. Opinions expressed in The Advertising Manager Gamecock are those of Sarah Scarborough the editors or author and not those of the Classified Manager University of South Sherry F. Holmes Carolina. The Board of Student Publications Production Manager and Communications Patrick Bergen jS the publisher of The Gamecock. The Creative Services Department of Student Derek Goode, Media is the Earl Jones, newspaper’s parent Sean O'Meara. organization. The Anastasia Oppert Gamecock is supported in part by Advertising Staff student-activity fees. John Blackshire, Qne free copy per Adam Bourgoin, reader. Additional Bianca Knowles. copies may be Denise Levereaux, purchased for $1 each Jacqueline Rice, from Department Stacey Todd 0f student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock .Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482 IRese ** ff4& 0,0 CARTOON BY HANNAH ANGSTADT/THE GAMECOCK End sappy senior moments ERIN O’NEAL GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM You don’t have to drown in tears on graduation. Seniors tend to have a lot of sappy moments; it comes with the title. But after four years of hard work—or five or six, in some cas es — you’ve earned the tears. Diming the past three months, everyone I’ve spoken with has of fered advice on how to keep com posed when the big day comes. Not being an overly emotional person, none of it has been very useful, but I thought I’d pass it along anyway. ♦ Concentrate on not tripping; it’s the key to any successful graduation. If you focus all your energy on being swanlike, you won’t have time to cry. It’s the same as it was when you gradu ated from high school. Just re member: left foot, pause, right foot, pause, repeat and rinse. ♦ Play the who-is-sitting-next to-me game. It’s amazing that af ter four years of classes and af ter-hours parties, there are still people on campus you haven’t met. Or perhaps you have, but can’t remember. And if you’re too shy to ask your seat neigh bors who they are, generaliza tions, such as smelly pit stains, Mr. Barely Made It and nail-bit ing ninny, will do. ♦ Bring a miniature TV with you to watch “Matlock” reruns. Unless you, too, are upset by the hopeless decline of Andy Griffith’s career, in which case, replace “Matlock” with “Jackass.” Just try not to laugh too hard when Bush is giving his speech. It would be inappropri ate, and you’d be forever branded an unpatriotic Nazi. ♦ Get as drunk as utterly pos sible before the ceremony. Go bar-hopping in your cap and gown — it’ll get you free drinks — and start the party before you walk. No, it’s not traditional, but there’s nothing keeping you from continuing the festivities after all the pomp and circumstance. Meanwhile, your friends Jim, Jack and Juan will keep you hap py enough to get through that fi nal test of adulthood without shedding a tear. ♦ Don’t go. It’s really not that big of a deal, nothing but a day of overrated peacockery filled with boring speakers that takes away from valuable bar time. Besides, as trite as it is, it’s the beginning of the rest of your life. Unless you’re one of the poor suckers who haven’t found a job and are forced to live with their parents for yet another year while they get their sorry act together — in which case, may God save your soul. ♦ Better yet, send a stand-in. Sorensen wouldn’t know the dif ference, and that way, you could spend all day partying it up. ♦ If all else fails, have your tears ducts removed. It’s a painful surgery and will leave your significant other eternally frustrated, but it’s a sure way to save yourself the grief of a grad uation breakdown. But perhaps the best advice came from my brother, who, with any luck, will graduate in three years. He said: “Try not to think about how much money that flimsy piece of paper cost you or the fact that it’ll take you 10 years to recoup your losses. Instead, think of all the great people you’ll meet in the unem ployment line.” And so I will. t O’Neal is a fourth-year print journalism student. IN YOUR OPINION i i I Lots of information is available on VIP This past week’s editorial (“Graduates Need a Hand,” Monday) reinforced the Office of the University Registrar’s conviction that VIP is the very best forum for official univer sity communications. VIP is an established elec tronic venue at USC that has succeeded where traditional communication methods, such as snail mail, have apparently failed. For May 2003 degree candi dates, commencement ceremo ny dates, times, holds and seat number assignments are now available on VIP, and im proved, comprehensive gradu ation and commencement in formation is also available when they link from VIP to http://registrar.sc.edu/. The Gamecock’s editorial pointed out other concerns of degree candidates that might be addressed using the proven strength of the VIP transaction portal. The university is a com plex organization; the bits of in formation to which The Gamecock referred come from a variety of academic and ser vice units, each responsible for helping students achieve their goals. The budget crunch has prevented USC from acquiring new information systems, so we must leverage existing tech nology, such as VIP. I urge all members of the university community to sup port development and further enhancement of the VIP Web site so that all of us know where to go for our university infor mation. BARBARA ROGERS BLANEY UNIVERSITY REGISTRAR Thanks to students for food drive help I wanted to bring attention to the recent success of our Annual Servathon Canned Food Drive Event. Held April 15 on the patio in front of Pandinis, the event fea tured a buffet and live enter tainment. Price of admission to the event was three canned food items. All food collected was donated to Harvest Hope Food Bank. In three hours, we collected 1,100 pounds of food! This event was a great success, and I wanted to extend many thanks to the USC students, fac ulty and staff who participated and donated food. Once again, the USC com munity has come through in helping to make a difference in the fight against hunger. SHEILA DERRICK CAROLINA DININC SERVICES MARKETING MANAGER Preston comments were unnecessary As a resident of Preston Residential College, I am very proud to share this building with people of every political spec trum, from ultra-liberal to arch conservative. I am also happy that I am not sharing it with the likes of Bryan Cox, whose insulting, small minded and offensive letter set a new standard for stupidity in The Gamecock’s editorial pages (“War protesters have been proven wrong,” April 14). Regardless of his views on the war, his generalization of Preston as a “commune” was totally in accurate and childish. As a col lege student, I hope that Cox would be mature enough to re frain from childishly calling war protesters “hippies,” but unfor tunately, he is not. I think — and hope — that I speak for most Preston residents when I say that I am truly offend ed by his juvenile screed and hope that he would at least trou ble himself to get acquainted with Preston before spouting off idiot ic comments about it. ROGER KEANE FIRST-YEAR MUSIC 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 more information. Want to work for The Gamecock this summer? E-mail GAMECOCKEDITOR@HOTMAIL.COM , for more information. t y It's time to leave use behind BROOK BRISTOW GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Thanks for all the fun, but it’s time to move on. Dear Carolina, I can’t believe you are doing this to me. I can’t believe you’re ending it like this. I’ve reached the number of credit hours and need to graduate? What kind of lame excuse is that? I see how it is. Well, fine. It’s so over. Just think about the past five years and how great they were. Well, actually, only three of them were great. To think how I always fought for you. When people called you the University of Second Choice, I defended you. When people called you the University of Shoddy Construction, I stuck up for you. When people called you the University of Safety Concerns, I defended your honor. And when people called you the University of Southern Concentration, I wouldn’t let it go without a fight. Well, no more will I do such things. Don’t call, don’t write, don’t e mail; don’t get your friends to do it, either. I know all about your little dealings on the side. “The Annual Fund”? I’m not going to be fooled, so don’t bother. If you ever call to ask for money, I have plenty of reasons to say no to you, besides the obvious. Remember that time I was late for class and couldn’t find a park ing space? Or what about the time I had to do so some last-minute re search on the Internet and the Ethernet network just happened to shut down? Or when it was time for me to register and you wouldn’t let me do it until five minutes later, and by then I couldn’t get the only five classes I needed? Yeah, thanks. But, we did have some good times, didn’t we? You found nearly 500 people to vote for me for student-body president. You allowed a non-Greek, non Honors College, college kid to serve in many leadership capac ities. And you found a way for me to write this column for a good year of similes and metaphors, which nobody liked until I went through my White Album phase of ripping Croakies and Vera Bradley bags. You’re too old for me. I mean, you’ve been around since 1801.1 mean, yuck. That’s just really weird. The fact that you grew up with Strom Thurmond tells me you do not meet my age require ments. You’re cheap. The fact that I would go the GMP and .get a turkey sandwich and water and still have to use bonus bucks tells me you’re just not thoughtful. It’s like a woman failing to reach for her purse, even in a feigned at tempt to pay for dinner by the sixth date. You never wanted to know me. I’m interesting. You never asked me questions. The only thing you ever wanted to know was my billing address and my Social Security number. That’s just in sensitive. You’re not proportionate. You have about 30,000 students and only a small number of parking spaces. That’s like height out of proportion to weight. So, you need to add a few spaces or grow a few feet taller. Well, you got what you want ed. I hope you’re happy. I got what I wanted. I’m taking the degree and the friends. You can have the on campus apartment and leaky sink. Bristoui is a fifth-year advertising student. *