The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 03, 2003, Page 4, Image 4
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send letters to the editor to A BLACK EYE FOR USC 16%
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JAMES WHO? 34%
IN OUR OPINION
Merger has
bad timing
A committee has voted to approve the merger of
the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Math
and Science. The Board of Trustees will vote Oct. 17.
We recognize that the merger has benefits,
namely providing more options for students and
increasing research between the colleges. But this
merger couldn’t come at a worse time for the
university.
The liberal arts college has no dean, the
university has no provost, our president is working
_ .. , to build a massive research
Two months of L ,,
researching is not campus’our law schGGl hasn 1
enough time to found a dean in tWG years of
fully evaluate a searching and Value
merger that would Centered Management is just
throw two of the making its debut — not to
largest colleges at mention we are facing some
use into of the harshest budget cuts in
academic chaos, school history.
Core curricula for the entire
university could drastically be changed with this
possible merger, and students need to have a say.
Many students choose to major in a field in liberal
arts or math and science because they want to have a
focus. There needs to be strong evidence that this
will directly be beneficial to students.
Many schools around the country have a combined
College of Arts and Sciences, but that is not reason
enough for a rash decision. Two months of
researching is not enough time to really evaluate a
merger that would throw two of the largest colleges
at USC into a time of confusing transition and
academic chaos.
Gamecock Quotables
“The liberal arts college is
pretty huge, so if you collapse
those two colleges, you’ll have
20 representatives just from
(that school). That would be
half of the senate.”
CHRIS DICKSON
LIBERAL ARTS STUDENT SENATOR, ABOUT THE
CONSEQUENCES OF COMBINING THE LIBERAL
ARTS AND MATH AND SCIENCE COLLEGES
“If you look up the word
‘cocks’ in the dictionary, it’s a
male bird, or a rooster. People
just take it wrong. Instead of
‘Go Gamecocks,’ we say ‘Go
Cocks.’ There is nothing
wrong with it.”
DENNIS COSENTINO
OWNER OF GAMECOCK COUNTRY, ABOUT
WHY "COCKS” SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED
AN OFFENSIVE TERM ON USC MERCHANDISE
“The so-called cooperative
agreement is no agreement
at all. This is truly a
revelation.”
TOBY WARD
ATTORNEY FOR THE GREATER COLUMBIA
HOTEL AND MOTEL ASSOCIATION, ON CLAIMS
THAT THE CONTROVERSIAL USC INN WILL BE
PUBLICLY FUNDED
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
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Press 3 for shut the heck up
PATRICK AUGUSTINE
GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM
More doesn’t equal
better with cell phones.
You’re sitting in class or a
meeting when the serene calm of
the speaker’s drone is broken by
a digitized version of “Bonanza.”
The cell phone strikes again.
If I were a professor in this sit
uation, I would be tempted to
seize the object and throw it out a
conveniently open window, or
lacking this, smash it with a
sledgehammer. Since few people
actually follow this method of rid
ding the classroom of such dis
tractions, at least once a week we
are treated to a few verses of
those tacky ring tones.
I’ve even seen people who lack
all sense of social conventions ac
tually answer their phones and
carry on a conversation, oblivi
ous to the insult they are doing
their fellow man.
Lest you think I’m a modern
day Luddite, I’m not claiming that
cell phones, or any technology, is
evil in itself. I also have a cell
phone addiction, and I think it’s
high time we all ’fessed up to it
and got on the road to recovery.
Step one is admitting you have
a problem. Gigantic monthly bills,
using the term “rollover” when
not addressing a dog and, finally,
calluses on your ear are classic
symptoms.
Repeat after me — my phone
is not a status symbol, even if it’s
made by Swiss Army and has a
combination fire starter/can
opener that would make
MacGy ver envious.
Very few of us can honestly
say that we have the need to be
constantly accessible to our fans.
I see no doctors, generals or gov
ernment officials in my classes
— a few of the only people that
honestly need to be constantly
available. The responsibility of
their positions mandate that they
be easily reached to make deci
sions or take action, something
seldom true of a 20-year-old.
The cell-phone obsession is a
metaphor for a deeper problem
in American culture. We have
gotten so used to a steady diet of
information that we go in with
drawal if it’s not readily avail
able, no matter how inane the
content. Quality has increasingly
been replaced by quantity, and
we are poorer as a society for the
way these lines have blurred.
Count your cable channels and
e-mail accounts, PDAs and
pagers, laptops and wireless
cards. None of them corrupt a so
ciety; indeed, they have allowed
an unprecedented level of sophis
tication and interconnectedness
that make us the envy of history.
Just because I can talk to
Tokyo through the ether, how
ever, doesn’t mean that my hu
man connections are any richer
for the possibility. As students
learning the patterns that will
shape our lives, we must be ex
tra vigilant to cultivate mean
ingful relationships built on per
sonal interaction.
Fiber optics are a poor media
tor for the things the human
heart innately desires.
What does this mean for our
everyday lives? Certainly not a
knee-jerk abandonment of the
progress of the last century, but
instead a more thoughtful use of
the resources at our disposal. The
world has not seen a decrease in
violence in proportion to our
ability to talk across oceans* and
this is perhaps the greatest argu
ment for better discussion in
stead of simply more.
Finally, don’t forget to write,
and turn the phone off before
class.
Augustine is a fourth-year
political science student.
IN YOUR OPINION
Students need to
respect campus
Walking around campus, it
doesn’t take much for one to
come to the conclusion that we
as a collective are some of the
most selfish, wasteful people on
the planet.
It seems as though someone
gathered up all the ignorant
consumers and piled them onto
USC’s campus.
From disgusting smokers to
germ fanatics, they’re all trash
ing our campus. I’m not a smok
er, and I never have been, but
come on—how hard is it to put
your cigarette out in an ashtray
instead of throwing the butt
onto the ground? Is it too much
to ask you to dispose properly
of the waste produced by your
voluntary habit that doesn’t de
teriorate?
I personally cannot see it
causing you any physical or so
cial pain. And as far as styro
foam take-out containers are
concerned: People, please do not
get the damn boxes and then go
sit your asses down in the GMP!
Are you afraid that the dishes
are not clean enough?
Well, I’ll you the truth: They
are. You have no clue where
those styrofoam boxes have
been. People drop them, spill
stuff on them and God knows
what happens to them during
shipping or even how long
they’ve been packed up in the
back of the kitchen in
mildewed boxes.
What has to happen for us to
realize what we are doing?
These things do not decompose.
Are you willing to live on top
of this stuff or make you house
out of styrofoam? I’m not.
Couldii’t you just stop for a
minute when you are going
throuah vour evervdav routine
of smoking a cigarette on the
way to class and think, “Why
do I throw this down when I
know I can put it out in the ash
tray in front of the building
when I get there?”
Couldn’t you make the deci
sion to use the real dishes since
you’re eating there anyway? It
is going to be the little choices
like these - the ones we make
everyday without even think
ing about because they are so
ingrained in our behavior that
we don’t even question them
anymore. These decisions are
going to save us from ourselves.
ALLISON PEELER
FOl.'RTII-YKAR PRINT JOURNALISM
STl'DKNT
Kudos to Curtin for
championing music
In response to Kit Curtin’s
column regarding the accessi
bility of classical music to the
ill-informed, culturally de
prived and apparently-just-fine
with-it proletariat (“Classical
music can be accessible to
masses,” Sept. 8): Bravo!
I vigorously applaud any
such endeavor, however futile,
that strives—albeit ultimately
in vain—for the cultural edifi
cation of the aurally autistic
populace.
And while I heartily com
mend Ms. Curtin for her noble
sentiments on behalf of the
card-carrying classical music
community, I simply cannot,
with good conscience, condone
her optimism. I can’t because,
as a living composer and con
ductor, I’ve seen otherwise.
The fact of the matter re
mains that the symphony or
chestra is a 19th-cent 'ry edi
fice composed of 19th century
dogtViptip rnrKtriirts “nnilpr_
19th-century pretenses.” Thus,
we should not—and, indeed, we
sure as hell cannot — count on
such an ensemble to be the bas
tion of contemporary musical
expression. Sorry, Mr. Barber.
As for the solo instrumental
literature (and especially the pi
ano), a hallowed canon of reper
toire rigidly exists that is imper
vious to compositional infiltra
tion from those born after the
Second World War. So, thanks
anyway, Eddie.
Alas, I’m not entirely cynical.
Perhaps some infinitesimally
minute fragment of the most va
pid classical music will one day
be appropriately appreciated, in
strictly musical terms, by the
masses — probably by John
Williams III or something like
that — but I won’t bet on it.
In the meantime, I reckon I’ll
just be seein’ y’all at the next
Southern Exposure New Music
Concert — or, better yet, maybe
y’all was fixin’ to go to the next
USC Composers Concert. At any
rate, come on down; I’ll save a
seat for you. Until then!
LOGAN YOUNG
SECOND-YEAR MUSIC COMPOSITION
STUDENT
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We all
need a
reality
check
GABRIELLE SINCLAIR
GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM
Practicing the ancient
art of destroying a taboo.
Hello, and welcome to Breast
Cancer Awareness Month, which
coincidentally is also National
Cookie Awareness Month,
Vegetarian Awareness Month and
Sarcastic Month. So basically,
Christmas comes in October for
Gabrielle (it’s also National Speak
in-Third-Person Month, which
started... about a sentence ago).
Sweet Jesus, I do love cookies,
and it is desperately important to
be fervently aware of those
sketchy vegetarians, but let’s fo
cus on disease for just a moment.
I know Americans have never
been overly skilled in dealing
with sickness.
We either glorify or condemn
depending on which celebrities
contract it and at what point they
are in their career at the time. It’s
hard to be serious because reali
ty checks lead to the possibility of
opening flood gates of personal
fears and loneliness.
Or maybe that’s just my family.
My mother had a hysterectomy
and we made fun of her for weeks.
As you can perhaps imagine, she’s
not exactly sad she won’t be hav
ing more kids any time soon.
une oi tne ways to Deat evu is
to educate and speak out about it.
Cancer is still something of a
taboo topic of discussion in our
culture, perhaps from leftover
vestiges of fear that speaking the
name of a disease is a means of
contracting the disease itself.
Thank God the good people of
the media universe have taken it
upon themselves to compensate
for our psychological blocks by
bringing minor, yet embarrass
ingly chronic suffering into the
mainstream in an attempt to
make it fashionable, even chic.
Based on commercials on the
radio I’ve heard in the last half an
hour or so, I should be dropping
dead any minute now.
Apparently, I have at least an
88 percent chance of contradicting
at least one terribly messy ailment
that will invariably end with the
amputation of each of my limbs
before the week ends unless I get
off my lazy butt and consult some
one with prescription power right
now this instant. I’m starting to
feel alienated from society for lack
of premature balding, neon yellow
teeth and erectile dysfunction.
I have yet to come down with
anything worse than a broken tail
bone, but I’m sure it’s coming
soon. My incredible state of health
most likely stems from my regu
lar diet of shrimp-, pork- and chick
en-flavored Smack Ramen, histor
ically known for causing scurvy,
an ailment I think I might have
also just seen a commercial for. Or
maybe I just have a stomach of
U
Genetically speaking, I’m pret
ty much biding my time before
the inevitable. Television and ra
dio, however, are trying to make
me wish I had something, if not
something overly devastating, at
least chronic and profitable.
Of course, I am talking about a
culture that equates radio diver
sity with replaying Evanescence’?
“Bring Me To Life” every thiro
song.
I’ve got nothing against de
stroying taboos, especially those
that hinder an important fight
against a terrible disease like
cancer.
They’re also hella arbitrary
and we’ve got more than enough
capriciousness and threats of so
cietal smiting in our very own
Constitution. I’m just wondering .
what’s going to happen once we
run out and have to improvise.
-'—±2-;— -—
Sinclair is a third-year print
iri i / vnn / ii'M cti trl+ _