Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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OTHE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, October 10, 2003 3 niTT T)A T "IT m O ONLINE POLL I /1 / | —* I II I Should the liberal arts college and sci ii m/I/ | I || | L ^| ence and mathematics college merge? k If W | \ W | I V YES 16% ®¥ ¥ —I— —m— A 1 —m— ' '—' v NO 74% SANDWICH 10% - IN OUR OPINION USC places footballfirst USC has made clear this is an institution of higher education that places more importance on athletics than academics. Last night, in a nationally televised event, ESPN aired the USC-Kentucky game. USC needed the money and airtime more than academic respect, it seems. Some professors argued, correctly, that sports games cannot be held during exam weeks. Though Those who chose to students are still in the attend the Kentucky trenches of midterms, the game faced, along University Athletics with a likely 11 p.rn. Committee decided that finish, horrendous this week does not count parking courtesy as an official exam week, of the State Fair. Student organizations, some evening classes ana ciud meetings were canceled in order to accommodate USC’s growing desperation for attention and funds. Tradition is not the only reason we have games on Saturdays; students are out of class, people are off work, and most people have time to relax. Many people, USC students or otherwise, could not make it to last night’s game because of work and other commitments. Those who went faced, along with a likely 11 p.m. finish, horrendous parking courtesy of the State Fair. By moving the game to Thursday and not informing professors so that they could change their course schedules, the administration demonstrated that, at least for the time being, money-making machines take precedence. ___ Gamecock Quotables “I don’t know anyone in liberal arts who wants to have anything to do with math and . science.” MARIE RUSS SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH STUDENT, ON THE POSSIBLE MERGER OF THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS “I think for the serious student, this has no impact on them at all.” LARRY DURSTINE use PROFESSOR, ON WHY HE PLANS TO GIVE AN EXAM FRIDAY AFTER THE FOOTBALL GAME “It is very good for a book publisher to put a nice gold sticky on the cover.” JANETTE TURNER HOSPITAL AUTHOR OF "DUE PREPARATIONS FOR THE PLAGUE," ON THE PERKS OF WINNING AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED BOOK AWARD “This is really about taking market share from eight downtown hotels.” BOB WISLINSKI SPOKESMAN FOR THE GREATER COLUMBIA HOTEL AND MOTEL ASSOCIATION, ON THE SETTLEMENT FOR USC’S INN PROJECT GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS A story in Monday’s paper about the Chili Cook-off should have listed Group Therapy as the founder, not the sponsor, of the festival. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor in Chief Charles Tomlinson Managing Editor Adam Beam News Editor Michael LaForgia Asst. News Editor Alexis Stratton Viewpoints Editor Gabrielle Sinclair The Mix Editor Meg Moore Sports Editor Brad Senkiw Asst. Sports Editor Wes Wolfe Photo Editor Morgan Ford Head Page Designer Shawn Rourk Page Designers Justin Bajan. Samantha Hall, Staci Jordan, Philip Whitehead Slot Copy Editors Amy Genoble, Alyson Goff, Tricia Ridgway Copy Editors Mary Waters, Steven Var Haren, Jessica Foster, Alicia Osborne Online Editor James Tolbert Public Affairs Kimberly Dressier CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@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 ic. me editorially independent Director student newspaper of Scott Lmdenberg the University of South Carolina. It is Faculty Adviser published Monday, Erik Collins Wednesday and Friday during the fall and Creative Director spring semesters and Susan King nine times during the summer, with the Business Manager hohdavsa^U"iVerSity _ , ~ nonaays and exam Carolyn Griffin periods. Opinions expressed jn 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 _ . .. and Communications Production Manager i5 the pubiisher of The Amber Justice Gamecock. The Department of Student Creative Services Media is the Whitney Bridges, newspaper’s parent Robbie Burkett, organization. The Sean O’Meara Gamecock is * supported in part by Advertising Staff student-ac ivity fees. John Blackshire, 0nefree'°JI per. Adam Bourgoin. Ben reader- Adddl0nal Sinclair, Jesica copies may be Johnson, Ryan purchased for $1 each Gorman, Laytoya from the DePart.ment Hjnes ' of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax- 777-6482 ■ CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Honor the Creed year-round ZACHERY SCOTT GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM The week is ending, but tolerance should go on. In addition to being the end of the usual week of classes, home work and loud block parties on Greene Street, this particular Friday is also the conclusion of Creed Week. Maybe you were there for it; maybe you weren’t. But if you weren’t, you should have been. For most of us, even the die-hard believers in the Creed like I am, Creed Week is the culmination of every pamphlet, bookmark and mouse pad that beats those tenets into our subconscious. We’ve all read it, and we all know what it means. Some of us even try to follow it. But is it really getting through? In spite of what I read in the crime blotter, I as sume most of you aren’t stealing from anyone. And if you aren’t practicing academic integrity, you should — but even that I can’t re ally detect. It’s that part about discouraging bigotry and trying to learn — let me repeat: learn — from differences in others that I am just not feeling. Hell, Ryan Holt’s column Wednesday actual ly discouraged tolerance! Let me give you an example. Did you know that tomorrow is National Coming Out Day? I un derstand if you’re somewhat con fused. It’s a day that is set aside by God-knows-who for closeted homosexuals to step out and be honest with themselves and ev eryone around them. I won’t ar gue with the logic of this. I just want to look at what produces these kinds of days. What is it about our society • that causes an entire group of people to feel so uncomfortable that they must set aside a special day to say how they feel? Well, it’s actually all of us. We still don’t even protect the rights of homosexuals in our university’s nondiscrimination policy. We’re not as tolerant as we should be, and things like National Coming Out Day are by-products of that. After all, is it so unreasonable that one day is dedicated to com ing out when we can only spare a week for really trying to live up to the Creed? The way I see it, both of these special occasions are set with the best of intentions. It’s their inadvertent implications that spoil them. Every day should be National Coming Out Day. Every month should be Black History Month, or Hispanic Heritage Month or any other recognition of any other people. Quite simply, Creed Week should be extended indefinitely. Everyone of every different background, belief, lifestyle, et cetera should celebrate it every day and we should be striving to learn — I said it again, learn — from such differences. We need to stop concentrating our good ideas and intentions into desig nated time periods and start uti lizing them regularly. This can harm no one and benefit practi cally everyone. While a society that practices tolerance will sur vive, one that promotes accep tance will flourish. Here’s a start if you need one — on Saturday, when you’re waking up mid-afternoon after the previous evening’s activities, tell someone that it’s National Coming Out Day. Spark up a con versation and get people around you thinking. But don’t stop af ter tomorrow. Express your will ingness to discourage bigotry as often as possible and help the Carolinian Creed last more than just a week. Scott is SG vice president and a third-year political science student. IN YOUR OPINION RA training not worth the trouble While the idea of having a close and fast resource to fix computer problems is sensi ble, I do not think resident ad visers should be asked to take on the extra burden of provid ing tech support to residents who'live on campus. The life of an RA is already demand ing, and the added stress of having to deal with students’ computer needs, in my opin ion, is not worth the trouble in the end. As a former RA myself, I un derstand the day-to-day situa tions and problems a resident adviser has to deal with. I also think that USC’s RAs are some of the best-trained in the coun try. With that said, these al ready hard-working individu als should not have to go through even more training as tech support. RAs’ summers are already cut short by up to two weeks when they come back for training, and RAs do not need any more work shoved on their shoulders be cause this state and this school are unable or unwilling to hire more people to work in Computer Services. MIKE DRESSLER FOURTH'-YEAR HISTORY STUDENT Lottery system isn’t broken; don’t fix it The proposed system by which the student body would obtain tickets to the Carolina Clemson football game is to tally unnecessary and would be another superfluous ex pense for the already-suffer ing university. The recent ar ticle printed in The Gamecock .said that under the new sys tem, students who had gone to previous games would have a better chance of obtaining a ticket for the prized season en der. Critics of the current sys tem claim that students who were chosen in the lottery were scalping the tickets for a hefty profit or, even worse, not even going to the game. The new system would some how judge the die-hard fans ; who had picked up tickets to the season’s other home games. The new system would also place upperclassmen some how in front of the line for get ting such tickets. But now, in stead of being unfair to the en tire student body, the system is being unfair to a large num ber of the seniors and an even greater number of under classmen. The current system works fine. Every student who en ters the lottery has the same chance of being chosen to re ceive a Clemson ticket. If this new system were in place, stu dents who would not normally be going to the home games would be potentially taking up tickets from others just so they could have a better chance of getting a Clemson ticket. It may be dishearten ing if you’re a senior that a freshman gets a ticket and you don’t. Sorry, but that’s life. If the proposed system is used, it should be used for every game. Maybe we should force students to sign a contract saying if they get a ticket, they will go to the game, which sounds just as insane as the new lottery. I’m glad Katie Dreiling is trying to do good work as pres ident, but let football be — let . everyone have the same chance to see the Tigers lose. SAMUEL BOWEN SECOND-YEAli BROADCAST JOURNALISM STUDENT i Readership program a success at USC I applaud the efforts of Student Government to expand the readership.program to two years. It’s about time someone found an outlet to help students learn about communities around them. As college students, we have fast-access Internet, cable tele vision, and Internet-ready cell phones, but we do not use them fully to improve our academic progress. Instead, we use them to see if J. Lo and Ben are to gether or not instead of learn ing how the impact of a bill in Congress regarding Iraq can af fect us. I am not saying we must al ways watch C-SPAN, but we must make an effort to be in touch with the world so we can make informed decisions such as when we vote. The readership program provides students with free local and national newspa pers that can be picked up on the way to class. SG is taking a step in the right direction to better enlighten the students at USC, even if it isn’t with, expensive technology. VATSAL SUTHAR SECOND-YEAR EXERCISE SCIENCE 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 gamecockopinions@hotmail.com.. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. Lessons learned from the recall mBL ' J.D. SHIPMAN GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM The circus is over, and the idiots have spoken. The California recall may fi nally be over, but the embarrass ment of the entire fiasco is likely to linger for some time. In a vir tual landslide, Gov. Gray Davis was recalled from office and re placed by Republican (sort of) Ah nold Schwarzenegger, who was able to handily defeat Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante as well as ■ scores of actors, circus freaks and a variety of porn stars. While things may be looking down for California after the reigns of the world’s fifth-largest economy were handed over to the Terminator, America was fortu nate enough to walk away with several key lessons from the recall. Iraq will never be a democra cy. We can only hope that al Jazeera television had its head buried in the sand during the re call, because in the event that the Iraqis get word that democracy could one day lead to the rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger, they will gladly pass over the reigns of government to the first zealot • with a beard and a Quran. I mean, Saddam Hussein may have been a murderous totalitarian, but at least he was qualified! Porn stars sfill can’t win elec tions. While tragic, America has finally come to terms with the fact that Mary Carey, perhaps California’s most titillating can didate, simply couldn’t scrape to gether the support needed to stave off Schwarzenegger’s surg ing popularity in the state. Even Carey felt embarrassed by the negative attention she received in the race and said she had never been so humiliated in her entire life. For some reason, i remain skeptical of this. As trends continue to show, California’s elections are, in fact, decided by idiots. Regardless of partisan affiliation, everyone can agree that if any state deserves a Gov. Schwarzenegger, it’s defi nitely California. While Davis and his fellow Democrats were counting on the Hispanic and black vote to sway the election in their favor, it was Schwarzenegger who had devel oped a different, yet massively successful idea: Get the morons to the polls. The ninth circuit court of ap peals will always be a joke. Up un til a couple of weeks before the election, it appeared as though the ninth circuit had postponed the recall until sometime next mil lennium. Of course, this enraged Schwarzenegger, who was eager to get this whole “election thing” over with. The Democrats are in big trou ble. Being beaten by George W. Bush in 2000 was embarrassing enough, but losing the governor ship of the nation’s most populous state to the Terminator is just making things ridiculous. It would be one thing if the Republicans were beating the Democrats with real candidates, but, for the love of God, the Republicans are running a bunch of morons. If things get any worse, the Democratic Party is going to have to pack up its senators and head for Canada. And finally, groping women will always get you elected, period. It worked for Clinton, and it worked for Arnold. Polls indi cate that only 15 percent of mi norities cast a vote for Schwarzenegger, but nearly 99 percent of misogynists support ed Arnold. ---r Shipman is a third-year political science student.