Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, November 10, 2003 5 SOUNDOFF TTT^TTTTl/^V VTfTld ONLINEPOLL Create message boards at I 1-^ % l\ I I JI I % I V Should USC include sexual preference www.dailygamecock.com or I I 1 i «/ «/ I I f \l I l ^ in its nondiscrimination pohcy? send letters to the editor to I I J ¥ ¥ I \ / ¥ Ik/' www.dailygamecock.com. gamecockopinions@hotmail.com * —w * *■■■ f — k. 1 m r\—/ Results published on Fridays. IN OUR OPINION Merger could . be big hassle lv USC and the Medical University of South Carolina are considering merging their pharmacy colleges. The merger, officials argue, would save money by cutting down on administrative cost and increasing funding. Instead of splitting state funds between two programs, the money would be funneled into one program. Also, the school could cut down on administrative costs, because one school would require less administrative staff. But in South Carolina, the first victim of budget cuts is always higher education. If the pharmacy scnoois are merged, the General Assembly will likely see the merger as an opportunity to cut back on funding rather than an opportunity to give more money to one school. The merger would be a hassle for students. Two proposals for the merger suggest students taking classes and making friends in Columbia would have to pick up and move to Charleston halfway through their academic careers. This would place an unnecessary burden on students. On first glance, the merger would seem to create a better school. After all, bigger is usually better. But if the two schools are merged, there will be no other pharmacy school in South Carolina to provide healthy competition. Academic accountability can go a long way. So, while it is tempting, a monopoly on South Carolina pharmacy education is probably not be the best thing for South Carolina students. _ I Two proposals for the merger suggest students taking classes and making friends | in Columbia would have to pick up and move to Charleston halfway through their academic careers. College Quote Board THE TIGER CLEMSON UNIVERSITY “The crux of the matter, how ever. is that no one is forced to say the pledge anymore. People can say it if they like or not say it if they so choose. And they have done both of these in re . cent years. Unanimous consent Y of the American population that they agree with each word in the pledge is not necessary for some thing no one is forced to say.” MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS-AMHERST “Now, seeing an African American in politics, in profes sional sports or in Hollywood is commonplace. But Gene Robinson is treading through uncharted territory. While many issues involving race and gender are exponentially better now than they once were, ho mosexuality in the church is not.” GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS A story in Friday’s paper about RHA president Adam Hark should have said former SG President Ankit Patel was subpoenaed, not impeached. 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 P 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 Wj Page Designers Justin Bajan, Steven Van Haren, Staci Jordan, Mary Pinckney Waters, Philip Whitehead Slot Copy Editors Amy Genoble, Tricia Ridgway, Mary Pinckney Waters Copy Editors Jessica Foster, Steven Van Haren 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 Director * Scott Lindenberg Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Creative Director Susan King Business Manager Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Sarah Scarborough Classified Manager Sherry F. Holmes Production Manager Amber Justice Creative Services Whitney Bridges, Robbie Burkett, Sean O’Meara Advertising Staff John Blackshire, Adam Bourgoin, Ben Sinclair, Jesica Johnson, Ryan Gorman, Laytoya Hines 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 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-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. Columbia, S.C. 29208 i Advertising: 777-3888 • Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 rMOM; 1 VONY) fuMp^TANP my reo?L€voHT / -rm. -rha ■ Pmposjtl I BY KW4 ^5 CARTOON BY MARY PINCKNEY WATERS No legal reason to exclude gays is?- f ■ KRISTEN GILMORE GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM USC needs to protect all students, faculty. Highly controversial and on its way into history books as we speak, the Supreme Court’s ruling against Texas sodomy laws made non-heterosexual relationships in the United States legal, marriage certificates aside. On the federal level, the law can no longer pun ish any adult for engaging in con sensual relationships with any other adult, and — though this is causing the South religious strife —as a general rule, folks are pret ty happy about it. This is encouragement for ho mosexuals, bisexuals, trisexuals, and similarly liberated people to live unmasked and unfettered lifestyles, right? People might feel a little safer in walking down the street while holding the hand of their same-sex partners — now any socially imbalanced human who wishes them ill will be dis couraged from causing them harm by the criminal repercus sions of such actions, correct? Not at USC. As of now there is no clause in our antidiscrimina tion policy stating that harass ing, harming, or performing any hate-based act against a student because of their sexual orienta tion is punishable. They couldn’t care less if, of two similar stu dents vying for a position, a uni versity office took the straight one simply because they were straight. Or if admissions only accepted straight applicants, if Greek organizations let only straight kids rush, if the heads of faculty, maintenance, student government, housing, computer services, dining, et cetera. You name it, if anybody decides to practice discrimination in hir ing or educating non-hetero hu mans, USC is under no obligation to reprimand or remove said per son for their practices. According to the USC Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, at http://www.sc.edu/eop/, USC pro vides equal opportunity and affir mative action in education and employment for all qualified per sons regardless of race, color, re ligion, sex, national origin, age, disability or veteran status. Though this list does account for most everybody who isn’t a young white male, it does leave out a sizable chunk of the popu lation who have been left out of and persecuted by religion and education since the dawn of time. If we are going to offer education and employment to everyone re gardless of religion, why then do we take a religious standpoint in our choice not to include those “heathen homosexuals” in our equality policy? The only reason homosexuali ty has been blacklisted is because religious doctrines call it sinful; thus, by omitting gays from our antidiscrimination policy, we are violating it. Take that, Logic 110. USC President Andrew Sorensen addressed this topic ear ly in his presidency, and stated that he would hold an open debate on its addition before the end of his first scholastic year. That time has come and gone, and as of yet, no fo rum has been held or scheduled. I’m not talking about the Carolinian Creed — it makes a great honor code, but it holds no water in legal matters. This is the policy that can mean the differ ence between you being in school or not — the policy that adminis tration and student judiciary must abide by, too. "And it doesn’t pro hibit discrimination toward one's sexuality. It practically condones it. How embarrassing. Gilmore is a second-year theater student. IN YOUR OPINION i ' ' i Adams insulted many with column I am writing in response to “The Ugly Need to Face Up to Reality” by Lauren Adams in the Oct. 4 Gamecock. This is the most shallow-minded column I have ever read. Who are you to call people pretty or ugly? The world wasn’t meant to have everyone look the same and be perfectly attractive. If this were true, there wouldn’t be any variety in life. The media has warped society into believing that all pretty people have skin ny toned bodies, beautiful hair, and no zits or deformities. Not all of society fits into this mold. Yet these people are not all considered ugly. In fact, I bet even you would not fit into soci ety’s elite standard of prettiness. As for dating, I wouldn’t take ad vice from you if you aren’t will ing to give anyone a chance yourself. You may say that you know the saying, Beauty is on the inside,” but you sure don’t understand it. It means you shouldn’t judge a person only by their appearance but also by how they act, their thoughts and their feelings. Just because they don’t fit your prettiness standards you’ve probably passed up on many great guys. Maybe you even passed on great friends since you state that ugly people should stick to their own kind. A note to all guys out there: don’t date a girl like this be cause you will never measure up to her standards. Adams, you should volunteer at a hospital. Many of the peo ple there wouldn’t fit into your prettiness standard because of their bandages or deformities. Or go tb a center for the mentally retarded. Those people were bom looking how you con sider ugly; they can’t change who they are. I only hope they never meet people like you in their lives who make them feel bad about the way they look. If you even gave them a chance, you would see that they are the same as anyone else. They enjoy the same activities, have friends and date; they have feelings, and it hurts when some one calls them ugly. One last piece of advice: I wish you luck trying to find your perfect pretty man because he doesn’t exist! No one is perfect. And if you find anyone even close to meeting your standards of pretty, I hope he turns you down because you aren’t pretty enough. Maybe then you’ll learn what it feels like to be called ugly like all the people you have in sulted in your article. ELIZABETH KORNHOFF THIRD-YEAR HOTEL, RESTAURANT AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING STUDENT Cook lacking in her abortion argument The ban on partial-birth abor tion has been passed by Congress, but Julie Cook (“Women’s rights over ‘morals’”) thinks it is a bad idea. The main reason she gave was that there are no provisions in it for allow ing a partial-birth abortion for the sake of the mother’s health. There is a simple reason for this omission: there is no situa tion in which the mother’s health could be improved by a partial-birth abortion. In this, the most medically involved and lengthy type of abortion, the mother’s cervix is dilated over the course of three days by the swelling of seaweed laminaria placed in her cervix. Then a doc tor drags the fetus out by the feet until all but the head is bom, cuts a hole in the base of the fetus’ skull, and inserts a tube, which vacuums the fetus’ brain out. If the mother goes into labor, a par tial-birth abortion cannot be per formed. This is cannot be an emer gency or life-saving procedure. Many argue the ban will re strict a woman’s right to control over her own body. I fail to see how it is about a woman’s body when the only part of the fetus still in her body is the head. What’s outside her body must look horri bly like a baby, and, if the doctor pulled just a bit more, it would suddenly be called one. This ban helps to more clearly designate the still-now fuzzy limits of Roe v. Wade. It does not restrict them. Cook admits there is no reason for the mother to put off having an abortion until the third trimester, and she is correct. However, abor tion clinics have every reason to encourage her to do so. The or gans of aborted fetuses are sold for use in research, and this flesh trade has grown to over $1 billion a year. Partial-birth abortion pro duces a fully developed, undam aged corpse, whereas other meth ods are performed too early or damage the “specimen.” Women’s rights as established in Roe v. Wade are not hurt by this ban; the only ones harmed by it will be “doctors” who are just out to collect their pounds of flesh. JOSH HANLEY FOURTH-YEAR PHILOSOPHY 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. Heroes for the slacker masses LAUREN ADAMS GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM Freeloaders need role models too, you know. In this time of uncertainty, this era of confusion, these years of ab solute perplexity, it’s good to know that one thing will always be lay ing on our couch, leafing through our magazines, and eating our Doritos. This thing, people, this magnificently unmotivated thing, is the mooch/freeloader/me. Oh, I’ll stay in your guest house until one of us dies, but does this make me any less of a person? I say no, but who do I have to look up to? Who can be my hero? I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of my all-time favorite moochers to show my constituents that we don’t have to be second class citizens, we can take freely in this exciting decade of change. ik f__ _11. /ir:_r_ 1TXUA VUOOIXU \ » 111U1V U Vlll Doogie Howser M.D.) — This walking Italian stereotype really pioneered mooching for me. He al ways managed to walk into the Howser household right when “Mrs. H” was making “ a spicy meataballa,” demonstrating the cold efficiency of a mooch on the hunt. Freeloading his way into America’s heart. Vinnie is a shin ing example of the heights that we can achieve as a people. Does he perpetuate a negative Italian stereotype? Do we care? No, we love him for his big heart, his desperately funny one-liners (“Whatsa matta wit you?” or “You want I should break his legs?”), and his gorgeous bling. Hey, Vinnie, how about you save one of those meatballs for me. Kato Kaelin — Kaelin, known not only for his magnificent Ziggy Stardust mullet but also for his marginal yet memorable role in the O.J. Simpson trial, stayed in the Juice’s guest house for more than a year. This eager freeloader didn’t stop there; he piggybacked his way into the hearts of 30-some - thing housewives and onto his own radio show, effectively prov ing that high school diplomas aren’t everything. Now you can build a guesthouse of your own, Kato, and when you do, I like my couches leather. Everybody on Full House ex cept for Bob Saget — The Tanner household was ridiculously large and monumentally unemployed, just the way I like it. This home was kept David Koresh-style with everyone sleeping head to foot and more women than men. Who worked? Extensive research has lead me to the unavoidable con clusion that only three people in that 300-person townhouse worked. In short, I’m moving to San Francisco. France—World War II was our pleasure, really. Merci for the mas sive war debts. ALF—Who says you have to be human to get a free meal? Alf broke down the wall of hate that kept aliens from enjoying the rights promised to them in our Constitution. The pretty boy of the dependent set, he saw where there was injustice and said, “No, sir.” Well Alf, America listened. I think Neil Diamond said it best when he sang “turn on your heart light.” Consider it on, Neil, consider it on. The tapeworm — Let me just say that nobody does it like a tape worm. A day in their lives must be like living inside of a giant ham sandwich. Maybe someday we’ll be that lucky. I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you. Thank you to these heroes that shaped who so many of us are today. Where would we be without the Vinnies or the Alfs? No where good, I’ll tell you that right now. Adams is a third-year anthropology student.