Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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V „ ( 10 Dnlinp Pnii “FalUngice. youknow, it’s not UMIIIIC.f going to kill you. That limb, that’s Should USC retire former gonna kiU you.” basketball player B.J. KEVIN CURTIS McKie’s number? arborist on the danger posed to students www.danygamecock.com. from tree branches that fall fro# , ■, Results published on Fridays. freezing conditions §m —. . In.Our.Gpinion 16-hour limit unacceptable If the university is serious about its academic reputation, it will set the full-time student threshold at 18 credit hours. Under budget constraints and decreasing support from the state, the decision to set a limit is understandable, and much better than a per-credit hour fee system. Students cannot hold the university responsible, if they sign up for extra classes and don’t drop them by the add/drop day, incurring the extra fee. But the new fee system USC enacted this ..... ... semester which charges extra USC’s new credit . ■ . hour system forpach credlt hour over 16’18 discriminates a poor response t0 the against students Problem of overloading. Who must take while designed to prevent more than 16 Students from holding classes hours a semester for others and to ensure that to graduate, the university is properly compensated tor tne classes students take, tne bracket system hurts students in many majors. Students whose majors require them to take more than 16 hours per semester to graduate in four years unduly bear the burden of this change. The most intensive academic programs on campus should not be penalized because their course of study requires more time in class. The current policy also runs counter to the stated aim of a university in fostering an academic environment where students are encouraged to explore their options in various fields of study. Students who decide to change their majors later in their career would face a stiff monetary penalty via the 16-hour threshold. Out-of-state students are severely impacted, as the fee for course loads above 16 hours is significantly higher when compared with the additional fee in-state students face. USC cannot put short-term financial interests above the academic success of its students. The full-time-student threshold must be changed to 18 credit hours if the university wishes to both draw quality students and keep its current ones. Gamecock.Corrections If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. About. fhe.Gamecock Editor in Chief Adam Beam Copy Desk Chief Gabrielle Sinclair Design Director Shawn Rourk News Editor Michael LaForgia Asst. News Editor Alexis Stratton Viewpoints Editor Patrick Augustine The Mix Editor Meg Moore Sports Editor Wes Wolfe Asst. Sports Editor Jonathan Hillyard Photo Editor Morgan Ford Asst. Photo Editor Johnny Haynes Page Designers Erin Cline, Staci Jordan, Brian Ray, Brad Senkiw, Mary Waters Copy Editors Allyson Bird. Jennifer Freeman, Jessica Foster, Steven Van Haren Wire Editor Z’Anne Coveil Online Editor James Tolbert Public Affairs Kimberly Dressier Senior Writer Kevin Fellner CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu News: gamecpcknews@gwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu The Mix: gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports@.gwm.sc.edu Public Affairs: gamecockpr@yahoo.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, Trenholm Ninestein Advertising Staff Adam Bourgoin, Latoya Hines, Jesica Johnson. Caroline Love, Ben Sinclair 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 Studei 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 Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482 'THE CONSEaU£A/C£S OFS^If^ei L-A^LY -*v—V y-vv OF lOtfi/a TO CLASS l :_ CARTOON BY MARK PINCKNEY WATERS/THE GAMECOCK Don’t just eat cute animals So I realized the other day that for the past several months, no one has written a rant on why you shouldn’t eat meat. It’s al ways been a recursive theme in the Viewpoints section; usually written by someone with a strong moral conviction to rid the world of an imal suffering and improve the health of the general stu dent populace. Being slightly dis SS2.5 <r'SCH0,' this leitmotif ™,Sf'r of article writ- science student ing, I’ve decid ed to take the burden upon myself to write it. Well, I’ve never been the ani mal 1 ights expert, so I decided to do some research. As I pe rused the Web for resources, I found one common theme: Slaughterhouses are concentra tion camps for animals. As I read on and viewed the pictures, I became more and more dis gusted. I knew the Nazis were bad news, but I never knew they would mass package and eat their victims. Upon conducting further research, I found that they didn’t and the concentration camp analogy was just another means to shamelessly exploit a historical instance of the suffer ing of mankind to invoke irra tional pathos for an unrelated cause. Well, at this point 1 got tired of researching and decided to just write the article and fill in what I don’t know with stuff I made up. I ran into a dilemma insofar as producing a convincing ex pository article on why you shouldn’t eat animals — ani mals’ taste :-) (for lack of a bet ter term). It’s a scientifically proven fact that I like eating an imals much more than vegeta bles or meat substitutes. Scouring my brain, I could only come up with one com pelling reason for you not to eat meat. If everyone stops eating meat then the demand for it will drop, thereby decreasing prices. This means I can eat more ani mals for less money. I trust you will all do the right thing and stop eating meat immediately. If you are going to eat meat anyway, I implore you to at least be an equal opportunity animal eater. It’s common knowledge that cute animals (i.e. mutton, duck, and veal) taste better than ugly ones. However in this day and age, we need to be more conscien tious about who and what we eat. Ugly animals have just as much right to be eaten as cute ones. Being overtly biased toward cute and cuddly creatures for con sumption could lead to self-es teem issues for ugly animals. I’m not going to try to con vince you not to eat animals. Members of the “Anti-meat Gestapo” always cite outrageous statistics on grain consumption to produced meat ratios. So what? Animal feed is not typi cally human consumption grade grain. In any case, it still doesn’t negate the fact that animals are delicious. I personally didn’t spend the past 7 million years evolving my way to the top of the food chain to just eat vegetables. Evolving is hard work, and when steak and lamb chops get off their lazy butts and get around to develop ing opposable thumbs and TV, maybe we’ll talk then. But until they do, watch out cows, deer, chicken, sheep and orangutans—you’re all still on the menu. In.Your.Opinion Culbertson’s views devoid of research This letter is to Graham Culbertson and many others sharing his opinion. I must readily agree that in the “contemporary” or “mod ern” Christian movement, a certain amount of healthy cyn icism may be well founded. I cannot in any way con done the blind acceptance of some arbitrary religious dog ma for the sole purpose of sta tus elevation. This grotesque imitation of Christianity is highly preva lent, especially within the The Gamecock is now online five days a week. USC news, sports and opinions are all just a click away. Monday through Friday www.dailygame cock.com “Bible Belt” where an affilia tion to some form of Protestantism defines the sta tus quo. Any religious participant who seeks glamour from a mild association with a partic ular denomination has traded the contents of his soul for fleeting popularity, thereby rendering himself a shell of a person. To be sure, anyone so pre sumptuous as to seek the ben efits without pledging to the commitment is indeed a hol low person, completely void of all merit. I’m afraid that Mr. Culbertson falls into this broadly defined, aforemen tioned category. He seeks to dazzle you with qualitative information on campus ministries when in fact he fails to ascertain the truth in the matter. These two-sentence descrip tions of each campus ministry prove Culbertson’s libelous na ture, as he readily admits to not having gone to any of these or ganizations. To quote Montaigne, “I wish everyone would write about what he knows.” If nothing else, this response is a plea to end irresponsible journalism as well as hippie ig norance. BEN COCHRAN THIRD-YEAR REAL ESTATE STUDENT Remember to fill out the Best of USC Survey. Drop boxes located around campus, or e-mail your choices to gamecockpr@ gwm.sc.edu. Entries due by noon on Friday, March 5. Results will be published Wednesday, March 24. 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@gwm.sc.edu. Letters will be edited for space, possible libel and style. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777 7726 for more information. Edwards can beat George W.Bush r V Now, after his early strong showings, Edwards is more than ever the best choice for Democrats this year, especially for S.C. Democrats who vote in South Carolina’s first-in-the-South Democratic primary on Feb. 3. Even before you consider the is sues, you have to ask whether the candidate’s electable. Edwards is the only candidate that can not only match President Bush on Iraq, terrorism, the economy, ed ucation and health care, but can also beat Bush in the South. Every Democrat that has been elected president ha wrc wni ff won at leasp WES WOLFE ^ southern Fubiic'year states’ and relations Edwards can do student exactly that. He beat an incum bent Republican for his U.S. Senate seat in 1998. Former Gen. Wesley Clark, the only other Southerner in the race, hasn’t es pecially shown an ability to keep his campaign on track after falling badly in New Hampshire. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont could easily be painted with the “Northeastern liberal” brush by the Republicans and be come a redux of other failed Democratic presidential cam paigns, forfeiting the South and r the election. Also, Edwards is a man who knows of the possibilities of America and what can happen when you work hard. As the son of a textile mill worker, he grew up in a working-class family and knows how important a good edu cation is to advancing in America. Edwards is campaigning on a plan that states that there are two Americas, one for the rich and one for everyone else. This dichotomy, especially in education, cannot be more obvious here in South Carolina. In the Palmetto State, we have majority white and wealthy suburban school districts with new textbooks, nice facilities and ample technological resources. f On the other end are low-iiv come majority black rural areas' with fewer advanced placement classes and older textbooks, dete riorating facilities and obsolete computers. This disparity was chronicled in The State several years ago and is still a problem now. Edwards has a plan to deal with the chasm between the haves and have-nots. Initially, he intends to fix and fully-fund the No Child Left Behind program, offer scholar ships for teachers who will agree to teach in troubled school^ and give low-income but otherwise qualified students a chance with the College for Everyone program. College for Everyone works b ^ offering one year of free tuition tN any public college or university in return for being academically qualified and working 10 hours a week in a business or community service organization. Edwards proposes the College for Everyone program and sug gests higher Pell grants because he knows what a college degree means. He went from a working class family in Robbins, N.C., to helping provide a comfortable liv ing for his family because he got the opportunity to be the first in his family to go to college, and he wants to give that opportunity to every American. John Edwards is a man who can deliver on education, win in the South, beat Bush in November and deliver on the issues that mat-^ ter the most to South Carolinian t and the rest of the nation. Winners.and.Sinners MOTHER NATURE Gives us a day and a half off while looking like ‘When Trees Attack II.’ j DICK CHENEY Comes out of hidden bunker to make up with continental Europe. P-DIDDY Makes up for rap career by running in NYC marathon, appearing in play ‘A Rasin use ADMINISTRATION Only USC students, state workers had to brave the elements on Tuesday. IRAQ WAR CIA now says it never had evidence of weapons programs. FEDERAL DEFICIT Last we checked, the president and majority party were both Republican, right?