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' t ' \ ' ■ . ' . ,. • 4 Dnlinp Pnll “The money received from peo Wl Mil 1C. run ‘ pie paying their parking tickets Did you vote in this week’s could be used to solve the prob Democratic presidential pri- '.1 lem with a new parking lot.” mary?, ‘ ' PAUL WILKES www.dailygamecock.com. second year sports and entertainment Results published on Fridays. management student on ways toUBe ^Ssl PARKING FRUSTRATIONS AROUND THEJpROM Jf _ ' In.Our.Opinion . Day of class doesn’t hurt wnne many students wno live out oi town mignt De inconvenienced by a rush back to campus after Easter, there is no logical reason for students to get the following Monday off. America has deep roots in the Christian tradition, and school and governmental calendars have historically recognized certain religious holidays; but the movement in recent years has been to avoid religious expression in public life by lumping several religious holidays into a “Winter Break.” These changes mirror the shift in American Ending the Publ*c life- Secularism is recognition of becomingthe new sacred certain religion’s ideol°gy>t0 tbe detriment of holidays is the best positives religion can bring Course Of action on to society?Yet ending the the part Of public recognition of certain officials, religion’s holidays is the i__i_ .r _ __ii. __i _ r*_1.11 . _ m _ i _ i _ UCo L UUUI 3C CUsLlUll Ull L11C pal L U1 pUUilL UJ_LJ.lslCU.O. In a tolerant, discursive society, holidays of all faiths would be given equal consideration. But the cold reality of the situation is that this approach would leave a calendar with very few working days. Simple economics shouldn’t be advocated above the expression of belief, but since all holidays can’t be celebrated, those of a particular religion Shouldn’t receive special recognition. USC should never make students who follow certain beliefs feel unwelcome simply by recognizing holidays that are celebrated by a majority of citizens. The argument that students should get the Monday after Easter, or the Friday before, off holds no logical merit in a public university, despite any popularity among some students regarding inconvenience. If this policy were pursued by USC’s administration, there would be no reason not to extend any other holiday, like spring break, by a few days to allow students to return to campus at their leisure. Instead of implicitly recognizing religious holidays, USC must ensure that holidays serve a greater public purpose. Because of this, we support USC’s decision to have class the day after Easter. SOUND OFF Create message boards at www.dallygamecock.com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu Gamecock.Corrections • If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. AboutThe.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 Asst. Mix Editor Jennifer Sitowski 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 Pinckney Waters Copy Editors Allyson Bird. Jennifer Freeman, Jessica Fostei Steven Van Haren Wire Editor Z'Anne Coveil Online Editor James Tolbert Senior Writer Kevin Fellner CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu News: gamecocknews@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 dlUUtlVI IVltLMA IIICUaiMBMfcMSUie editorially independent Director student newspaper of Scott Lindenberg the University of Sopth 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 exception of university Carolyn Griffin holidays and exam 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 Amber justice 's the pub',sber of The Gamecock. The Department of-Student ^g Creative Services Media is the jjl Whitney Bridges, newspaper’s parent mim Robbie Burkett organization. The MB Gamecock is mm Advertising Staff supported in part by |gf Adam Bourgoin, student-activity fees, fg Latoya Hines. Jesica 0ne'ree“pyper, ■ Johnson. Caroline reader. Additional m. Love copies may be purchased for $1 each Public Affairs from the Department Kimberly Dressier 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 Bush a soldier of misfortunes Don t start something you can’t finish.” While you and I might have heard this expression in learning about life when we were young, it is becoming in creasingly apparent that maybe President Bush had a dif ferent teacher. I generally take talk of the president’s sil ver spoon childhood and legacy career with a grain of JUSTIN salt, but in one SIMMONS aspect it is be- Third-year coming in- political ° science student escapable. The president nev er saw combat. This wouldn’t normally pose such an insurmountable obstacle. Of the presidents since 1968, only George H.W. Bush ever saw com bat in a war. The last few decades have seen an increase in the im portance of domestic affairs espe cially since the end of the Cold War. This shift in emphasis has brought several able administra tors, if not soldiers, to the nation’s highest office. Men such as Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, to be bipartisan in example, have specialized in communicating their agendas rather than inspiring awe for their heroism. Maybe this was appropriate for the era immedi ately following Vietnam, when the country was recovering, and high-profile military heroes were in short supply. While these men were short on military experi ence, they were able to mitigate this weakness by not claiming to be the next Dwight Eisenhower. Bush, however, is another sto ry. With unparalleled audacity, Bush landed on an aircraft carri er to officially proclaim an end to the war in Iraq. While I must ad mit this looked pretty cool, it calls attention to the glaring weakness I mentioned earlier. This might not have been a problem if Howard Dean was the opponent for Bush in the upcom ing election, but instead it’s look ing like it will be John Kerry. Kerry has already made a living during his campaign bringing the president’s lack of military experience to light. The compar ison is not flattering for Bush, a former member of the Air National Guard, versus Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran. Fending off the Vietcong in the outskirts of Dallas is looking less and less impressive. However, there is a bright side, it is only one issue, and as I mentioned before, Bush has been able to define the debate in al most every policy area since tak ing office. Since the passage of Bush’s Medicare bill, his appar ent goal in life has been to anger and or alienate as much of his base as possible. Not a sound strategy for someone as unpopu lar with both the opposing party and many moderates. From immigration to high spending and huge deficits, Bush is turning into a fiscal liberal, mi nus the warm-fuzzy feeling. At least liberals raise taxes to fund their excess spending, and they’re generally open about wanting to take the upper class’s money. It’s always easier to deal with an opponent whose agenda you know than a friend’s whose agenda remains a mystery. After all this, you might think I plan to vote Democrat. Well, not exactly. As frustrating as it can be sometimes, there is something to be said for party loyalty. Will Bush win in November? Had you asked me that question six months ago, I would have laughed. Now, it’s hard to say. Win or lose, there is one thing you can say for ole Dubya. He’s done an excellent job of turning a romping into a horse race. In Your Opinion No reason to make primary a holiday USC is correct in not giving a day off for the Democratic primary. Why should classes be missed for an election of the minority party in the state of South Carolina? It would be kind of like canceling classes for Thai New Years (Songkran) just because a few students at USC are Thai. The Democratic primary is also very exclusionary because it is only open to Democrats. Voters must sign a pledge that they are Democrats before they will be allowed to vote. So for those few hardcore Democrats, they can simply ob tain an absentee ballot if they wish to vote. JUSTIN TYE FOURTH-YEAR CIVIL ENOIXEERIXO STUDENT. \ Editorial ignores non-S.C. residents I have recently read your staff editorial, “Give students day off to vote.” I am appalled by it to say the least. The article claims, “USC should always give students the opportunity to vote, even if it means canceling classes.” Maybe if the editorial board did a little more research he would’ve found that many stu dents are also not concerned with a voting day off. Only one opinion is ex pressed. Shouldn't The Gamecock express the views of more than one group of people, i.e. S.C. residents? I, for one, could not care less whether or not I have S.C. pri mary voting day off. It's not like I get North Carolina’s primary voting day off. Until the university feels like recognizing all voting hol idays for every state represent ed by USC students, one partic ular group should not be fa vored over another. By allowing a day off school for S.C. voting, USC is more or less saying that S.C. voting is more important than educat ing one's mind about broader subjects. I beg to differ. S.C.’s voting day means ab solutely nothing to me, and I re sent the suggestion that I spend all this money on tuition only . to be denied my right to learn on account of a voting day I can not participate in. So before you guys decide to print the so-called view of USC students, why don’t you try and collect some more facts? WILLIAM BERRY FIRST-YEAR HISTORY ST1RKNT Parking should be guaranteed in fees I drove in heavy Columbia traffic yesterday evening to at tend my 5:30 p.m. accounting class at the Coliseum. After driv ing around, trying to find a place to park at the meters on Assembly Street, I went down to the student parking area behind the Coliseum. To my chagrin, there were parking attendants turning stu dents away if they did not have $5 to park in the parking lot that had been reserved for an event. Being an out-of-state, paying student, I was outraged that the university would make me pay additionally to go to class! Wasn't this already covered in tuition and fees? I don't know if I am the only one who feels that this is a dis service to the students at USC, but I feel that this needs atten tion. It is not OK to charge the students for something they should be entitled to. MEGAN WALDREP H’OURTII-YKAH HKTAII, MAXAIIKMKNT STlfbKNT. www.dailygamecock.com Updated news, sports and opinion 5 days a week. 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. Value of diploma must be increased . There's an idea I've been float- ™ ing to friends around campus. It is essentially a theory, as well as a hope I feel has potential at USC. Despite the fun students can have during the four or five years of college, we're all anticipating that diploma at the end of our tenure. For this reason, it would seem that all of us would want our university to carry the greatest amount of academic clout it can. How does our school gain this □ tiuui: oumc programs with in the universi ty already hold this pull —our international business and engineering ~ RYAN HOLT Programs, for , instance. But fr the other science student departments of our university, it seems that an admissions reevaluation is necessary. The average combined SAT score for Gamecocks is approxi mately 1124. The average score for Clemson is a comfortable 1204. What does this do to the academic rankings? U.S. News & World Report places us at close to 55 when it comes to the top public schools in the country. Clemson rests at 35. The reasons for contrast are clear. Despite the fact that both USC and Clemson are state uni versities and despite the spread of offered degree programs, an mt academic crevasse separates the ™ institutions and the correlation can be found in admissions stan dards. I don't see why we can't raise our admission standards to those of Clemson..Some might just tell me to buzz off and put in my transfer application instead of griping. But I just don’t think someone should have to gradu ate from the Honors College to show they achieved the rigors of academia. From discussions I've had with other students I know throughout the country, the ba sics of many mainline universi ties are the same. The professors are, by and large, just as quali fied, the classes are just as hard and the grading seems to be the same. Therefore, the national rat ings appear to be based primarily on admissions. Mv sr.hnnlmatPQ whn riiri nnt receive more than a 1200 on their SAT might complain that had these standards been instituted when they applied, they would not be at USC today. Personally, I was rejected by my dream schools, likely because of my less-than-appreciated SAT score. But I didn't have the option of branch schools. The branch school system at USC allows for students who don't meet admission require ments to have a chance at gain ing the convenience of a USC bachelor's degree. Two- and four year branch schools throughout the state offer classes similar to those at the main campus and provide the resources to transfer to Columbia after one or two years. This way, USC-Columbia keeps its high ranking, and stu dents who didn't perform well in high school still have the option of receiving a degree from a now prestigious university. President Sorensen has im plemented a similar plan as he tries to bring our school into the top 50 of public universities. I stand fully behind him as he makes this valiant effort and hope for its speedy implementa tion. A Online.Poll Should USC students get the Monday after Easter off? Yes 77% “Yes, we should have it off because it was printed like that in the Mortar Board.” RONDA BADWAN FIRST-YEAR PHARMACY STUDENT No 12% “No, but people who observe that holiday should get permission to be off.” TYLER EL' S THIRD YEAR EXERCISE SCIENCE STUDENT Why didn’t we get the second ice day off? 11% They started school back and a lot of students still didn’t have power.” EARNEL1 MCGHANEY FOURTH-YEAR PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT RESULTS FROM WWW.DAILYGAMECOCK.COM