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ft O m r\ r n || t “Ippt don’t really think it UrUiric.r Gil would be worth the money to keep Should USC consolidate the buying one every year.” pharmacy school with MUSC MATT SPARR in Charleston? first-year business student on why he vmw.dBHygamecock.com. offered0™ °NE YEARB°°K''USC Results published Friday. , f jr In.Our.Opinion Merger right for USC, state Over the past few months, USC President Andrew Sorensen has been faced with the difficult task of choosing between long-term growth and prosperity for the state and kowtowing to parochial interests in fighting to keep the pharmacy school in Columbia. While consolidating the program with the more research-oriented one in Charleston will displace students and faculty members, and ruffle some feathers along the way, he has ultimately made the best decision in keeping a long-term vision for Sorensen’s decision to back the pharmacy school merger shows dedication to improving the lives of all South Carolinians. x*___• „ J ouutil ^cu uima. This question probes at the very role of a university president — the promotion of his school — and while it might seem that he is trading away prestige for USC, he does so with the hope that a greater iuuuo uu uu v axiu i total tii vv m bring more jobs to the state, thus increasing the standard of living and swelling the tax rolls, ultimately resulting in better qualified in-state students attending USC. Furthermore, MUSC already has the research facilities in place that will allow it to attract businesses, something the research campus here will not be able to do effectively for five to 10 years. No decisions occur in a vacuum, and Sorensen’s underlines the fact that he understands that for the university to prosper, so must the rest of South Carolina. This is no small undertaking, considering that the state ranks last in many important educational and economic markers, but this vision to increase quality of life meshes nicely with Gov. Mark Sanford’s as well. It would be easy to dismiss the decision to support the move as political in nature, and while such calculations always figure in, these leaders are acting according to what they believe to be the best for South Carolina. Should the USC Board of Trustees approve the merger, it is essential the money saved goes back into the university’s general fund to be used to aid our own research efforts. Gamecock.Corrections If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. About.The.Gamecock Editor in Chief Adam Beam Copy Desk Chief Gabrielle Sinclair Design Director Shawn Rourk Asst. Design Director Staci Jordan 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 U/aa U/aI«a Asst. Sports Editor Jonathan Hillyard Photo Editor Morgan Ford Asst. Photo Editor Johnny Haynes Page Designers Erin Cline, Brad Senkiw, Mary Pinckney Waters, Chaz McCarthy Copy Editors Allyson Bird, Jennifer Freeman, Jessica Fostei Steven Van Haren, Joel Wallace Wire Editor Z’Anne Covell Online Editor James Tolbert Senior Writer Keyin 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 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, Burke Lauderdale Advertising Staff Robert Carli, Kate Femino, Latoya Hines Caroline Love, Jesica Johnson, David Weatherford Public Affairs Kimhprlv Drp«clpr The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of South Carolina. It is t published Monday. Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters and nine timesf 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 1400 Greene St. Columbia. S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 '.Classified: 777-1184 f Fax: 777-6482 ^ IRAQI V fsm K^t cmvws DURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Suing away our self-respect Is it just me, or have the American people gotten a lot wussier and more whiny in the last 300 years? We used to be a na tion of pioneers and minutemen. Bears? No problem; nothing my trusty musket can’t dispatch! Redcoats? Send ‘em back to King George with a good ol’ American butt kicking they won’t soon for get. Nowadays, just talking about killing a CURT|SCH0W bear will get cuRTISCHOW PETA up in Third-year ' economics arms, and am- student bushing the lobsterbacks is a diplomatic no no. What is our society coming to? Men have gone from Davy Crockett to “Boo-hoo, my estro gen hurts.” Women have gone from Dolly Pitcher to “I am wom an, hear me roar!” If you tell a man to cowboy up and be a man. you’re automati cally labeled as a chauvinist with subjective and biased views of what a man should be. I am not disputing that it is healthy for a man to be in touch with his feel ings. I would even endeavor to propose the ability to confront something as insubordinate and irrepressible as human emotion is a reflection of true masculine strength. Nevertheless, being true to one’s feelings is not permission to sit around being a whiny (however sincere) little girl. One facade of masculinity is being true to one’s self; another is tak ing action. From a young age, boys are now being taught that a real man is confident in his own strength and doesn’t need to fight to prove himself. This results in superficially confident boys (who have never tested and affirmed their strength) who are deeply insecure, and are furthermore unwilling to fight for what they believe in. It is no won der that grown men simply give up and move on when the initial novelty of a relationship wears off, or when they’ve gotten what they wanted out of a relationship. It’s not that men are selfish jerks (though we can be) as much as they simply don’t know how to be a man anymore. Now we come to the roaring women — women who have been damaged by men who don’t know how to be men. Women have gone from being affirmed in their fern ininity and confident in their self worth to vying for a place in soci ety to prove themselves; specifi cally to prove they are equal to men and thus have as much worth. The result is that women are motivated by ambition rather than the desires of their heart. They’ve gone from confident women of sincere action, to loud insecure fighters of inequality. The end result is a nation of whiny and dysfunctional people in desperate need of tort reform. No one is actually motivated to do anything out of sincere will ingness to get a task accom plished. Men are unwilling to take action, and women are fight ing for equality more than for the actual cause (creating an emotional breeding ground for being whiny). The solution? Let’s sue stuff! The United States is the most liti gious nation in the world today; men suing for damages that could have been handled out of court if both parties would have been willing to be true to them selves and confront each other, and women suing out of senti ments of inequality. Litigation is not the solution. People sim ply need to truly be confident and find rest in who they are. In.Your.upimon Newdow will not eliminate religion I am writing in response to Ryan Holt’s column on the Pledge of Allegiance case (“Majority supports Pledge in schools,” Monday). I ulti mately agree with him that Newdow has a long road ahead of him if he is going to try and stamp out any hint of religion in the public forum. Perhaps Newdow does not un derstand that he is waging a battle against an institution that has seen thousands of years of struggle and has yet to fall. The presence of Christianity, or any religion for that matter, is everywhere. Mr. Newdow will find he can not escape society’s allusion to deities. Mr. Newdow will be thrilled to learn that his daughter will encounter math and science in school. Here she will be faced with formulas and theo ries that allude to higher be ings. The number “phi” is a number that appears every where in nature. Its origins and occurrences are so fan tastic that it has been dubbed “the divine proportion.” In bi ology and psychology, his daughter will likely encounter study of the temporal lobe, dubbed “the God module” by scientists. In fact, Mr. Newdow’s daugh ter will not be able to turn a pa per in without dating it. The date alone is enough to allude to a higher power. We are cur rently in the year 2004 A.D. of the Gregorian calendar. “A.D.,” or “anno Domini,” is Latin for “the year of our Lord.” So even if Mr. Newdow’s case wins, it will be documented that he won in 2004 “of the year of our Lord.” Mull over that one over for a while. So I wish Mr. Newdow the best of luck in his endeavors. Why, as a Christian, would I wish him luck? Because I know my faith will not be shaken because a phrase is re moved from a pledge. And my children will be raised as Christians whether they in clude “under God” in the pledge when they are in school. So as they say, Mr. Newdow, you may win the bat tle, but you’ll lose the war. KATHERINE BALLARD THIRD-YEAR CRIMINAL JUSTICE Student Culbertson’s rant biased, pointless After reading Graham Culbertson’s column (“Campus construction a waste,” Monday), I feel that I have lost brain cells by subjecting my self to such completely point less ranting and raving. Besides the fact that Culbertson’s column had no main point, he also managed to attack an entire group of dedi cated students on this campus. His random and idiotic com ments about how there are no good Greeks on campus are com pletely biased and untrue. Greeks contribute to most of the leadership positions and honor societies here as well as raising tens of thousands of dol lars for the community every year through service projects. Culbertson’s statements were nothing more than the idiotic rants of a student who obvious ly has nothing better in his life to worry about than the actions of a group of people who are com pletely secure in who they are. More progress would be made if Culbertson used his writing tal ent to deal with real problems and solutions instead of just at tacking a group students based on their noticeable presence here. Instead of airing his own bit terness and insecurities about his stature on campus, Culbertson could write some thing interesting and thought provoking for a change. JULIE WALKER THIRD-YEAR PSYCHOLOGY 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@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. Students left out of merger discussion I’m often asked why I chose to come to USC, all the way from California. My joke is that I got the two USCs confused, but I really chose USC because I wanted a full college experience. I wanted football games, beauti ful old brick buildings, warm weather and friendly teachers. I needed a school that valued me for the contributions that I would make (and that would show its ap preciation for me by giving me scholarships). I also wanted a □ school where I could remain for all six years of my pharmacy education, as I didn’t want to make friends at one school, and then transfer for MCCLENDON pharmacy , degree program Fpharrmaff two years later. student I wanted a lot. But the neat thing is that I got all that and more. At USC’s College of Pharmacy, I have a professor who, while trav eling in California, visited my par ents to let them know what a good student I was. When my apartment uuuucu, cuiu i vyc*o uuuci a wi w stress, one of the associate deans took the time to make sure I was OK. Students in my class celebrate fellow students’ successes (mar riages, babies) and pull together during low points (such as the past few weeks). So why are we so upset? There are plans to merge USC’s and MUSC’s Colleges of Pharmacy into one. It may not sound too bad, and it may all work for the best, but it doesn’t appear that way. The prob lem is that the plan is still in its in fancy, and many have been left in the dark about the specifics of what will happen to pharmacy educa tion in South Carolina. There are too many questions remaining, but the USC Board of Trustees is ex pected to make a decision soon. The merger plans are based on a pharmacy consultant team’s re port, and the report focuses on building a great research institu tion and calls for the inclusion of distance education in the pharma cy program (For further informa tion about the merger and for the full report, check out www.pro tectpharmacy.org). I know I would never want a physician to earn his degree over the Internet, and I wouldn’t want my pharmacist to, either. If the merger goes through, and distance education becomes a reality, the landscape of USC could forever change. Future students will choose quality education over a focus on research and distance education, and will attend school elsewhere. If so, the entire university will suffer. Pharmacy students tend to hang together, but what you might not know is that pharmacy stu dents have contributed a lot to this university. We serve on the Senate, ( SG Executive Cabinet and University Committees. We’ve played music in the USC Marching Band and were USC cheerleaders. We are Resident Advisers in your dorm. We volunteer for Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, the Carolina/Clemson blood drive, Dance Marathon, Habitat for Humanity and Clean Carolina. The list could go on, and doesn’t even begin to include the accomplish ments of College of Pharmacy’s stu dent organizations. If the merger goes through, students of this high caliber will choose to go elsewhere, where their education is more impor tant than the all-mighty research dollar. And I won’t blame them, but I might blame Andrew Sorensen. Winners.and.Sinners SORENSEN Seeks to better the state, and USC, by consolidating pharmacy college with MUSC. HUNLEY FUNERAL Gives us a chance to use those hoop skirts in the back of our closet. COLIN POWELL New book paints Secretary of State as the only Bush cabinet official to foresee problems invading Iraq. ARIEL SHARON Israeli Prime Minister’s policy of assassinating alleged terrorists makes peace “ unlikely in the Middle East. GREENE STREET CARS Dinner time at the Russell House turns Greene Street into a parking lot. JOHN KERRY 30-year-old statements calling Vietnam actions an “atrocity” derail campaigning to win over Florida.