The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 17, 2004, Page 4, Image 4
ONLINE POLL
Should medical and law school^
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EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR
Adam Beam
DESIGN DIRECTOR
David Stagg
NEWS EDITOR
Michael LaForgia
THE MIX EDITOR
Meg Moore
COPY DESK CHIEF
Gabrielle Sinclair
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
SENIOR WRITER
Kevin Fellner
IN OUR OPINION
Benedict policy is
harmful to students
A Benedict College policy requires professors to make
60 percent of their students’ grades based on class partici
pation. The requirement drops to 50 percent for sopho
mores and is eliminated for juniors and seniors. Benedict
College officials say it gives disadvantaged students a
chance to succeed.
According to the Associated Press, “effort is defined by
individual faculty members and can include measures such
as attendance and completion of assignments.” We believe
this policy is flawed from the
Benedict’s policy start because it'allows profes
tO heavily weight sors to determine the defini
class participation tion of “effort.” There is no
leaves the door standard to hold students to,
open for so as a result it introduces the
favoritism, possibility of favoritism in the
classroom. It gives too much
power to the professors, who can decide how much effort
a student has exerted.
Already, two. professors have been fired from Benedict
because they refused to enforce the policy.
Benedict’s policy in effect gives students a free ride
through their first two years of college. When employers
know about this it might make a graduate from Benedict
take second place to a graduate from another school with
normal academic standards, in which a student’s perfor
mance is weighted more than his or her attendance.
If Benedict College expects to provide its students with
a quality education, it needs to do away with this ridicu
lous policy. This doesn’t prepare students for anything
except getting up on time. In the “real world,” success
isn’t measured on how many times you show up to work,
but the quality of work that you do. Benedict, obviously,
doesn’t believe that.
IT’S YOUR RIGHT
Exercise your right to voice your opinion.
Create message boards at
www.dailygamecock.com
or send letters to the editor to
gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
In Wednesday’s News, an article on the RHA should have read that
the’ RHA programming committee has already funded Groovin’
Carolina and proposed the idea of having a casino night.
The Gamecock regrets the error.
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
Adam Beam
DESIGN DIRECTOR
David Stagg
COPY DESK CHIEF
Gabrielle Sinclair
NEWS EDITOR
Michael LaForgia
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
THE MIX EDITOR
Meg Moore
SPORTS EDITOR
Jonathan Hillyard
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
Daniel Kerr
SENIOR WRITER
Kevin Fellner
PHOTO EDITOR
Jason Steelman
SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR
Katie Kirkland
PAGE DESIGNERS
Erin Cline, Jennifer
Logan, Chas McCarthy,
Jessica Ann Nielsen
COPY EDITORS
Jennifer Freeman,
Steven Van Haren,
Anna Huntley, Daniel
Regensheit, Jason
Reynolds, Jennifer
Sitowski, Joey Wallace
ONLINE EDITOR «
Brian Cope
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Jane Fielden, Katie
Miles
TO PLACE AN AD
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Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482
CONTACT INFORMATION
Offices on third floor of the Russell House.
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and Wednesday from 3-5 p.m.
Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu
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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
Patrick Bergen
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Dannelly, Kristen
Williams
ADVERTISING STAFF
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Stephens
-:-1
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
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Gamecock. The
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Gamecock is
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One free copy per
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purchased for $1 each
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Student Media.
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CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
Turns out, clinic isn’t that bad
■ A trip to the health
center was the last
thing I wanted to do
Although I am a senior and
manage to get sick about once per
week, there is one thing I have
never been willing to do.
I had the flu, couldn’t stand up
long enough to take a shower and
failed (gasp) to show up for Dr.
Greiner’s class for a week. He gave
me an extension on my paper, but
he didn’t understand why I didn’t
have a doctor’s note. As if I would
go to the Thomson Student Health
Center.
Unlike the Thomas Cooper
Library, with its insidious mold
and even more insidiously boring
books, the health center was not an
evil that I considered necessary.
Through the flu, food poisoning
from the GMP’s mystery meat
night, Thomas Cooperitis — a
combination of claustrophobia and
mold inhalation — and various
other college maladies, I remained
steadfast in my decision not to
enter the hallowed hall of birth
control medication and
mononucleosis wards, which sits
sinisterly behind the Russell
House.
Once, I even made an
appointment to have my sinus
infection looked at, but I decided to
tough it out without antibiotics. It
was worth it, if only to avoid
explaining to
them that,
sexually active
or no, I
honestly
wasn’t
pregnant
(though 1 still
. • can’t explain
GRAHAM my cravings
CULBERTSON for Plck)es and
ice cream, but
FOURTH-YEAR that’s a
ENGLISH
STUDENT separate'
column, if not
an epic poem).
You will,
gentle reader, imagine my surprise
when earlier this week I finally
abandoned my hope and entered
into the health center, which
contrasted with my wildest fears.
Once the staffers stopped being
surprised that there was a senior
who had never graced their
medical halls, they treated me
courteously and efficiently. My
nurse, their second line of defense,
was friendly, asked me few
uncomfortable questions, never
attempted to test me for pregnancy
or mono, and told me that fried
chicken and beer were both OK in
moderation. She also implied that I
was going to die of a heart attack,
it was just my choice of when. And
hey, I appreciate the honesty.
After the friendly nurse, whose
name I didn’t catch, ushered me
back into the waiting room, she
told me to wait for Dr. McKenzie.
She said I would like him, and I
did. What she didn’t mention was
that, unbeknownst to me (and
probably her), Dr. C.M. “Mike”
McKenzie went to USC with my
father back in the dark ages. Not
only does Dr. Mike get the annual
Culbertson Christmas newsletter,
he also treated me way back in the
day, circa 1989, for asthma
complications, which stemmed
from breathing in too much
Columbia air. Needless to say, my
doctor’s appointment was so good
that most of the talk was about
Carolina football, with ’70s "era
USC/Campus Crusade a close
second and diagnosis/prognosis
(I’m going to live) a distant third.
So thank you, Thomson Student
Health Center, even if you did lose
the record of my appointment.
Thank you for being free. Thank
you for not giving me the pill or
checking my estrogen levels.
Thank you for not testing me for
mono. Thank you, nameless nurse,
for reassuring me that my massive
coronary is coming but not too
soon. And most of all, a big thanks
to Dr. McKenzie, who is currently
attempting the Herculean task of
enjoying “Due Preparations for the
Plague” (prognosis: he’s not going
to make it). I think Thomson might
just be more fun than Thomas
Cooper, and I know that there are
fewer pathogens floating around its
halls.
IN YOUR OPINION
Students ignored
regarding parking
Here we go again, building at
USC (“USC rejects joint-use
baseball field,” Sept. 10). Is it not
enough that we built the Strom
Thurmond Center and the
Colonial Center, spending
millions 6f dollars and taking
away hundreds of possible parking
spaces when facilities were already
in existence and would have been
state-of-the-art with a little work?
Now must we build another
baseball stadium that will
eliminate even more parking?
Perhaps if tuition had not
doubled over the past five years,
and we did not have to fight one
another for the gravel lot parking
and a 20-minute walk to class, it
wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
Alas, we do. We do, however,
have this wonderful ji(J,UUU
NextBus system that is not any
help. By the time you find a
parking spot with your $40
parking sticker, you have to wait
10 minutes for a bus, and you still
walk into class late with your
professor absolutely thrilled that
yet again you have interrupted
their lecture time.
I love USC and wear my garnet
and black proudly. When I
graduate, I will be more than
happy to say, “Yes, I am a
Gamecock,” until the day I die.
But, when I get that phone call in
May (and I know that all other
graduates will too) to make a
donation to the university, I will
have to ask that caller a question.
If I make this donation, will it go
to Dr. Sorensen and his brilliant
wasting of money for insignificant
things, or will it go to the students
and their basic needs of parking
and tuition?
So I ask all of my fellow
Gamecocks one question: When
was the last time you saw Dr.
Sorensen parking in the gravel lot
at the Colonial Center and riding
the bus — or even better, at Bates
West and walking to work? Oh,
that’s right, you haven’t. He parks
in his reserved spot in front of his
office and thinks up more ways to
raise our tuition and cut our
parking spaces. For a school that
wants to gear itself toward
research, maybe our
administration should do some
research into student needs instead
of bank account growth.
JESSICA TILLINGHAST
Fifth-year marine science
student
Rebel flag important
to Southern heritage
Terence Washington (“Rebel
flag has no place at Carolina,”
Monday) is off base when he
condemns not only the university
but the entire state of South
Carolina for the displaying of the
Confederate flag at Friday’s
segment of College GameDay.
I am proud of the individual
who chose to honor not only those
who died for their state, but also
died in defense of USC. It is a fact
that'during the War Between the
States the entire university was
closed because of the enlistment of
every student at USC. Not only
does the battle flag represent the
banner under which many South
Carolinians died, but the banner
under which many USC students
died as well. Is Washington so
incensed at the sight of that flag as
to suggest that we prohibit the flag
from public display? Shall we
begin to amend or censor history,
simply because many of the
historical issues that are still
prevalent today are controversial?
Contrary to Washington’s
assertion that the family of the late
U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond
somehow objected to Essie Mae
Washington Williams’ name being
added to his monument at the State
House, the Thurmond family
publicly acknowledged Williams’
right to be included. This proved that
race relations, especially among the
First Families of South Carolina,
have improved. It is a shame that a
man who has done more for South
Carolinians, both black and white,
than anyone before him was so
vilified. The Confederate flag is a
benevolent symbol to a large portion
of South Carolinians and a large
portion of USC students. Therefore,
I see no problem in freely allowing
those students to display a symbol
that is historically relevant not only
to themselves, but to the university as
well.
JARRETT CALDER
Second-year political science
and philosophy student
i—---—i—ms—s—m—sas—" mmmm
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Campus
diversity
enhances
all of us i
■ You can respect the
opinions of others while
maintaining your beliefs
On Monday, I had the privilege of
participating in a forum sponsored by
the Brothers of Nubian Descent. The
topic was, of course, a controversial
one: same-sex
□ marriage.
Approximately
50 people
showed up, but
considering the
substantiality of
the issue, I think
there should
have been many
RYAN more.
HOLT i was joined
on the panel by a
POL.mCALEAR local a:ttorney>
SCIENCE the president of
STUDENT the Young
Democrats, a
gay activist ana
professor at USC, the secretary of a
local gay and lesbian association and a
professor from Columbia
International University’s seminary. I
represented the College Republicans.
The group of six was remarkably
diverse. The panelists ranged in age
from 19 to 50-something. Both black
and white were present. Heterosexual
and homosexual. Republican and
Democrat. Conservative and liberal.
On occasion, one or two of us had
similar views and at other times we
were on our own.
My point? Despite our differences, ^P
we got along quite well. We argued
civilly and afterward moved on to
other discussion or continued sharing
facts on important issues.
I say this all to champion the spirit
of diversity I have come to appreciate
since coming to USC. I was raised in
an environment where most people
had the same worldview I did, and it
wasn’t until coming to USC that I
encountered people of all kinds of
affiliations on a regular basis.
Do I always agree with these
newfound colleagues? Of course not.
There are times I don’t even respect
their viewpoints. But at the end of the
day, I always respect their right to say
their opinion and relish the fact that I
live in a country where I can choose to
agree or disagree.
oumc pcupic icci uiai uit
appreciation of diversity comes at the
cost of one’s own identity. I disagree. I
am far more open-minded today than I
have ever been, but ironically my
identity has only strengthened. Where
before 1 lived in an environment where
my views were supported with
agreement, now I must constantly
reassure the justification for these
opinions.
In an environment where diversity
of opinion prevails, you’ve got to back
your views up in order to withstand
the presentation of new ideas. This
simply strengthens your worldview
while bringing you into contact with
someone else’s.
My challenge to you is this: Savor
the diversity of our campus. Instead of
bristling when someone disagrees with
you, discuss the disagreement. Instead ^
of calling someone bigoted or
intolerant, find out why their view is as
important to them as yours is to you.
Instead of spending time only with
those who think like you, find the
person who contrasts with you the
most and engage them in
conversations of the day.
Perhaps my reasoning is selfish. I
want to debate people who have
strong beliefs on the issues of society. I
want these beliefs to be reinforced by
the realization that not everyone’s
going to agree with you, that you’re
not going to get a free ride in the
marketplace of ideas.
And so I hope that you, whether
this is your first year at USC or your
last, will grasp the diversity of campus
and enjoy it to its fullest. _
ONLINE POLL
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Yes 83%
No 17%
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