The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 28, 2005, Page 4, Image 4
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ONLINE POLL
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TH#S&AMECOCK
EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR ASST. VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Michael LaForgia Patrick Augustine
NEWS EDITOR SPORTS EDITOR
Jon Turner Jonathan Hillyard
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR DESIGN DIRECTOR
Wes Wolfe Chas McCarthy
THE MIX EDITOR COPY DESK CHIEF
Jennifer Freeman Steven Van Haren
IN OUR OPINION
USC must address
equal gender pay
Since the 1980s, USC has been careful to encourage the
hiring and promotion of women in an effort to undo years of
gender discrimination in higher education, and while statistics
indicate progress toward equality, pay discrepancies between
the sexes mean the university must immediately go out of its
way to assure its female employees that they have the same
opportunity as their male counterparts.
The debate about gender and its role in the politics of the uni
versity environment was reignited recently when Harvard
University President Lawrence
Summers asked if the lack of
women faculty members in the
fields of math and the sciences
could be attributed to genetic dif
ferences between sexes. Freedom
of speech and political correctness concerns aside, Summers' speech
underlined the problem that all universities have of attracting wom
en to traditionally male-dominated academic fields.
Short of encouraging women and minorities to pursue doc
torates in these fields, change will be slow in coming, and
even a concerted effort to give incentives will bear fruit only
10 to 20 years cjown the road as former students become
established in departments across the country. Universities
cannot be expected to immediately correct the disparities in
numbers, but they must correct imbalances in pay between
men and women immediately.
Affirmative action was successful, but it had the unintended
consequence of casting doubt upon the qualifications of the
candidates who came through the system. Similarly, women
must not be hired on the basis of a quota system, but instead
the university should be encouraged to look at equally quali
fied female candidates.
USC cannot be expected to correct a long-term problem
like gender inequality overnight, but by taking steps to ensure
women have as much of a shot at jobs as men, the university
can send a signal to the culture that discrimination will not be
passively accepted but actively resisted.
Short of encouraging
women to pursue
doctorates in these
fields, change will be
slow in coming.
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
If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at
gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu.
ABOUT THE GAMECOCK
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Michael LaForgia CONTACT INFORMATION
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copy .desk chief Editor: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu
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news editor Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu
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Sports: gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu
ASST, news editor Public Affairs: gamecockPR@yahoo.com
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viewpoints editor Newsroom-. 777-7726; Sports: 777-7182
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the mix editor STUDENT MEDIA The Gamecock is the
Jennifer Freeman editorially independent
asst, the mix editor director student newspaper of
Cauie Givens Scott Lindenberg the university of South
sports editor faculty adviser Carolina. It is
Jonathan Hillyard Erik Collins published Monday,
.0<vr c„lxrt0 Wednesday and Friday
creative director during the fall and
Stephen Fastenau Susan King sprjng semesters and
SENIOR WRITER business manager nine times during the
Kevin Fellner Carolyn Griffin summer, with the
photo editor exception of university
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SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR Scarborou8h periods. Opinions
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pacf designers Sherry F. Holmes Gamecock are those of
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___ Student Media.
Back off, man, I’m a journalist
■ If our paper’s so bad,
why do you read it so
cotton-pickin’ closely?
To be honest, our little newspaper
can blow a lot of ass.
Just last week, the front-page teaser
for Curtis Chow's column featured
Mahmoud Abbas' mustachioed,
smiling mug shot. I've seen "assasinate"
and "solitician" in headlines, the latter
at the top of the front page. I've seen
columns and stories end mid-sentence,
stories jump to the wrong pages and a
slew of misnomers and misspellings. A
year ago, we corrected a correction.
Oops.
But jeez, The Gamecock's
detractors are vicious. Their insults go
beyond these technicalities, aiming
right at the jugular — our "journalistic
integrity."
I can't make excuses for "assasinate."
If this were the New York Times, the
entire copy desk could have heen fired
for that gaffe. Those mistakes lower a
paper's credibility, so now’s the time to
make amends.
I'd like to apologize on behalf of
The Gamecock staff for screwing up
about five words per issue, with a paid
staff of about 25 people, most of whom
work seven-hour shifts for less than 50
cents an hour.
I'm sorry to all the girls who wanted
to get peeped on in the Blatt, all the
guys who wanted their bikes stolen and
all the sick people who didn't want to
know how to get flu vaccine. I'm sorry
I 1 about that
comma splice,
archduke. If it
made you choke
on your tea in a
blind rage, give
me my due
punishment.
- - People don't
know what bad
w^|g writing is until
LI AD CM they've worked
HARcN at a college
THIRD-YEAR PaPer- We have
MECHANICAL to puree this
ENGINEERING J ,
STUDENT stuff through a
rigorous
journalistic
juicer. Section
editor passes to copy editor passes to
me passes to editor, and despite many
stories' refined beauty, I still see the
ass-end of some ugly mothers.
Imagine the most fluffy, awkwardly
worded, alphabet-soup gibberish ever.
Then get the dumbest chimp in the
dirtiest zoo in the world to translate it.
Readers never see that side of a story,
but from the hate mail we get
sometimes, you’d think we were just
dumbly clicking Spellcheck. We
actually click Spellcheck with a pinch
of dash and daring.
Things get busy during production,
and we sometimes have time only to
take a story from third-grade crayon
scribblings to, say, Dr. Seuss, whose
penchant for brevity would've made
him AP president.
For every bad writer, we have 10
good ones. Great ones. They write
stories that would shame the AP. If you
want true incompetence, you're
barking up the wrong newspaper —
The Clemson Tiger is a weekly exercise
in shoddy pulp. When I first saw a
copy, I spontaneously wept.
Admittedly, we are a ghetto,
shoestring newspaper. Let the Times,
the Post and the Enquirer have stock
market listings and miles of fashion
garbage. We cover USC.
The Times, like most newspapers,
has a little corrections box in every
issue. We all screw up — it's just that
when we, do it, a million college
hipsters get more whining fodder.
Misspelling? Embarrassing, but it's
not a cardinal sin. In this age of horrible
writing, Spellcheck has become the
panacea of the unwashed. It's a good
line of defense, but human error still
creeps in.
Incompetence? Show me where.
Please point.
Bias? Lots of morons equate our
editorials and columns with our news
stories. Here's an ironclad promise from
me: If you ever find editorializing in a
Gamecock news story, I'll dance the
hoochie-koo with a bow on my head.
In case you were wondering, in the
real world, "lack of journalistic
integrity" equals lying, misquoting,
fudging, distorting or fabricating hard
news.
This just in: Nitpicking detractors
can kiss my ass until you get a real
complaint.
IN YOUR OPINION
All thieves must pay
for criminal actions
After reading last Friday's issue of
The Gamecock, I was actually quite
mad about our six USC thieves, I
mean football players', actions after
the Clemson game. Upon reading
Monday's paper, I became livid.
First of all, I think it's crap that all
six players weren't charged with grand
larceny. They acted together and
should be charged equally. I also agree
with The Gamecock staff in wanting
the aforementioned criminals kicked
off the team. They bit the hand that
fed them and they expected to get
away with it. I can't steal from my
college, get a slap on the wrist and
continue to have my education paid in
full, and neither should they. They
should have to go home and tell their
parents that they blew a free college
education because they wanted to act
like hoodlums.
The Gamecock said Monday that
Woodly Telfort had already
completed pre-trial intervention in
Florida for grand-theft auto, thus
making him ineligible to participate in
a similar intervention for his crimes at
Williams-Brice.
This is preposterous. The fact that
any of the players should be given a
chance to have this incident erased
from their record is absurd. They've
already been cut enough slack in the
matter. The athletics department has
known about the incident since
November and is only now giving out
''punishments.'' If I or any other plain
Jane, Tom, Dick or Harry committed
these crimes, we would've been
arrested immediately and charged
accordingly.
I will be totally disappointed if I
have to cheer for any of these so-called
football players next season. It sickens
me to think there is so much money
going down the hole in cases like this.
Give me a full ride. I spend
probably twice as much time at 300
Main St. studying than they do
practicing. The sports industry is
becoming entirely too corrupt. We
should bring back the Roman days of
the Coliseum and gladiators. I
wouldn't mind paying $50 to see a
good game of thieves vs. lions.
BRIAN MILBOURNE
Third-year mechanical
engineering student
Qualified women
seek jobs elsewhere
The problem with the gender
imbalance among our faculty is hot
because of a lack of information
about new job positions ("Statistics
show gender imbalance among
faculty," Wednesday). There just are
not enough qualified women to fill
the open slots. Since USC is not the
only college that is trying to branch
out to minority groups, there is a
strong competition among
universities to fill open areas with the
few qualified persons available. This
also makes it harder to compete with
more prestigious universities or other
universities that offer higher salaries.
There are no statistics actually
showing how many women
compared to men apply for these
jobs and how many are selected. To
be able to thoroughly say that
women are not given the same
opportunity is illegitimate because
there are no ratios for how many
women actually apply. Statistical
evidence showing that women
among our faculty have increased is a
great step toward improvement.
LAUREN JOYCE
Third-year marketing and
management student
Players’ mistakes
warrant a do-over
As pointed out in The Gamecock,
the USC football team is once again
the center of controversy ("Newton,
others have no place on team,"
Monday). While I do not condone
the actions of certain players, I would
like to point out that only one side of
the story has been told. According to a
message board post on
gamecocksportscenter.com, former
player Ryan Brewer acknowledged the
fact that the pictures taken from the
athletics department were not of any
type of historical background. New
pictures are put up each year, and at the
end of the season, players are allowed to
take the old ones or they are thrown
away. Therefore, by Newton, Pinkins,
Saint-Preux and Wilson not being
charged with a felony, my assumption
would be that they did not steal
anything of major value (i.e. laptops or
video equipment). Therefore, to my
knowledge, the only other things
reported missing were the pictures from
the athletics department office. Now,
based upon that feet, it is possible to
think that the only reason those pictures
were reported stolen was because of the
missing laptops and video equipment.
Had the laptops and video equipment
never gone missing, would anyone have
said anything about those pictures?
Furthermore, how are players supposed
to know that this year was any different
from last? If these pictures are given
away every other year, why would
anyone care now? These are questions
that I don't know the answer to, but
USC students need to understand that
there are always two sides to each story.
While the actions of certain players
might prove to be wrong, don't be too
quick to convict. Everyone deserves a
fair trial, especially student-athletes that
devote as much time as they do to USC.
ROLAND TROUT
Third-year sport and
entertainment management
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. Anonymous letters will not
be published. Call the newsroom at 777
7726 for more information.
SG needs
fresh ideas
| for election
gimmicks
m Candidates can’t lose
using free food as tool
to attract college crowd
Want to have your fortune told? Has
the drop in temperature and high wind
chill made your lips so chapped that it is
unbearable? Does your breath need a little
freshening? Do
you have an exam
in your next class
and your pen just
ran out of ink?
Well, it seems
that the Student
Government
office has a
solution to all of
ANNA these problems —
FOX this past week
they offered
fortune cookies,
SCIENCE Chap Stick, mints
STUDENT /
and pens to USC
students. The
kick is that
printed in every fortune cookie is a
reminder that SG elections are being held
in about two weeks, on Feb. 14 and 15.
Printed on every Chap Stick and pen is the
same message, and yup — you guessed it
— the reminder is also on the silver
packaging of the mints.
FYI: Student Senate recently passed a
piece of legislation calling for greater
student involvement in elections. One of
the statements contained in the legislation
reads, "Whereas, in the most recent election
(2004) only 10 percent of the student body
voted, and whereas, this lack of
participation is cause for concern ..."
This more than likely served as the basis
for the rash spending. However, these
promotion prizes were being given out in
the SG office. This is my thing, though —
who goes into to the SG office? Those
people who are in SG, those people who are
officers of organizations who have business
in the office and people generally aware of
when SG elections are and likely voted in
the last election. So, then I ask, what is the
purpose of this "liberal" spending?
University funds are being spent promoting
an event to people that are already well
aware of when said event is going to take
place.
Let me add a little fuel to the fire. This
past week we also had the kickoff for Clean
Carolina, which was held on Greene Street,
during high-traffic times. There was free
food, free T-shirts, free drinks, etc. No
doubt these items were donated to the
event or given at a reduced price (this is my
guess). A great promotional idea, it drew
attention. People who are not involved in
student organizations were exposed to what
Clean Carolina is and how to get involved.
’There is no better way to draw in a college
crowd than to offer free food.
In my opinion, there is a better way to
promote the upcoming SG elections. First
of all, candidates will do a lot of promoting
for themselves — by Tuesday, Greene
Street and students alike will be littered
with fliers, stickers, signs and T-shirts.
Secondly, why not get the local vendors to
come and do pre-election events? I know
that as pan of multiple student
organizations, I have solicited pizza, sodas,
wings, cookies, cake and koozies in order to
promote events, raise money and raise
awareness. Combined, our student body is
about 27,000 people. That adds up to an
immense amount of buying power,
volunteer hours and word of mouth
influence. What store owner would pass up
an opportunity to get 27,000 people to
know about their product? Let our
Executive Council and senators take a few
minutes to do some election promotion on
Greene Street. We are all students here, we
want to be educated — just tell us what to
do and how to do it. It seemed to work in
the past presidential election — we had the
most people vote, ever, in any election in
America’s history.
P. Diddy said, "Vote or Die" — I am
not sure we have to go to that extreme —
but why waste university money during
budget cutbacks to promote a system that
does not work? If you want things to
change, you are going to have to work to
change the system — think outside the
box.
ONLINE POLL
Should Syvelle Newton be kicked
off the football team?
Yes 74%
No 26%
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