The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 14, 2005, Page 9, Image 9
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Monday, March 14,2005 | I J V V I \ / .1 I K y www.dailygamecock.com.
7 -■— f T w ~ ^ 1 Results posted Friday.
TH] AMECOCK
EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR
, Michael LaForgia
NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
THE MIX EDITOR
Jennifer Freeman
ASST. VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Patrick Augustine
SPORTS EDITOR
Jonathan Hillyard
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Chas McCarthy
COPY DESK CHIEF
Steven Van Haren
IN OUR OPINION
Gamecock baseball
showcases best ofUSC
While USC’s fall sports receive most of the attention from
Gamecock fans, spring sports such as baseball prove time and
again that they deserve allegiance from the screaming sports
fans. Sarge Frye Field was the sight of USC’s come-from
What is more
American than
watching an
outdoor
baseball game
under the lights
on a cooling
spring evening?
Demna win against i^iemson on
Sunday, which marked the second
time in as many days the
Gamecocks defeated the Tigers.
The baseball team faces our ugly,
orange-clad neighbors from the
north four times during the season,
and it’s already halfway to a season
sweep against one of the programs
in America that approaches the abil
ity of USC’s team. However, the highlight of the dual wins
against Clemson is that USC improved to 15-1 for the season,
while Clemson drops to 5-7.
Now that Columbia is feeling more like a southern city
with the return of spring-like weather, students have the per
fect opportunity to go out and take in a home game at Sarge
Frye> although with sold-out games abounding, we recom
mended you get tickets ahead of time.
What is more American than watching an outdoor baseball
game under the lights on a cooling spring evening, savoring
the smell of fresh-cut grass and the hollow ring of metal bats?
Since we have a team that routinely makes its way to the col
legiate playoffs, there is no excuse for failing to take advantage
of the numerous chances to support baseball, and all our
spring sports teams.
Football has been nothing but a disappointment lately,
both with its poor on-field record, and the myriad off-field
infractions that seem to occur on a regular basis every
semester. It seems as if USC has begun to recruit solely from
reform schools rather than high schools. Instead of cheering
for the latest wave of criminals to strap on a helmet, cheer for
a team that excels on the grass, in the classroom and manages
to make good personal decisions. The road to Omaha begins
here.
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GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at
gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu.
I---*-1
ABOUT THE GAMECOCK
EDITOR
Michael LaForgia
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Chas McCarthy
COPY DESK CHIEF
Steven Van Haren
NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
asst, news editor
Kelly Cavanaugh
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
the mix editor
Jennifer Freeman
asst, the mix editor
Carrie Givens
SPORTS EDITOR
Jonathan Hillyard
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
Stephen Fastenau
SENIOR WRITER
Kevin Fellner
PHOTO EDITOR
Jason Steelman
SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR
Katie Kirkland
page designers
Jillian Garis, Staci
Jordan, Jessica Ann
Nielsen, Megan Sinclair
COPT EDITORS
Jessica Foster, Brindy
McNair, Daniel
Regenscheit, Jason
Reynolds, Katie
Thompson, Shana Till
ONLINE EDITOR
Ryan Simmons
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Jane Fielden, Katie Miles
TO PLACE AN AD
The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888
1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184
Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482
*-:
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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
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Gamecock are those of
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YOU FROM THERE.
CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
IN YOUR OPINION
Advisers not at fault
for students’ woes
I read Brandt Boidy’s column
about advisement (“Carolina needs
to change advisement system,”
March 3), and have to ask, when
does an individual finally take
responsibility for his or her own life?
Boidy assumes that his advisor
“would show the way and guide me
down the path of my degree.”
Instead, he states that he sees his
advisor “twice a year and rarely do I
leave knowing more than I arrived
with.” To me, the blame here lies
with the student. It is your
education, your future and your life.
Are you willing to give someone else
control of your life? As teenagers, we
spend most of our time trying to take
control from our parents; in college,
we want"to give it back? I don’t think
so.
Most college catalogs are written
in a fairly simple manner to follow.
It isn’t written in such a way that
even those that wrote it cannot
follow it. Generally speaking, if you
are aware of your major, you can
crack open that catalog that you
received as a freshman (yes, you did
receive one of those; for those
students who threw their’s away,
most college catalogs are also
available online these days), find
your college, then your major and
the requirements for that major will
be listed clearly. How much more
simplified can it get? If I, a person
not trained or qualified to advise
anyone, can read and figure this out,
why should USC hire people trained
to do this in a full-time capacity?
Boidy claims, “Too often students
are taking the wrong courses,
unknowingly missing deadlines,
unaware of opportunities and
requirements because of lack of
advisement.” Are you saying that you
are incapable of locating these
deadlines and opportunities yourself?
Posted flyers, snail mail or e-mail
notices of advisement and other
deadlines, and the school calendar
are great places to start looking for
this type of information. Seeing the
Master Schedule of Classes in front
of every major building on campus
was a good sign that something
important was about to happen —
though I’m sure they’ve done away
with those paper copies by now.
Are you asking USC to employ
full-time advisors so they can chew
up, spoon-feed and somehow digest
this information for you? I really
hope that USC does not take action
on your suggestion, because that
would do students a disservice, and it
would do a greater disservice to
students like Boidy who think this
way. What a rude awakening those
students will have when out in the
real world. You’ll be lucky to find a
boss who will remind you of a
deadline, much less help you plan
out each day so that you may
successfully meet that deadline. Yeah,
right. Good luck with that!
My suggestion to Boidy and other
students who feel the same way is to
start thinking for yourself and be
responsible for your own life, which
includes your education. Somehow, I
managed to change my major three
times during my college career, and still
graduated in four years with a Spanish
major and a Business minor. To be
honest, I only needed nine hours my
last semester (if I hadn’t overlooked
part of the requirements for my minor,
it would have only been six), and had to
take an unnecessary elective to remain
fulltime for financial aid purposes.
Sure, I have my advisors to thank for
that. But my 10-minute meeting twice
a year with my advisor was because of
my preparation and understanding of
the field I chose rather than an advisor
who was too busy. Maybe I was lucky,
but if I were you, I wouldn’t let that
busy advisor get the best of me. Figure
it out for yourself and be proud of that,
rather than looking for someone else to
blame.
SHANNON OWENS
Class of '98
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.
Let Americans choose their poison
■ Activists shouldn’t
take away the right to
make choices in U.S.
In an attempt to curb childhood
obesity in his state, California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger recently
announced that he supports a bill that
would ban the sale of “junk food” in
California’s public schools. If passed, the
bill would require schools to remove the
usual snack food items from their
vending machines and replace them
with milk and fresh fruits and
vegetables.
The actual success of such a program
is rather unlikely, though. Since
California would only be banning the
sale of junk food in its schools, not the
possession of it, it’s to be expected that a
student-run black market would
develop, as it did in Austin, Texas, under
similar circumstances, according to the
Austin-American Statesman.
However, the bill’s proposal itself
represents a larger trend in America: Far
too many Americans these days see
nothing wrong with taking away an
individual’s freedom to choose what he
or she thinks is the best way to live. This
includes, but is not limited to, their
choice of what foods to eat, what
beverages to drink and whether they
want to smoke cigarettes.
The Center for Consumer Freedom
reported in 2002 that a New York City
attorney, Samuel Hirsch, had filed a
lawsuit against McDonald’s, Wendy’s,
Burger King and KFC, on behalf of his
client, an obese
maintenance
worker named
Caesar Barber.
Barber, after
suffering a heart
attack, was
warned by his
doctor in 1996 to
a ■ py stop eating fast
food, but Barber
HARPER ignored the
FIFTH-YEAR recommendations
ENGLISH and refused to
STUDENT change his diet.
As a result of
frivolous lawsuits
like the Barber case, fast-food restaurants
are having to change the items on their
menu to make them more idiot-proof,
all in spite of the fact that millions of
Americans obviously like fast food the
way it is. Because some people cannot
control themselves, the responsible
individuals who can are being denied the
freedom to occasionally eat food that
isn’t exactly diet friendly.
As CNN.com reports, San Francisco
attorney Stephen Joseph recently sued
McDonald’s for $8.5 million because
the food firm has not yet removed trans
fatty acids from its cooking oils. Trans
fats are found in hydrogenated and
partially hydrogenated cooking oils and,
though they are considered unhealthy,
they are responsible for giving foods like
french fries their crunch.
So McDonald’s french fries, which
have been extraordinarily popular for
some time, are going to be altered all
because of one activist attorney in
California.
The above three cases of food
policing would never be possible if there
were not a large group of Americans
who think they know better than you do
how you should live your life and who
don’t mind forcing you to see things
their way.
And they’re only going to become
more intolerant and forceful if the rest of
America lets them. The anti-choice
crowd has already shown how intolerant
it can be with its campaign against
cigarettes. A good example is the
“Fashion Eye for the Smoking Guy”
commercial, where three girls browbeat
a male smoker in front of his friends and
tell him how ridiculous he looks and
how bad he smells. Replace the cigarette
in the guy’s hand with a McDonald’s
bag and the girls’ complaints about how
bad he smells with predictions of heart
disease and diabetes, and you have a
good idea of what’s to come.
Now, I’m not saying that people
quitting smoking or reducing their
caloric intake isn’t a positive thing. But
these are choices that individuals should
be allowed to freely make on their own.
These choices should not be forced on
them.
And just because you might not
smoke or eat fattening food doesn’t
mean that you won’t be affected. Anti
choice activists are Utopians. They aren’t
satisfied with small gains. What may
seem like a relatively benign indulgence
to you today may become the next fast
food and tobacco tomorrow.
Being sick
made my
vacation
disastrous
■ Cancun has nothing
on the illness that put
me in bed all week long
I’m a senior. And furthermore, not
only am I a senior, I’m actually
graduating this semester. Yes, yes, I
know, you’re all shocked.
And so, to
celebrate my final
spring break of
my final year at
USC, you can
only imagine that
I planned an
exciting spring
break for myself.
Cancun, maybe?
GRAHAM lhe n F1°rida
CULBERTSON ^ °r i*rhaPs
something
FOURTH-YEAR entirely different
ENGLISH and more exotic,
STUDENT i-i r i- «•
like free-climbing
Mt. Vesuvius or
windsurfing with
John Kerry?
Nope. My plans for spring break,
while the rest of you were off vomiting
Everclear out of Myrtle Beach hotel
windows, included working my regular
schedule at my job and writing my senior
thesis in my spare time, as well as the time
freed up by not having class.
So, considering that virtually everyone
I’ve ever known was off having a good
time during the week that’s supposed to
be the culmination of fun for the entire
four years that I’ve been spending at
college, my plan for spring break was
pretty much the lamest one I’ve ever had.
No one could believe how lame it is.
People I didn’t even know would stop me
while walking to class and say, “Hey,
aren’t you that guy who’s going to spend
his entire spring break not only in
Columbia, but in Columbia working his
regular job and doing homework
j whenever he’s not working? Man, can I
get your autograph? It’s not everyday that
I get to meet the lamest student at USC.”
But just when I thought I’d planned
the worst senior spring break activity in
the history of the SEC, everything
changed.
No, I didn’t win the lottery. No, I
didn’t win an all-expenses paid trip to the
Smithsonian. No, I didn’t comer and
arrest various larcenous members of our
gridiron bandits to receive the everlasting
respect and friendship of Steve Spurrier. I
just got sick.
I didn’t g£t sniffly, go about your day
as normal but feel sorry for yourself sick.
Nor did I get deathly, go to the hospital
flu type sick. I just got some sort of
crappy cough, sneeze, lay around
moaning, and run a fever of 101 while
eating nothing but some combination of
apple sauce, saltine crackers and chicken
soup for the entire week of spring break
of your senior year sick. That, my friends,
is noi a gooa Kina or sick.
In fact, it was the worst kind of sick! It
was legitimate, have a fever sick, the kind
where you can go into the health center
and be certifiably unable to attend class.
Sure, laying on a couch watching the
same SportsCentet approximately 14
times every day because you don’t have
the energy to find out whether Comedy
Central is showing SNL (yay) or MAD
TV (boo) isn’t fun, but its better than
going to class. But I was already missing
out on that fabulous Cancun vacation to
sit around Columbia and work, and then
I missed out on the opportunity to do
that. And although you can miss classes
and then just do a little bit of makeup
work, I don’t think you can do it with
your thesis.
’’Mr. Culbertson, this thesis is only
seven pages long.”
“Oh, yes ma’am, you see, that
includes the 37 pages that I would have
written if I had been healthy over spring
break.”
That’s a recipe for one more semester
in the City Constructed Directly Above
Hell. Anyway, the point is, after a spring
break of misery and despair, the only
thing I have to show for it is this sorry-ass
column. I hope you enjoyed it,
Gamecocks — I certainly didn’t.
COLLEGE QUOTE BOARD
THE PARTHENON
MARSHALL UNIVERSITY
Who can say no to Girl Scout cookies? More importantly, who wants to? The)
linger at the door of every grocery store and Wal-Mart. Samoas in all their gooe)
coconut glory; Sweet chocolate thin mints; Tag-alongs full of the goodness that i;
known as peanut butter. All calling out to be bought. What makes it even mor<
difficult to say no is the 8-year-old in a Girl Scout uniform so innocently asking il
you want to buy a box of $3 cookies so she can go on the spring trip to King’s Island
You have to buy at least one.
OREGON DAILY EMERALD
I UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
President Bush’s latest action in his quest to antagonize every country on the
globe came Monday when he named John Bolton as his ambassador to the United
Nations. Jesse Helms has described Bolton as “the kind of man with whom I
would want to stand at the gates of Armageddon.” We are not sure what that
means, but we do know that Helms might get a chance to do just that, if Bolron
i has his way.
HHH