Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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ONLINE POLL p , Do you think Michael Jackson is guilty? rage o Let us know at www.dailygamecock.com. Friday, April 15, 2005 Results posted Friday. TH^AMEGOGK 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 N. C. lottery debate concerns S. C. schools Few South Carolina college students pay attention to North Carolina politics, but this year, what is going on with our northern neighbor could have a profound impact on the way many USC students pay for college. South Carolina’s state-run lottery has been a source of rev enue for worthy causes like the LIFE scholarship and new school busses, but lotteries are always an unstable addition to state coffers that should not be too heavily relied upon. S.C. lawmakers saw constituents crossing the Georgia bor der to buy lottery tickets, which funded Georgia students’ education. Former Gov. Jim Hodges liked the idea to create a lottery so much that he based his entire campaign around it, beating incumbent David Beasley. a similar scenario is playing Funding from 3 out in North Carolina, with lottery supported . lottery proponents tired of see only by S.C. ing money go to South residents is better Carolina and Virginia. than no funding Meanwhile, N.C. conservatives at all. are opposing state-run legalized gambling on moral grounds. In the short run, the excitement surrounding a lottery gen erates millions of dollars for state Legislatures. In South Carolina, the law was written so funds would be directed to education, with a significant portion set aside for higher-edu cation scholarships. However, once the excitement wears off, revenue plateaus, and S.C. revenue is sure to dip if N.C. voters approve a lot tery. Lottery debates also conveniently leave out that a dispro portionate number of those who play are among the state’s poorest and that the consequences of problem-gambling are far-reaching and expensive. Although lotteries provide cash, planning around them is a gamble in itself and should never be used as an excuse for fail ure to sufficiently fund schools and scholarships directly out of stable, recurring funding sources like taxes. However, funding from a lottery supported only by S.C. residents is better than no funding at all. IT’S YOUR RIGHT Y, 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 Friday’s The Mix, Olumeri Sano was misidentified; she is not affiliated with the Borenya organization in anyway. Mohamed DaCosta, an instructor at the University of Florida, was also misidentified. In addition, Borenya no longer exists as a performing group. The Gamecock regrets the errors. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. I I ABOUT THE GAMECOCK C.UI I Un 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 Nick Esares SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR Katie Kirkland PAGE DESIGNERS Jillian Garis, Staci Jordan, Jessica Ann Nielsen, Megan Sinclair COPY EDITORS Jessica Foster, Brindy McNair, Daniel Regenscheit, Jason Reynolds, Katie Thompson, Shana Till ONLINE EDITOR Ryan Simmons PUBLIC AFFAIRS Jane Fielden, Katie Miles CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. The Editor’s office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. Editor: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu News: gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopmions@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; Sports: 777-7182 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 Garen Cansler CREATIVE SERVICES Burke Lauderdale, Chelsea Felder, Laura Gough, Joseph Dannelly ADVERTISING STAFF Robert Carli, Breanna Evans, Ryan Gorman, Caroline Love, Katie Stephens, McKenzie Welsh TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia. S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482 The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper pf 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 the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student 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 Sgdent Media. OWRO-c™ rlM SORRV, WE CAN’T LIFT THAT r I Blue laws make me want to vomit ■ Does God really care if I buy that porno mag on Sunday or Monday? I’ve got a funny blue law story. One Sunday afternoon about a year ago, I was in the living room of my Bates West apartment, looking at a considerable amount of homework and dreading a 3 p.m. meeting for The Gamecock. My roommate Alex had wandered into the bathroom some 25 minutes ago. I heard no shower or running water, just the buzz of the fan. I started to get worried. Twenty-five minutes is a long time for a call of nature, even for those of us subsisting on raw dough i (Bates pizza), dirty lettuce (Bates salad) and hound meat (hound meat). I knocked. “Alex, is everything OK?” He opened the door. “The toilet’s flooding.” Mv eves drifted to the bathroom floor, which was now covered in an inch of water. A lingering stench of fresh sewage greeted me. My nostrils cowered in fear. I still don’t know why Alex didn’t come running to the linen closet when the can overflowed. Maybe he panicked. Maybe he tried to fight the shameful battle alone. Either way, we dispensed with the pleasantries, and I got right down to berating him and his talkative anus. It soon became obvious we wouldn’t have enough towels to stem the tide, nor did we have strong enough cleaning supplies. Wal-Mart was the only logical answer. I didn’t know if we’d have enough time to get to Wal-Mart, get the stuff, get back and finish cleaning STEVEN before my 3 t/AM p-m- meeting It was only HAREN about 1 when THIRD-YEAR Ae flooding MECHANICAL occurred, but ENGINEERING , , STUDENT I have time O C D , ” whereby I simply must be punctual, and one hour seems like 10 minutes. I wouldn’t have gone had I not been the only one with wheels. We hit the road at light speed, having left a towel barrier between the bathroom floor and the carpet. If the water leaked out, our wallets and nasal cavities would suffer for it. as we were aoout to turn onto Gervais, I remembered what day of the week it was: Sunday, host of South Carolina’s insufferable blue laws. I couldn’t remember the exact rules (what you could buy and when), so I told Alex the cleaning supplies might be off limits. We cursed the Bible-thumping politicians who would be responsible for our apartment’s demise. Where was the logic, Cletus? Then the light turned green, and Alex said something I’ll never forget. “If God doesn’t want me to clean the s—t smell out of my bathroom, then he’s no god of mine.” There it was — the most succinct argument for the abolition of blue laws I’d ever heard. I’ve thought about etching it in stone and sending it to the State House. There’s a logic in his comment that soars above any dissenting opinion. We came to find out that cleaning supplies were not off limits before the specified time, so we filled a shopping cart, ran home, donned rubber gloves and facemasks, and cleaned. I can still smell the Comet. This makes no sense. By the blue laws’ logic, I can buy cleaning supplies to scrub out my toilet but not a Hustler to read while astride the throne. Even if I wanted to read a brand-new Bible on the can, I couldn’t buy it until early afternoon. Sunday is my day, dammit, and I should be able to do with it what I will. Legislated country bumpkinism like the blue laws has no place in state government. it l want to Duy a pair or handcuffs, a blindfold and a porno mag at 8:37 on a Sunday morning, I should have the right to do so. Sabbath perverts unite. If blue law supporters can support the blue laws’ purpose without going biblical on my ass, I’ll eat my words. Until then, I can’t in good conscience support our state’s attempt at regulating “morality.” Send the blue laws to hell, and don’t ever let a Gomer Pyle, hayseed snake-handler into the State House again. IN YOUR OPINION r\ew event policies target black frats 1 never thought that I would ever see racism instituted as policy at a state-funded, public institution of higher learning, yet that is exacdy what has happened. The Russell House Student Union has silently begun discriminating against all people of African descent. Ever since the altercation after the Omega Psi Phi Neophyte Step Show, all black .male Greek organizations and their members have been placed under extreme scrutiny. Extra guards, requiring all tickets to be sold in advance and the inability to invite friends from off campus are all things that are now mandated by the university. I am a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., and despite having conceded event time, an after party and paying for the addition of more security, no allowances were made to aid in the success of our event. As it currently stands, we may not be able to host our own Neophyte Show if changes aren’t made that will allow fewer restrictions on where, when, and to whom we sell our tickets. What justification is there? The only similarities between our event and the Omega event are that new members are being introduced to the general public. The only answer to this question is that both of our organizations have predominantly black male members. I guess the administration believes that we want to put the success of our event at jeopardy, or risk our own academic futures to start a fight. I’m not saying proactive measures should not be taken. I just hope that we can live as my fraternity brother Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed we would, being judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. Punishing all black people is not acceptable, and I for one will not be quiet while this happens. STEPHEN VANTERPOOL Fourth-year computer science student Photo misrepresents College Republicans t_ i i i-i _ _ i _ » »»UUJU U1VV W vuvi «X11 UUJVVUU11 to the use of the particular photograph chosen to go along with the article entitled, “Student selected to lead S.C. College Republicans” (Monday). The article was informative and acceptable, but I found the use of that particular photo suspect. The photo had nothing to do with the article other than that it pictured Republicans. One who is not familiar with College Republicans might look at this photo and conclude that College Republicans are all white, male, redneck alcoholics. Someone might say, “Aren’t they?” While it is a fanny image, they most certainly are not. There are many Republican blacks, women and well-rounded, educated people of integrity that should be bothered by this. Respectable College Republicans should be offended by the random (or perhaps not-so random) use of this photo with an unrelated article. They should speak out and defend their image. DAVID WALKER Third-year religious studies 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 garnecockopinions0gwm.sc.edu. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-. 7726 for more information. -i JD /BiSMACisl SoRRr.fflY __ MURDER. I STRICT Wi- T J7wp'-T EwtunoN (S . fi j views wonY I* V ( \t/S ‘J/ffif ALiowme c a Vr 1 w/rf‘ I;; ELiNTSToNE i\&!\\S YoVWAWT \ vwmT^ yiyi|%y| W; CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS U.S. News fails to find Carolina ’s true value u All I really know after 4 years of Gamecock learnin’ is I’ve got a job 1 sat in the law school auditorium Wednesday night for the Journalism School’s awards night. It’s the fourth one I’ve been to and it was just like all the others, except this time I got a plaque instead of a handshake. During the ceremony, Shirley Staples Carter, the journalism ADAM school director, BEAM mentioned that USC’s program four™™ was one of the JOURNALISM best in the STUDENT ,v, „ . country. Well, I thought, this is no news to me. Professors, administrators and secretaries are always telling me how great we are. The best is during televised football games when you see USC’s commercials. My favorite is the one where a woman is watching sports with some guys and gets bowl game excited about USC’s research initiatives. It was clever. All of that, however, comes from the source. I get penalized in class if I turn in a news story with only one source, so I’m going to bring in U.S. News and World Report. Maybe they can help me gauge our greatness. The news magazine says we are just as good as the University of Oregon and Colorado State University, whatever that means. On its list of America’s best colleges, considered by many as the gold standard for college rankings, the magazine has us at 117. Clemson, in case you were wondering, is at 74, right up there with Clark University and the University of California at Santa Cruz. To be on that list, USC has to fill out a form as long as the 2003 USC Clemson football game (we lost 65 17). Some highlights from that form, which is available on USC’s Web site: total money full-time professors spend in a year — $7,102,310. Most popular major — experimental psychology (advertising is second). Percentage of undergraduate men in fraternities — 14 (for undergraduate women in sororities, it’s 15). List of four recent, living alumni who are noteworthy in their fields: Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Darius Rucker, Jim “Soni” Sonefield. Their field? Hootie & the Blowfish, and that’s not a joke. So when considering where to rank us, it’s good that the staff at U.S. News and World Report knows about Hootie. That’s how U.S. News and World Report ranks colleges, but that’s now how I rank them. When I tell people where I go to school, the second question they always ask me after “What’s your major?” is “Is the school o I’ve given this question a lot of thought, and the answer is that I have no idea. I don’t know what makes a school good or what makes a school bad. I came to college because newspapers wouldn’t hire me out of high school. I applied to four schools, got accepted to all of them and came here because I thought there would be more to write about in a state capital. I leave the rankings to the nerds who care about that stuff For most of us, we measure the worth of a college by the jobs we get out of school. If we can’t get a job, then obviously the college we went to wasn’t worth our money. If we are picking which job to accept, then we sing the praises of our alma mater and donate money after we graduate. So let the administrators scurry to fill out their forms. Let the public gorge on statistics. All I know is I’ve had four internships, and I have a job when I leave here. That puts USC at the top of my list.