Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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_ _VIEWPOINTS AMECOCK EDITORIAL BOARD Editor MICHAEL LaFORGIA News Editor ; STEPHEN FASTENAU Asst. News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE Sports Editor JONATHAN HILLYARD Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR Copy Desk Chief STEVEN VAN HAREN Design Director chas McCarthy IN OUR OPINION Keep intelligent design out of science textbooks If, as some have suggested, American science teachers present philosophical theories like intelligent design alongside Darwins the ory of evolution, it would make the line between science and reli gion — not to mention church and state — dangerously indistinct. When President Bush this month said schools should teach both sides of the evolution debate, it sparked controversy over what sci ence textbooks in American schools should include. Christian conservatives have aligned themselves on the side of intelligent design, which argues that some organisms are too com plex to be explained using only Darwin’s theory of evolution. Critics have argued that no scientific basis exists for intelligent design, and some have gone so far as to label it a clever trick for slipping creationism back into classrooms. Sadly, the debate has fast become more political than scientific. . . 1 heones like intelligent design The°nes like should be availablc to K_12 stu. intelligent design , should be available 'but °"ly m prop" “““■ tO K 1 2 StUdentS Students should be left to decide for themselves what worldviews and personal philosophies they adopt. However, intelligent design should not appear in science books alongside Darwins theory of natural selection, as some have sug gested. The former is a concept rooted more in faith than in sci ence, while the latter is a conclusion drawn from empirical process and the scientific method. Scientists can’t sail to the Galapagos Islands to determine whether some higher power built the Venus flytrap. Intelligent design represents a subjective philosophy, not a testable scientific theory. Therefore, it should be presented in schools as such. One possible solution might be creating a separate class geared toward discussing contrasting philosophical ideas. However policymakers decide to address the controversy in the classrooms, one can only hope that common sense and the ability to differentiate between philosophy and science — not buzzwords and political Web logs — will lead states to make the right deci sion. IT'S VOUR RIGHT Exercise your right to voice your opinion. Create message boards at tvww.dailygamecock.com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc. edu CORRECTIONS USC Football player Jonathan Joseph was misidentified in Thursdays issue. The Gamecock regrets the error. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor MICHAEL LaFORGIA Deurn Director chas McCarthy Copy Desk Chief STEVEN VAN HAREN News Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU Asst. News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR 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: gamecockopinions@gwm.sc. edu The Mix: gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu Public Affairs: gamecockPR@yahoo.com Online: www.dailygttmecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726; Sports: 777-7182 Editor ’s Office: 777-3914 The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE Sports Editor JONATHAN HILLYARD Asst. Sports Editor ALEX RILEY Photo Editor NICK ESARES Sports Photo Editor KATIE KIRKLAND Page Designers JULIAN GARIS, JESSIC ANN NIELSEN, MEGAN SINCLAIR Graphic Designer LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH Copy Editors KATIE THOMPSON Online Editor RYAN SIMMONS STUDENT MEDIA Director SCOTT LINDENBERG Faculty Adviser ERIK COLLINS Creative Director SUSAN KING Business Manager CAROLYN GRIFFIN l Advertising Manager SARAH SCARBOROUGH Classified Manager SHERRY F. HOLMES Production Manager GAREN CANSLER Creative Services LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH, JOSEPH DANNELLY, MEGHAN WHITMAN, MARGARET LAW Advertising Staff BREANNA EVANS, RYAN GORMAN, KATIE CUPPIA TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene St. Columbia, S.C. 29208 \ Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 $ i 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 tprirtg 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 o/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 $ I each from the Department of Student Media. ‘.1 —SoMUCH FoRTodATs BiOtPGr LfiSSoN onlKIfeLUGfiKTDeSiGN." TURNING NOW TO THe SUBCTecT oF "iNTBULiGeNT GeoGRAPHY..." Cartoon courtesy of KRT Campus Help me stamp out sky-high gas prices Regulations, state taxes have more to do with increases than Bush Like most college students, I think I’m pretty much oblivious to the “real world” outside, and, don’t get me wrong, I like it that way. That means it takes a pretty serious event to shock me out of my stupor, especially this early in the year. I must say there is nothing like rifling through the change tray of your car at 2 a.m. to focus your mind on the current gas price hike. Jogging back out to your car to get the change, while a line of seedy, lottery ticket buyer types wait for you, helps, too. Columnist note: The writer has no problem with people who play the lottery, or as he likes to call it, “the tax on people who are bad at math,” mostly because they’re financing his education. However, he challenges anyone to look him in the eye and tell him “seedy” isn’t the right word to describe someone buying lottery tickets, malt liquor and copies of Swank at 2 a.m. from the Kangaroo off Assembly. Additional columnist note: The writer also does not have any problems with malt liquor, although he considers Swank a bit below his taste. Anyway, as I was fishing for a □ precious nickel that had fallen between my seats, or, as I like to call it, .0003 gallons of gas, Jacob my mind drifted Dauis t0 t{ie Problem high gas prices. Third-year How cou,d k be print journalism ™at *> a t“r“*y» student hard-working college student in this great state of South Carolina, was reduced to paying for gas with change? I immediately dismissed the idea that it had anything to do with the $50 I had blown downtown a few hours earlier. I quickly decided this must be someone else’s fault, and resolved that they would get a nasty letter from me as soon as I saved enough to buy some stamps. While wondering if you could put stamps on lay-away, I began to scan my mind for likely culprits. I occasionally watch CNN Headline news, mostly for the bottom-line sports scores when ESPN is on commercial, but I do occasionally ingest some “real” news. At first I thought it might have something to do with George W. Bush and his “War for Oil.” After concluding that argument was only fit for someone not allowed to handle anything sharper than a cantaloupe, I started thinking about the real reasons gas is so expensive. First off, thanks to many helpful environmental regulations, the U.S. hasn’t built enough refineries to turn all the oil we have into gas fast enough to keep up j with demand. Fewer refineries j trying to produce more and more gas equals a shortage, and that means more expensive gas. Secondly, also thanks to regulation, every state basically produces its own blend of gas to conform to its standards, meaning that the few refineries we have are not only stressed trying to turn crude into gasoline, but they are trying to turn it into mora than 20 separate grades to conform to each state’s standards. Finally, more than half the price you pay for gas is in taxes, a lot of it state taxes. The price of gas could be cut in half if the government would get out of your pocket when it comes to pump and-slash gas taxes. So, the next time the attendant at the gas station gives you a dirty look for handing her a sack full of nickels, invite her to join you in writing a nasty letter to the government, or the Sierra Club for that matter. Heck, I’ll even give you the stamp. Clean Access: A dirty new network problem Technology Services creates more hassle with Cisco ‘solution’ Last year, University Technology Services put a new program, Perfigo SmartEnforcer, onto the university network in an attempt to reduce the number of attacks by viruses, worms and Trojan horses. This so-called SmartEnforcer was intended to scan your computer for vulnerabilities and lock them down via firewalls, patches and virus updates. Alas, the university’s network bodyguard was about as effective as a flashlight to a blind man. It was more of an inconvenience than anything else, and it never really worked. I was able to log on to the network without the most recent virus updates or windows patches installed on my computer. I would say that’s pretty ineffective protection. SmartEnforcer was also to blame for the instances in which the university network went down, as the server that hosted SmartEnforcer kept crashing. University Technology Services’ response to the numerous complaints about this was simply that the network was working better than it had been the year before. This year the university switched from Perfigo SmartEnforcer to a similar program — Cisco Clean Access Agent. I hoped this particular program would be an improvement and would fix Brian many of the 0 problems Buran F c , bmarthnforcer Fourth-year caused> and for computer , information thc most Part “ systems student appears to have done so. I was required to have the most recent virus updates and patches, and it conveniently comes with a little “remember me” checkbox to make it easier for me to log in. And surprisingly, to the best of my knowledge, it has not crashed the network. Some things are too good to be true. Last Friday, different portions of the network began to crash around campus. But why? Where was our faithful network bodyguard? A worm — a self-replicating code, which uses its host to find more hosts, and so on and so forth — had infected university computers and was causing excessive network traffic, bringing the entire system to a screeching halt. This sort of incident was supposed to be prevented by Cisco Clean Access Agent. What happened? Why was I left high and dry and exposed? I don’t know the answer to that question, but if I had to venture a guess, I would say it is simply that, once again, the “solution of the day” does not work. My question to UTS is this: How much time, money and student inconvenience is necessary before a solution is found to problems like these? 1 don’t mind the inconvenience of an additional log-in if it means I can access my high-speed network connection without any worries of slowdowns or crashing. How about instead of fiddling and experimenting with “solutions” which prove to be more of a problem than they’re worth, people do a little research. What are other universities doing to control problems like this? I mean, someone has got to have it figured out by now, or at least they’ve come close. I know very few other universities have as many widespread problems with their networks as we do. Do they use additional annoying programs with multiple log-ins and tirheouts? No. They find other solutions that work better and don’t inconvenience people. Technology Services needs to realize that simply slapping the Cisco name onto a product will not fix our problems. 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 gamecockopimons@gwm.sc.edu. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777 7726 for more information. www. dailygamecock. com Purposeless Housing fees drain money from students * New educational fee could expand research campus, room checks For a while USC has sought to expand its “research campus” and bring new learning opportunities j---- to its students. Always the innovator in thfc _ field of education, the university is implementing a Jessica tactic that will Foster undoubtedly Fourth-year bring nationwide Prmt acclaim to this student fine institution. What is this tactic, you ask? It’s quite brilliant, really. Not only will students learn in the classroom, but they will be further educated in the comfort of their dorm rooms. This, I assume, is the purpose of the $30 “educational fee” USC Housing is imposing on top of its $20 activity fee for students living in the dorms — unless its just another way for them to pad funds. But USC would never do that, especially considering many students have to live on campus and are already paying thousands of dollars per semester to do so. If all dorms were filled to capacity, there would be about 7,221 students living on campus. That would be roughly $216,000 made available with this new “educational fee.” I can only imagine how Housing will put it to use. Even though the money might seem to disappear into the black hole that consumes lab fees, technology fees and parking fees, I’m sure that this will actually help students learn. Rumor has it the curriculum is to include informative seminars like How to Prepare Easy Mac, Parking Ticket Evasion and Culture Shock For Y’all Northerners. However, efforts are still being made to ensure that lesson plans don’t overlap with essential survival skills taught in University 101. Each dorm room will come equipped with an instructor, dry erase board and desks that convert into lounge chairs. Added perks are late-night fire drills and lectures on the dangers of having candles and George Foreman grills in the room. Allow me to forewarn you that these items are very dangerous, so you shouldn’t even try having them. If you do, they will catch you and make you stand in the corner wearing a cone-shaped hat that will also be provided with the “educational fee.” If all goes as planned, this new fee will follow the same course as the activity fee, which has always reaped benefits. My favorite Housing-sponsored activities were hall meetings and filling out surveys. Those pencils we used were top-of-the-line. And I must say that I commend University Housing for having the courage to ignore decisions made by the student run Residence Hall Association. The organization’s senate couldn’t justify a fee increase, but apparently Housing either didn’t know this or didn’t care. A small casualty for the sake of progress. My only regret is that I don’t live on campus to partake in this exciting endeavor. Granted, I do miss living in small spaces, signing in visitors, submitting to sporadic room checks and nighttime quiet hours. But this is history in the making: an all-encompassing approach to education that will forever change the system. Luckily, I have my candles and George Foreman to console me.