Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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._VIEWPOINTS AMECOCK EDITORIAL BOARD * Editor STEVEN VAN HAREN News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA Assistant News Editor JACKIE ALEXANDER The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE Design Director chas McCarthy Sports Editor • ' STEPHEN FASTENAU Viewpoints Editor BRINDY MCNAIR Assistant Viewpoints Editor AARON BRAZIER IN OUR OPINION With some concerns, we support new eatery We will begrudgingly welcome USC’s newest campus eatery next fall when it opens its doors between Gambrell and the Humanities buildings. The unnamed 5,000-square-foot facility will serve breakfast, lunch, coffee and desserts, and will have seating for 110. An Internet cafe with wireless access will allow patrons to go online while they eat. We can only hope that the new restaurant won’t be a $1.5 million version of the Sidewalk Cafe, complete with understaffed cash registers, students jostling for bagels at a counter the size of a broom closet, and only Let’s hope this unnamed Garden of Eatin’ won’t be a congestive eyesore when it’s finished. T-V 1 1 • .1 microscopic bottles ot bitter cranberry juice to drink. Outside, the open-air courtyard will be gobbled up, leaving students to funnel between buildings where once there was ample space to move around and congregate. ill DUl U1C guuu UUlWClgIU> uic uau. No more will students have to dash between classes for a real meal. Fifteen minutes might seem like enough time to grab a to-go lunch at Capstone, but not when 10,000 of your closest friends are just as eager to gorge. Sidewalk Cafe’s adequate-but-predictable selection wears thin after a while, and can satisfy only the tiniest of stomachs. And the courtyard, which was once a reflecting pool, will no longer be the 3-inch water hazard that students have to walk around. With much of the building to be constructed in glass, and with 24 outdoor tables in the works, students will still have a nice place to chill between classes. Only now, patrons who don’t feel like sitting outside in those frigid South Carolina winters can munch on their lunches in the heat. Let us hope this unnamed Garden of Eatin’ won’t be a congestive eyesore when it’s finished. Here’s to vast sandwich improvements and retaining USC’s wide-open spaces as best we can. .•■ -I IT’S VOUR RIGHT Voice your.opinion on.message boards at www.dailygamecock.com or send letters to the editor at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc. edu CORRECTIONS If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know about it. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor STEVEN VAN HAREN Design Director chas McCarthy Copy Desk Chief AARON KIDD News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA Assistant News Editor JACKIE ALEXANDER Viewpoints Editor BRINDY MCNAIR Assistant Viewpoints Editor AARON BRAZIER The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE Assistant Mix Editor KRISTEN TRUESDALE Sports Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU Assistant Sports Editor ALEX RILEY Photo Editor NICK ESARES Assistant Photo Editor KATY BLALOCK Page Designers MIKE CONWAY, MEGAN SINCLAIR StaffWriters AJ. BEMBRY, JESS DAVIS, TIM McMANUS, MARJORIE RIDDLE, GINA VASSELLI Copy Editors BETHANY NICHOLS, KATIE THOMPSON, JAMISON TINS LEY, LIZ WHITE CONTACT INFORMATION Offices located on the third floor of the Russell House Editor’s office hours are from 2-3 p.m. on Tuesdstys and Thursdays 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.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 ; Sports: 777-7182 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Director SCOTT UNDENBERG Faculty Adviser ERIK COLLINS Creative Director SUSAN KING Business Manager CAROLYN GRIFFIN Advertising Manager SARAH SCARBOROUGH Classifieds Manager SHERRY F. HOLMES Production Manager C. NEIL SCOTT 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 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 fee copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchasedfor $ I each from the Department of Student Media. CHIHA 5AY5CHiN^ A?WfiA<- D\SCQ\ie&cQ AMggtCAS yeA<g5 vefoze a?uuMgu5 j vix =¥: ^ '7'\v - ' . j Qw'T&ue^ _ iT,^iTrtef?... put - IT US A 6<?oP /. .: JSWT*S5W;f >Sl£?£ Courtesy KRT Campus Vogue! Strike a pose, strut your iPod stuff Trendy MP3 players make you sing, walk to your soundtrack I swore I would never be one of “those” kids. Slowly, more and more students began to fall into “its” trap. But not me, I would not be a part of this pointless fad. But then, one day, it happened. I became an iPod kid. I was forced into buying an iPod because I needed a storage device for a class. And well, I spent all that money on it, so I’d have to use it for musical purposes also. My first day as an iPod kid, I put my earbuds in and headed for class. I got through about half of a song when I had to put it away. I couldn’t stop laughing at myself. I was listening to a goofy song and no one else could hear it. It was weird. My next iPod experience happened when I had to wait on my roommate outside of McMaster College. I had about 15 minutes to wait. So, I pulled out the iPod, figuring I’d be OK because all the art kids must be iPod uRicne kids’ to°-And JUJU there weren’t Third- many people year print ar°und t0 See journalism me. I guess student that was a successful iPod day. I wore it for the full 15 minutes. Since then, I’ve tried gradually using the iPod, using it when I walk home from my last class. Most of the time I feel like an idiot because I’m not sure how to use it. And I wonder what would happen if someone tried to talk to me. My biggest problem with the iPod is that it makes me want to sing and dance. I have a very difficult time keeping that under control. If a good song comes on, I need to let loose. But if I do, I’ll become “Valene, the dancing iPod girl.” But, I did discover some good uses for this iPod thing. When I was walking home and Madonna’s “Vogue” began to play, my step became a little lighter. I think I began to strut. Yes, I was voguing. It was like having my own personal theme song! Not only that, but the iPod makes me go to the gym! I could never go before because I had nothing to listen to as I worked out. Now, I can be like everyone else in the Strom. It really is quite an interesting little machine. It has more space than my dad’s 11 -year-old, Windows 95 equipped computer that he swears still works. So, here’s what we’ve learned today: if you would like to have your own theme song and get to the gym more often, the iPod is for you. If you have an uncontrollable problem of bursting into song and dance, you should probably stay away from the iPod, or you will become a great source of entertainment for others around campus. Credit card debt crushes dreams, diligence Potential employers can see financial files to screen applicants The job market is bouncing back but students with credit problems may find some companies are not willing to hire them. As I mentioned in Part 1 of the series, it wasn’t my intention to allow my credit cards to get so out of control but when it happened theconsequences were far more damaging that just bad credit. The painful part of making a big mistake is often not in the “original sin” but the ripple effect that comes along with it. For instance, you know that drinking and driving is not only a big mistake but very dangerous as well. But one night after having too much to drink you convince yourself that you can still drive. You get pulled over and if that’s not bad enough; you’re summoned to appear in court where you get a hefty fine, your license is suspended and your car insurance rates go through the roof! Long after the alcohol wears off you’re still buzzing from the after shock. So, imagine my surprise and remorse when-after earning all of my college credits a full semester early, getting good snnviKR enough grades CALLOWAY to Put me in Writer, honor society, Young Money completing magazine several internships AND attendingnetworking events; all of the things I was “supposed” to do to set myself up for post-college success — I still couldn’t get a job! From my perspective, this was good advice because successful people were well educated, well spoken and well dressed. The problem was that I tried to “look the part” while working toward being successful. All potential employers saw was a financially irresponsible applicant not a smart college grad. Now it would have been easy to cry discrimination; after all, I am an African American woman who attended a historically black university. But race, age or lack of qualification had nothing to do with it. I simply “didn’t know what I didn’t know” and my financial ignorance cost me big time. Coupled with feeling bad after receiving several employment rejection letters, my problems with the credit card companies continued to balloon. Finally, after realizing my dream of moving to New York was quickly turning into a nightmare, I got a full-time job in retail to pay the bills and a part time job to pay my credit cards. Bad credit isn’t just the opposite of good credit; its negative effects reach into the three most important areas of your financial life. Statistics vary on the number of employers who pull credit reports or that do some sort of personal profile check on potential employees, but according to Davis Bushnell, a Globe correspondent, “Twenty years ago, credit checks were conducted mostly for people wanting a job at a bank or credit union. But now, as a result of the recent rash of corporate scandals, employers in industries from banking to retail are increasingly using credit reports to screen applicants for temporary and full-time jobs.” Do you think building p a restaurant in the Gambrell patio area is a good idea? Proverbs aside, < we still do not practice what were preaching From parents to child, every generation keeps hypocrisy going strong The art of hypocrisy. The “Do as I say, not as I do” from our parents. Throughout * life you will meet more hypocrites than liars, stealers □ and cheaters combined. Mostly because most liars, cheaters and thieves are hypocrites too. JEI1I1IEEH There are SILUCRmRn SO many litde First-year proverbs to print attempt to sway journalism the population student away from hypocrisy but, sorry proverb writing guys, you failed ^ miserably. How many times have you said one thing and done another? How many times have you meant to say one thing but instead word vomit caused a completely different sentence to come flying out of your mouth? Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy truly is an art. The skill it takes to cover your tracks as you weave a web of lies is quite intricate, and many hypocrites take multiple years to master it. But where do all the hypocrites of the world learn ^ this extremely ornate talent? Simple, L’dor VMor, from generatdon-to-generation. Parents find the need to attempt to teach their children the proper ways to live your life, follow the rules, listen to authority figures ... yadda, yadda, yadda. Here’s the glitch in this fateful plan, as we get older, we get smarter, and as we get smarter we start to realize that our parents are hypocrites. We may not know the exact word, but we do begin to realize that ™ our parents bend the rules, a talent they learned from their parents. Nature versus nurture, in this case nurture reigns supreme. 1 m going to contradict myself. While our parents may have taught us to be hypocrites, they learned it from their parents, who learned it from their parents, so on and so on. This leads me to believe that what started out as nurture has, in fact, become the opposite. Hypocrisy is so imbedded in our systems that it has become part of our innate nature to contradict ourselves. ^ Simply put, it’s a lot easier to be “all talk” than to actually do something. Why practice abstinence when you can sit in a classroom and lecture your students that they should? By now you’re probably thinking that as I sit here lecturing you about being a hypocrite, I probably am one myself. I agree. Most likely I have done quite a few hypocritical things in my life. I am human after all. But the real question is, am I going to start “practicing^ what I preach?” Are you? 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 $t 777-7726 for more information.