The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, October 14, 1949 Page: 2 of 8
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Two
THE THRESHER
Hazing
We ve had just about enough on this hazing business. It is
taking up entirely too much of our (and others') time, which could
and shoulcf be employed in infinitely more rewarding labors.
Whiskey
There is a nasty rumor spreading to the effect that certain
elements on the campus are conspiring to banish alcoholic beverages
from Rice dances.
It is hoped that this is really just a rumor. One holy war
per month is plenty. ffl
7HE MCE m 7WKESH&
Entered as second class matter, October 17, 1916, at the Post Office,
Houston, Texas, under the act of March 3, 1879.
Subsc ription Rale $1.00 Per Year
Represented by National Advertising Service, Inc., 420 Madison Ave., New York City.
Published every Friday of the resrular school year except during holiday and
examination periods by the students of the Rice Institute. Editorial und
Advertising offices are in the Fondren Library on the campus.
Temporary Editor Emmett McGeever
Business Manager Tohi Smith
Assistant Business Manager Ernest Voss
Associate Editor Werner. Grunbaum
News Editor Ruey Boone
Editorial Advisors Bob Mcllhenny, Finis Cowan
Sports Editor Howard Martin
Assistant Sports Editor Ted Lockhart
Society Editor Marty Gibson
Make-up Staff Allyce Tinsley and Harold Melnick
Reporters Beverly Brooks, Don Eddy, John Blake-
more, Tom Tenney, Bill Hobby, Pat Byrne, Ted Cornelia,
Georgia Hink, Alec Thompson, Bob Schwartz, Dewey Gonsou-
lin, Betty McGeever, Lee Mary Parker, Nina Shannon, and
Westerbrook Christian.
Something Lacking At Frosh Scramble;
Short Shoes, But Spirit Short Also
by Ted Cornelia
In former years, the freshman shoe scramble was always an event
which everyone looked forward to with a great amount of interest.
Unfortunately, this year's freshmen shoe scramble did not live up to the
highest expectations of the Rice-New Mexico football-game audience.
This year it was only a half hearted exhibition composed of an extremely
small number of loyal freshmen.
Other Papers Say
(From the Daily Bruin, UCLA)
A major blow for academic freedom on the West coast was
struck by the Northern section of the University of California Aca-
demic Senate at Berkeley last Monday. Its overwhelming rejection
of the loyalty oath prescribed for all University employees by the
Regents is unquestionably a victory for the forces dedicated to the
continued existence of a free university community.
It required considerable courage for the Academic Senate mem-
bers to vote down the oath, just as, in some ways, it required even
greater courage for the advisory committee to recommend such a step
in view of the Regents' desires.
There is some doubt, however, as to the meaning and intent of
the resolution passed by the senate, concurring with Regulation 5,
which in their words, "prohibits the employment of persons whose
commitments or obligations to any organization, Communist or other,
prejudice impartial scholarship and the free pursuit of truth."
Regulation 5, entitled "Academic Freedom" warns against class-
room bias. It contains the statement, "In order to protect this free-
dom (the freedom of competent persons in the classroom), the Uni-
versity assumes the right to prevent exploitation of its prestige by
unqualified persons or by those who Mould use it as a platform for
propaganda." As far as this writer can see, there is no specific
prohibition of employment and for the Northern Senate to assume
this is the case to make explicit something in the regulation which
is not necessarily implicit.
This is just one of the problems facing the Southern section of
the Academic Senate when it meets here today. The central problem
before the assembled faculty representatives is, of course, what action
they will take on the advisory committee report which, in effect,
rejects the Regents' version of a compulsory oath for the voluntary
signing of the usual statement required of all state public officials.
It is hoped that the southern section faculty members today will
accept the advisory committee's report with the force'fulness of their
northern colleagues. Perhaps they may even see fit to clarify the
committee's vague interpretation of Regulation 5.
Letters to the Editor:
Words &
Music
by Bob Bradbury
• Anyone who scanned the fine arts
sections of Sunday's papers must
conclude that 1950 will be the year
of the great "Cultural Boom" in
Houston. At least four legitimate
theatre groups will be active, two
of those professional. The Houston
Symphony will give eighty-six con-
certs, including a tour of the Mil-
west. The Ballet Theatre will return
after a year's absence, and the Bal-
let Russe will extend its Houston
engagement from five to eight days.
The Music Guild will expand its ac-
tivities extensively after last year's
successful first season. And the Con-
temporary Arts Association will
soon complete its new museum of
modern art for Houston.
One can almost see the nine Muses
settling down comfortably in their
new home atop the Esperson Build-
ing.
Rumor Implicates
Student in Bobbing
To The Editor:
It is rumored that one of the per-
sons responsible for the unfortunate
bombing fiasco which occurred last
weekend is Westerbrook Christian,
president of the Rice Carassian So-
ciety.- It is further rumored that the
expenses of the enterprise were of-
ficially financed by the Carassian
treasurer, and that three other Car-
assian leaders, whose names I shall
withhold for lack of sufficient evi-
-dence, accompanied the president
and the treasurer on their unsuccess-.
ful midnight tour.
Campus Lamps Are
Eyesore to Student
To the Editor:
l£ was most refreshing to walk
through our campus after three
months away from it. I enjoyed the
well-kept shrubbery and trees; I
admired the uniformity in the archi-
tecture of our buildings.. I thought
that the changes in the roads were
clever.
I had not walked very far though
before I noticed eyesores which J.
had observed last year. I saw the
campus street lamsp. Here stood
one with just a bulb; there stood
9 In the view of these develop-
ments it seems appropriate that the
Thresher should contain a column
which would notify students of im-
portant events in the field of fine
arts, and give competent criticisms
thereof. Unfortunately I have only
a nodding acquaintance with nuan-
ces and timbers, so this column will
be heavy on notification. Where
opinions are stated they will be mine
and not necessarily those of the ma-
jority of the public. In fact they
are quite likely to be the opinions of
no one else, with the possible ex-
ception of my room-mate, who has
no mind of his own.
Somebody may ask "Why write
the column if you are so pathetic-
ally unqualified?" That's a good
question.
0 So, without further introduction:
The Little Theatre starts its sea-
son this year with "Strange Bed-
fellows." Opening Tuesday night for
a twelve night run, it deals with the
Suffragettes and should display
some lush Mid-Victorian costuming
and sets.
In view of the statements made another with no bulb or cover- L
Those few freshmen who managed
lo appear at the game, dressed in
the traditional pajamas and lipstick
besmeared faces, expressed their
feeling towards their champion of
justice, Farrell Fulton, by present-
ing him with a broom,'whose broken
handle had been repaired with ad-
hesive tape. The presentation prov-
ed to be the most spirited display
of feelings shown by the slimes
throughout the entire game.
As in former years, the bulk of
the cheering naturally enough came
from the freshmen section, but even
could the audience gleefully watch
a lankey frosh awkwardly gallop
ahead of his fellows. No, this year
they were forced to watch barely
seventy-five couples run a three-
legged race to the pile. Great wasn't
it?
There was no intense battle at the
mound of shoes because there were
so few shoes that the slimes could
easily find their own painted shoes
immediately upon reaching the pile.
The winner dashed off across the
field victoriously holding aloft his
two shoes. No one cheered. Some
that section seems to have been shoes were thrown into the air by
materially reduced in size. ! those who had grabbed them, hoping
At the beginning of the half, se- [ that they had found their own shoes,
veral sophomores carried out and j but they failed to reach the lofty
emptied large boxes of shoes on the | height which the shoes of former
middle of the fifty yard line. Re-
membering the towering magnifi-
cence of preceeding years' shoe piles,
this year's pitiously small pile was
a great disappointment to the hope-
ful crowd. The pile barely reached
a height of three feet.
Instead of the mad frantic rush
to the pile as in yesteryears, this
race was slowed down to a clumsy
hobble because the freshmen had
their ankles tied together. No longer
years had attained.
Yes, now we have a completely
new system here at Rice. The fresh-
men are treated like serious-minded
sensitive adults. No longer is there
any physical hazing, or personal
humiliation forced upon the fresh-
men. In fact, there isn't even a
healthy joyous spirit of linity in a
common cause shown by the fresh-
men any more. y
Freshmen spirit seems to have
vanished along with hazing. 4
by Professor B. A. Machstein, foun-
der of the Cult of Carassius, in his
revolutionary book, Defense of Dy-
namite, I find myself quite prone to
give credence to these rumors. The
readers are, of course, familiar with
Professor Machstein's often-quoted
remark (which, since I was unable
to obtain a translation, I had to
read in the original German and do
my own translating) "A man who
highly his ideals values, will to the
utmost limit of necessity, even to
the death of his friends, loved ones,
mother, even to poisoning, knifing,
bombing, go."
Having an unusually high degree
of intelligence, the readers will per-
ceive after only about thirty min-
utes of intense thought that Profes-
sor Machstein's views provide a re-
markably stable philosophy to ra-
tionalize and justify the pro-hazers
resort to rather forceful measures
to defend their ideals.
I would like to point out that !
am making no attacks or accusa-
tions. The purpose of this letter is
merely to bring these insidious rum-
ors out into the open, and to give
Westerbrook Christian an opportun-
ity to melt their fog of falsehood
with the bright beam of truth, if
he can. I would like to urge /The
Thresher to let Mr. Christian print
his side of the story.
If,fc as I fear, these rumors turn
out to be true, then I think the Stu-
dent Council should severely repri-
mand the Carassian Society and
threaten to revoke its charter if it
ever does any bombing again.
With humble sincerity,
CLARKE FOSTER
became so disturbed over the condi-
tion of the lamps that I decided to
make a rather close survey of them.
In this survey I discovered that
there were forty lamps with no
bulbs or covers. I noticed fourteen
more with bulbs but no covers.
This survey included an examin-
ation of the lamps upon the walls
supporting the gates to our en-
trances from Main Street. Here a
visitor migljt well get his first im-
pression of the Rice Institute. Cer-
tainly it would be worth-while to
make our openings to the "outer
world" more attractive.
It seems to me that either the ad-
ministration or some group ought
to take it upon themselves to make
the repairs on all these lanmps. Is
vandalism so constant that repairs
are useless? Street lamps have in-
spired the themes of songs; and
they probably will leave some nos-
talgic memories in our minds when
we leave our campus. I reiterate my
belif that we ought to do some-
thing about our ill-painted lamp
posts and our broken lights.
Very sincerely yours,
MANFRED MEITZEN
• Tomorrow is the official opening
date for the Contemporary Arts ex-
hibit of modern painting on the sec-
ond floor of the Fondren Library,
but the paintings are now on view,
for those of you who haven't al-
ready discovered them. The runs
through November 6. More about
this next week.
• Helen Chillman, music librarian,
has volunteered to perform a valu-
able service to those students in-
terested in the Houston Symphony.
There is an appreciable number of
students who are subscribers to the
symphony, and from time to time
exams or conflicting social func-
tions prevent their attending. Miss
Chillman has offered to set up a
clearing house for unwanted tick-
ets. It is hoped that subscribers out-
side of the school will also use this
service to see that unused tickets
find their way into the hands of
eager Rice symphony goers. Tickets
will not be reserved, but will be giv-
en out on a "first come, first serve"
basis..
OWLS TEA CELEBRATES
FOUNDING OF SOCIETY
A tea will celebrate the twenty-
fifth anniversary of the fpunding
of the Owen Wister Literary Society
on Friday, October 21, from 4-6. The
tea will be held at the home of Mrs.
W. Noble Carl, 4515 Rossmoine.
% As soon as the amplifying sys-
tem in the lecture lounge is in work-
ing order "the lounge will be open for
broadcasts of the Sunday afternoon
symphony programs. The decor
should certainly add to the pleasure
of listening to the broadcasts this
season.
This Week
Current, through November 6:
Contemporary Artists Exhibit
of modern art.
Second Floor, Fondren Library.
October 18 through October 29:
"Strange Bedfellows"
Houston Little Theater
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, October 14, 1949, newspaper, October 14, 1949; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth230818/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.