The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 11, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 5, 1962 Page: 2 of 12
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THE THRESHER EDITORIAL PAGE
1/ote 'po* Ont&tcoUefc 0ount
Tuesday's referendum offers Rice students an
unusual chance to extend their sphere of responsi-
bility.
The Intercollege Court, designed to coordinate
the courts of the various colleges and to handle all-
school disciplinary questions, is a significant ad-
vance over the present system of judging such cases.
There is no need here to discuss motivations or
expectations for the new court; they are admirably
outlined in a feature article below this. Nor
is it necessary to discuss specific provisions of the
constitution; virtually the complete text is given on
page five. What should be noted is the wide-
spread support the proposal has received. It passed
the Senate almost unanimously; at least one college
cabinet has formally endorsed it; faculty members
have received it warmly; there is no organized
Opposition to it. The required three-fourths majority
seems assured, barring some general misunder-
standing of its purpose.
In effect, the new court would do two things:
it would complete the circle of student judicial
organization, encompassing for the first time the
activities of all-school groups; at the same time,
it would lay the groundwork for future develop-
ment of the faculty's role in disciplinary matters,
removing another group of possible violations from
the arbitrary action of one person.
The Intercollege court, with its implications, is
an impressive prospect; adopted by the student
body, it could ultimately prove as valuable as the
Honor Council. As an invitation to maturity and
a guarantee of privileges, it merits overwhelming
endorsement.
-GROUNDWORK FOR THE FUTURE•
Intercollege Court Tests Responsibility
By TIM MOCK
The Inter-College Court be-
gan in the spring of '62 as an
idea — more a principle than
a tangible object — in the mind
of a would-be college senator.
After tentative approval by the
Dean, the idea was publicly in-
troduced in the senator's elec-
tion night speech.
After elections the idea gain-
ed its first solid base when the
senator was appointed chair-
man to ci-eate a new Senate
judicial committee. In a short
meeting of the committee just
before summer, a tentative out-
line of the Court was presented
and the support of the college
chief justices obtained.
THE FIRST TANGIBLE
work on the Court appeared the
following August — a proposed
structure which was mailed to
various campus leaders for
comments. In his letter of reply
the Dean made the prophetic
remark, "On the whole, I think
it is a very good proposal and
certainly one upon which dis-
cussion and recommendation can
be based in achieving its final
creation."
The Court was much discuss-
ed! Chiefly because of the con-
structive criticism of the Senate
and the chief justices, there
were no less than two major
revisions of the initial struc-
ture and countless minor ones.
On November 14,. 1962, the
Senate finally approved the
Court constitution by a vote of
14-1 — the one vote against
representing a remnant of
disatisfaction with some spe-
cifics of Court structure and
not with the principle of the
Court.
WHAT IS THIS principle
that has guided the Court and
kept it alive for over eight
months now? It is complex and
difficult to delineate, but. a
good starting point is the word
"responsibility" from the Court
constitution preamble. From his
earliest days an individual is
taught that he is responsible
f(M| his own*actions, but only
after he reaches the magical
age of 21 does this democracy
say that he shares in the re-
sponsibility for the actions of
his group — be it city, state,
or nation. Yet there are two
advantages for a person as-
suming his "civic" responsibility
at an earlier age. •
First, assumption of re-
sponsibility carries with it a
measure of power to shape
one's society. Second, the
ability to exercise responsibility
is a talent that is developed by
use, not by the mere passage
of years. The establishment of
the college courts and residence
committees is the most impor-
tant step toward the assump-
tion by the student body of its
"civic" responsibility. In essence
the Inter-College Court com-
pletes the sense of responsibility
of Rice students for their own
actions. ^
THE SPECIFICS of the
Court structure were drawn
The
Thresher
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper of Rice University, is
published weekly from September to May, except during holiday recesses and
examination periods, and when unusual circumstances warrant a special i?sue.
The opinions expressed are those of the student staff and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the Rice University administration.
Entered as second class rfiatter, October 17, 1917, at the post office in
Houston, Texas, under the act of March 3, 1870.
Member Associated Collegiate Frees, United States Student Frees
Association.
Telephone JA 8-4141 extension 221. Stories may be submitted by phone or
in perscn at the Thresher offices, second floor of Rice Memorial Center.
After-hours advertising: phone JA 8-7478.
After-hours news stories: phone JA 4-6875.
EDITORIAL STAFF
EDITOR * GRIFFIN SMITH
ASSOCIATE EDITOR EUGENE KEILlS
Managing Editor Fryar Calhoun Senate Shirley Jone«
News Editor Gary Hanovich Sights & Sounds ....Stefan Offenbach
Editorial Asssitant Bill Lieblich
Editorial Assistaift ..'.Debby Remotsky
Sports Editor ... Paul "Sleepy" Burka
Exchange Charlyn Ellison,
Harvey Pollard
Special Assistants Jim Zimmerman, Linda Walsh,
Richard Darilek, Jim Hargrove, Joy Oppenheim, Ray Needham, Charlyn
Ellison.
Sports Staff Stuart Glass, Mark Payne Montgomery, Jerry Hanson
• 0 BUSINESS STAFF
BUSINESS MANAGER ..DAN TOMPKINS
Assistant Business Manager Jim Treybig
Advertising Manager John Brennan
Circulation Manager Dub Vale
Eng. & Science Bob Hayes
Religion ...Richard Best
Photography Bruce Herron
Faculty Advisor Dr. Donald Mackenzie
from many sources, most of
which are integral parts of
Rice. The Court has been
studied by such varied people
as a veteran trial lawyer, A
27-year-old housewife, a fresh-
man English professor, a dean
of students, and a professor of
economics — all of whom con-
tributed something. Indeed,
probably the only original con-
tribution of the senator who
proposed the Court was the
idea of organizing the chief
justices from each college to
handle matters that the se-
parate college judiciaries could
not.
From the theory of courts
throughout the ages come the
words ". . . the Court shall
strive to protect . . . the rights
of the individual . . ." In the
Court's power to ". . . Recom-
mend action in connection with
the student organization . . ."
can be seen the ghosts of the
Archi-Arts dance and the three-
semester Rally Club probation.
The paragraph which states
"The Court shall evaluate . . .,
shall study the degree of re-
sponsibility . . ., and may re-
commend . . further privi-
leges . . contains the idea of
a Senate judicial committee and
of the student rights committee
without its overburdensome
formal trappirfgs.
PHRASES 'SUCH AS ". . .
express desire of all the Col-
lege judiciaries .' . "Inter-
College Court . . . shall not have
jurisdiction over an . . . area
. . . reserved to the . . . Col-
lege's . . ." and ". . . shall not'
act as a Court of appeals . . ."
recognize the autonomy, in-
dividuality, and importance of
the college judiciaries.
Making the Dean of Students
a non-voting member of the
Court, though subject to ex-
clusion in a closed meeting,
typifies the student body tradi-
tion of working with the admin-
istration whenever possible. The
important contributions of the
Honor Council both to the spirit
and structure of the Court are
too numerous to mention with-
out unduly lengthening this
article, but they are readily
apparent, especially in 'Articles
IV and V.
HOWEVER, despite the many
,parallelisms, the Court differs
in one important aspect from
the Honor Council. Whereas
the Honor Council is restricted
solely to the field of academic
violations, the Court is flexible
enough to deal with a wide
range of problems.
Assuming the Court gets the
(Continued on Page 7)
(5)
the only akiswe-r.
THRESHING-IT-OUT-
arr'^s
u
Architect Interprets
'Death Of The RMC'
To The Editor:
It is established fact that the
RMC is not being used and en-
joyed by the students to the
extent that it should be. Editor-
ializing and columnizing the
fact offers no further insight
as to why this is so. I have an
offering and will try to be
brief.
THE IDEA behindthe es-
tablishment of this Center
should have been created in the
proper answering of the ques-
tion: what experiences can be
offered by this facility to an-
swer the most important ne^ds (
of the people who will use it?
The key word here, of course,
is "proper;" bringing us once
more to a question of the quality
of the values of those people
responsible.
I offer two examples to es-
tablish the fact that those
values operating in the creation
of the RMC were not of high
enough quality and did in fact
engender the milieu that is
proving the very death of the
RMC as a useful facility to the
campus:
1. .SAMMY'S, 4"those ma-
chines" aside, is an acoustical
, flop, it is impossible to sit in
quiet conversation. Granted, the
space is nice, the planting is
attractive, the natural light
beautiful, the furnishings taste-
ful, the materials handsome;
the architect established him-
self as an "artist" with this act.
'However, he did so at the
expense of the usability and en-
joyment of this space for the
simple human act of associa-
tion and/or solitude. The
"artist" is in fact no Artist at
all because he does not possess
the basic desire to enlarge
human happiness.
2. i used, and enjoyed, and
was benefited by the Purdue
Memorial Union for 4% years.
Of the many attractions of the
PMU the study lounges stand
out. Easy chairs and s tudy
tables arranged in a fashion
characteristic of the fact that
someone had an interest in the
people that were going to use
them and an interest in the
purpose for which they would
be used; reading, writing, sit-
ting, chatting — not arranged
to satisfy some "artist's" ex-
parfled super-esthetic sense of
symmetry and color combina-
tion.
The arrangement of the sofas
in the RMC is handsome
indeed, the selection of the fur-
nishings most tasteful; but,
4
once again, at the expense of
the usability and enjoyment of
this facility for the simple
hupian act of association and/or
solitude.
WHERE ON THIS campus
can two people enjoy casual
conversation? Where can a fel-
low and a girl exchange the
intimacies that make being in
4k
this world with other human
beings so wonderful and pro-
vides' those moments of sweet
detachment' that make life it-
self a bearable thing?
I cannot dictate value qual-
ities to the whole world. I do
not discount the need in our
lives for art and beauty, I do
not believe that beauty and
esthetic endeavor must exist
only in the absence of human-
itarian interests, indeed, the
coexistence of the qualities is
an' unimpeachable canon of
great art. We have, however, in
the RMC an Example of other ,
experiences being offered while
what I hold to be the more
basic, more important needs go
seeking gratification.
I offer these examples and
these beliefs in an attempted o
(Continued on Page 3)
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 11, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 5, 1962, newspaper, December 5, 1962; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth231221/m1/2/: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.