The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 53, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 21, 1965 Page: 2 of 8
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1 *
John Durham, Editor
John Hamilton, Associate Editor
Terry O'Rourlce, News Editor
Phil Garon, Managing Editor
Morag Fullilove, Copy Editor
f0pUit S4KCC (fame*?
The Texas game this weekend will end,
among other things, this year's Fun and
Games. Fun and Games is the aspect of
Freshman Orientation in three of the
men's colleges which seeks to imitate the
hazing rites of fraternities in a form mild
enough to be acceptable at Rice. Despite
the criticism and repeated accidents which
forced the suspension of such traditional
activities as the Slime Parade, the feeling
persists that some kind of hazing belongs
in the freshman year.
The purpose, we are told, is to bring the
freshmen together and to build enthusiasm
and college spirit. It may be that fun and
games welds the class together as success-
fully as anything else, but is this a valid
goal within the college system?
It is a basic purpose of the colleges to
increase communication between the
classes. This communication can be fos-
tered by emphasizing the college unity at
the expense of the class structure.
We are concerned not just that owl
bowing, greased pole climbing, and sit-
ting on cakes of ice may be inconvenient,
unpleasant, or repugftairtt' to some fresh-
men, but that such activities, which make
spectacles of the freshmen, are alien to the
purposes of the orientation.
The college system should be introduc-
ing freshmen to standards of conducts and
levels of maturity which are fitting to an
academic world. These orientation games,
which are at their best ridiculous and at
times crude, are inimical to these stand-
ards.
The freshmen have a great deal to learn
from the upperclassmen, but let us as-
sume that if boys will be boys, then it is
not necessary for the colleges to teach
them now. Let's take the childish pranks
out of orientation. —JPH
' /4(tat6>en> *Vietv
This week the Thresher begins what we
hope will become a regular feature in the
paper—an open opinion column which will
have the name "Another View." Designed
to strengthen the Thresher's role in pro-
viding an open forum for ideas on the
Rice campus, the column will augment our
letters to the editor and will be open to
any member of the Rice community or
anyone interested in it.
Subject matter will be largely unre-
stricted, but we would prefer to have
articles dealing with Rice and/or with
various aspects of education.
Opinions expressed in the column need
not be representative of a majority view-
point, the Rice administration viewpoint,
or the Thresher viewpoint.
Articles for the column should be sub-
mitted to the editor or mailed to the
Thresher office.
"Since then no conflict has
been observed by the heads of
the chapel or the pep-rallies.
Furthermore, a n additional
check on arrangements has
made it clear that there will be
no further conflict."
—The Cheerleaders
Item: A torch light parade
will weave its way from Rice
to the Shamrock Hilton for a
massive pep rally at 7 pm, on
Thursday, October 21.
Item: Dr. Nathan Scott will
lecture in, the Rice Chapel at
7:15 pm, Thursday, October
21.
Miss Fullilove and I attended
all chapel programs this year
except for Freshman week. I
might add that we rather in-
advertently have attended the
corresponding pep-rallies.
Extra chairs', were used only
at the first of the three services.
At all times there has been
an over-abundance of space for
those who have any great
aversion to large groups and
tight places.
If they had been present at
the services, the cheerleaders
would have noticed that only
about half of the attending were
Rice Students.
Those of us involved in the
operation of the Rice Chapel
Services are very grateful to
the cheerleaders for insuring
that no further conflict will
occur between pep-rallies and
religious programs. The
gracious move by the cheer-
leaders has eliminated the em-
barassment caused by bad plan-
ning in the past. A full chapel
program may now be supple-
mented only by a full chapel
. . . rah. JIM DENNEY
Will Rice, '68
Karchmer Defends j
SCB Programs
Sir:
I wish to take exception to
last week's editorial implying
that the Student Center Board
is not meeting its responsibili-
tes.
The primary function of the
Student Center Board is, of
course, to promote and to ex-
pand the use of the Memorial
Center, but it is the organiza-
tion which tries to bring to-
gether and appeal to all mem-
bers of the academic commun-
ity—faculty, graduate students,
and undergraduates from all
colleges.
The SCB is also the group
which brings big name entertan-
ment to the Rice community. In-
deed it is the only campus or-
ganization that is in a position
to do so.
This year for the first time
the Student Center Board has
been granted a small share of
the blanket tax funds. But it is
true that this allottment will
represent less than a third of
the total SCB income. In less
than a month the Student Cen-
ter Board has sponsored thir-
teen events.
In addition to the highly suc-
cessful Hot Nuts Party, there
have been weekly movies, two
pre-game buffets, a lost and
found auction, two all-school
dances, and continual art ex-
hibits in the RMC.
The rest of the school year
will see the SCB present a Sun-
day night dinner and dance, a
fashion show, more movies and
art exhibits, game tournaments,
Friday afternoon stump speak-
er programs, and Sunday after-
noon music recitals.
Next March and April the
SCB will bring to Rice an event
of some importance when it in-
itiates its "Spring Festival of
Twentieth Century Arts." Al-
ready planned are a large exhi-
bition of works by prominent
Houston artists and four con-
certs, highlighted by a recital
by the famous pianist Byron
Janis.
■ > * Iiv short1,rthe Studtenfc^Oentter
Board-like the University itself,
is growing and maturing rap-
idly. The Board is cognizant of
its ever-present responsibility
to those it serves. Certainly
more can be done. But at least a
start has been made.
MIKE KARCHMER
Chairman, SCB
Draft policy causes unnecessary pressures
Many students tell me they are in
school this year, or in school altogether,
in avoid going to the rice paddies. They
say it angrily, not slyly. Their moral
problem is an unusual one. It is not that
they are shirking the army for their
personal comfort or their careers-—a
dodge that occurs at all times and in all
countries; rather, they feel they ought
to be resisting the present Avar more
honestly, burning draft-cards, going to
jail, etc.
According to the opinion polls, the
President has a solid popular majority
for his policy, but I doubt that he has
anything like a majority in the colleges,
especially among the younger instruc-
tors and the students. Thus, I expect the
teach-ins and anti-war demonstrations to
lie stronger and to involve civil disobedi-
ence, if only because of these students'
self-disgust for their privileged exempt
status.
On the other hand, for the students
who are not protesters, the draft-policy
does not have much patriotic significance.
I doubt that there are many students
who feel enthusiastic that their college
training is an indispensable function of
the Great Society and its war effort, so
that their student-deferment is valued
as a positive good, rather than a lucky
break.
Even more serious, however, the most
intellectually earnest students are the
strongest dissenters, on Civil Rights,
University reform, pacifism, opposition
to the Vietnam war. This was evident
at Berkeley, where the Free Speech
Movement leaders had grades far su-
perior to the average; and the same has
just been demonstrated across the coun-
try in .a report for the Carnegie Corpora-
tion: dissent is strongest in schools with
the highest academic standing and, in
those schools, among the best students.
Think of the unfortunate, and danger-
ous polarization among young people
that this implies. The armed forces tend
to be filled with the poor and unschooled.
They are drafted, and they also tend to
enlist since they are likely to be drafted
anyway and they might as well have it
over with; besides, in peace-time condi-
tions, the armed services provide educa-
tion for the ambition that is better than
most high schools and some colleges.
In war-time conditions, the selected
group at the front understandably re-
sents the protesters at home who are
a different breed. A reporter from Da-
nang (Warren Rogers in the N. Y.
Journal-American) says, "The 18-and
19-year-olds, fashionably referred to as
high school di'opouts, have steel in their
backbones and maybe too much of what
prize-fighters call killer instinct."
But the protesters are most often bet-
ter informed, more reasonable, and even
more earnest. Naturally the men at the
front think of them as slackers, career-
ists, beatniks, or nuts.
' On the streets, the ever louder crowds
that curse the young pacifist demon-
strators are in fact likely to be cursing
the young people of whom they would
ordinarily be most proud and whom they
would like their own children to emulate.
If the American casually lists mount,
we are bound to see a Know Nothing
spirit worse than McCarthyism, for the
dissent is more widespread, stubborn, and
intellectually critical than it was in Mc-
Carthy's time. This is certainly a grim
relationship between the community of
scholars and society.
Consider another bad aspect of this
relationship. Precisely to diminish shirk-
ing and to guarantee social utility (ac-
cording to its lights), as well as to in-
crease recruitment, the government will
now exempt only students who get good
grades, carry a full course-load, and even
are in the sciences rather than the hu-
manities.
But this kind of extra-mural pressur-
ing is academically outrageous. The
curriculum and level of performance that
warrant a student's being in college must
be entirely the affair of the student and
his professors, otherwise educational
process is impossible. For a particular
student at a particular time, a light load,
off-campus work, a moratorium might
be just the right thing.
A student's mediocre grades might be
quite irrelevant to the question of how
much he is profiting. The right curricu-
lum depends on where and how a stu-
dent is.
I am unwilling in this column to dis-
cuss the merits of the Vietnam war .as
policy—in my opinion, it is both unjust
and impolitic—but as an academic I
must say this: the pressuring and inter-
ference of the draft policy in academic
matters are intolerable and poison the
atmosphere of the community of schol-
ars.
It is the duty of faculty conceitedly to
protest against them and refuse them,
and it is the duty of students to urge
the faculty to do so.
In abstract logic, the "just policy" on
the student deferment is clear: Either
the war is just and then nobody should
be deferred (except for absolute social
or personal necessity); all must be in
it together. Or the war is unjust and we
should get the hell out of it. And ab-
stractly I agree with this forthright
reasoning, but—- "
Since the President does not seem to
be about to give up the war, the logic
means abolishing the deferment. The
students would of course be wildly
against it, for various good and bad rea-
sons. Also, University administrators
would be against it,' since it would di-
minish their population and grandeur,
even if many are students only to avoid
the draft. But finally, I think the govern-
ment itself must shy away from such a
step, for it cannot be eager to cope with
the unknown, but certainly very large,
number of students who oppose war and
would strenuously object to being draft-
ed, but who now settle quietly for de-
ferment.
At present the government is obvious-
ly disposed to get most of its troops
from the National Guard and the Re-
serves, rather tHan asking . for an
Emergency and risking debate. Yet this
drift toward a big professional army
is hazardous to democracy, and we may
rue it.
Copyright Paul Goodman 1965
THE RICE THRESHER OCTOBER 2 1, 196 5—P AGE 2
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Kelly, Hugh Rice. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 53, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 21, 1965, newspaper, October 21, 1965; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244953/m1/2/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.