The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 15, 1966 Page: 2 of 6
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Thresher
Sandy Coyner, Editor
Phil Garon, Managing Editor
Chris Curran, News Editor
Dennis Bahler, Make-up Editor
ir&bfitf, i¥alict<zy&
Not many students will read this edi-
torial, because most have already gone
home.
For Christmas vacation is, more than
anything else, the Rice student's first
chance to escape the system which has
already, in 13 weeks, nearly broken him.
And he leaves as soon as he can.
The Rice student goes away—not neces-
sarily home—but away. He is more driven
than drawn.
The overwhelming preference of the
student body for a calendar change to end
finals before this vacation seems to reflect
mainly the Rice student's desire to re-
store to his vacation some value other
than the escape-value. But the sickness
is not in the calendar; the system itself
is infected.
Rice students judge their work by a
near-perfect ideal—which should not harm
them, except that those who cannot
achieve success in these terms too often
lose all sense of value. The failure is ag-
gravated because the grading system is
punitive—not rewarding—and the course
load is unreasonably demanding.
By now, nearly every student must
sense in his own experience the need to
examine the stress level of his educational
system. It will take more than ignoring,
repressing or drowning the problem to
solve it.
We wish you a merry Christmas, with
the sincere hope that, if only for a mo-
ment, the pressure and tensions can fade
far enough into the background that love
and a sense of freedom may prevail.
12-25-66
The Christmas story once again peals
out upon a happy little stereophonic, fil-
tertip world of parking tickets, bluebooks
and dexedrine.
The booming carols in glittering, teem-
ing department stores remind us of the
joyous message—that we can shelve our
books for bottles and speed over turnpikes
to share a few precious days with our
families, old friends, and perhaps lavish-
ing what remains of ourselves and our
wallets on a special someone.
Strange that the humble birth of a baby
in an obscure village of the Near East
a couple of thousand years ago should so
disrupt the pattern of the Good Life that
even the New York Stock Exchange
pauses for the day.
Odd that church bells in Brussels, Bos-
ton, Buenos Aires and Biloxi ring out to
commemorate the coming of a child^jwho
would never know the intricacies of eco-
nomic warfare and foreign policy, much
less the diplomacy of cocktail party eti-
quette.
Funny that angels and shepherds should
share top billing with Maverick, missiles
and sensational murders.
More unusual still are the moments
amid tinsel and egg-nog when we realize
that this celebrated infant of a far-off
time and place was a living symbol of all
the love and humanity that man can ever
hope to know.
(The above editorial was written in 1959 by the Threshet
Associate Editor, Bill Delaney. It has been reprinted each
year since then in the week before Christmas.—Ed.)
L.
The Rice Thresher
SANDY COYNER
Editor
BOB EASTON
Business Manager
The Rice Thresher, official student newspaper at Rice University, is pub-
lished weekly on Thursday except during holidays and examination periods by
the students of Rice University, Houston, Texas 77001. Phone JA 8-4141, ext.
645. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the writers and are not
necessarily those of Rice University, its administrators or officials.
Phil Garon —Managing Editor
Chris Curran News Editor
Dennis Bahler — Make-up Editor
Morag Fullilove Staff Editor
Tommy Hearron Sports
Roger Glade & Clint Goodson Fine Arts
Charles Szalkowski Colleges Editor
Mark Williamson Calendar Editor
Threshing-it-out
Burris cites 4pink'
Dear Mr. Pitzer:
(Mr. Burris sent a copy of this
letter to the THRESHER.)
I attended Rice University
from 1959 until 1962, when I
graduated. I can truthfully say
that I have always been as
proud of this as anything I have
ever done. My parents, rela-
tives and friends all feel as I
do. To the people I associate
with and meet everyday, Rice
University is the ultimate in
education.
I have just finished reading
an article in the Houston Tri-
bune (December 8, 1966) re-
garding a racial seminar held
on the Rice campus. Now I
realize that this is a conserva-
tive newspaper, therefore I will
refer only to paragraphs in
quotations.
A young- student said,
"We've rid ourselves of the
chains of slavery. Now we are
in another slavery called capi-
talism. The man who tells me
that I'm free to pay $7.50 for
a meal while I'm making 90c
an hour—I'd just as soon cut
his throat."
One member of the audience
yelled; "I propose you get rid of
the Constitution and the Chris-
tian religion, because they com-
pel people to do things. It's
your Constitution and your
Christianity that has imprison-
ed us for years."
A Negro student addressed
the panel, "Why should you
fire white people and replace
them with Negroes? Because
you've discriminated against
me for years. Now it's time to
discriminate for me."
"We are still in a capitalistic
system, and when you're hired
the company expects to make
L,,
■ : i ■
a profit off you. We're not out
of that system yet, and until
we are, whether you're black,
brown or blue, Catholic or Jew,
you won't get the job, because
the door will be closed to you."
The latter was said by a Mr.
Fred Wiener, director of the
Vocational 'Guidance Service..
Mr. Wiener also commented
that "We're coming to the time
when we can pay people for not
working. We'll get rid of the
Christian ethic that you aren't
honorable if you don't work.
The economy can produce
enough without everyone work-
ing."
I can honestly say that I am
ashamed and appalled at the
administration and the students
of our great university for al-
lowing something such as this
to be tolerated. Think of the
people who read these things and
the impression they receive. Af-
ter all, isn't Communism based
on atheism and a complete
obliteration of capitalism, the
political ideology that has made
our country the greatest the
world has ever known.
I realize that the students
represented are a minority at
Rice. But still, these are the
ones who are being heard. These
poor uninformed kids are cre-
ating the Rice image. A false
image.
Other people along with my-
self are truly concerned about
this. Are we to support faith-
fully and financially the Uni-
versity when these things are
going on right in front of our
nose?
What should we do?
ROLAND BURRIS
Rice '6J2
Getz blasts communications break
Richard Sawyer Photography Editor
Ardley Branfrask & Peter Jordan
Cartoonists
Ron Welborn Advertising Mgr.
General Staff: Vieki Epp, Stephen Fox, Rick Herr, Folly Hinds, Peter Jordan, Barry Kaplan, Lyn Norris, Mike Weir,
Chuck Young, Chuck Younger, Chuck Youngest, Santa Claus, and weblors.
To the Editor:
Obviously this is going to
appear (if it gets printed) af-
ter the deadline has passed for
returning the student schedules
for final exams. However, I
feel there is one point in the
handling of these forms that I
must complain about.
We, the off-campus students
of Rice, have for a long time
been getting a raw. deal from
the University in terms of com-
munication, notification.
Ignoring for the present such
simple problems as not hearing
from my college in the three
years I have been here (Jones
North), , not being notified in
any way when classes are to
begin each fall, not knowing
anything at all about campus
activities unless we happen to
pass through the RMC or pick
up a Thresher before the week-
end, I wish to predict at least
a partial failure of the new
exam scheduling system be-
cause of the simple fact that
many people did not (and per-
haps still do not) know that
they were supposed to pick up
forms, and all the details of
filling them out.
I think there was a total fail-
ure on the part of the admin-
istration, and/or of the colleges
to have any thorough notifica-
tion of the students as to what
they should be doing. Granted,
word-of-mouth may generally
be partially successful, granted
we should be interested enough
in the school to read the
Thresher, and granted we
should stop expecting the world
to take care of us.
But did the administration
realize that many off-campus
students rarely happen to pass
through the RMC, and that
if they happened to miss just
last weeks's Thresher they
would have no earthly way of
being aware that these final
schedulings were even being
considered right now? (Not to
mention the confusion of hav-
ing to do it all in three days
with no one knowing anything
about what to do with take-
homes, and the "officials" at
the colleges who don't even
know where in the college we
are supposed to get the forms).
I would not be at all surpris-
ed, let me repeat, if there are
students who still are complete-
ly unaware that they are sup-
posed to have, scheduled their
exams by today (Thursday). I
do not know what the academic
policy will be towards these stu-
dents who are still unaware,
but I hope that the administra-
tion will realize they are as
much (if not more) to blame
than the students.
I also hope, with much fer-
vor, that the blame will not
be placed on our hard-working
ing registrar himself (for he
knows that it is up to us to
make this work) but rather on
the general tradition of noti-
fication (rather, non-notifica-
tion) by the school—it could
not have taken more than three
or four days to mail out a
notice to us.
I hope that the aims of Mr.
Morehead and the students who
are working for this new idea
will succeed, because we cer-
tainly need revision" of our fi-
nal exam program, and I can
. only plead that its probable
breakdown this first time not
imply its demise.
Its survival is necessary, and
the administration should real-
ize its part in making the pro-
gram a success.
JUDY GETZ
Jones '67
i!!
THE RICE THRESHER, DECEMBER 1 5, 196 6—P AGE 2
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Coyner, Sandy. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 15, 1966, newspaper, December 15, 1966; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244988/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.