The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 21, 1968 Page: 2 of 8
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courses they have taken not as good.
Of the 20 Black students that applied
to entei' with the freshman class of 1972,
13 were admitted on this basis. Black
students now make up approximately
.8% of the Rice student body.
recruiting
Last year 20 Negroes applied to Rice;
13 were accepted, 3 were placed on the
Waiting List, and 4 were turned down.
These simple statistics reveal the heart
of one of the greatest obstacles to bring-
ing Black students in large numbers to
Rice.
We realize that "this year's" Rice
University could not insure the academic
success of an influx of students from a
low socio-economic background. How-
ever, any of the changes that will be
proposed in this report, i.e., Plan II,
special summer program, etc., will do
little good unless we can gain at least
a sizeable increase in the number of "un-
derprivileged" applicants.
To insure this increase, we propose a
recruiting program; something that Rice
does not have in any real sense of the
word. The goal of this structure will be
to increase the number of applicants,
facilitate their application process, and
follow through on those accepted to in-
sure their attendance.
To increase the number of applicants
requires a twofold attack. First, we must
inform students in ghetto areas (and not
just Black ghettoes) of the education op-
portunities that Rice offers. Secondly,
we must make it clear that Rice Uni-
versity is now actively seeking students
with many different kinds of potential
and now has a curriculum suited to their
needs.
To spread this information we pro-
pose the selection of two four-man stu-
dent recruiting teams. There would also
he a reserve pool of four recruiters, in
case a student on the regular teams
was unable to do the job.
These teams will consist of volunteer
students accompanied by an admission
staff member. Each of the teams will
visit Black and ghetto schools in Hous-
ton, in other parts of Texas, and in
large urban centers, such as New York
City, Washington, D. C., and Chicago.
Itineraries may be set by the Admissions
Office.
Each member of the team will be
qualified to explain the generalities of a
Rice education. However, to insure that
no applicant's question will go unanswer-
ed, each member w ill be especially quali-
fied to explicate a specific aspect, such
as financial aid, curriculum, student life,
etc. Travel and administrative expenses
will be assumed by the University in the
form of additions to the Admissions Of-
fice Budget.
These teams will be chosen by a
selection committee consisting of two
students chosen by the SA, one faculty
member ;:hT>sen by the Faculty Council,
and two members of the Admissions
Committee.
No matter how efficient the structure
is, any realistic recruiting procedure
must depend on the success of individual
confrontations between students already
at Rice and the Black high school stu-
dent. It is because of the lack of contact
that the Rice student body has had with
the Black Community that we doubt
most Rice students' present ability to
fulfill the needs of the recruiting teams.
Although we do have enough Black stu-
dents already at Rice to fill the positions
on the recruiting teams, that is not the
answer.
IPirst of all, many of our Black stu-
dents have too many obligations (prin-
cipally academic and athletic) to be
making recruiting trips in coming
months. Secondly, we would be sadly
misrepresenting Rice if we sent all-
black teams when Blacks comprise less
than l'/n of the actual Rice student
body. The success of our program de-
pends heavily on the successful employ-
ment of Rice's Black students, but they
cannot be our recruiters alone. Several
of the Black students here have already
expressed a desire to help an intensified
recruiting program.
The facilitation of application pro-
cesses and the following through of those
accepted to insure their attendance will
take two forms. Certainly, personal com-
munication will be the most effective
tool in the implementing of these goals.
However, this communication will neces-
sarily be in the form of letters to those
applicants from beyond the immediate
Houston area. We would ask that prob-
lems and questions communicated to the
Admissions Office that could be better
solved and answered by students would
be transferred to interested students so
that the applicant would receive a per-
sonal answer rather than another form
letter. Besides presenting more indivi-
dually tailored solutions, this program
has the added advantage of providing
our answers and literature some differ-
entiation from that which the applicant
is receiving from other schools. Those
having application problems, or those
already accepted, would be contacted
personally by a team member if they
lived in the immediate area.
Our recruiting program, then, will re-
quire little increase in the efforts of the
admissions staff. A large part of the
increased work load will be borne by
interested students. (Contrary to popular
belief, there is a sizeable number of will-
ing students available.)
This in itself has two advantages: the
differentiation of Rice's recruiting at-
tempts from those of other schools and
the complete utilization of each part of
our resources in that area in which it
is most applicable.
financial aid
One of the most important facets of
the economic and racial diversification
of the Rice student body is the ability
of the University to continue to provide
sufficient financial aid for its students.
It is the position of SCOUR that the
present financial aid structure can pro-
vide for a significantly large and im-
mediate influx of students requiring full
financial assistance without a loss of
funds for other students and without
requiring these students to seek outside
employment detrimental to their acade-
mic career.
The only significant difficulty we fore-
see is the necessity of an emergency ap-
plication for more EOG funds in accord-
ance with the basic change in the eco-
nomic background of next year's enter-
ing class. However, indications are that
the office which distributes these funds
is especially receptive to this type of
request. There is also no doubt that the
type of student we want to bring to Rice
Avill have any trouble qualifying for
EOG funds.
The improvement of our education
from contact with the "Other America"
far outweighs the financial burdeft of
funding racial and economic minority
students beyond their financial need in
order to get them to attend Rice.
Other highly rated private and public
universities often grant monies to stu-
dents beyond their need in ordei* to
make acceptance to that university
especially appealing. It was with this
same philosophy hat Rice granted honor
scholarships of full tuition to highly
talented applicants. (Unfortunately these
honor prizes have now been reduced to
$250.) The University also has a pro-
gram of scholarships and grants used
through the Athletic Association to bring
talented athletes to Rice including full
tuition and room and board.
Without much doubt, the applicants
this report speaks of will be hard press-
ed to come to Rice without substantial
financial assistance. If it is, as SCOUR
has proposed, an asset to a Rice educa-
tion to have students from underprivi-
leged and minority backgrounds as well
as those from a white middle class back-
ground, then it is commensurate upon
the University to do her best to attract
such students.
With this in mind, SCOUR hopes Rice
will institute a program of financial aid
not based solely on need, but also with
the idea that it should be an asset in
the attraction of promising students.
Students included in this program would
be those who attend the summer prepara-
tion session (and thus lose six weeks of
working time in the summer) and those
designated by the admission staff as be-
ing particularly desirable for the diver-
sification of the student body. The Uni-
versity will not only be able to insure
that no one drops out of or does not
attend Rice for financial reasons, but
also be able to compete with other
"top" universities for the particularly
prized student who has been able to
distinguish himself in both personal and
academic spheres.
summer program
In order to achieve the diversity of
students that is so necessary for Rice
to become a truly great university, Rice
will have to admit students who under
the present admissions policy would not
normally get in. SCOUR is concerned
not only with getting these students into
Rice, but is assuring that they will have
a good chance to "make it" at Rice.
Since a certain number of these stu-
dents are likely to be victims of racist
policies in American high schools and
thus lack the background they will be
expected to have in their freshman
courses, we are proposing a way of
"evening up" their experience.
This would take the form of admit-
ting borderline students contingent on
their participation in a special summer
program at Rice immediately prior to
their freshman year. Obviously this pro-
gram will not be able to substitute for
four years of high school, but it care-
fully planned it should be able to pre-
pare the participants to handle their
freshman courses.
The "feasibility of setting up such a
program, especially for next summer, de-
pends on its being done inexpensively
and with a minimum amount of admin-
istrative detail. We feel this can be done
by utilizing program already in exist-
ence at Rice, the Summer School for
High School Students.
About 35 prospective freshmen would
live on the Rice campus for six weeks
and participate in an extensive program
of Summer School classes, independent
study, individual tutoring, and an ac-
culturation process. These would be
combined to give them not only factual
knowledge, but the tools needed to make
use of this knowledge, such as writing-
ability, "good study habits," and a work-
ing knowledge of the Library.' Hope-
fully they will then start their fresh-
man year better able to cope with their
course of study as Rice students.
plan II
A special admissions program is, as
mentioned before, contingent on the pos-
sibility for a student's "success" at Rice.
This refers not only to the academic
aspects of a university career, but also
to the "human" aspects. That, is, the
University should not only be concerned
with how a student fares in his studies
but also how humane an atmosphere
there is in which a personality may
prosper.
SCOUR notes that most of the stu-
dents at Rice feel the freshman year to
be a devastating- experience. A lower
classman, it seems, must undergo a
thorough testing before he is allowed
to continue. However, as was noted in
last year's Student Committee On Edu-
cational Policy proposal for reduction of
freshman course loads, "The net out-
come of Rice's academic trial system is
more often than not measured in frustra-
tion."
Obviously admittees from culturally
deprived backgrounds—those whose high
schools did not sufficiently prepare them
—would have a much more difficult time
than the present Rice student in coping
with the System. For this reason, and
with the hope of opening wider reform
in the Rice curricula, SCOUR proposes
the institution of a five-year program
for the Bachelor of Arts degree.
This program, tentatively designated
as Plan II, would operate concurrently
with the regular four-year B.A. pro-
gram; in many respects it would par-
allel the present five-year programs for
the B.S., M.E.E., and the B. Arch, de-
grees.
A five-year B.A. program would, of
course, be especially helpful to those
students recruited from underprivileged
and minority group backgrounds. These
are not, however, the only persons who
could benefit. Rice athletes, many of
whom are strained to fulfill academic
requiremests while participating in
freshman and varsity sports, could be
allowed to enter such a program. Burdens
on athletes could be removed if these
students were permitted to take reduced
course loads during the semester of com-
petition in their sports.
SCOUR is concerned nevertheless, that
groups of special admission not be seg-
regated within the University structure.
We therefore suggest that this five-year
B.A. program be instituted as an open
option for ALL students, with the ap-
proval of the Committee on Examina-
tions and Standing, at the beginning of
either the first or second year at Rice.
One of the many extensions of this
program might see the institution of an
informal work-sabatical, independent re-
search, or foreign study program with
credit applicable to a Rice degree.
Course credits would have to be com-
pleted within five years from admission,
and perhaps seven out of ten semesters
might have to be spent at Rice.
These are simply attractive extensions
of the five-year program; they are not
central issues in its institution. SCOUR
must make it clear, however, that the
institution of Plan II is essential for the
success of a recruiting and admissions
program for students from underprivi-
leged and minority group backgrounds,
a policy to which the Rice community
must ultimately direct itself.
counseling and tutoring
Examining the pressures on present
students—those with sufficient cultural
and academic training—is a staggering-
task. It is an exercise in futile approxi-
mation to attempt to determine how
these pressures will be multiplied for
groups of special admissions.
SCOUR has already suggested in this
report that all steps be taken to insure
that groups of special admission not be
segregated within the University struc-
ture. This committee is concerned with
this because Rice athletes, through no
fault of their own, are effectively seg-
regated from other students. It may not
be "proper" to admit this, but it is
true, and we feel it is lamentable.
Nevertheless, SCOUR foresees the
possibility that groups of special ad-
missions will need tutoring help in
order to get going the first year and to
keep going their second year. We are
the first to hope that too little is being-
expected of these special admissions:
perhaps they -will not require such tutor-
ing. We can only suggest that provisions
be made by the several departments of
the University for tutoring.
The University might well establish
a Committee on Tutors and back it with
adequate capital so that a creative pro-
gram of help might be established with
special admissions first in mind, but
with secondary sights on the benefit of
the entire student population. The first
recommendations to such a committee
should come following- close observation
of students at the special summer pro-
gram previously mentioned.
conclusion
First, black enrollment of substantially
less than one percent of the overall en-
rollment is not even significant enough
to be a "token." Rice is a segregated
institution.
Secondly, we are appalled at the Uni-
versity's provision of a uniformaly trau-
matic experience for all members of
each entering class. The frustration and
the other academic and %nfotional prob-
lems that the "laissez-faire" policy of
the University brings cut across even
the few economic and color lines that
do exist at Rice.
SCOUR firmly believes that this pro-
posal can bring meaningful diversifica-
tion to the heretofore narrow experiences
of Rice education. Since SCOUR believes
that this exposure to diverse elements of
society is an essential part of any edu-
cational experience, we shall do every-
thing that we can do to set the plan
in motion.
However, SCOUR has neither funds.,
nor power. Ultimate responsibility falls
on the administrators who set the course
of Rice University. SCOUR hopes and
belie,ves that this proposal more than
justifies the necessary action that Rice
University must take to provide for
meaningful diversification (ethnic, eco-
nomic, and geographic) in the next en-
tering class and the concommitant steps
to provide a human® program for these
new students.
the rice thresher, november 21,1968—page 2
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Bahler, Dennis. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 21, 1968, newspaper, November 21, 1968; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245041/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.