The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 16, 1969 Page: 1 of 8
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National affairs conference emphasized critical thought
(Carl Allen, a Hanszen junior, alow;
with Wiesa senior Duane Windsor and
Jones senior Ruth G. McGill, repre-
sented Rice at the 14th Annual Student
Conference on National Affairs at
Texan A & M in College Station last
month. The theme for the conference
was "The Limits and Responsibilities
of U. S. Power." This is Mr. Allen's
report.—Ed.)
By CARL ALLEN
SCONA kicked off predict-
ably, with the keynote speech
by Special Presidential Assist-
ant Walt Rostow. Mr. Rostow
has been described as the most
influential hawk on the Wash-
ington scene. His speech re-
viewed U.S. foreign policy since
the second World War, and the
general tone was one of steadily
rising optimism. The delegates
who found this line of thinking
a bit hard to accept formed a
small but vocal minority.
Second of the speakers was
retired Army Chief of Staff,
General Harold K. Johnson. In
the course of a long and dis-
tinguished military career Gen.
Johnson has amassed an im-
pressive store of knowledge and
some very strong ideas on what
is right and wrong for this coun-
try. The experience of hearing
a man come right out and speak
his mind, and hold his ground
against really sharp questions,
was refreshing, especially in an
election year.
Sincerity
In the Pentagon Gen. Johnson
had opposed search and destroy
missions as wasteful, but he
strongly questioned the military
advisability of the bombing halt.
The General is a thinking man's
hawk, but whether or not one
agreed with his positions he
certainly deserved respect for
his sincerity.
As a windup speaker SCONA
dug up William S. White,
called dean of the Washington
press corps by some. Either
Mr. White was talking down to
us or he sees the world in amaz-
ingly simplistic terms. State-
ments to the effect that the
President is best informed and
therefore should be allowed to
govern with practically no re-
sponse to public opinion do not
go unchallenged anywhere, even
at A&M. It r.i i g h t be said,
though, that all three main
speakers could feel right at
home in that unyielding bastion
of Texas conservatism.
Discussions
SCONA was structured not so
much around speakers as around
student discussion groups, called
Roundtables. As an S-E who
gets most of his political sci-
ence background from the press
and TV, I went into the first
Roundtable session expecting to
be fully outclassed. It did not
happen. Nobody tried to domi-
nate the discussion, and as the
delegates got to know each other
almost everyone began to speak
out.
Arguments ranged from the
monetary crisis and the CIA to
containment and the Alliance for
Progress. The discussions were
not always well-informed, but I
got the feeling that I was lis-
tening to some very honest reac-
tions by college students to the
problems they saw in the world
today.
After four days at SCONA I
came away feeling better than
I had in a long time about the
shape this country is in. Admit-
tedly if the same conference
were held at Harvard or Berke-
ley this impression might have
been reversed. The best thing
about this type of conference,
any way you look at it, is that
it forces the delegates to think
and speak out for themselves.
volume 56, number 16
the rice thresher
rice university, houston, texas
thursday, january 16, 1969
Gruesome anti-war flick included
in Rice Chapel film series segment
Ken Strauss
Gordon surveys admissions scene
By DENNIS BAHLER
Dean William E. Qordon,
Chief Executive Officer of the
University, outlined steps Rice
has taken to plan for future
increased enrollment of minor-
ity students, in a talk before
students and faculty in the Will
Rice Commons" last Thursday
night.
"You, the students, have
shown your concern in this mat-
ter in a variety of ways," he
said, citing the SCOUR report
and the reaction it triggered.
He noted that the proposals
voiced in the report had re-
ceived the support of "at, least
two college cabinets and the
Student Association."
Rice, he said, has a "certain
reputation," and is "widely
known for its fine undergradu-
ates." But simply because its
students are known to - succeed,
he added, it does not follow that
the University can be success-
ful in dealing with a greatly
increased enrollment of minor-
ity students.
Examination
"Just because Rice is very
good a^ .gome things does not
imply that it can do all things
well," he said. "Changes come
slowly, but they come. Both
faculty and administration are
searching for solutions" to the
dilemma.
The SCOUR report, Gordon
said, has been forwarded to
the Committee on Minority Ad-
missions, chaired by Dr. Alan
Grob of the English Depart-
ment, with the recommendation
that the committee "consider
seriously the report and the re-
action of student groups to it."
Grob's committee, Gordon
said, was established as an of-
ficial University committee by
the Faculty Council this fall at
the request of certain concerned
professors. It is charged with
examining the problems con-
nected with increased minority
admissions, in order to provide
the necessary information to the
Admissions Committee, and with
gathering information which
will enable Rice to expand its
black enrollment, such as what
(See ADMISSIONS .. j.jijio 7l
Student cross-section represented
at Gordon minority admission talk
By BASIL WEBB
The talk at Will Rice last
Thursday by Executive Officer
William Gordon is covered else-
where in this newspaper as to
content and critique, but a view
of the talk "from another angle
may be helpful to an under-
standing of the significance of
the meeting.
There were people in the
Will Rice lounge, lots of them,
and the crowd was notable for
two reasons: those who were
there and those who were not.
The faculty was represented
by a couple of College Masters
and Resident Associates who
said nothing, the chairman of
the "official" university com-
mittee who also said nothing
(except perhaps by way of many
unreferenced quotations by the
speaker), and one or two others,
one of whom did ask a question,
but only by way of clarifying a
•student's position.
The administration, except
for the'Bean who spoke, was
conspicuously absent. The speak-
er was thus placed in the awk-
ward position of representing
the entire University adminis-
tration, yet possessing only the
(See REPRESENTATIVE on page 7)
LSSSHXilSSiE-'SS..
Suspension
By action of the Dean of
Students, a student has been
suspended from the Univer-
sity for three semesters be-
cause of a violation of the
Honor system.
Nine short and medium-
length films, including the
starkly realistic anti-war docu-
mentary "The War Game," will
be presented Thursday, Jan. 30
at 7:.'J0 pm in the RMC as part
of the Rice Chapel Series.
"The War Game," written,
produced, and directed by Peter
Watkin.s for the BBC, offers an
apocalyptic vision of what
might happen to a small corner
of England in the event of even
a small-scale nuclear attack.
The film recreates, with start-
ling clarity, representative in-
cidents which follow such an
attack.
Gerald .Jones of the New
York Times wrote that "Wat-
kins makes imaginative use of
official statistics, a cast of non-
professionals, and the often-
neglected art of makeup. The
result is a 47-minute pseudo-
documentary which the BBC
banned from the home screen
as being unsuitable for family
ron.su mption."
20 tons
The film proceeds with often
incredibly gruesome scenes
while the narration relates, in
calm, matter-of-fact tones, sim-
ple facts and the meaning, in
personal terms, of official cal-
culations ("the nuclear arsenals
of the great powers already con-
tain the equivalent of 20 tons
of TNT for every person on the
planet," "the heat from a stand-
ard nuclear warhead exploded
at a distance of 20 miles is
sufficient to cause melting of
the upturned eyeball, third-de-
gree burns of the skin, and ig-
nition of furniture").
"Within 15 years," says Wat-
kins, "another 6 to 12 nations
are sure to have a bomb of
some kind. We're crossing a
red line, and our thinking is
static. I don't think people have
grasped the scale of a nuclear
war. What I'm trying to fight
is the general freeze-up in
thinking about the future; that's
what's happening with the
B o m b. It was deliberately
pushed out of politics five years
ago. But just because no one's
talking about it, doesn't mean
it's vanished. It's still there,
shreiking in the attic!"
Social problems
Other films scheduled for the
festival include "The Inter-
view," a short film on the prob-
lems of communication; "It's
About This Carpenter," which
shows the reactkms to a car-
penter delivering*' cross to a
downtown New York City
church; "Requiem" and "Dodge
City," two comments on Am-
erican social problems and at-
titudes produced by Jeff Dell:
and "The Stringbean," described
as a" poetic affirmation of pur-
pose in simple human situa-
tions.
Also on the program are
"Felicia," the musings of a 14-
year-okl Negro girl about life
in the Watts section of Los
Angeles, notable because it was
produced five months before the
1965 riots there, and "Occurence
at Owl Creek Bridge," whicu
won an Oscar in 1964 for the
best live-action short subject.
The screening is open to alt
without charge.
CUE to sponsor
open forum, will
ask student ideas
The Committee on Under-
graduate Evaluation (CUE)
has asked the Student Associa-
tion to solicit and collect stu-
dent opinion and written state-
ments on the subject of "the
necessary contemporary goals
of an undergraduate education."
This request is in keeping
with the Committee's charge to
begin its evaluation by tie fin-
ing undergraduate education in
general and attempting to de-
termine what should be Rice's
role in this context.
All students and student
groups are strongly encouraged
to contribute to this mammoth
task by submitting their opin-
ions in writing during the next
two weeks to the Student Asso-
ciation Office in the RMC, says
SA President Warren Skaaren.
"The problem of this defi-
nition is of course partly one
of form as well as content,"
says Skaaren. /'Examples of
posible form and previous state-
ments are available in Rice's
Ten Year Plan and in the cata-
logues of other universities."
CUE is also sponsoring an
open forum on the subject
Wednesday, Jan. 22, at 7 pm in
Hamman Hall, for students who
would like to make their opin-
ions known vocally. The forum
will be taped and transcribed.
Anyone desiring further in-
formation should contact Dick
Smith, Ron Bozman, Nancy
Dietz, or Skaaren, through the
SA office.
O'
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Bahler, Dennis. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 16, 1969, newspaper, January 16, 1969; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245045/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.