The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 57, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 4, 1969 Page: 1 of 6
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volume 57, number 1
the r ice thresher
rice university, houston, texas
the billboard
thursday, September 4, 1969
*
- Ken Strauss
Traditional orientation program ignores academic reality
"Orientation," we said last year,
"Traces its sluggish path each year no
better and no worse than before . .
Although this is probably still true
to a degree, there is an illusion shared
by many advisors that this year's Fresh-
man Week went better than those in
years past. This may be because the
men's colleges continue to judge their
success by the female reactions to their
mixers. The girls preferred mixers with
things to do while not dancing, like
penny arcade or casino games. Beach
parties were out, and lawn parties were
in this year, but it didn't really seem
like an improvement.
Substantial change in the program is
mainly,the result of less emphasis on
highly structured discussions of summer
reading material, fewer attempts to in-
duce the freshman to immerse himself
immediately in the "intellectual climate"
of the university, and less of the smn-
mer-camp atmosphere. There was an
overall simplification and an elimina-
tion of the stilted aura of imposed in-
tellectual profundity which pervaded
past orientation programs.
Intellectual stimulation
Until this year a major goal of the
Freshman Week program was intellect-
ual preparation for the "grand ad-
venture" of the undergr&luate experi-
ence. Freshmen were expected to grasp
the importance of ideas for their own
sake, to understand the subtleties of
rational debate, and to have generated
within them an enthusiasm for intellect-
ual exploration, all within the space of
one short week.
In some Colleges this year Freshmen
expressed a desire for more intellectual
stimulation, since the boredom of the
daytime hours was broken only by I ')•.
"Garside's lecture. Because of the peculiar
boy-girl ratio here the girls' mixer
schedujlijng was Miseipn Impossible.
Brown eventually postponed their city
tour, and never had a chance to em-
ulate Hanszen's evening discussion
series. The course orientation and
registration preliminaries were consider-
ed a drag, since the big problems don't
appear until after the first attempt at
registration. It was not until Thursday
that History 200, a course designed for
SE's only, was discovered to conflict
with the normal SE schedule including
Client 120 and Physics 100.
Optimism
Freshman week is carried out each
year through the mediation of that un-
usual form of life, the upper-class ad-
visor. Some of the advisors believe that
their function is to prevent the fresh-
man from becoming disillusioned. They
are aided in this respect by that germ
of optimism to be found within each
freshman, that which tells him he will
succeed in overpowering the system
where those before him have failed,
telling him that he can study and jl.\v
sports, be in ROTC and be an individual,
work hard and maintain his social life,
get good grades and receive a good
education.
Other advisors more cynically believe
that disillusionment is inevitable, and
that destruction of the myths at the
earliest date will give the Freshman
a better chance to change his plan.
These advisors can be motivated by New
left philosophy, but are more often
drawing on their own experiences and
RET.
Cynicism
A third category contains the ad-
visors who define their function in other
terms, such as orientation to surround-
ings or social life, formation of adviser-
advisee frienships, or the planning of
raw experiences from which the Fresh-
man can draw his own conclusions. Most
of the colleges tried to avoid mass pro-
cessing of the frosh by keeping the
advisory groups rather autonomous.
Still, one Hanszen freshman comment-
ed, "1 found there was too much
guidance in respect to our activities in
university organization. We got plenty
of "information from "'the Young Re-
publicans, but nothing from the oPS."
This comment points -up one of the
most difficult dilemmas for Freshman
week planners. As stated by Will Rice
College, "Freshman Week is a low-
pressure period of enculturation to life
at Rice . . . the freshman is given the
opportunity to establish an identity with-
in the College and university without
having to worry about his academic
load."
Few expectations
Yet the impending academic season,
and apprehension of its rigors, is a major
factor in the attitudes Which most
freshmen will bring to the Freshman
Week program. Their expectations about
specific activities are rather vague, as
revealed by one Hanszen freshman:
"I had no particular expectations. I
wanted mostly to be able to learn where
everything was and who I could talk
to."
In addition, many freshman judged
the success of the Freshman Week ac-
tivities by the degree to which it allevi-
ated their insecurities and doubts. When
asked about the inadequacies of the pro-
gram, for example, a Lovett freshman
commented that "there should have been
some time set aside for sports." It would
have offered an outlet for some of our
problems and worries." Yet wh|n asked
about his dominant impression of Fresh-
man Week, this same student replied,
"When classes started we were pre-
pared."
Thus the primary problem is to pro-
vide an atmosphere in which the incom-
ing student can become aware of some
of the peculiar intricacies of Rice life,
and through this knowledge, relieve some
of /his inevitable fears about his ability
to "make it." And although several ot:
the Colleges deemphasized the scheduled
activities, the basic conception of what
Freshman week activities should be,
remained traditional: mixers, lectures,
discussions and tours.
The obvious question which arises here
is how do mixers, lectures, discusions,
and tours really relate to what the
freshmen will be confronted with during
his tenure at Rice. How do they prepare
him for the shock of the S-E curriculum,
and the intellectual leap which separates
the kind of thinking which was expected
of him in high school, and the kind of
analysis which will be required by col-
lege-level courses ?
Pleasant prelude
In this light the traditional Fresh-
man Week activities appear to be de-
signed as more of a pleasant prelude,
which is mostly irrelevant to the real-
ities of life at Rice. A Lovett freshman
commented that he really learned, where
evei*ything was on campus when he tried
to register for an upper-level English
course. This type of individual experi-
ence often makes a far greater impres-
sion than any that are so carefully and
sterilely conceived.
Since most freshman have only an
uncertain idea of what to expect from
freshman week, the usual upperclass
l'eply that if traditional activities are not
held, such as mixers, the freshman will
be bitterly disappointed, is not really
valid. Several freshmen stated that the
time they enjoyed most during the week
was their free time.
Thus while this year's Freshman week
program was successful by traditional.
standards, it seems possible that a better
analysis of the components of Rice life
might produce a more innovative pro-
gram which would present a real in-
troduction to the undergraduate experi-
ence.
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Murray, Jack. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 57, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 4, 1969, newspaper, September 4, 1969; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245058/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.