The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 8, 1970 Page: 2 of 8
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editorial
New graduate insurance available
The blanket-tax increase requested by KTRU is well-
earned. The station has been operating for two years on
a paltry budget with equipment begged, borrowed, and
stolen from friendly sources. Their share of^the student
tax pie has been a meagre fifty cents. The equipment
is long past pension age. KTRU's blanket tax revenue
last year was $1200; another thousand or so came in
from paid advertisements. Expenditures, however, were
nearly $4000. Friends of Rice chipped in to help balance
the budget, but philanthropy is undependable.
Expansion to dual AM-FM outlets is on the agenda
for next semester. The Rice Board of Governors has
approved KTRU's request to expand, subject of course
to certain provisions, but a blanket-tax increase is es-
sential to the plan.
A survey last year indicated that about 80 percent
of campus residents listened to KTRU at least once a
week, and about 30 percent listened regularly. The station
is the campus's only source of daily communication, and
its 100 or so staff and hangers-on make it the largest
Rice student organization. Successful as a baling twine
and chewing gum operation, KTRU deserves to be put on
a solid fiscal footing-.
Based upon numerous com-
plaints of inadequate service
and coverage under currently
available student health and ac-
cident insurance coverage, the
Graduate Student Association
acted Monday to procure an al-
ternative insurance plan for all
Rice students who need or de-
sire it. The cost for the insur-
ance program being offered by
the Association corresponds
very closely to the costs of the
presently existing insurance:
$'30 per year for an unmarried
student; $75 per year for a stu-
dent and spouse; and $110 per
year for a married couple with
other dependents.
cCette
Not ail of the Homecoming activities gave the alumni a
true picture of today's Rice. The morning seminar on the
ollege System was informative in that it detailed the history,
mechanics, and advantages of the Colleges; but it failed to
*. ouch on what, from a student point of view, seem to be a
i! a.,or practical problems. No mention was made of proposals
'o integrate the Colleges sexually, the current off-campus co-op *
proposals, or the tenuous position the Colleges maintain as non-
independent bodies within the university structure. The inereas-
jr.g reluctance of upperclassmen to reside on campus was men-
tioned only in passing, and then only because a member of the
audience posed the question.
I>r. Trenton W. Wann. master of Jones and moderator of
"'e panel, said the Colleges were implemented originally "largely
as a management technique" to "remove the sources of irrita-
tion from day-to-day life." Poor table manners and general
slovenliness were among those irritants, Wann said, and he im-
plied that the College System has effectively eliminated etiquette
deviants.
Dr. Mervyn Lea Rudee, master of Wiess, gave a brief his-
torical and mechanical sketch. In choosing their members', he
sain, the Colleges "try to keep -the input differences minimal,"
unit selecting equally "random" resident populations.
"With
ach
The major differences be-
tween the two insurance pro-
grams are found in the benefit
provisions of the policy. Maxi-
mum benefits under the pres-
ent student insurance amount
to about $2,500; the program
offered by the Association pro-
vides benefits to $20,000. The
new insurance program is serv-
iced locally, rather than through
San Antonio, in order to facil-
itate settlement of claims, and
each student who enrolls will
receive a full copy of the in-
surance policy with a ten-day
option of rejecting the cover-
age at no charge, if he is not
completely satisfied.
Students may enroll for this
new insurance plan at any
time, rather than strictly at
the beginning of the academic
year. None of these services
are available under existing
student health insurance plans
being sold on the Rice campus.
All graduate students will be
receiving a mailing concerning
the new insurance program dur-
ing the next few weeks. Under-
graduates, and graduate stu-
dents desiring more immediate
information may contact: Hec-
tor Ruiz-Cardenas, Ext. 841;
Kurt Alex, Ext. 494; Cathy
Tarrant, Ext. 542; Edward
Weisel, 526-6773.
threshing-it-ouf
Sims removes coke machines
He compared the Rice system with that in operation at Yale
v; he re "they have utilized their colleges to generate tremen-
dous alumni support." He failed to note, however, that Yale's
concept is fundamentally different in several respects.
Other panel members included Bruce Coats, president of Baker;
Ar.n Patton, president of Brown, and Claude Maer, a 1940 Rice
grad. Maer gave a humorous account of .-the good old days,
.-picing it with anecdotes of donkeys carried to the third floor
(;f East Hall, bonfire guarding, and "other problems which I
can't see how you handle with this new system."
Coats and Patton spoke from the student perspective. Coats
admitted he had moved off campus, one year but moved back when
h'- found he missed "the intangible feeling of spirit and com-
munity" that the College experience provided.
"Wann said the Colleges have moved far beyond their forma-
tive stages. They are a "success" now, he said, but progress
has created a paradoxical dual structure that opposes one Student
Association government and eight College governments. Each
group has its own area of competence, he said, and the separation
has led to a "not necessarily unhealthy level of tension."
He might have carried his analysis a step farther and ex-
amined the oppositions between the formal university structure
and the individual Colleges., The nebulous concept of "College
identity" was sprinkled throughout the discussion; someone might
have asked whether a true identity is possible given the university's
insistence that the Colleges act "in concert" in all matters that
really matter.
* —MURRAY
JOHN MAULDIN
Editor-in-Chief
<hrae%ar RICK'GEIDEE
• I II Business Manager
Chin lr-s S/.iiikowsl;i Editor-at-Lai-K£ Jack Murray Senior Editot
Mike Smith Exec. Assoc. Ed. Mike Ross Calendar Ed.
Marty Helasco Sports Ed. Gary Rachlin Sports Ed.
DeHow Freed Managing Ed. Becky Strader Copy Ed.
Staff: Kathy Bohrar, Maureen Cunnion, H. David Danplo, Emily DeWitt,
I>. Specd-i Elder. Mark Friedman, Steve Jackson, Peter Jordan, Phil Nichols,
Craig Roberts, Mark Sivers, Tim Thurston, Thomas Zimmerman.
Advertising: Jack Murray. „
Circulation: Doug Williams.
The Rice Thresher, official student newspaper at Rice University, is
published weekely on Thursday except during holidays and examination
periods by students of Rice University. Houston, Texas 7701. Phone JA8-4141,
<xt 221, (i 15.
The opinions expressed in this paper are those of its writers and editors
iind are not necessarily those of Rice University, its administrators or
officials.
To the Editor:
A student effort to sell bot-
tled soft drinks for the reason-
able price of ten cents has been
stopped by Rice officials. A
machine located in Herman
Brown and offering a wide va-
riety of beverages was ordered
removed by Mr. Sims of the
Rice business office by Wednes-
day.
The machine, which was han-
dled by a group of students,
was, however, not only ap-
proved of, but also encouraged
by the Snappy Snack Vending
Company (owned by Coca-
Cola), which handles all the
University-sponsored conces-
sion machines on campus. The
original reason for removing
the machine given by Mr. Sims
to the students involved was
that Rice received no profit
from the machine. The students
then offered to give the Uni-
versity the profits. They re-
ceived no reply to this except
an order to remove the machine.
They were promised written
notification, but as of the writ-
ing of this letter, none has
been forthcoming.
Other individual businesses
have ben run on this campus—
everything from a sandwich
shop to representatives of ma-
jor companies (such as maga-
zines and record clubs). There
are—or now it might be were—
two other individually-handled
drink machines. As long as
these small, individual enter-
prises do not interfere with the
community we have here, they
should be encouraged to re-
main. We personally feel that
rather than interfere with, they
encourage a low-key competi-
tion and an availability of serv-
ice which benefits every mem-
ber of the Rice community—
from employee to student to
professor, all of whom are at
least as concerned with saving
time and money as people out-
side of Rice.
There are a myriad of rea-
sons why we vehemently sup-
port this particular machine's
operation. It uses bottles in-
stead of cans (any environ-
mentalist knows why that is
better), it is cheaper both for
the customer and Snappy
Snack, it offers the largest va-
riety of drinks to be found on
this campus, it is serviced fre-
quently, and lost money is re-
turned promptly (it was in an
office so there was always
someone close by), to name a
few reasons — all of which
were included in a list pre-
sented to Rice along with a pe-
tition signed by employees,
faculty, and students in favor
of maintaining the machine.
Both were disregarded.
The benefits of this machine
and the principle embodied in
its maintenance for the enjoy-
ment of the Rice community
make it an issue well worth
raising. We hope that an au-
thorized group such as the Stu-
dent Association will step in to
protect its members' and
friends' interests.
MARVIN AND JANICE
RASMUSSEN
Rice '70
Govreau cries out for open eyes
To the Editor:
For years Rice University
has been in the backwaters of
the times. As demonstrations
and then riots swept across our
nation's campuses, Rice was an
almost startling and contrast-
ing conservative, very quiet
pool of stagnation. The typical
Rice student would not care
less, and in most cases, did not
'care less about his cousins ev-
erywhere. Besides, it couldn't
happen here.
Then it did. Rice, like some
new sixteen-year-old, scarred
and not a little angered, had its
coming out party. The thorn in
its side was removed, and Rice
sank back into its normal dor-
mant state of sheer apathy.
Why not — everything was
all right now. Events proved us
wrong. Most of us are familiar
with what happened. A lot of us
were right in there, fighting for
our threatened freedom of
speech and assembly. The cam-
pus was closed to outsiders, and
despite our pathetic symbolic
victories, beneath all the groan-
ing and moaning about our
precious dignity, we lost ev-
erything. We lost. No guaran-
tees were made that this would
not happen again.' Meanwhile,
not amazingly, Rice has once
again sunk into its traditional
pit of indifference.
Look around yourself at this
beautiful world. Does it really
mean anything to . you ? Can
you hear the grumbling against
this very materialistic society ?
What values or real goals has
the university given to you ?
The t^^ersity has failed in its
primary obligation of honestly
defining the aims and stand-
ards of the society to which it
owes its existence. It has to
give us decent goals, something
a little more significant than
getting a diploma, more virt-
uous than the promise of more
money, bigger homes, and
shinier cars. If not, how can we
help being captured by the
negative? Our-,so-called culture
is brimming with it. Books,
television, movies ... all grind
out a deluge of sex, perversion,
drugs and blood. And they
blame us for going after it. All
right. But what do they offer
in its place ? Evil is always
more appealing to begin with,
and when good has been robbed
of all excitement and meaning
besides, it's not even a contest.
The universities have become
nothing more than giant cor-
porations for the producing and
marketing of knowledge. They
have lost all intellectual and
moral identity. They have lost
their souls to the computer, to
industry, to the hunger for ma-
terial growth. Many of you are
being turned into task oriented
technicians with slave mentali-
ties. Remember, you are the
sharp and trainable raw ma-
terial.
What are our cousins on oth-
er campuses looking for? All
they want is a say in how their
lives are being run. Sure, I
agree that here at Rice we have
a few more concessions than at
other universities. Now we can
get laid if we want to, but how
about this rule against faculty
falling in love with students?
It's stupid and ridiculous. How
about the descriminate firing
of good teachers, while indif-
ferent researchers take their
place and have the administra-
tion's approval? Who, but the
student himself, can really de-
cide what he has learned and
not learned in the final analy-
sis"? We ought to tear up the
catalogs and stuff the grading
system in the museum where it
belongs. We ought to teach our
teachers love and admiration
instead of fear and threats.
Stand behind your faculty when
they put their careers on the
line. What do you want? Rice
University, open your eyes.
STEVE GOVREAU
Hanszen '72
the rice thresher, october 8, 1970—page 2
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Mauldin, John. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 8, 1970, newspaper, October 8, 1970; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245088/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.