The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1973 Page: 2 of 12
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the rice thresher Stokes says Rice not so bad
editorial
TexPIRG is paying for itself.
The drug price survey released last week is not the
first accomplishment of the Texas Public Interest Re-
search Group, but it is easily the most important. It is
important to TexPIRG becuase it proves to its backers,
the students, that they are getting- their money's worth.
And, paradoxically, it is important to all Texas students
because it will benefit, not only them, but the whole
community.
Furthermore, the report, in enhancing the status
of TexPIRG, directly aids all students. The extensive
radio, TV, and newspaper coverage given to the survey
in the last few days has publicized the fact that students
can effective!}* plan and execute an operation in the
public interest.
The response of the community should be one of
increased interest and respect—and possibly a little
gratitude. After all, they, too, stand to benefit.
The results of the drug survey, and the planned fol-
low-up, are of great potential value to the entire com-
munity. Everybody gets sick; almost everyone requires
prescription drugs at some time. It is important that
these drugs be freely available and fairly priced, and of
high quality,'After all, our lives are at stake.
The legislation for which TexPIRG plans to lobby
will require pharmacies to post prices for the most com-
monly needed drugs; some price ceilings might be es-
tablished.
This legislation alone will not improve drug pricing
much, 'out it should at least make blatant gouging highly
unprofitable. Fair competition will do the rest. The big
drug manufacturers are the only ones who stand to lose
if this legislation- goes through, and their loss will be
the gain of the ill and unwary who now pay inflated
prices. While in some cases unethical druggists are res-
ponsible for overpricing, most pharmacies should wel-
come these measures.
TexPIRG deserves the financial, moral, and personal
support of Texas universities, and of all Texas citizens.
It needs this support now if its report is to be followed
by more work.'here or in Austin, on this or any subject.
It deserves this support,,not because of what it has
done, but what-it can clo in the future.
At a time when students are using their newly-won
privilege, the vote, to campaign for their full majority
rights, and when students and non-students alike suffer
from pollution, overgovernment, and general thievery,
TexPIRG is too valuable an instrument not to use.
Maybe even worth $4. a year.
the
thresne?
H. Davul JJatipIo Assistant Editor
Morty Rich Assistant Editor
Jim Lawler ... Head Photographer
Hill Jones Sports Editor
Greg Norris Sports Editor
STEVE JACKSON
Editor
MALCOLM WADDELL
Business Manager
Lew Hancock Advertising Manager
Virginia Jee Assistant Business
Manager
Ralph Umbarger Calendar Editor
Kiaff: Andy Hurley. Chip Lansdell, Frank Presler, Mike Ross, Gary Brewton,
Mark Onak, Cnthc Krause, Michael Peck, Craig Stafford, Randy G'uebert. Forrest
Johnson, Wendy Nordstrom, James Wilhoit, Guyle Cavin, Irene Schumiliver,
Laura Johnston, IJob Bunch, Ann. Wilhoit, Rick Brown, Ira Beflkerman, Kate
Jones, Kathy Ford, Don Shewey, Lee Sowers
<3
The Rice Thresher, official student newspaper of Rice University, is pub-
lished weekly on Thursday except during holidays and examination periods by
students of Rice University, Houston, Texas 77001, telephone 528-4141 X221 or
615. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of anyone except the
writers. Obviously.
the rice thresher, february 1, 1973—page 2
To the editor:
The problem with Mr. Hen-
derson's letter in last week's
Thresher is that he has most
of his facts wrong. The "cream
of the crop" is not going to
"low cost state universities."
About sixty percent of the blue
chip students mentioned else-
where in the paper who did not
come to Rice last year went to
the following six schools: Har-
vard, Yale, MIT, Princeton,
Duke, and Stanford, all of which
are private institutions with
higher tuitions than Rice.
What "liberties with the uni-
versity's original charter" can
Mr. Henderson mean as preci-
pitating- Rice's decline? Since
he concedes that women might
meet his high standards, he
must mean blacks. Mr. Hender-
son probably is unaware of the
fact that black students at Rice
by and large have performed
at the same level as white stu-
dents, according to those who
have followed their careers here
in detail. His implication that
Rice would be a better place
without blacks is outrageous.
31 r. Henderson is wrong
again when he says Rice has
abandoned its high faculty-stu-
dent ratio. Rice has over 300
faculty members and will con-
tinue to have that number into
the foreseeable future (com-
pare Colgate University, for
example, which considers teach-
ing undergraduates as its pri-
mary task: with a student body
the same size as Rice it has
only 150 professors).
Mr. Henderson's view that
veaching is not considered suf-
ficiently when promotion and
tenure decisions are being
made must ring a bitter bell
with some departing faculty
members. As a matter of fact,
never has teaching been so im-
portant in these decisions. Re-
search is still primary, as it
should be (does Mr. Henderson
think it is not at MIT and Cal
Tech?}, but no one goes over
student evaluation forms as
carefully as the University
Council members who must de-
cide on promotions.
Mr. Henderson says that he
doubts that humanities and fine
arts will ever reach the status
of the engineering school. Real-
ly ? Does he know that the
American Council on Education
survey of graduate faculties
published in 1970 showed only
one engineering department
(Chemical Enginereing) nation-
ally ranked (eleventh), while
the other three were grouped
in the same second level as the
established humanities and
social science departments? Or
that the most improved depart-
ment in that survey was not
in engineering but in the
social sciences (History) ? As
for undergraduate education,
does, he know that when the
Vice President of the American
Council of Education ranked
over 2000 undergraduate insti-
tutions in the country in 1971,
he found Rice to be one of the
27 outstanding ones (along with
Dartmouth, Princeton, Brandeis,
and the University of San
Diego in its size category) ?
As for fine arts, I wonder
which second-rate aspect Mr.
Henderson refers to: Gold and
Fisdale, the media center film
series, Madame Bernier, Rob-
erto Rossellini, or perhaps the
world famous Max Ernst col-
lection opening here next week ?
No one should conclude from
these remarks that I think
Rice is the best of all possible
worlds. The psychiatric prob-
lems Mr. Henderson mentions
are serious, for example. But I
do think that the talk lately
about "decline in the quality
of education at Rice" has been
greatly overdone. Ten years ago
Rice had no Political Science
Department, no Psychology De-
partment, no Biochemistry De-
partment, no Space Science De-
partment. In the last decade we
have added college courses,
modernized the curriculum,
built millions of dollars worth
of new buildings, created an
enormous variety of new and
stimulating courses, and hired
dozens of truly outstanding
faculty members. Perhaps most
significantly of all, the Media
Center with its associated acti-
vates has enriched the Rice ex-
perience immeasurably. How
do all of these things and more
add up to a decline in the quali-
ty of education?
It is easy enough to sound
the trumpet yet one more time
for a "meaningful reordering
of priorities." It is a lot harder
to take the sweet with the bit-
ter.
Sincerely,
Gail Stokes, Asst.
Professor of History
Brewton wants "R" doors open
To the editor:
Although most students have
resigned themselves to the ex-
istence of the "R" room over
the south end of the football
stadium, I would like to sug-
gest that better use of the facil-
ity could be made even though
the $300,000 has been lost, for
all practical purposes, to the
university for the past two
years.
First, I would suggest that
the "R" room be opened to
all patrons at all Rice football
sanies. There is no reason for
the university to continue to
support an elite organization
(The "Owl" club or '"R" as-
sociation) to the exclusion of the
great majority of Rice alumni.
Indeed common sense suggests
that the more alumni who use
the facility, the greater the con-
tributions from the alumni as
a whole.
Secondly, the "R" room
should be opened free of charge
to all Rice people who desire
the use of the facility. At a
time when funds were being
cut back for student financial
aid and cuts in the faculty were
being discussed, the "R" room
was a gross misuse of money.
Nov/ that the big box is a fait
accompli, .why can't it be put
to some practical use — such
as a day care center or an off-
campus lounge ?
Sincerely,
Gary Brewton
Lovett '76
Appling defends questionnaire
To the editor
A letter to the editor in the
January 18 Thresher claimed
that the recent Psychiatric Ser-
vice Questionnaire was biased
against the Service.. Examina-
tion of the three specific ex-
ampljfc&ited as proof will show
that they cannot be used to
support that accusation or the
argument that the question-
naire was "crude."
First, Statement No. 2.
2. There have been times
w hen I wished we had
some sort of professional
counselling service on cam-
pus to which I could have
gone with ,a. personal prob-
lem.
This statement was the first
in a series of three statements
aimed at determining whether
students feel their needs for
personal, academic, or voca-
tional counselling are being
met. This questionnaire used a
standard technique for sam-
pling opinion. Both positive and
negative statements were pre-
sented and students were asked
to indicate their relative agree-
ment or disagreement with the
statements by checking the ap-
propriate adjective. Implicit in
Statement No. 2 was the as-
sumption that the Psychiatric
Service exists. The statement's
purpose was to discover
whether students have felt a
need for a professional counsel-
ling service (as opposed to the
Psychiatric Service, Deans,
Masters, Associates, Advisors,
or Faculty) to turn to with per-
sonal problems. If a student
felt that he could turn to the
Psychiatric Service or to others
with a personal problem, he
could have registered his res-
ponse to the statement by
checking disagree or strongly
disagree.
As a group, students respond-
ing to this statement were un-
decided about the usefulness of
a professional counselling ser-
vice, but almost two-thirds of
the students who considered
themselves knowledgeable about
the Psychiatric Service saw a
need for some sort of profes-
sional counselling service.
Second, Statement No. 7.
7. I see no real difference be-
tween professional' coun-
sellors and psychiatrists.
This statement was not de-
signed to accentuate the dis-
tinction between professional
'counsellors (contrasted with
n o n - professional counsellors,
e.g. Masters) and psychiatrists
(who are professionals). It was
designed to find out if students
see any distinction at all; they
did.
Third and finally, Statement
No. 1.
1. I am very knowledgeable
about the services provid-
ed by the Psychiatric Ser-
vice. '
Students were not expected
to reveal whether they have
visited the Psychiatric Service,
but analysis of the data did in-
clude a comparison of the res-
ponses of those who said that
they had some knowledge about
the Psychiatric Service (about
20%) with the responses of all
students.
Faced with the certain in-
crease in the cost of continuing
the present Psychiatric Ser-
vice, the University Standing
and Student Association Com-
mittees on Student Health were
given the task of evaluating
whether the present Service
meets the needs of students
and if students are willing to
continue the Psychiatric Service
at an increase in fees. Written
by members of both commit-
tees, including Dr. Lawrence
Cassard, Director of the Rice
Psychiatric Service, the ques-
tionnaire was designed to help
give answers to those ques-
(Continued on Page 3)
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Jackson, Steve. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1973, newspaper, February 1, 1973; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245153/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.