The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 11, 1976 Page: 4 of 12
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Convocation
77
the final report
(continued from page 1)
spent on the undergraduates;
and that the money involved
in the graduate programs
might also be put to better use
in the library, the permanent
faculty, a visiting faculty, and
more advanced undergraduate
seminars and research
courses.
Nevertheless, the consensus
is that graduate students
enrich the university and the
classroom (probably as
persons) because they are
stimulating to both the faculty
and the undergraduates. They
often come from other
universities, with different
viewpoints and educational
philosophies, where they were
once undergraduates them-
selves; and at Rice they can be
the liason between under-
graduates and the faculty
because they are students who
want "to be teachers. Some
students said that the presence
of a graduate student in class
can be intimidating, suggest-
ing that advanced under-
graduates could assume some
of the responsibilities
graduate students take on.
Most undergraduates, though,
like the atmosphere at Rice in
which the unexpected and
more informed ideas of the
graduate students often have a
hearing and an effect.
The workshops' intense
concern for the quality of
teaching at Rice also produced
a clear division of opinion on
the question of Rice's
responsibility in maintaining
graduate programs that
produce PhD's who cannot get
jobs. Half of the participants
thought Rice is irresponsible
to maintain such programs.
Half felt that graduate
students understand the
market situation and have
accepted the consequences, so
they should be allowed to
decide for themselves.
Rice, therefore, is being
responsible to the graduate
students it admits, who
perhaps are bringing with
them a new light on the old
ideal that knowledge is
valuable in itself and that
advanced degrees may be
worth earning even if they are
not the ticket to a career.
If there is a consensus or a
conclusion on the whole
question, it could be this:
Rice's graduate programs in
the humanities are not in
themselves detrimental to
undergraduate education, but
graduate students could be
used and served in more
beneficial ways. They have to
be more fully integrated into
the Rice community, and their
role at Rice has to be more
thoughtfully defined. Defining
and maintaining graduate
programs in a new way may be
one of these acts of self-
definition Rice has to make.
Underlying the Convo-
cation's question of whether
the residential colleges or the
academic departments are
better suited to change and to
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6 GREATER HOUSTON LOCATIONS
meeting the demands for new
courses and new ideas in the
curriculum, is the more basic
question of the undergrad-
uates ability and license to
participate in designing their
own experience at Rice. The
consensus of the workshops is
that the present system fails to
inform Rice students of the
opportunities they have to
make their thinking felt. So,
students are deprived of
influence and departments
lack a necessary input. The
workshops said students
should be informed of their
chance to participate and be
encouraged to realize this
chance in departmental
committees where their
suggestions can be c onsidered
and acted upon. Department
majors, students who are into
the same things, should meet
together regularly to discuss
common problems and raise
questions. The evaluation
forms of the courses taught
should be improved to allow
comment on a courss content,
organization, and purpose.
Most of the workshops said
students wanted courses the
departments do not provide.
The next question was: are the
colleges the right place for
such courses? The answer
promotes another paradox,
more ambivalence. Most
students expressed their
satisfaction with the college
system. These students also
said that the colleges do not
respond to all the needs of their
members. It was, therefore,
suggested that before the
colleges assume the additional
responsibility of sponsoring
academic courses, they
straighten their own houses to
enrich the life of Rice in other
ways. Because the faculty -
student relationship at Rice is
thought by everyone to be an
advantage of the college
system, the first suggestion
was that this relationship be
expanded in college-based
tutorials offered by the
college's faculty associates for
members of the college and for
non-members of the colleges as
well.
The second suggestion was
that graduate students be
better integrated into the
colleges to participate in the
colleges' social, cultural, and
academic programs. They
should also consider members
of the Houston community as
valuable participants in the
colleges.
All of the workshops
emphasized that the Univer-
sity has to support the colleges
in these efforts. The
University has to acknowl-
edge the colleges' right to
propose new courses, and then
it has to fund these courses.
It must additionally acknowl-
edge that the participation of
faculty in these courses is
equal to their activity in the
regular classroom.
What was also recognized in
all of the workshops was that,
while students should be
allowed to initiate proposals
and changes, they must take
RECRUITMENT ANNOUNCEMENT
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
MBA PROGRAM
Dean W. Currie, Director of Admissions
at Harvard University's Graduate School of Business
Administration will be on campus
Thursday, November 18, 1976
to meet with students interested in the two-year MBA
Program.
Contact the
Placement Office
for more details and to sign up for an information
session.
Harvard Business School is committed to the principle of
equal educational opportunity and evaluates candidates
without regard to race, sex, creed or national origin.
responsibility for them too. If
college courses are created, the
students must take them as
seriously as they would any
other class. There are many
aspects of the college system
that do not work because the
students will not make them
work.
Athletics and Academics
On the subject of Rice's
participation in big-time
athletics, opinion in the
workshops was...divided! A
few workshops took positions
near the extremes; most
reported more ambivalence.
But all the arguments were
familiar and conventional,
and this may explain why this
debate was the most fully
attended and emotional.
Oldies are goodies.
The arguments for contin-
uing the scholarship program
and membership in the SWC
are:
1) the alumni take pride and
interest in the teams;
2) the teams provide
national publicity, bringing
Rice to the attention of people
and students outside of Texas;
3) athletes develop character
and discipline by being
athletes;
4) the new "regime" of
Homer Rice is more respect-
able, and more eponymous,
and should be given a chance.
The arguments for change are:
1) the program loses money
that could be used for
academic programs, the
library, better laboratories,
faculty salaries, hedges;
2) athletics is antithetical to
the idea of a university's
purpose, which is teaching
and learning;
3) the athletes themselves
are alienated and exploited.
All the workshops said that
more resources should be
devoted to women's athletics
and intramural facilities. And
no one was divided on the
value of either!
Three Conclusions
1) The people in the
workshops like Rice, think the
Convocation has been useful
as a rite of consciousness,
would pay even more money to
be here, and are hopeful that
Rice can become RICE! It may
be that our ambivalence grows
naturally from the oxy-
moronic ambition to be a
small university. Ambi-
valence creates tension, of
course, but tension can create
energy, and energy is often
creative. We are smart. Rice is
rich. Why are we feeling so
poorly? We go to Rice.
2) The colleges we brag
about are still unsatisfying
because nobody—neither the
university nor the students—
take them as seriously as
everybody takes class. A Rice
degree has great credit, it
seems but the colleges are
filled with second-class
citizens.
3) Rice scored three
touchdowns in the fourth
quarter to beat SMU 41-34.
4) Hope looms. «
the rice thresher, november 11, 1976—page 4
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McFarland, Carla. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 11, 1976, newspaper, November 11, 1976; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245310/m1/4/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.