The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 5, 1979 Page: 1 of 20
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Pitman responds: security problems unavoidable
by Anita Gonzalez
This is the second in a series of
three articles on campus key
security.
"I personally don't see any way
out of it. Unfortunately, I don't
think that we're ever going to have
a satisfactory solution to our key
security problem. The number of
keys just boggles the mind."
Russell Pitman
University Business Manager
The burglary of a Lovett College
master key from a Campus Police
car several weeks ago has brought
the key security problem at Rice
University into sharp focus.
Last week, Lovett President Tim
Case and other students voiced
their complaints about the
abundance and easy accessibility
of master keys. In this report, an
administration spokesman gives
his view of master key importance
and supervision problems.
Rice University Business
Manager Russell Pitman feels that
having too many keys in
circulation is simply unavoidable.
With the large number of faculty,
graduate students, and staff who
all want keys, he says there are just
too many keys issued to organize
any kind of effective security
program.
Pitman agrees with Case that
concern about the easy
accessibility to master keys by
TRESHB?
Volume 67, number 9
1 was an asshole'
Friday, October 5, 1979
Physical Plant department
workers is warranted. "The
problem with anybody that we
employ, whether Physical Plant
people or custodians, is that we
assume that they are honest and
trustworthy." But, he pointed out.
Case's suggestion of having a
foreman accompany department
personnel whenever they need a
master key is too costly.
"Our foremen are working
foremen, and it would be
impossible for them to run around
unlocking and locking rooms,"
argues Pitman. "We would never
get any work done. That's why
those people have keys, so that
they can get the job done and get
back. It's a matter of economics."
The only immediate solution to
the key security problem,
according to Pitman, is to
periodically change the master
keys that open the front doors to
buildings on campus. Yet even that
minor change creates irritations.
"Most people prefer to have the
key that opens their office or room
to be the same key that opens the
front door," Pitman explains.
"There 'would be a lot of angry
people."
Pitman can offer no specific
precautionary advice to the
student body. "When dealing with
Rubin sees hope for '80s activist revival
by David Dow
Jerry Rubin, "one of the two or
three most famous activists of the
sixties," in the words of Dr. Allen
Matusow, spoke in the RMC
Grand Hall Thursday to a crowd
of nearly 500 curious guests
anxious to hear tta relic of the past
who remains on the cutting edge of
history."
The speech was sponsored by
the Rice Program Council and
seven of the eight residential
colleges, with Wiess the lone
dissenter.
Starting with a discussion of the
spontaneity of the '60s
demonstrations, which for Rubin
began by trying "to close down a
grocery store" which did not hife
blacks, Rubin rambled at will
through his own era where "people
felt they made a difference ."
Though the topics of protest
were varied, Rubin tied them
together with a motif of
masculinity. "Power and
impotence are a national thing:
commitment to the principles of
our own revolution, he charged.
Americans, who have since birth
been conditioned to racism, have
dealt with their modern crisis of
impotency by repressing an
"indigenous revolution" in
Vietnam and by opposing the right
of a sovereign body—Cuba—to
invite foreign visitors to its soil
when it pleases, like 3,000
Russians.
By deciding to publicly equate
the Vietnamese struggle with the
American Revolution—both of
which involved the overthrow of
an "illegitimate power"—Rubin let
himself be seen as "a nation-wide
asshole." Later in the speech he
substituted "asshole" with "fool,"
defined as "somebody who is
willing to tell the truth before other
people are willing to hear it."
see Rubin, page 17
f
phctc h i W avne Derrick
a subject such as master keys,
keeping our door locked seems like
a silly solution," he admits. But he
suggests that the students and
faculty not be "cavalier" about the
subject. Pitman explains that a
thief could easily be "the guv next
door" who has stumbled onto an
opportunity, rather than a
keyholder who has carefully
planned out a burglary.
see Keys, page 4
Artist alters
street names
The controversial street names
on campus curbs were altered by
unofficial spraycan artists during
midterm recess, according to
campus Maintenance Coordinator
Mark Johnson. A Physical Plant
painter restored the original names
early Wednesday morning.
The vandrl had sprayed paint
over the first words of the original
street names—Founder's Court,
College Way, Laboratory Road,
Campanile Lane, and Alumni
Drive—and renamed the streets as
follows:
Pitman Court, Pitman Way,
Pitman Road, Pitman Lane, and
Pitman Drive.
Jerry Rubin
Are we potent as a nation?" Rubin
asked derisively.
Chiding the police who
confronted the '60s demonstrators
for undergoing a masculinity
crisis, Rubin noted that the
protests succeeded because of "an
incredible feeling of collective self-
power." The protest movements
revolved around the same ideology
which characterized the American
revolution, asserted Rubin.
America has abandoned its
Private corp. donates $7,000 video
Fire plan publicized
by R.B. Johnson
Fires at Sid Richardson and
Hanszen colleges last year have
precipitated concern over the
inadequacy of fire prevention
standards at Rice. According to
Bob Berger, safety officer of the
University, there are no set
instructions on what to do in case
of a fire in any of the colleges.
Berger has written and sent to
college masters some ideas that
could aid in developing a basic
plan for the colleges in case of
future fires.
"These are suggestions on my
part for fire drills, floor fire
marshals, some type of plan of
attack," Berger said.
The basis of this attack on fire
hazards focuses on fire marshals
Under the plan, each floor in every
college would have at least one fire
marshal and two assistants to help
direct evacuation procedures and
firefighting efforts, and to alert the
fire department and Campus
Police.
Another important procedure
would be to have fire drills
required at least once each
semester, under the direction of the
Housing Department and the
Campus Police. In the past, the
closest things to fire drills at Rice
have been from crank pulls on the
fire alarm handles.
Berger would also like placards
placed in every room showing at
least two ways to exit the building.
These would be especially helpful
for visitors, he noted, and for high-
rise colleges such as Sid
Richardson and Brown.
College announcements and
discussions of fire safety topics
would become more frequent
under the plan, which states that
see Fire, page 17
by Rolf Asphaug
Be he computer jock or fine arts
major, scholarship athlete or part-
time DJ, one common hurdle faces
the Rice student at the end of four
years: getting a job. New
Placement Director John Evans
hopes to lower that hurdle by
encouraging students to make
greater use of Placement Office
resources.
Evans and his staff will be aided
by a new Video Information
Center, or VIC, a machine that
stores and presents videotaped
programs on career planning
techniques as well as company
recruiting.
The $7,000 machine was
donated to Rice University by
VIC, a private company. Rice is
one of ten Texas schools to receive
free VIC's for placement office use.
Evans emphasizes that all Rice
students should feel free to visit the
Placement Office, at 301 Lovett
Hall, to arrange for interviews, to
peruse reference books on career
opportunities, to look over
recruitment literature from almost
200 companies looking for Rice
talent, or to talk with staff
members about career decisions.
"Career planning should begin
back in the freshman year," Evans
says. "This is not a four-month
process prior to graduation."
Evans, a 1949 Rice graduate, has
previously served as the Alumni
Association executive director,
Sallyport editor, and Director of
Placement during 1958 to 1969. He
returned behind the hedges in July
after a ten-year stint as personnel
director for Deloitte, Haskins and
Sell's Houston office, replacing
retiring director Mary Leather-
wood.
"I've enjoyed being on both sides
of the fence, but I really enjoyed
my time working on place-
ment," says Evans.
While the mechanics of getting a
see Evans, page 18
aI
Director John Evans with VIC
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Muller, Matthew. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 5, 1979, newspaper, October 5, 1979; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245415/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.