The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 20, 1980 Page: 1 of 16
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Keystone may drop plan; late semester start expensive
by Michael Trachtenburg
Insurance policy changes for
Rice students, schedule change
feasibility, and a money-saving
proposal for serving vegetarian
meals were discussed at Monday's
meeting of the Student
Association Senate.
Keystone Insurance of Texas
may discontinue to offer health
insurance to Rice students if it
continues to lose money on the
policy it has contracted with the
university, according to
undergraduate member of the
Student Health Committee Lee
Muecke.
Keystone's second consecutive
year of financial loss has prompted
the company to pressure the Rice
administration to crack down on
health insurance verification. The
administration had planned to
make insurance, Keystone or
comparable coverage, mandatory
for registration in the fall of 1980.
This requirement was waived when
800 students did not respond to the
insurance request by October.
At present some 150 students
have yet to submit information
concerning their health insurance
coverage. Keystone will decide in
January, based on first semester
statistics, whether it should
continue its program for graduates
and undergratuates at Rice.
"We're probably going to have a
different type of policy next year,"
predicted Director of Student
Activities Bonnie Heliums.
Heliums said that the university
will ask Keystone and other
insurance companies for different
proposals in January. The
university will then select one that
seems feasible for Rice students
and will take bids from the
companies on that proposal.
"Each year, an insurance
company has the right to
discontinue a policy if it is going to
incur large financial loss,"
explained Rice insurance agent
Kay Carwile of the Cravens,
Dargan and Company Enter-
prises. Carwile confirmed
Heliums' prediction that any new
policy will not be developed until
mid-January. She added that until
then, a guess on what insurance
policy will be offered to students is
"premature."
Muecke concluded, "The
problem is in administration's
hands now. Our problem is next
year, especially if Keystone drops
us."
SA President Tim Stout
reported that the University
Council's decision to start the
spring semesters in 1982 and 1983
two days later, in order to allow the
Registrar's Office more time for
its duties over the Christmas
break, will be an expensive move.
According to Stout, Director of
College Food and Housing
see Axed, page 5
III
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THRESHER
Volume 68, number 16
Thursday, November 20, 1980
INSIDE:
• Both the men and women
cagers have possibilities this
year. See Owlooks. p 13.
« Players get a good review.
No coercion needed.
Really, p. 6.
RMC hours face possible cuts
by Jeanne Cooper
Willy's Pub and the Rice
Memorial Center itself may be
forced to close several hours earlier
each night if sufficient funding to
pay the late-night RMC crew is not
found. According to Student
Association President Tim Stout,
RMC Director Martha Vest will
not be able to allocate the $2,900
needed to keep student assistants
for the rest of the year from her
budget. The RMC budget request
for the 1980-81 academic year
suffered a significant cut under
former Campus Business Manager
Russ Pitman.
As a result, the Pub Control
Board will consider three possible
solutions at its next meeting on
December 2. One alternative is to
close the RMC at 11 p.m., three
hours earlier than usual; another is
to close entirely during the summer
and use the money for a late-
night RMC staff during the school
year. (The Pub loses an average of
$2,600 per month during the
summer.) The administation has
suggested, as another alternative,
that the Pub make up the
difference in funds itself.
The Pub, however, is not the
only facet of the RMC which
functions late at night. The
Campanile, KTRU, and the
Thresher all keep late hours, which
makes the first and third
alternatives subject to closer
scrutiny before the control board
can make a decision. Pub Manager
Peter Rudenberg commented,
"I think that if the Pub is requested
to pay any funds to keep the place
open at late hours, the funds
should come from all the
Curriculum discussed
mm
Bill Pribyl —I. Rohwer
by Joan Hope
and Anita Gonzalez
Student proposals for a new
distribution system made by the
SA Curriculum Committee were
relatively similar to those
proposed by the Faculty Council
subcommittee, according to the
SA Committee Co-Chairman Bill
Pribyl.
The proposals from each
committee were discussed in a
meeting between SA President
Tim Stout and the faculty
subcommittee last Thursday. The
consensus of the two groups was,
in effect, to keep and update the
current distribution system, to
specify which courses may be used
to fulfill distribution requirements,
to improve the advising
system, and to create new
distribution courses.
Stout was to have met with the
faculty subcommittee today to
discuss the issue once more. He
will report back to the SA's
committee Sunday and then to the
faculty subcommittee again
Monday.
"The students on the committee
were pleased that our initial
proposals coincided fairly well
with those of the faculty," said
Pribyl. "Still to be decided,
though, are issues such as
proficiency requirements,
distribution criteria, and possible
redefinition of the subgroups.
"I'm confident that student
welfare is the foremost concern
here; we're working with highly-
qualified faculty members. They're
not going to ignore our interests."
Stout believed . that both
committees felt the necessity of not
setting a strict curriculum. "We
shouldn't enter into a core system
per se, where specific courses are
required," said Stout. "Instead,
we're looking at the option of
cutting down the number of
courses that will fill distribution
requirements." Stout believed,
however, that such a task will be
difficult to achieve. "It's tough
because we have to decide first on
who will make the decision on
what criteria will determine a good
distribution course, and then on
the criteria itself."
Materials science Professor,
Master of Brown College, and
see Committees, page 5
organizations in the building."
Rudenberg noted that Sammy's
and the Campus Store, which close
in the afternoon, are however open
in the morning when the Pub is
closed, demonstrating a reason to
split costs equally among RMC
organizations. Stout, also a
member of the Pub Control Board,
agreed that it was unfair to the
Pub to bear all the financial
burden.
Closing the Pub or the RMC at
11 p.m. also creates difficulties,
however. KTRU must be on the air
at least 12 hours to use its present
wavelength by itself; its current
broadcast day usually does not
begin until 1:00 p.m. The Thresher
and the Campanile often have late
deadlines which make late
evening/early morning access a
requirement.
KTRU Station Manager Frank
Vance, Campanile Editor Robin
Baringer, Thresher Editor Richard
Dees, and Stout met Tuesday night
to discuss the feasibility of a key
system which would allow the
system which would allow the Pub
to close early but would allow
other organizations to have access
if necessary. Under the tentative
plan, two gates would be installed,
one in front of the entrance to the
Campus Store/Sammy's area and
one protecting the Pub side
B. Davie:
Frank Vance and Peter Rudenberg
windows and entrance. Author-
ized members of the RMC
organizations would have keys to
the other areas of the RMC.
Rudenberg dislikes the idea,
commenting that when a key
system was employed two years
ago, "everybody who was
anybody in any organization had
keys to the building." Rudenberg
feels the system led to an increase
in vandalism and "irresponsibility."
KTRU's Vance also sees
problems with a key system,
although admitting that the station
"just couldn't afford" to share the
costs of night-time RMC student
assistants. According to Vance,
a proposed policy is to issue
only two keys per organization ana
that any person in the building
after hours must be accompanied
by an authorized key holder.
KTRU's disc jockeys work only
three-hour shifts, often late at
night, so deciding who will get keys
may be difficult. "For us there's no
alternative available other than
closing the Pub in the summer,"
stated Vance.
In spite of the complaints, Stout
will present the plan to Vice
President of the Administration
William Akers when he returns to
town, as well as have an estimate
made of the cost of installing such
a system. The Student Association
will also poll students Tuesday on
their preference of Pub hours,
open in summer vs. regular (until 2
a.m.) schoolnight hours. Observed
Stout, "Costs are going to have to
be met regardless of whose pocket
it comes from."
Lerner forsees possibilities for U.S
Max Lerner
-K. Hughes
by David Keen
"Is America a dying society? It
ain't necessarily so," proclaimed
distinguished journalist, lecturer
and historian Max Lerner in his
"Reflections on the Presidential
Election" Tuesday. He spoke
before a capacity crowd in the
Grand Hall of the Rice Memorial
Center as the first in the President's
Lecture series.
"People ask me 'are you
optimistic or pessimistic about our
future?" Lerner said. "I reply that
I'm a possibilist. When it comes to
the future, it's in ourselves, not in
the stars." Lerner urged that it was
necessary to put America not just
"back to work," as Reagan
suggested, but also "back to
thinking,...back to innovating...
and back to some kind of a value
system."
Lerner described the presi-
dential election itself as "a kind of
earthquake," the culmination of
"deep underground rumblings."
These were "discontents,
resentments and social angers" in
the American people, resentments
which were themselves largely a
reaction to the rapid social change
and radicalism of the 1960s and
'70s.
Lerner also expressed the hope
that Reagan might fulfill his
promise and emerge as a true "folk
hero" of America, who could knit
together this increasingly divided
and angry society. But he warned
that the particular "social angers"
which had brought Reagan his
victory would stand in the way of
this cohesion, unless Reagan could
stand out against them. And
Lerner hinted that Reagan's
"obsession" with his own capacity
to triumph over difficult
circumstances in life might make
him unsympathetic to the
disadvantaged in America.
Describing himself as a liberal
and a Democrat, Lerner still felt
there were important lessons
which liberals should learn from
the decisive shift by American
voters in the election. He argued
that the emphasis on reform, the
concern with securing equal access
to life chances manifested in the
civil rights and women's
movements and in the growth of
the welfare state, for all their
benefits, had divided America
see Lerner, page .1
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Dees, Richard. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 20, 1980, newspaper, November 20, 1980; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245456/m1/1/: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.