The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 12, 1981 Page: 4 of 24
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THRESHING-IT-OUT
continued from page 3
f
Constitution two are of particular
importance:
1) "to enhance the value of the
undergraduate experience" — We
enhance the value of the Rice
experience by offering a different
cultural perspective and
experience that everyone can
benefit from. Participating in
other cultures is as important to
the "Rice experience" as attending
a T.G., participating in Rondelet,
or playing intramural sports.
2) "to help promote national and
international understanding and
fellowship at the student level" —
The organizations that provide
this understanding are the
minority groups and in order to
provide these services we need
funding. The minority organiza-
tions encourage the students to
cultivate a sensitivity to the
experiences of others and
challenge them^to expand their
own knowledge of the different
peoples which comprise not only
the world and the nation, but the
very educational milieu in which
they study and learn. With funding
we can reach a larger number of
people at Rice and in the
community.
Q: Why can't you get funds as
you need them through the S.A.?
A: Since we are not student-
sponsored organizations we can't
get even partial funds. We tried to
get money for International Night
but could not get funds while
L.ovett received $200 for their snow
party.
Q: So in summary what are you
saying?
A: We believe that with the
blanket tax increase we could
better serve the university and
*••••••••••••••••••••<
meet its goals as well as increase
cultural awareness and add more
to the "Rice experience."
For more information or if you
have other questions, come by the
library Monday 16, and we will be
happy to talk to you.
Michael Petry
President, RAMAS
Potempa calls Thresher
'filthy campus rag'
To the editor:
Often a campus newspaper has
been given the designation campus
rag. In the case of the Thresher, the
titular designation filthy campus
rag is more appropriate. The
quality of journalism is on par with
such scandal sheets as the Express
or Daily Mail. Rather than giving
an accurate portrayal of the Rice
community, Mr. Dees and Mr.
Dow are so obsessed with
destroying the integrity of the
university that they fail to present
accurately problems experienced
by the university. In this letter I
wish to discuss events of personal
concern where the Thresher has
been totally inaccurate.
My resignation from the Honor
Council was based upon a situ-
ation that exists at Rice that in no
way affects the average student.
The Honor System has some prob-
lems, but most of the current
difficulties experienced by the
system do not affect all but a
handful of students. For the
great majority of Rice stu-
dents the Honor System works.
The problems that I see in the
Honor System will be worked out
by responsible parties such as the
University Council and the Honor
Council itself. My reasoning does
not deal with procedural or
personnel problems on the council.
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My reasoning does not have
anything to do with athletes. Both
groups are upholding the system to
the very best of their abilities when
one considers a far deeper flaw
which affects the System. The
Thresher editorials on the Honor
System do more harm than good
because those editorials totally
miss the nature of any problems
affecting the system while failing to
point out that the system works
well for the majority of Rice
students.
The article concerning the Rice
participation in the ACM national
programming contest was
pathetic. Gordon Goetsch and
Dave Johnson, and not Bob Hood
and Dave Capshaw, were on the
second place national team. I did
give the correct names of the team
members to a Thresher staff
member. When I talked to this
staff member there was some
question as to whether any article
on the contest would be printed at
all. It seems ironic that the thrust
of the editorials in last week's issue
was to proclaim the educational
inferiority of Rice, and yet they
devoted very little space to inform
the student body of one of Rice's
academic achievements. Our
computer science department is
producing some of the finest
programmers in the nation. Yes,
Mr. Dow, Rice did do better than
the Ivy League schools. Missouri
School of Mines, from the
obviously intellectually inferior
corn belt, was the winner.
Which leads me to another
point. Mr. Dees and Mr. Dow
have systematically throughout
the year shown their ignorance by
polemicizing against groups which
I am associated with. These attacks
as a rule have been of an
uninformed and prejudicial
nature. For example, in last week's
editorial Mr. Dow used the
stereotype of a Nebraska corn
farmer. Today's corn farmer
generally has a college degree.
Today's corn farmer does not only
have to know new techniques in
agriculture but also has to be a very
good businessman. There are
Nebraska corn farmers who sit on
the board of directors of Fortune
500 companies. And yes, most
Nebraska corn farmers know of
Rice University, if for no other
reason than it appears on the
football betting sheets. Another
incident where Mr.. Dow
exhibited his prejudicial nature
was in the editorial equating
Roman Catholicism with the
Moral Majority. About trie only
common denominator between the
above groups is on the issue of
right to life for an unborn child.
Mr. Dow's version of liberalism
can accept the church's support on
issues such as the Vietnam War
and the migrant workers but will
turn around and label the church a
demagogue when the church
disagees with his position on
abortion. I would say that the
Moral Majority is a bit naive in
declaring SALT II to be a moral
issue. However, they are harmless,
for they do not preach hate. Much
more dangerous is the recent
resurrgence of right wing,
neo-Christian hate groups. I would
also place Mr. Dow's version of
liberalism in the dogmatically
naive group. His editorals appeal
only to emotion. I see no
indication of actual understanding
of issues that confront us today.
Mr. Dow is indicative of the stale
liberalism that Hodding Carter
and Jerry Rubin, both active
liberals, spoke out strongly against
in editorials in the Wall Street
Journal soon after the election.
I have previously referred to the
fact that Mr. Dow and Mr. Dees
see Rice as a second rate
institution. They are dead wrong.
In regards to the Texas quota, Mr.
Dow and Mr. Dees are the only
two idiots I have seen come out of
Texas. They should not extend
their own personal problems to the
whole of this great state. A
reasonable Rice undergraduate
can choose any graduate school in
the country to attend. In this sense
a Rice education is as good as any
education the Ivy League schools
have to offer. I seriously
considered four schools for my
graduate education: Rice,
Harvard, Yale, and Cornell.
Cornell was the only one of the Ivy
League schools which could
compare to Rice in quality of
graduate (and probably
undergraduate as well) programs
in applied mathematics. Rice
professors have time to spend with
students. Most Harvard professors
require advance appointments for
even their graduate students.
Several professors at Harvard sat
behind large desks petting their
dogs, totally incognizant of the
fact that a prospective graduate
student was trying to ask questions
on the nature of their research.
One of the few Harvard professors
who seemed to take a genuine
interest in a prospective student,
Garth Baker, was not given tenure.
A comparison of research done by
the math scientists is also in order.
Rice has one of the best, if not the
best, optimization groups in the
world. The differential equation
people are solving oil field
problems. The computer groups is
working on software vectorization
techniques. At Harvard they are
solving problems of interest in the
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sixties. Garth Baker, wtyo was one
of the few people there doing
current research, did not receive
his tenure because what he was
doing did not fit in. The students in
the math sciences department are
the finest set of people I have had a
chance to work with. They are
intelligent, polite, and make an
effort to reach out to people. I did
not have an opportunity to interact
with Harvard students, but I did
have to interact with Yale students.
They seemed to like to open their
mouth to speak, even when they
did not know what they were
talking about. The people in the
applied math group, even one
professor, were very rude to their
guest and had a totally rotten
one-up-manship type attitude.
Cornell had friendly people and
was doing good research. It has a
disadvantage in that Ithaca, New
York is miles away from anyplace
to apply the knowledge gained in
school. At Rice, one has the
opportunity to interact with
industry, a very important part of
an engineering education. As an
aside to the comments in the
Thresher regarding Rice
professors, two Cornell professors,
one with an excellent international
reputation, have come to Rice
within the last two years. My
experiences are limited to the
applied mathematics department
and should not be taken as the rule
in other departments, but I think it
safe to say my experiences are the
rule rather than the exception at
Rice.
The majority of Rice students
are receiving an adequate
education. Rice has excellent
professors who not only do good
research but also take an interest in
both graduate and undergraduate
students. The quality of research
done by the faculty is outstanding.
Most problems the university
experiences only minimally affect
the average Rice student. There are
problems that need to be dealt with
at Rice, but in dealing with them
everyone should not try to harm
anyone's feelings or reputations.
The only thing low-rent about Rice
is the Thresher. If you really think
things are as bad as the Thresher
makes them out to be, Mr. Dow
and Mr. Dees, why don't y'all git
the heck from this great state of
Texas and go up to the east coast.
Thorn Potempa
Math Sciences
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The Rice Thresher, March 12,1981, page A4
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Dees, Richard. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 12, 1981, newspaper, March 12, 1981; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245466/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.