The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 69, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, March 19, 1982 Page: 2 of 20
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Wiess coed decision
based on experience
Perhaps the single most important change that Norman
Hackerman has brought to this campus during his tenure as
president has been the conversion of five residential colleges to
coeducational housing. Hackerman's gradual move toward total
coeducational housing has been buoyed by the Committee of
Master's reccomendation in 1977 that all the colleges go coed and
by the seeming success enjoyed by the current coed colleges.
It seems imminent that Hackerman will give his approval to the
conversion of Wiess College in the near future. A petition signed
by many members of Wiess and other colleges contends that
Hackerman is making the decision without considering the views
of the students and that this action will endanger the well-being of
the college system as a whole.
However, Hackerman's choice to determine personally the fate
of Wiess is not without precedent and not without merit. In 1979,
Hackerman approved the conversion of J ones despite the fact that
Jones members narrowly defeated the proposal in a vote. The
college system survived.
Hackerman certainly knows that Wiess rejected a coed
proposal in a vote last year 59 percent to 34 percent, but he also
realizes that those totals probably reflect some hidden biases. A
freshman's desire to insure on-campus housing during his
sophomore year is often mentioned as a possible bias for a sizeable
percentage of Wiess residents to have lobbied against the coed
proposal.
As an outside observer who has seen coed housing successfully
implemented at five colleges, Hackerman will be able to employ
his experience with similar situations and extensive committe
work in making his final decision. This committe research, which
resulted in the forementioned Master's Committee
recommendation, indicated rather paternalistically that
coeducational living often results in an environment more
conducive to effective learning and a happier, more mature
student. The relatively short time it has taken Jones women to
accept their male residents indicates that their magnanimous
acceptance of the change allowed J ones to remain one of the most
productive colleges on campus, while avoiding the internal strife
that could arise in such a situation.
It is safe to say that Hackerman's decision, whatever it may be,
not only will have Rice students' interests as its foremost
determining factor, but also that it will be a decision based on fact
and experience, not just idle speculation.
—Jay Grob
New masters reaffirm
college system beliefs
Despite my previous ranting and raving, all is not terrible on
the college system front. The naming of four responsible,
competent, and earring masters last week brought a sense of
relief to those worried about the college system in the wake of
four vacancies. And more importantly, it also reaffirmed the
belief that top university professors still believe enough in the
system to sacrifce their time, privacy and research for it.
The role, importance and responsibility of the master is
greatly underestimated. Many students see their maser on a
very limited basis and never realize that showing even a small
concern for each student adds to a momentous task.
Fortunately, all four new masters inherit positions
previously held by other masters who held the same concern for
the college system. Therefore, the transition period should be
relatively painless.
Admittedly, it is not often that editorials contain praise or
congratulatory messages, but the journalism books say that it's
okay (I looked. Really), so I'd like to congratulate the new
masters and wish them good luck.
—Jay Grob
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EXPANDING THE HEDGES/by Chris Ekren
MR.PRESIDENT,„PONT VOU (JTOSTANP ? THIS IS REAl...
IHISISACTJAUY HAfTOIIN6... W6 CAM'T CHANGE THE 5CRIPI,,
America is being swept by a
wave of crime. The city of Houston
has more murders per year than
many European countries.
Taxpayers are spending in excess
of $15,000 per inmate per year for
"room and board" at federal
correctional institutions, many of
which are little more than graduate
schools of crime technique. At the
most visceral level, people are
being stabbed, shot, brutalized,
robbed and raped—and the culprit
is getting away. In the rare case
that he is caught, odds are he will
not be rehabilitated.
The goal of criminal justice
should be to prevent future crime,
rehabilitate existing criminals and
assist those people victimized by a
crime. Our system is unsuccessful
on all fronts. I'm not a sociologist
or a police expert, but I think there
are two things we can do to bring
more justice to both the criminal
and society.
My first proposal is that
convicted criminals involved in
property crimes be required to pay
back the person they victimized for
the damage they created. Perhaps
treble damages should be levied for
the pain and discomfort inflicted
on the victim. Regardless, if a
person is willing to risk his safety
and miss work to testify against a
criminal, he should at least be
allowed to regain that which was
once his.
The majority of today's
criminals, particularly those
picked up for non-violent crimes,
are people with substantial real
assets. If they don't own a home,
they at least own a car and TV set.
When a thief is caught, he is
usually only in possession of his
last acquisition. The majority of
goods people are convicted of
stealing never make it back to their
rightful owners.
It is only fair that the criminal
should replace the property he
stole with his own. Granted, losing
a car or a house may adversely
effect the lifestyle of the thiefs wife
and kids, but in a very real sense
the property was never theirs to
begin with. Nothing can
adequately repay some people for
the traumatic effect of being
criminally victimized, but
regaining lost property is a good
beginning.
Just as a victimized person
should not have to swallow
financial losses, society should not
have to pay more than necessary
for prison upkeep and mainte-
nance. What assets a prisoner has
left after repaying his victims
should be used to defray the cost of
his incarceration. The prisoner's
rehabilitation should include
participation in a vocation viable
in the outside world, a portion nf
the wages derived to be applied to
the prisoner's account until he has
paid for his keep.
The economic competition
created by the use of prison labor
has always generated heated
opposition from unions and
businesses. Nearly every state has
laws or constitutional provisions
that control the sale and marketing
of prisoner-made items. Such
regulations wipe out the market
for prison-made goods. Even if the
goods could be sold, however,
most "correctional experts" are
against free market solutions to
job training. Instead, prisoners
stamp licence plates, work on
farms, press clothes and practice
unneeded skills on 20-year-old
machinery.
During World War II hundreds
of millions of dollars worth of vital
products were produced by prison
labor due to the emergency
suspension of restrictions.
Minimum security work-release
programs have proven that by
training an inmate with a new skill
one reduces the recidivism rate
after release. The Maine State
Prison "Free Venture" program
has successfully encouraged
prisoners not only to work and
gain new skills, but also to practice
entrepreneurship.
The correctional orthodoxy of
today maintains order in the
prison by giving favors and time
off for "good behavior". Spot
searches and a blind eye to
homosexual rapes, gang attacks
and guard brutality/corruption
currently keep our prison
population under control. Our
courts and the American
Correctional Institute advocate
less inmate crowding, more
psychological counseling, better
food and health care, etc. By doing
so they are addressing the
sociological basis of crime.
By allowing prisoners to
voluntarily participate in an on-
site work activily transferable to
the real world that will earn them
money, teach them and help pay
their debt to society, we can
address the economic nature of
crime. There is no reason to punish
taxpayers any more than necessary
for criminality, particularly when
helping the taxpayer is also helping
the criminal and society.
LJ ~ ~ v
UDCCUCP
ncconcrc
JAY GROB
Editor
BRENT WILKEY
Business Manager
Tom Morgan News Editor
David Koralek Advertising Manager
Spike Dishart Managing Editor
Jeanne Cooper Sports Editor
Mike Gladu Photography Editor
Deborah Knaff Fine Arts Editor
Kelvin Thompson Back Page Editor
Richard Dees Senior Editor
Matt Petersen Copy Editor
John Heaner Associate Editor
News Staff
Assistant Editors Chris Ekren (News), Donald Buckholt (Sports),
Dave Chilton (Sports), Gwen Richard (Fine Arts)
Ruth Hillhouse (Typesetting), Dave Potash (Production)
Contributing Editors Ronald Ehmke, Michele Gillespie,
Lynn Lytton, Chris Ekren, Eden Harrington
News Staff Alison Bober, Rob Schultz,
Jonathan Berk, Sumit Nanda, Patty Cleary, Joan Hope,
Alysha Webb, Robert Morrison, lan Davidson,
Jan Alsandor, Drew Sutton, Allison Leach, Matt Leslie
Mark Mitchell, David Shrader, Catherine Warner
Dilip Venkatachari
Fine Arts Staff Loren Fefer, Steve Bailey,
Scott Bodenheimer. Dan Borden, Andrew Tullis, Chris Boyer
Hal Kohlman, Terri Herrman, Harry Wade, Reeta Achari
Valerie Mattioli, Eddie Burke. Bill Bonner, Joan Hope,
Jon Reeder
Sports Staff Steve Bailey.
Eric Hough. Steve Corbato, Riaz Karamali,
Genie L.utz, David Steakley
Photography Staff Ray Isle, Steve Bailey. Steve Baker
Production Staff Mark Meiches, Gene Vaatveit, Helen Clark,
Mark Mitchell, Robert Henson, Patti Wuer?.
Steve Bailey, Debbie Townsend, Joseph Halcyon
Bunincss Staff
Assistant Business Mananger Cecelia Calabv
Assistant Advertising Manager Todd Cornett
Business Staff John Bunyon, Debbie Murray
Circulation Chris Claunch, Vinnie Fonseca, Lloyd Bennack
Subscriptions David Steffen
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The Rice Thresher, March 26, 1982, page 2
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Grob, Jay. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 69, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, March 19, 1982, newspaper, March 19, 1982; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245497/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.