The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 5, 1982 Page: 12 of 24
twenty four pages : ill. ; page 20 x 14 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
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SWAT
Confidential info: Swarthmore 7
\
Top secret pix: Conrad Reining & Ray Isle
Project evaluation: Agents did good job
of compiling their personal dossier.
Gleaned helpful insights into football,
intra- and interstate travel and local
customs. Learned chief elements of
dialect: MOB, Aggies, Kikker, TGs, SE vs.
Academ, etc. Some difficulties noted in
adjusting to weather. Overall results
beneficial to SWAT's image. Recommend
to continue exchange.
Miscellany: Rice freshmen, sophomores
and juniors wishing to spend next fall
semester at Swarthmore should pick up
forms in 101 Lovett Hall.—Jeanne Cooper
Sue Schellenbaum:
Well here 1 am sitting at Willy's Pub late
on a Monday night trying to figure out
how to capture "the Rice experience" on
paper. I know exchanges are a valuable
personal experience, a way to see a
different part of the country, and meet
new and interesting people; but,
personally, I exchanged to Rice to have
fun and not study. One out of two isn't
bad (I distinctly remember someone
telling me classes here were easier . . .).
Actually both schools have the same
high academic standards, though the
emphasis on S£ vs. Academ is vastly
different. As an engineering major, the
decision to spend a semester at Rice was
easy. Not only is Rice's engineering
program more diverse than Swarth-
more's, but it's nice to have someone
respond, after having been told your
major, "Really? So am I," instead of
"Why?" with a sufficiently horror-
stricken look on their face. Being "one of
those science majors" in a predominantly
liberal arts college is no easy task!
I can't say that it's been a geographically
enlightening experience for me, having
lived in New Mexico all my life and spent a
great deal of time in Texas. But it's
definitely good to be back where people
talk with comprehensible accents, attend
football games (even if it is to watch the
MOB) and know what chicken-fried steak
is. And I finally learned to kikker dance!
I must admit that I am starting to miss
the East. I am a winter person and the
prospect of wearing shorts until
December is not thrilling to me—I crave
snow! I also have a passion for traveling
and Swarthmore's right outside of
Philadelphia and a short train ride from
New York City and Washington, DC.
The college parties here are something
I think everyone should experience at
least once in their lifetime. Where else
would you see Silver people and robots
roaming around? Night of Decadence
was something! Needless to say,
Swarthmore's parties are more casual
than Rice's elaborate theme parties. And
Swarthmore's version of Willy's Pub, The
Club, is only open on weekends, so there's
no shipping off after (or before or during)
studying for that solids quiz on Friday.
Since the parties aren't as big and
exciting, everything else becomes more
social. It's not unusual to spend up to two
hours at dinner or see a friend at a movie
you know they despised the first time
they saw it.
Anyway, I've added a few more stories
to my repertoire which entertains Robb
to no end. Tales of innertubing down a
river with no rapids, staying up until 2
a.m. doing fluids (all I can remember is
something about active culture in
Dannon yogurt attacking certain parts of
your body) and the Go-Go's concert! And
at least next semester when I'm back at
Swat I won't have a red-headed roommate!
Robert Austin:
It struck me, as I stared through the bus
window at that massive bonfire that the
Aggies were building for their
homecoming, just how far I was from
Swarthmore College, that quiet little
Quaker school in already chilly
Pennsylvania.
I was on my way home (it surprises me
how I've come to call Rice that) after a
very full day spent with the MOB, a day
that started with the MOB (armed with
violin cases and plastic machine guns)
taking over a maroon-and-white Luby's,
climaxes with a standing ovation from a
stadium full of Aggies, and was now
concluding with a thoughtful ride home.
The MOB—what an experience! Be
proud of your band Rice University,
because it is, in its own fashion and on its
own terms, a first-rate band. And the
MOB, as you know, does everything on
its own terms. I will have many fond
memories of the MOB: Ken Dye
continuously cracking jokes, Grungy's
cheers, the bossy little brunette skittering
around the practice field, 50,000 people
dressed in orange polyester waving sadly
with only two fingers extended as a little
orange alien boarded his UFO to return
home, and a stadium filled to capacity
with Aggies brought suddenly-to their
feet by a performance that was infintely
classy where they had expected
obnoxious. What a style the MOB has!
And with Ken Dye, who is a very funny
man and the perfect leader for the MOB,
as director I am sure that they will
continue to outdo themselves.
I suppose I am expected to give at least a
quick rundown of my impressions of the
comparison between Swarthmore and
*>
OlU'ORNt
Rice—a very difficult question that I am
continuously asked. Well, the weather is
great here, the football team is great
there, the ice cream is better here, but the
food is better there—slightly. The classes
are sufficiently difficult both places and
the quality of the entire learning
experience is extremely high both here
and there.
I have discovered that at 9 a.m. Spenser
and Shakespeare look the same and are
K. C?Cato:
Upon arriving in Texas, I was quite
unsure as to whether I had made the right
decision. As I stepped outside of the
Houston airport, I was hit by rush of hot,
humid air. I immediately thought, "What
am I doing? I hate humidity." (That
answers the question of what do I think of
Houston weather. Everyone seems to ask
that one among many others.) So there I
stood, trying to find the bus to a place
called the Shamrock Hilton.
I caught the bus and giade it to Rice,
and Orientation week came and went.
Now I'm almost as familiar with Rice as I
am with Swarthmore. I've also been here
long enough to see the similarities and
differences between the two schools and
appreciate them.
One of the big differences is the college
system. In some ways I think that it
makes college life more personal, yet in
other ways, it also makes the University
seem much larger than it is. The people
I've met at Hanszen are great. There's no
other single word to describe them.
They're outgoing, very willing to accept
new students, and supportive of each
other.
From the first week, I've had people
encouraging me to play intramural
soccer. Me, the one person who had never
kicked a soccer ball in her life. The closest
I had ever come to soccer was going out
with the captain of the soccer team in
high school. I could only hide so long and
before I knew it, I was out there playing
soccer and loving every minute of it.
Swarthmore doesn't really have
intramurals for women unless you're
good enough to play on. the men's
intramurals teams.
Soccer season has ended and now it's
powderpuff season. Powderpuff at
Hanszen amazes me. The fact that there
are over 40 guys at Hanszen who perform
an awesome kickline to cheer on their
powderpuff team can only mean that this
college has unity. Thanks guys f6r the
support. As you can see, I love
intramurals and the camaraderie which
stems from it.
Another aspect of the college system
which I'm going to miss is the masters,
Rich and Lisa Smith. It's nice having "real"
adults around. "Real" meaning unlike
ourselves, i.e. out of college and part of
extremely hard to compare and contrast,
and that the best letters to use in index
notation are h, i, s, t (in a different order);
by evaluating the partial derivative of the
interval energy with respect to entropy at
constant volume I concluded that I should
drop Ceng 411.
There are, of course, many more good
times that come to mind; an ill-fated trip
to Mexico (I swear I wasn't going 69); a
Daiquiri party that went much too late
and ended in an epic popcorn battle;
"Tyler's Tallboys," that fine intramural
football team that fell just short of the
championship; road trips to Galveston
and Montgomery (yes, Alabama); and
conversations with Mrs. T, who is a
wonderful lady. The list could go on.
It all comes back to me sitting in that
bus realizing what a great experience it all
is. There was a fellow Mobster sitting
behind me abusing the Aggies in a Monty
Python voice and they were starting to
sing Christmas carols at the front of the
bus. I was just taking it all in. It has been
said before I know, but I have to say it
again: the exchange program is a great
opportunity—take advantage of it. If
you get out of it only a quarter of what I
have already, it will be worth it. And I
have several weeks left so I'm not
thinking about remembering Rice yet;
I've got more people to meet, more places
to see—more memories to make.
:>* < 8
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the "real" world. (College isn't part of the
"real" world.) They're there to talk to,
whether it be about the latest major crisis
in one's personal life or to just catch up on
what's going on around the college. And
this phra
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kids on campus. Often a small college
becomes isolated from the real world of
varying age groups. One begins to
wonder whether people younger than 17
or older than 22 exist.
The only complaint I have about the
college system is that it seems to make it
more difficult to meet people from other
colleges. In class, most people walk in
seconds before class begins, take notes,
and leave immediately after the professor
ends the lecture. I guess it is also due to
the size of my classes. My engineering
courses are at least double the size of the
ones which I would be taking back at
Swarthmore, and because of this,
everyone knows everyone else.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss
Swarthmore. Coming here has taught me
to appreciate Swarthmore for what it is, a
highly academic institution which
emphasizes individuality. But, in learning
this, I also have grown attached to Rice
University. For those two reasons, I
strongly recommend the Swarth-
more/Rice exchange.
David Mellinger:
Just a year ago, my sister's in-laws, both
native Pennsylvanians, moved to one of
Houston's northern sub-divisions. On
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Labor Day Weekend, I was invited to
spend a few days at their home and see life
on the "other side of the hedges."
As we raced along the freeway at 80
m.p.h. (we were in the slow lane), Mrs.
Kendall turned to her husband and said,
"Honey, slow down! It makes me
nervous."
In the Texas fashion, Mr. Kendall
responded, "I'm not going that fast.
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Morgan, Tom. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 5, 1982, newspaper, November 5, 1982; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245514/m1/12/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.