The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 5, 1982 Page: 13 of 24
twenty four pages : ill. ; page 20 x 14 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
nlike this phrase soon became apparent.
rt of After settling down that evening, I
remember talking to Jenny Kendall, who
was struggling with her eighth-grade
Texas history homework. With her
textbook on her lap, she looked up at me
and innocently exclaimed, "You know,
the way this book tells it, you'd think they
had won the war!"
Not only do Texans take liberties in
recording history, they also discourage
Yankee infiltration by, as the Surgeon
General would say, "making Texas
hazardous to a Yankee's health."
The next day I was floating restfully in
the pool when a neighbor stopped by to
visit. When she saw me swimming in the
pool she said, "1 can't believe you're
swimming. Our pool is so cold—it's only
5%. at 84 degrees today." Needless to say, I
nearly drowned.
}f the Now to a more serious note. Even
Ik to, though I'll be happy to return to
crisis Swarthmore (for a number of personal
upon reasons), the time I've spent at Rice has
And been a very valuable and enjoyable
that they were stabilizing factors in the
Rice community.
Back to some of the more trivial
reasons for going to Swarthmore. We,
the exchanges to Rice, give Swarthmore
some poor notoriety at times. In reality,
ignment: rice
'eing
lege
d of
to
n 17
the
ke it
ther
in
otes,
ssor
ae to
ring
the
at
this,
miss
t me
is, a
nich
ning
Rice
5, I
"th-
both
ne of
On
?d to
?e life
at 80
Mrs.
said,
me
ndall
fast,
v!" I
ng of
experience (I know this sounds trite, but
it is very true.)
After two years at college, my routines
were becoming stale. Rice has given me a
renewed freshness, something I think we
all lose early in our freshman year.
Everyone should seriously consider
going on exchange or just taking time off
to explore a new environment. If you end
up at Swarthmore next fall, look me up
and I'll try to give to you the same
hospitality that has made me feel at home
at Rice University.
Richard Selverian:
Coming here to Rice was a great thing
for me to do. I have gained a more
complete understanding of college life
while experiencing an entirely different
geographical area. Besides, anyone who
can spend two full years at Swarthmore
deserves a break. I have also had the
chance to get to know some new people,
to make some great friends and to be
associated with a fabulous college: Lovett.
Not to mention the fact that I had the
opportunity to play on the BULL: we are
number one.
Since I have been here, I have been able
to do quite a bit of travelling; so far I have
been to A&M, Galveston, Mexico and
New Orleans twice. At Swarthmore, I
never considered a six-hour roadtrip on
the spur of the moment; after all, I would
be in Rhode Island and who wants to go
there?
My desire to travel may be prevalent
because I am in foreign lands or because
distance is insignificant out here.
Anyway, it has been a lot of fun and, if
nothing else, I've learned never to ask
anyone in a border town if he is an illegal
, alien.
For the big question! Why would
anyone in his/her right mind want to
come to Swarthmore College on
exchange? That is a tough question to
answer but one apparent reason is that it
is the only place that you can exchange.
Perhaps an evenVnore obvious reason (at
least to a reasonably intelligent
individual) is that if one were to go to
school at Swarthmore he/she would be
close enough to visit one of the greatest
states (if not the greatest state) in the
nation: New Jersey. Contrary to the
popular belief of many uneducated
Texans and other reclusive people that I
have met since I have been here, New
Jersey is a great state with something to
offer everyone: from the chemical waste
sights to the agricultural farm lands to
the serenity of suburban life. Oh, I forgot
to mention Atlantic City, it is something
to see. I was surprised to find several
people here from New lersev and I noted
Swarthmore is a great place to go as an
exchange student. It has a beautiful
campus of more than 300 acres with a
student body of about 1250. Its academic
standing is recognized as one of the finest
in the country. The classes are small,
which affords you the opportunity to
work very closely with the professors and
enables you to get involved with some of
their research or projects.
Now that I have given "you-all" the
sales pitch, I will conclude by saying, in
retrospect, the exchange was a very
worthwhile experience for me and I
highly recommend it to anyone who is
considering it.
Jim Willey:
The logical place to begin is to compare
the people at each school. Amazingly
enough, even unfortunately at times, the
The trip to Mexico (the first trip
outside the U.S. for this hometown boy)
brings out a basic fact and a memory. The
fact is that if three college kids are riding
in a black sports car with out-of-state tags
they had better steer clear from little
towns south of Houston. Can anyone
explain how we got a ticket for speeding
at 69 miles per hour when the traffic was
bumper-to-bumper at 50? I'd sure like to
ask that Refugio cop the same question.
The memory, or lack thereof, is that we
left with a full cooler of beer and returned
with an empty cooler—which would be
the norm, except Robb was driving and
Rich doesn't drink. Which sort of brings
the return trip from A&M to mind,
except I don't remember any of that.
For all you Rice people that complain
about the food here—relax. You don't
realize how well off you are. While Rice
food does not stack up to the quality of
Swat's Saga service, you ought to eat at
Upsala College in North Jersey, or at
Gettysburg College, or at any number of
little rat-trap kitchens back East. The only
complaint against Rice's food service is
that they should leave family-style dining
for when I'm home with the family. And
how is a normal American male to survive
without dinner on Saturday and Sunday
nights?
Now we arrive at the most important
subject—intercollegiate football. The
Rice stadium is truly awesome, 70,000
people is a lot of folks. The MOB is
terrific, and UT was the best. Though, it
is best to remember that I may be easily
impressed as Swat has no marching band.
And the cheerleaders are nowhere near as
bad as the letters to the Thresher make
them out to be. I>n fact, I like the pyramid
where one girl does ^-backbend atop the
pile with another girl standing on her
stomach. But does this first girl ever
experience pain?
Big time college football is very exciting
and very unique. But there are two things
I've seen at Swat games that I've never
seen at Rice. The first is a banner reading
"Avg. SAT 670 verbal 690 math." The
second is a victory by the home team.
So here I am, settled in and living the
life of a Swarthmore Exchange coed
student at Rice. "What's it like compared
to Swarthmore?" I restate your question
with surprise, as if I am not asked this at
every meal and party. "Well, let me tell
you, for the differences are profound."
Swarthmore has half the student body
size of Rice (roughly 1200 students).
There is no college system. All meals are
served cafeteria style with one main,
beautiful dining hall. Meals are much
more of a social event at Swarthmore.
The food is much better and people linger
on for a half to a hour after they are done
just to see all their friends and relax.
There are three fraternities, two of which
are practically inactive, and the other is
being threatened with extinction because
of its rowdiness. Thus, the social life is
centered around private parties or special
interest group parties.
Swarthmore is a dry town, and it is a
Quaker town. The campus has a pub
which serves beer, wine, and mixed
drinks, but it is only open Thursday
through Saturday and one has to buy a
ticket to drink in order to avoid legal
problems.
Thus, Rice is much more active socially.
Swarthmore has TG's and a "Pub," but
Nan Weinstock:
Rice must be a great place because
when I first came here everything went
wrong. Swarthmore told me my credits
would not transfer; my baggage did not
arrive until one week after my arrival;
everyone thought I was a snobby
freshman too stuckup to attend freshman
week; I was immediately labeled in a
disconcerting manner as a "Yankee," the
campus was so big compared to
Swarthmore that I was either late to all
my classes, or missed them; and I did not
know what "Aggies," the "RMC," "Spuds,"
"Tony Lamas," "Burritos," and 'Kicker
Dancing were.
Nevertheless, I was content in this new
environment. Now maybe I am a dizzy
blonde, and I just did not realize how bad I
truly had it, but I knew there was more to
it than that!
they are far less frequented and exciting
than Rice's—yes, Rice is exciting!
I was under the impression, like the rest
of the Swarthmore students, that
Swarthmore was the hardest school in
the world and that we had more work
than anyone else, but we seemed to be
equally echoed by Rice students who, like
Swarthmoreans, can be overheard saying
"That's nothing, I have four tests, 10
papers, and one million homework
problems due in three seconds"; "You
think that's bad, well / have . . "The nice
thing about Rice students, though, is that
many of them close the books on
weekends and many start their weekends
on Thursday — that kind of lifestyle was
new to me, but I easily adjusted.
All in all, even though Rice to you may
be apathetic with its losing football team,
number of "wiener" students, lack of
social events, and whatever else makes a
school worthy of complaint, to me it is
exciting and interesting in its balance of
Division 1 football, intramurals, smart
people who can also party and socialize, a
beautiful campus not too big, but big
enough and friendly familiar faces with a
new face here and there to prevent
stagnancy! Hey, 1 wanna stay
cv© ; ,/ O
Rice folks are pretty much just like the
Swat crowd. There are as many weirdos
rampant inside the hedges at Rice as there
are inhabiting Swat's ivory tower.
While it is true that there are plenty of
people with real Texas twangs, tight
,3 Jeans, and sharp cowboy boots, the fact
remains that Rice even has people from
New Jersey. Oh brother...
Being foreign to this part of the
country, my visit has included all the
mandatory road trips. New Orleans was
victimized twice, along with an
interesting but dirty Nuevo Laredo, the
beach at Galveston (where were the
waves?), and the local favorite, Texas
A&M.
O'v";-~ ^©v
dJ *0,
• .4-:'r* • v3 V. > r,.;0 'ir - H
yrr
f:."5**-...
y •>
7W.'-
©
I k L
SWAT Map
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
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/m1/13/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.