The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 18, 1983 Page: 2 of 20
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Grading changes grate
As a proud graduate of Edgar Odell Lovett Elementary (on
Rice Ave.) and member of Edgar Odell Lovett College, I have
always held a certain amount of awe for the first president of
Rice University and his achievements. Thus I was disappointed
when the faculty decided to change to letter grades from our
peculiar system of numbers, brought to this fine hedged
institute from Princteon by Edgar Odell Lovett. Some have
noted that even Princeton does not use the 1-5 system anymore;
of course not, I point out, since Edgar Odell Lovett took
everything good with him to Rice.
I can live with As instead of Is, although the former system's
conversation potential is not nearly as high. And if I ever do get
an A-plus, I'm sure it will be as much of a shocker as a 1-plus
would have been. Letter grades will not really change the
character of the Rice academic life.
However, I 'm not so sure about the effects of requiring a
minimum grade point average on all courses taken at Rice. As a
group at Baker observed the last time this proposal came before
the faculty, such a tightening of standards allows the incoming
student less room for error in his first year.
How many Rice students graduate with the major they chose
for their Rice application? The number of entering chemical
engineers, or just engineers, every year is awesome. The
chemical engineering department graciously accepts them until
the first Chem 101 test, when the often-brutal culling process
begins. Grades from tests with means of 55 are only a very
relative judgement of a student's capabilities.
Fortunately for Rice students in the past, a year's folly as a
would-be engineer (often a direct result of listening to a high-
school counselor) could be forgotten with the help of a new
major, in particular, one with better grades. I've seen many an
S/E who converted his wild oats (and Rice) into a solid
economics, philosophy, or sociology major — subjects to
which they probably had little exposure in high school. Most
earned decent to excellent grades in their new field; their
miserable Big Three grades were not an onus that burdened
them throughout their academic career.
For students entering under the new policy, however, a
similar initial slip-up can only be ameliorated by
proportionately higher grades in the student's correct choice of
major. In other words, the Rice pressure cooker is going to
increase the pressure. Dr. William Walker, chairman of the
Committee on Examinations and Standing, may call it a
"definite tightening of Rice's academic standards," but that
does not necessarily presage wonderful benefits for either the
university or the students.
I think the university could have looked for other methods of
tightening its standards, changes of substance such as raising
admission requirements or improving the curriculum, before
resorting to playing with arbitrary points on an abstract grid.
—Jeanne Cooper
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NUKING THE HEDGES/by David Curcio
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The Rice Thresher, March 18, 1983, page 2
Just when you thought it was
safe to visit Central America, again
come panicky reports from the
Reagan Administration de-
manding millions of dollars and
perhaps more American
"advisors" to keep the current
government of El Salvador from
collapsing. Though out of the
limelight of American TV news in
recent weeks, the Civil War has not
lessened in intensity. The death
rate averages over 1,000 per
month. Fighting continues with
the rebels gaining the initiative.
While he claims to be searching
hard for a non-military solution,
President Reagan wants $110
million more in arms for El
Salvador. Yet he maintains strong
support for that government's
refusal to negotiate with the
opposition. Plans have already
been made for our money. By the
end of the summer, a 10,000-man
offensive will be launched against
the guerilla strongholds. This will
be followed by a campaign
providing social services for
outlying villages in an effort
employed solely to woo civilians
away from the leftists. Sponsored
by the U.S. Agency for
International Development, this
plan is similar to the Civil
Operations and Rural Develop-
mt Support Agency (CORDS)
used in the early stages of the
Vietnam war.
When confronted with these
similarities, U.S. Ambassador to
El Salvador Deane Hinton
claimed, "the philosophy of how
you deal with these insurgencies is
applicable anywhere." The fact
that they did not quite work the
last time is apparently irrelevant.
Fortunately, Congress is wary of
escalating involvement of
Americans in the domestic politics
of El Salvador. The Vietnam war
started with a handful of American
advisors; there are currently 55 in
El Salvador. Reagan may wish to
surpass this self-imposed limit on
the grounds that it is cheaper to
train their soldiers with our
advisors and money on their soil
rather than in the U.S.
Of course, it will eventually be
noticed t hat it is also cheaper t o use
our pre-trained expert troops on
their soil rather than try to train an
army viewed as incompetent, lazy
and dominated by barracks
politics. The army of S"outh
Vietnam was seen in a similarly
negative light in the early 1960s.
But we need not worry; Reagan
has assured the public that "there is
no parallel whatsoever with
Vietnam."
Whether or not our involvement
is reminiscent of Vietnam is not
nearly as important as the fact that
our involvement is unjustified.
American policy is violating the
right to self-determination of the
people of El Salvador by throwing
guns and military hardware into an
already volatile situation. Our
support of "free" elections is
motivated not by a sense of the
democratic ideal, but rather by
political reasons. Reagan recently
urged the government of El
Salvador to move up the March
1984 elections only to win support
in the U.S. Congress for the
massive arms package and to blunt
any peace initiative of the visiting
Pope.
To justify this militarism,
Reagan has resurrected the
domino theory, claiming that
revolution could spread
throughout Central America and,
"in the last analysis, they are
fighting for us, too."
In actuality, they are fighting for
a corrupt and incompetent
government dominated by right-
wing elites and with a deplorable
human rights record; they are not
doing us any favors with our
money. Reagan uses the
unsubstantiated claim that
Russian arms are pouring into the
country to justify the supply of
violence originating in the U.S. In
fact, a lot of rebel arms consist of
captured American equipment.
Reagan hopes to prevent the
leftists from "shooting their way
into power;" apparently it is all
right to shoot American-supplied
arms to maintain power. Our
involvement is a serious mistake
which can only result in more
bloodshed, more wasted money,
and less worldwide prestige for the
United States.
The crisis in El Salvador must be
solved through the pursuit of real
democratic reforms, including
elections open to all candidates
without fear of repression or
murder. These inevitable reforms
must come from within and not be
imposed by the U.S. as part of a
paternalistic or imperialistic
policy. They must also occur
quickly in order to end the
violence.
HRESKR
Patty Cleary News Editor
Deborah Knaff Fine Arts Editor
Mark Mitchell Sports Editor
John Krueger Back Page Editor
Jay Grob Senior Editor
* * *
Todd Anthony Cornett Advertising Manager
Lorraine Farrell Managing Editor
Conrad Reining Photography Editor
Matt Petersen Copy Editor
Ruth Hilihouse Head Typesetter
Contributing Staff
Assistant Editors Paul Havlak (News), Steven Bentf (Fine Arts)
Alan Mathiowetz (Sports), Chip Clay (Photography), Sara Jordan (Production),
David Koralek (Advertising)
Contributing Editors Michele Gillespie, Harry Wade, Chris Ekren,
David Curcio, Ian Hersey, Mike Gladu, Alan Eynon
Graphics Lynn Lytton, Martin Zillman, Steve Woodward
News Staff Bob Terry, Ian Davidson, Mark Rome,
Michael Trachtenberg, Todd Giorgio, Derek Smith, Dagmar Aalund,
Anil Diwan, Brad Sevetson, Scott Flukinger, Larry Lesser
Fine Arts Staff Chris Boyer, Geoffrey Westergaard, Andrew Tullis.
Barry Watkins, Ray Isle, Gwen Richard, Paige Pool,
Recta Achari, Geoff Spradley, Rick Hunt, Michael Trachtenberg,
Aniko Kiraly, Karin Murphy, Michael Grant,
Loren Fefer, Alison Kennamer
Sports Staff Steve Bailey, Steve Mollenkamp, Anne MacMaster,
Ed Swartz, Art Rabeau, Carolyn Burr, Heather Gillespie
Ed Brittingha'm, Mike Friedman, Joseph Halcyon
Production Staff Alysha Webb, Susan Sheridan, Elaine Bienkowski,
Renate Neuendorf, Joyce Ivy, Mark Rome,
Hisham Smed, Karin Murphy
Photography Staff Ray Isle, Tom Cassidy, John Gibson, David Dean
Business Staff
Assistant Business Manager .'. Susan Conway Brown
Circulation Matt Petersen
Subscriptions David Steffens
Staff Michelle Grant, Jane Mitchell, Kay Gratke
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is published
each Friday during thf school year, except during examination periods and holidays, by the
students of Rice University.'Editorial and business ofFicesare located on the second floor of the
Rice Memorial Center, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251. Telephone (713) 527-4801 or
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domestic, S40.0(T international, (via first class mail). The opinions expressed herein are not
necessarily those of anyone except the writer Obviously.
1983. The Rice Thresher. All rights reserved
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Dux femina facti.
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Cooper, Jeanne. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 18, 1983, newspaper, March 18, 1983; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245526/m1/2/: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.