The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 1, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 3, 1983 Page: 1 of 12
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Car thefts, vandalism mar calm summer, vex Campos
by Dave Collins
Despite the presence of eight
hundred junior high and high
school students on campus this
summer, it has been a quiet season
for the Rice Campus Police. The
Campos have received only three
reports of serious crime since June
1: two automobile thefts and one
attempted auto burglary.
One of the auto thefts occurred
on the Sid Richardson college
parking lot on June 19 late in the
afternoon. The other occurred
between 2 and 4 p.m. on July
13 in front of Lovett Hall. In
neither case has a suspect been
apprehended.
June 19 was also the day of a
successful vehicle break-in in H-lot
near the Rice Memorial Center.
According to Sergeant Don Gohn
of the Campus Police, the owner
approached the vehicle as the
break-in was in progress and
confronted the suspect, who fled
the scene. The victim was unable to
identify the suspect in a picture
line-up.
Other than these isolated
incidents, Sgt. Gohn remarked,
there was "nothing worth
Crting" in the field of summer
e. There were cases of
vandalism and sabotage of video
games and bicycles at the RMC,
mostly connected with Rice
Summer School students, but the
Campus Police dealt with none of
these on a criminal basis.
Gohn, who keeps records and
statistics at the police office, noted
that the quiet summer is a dramatic
change from the 1982-83 academic
year. Nevertheless, he referred to
the amount of bicycle thefts and
burglaries on campus as
"ridiculous" and "of epidemic
proportions." He proposed that
the key to solving the campus
crime problem lies in a prevention
program above and beyond past
efforts.
A major aspect of the prevention
program involves continuous
exchange of information between
the Campos and the student
organizations and colleges,
particularly with the campus
.media.
"If people read something in two
consecutive issues of the Thresher
and then its not in the next issue,
they'll assume that the problem has
just disappeared," Sgt. Gohn
explained. If campus-dwellers see
a continuous problem with thefts
and burglaries, their vigilance will
also be continuous.
"The amount of burglaries and
other crimes here has been
ridiculous, especially for such a
small community," Gohn
continued, "but then there are so
many open doors." Unlocked dorm
rooms and bicycles accounted for
almost all burglaries and thefts on
campus last year.
KTRU has already unwittingly
opened a new crime prevention
market for the Rice Campus
Police. People outside the Rice
Community have heard KTRU's
afternoon news with weekly crime
reports and have called the
Campos for tips on prevention ol
crime.
"People call and ask, 'Can you
suggest a good bike lock?', 'Where
can 1 find someone to run with
me?' and 'How can I lock up my
house better?'after they hear about
us on KTRU," Gohn said.
During the year the Thresher
will publish weekly reports of
crime statistics and security
suggestions from the Campus
Police.
k n
Volume 71, number 1
/ A
THRESHER
Wednesday, August 3, 1983
INSIDE:
|*Tom Morgan returns to the
Thresher editorial page.
•Sandy Havens marks 20 years
with the Rice Players: page 5.
|*Our crack sports staff predicts
the SWC race. Guess who's first?
History department offers new courses in '83-84
Rice's History Department will
offer twenty new courses next year
in an effort to take advantage of
new faculty and to change the
department's emphasis towards
courses broader in subject and
chronology.
Commented Department
Chairman Ira Gruber, "We are
trying to offer more general
courses. For instance, Dr. Charles
Garside, who formerly taught
specialized courses on Luther and
Calvin, will offer a more general
overview of Reformation Europe.
Hopefully changes like this will
appeal to more people."
Gruber is particularly
enthusiastic about the courses to
be taught by Mellon Distinquished
Visiting Professors George
Fredrickson and Harold Perkin.
Fredrickson, author of The Inner
Civil War and the recent, award
winning White Supremacy, will be
teaching an intensive two credit
course on "Ideas and Institutions
in Post-Civil War America" during
the first four weeks of the Fall
Semester.
Harold Perkin, of the University
of Lancaster, England, will offer a
lower level lecture course on "The
Social Impact of Industrial
Revolutions" dealing with Britain,
France, Germany, the United
States and Japan, and an upper
level seminar and discussion
course on "Elites in British Society
Since 1800" this spring. Perkin,
author of The Origins of Modern
English Society, and The Age of
the Railway, is currently President
of the Social History Society of
Great Britain.
Four new courses in African
history have been approved by
Dean of Humanities Allen
Matusow. The courses, to be
taught by the newly appointed
Floyd Seward Lear Lecturer in
History Luise White, are intended
to provide both a broad survey of
African history and detailed
studies of Sbuth Africa and
African labor history. (See related
interview, page 4.)
The four courses, "Africa Before
1900", "Africa in the Twentieth
Century", "South Africa in the
Twentieth Century" and "African
Ira Gruber —C. Clay
Labor History", along with a fifth,
"African Social History", to be
offered in 1985, will fill a gap in the
History Department's offerings.
Both Matusow and Professor
Francis Loewenheim will offer
"suites" of new courses, Matusow's
offerings being a two year cycle in
American history leading from the
Progressive Era to the present.
Loewenheim's courses are
essentially a repackaging of his
previous offerings.
Professor Martin Weiner,
recently elevated to a Chair in
History, will offer "Crime and
Punishment in Victorian England"
in collaboration with Professor
Robert Patten of English. The
course will center around the
reading and discussion of 19th
century English literary and
historical texts treating problems
of crime and punishment.
Rodney Olsen, a Mellon Post-
Doctoral Fellow in History, will
offer a general history of everyday
life in America, "Private
Dimensions of Everyday Life in
American History, 1607 to
Present" along with a course in
American autobiography entitled
"American Autobiography and
American Culture." Olsen expects
his "Private Dimensions" course to
deal with "lived" realities as well as
the ideological boundaries of
everyday life. Olsen's courses will
be substituted for his previously
scheduled courses. History 435a
and 436b.
Other new offerings are
Fitsimmons' "France, 1787-1870",
Seed's "Elementary Demography
and Social Statistics", Guilmar-
tin's "Warfare and Technology
Through the Sixteenth Century"
and "W & T from the Sixteenth
Century to the Present."
Commented Gruber, "The
Department expects to gain new
junior members in both ancient
and European intellectual history
in the near future, probably next
year. We interviewed over two
hundred candidates while seeking
people for four positions last year.
Not everyone we wanted to come
to Rice this past semester accepted
our offer, but that was more a
function of the counteroffers made
than Rice."
Clark named temporary advising director
German Professor Susan Clark
will assume the office of Director
of Student Advising during H. C.
Clark's semester leave of absence,
according to Thresher sources.
Clark, whose official interim
appointment is expected soon,
expressed excitement with the
opportunity to implement plans to
improve the advising available to
different elements of the Rice
community. Remarked Clark, "I
plan to schedule monthly meetings
with students in each college to
answer any questions about Rice's
distribution and major require-
ments, outside study programs, the
availability of tutors, area
majors...anything they want to
know."
Clark hopes to step up
recruitment for outside
scholarships such as the Marshall
and Rhodes Scholarships. Said
Clark, "I hope to flag people that
would be competitive to receive
such an award and prepare them
for the application process. I plan
to hqye Rice alums that have been
successful in the past consult with
^interested students. The quality of
undergraduates at Rice is such that
we deserve more representation in
national fellowship programs."
Clark intends to review the Rice
Tutorial Program and athletic
advising program and look for
possible improvements. Com-
mented Clark, "One of my major
goals will be to improve
sophomore advising. Sometimes
it seems that between their
freshman year and officially
cnoosing a major (and getting an
official faculty advisor in their
department) students get lost."
The Office of Student Advising
is responsible for publishing the
academic information package
freshmen groups receive and
ascertaining the amount of
advanced placement a student may
get credit for. Two traditional
special offerings Clark plans to
make available this semester are
the Strong-Campbell interest
inventory test and the Sensa
reading improvement course.
New assistant basketball coach Marty Coach proves his versatility by bala
shaving. (See related story on Gross, page 9.)
ncing a spinning basketball while
— M. Sass
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Ekren, Christopher. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 1, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 3, 1983, newspaper, August 3, 1983; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245533/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.