The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 10, 1984 Page: 2 of 24
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Forums: either use 'em or stop your whining
The first sentence of last week's Thresher was wrong. I ought
to know — I wrote it and just a few hours later decided to prove it
incorrect. It stated that the Self-study Panel reports would be
distributed last Monday, whereas they were delivered last
Friday. This came about because Chris Ekren coaxed the
printers into rushing out the reports; as a result, the reports were
available to the Rice community three days earlier than
previously planned. His efforts, and Dr. Linda Driskill's for
supervising the entire effort, are to be commended.
Achieving the earlier printing was intended to allow Rice
students and faculty more time to peruse the reports and better
prepare for the open forum discussions. However, judging from
the meager turnouts to date, this has not happened. Rather than
beating the Rice apathy horse through to the marrow, I would
just like to remind the students that these meetings are an ideal
time to be heard and make a difference.
—Mark Mitchell
South Africa on 2 Krugerrands a day
Yes, the Rice alumni are still planning a trip to South Africa
(see article and itinerary, page 10). And why the hell not? No one
seems to care. After visiting that white supremacist state, they'll
know even better than the rest of us the truth about South
Africa, right?
Wrong. Take a close look at the itinerary so lovingly planned
for our ex-students. What has been hailed as an educational trip
appears, in fact, to be little more than a dilettante's joyride, from
which little about modern life under an apartheid government
will be learned.
As tourists, our alumni will live as the white class lives,
benefitting from the luxurious accomodations made possible by
cheap black labor.
Admittedly, it isn't necessary for Rice alumni, members of the
educated elite, to live like a black South African to observe his
plight. But the tour conveniently avoids the black-designated
areas where much of the living, and a lot of the dying in South
Africa occurs.
Of approximately four full days spent in the Johannesburg
area, apparently not even five minutes will be spent anywhere
near the neighboring black township of Soweto. Furthermore,
the alums will be flown instead of driven from Port Elizabeth to
Durban, separating them by several thousand feet from the
intervening region of Transkei. Transkei is one of 10
impoverished "homelands" into which millions of black South
Africans have been forcibly transferred over the last 35 years.
In their desire to provide an "educational" voyage, the trip's
planners have arranged a sanitary presentation of primitive
gold-mining techniques. There is no indication that they will
witness the dangerous work done in today's mines, extracting
the wealth of diamonds, gold and other minerals — work done
by blacks, with the profits going to white investors.
The colorful Zulu dwellings which the tour guides will proudly
display are a thing of the past. A more typical example of a home
in the black-designated areas is a run-down house run by a
woman while her husband works in a mine or a factory hundreds
of miles away.
The real South Africa is not a very enticing tourist attraction.
But if the alumni wish to justify their trip with new-found
information about the plight of the black South African, they
won't find what they're looking for in a contrived Zululand
amusement park.
The danger is all too real that the alumni visiting South Africa
will see a country very much like our own, with vast material
wealth, an active capitalist economy, and a stable democratic
government. Like European visitors to Nazi Germany before the
war, they will be impressed by the education and civility of their
hosts.
It is disturbingly likely that upon return they will tell their
friends what awful rumors those were, that those wonderfully
nice people couldn't possibly be so terrible to the blacks.
Prove me wrong, alumni. Please.
—Paul Havlak
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DEFOLIATING THE HEDGES by Chris Ekren
YUR
One of my most vivid childhood
memories is of operating a simple
Texas Instruments pocket
calculator to average class grades
for my 9th grade Oklahoma
history teacher, who was (honest)
perplexed by the concept of
division. Having just moved to
Tulsa from New Jersey with my
parents, 1 found myself two years
ahead of the students in my grade
level — and often better versed in
English than my teachers.
Disgusted with what Oklahomans
called education, I looked forward
to the day when I wouldn't have to
argue with petty, frustrated and
marginally literate middle-aged
women about participles.
Sadly, I have not escaped totally
from America's obscenely poor
secondary and primary educa-
tional system, for I am in Texas. I
was reminded of this fact last week
after reading a report detailing
how, from now on, mention of
Darwin's concept of evolution
would be proscribed from
textbooks in the state of Texas. In
the same paper I read an article
citing Ross Perot's revelation that
in many Texas schools extra-
curricular activities take up close
to forty percent of the average
student's time, extracurricular
activities meaning anything from
selling candy to playing football.
Further on in the same paper (this
was a depressing day) I read about
how Houston teachers are still
complaining about being required,
to take a test that measure their
ability to add, spell and write.
The first time Houston primary
and secondary school teachers
took their "teacher competency
test," you will remember, there was
widespread documented cheating.
Even at Rice there is a substantial
minority of people that considers
football a vital part of education.
A minority very well represented
on the Board of Governors. To an
"Easterner" like myself, Texas is a
bastion of educational provincial-
ism. Even though I sense some
imbalance in the fact that Watson
Brown makes tens of thousands
more than professors seeking a
greater understanding of, say,
human biology or artificial
intelligence, I am not worried
about Rice's future. I am worried
about the South's, and Texas' in
particular, secondary schools
however.
Texans pay dirt for their
children's public school teachers
and get dirt. And, as the adage
goes, those who can't teach
administrate. The recent
administrative decision by the
state to strike mention of evolution
from textbooks without allowing
evidence in favor of inclusion to be
introduced in hearings allows
Texas once again to be the
laughing stock of the Western
civilized world. Seemingly, we
have entrusted the minds of our
children to the whims of religious
zealots ("Creationism") and
coaches.
As Rice students, the fortunate
few in what must be charitably
termed an educational wasteland,
more than a passing interest in the
efforts of Perot and others to
challenge the educational status
see Defoliating, page II
Mark M. Mitchell
Editor
Todd A. Cornett
Business Manager
Dave Collins News Editor
Ian Hersey Fine Arts Editor
Tony Soltero Sports Editor
Hal Wiedeman Back Page Editor
Jeanne Cooper, Jay Grob Senior Editors
Tom Morgan, Chris Ekren Senior Editors
Jason Binford Advertising Manager
Robyn Klahr, Sarah Jordan Production Managers
Chip Clay Photography Editor
Jay Grob Copy Editor
Associate Editors Deborah Knaff (Fine Arts), Paul Havlak (News)
Assistant Editors Melissa Cox, Frances Egler, David
Friesenhahn (News), Ian Neath (Fine Arts),
Bob Terry (Copy), Steve Mollenkamp (Sports),
Pam Truzinski (Photography)
Graphics Ian Hersey, Martin Zillman, Lynn Lytton, Margot Wasz
Contributing Editors John Cunyus, A1 Eynon
News Staff Patty Cleary, Scott Snyder, Rebecca Monroy
Becky Basch, Cheryl Smith, Scheleen Johnson
Mark Benningfleld, Brock Wagner, James Greenlee III
Melissa Durbin, Earl Peterson, Shelina Shariff
Patty Baron, Ian Davidson, Paul Havlak
Mike La Rue
Fine Arts Staff L. Gene Spears, Jr., Harry Wade, Geoff Spradley,
Michael Manson, Kathryn Tomasek, Greg Holies,
Theresa Brown, Carrie Blum, Vincent W. Uher,
Karin Murphy, Cheryl Smith, Wiggy Martin,
Albert Throckmorton, Jennifer Cooper, David S. Teager
Kathleen Robertson, Jennifer Juday, Noel MiUea,
Maureen McKelvey, John Knapp, R. Michael Hunt
Sports Staff Sheri Rieke, Art Rabeau, Howard Gerwin
A1 Mathiowetz, Ben Giele, Paul deFigueiredo
Production Staff Jeanne Cooper
Susan Balagna, Melissa Durbin
Business Staff
Assistant Business Manager Susan Brown
Assistant Advertising Manager Bev Blackwood
Advertising Consultant Dave Koralek
Circulation Jay Grob, Tom Morgan
Student Staff Assistant Mark Benningfleld
Subscription Manager David Steffens
Tk* Rtc* TWsshir, the official student newspaper at Rice Univemty since 1916, is
published each Friday during the school year, except during examination periods and
holidays, by the students of Rice University. Editorial and business offices arc located on
the second floor of the Rice Memorial Center, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251.
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•1984, The Rice Thmher. All rights rcMrved.
The Rice Thresher, February 10, 1984, page 2
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Mitchell, Mark M. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 10, 1984, newspaper, February 10, 1984; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245551/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.