The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 1984 Page: 2 of 24
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The misclass is only what you make it
If you look on page 4, you will see one of a small swarm of
letters which Brandon Rigney and I received this week from
students in varied states of hostility toward the misclass. The
other four letters were from sophomores in Will Rice College:
Wendell DeGrange, Leslie Henderson, John Hunter, and
Sumukh Trilokekar (the last two being roommates).
Why part of the Class of ^7 has suddenly decided to rise up
against the "disgustingly shocking" misclass is beyond me. If
they wish to lambast the freshman week Thresher, well, I would
probably agree with them that that backpage was excessive.
Faced with a dearth of submissions and the lack of sufficient
time to fill the backpage with our own creative frothings, then
backpage editor Jennifer Juday and I decided to run some
misclass which we had held back from the summer issue (mailed
to returning students and freshmen at home) as being too
obscene.
The responsibility for the content of the backpage rests not
only with the Thresher editor (who chooses the backpage editor)
and the backpage editor (who actually decides what will run),
but with the student body. Because the majority of students seem
to approve of the way the backpage is run, Brandon, who took
over after freshman week, and I decided to make no changes
except for strengthening two guidelines, as we wrote on the
backpage of the August 31, 1984 issue:
For one, if the submission is offensive, it must have
sufficient educational or amusement value to raise it above
the merely shocking. Our decisions here will obviously
involve subjective judgements which are open to discussion
(in the misclass, perhaps?). But with higher quality and
quantity of submissions, we will be far less tempted to run
questionable material.
The second rule is that personal attacks are out. Of course,
if you want to identify yourself (with your phone number on
the submission so we can verify), then blast away. But these
pages will not serve as a cloak of anonymity for opinionated
cowards.
For every one of the ten or so students who has publicly
criticized the editorial laxity of the backpage since I came to
Rice, there have been dozens who have shown their agreement
with our current policies by submitting more misclass, by
reading the backpage before (or instead of) the front page, or by
saying so personally.
Furthermore, if one does dislike the backpage s comments, it
is not enough to whine about how offensive they are. The best
things in life are not free, and the cost of an interesting, perhaps
even literary, backpage is the investment of a few minutes
writing interesting, perhaps even literary, misclass.
If the students, faculty, alumni and staff of this great
institution of higher learning were predominantly against the
less prestigious institution of the backpage, I would feel
compelled to modify or discard it completely. But everything I
have seen points to the opposite — that despite its faults, the
misclass is an important outlet for student opinion.
— Paul Havlak
Misplaced notices help fill space
Notices elsewhere omitted: the GSA picnic really is today at 4
p.m. (food starts at 5). Graduates students are welcome, and
guests will be admitted free with ID.
Also, today is the last day to add classes or change to a
pass/fail designation for a class.
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SURVIVING THE HEDGES/bv Duaine Prvor
In 1982, 97 Nobel laureates
drafted and signed a statement in
nuclear weapons which read in
part, "Comprehensive nuclear
disarmament — and, eventually,
disarmament of chemical,
'conventional' and other weapons
as well — must remain our major
goal.... In the circumstances in
which mankind now finds itself,
the warning sounded so eloquently
27 years ago in the Russell-
Einstein Manifesto takes on a new
urgency: There lies before us, if we
choose, continual progress in
happiness, knowledge, and
wisdom. Shall we instead choose
death, because we cannot forget
our quarrels? We appeal as human
beings to human beings; remember
your humanity and forget the rest.'
... We now appeal to our colleagues
of the world's scientific
community. Accept responsibility
and become directly involved in
actions to avert nuclear war."
Due to the efforts of these men
and many others concerned about
the nuclear threat, we all realize
now that nuclear war would be,
shall we say, a bad idea at best.
More precisely, nuclear war would
be a species committing suicide.
We need to end the arms race
before it ends us. Towards this end,
the next president should begin
negotiations with the Soviet Union
on a mutual arms freeze soon after
his election. The freeze would call a
halt to the development, testing,
production and deployment of
nuclear weapons of all kinds in
both countries. Such a freeze
would be more easily negotiated
that the SALT type treaties for two
reasons. First, the Soviets have
said that they would by interested
in a freeze. Second, in the
negotiations of a SALT type treaty
one has to contend with the fact
that each country has placed a
different number of eggs in each
basket of the nuclear triad. This
leads to all sorts of intractable
squabbles over how each part of
the treaty affects the overall
strength of each nation, and over
which combination of limitations
is equitable. Since the freeze would
apply to the entire nuclear force of
each country, these quarrels would
be eliminated.
The adoption of a mutual
nuclear arms freeze would be
benificial to both the United States
and Russia in many ways. The
most important advantage of a
freeze is that it would reduce
tension between the superpowers
and thus reduce the risk of
confrontation. It is a fact of history
that arms build up, tension and
war are highly correlated to say the
least. An arms race exacerbates
tension and further tension
exacerbates the arms race in a
deadly spiral. Arms races have
been contributing factors in
several past wars and the increase
in armament caused a correspond-
ing increase in the severity of war
once it began.
Another factor leading to
increased stability after a freeze is
the fact that a freeze would halt the
arms race at a state of parity.
According to the defense
department report in 1982 the
forces of the Eastern Bloc are equal
to or possibly slightly inferior to
the Western Bloc forces. That is,
while the missile counts on each
side in various areas may differ, the
overall strength of each side is
roughly equivalent to that of the
other. A freeze would also set the
stage for reductions at a later date,
further reducing risks of nuclear
conflict.
Another advantage of a freeze
over other sorts of arms
agreements is that it is more easily
verified. This relative ease of
verification stems from the fact
that a freeze would apply to the
development and deployment of
all nuclear weapons not just
certain classes of nuclear weapons.
Our present satellite technology
would be adequate to check Soviet
compliance. A recent New York
Times Magazine article claims that
our satellites are so effective that
they can read license plates on
Russian cars. Former CIA director
William Colby has testified that we
could verify such a freeze and that
"We do not have to, nor should we,
'trust' the Russians."
A third advantage of such a
freeze is economic. A military
build-up requires huge expendi-
tures in capital, manpower and
resources. Proponents of the freeze
See Surviving, page 4
Thresher
Paul Havlak
Editor
Todd A. Cornett
Business Manager
David Friesenhahn News Editor
Ian Neath Fine Arts Editor
Scott Snyder Sports Editor
Susan Buchanan, Pam Truzinski Photo Editors
Brandon Rigney Back Page Editor
Bev Blackwood Advertising Manager
Sarah Jordan Production Manager
Robyn Klahr Managing Editor
John Knapp Copy Editor
Mark M. Mitchell Senior Editor
Assistant Editors L. Gene Spears (Fine Arts), Tony Soltero (Sports)
Contributing Editors Duaine Pryor, Andy Mitchell,
Steve McLaughlin, Tom Morgan
News Staff Ian Davidson, Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Robert Hess, Scheleen Johnson,
Andy Kopplin, Shao-lee Lin, Karin Murphy, Tibor Roberts,
Jana Sanchez, David Schnur, Shelina Shariff, Cheryl Smith
Jeff Michel, Mitch Neurock, Keith Nickerson
Fine Arts Staff John Knapp, Sarah Jordan, Frances Egler, Mike Voigt,
Valerie Rohy, Mark Osterman, Carolyn Austin, Marie Lawson
Sports Staff Antonio Torres, Mark Matteson, Joey DiCregorio, Jim Colton,
John Lippert, Ted Andrews, Jonathan Sadow, Kevin Cass,
Carl Rosene. Jay English, Steve Mollenkamp, Warren Clybome
Photography Staff Mike Gladu, David Tuttle, Art Rabeau
Graphics Mike Harshman, Scott Brooks, Dan Borden
Production Staff Rick Ary. Mary Ashkar, Elise Bauman, Bill Bellis,
Erin Blair, Lori Bryngelson. Jennifer Corkill, Jill Goodman,
Lisa Gray, Stephanie Kozinski, Karin Murphy, Sandhya Nayak,
Karen Nickel, Valerie Rohy. Geoff Stafford, Ruthie Woerner
Bulinen SUIT
Assistant Business Manager Susan C. Brown Snook
Assistant Advertising Manager Crystal Davis
Advertising Production Assistant Ashley Stainback
Subscription Manager Kathi Fletcher
Student Staff Assistant Carlos Soltero
Circulation Sean Daichman. Howard Goldman, Mark Mitchell
Th* Bit* Tlrato, the official student newspaper at Rice Univenity since 1916, is published
each Friday during the school year, except during examination periods and holiday*, by the
students of Rice University. Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the
■Rice Memorial Center, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251. Telephone (713)327-4801 or
S27-48Q2. Advertising information available upon request. Mail subscription rate per semester:
SI 3.00 domestic, $30.00 international, (via Tint das* mail). The opinions expressed herein are
not necessarily those of anyone except the writer. Obviously.
*1984, The Rkc Thrcalttr. All rights reserved.
The Rice Thresher, September 21, 1984, page 2
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Havlak, Paul. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 1984, newspaper, September 21, 1984; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245568/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.