The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, March 1, 1985 Page: 3 of 16
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BEYOND THE HEDGES/by Scheleen Johnson
Harvard to beef
up engineering
In an attempt to compete with
leading technical universities such
as Stanford and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, officials
at Harvard University have
announced that they will revamp
the university's engineering
program over the next few months,
reports the Harvard Crimson.
In addition to an increase in the
number of staff and faculty
working within the discipline, new
courses wij! be created and old
ones expanded.
Wallace Professor of Applied
Physics R. Victor Jones said that
the program, which has been
discussed for quite a while but has
rarely received such priority, "is
largely in response to student
reaction. We all felt we could do a
better job in this area."
The university also hopes to
attract more of the top high-school
students. ".. .We hope that this will
have an impact on admissions,"
said McKay Professor of Mechan-
ical Engineering Richard E.
Kronauer.
The new program will be more
demanding and concentrated but
Kronauer points out that Harvard
will still not be able to "demand as
much as places like M.I.T."
because undergraduates are
required to take a certain number
of "core courses" outside their
major.
"We want to provide those
students who have this area as their
career orientation with the best
opportunity, and also allow them
to share in the other opportunities
of a Harvard education," said
Kronauer.
Gas firm suing
UT for payment
The Southern Union Gas
Company has filed claim that the
University of Texas at Austin owes
them nearly $1.3 million because
of an error in the company's
tabulation of university bills.
Representatives of the company
have filed suit against the
university for failure to pay the
two-year-old bill. University
officials say that they simply do
not have the money to pay right
now.
Between September 1,1978, and
December 31, 1982, the gas
company did not charge UT-
Austin for state and local taxes,
according to a petition filed in
State District Court on February
4.
"We negotiated with the
university for two years in an
attempt to effect collection," said
Robert Laczko, District Vice
President for Southern Union.
"The university has not been
responsive."
Laczko told the Daily Texan
that the university has not refused
THRESHING IT OUT
Eligibility rules
too restrictive
To the editor:
I feel I should comment on the
SA's disqualification of Jackie
Smith and Dan Lavin as
candidates for SA treasurer. I do
not contend that the decision was
incorrect regarding the constitu-
tion's requirements, but rather that
the requirements should be
changed. Having served as
treasurer for an organization
before, I feel that having an
accounting course would have
been helpful, but by no means
necessary. If the SA insists on
requiring an accounting course,
the requirement should be that the
candidate have taken or be
currently taking an accounting
course. Seeing the syllabus of this
semester's Acco 305 class only
affirms my belief that by March 15,
the changeover date, a student
currently taking the course would
have already covered any material
pertinent to being SA treasurer.
The topics left to cover after
changeover include pensions,
long-term investment, bonds, and
owner's equity, which, at least to
me, seem irrelevant to the
workings of the SA. By being
enrolled in the course, the
treasurer would have easy access to
an instructor who could be of
assistance should any difficulty
arise. Furthermore, it is obvious
that the bulk of the treasurer's
work will be after he or she has
completed the course. After taking
Acco 305, I feel certain that the
vast majority of non-Rice courses
would be considerably less
rigorous. However, I cannot
believe that the treasurer of the SA
would be faced with any problems
as difficult as those encountered on
an Acco 305 test. It seems that
Smith's high-school course would
have provided enough material to
qualify her for treasurer. I hope
that the referendum which will be
voted on after break will allow
Smith and Lavin, if he still wishes,
to run for SA treasurer.
Janice Budd
Brown ^7
SA reasonable
in interpretation
To the editor:
This is in reference to the
upcoming student referendum
concerning the Student Associa-
tion Treasurer election. As a
member of the Senate, I would like
to explain the issue the way I see it.
On February' 18, the Senate was
informed that the two persons who
applied for the SA Treasurer
position, Dan Lavin and Jackie
Smith, had not completed an
accounting course at Rice, and
hence were not eligible to be
candidates for the position; Article
3. Section 6d of the SA
constitution states that a candidate
"shall have successfully completed
a course in accounting at Rice
University or the equivalent of
such a course as determined by the
Dean of the Jones School of
Business Administration." The
Senate interpreted this to mean
that accounting experience alone
was not sufficient for eligibilty. As
both Jackie and Dan said they had
not had an accounting course, the
Senate re-opened the petition
deadline in order to get qualified
candidates. At a later meeting on
Feb. 21, the Senate reaffirmed that
their interpretation of this clause
meant that an academic course
equivalent to a Rice accounting
course was required, and on these
grounds, Jackie's appeal for
candidacy was denied, and so
petitions remained open for the
see Threshing, page 4
to pay the taxes but has told the gas
company that it must first decide
which UT fund will carry the debt.
Linward Shivers, UT Senior
Attorney, said that the money to
pay the gas charge could come
from a legislative bill but that the
Legislature only appropriates
money for the utility fund every
two years, and no funds are
presently available.
According to Laczko, the gas
company tried earlier to settle out
of court but UT officials would not
agree to the gas company's terms.
The Southern Union Gas
Company was forced to receive
legislative permission to sue the
university because the Texas
Constitution protects state
agencies from lawsuits. Last
summer, a resolution was adopted
by the State Legislature allowing
Southern Union to sue UT.
Cartoonist calls
students fascist
At an Ezra Stiles master's tea on
the Yale University campus,
cartoonist Jules Feiffer attacked
modern college students for being
"fascist" and called 1980's politics
"a beauty contest."
Feiffer, a political cartoonist
whose work has appeared in the
Village Voice and Playboy, is also
the author of several Broadway
plays and is currently writing a
screenplay for Paramount Pictures
satirizing the television program
The People's Court.
Feiffer began his "highly
political discussion," wrote the
Yale Daily News, by telling the
audience, "I woke up during the
presidential election to discover
college students have become right
wing, fascist really." He went on to
try and explain the "surface
liberalism, conformism and
disillusionment" held by college
students. "People feel several
million voices can't change
BLOOM COUNTY
anything, much less one," he said.
"There is an enormous void.
Except for Jerry Falwell and the
Moral Majority, that sense [60's
enthusiasm] of politics is no longer
there."
Feiffer went on to blast
President Ronald Reagan, calling
him a purveyor of "super-white,
Frank Capra" values and a
"movie-America" philosophy.
"Reagan has made big
government a bogeymman, just
like Joe McCarthy used the Red
Scare," Feiffer said. "There is no
one for the people to trust but the
genial sleepy-eyed leader in the
White House. He is a genius. If the
liberals in this country believed in
their philosophy as much as
Ronald Reagan believes in his,
we'd have a debate."
The satirical and controversial
cartoonist expressed doubt that
any real change willoccurany time
soon, saying that elections are no
longer legitimate because
candidates are judged on
personality issues. "It's a beauty
contest."
Feiffer's cartoons and comics
have been frequently censored and
dropped from papers. He told the
group, "Oh sure, I've been dropped
from papers, but it's the only way
you know you're doing your job."
A&M accused of
unjust actions
A senior aerospace-engineering
major at Texas A&M is suing the
university for what he believes to
be unjust punishment for excessive
parking tickets.
Tom Urban, the Student
Senate's Vice President of
Academic Affairs at A&M , was
placed on "conduct probation" by
the school on November 27. Brent
Paterson, Judicial Affairs
Supervisor for Student Services,
informed Urban that he was being
placed on probation due to "an
excessive number of unpaid
parking violations" and a failure to
"register the vehicle with the
U.P.D. [University Police
Department]." Urban, however,
claims that the University is
punishing him for his support of
the controversial Gay Student
Services.
In the October 6 issue of the
Bryan-College Station Eagle, after
the Student Senate passed a resol-
ution supporting, the GSS, Urban
is quoted as saying, "We hope the
resolution will make the Board
(Texas A&M's Board of Regents)
look beyond their own bigotries
and accept the GSS."
Urban told the Battalion that he
had received 16 parking tickets last
semester. He paid them all on
November 7 and registered his car
on November 14. The suit filed by
Urban's lawyer, Beatrice
McAdenka-Fowler, also states
that Urban received 12 parking
tickets during the 1984 spring
semester but that they were all paid
in March and that "no disciplinary
action was taken against him,"
according to the Battalion.
McAdenka-Fowler says that
Urban is the first A&M student to
be placed on "conduct probation"
for having too many parking
violations. She feels that the school
is using the tickets as an excuse to
retaliate against Urban's views.
"The university is denying Tom
his First Amendment rights." she
said.
"Conduct probation" at A&M
means that a student is regarded a
"not in good standing with the
university." Also, the student is no
longer eligible to hold any elected
or appointed university office and
is ineligible to receive a university-
administered scholarship. The
probation is recorded on the
student's permanent file and any
further university code violations
can result in expulsion.
by Berke Breathed
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Havlak, Paul. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, March 1, 1985, newspaper, March 1, 1985; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245591/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.