The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, September 27, 1985 Page: 3 of 12
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BEYOND THE HEDGES/by Lisa Gray
Star Wars research
gets mixed reviews
Congress has set aside $2.7
billion for 1985-86 research related
to the Reagan administration's
Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI), popularly known as "Star
Wars," prompting petitions and
debate at universities across the
nation.
According to the Yale Daily
News, the Reagan administration
hopes the grants for research
related to the space-based anti-
missile system will prompt "a
Renaissance in technical and
military research comparable to
the Manhattan project."
Last March the Department of
Defense outlined the sort of
"consortiums" it hopes to form
with universities by funding SDI
research. Since then, debate has
focused on the ethics of such
research and the effects of large
military research grants on
academic freedom, especially the
possibility of restrictions on
publication of research results.
The United Campuses Against
Nuclear War (UCAM), an
organization of university students
and faculty, has campaigned
against SDI research since June.
Professor John B. Kogut of the
University of Illinois told the
Chronicle of Higher Education
that more than 1,000 signatures of
scientists on four dozen campuses
have signed a UCAM petition
stating that they would refuse
colleagues to do the same.
Kogut plans to deliver some of
those petitions to Congress in early
October. UCAM calls these
pledges "the first time that
scientists and engineers will
actually refrain, in advance, from
undertaking research into a
specific weapon system."
On Thursday, September 12,
three prominent physicists from
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Cornell
University, in coordination with
UCAM, announced their rejection
of a proposed SDI grant of $600
million, expressing fear that
involvement by their universities
could lend credibility to the
program.
One of the three physicists,
MIT's Vira Kistiakausky, told
the Yale Daily News: "We are quite
concerned that Ionson (Dr.
James A. Ionson, head of SDI
Appropriations) will simply use
the researchers to bargain more
money out of Congress. Ionson
has been very vocal about using
scientific research as a stamp of
approval, as a way of selling the
program."
Not all universities plan to turn
down the federal grants.
According to the University of
Texas Daily Texan, part of the $40
million in military research funds
awarded to UT for the current
academic year is to be used for
SDI research.
UT System Chancellor Hans
Mark told the Daily Texan he did
not know how much of the military
SDI support and urge their money was connected to SDI
©©©©©©©©©©©©©© Doonesbury
programs.
Said Mark, a former NASA
administrator, "I support efforts
to build a defense against nuclear
weapons." He added that the
system could be operational in "20
to 30 years."
At Vanderbilt University's
newly founded Center for Atomic
Processes, physicists accepting
SDI funds hope to do "world-
class research" on the effects of
directed energy beams, accor-
ding to the Vanderbilt
Hustler.
Vanderbilt physicist Norman
Tolk told the Hustler that the
Center's research "is not an effort
to get a working defense system.
We're taking a very small segment
of the Star Wars problem and
focusing on the process of surface
bombardment."
UT Bible classes
unconstitutional
Bible classes taught at five Texas
state universities may be violating
the constitutionally guaranteed
separation of church and state,
according to the University of
Texas Daily Texan.
The live universities U I -
Austin. Southwest Texas State
University, Texas Tech University,
North Texas State University, and
IJT-El Paso give elective credit
lor Bible classes whose instructors
are chosen and paid by religious
organizations. An opinion issued
by Attorney General Jim Mattox's
office on September 18 ruled that
such instructors cannot teach Bible
classes as state university faculty.
Jennifer Riggs told the Texan that,
though including Bible courses in
university curriculum does not
violate the separation of church
and state, university sponsorship
of classes whose instructors are
chosen and paid by religious
organizations is probably in
violation of the First Amendment.
"The problem is when you get
the state university too involved, it
can look like the university is
supporting a religion," Riggs said.
UT law professor Douglas
Laycock warned that biased
instruction is a likely result of close
connection of instructors to a
religious denomination. "It seems
unlikely that they can be
academically unbiased." Laycock
told the Texan. "The university
ought to teach religion with the
same academic tools as it teaches
any other course."
Liberal speakers
invade Vanderbilt
College Republicans at
Vanderbilt Universit y a r e
protesting their Student
Government Association's selec-
tion of "liberal" speakers such
as astronomer and evolutionist
Carl Sagan, sex therapist Dr. Ruth
Westhiemer. and comedian
Calvert deForest, better known as
Late Night's Larry "Bud" Melman.
The Speakers Committee, a
division of the Student
Government Association, is also
awaiting confirmations from
baseball commissioner Peter
- A '
m
m ii'
THRESHER
Scott Snyder
Editor
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Business Manager
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The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Kice l'niversit\
since 1916. is published each Friday during the school year, except during
examination penods and holidays, by the students of Rice l!niversit\
Fditorial and business oi fit cs are located on the second floor ol the Rice
Memorial Center. P.O. Box IK92. Houston. Texas 77251 Telephone
<713>527-4X01 or 527-4X02. Advertising information available upon
request. Mail subscription rate per semester: SI5 (H) domestic. $3000
international. (via first class mail) I he opinion sex pressed herein are nut
necessarily those of anyone except the writer Obviously
®1985. The Rice Thresher. All rights reserved.
©©©©©©©©©©©©©©
LISTEN, SAL,
THERE'S NOTHING
(jKOMwrmm
I THAT A GOOD DOSE
1 OF GEORGE lAJILL
" COULPN'T CURB!
/
HEY,BUOOU
IT OUT YOUR
KJ55JUNS,
OKAY, MAN7
I'LL Be MAYBE
PACKING IT'S FOR
THE CAR, 5?L~ THE BET-
MAN. / TER, SIR...
SAL, V0U CANT JUST DROP OUT
BECAUSE OF ONE ROOMMATE.
HELL, MY FIRST ROOMMATE IMS
I B.P.,ANPI SURVIVE?/
BOYS, BOYS I DON'T TRY TO
CHANGE EACH OTHER! YOU
GUYS ARB CLASSIC ARCHE-
TYPES! USB THAT
AS PARI OF YOUR
BPUCAH0N/
fi
I DON'T KNOW SAL THAT
WELL, SIR, BUT IT SEEMS
TO ME YOUR BROTHER IS
STUCK IN THE PAST.
IT'S NOT JUST HIM, MAN. IT'S
THIS WHOLE PLACE. I DON'T
BELONG HERB. THE FLAMER
IS RIGHT- THE WORLD HAS
^ CHANGED.
m
YOU TWO SPAN THE SPECTRUM-
FROM THE BROODING CYNICISM
OF A PREMATURE BURN-OUT
TO THE POP'N'FRESH
OPTIMISM OF A
REAGAN AIRHEAD'
HE
IS7.
AFRAID SO. HIS
UJH0LB NEGATIVE
ACT IS REALLY
0LP. IT'S SO..SO
PRB-GRBNAPA!
SIGH/:
Governor Mario Cuomo, a
possible Democratic presidential
candidate in I98K.
Glenn Keesee, spokesman for
the Speakers Committee, told the
Vanderbilt Hustler that the
committee based its selection on
results of a student survey.
According to Keesee, survey
results showed that students
ranked Sagan in the top ten
speakers they wanted on campus.
Westheimer and deForest were
not listed on the survey.
Sagan is slated to speak on
nuclear winter on September 24.
charging the committee SI7,000
for his only scheduled speaking
appearance on a college campus
this year. Keesee, also president of
the College Democrats, told the
Hustler he considers Sagan
"somewhat conservative."
College Republican President
Tracy Grant stated, "It is
ridiculous to consider Sagan as our
token conservative. If that is Glenn
Keesee's definition of conserv-
atism, then he has a different one
from the student body."
"If Speakers Committee is to be
represented by the students and
polls show the students are X0
percent conservative, then there is
a big discrepancy somewhere." she
continued.
Grant told the Hustler that,
though l!.S. Congressman Jack
Kemp turned down the "known
liberal" Speakers Committee, he is
expected to attend a Vanderbilt
College Republican fundraiser in
the spring.
BY GARRY TRUDEAU
SEE YOU
MAY THE IN THE
BEST MAN W™5 CAR.
(MINI L
' WRIT! ^
%
BUT THAT I KNOW. I'M
WAS ONLY NOT SAYING
W0 YEARS HE CANT BE
AGO. / HELPEP.
I MISS
THB EARLY
'80s, MAN.
I KNOW YOU
DO,SAL. IT
WAS A GREAT
BRA. —
*
The Rice Thresher. September 27, 1985, page 3
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Snyder, Scott. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, September 27, 1985, newspaper, September 27, 1985; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245614/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.