The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 1985 Page: 1 of 20
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Rice University Woodson Research Center.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
'Xfl ) J /?* T <C
J Lj
Volume 73, Number 16
THRESHER
Friday, November 22, 1985
INSIDE:
• Queen for a day? Page 2.
• Bring Your CXvn Alcohol
Policy, page 6.
• Ode to Sting, page 11.
• Who are the Moundbuilders?
B-ball previews, pp. 15, 16.
Panel debates
Rice divestment
Donald Morris and Luise White at the South Africa divestment forum.
-M. Hulbert
University Court to arraign Gibbs
by David Friesenhahn
Lovett College sophomore
Grady Gibbs will be tried in the
University Court for his actions at
a November 12 meeting of the
Central American Peace Forum.
University Court Chairman
David Dankworth said Proctor
E.C. Holt submitted the case to the
court after members of the Peace
Forum lodged a complaint with
him Wednesday about Gibbs's
alleged antisocial behavior at the
meeting.
Peace Forum organizers Jana
Sanchez and Jane Mitchell told the
Thresher last week that Gibbs and
22 other people disrupted a
November 12 meeting of their
group, preventing them from
conducting business, hurling
insults and taking pictures of their
members.
Gibbs has admitted to
disrupting the meeting but has
denied that he or any person in his
group behaved rudely towards
"We would like to
see these speakers
brought in. But we
don't feel like we
should be forced to
pay for them. If
students disagree
with the political
views of a speaker,
they have the right
not to finance that
speaker."
Grady Gibbs
members of the Peace Forum.
Dankworth refused to comment
on the specifics of Gibbs's case.
However, he did say that the
court will try Gibbs by the end of
the fall sememster and that no
other members in Gibbs's group
will face charges.
The University Court hears
student cases at the request of the
Proctor. It decides on cases and
then recommends punishments to
the Proctor. In some cases, it may
urge the Proctor to expel a student
from the university.
Gibbs, in an interview Friday,
justified his group's actions by
saying that disrupting the meeting
was the only way they could
prevent money from being spent in
a manner in which they
disapproved.
If he did not interrupt the
meeting, Gibbs said, "money
would be passed out and spent
before we had our day in court."
Gibbs claims that Peace Forum
members and the Thresher have
misrepresented his group by
portraying its actions as an
see Gibbs, page 8
by David F>iesenhahn
Rice University Professor of
History Luise White, Houston
Post columnist Donald Morris,
Rice University Professor of
German and Russian Ewa
Thompson and University of
Houston Professor of History
Jeffrey Sammons sparred T uesday
night in a heated debate over
whether Rice should divest stock
in companies doing business in
South Africa.
The Student Association
Senate, which sponsored the
forum, intended it to provide them
and students with information
about the issue of divestment,
which they are now considering.
White said the university should
divest stock in companies doing
business in South Africa on
economic grounds.
White labeled South Africa a
nation "in open revolt" and said
the country's political instability
made economic investment there
unwise.
She said a recent study of
corporate portfolios from 1977 to
1983 showed that companies
without investments in South
Africa actually had a 13 percent
higher rate of return on investment
than those that did invest in that
nation.
She added that the unwilling-
ness of president P.T. Botha's
regime to reform the system of
apartheid may make the
government's overthrow "inevit-
able."
"If anyone tells you that the
government is reforming," White
said, "they have a totally confused
sense of reality."
Sammons, who has done field
research in South Africa, read
several quotes from black leaders
in that nation, such as Nobel Peace
Prize winner Desmond Tutu and
radical leader Steven Biko, in
order to demonstrate that a
"If anyone tells you
that the
government is
reforming, they
have a totally
confused sense of
reality."
—Luise White
majority of South African blacks
support divestment as a means of
combating apartheid.
He noted that the Sullivan
Principles have done little to
improve the political and social
status of South African blacks
because "most American
see Divestment page 5
"The internal
blacks do not want
divestment. When
you strike at the
structure, you strike
not only at white
minority rule but
also what is
supporting much of
the black
population. I wish
there were some
way we could hit
white pocketbooks
without hitting
black stomachs,"
— Donald Morris
S.A. Senate delays
divestment decision
by Valerie Rohy
The Student Association Senate
decided at its meeting Monday not
to make a statement on the subject
of South African investment until
it has met with Charles Duncan,
the Chairman of the Rice
University Board of Governors,
on December 2 to discuss the issue.
"There's some strong sentiment
from Dr. Rupp that we should
speak to Charles Duncan before
we set a policy," said Student
Association President Barry
Nicholson.
Duncan's input will be
important, Nicholson says,
because "various members of our
board are also members of the
boards of companies doing
business in South Africa. Their
belief is that there is a way to use
our power besides selling stock."
The Senate had favored in a
preliminary vote taken October 21 a
resolution written by Will Rice
College Senator Daniel Price
which condemned the Board of
Governors' decision not to divest
stock in companies doing business
in South Africa.
see Senate, page 5
The S.A. Senate debates divestment.
-H. Turner
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Snyder, Scott. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 1985, newspaper, November 22, 1985; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245621/m1/1/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.