The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 6, 1987 Page: 2 of 20
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2 Friday. November 6,1987 THRESHER Opinion
Getting better,
but far to go
If you think there are no racial problems at Rice, look a little closer.
Judging from the past few weeks, it appears university officials finally
have.
Letters in the Thresher last week showed just how deeply concerned
many students are with campus attitudes toward minorities. One black
student wrote of the stereotypes he continually faces here—he said
people he meets commonly ask what sport he plays before asking his
name. The vice president of the Black Student Union said he feels that
"most Rice students don't know much about black students other than
what they've seen on television." An alumnus wrote of the difficulty he
has trying to convince prospective minority freshmen that racism isn't
prevalent here. "Blacks are forced to make major adjustments to Rice,"
he wrote, "not just to academics, but to the culture, the stereotypes, and
the racism."
Most Rice students are not racists. However, I have heard enough
bigoted comments here to convince me that too many of us foster
parochial views. And a subtle sort of racism here insists a WASP-
oriented culture is the best. Minorities must bend to fit the Rice culture
rather than help shape it themselves.
The place to start in improving the campus climate is in our official
campus policies. If the establishment here welcomes minorities into our
predominently-white community, individual and cultural attitudes will
eventually improve as well.
Until the past few weeks, however, the university lacked both policy
and rhetoric in support of minority students. Any observer could
reasonably doubt whether Rice, which didn't even admit black students
until the mid-60's, remained unreceptive to minorities. In fact, almost
every school, especially those of Rice's caliber, has been unmistakably
more receptive to blacks and hispanics than we have been.
Progress came three weeks ago, when Ronald Stebbings, vice presi-
dent for undergraduate affairs, said that a Minority Affairs Office
would be formed here. Administrators had refused to support such an
office as recently as last April.
This week Rice announced that the university will offer special
scholarships to attract minority students and to help keep them here. It
has long been a question why Rice, which offers many scholarships for
many things, has not joined most other top schools in devoting funds to
aid minorities.
We wrote in an October 9 editorial that "it is high time the admini-
stration formalized their commitment to minorities." Now the admini-
stration has taken the lead.
Still, we need continued attention to racial problems; the minority
office will facilitate this. And we need a concentrated attempt to attract
some minority professors.
It is revealing how almost every Rice brochure goes out of its way to
include a picture (or two) of Robert Jones, a black English professor.
The statement is that minorities are common in our leadership here, as
role models and examples of the diversity of the school. The reality is
that they aren't
—Mike Raphael
fN
Uen, i twr know, iwee it symbolizes the death
OF PRESIDENT KBMEfiY,
South Africans protest decree
In what is believed to be the largest
academic protest in South Africa's
history, thousands of students—with
the support of professors, lecturers,
and chancellors—protested last week
a government decree that tightened
political control over universities.
The decree, which became law
October 19, required universities to
discipline anti-apartheid activists and
report misconduct to the education
minister within three weeks of the
incident. Universities that fail to
comply face reductions in state subsi-
dies, which account for betwen 50 and
80 percent of the universities' in-
comes.
Fortunately, the academic commu-
nity, well-trained in articulating their
views, is not submitting to the
government's decree. "We shall not
prostitute our calling as academics to
become a spying and policing
SPANNING THE HEDGES
by Michele Wucker
agency," said Philip Tobias, a profes-
sor at the University of Witwa-
tersrand in Johannesburg.
Instead of complying with rules
they rejected as politically unaccept-
able, university chancellors led cam-
pus processions protesting the law. At
Witwatersrand, lecturers protected
militant black students from the po-
lice. White professors held hands
with black workers.
The new law makes university
administrators and professors respon-
sible for stifling the ideas they are
supposed to help stimulate. We take
the right to speak out for granted, and
don't necessarily equate expressing a
viewpoint with violence. But in a
country like South Africa, people
have had to fight to speak out, espe-
cially on racial equality.
By attempting to force universities
to control expression of political
views, the government hopes to
stamp out independent thought—or at
least intimidate citizens into keeping
them quiet The South African gov-
ernment recognizes the importance of
ideas to diversity and freedom; it is for
that reason that it wants to suppress
them. People keep their opinions
alive by voicing them, testing and
refining them by sharing them with
others. When people enjoy freedom
to express their thoughts, they pre-
serve their freedom to act *
The new law cuts at the root of the
see South, page 4
KTRU does play local bands
To the editor:
As music director for KTRU, I
appreciate the band Real Fiction's
W!BCT<m-mOUGKT
lt> NEVER MAKE \T
HIM TON? KON?
... ...
~L 'tfr/,
concern with the problematic state of
local music in Houston (Threshing it
Out, October 23), as well as the role
KTRU plays in the local music scene.
However, I regret that they expressed
their dissatisfaction with KTRU by
writing a letter full of untruths about
the staton's policies and procedures.
Real Fiction suggests that KTRU
has long supported local bands by
giving their tapes airplay, but recently
adopted a more conservative musical
direction. This is untrue. Sadly
enough, until this past year KTRU
largely ignored local music, rarely
making songs by local artists avail-
able to the Disk Jockeys for airplay.
Until lastyear, local bands were not
heard regularly on KTRU unless they
had recorded a single or an album. In
the past six months, songs by local
bands like Sprawl, Special Forces,
and Pin Teens have been getting more
airplay than I have heard since I began
working at the station in 1984.
On October l7 We air&l six hours
.of tapes by eighty-four local bands as
part of die Snickers New Music
Search. More than a dozen of the
songs we aired will be transferred to
carts for regular airplay. Our staff has
also been tossing around the idea of
making a KTRU album, featuring
local bands and helping the Houston
music scene as The Sounds of Deep
THRESHING IT OUT
letters to the editor
Ellum album is doing for Dallas.
As for local bands being aired
strictly according to my tastes, Real
Fiction again misses the mark. I did
not deny their band cart status be-
cause of a personal preference for
guitars over synthesizers. In fact, I did
not even say "Houston is a guitar band
town," as their letter implies that I did.
My reason for not putting Real
Fiction on a cart was simply that after
listening to the tape a number of
times, I felt the DJ's would not find it
particularly interesting or alternative.
As a non-commercial station,
KTRU is one of the few stations in the
city with freedom to choose the music
we play based on its quality alone
rather than its popularity or commeri-
cal potential. If playlist were based on
a desire to be hip, our station would be
plugging the new Sfiiths album
rather than 63 Eyes. And if we were to
truly reflect the Houston music scene,
we would be playing Mister Mister.
Don't get me wrong—we love our
listeners, but we love them because
they share our belief in alternative
music.
Julie Grob
Music Director KTRU
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Raphael, Michael J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 6, 1987, newspaper, November 6, 1987; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245677/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.