The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 5, 1988 Page: 4 of 20
twenty pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
4 Friday, February 5,1988 THRESHER Opinion
Vandals defaced university as well as art, says prof
To the editor:
Vandals have once more attacked the scrim
constructions of Visiting Cullinan Professor
Robert Irwin. The first night after they Were
erected, one was ripped down; the next day,
another was stained and then one was slashed.
Last Friday night, the two remaining scrims
were smeared with graffiti. Enough is enough.
Besides defacing Irwin's scrims, these vandals
have defaced you and me and Rice University.
Irwin has concentrated on art related to spe-
cific environments and the people who use or
occupy them, and here at Rice he chose to attract
our attention to some forms and spaces special to
this campus, yet rarely looked at sensitively
because they have become so common for us:
the rectangular door and window panels of our
buildings and the arches of our arcades.
The scrim constructions installed in four
arches were thoughtfully crafted yet simple,
unobtrusive, innocent forms. The door and
window openings in three scrims heightened
perceptions of space and form through the open-
ings, while the scrims themselves became
magical light catchers—appearing as elusive,
shimmering veils, as transparent membranes
and as screens for ceaselessly changing patterns
of light and shadow cast by surrounding foliage
and architecture.
Dialogue with the audience was equally var-
ied and unpredictable. Some were puzzled;
others were enchanted by the beauty of the
scrims; still others marveled at the extraordinary
visual complexity wrought by such simple
means; a few chose to attack the scrims physi-
cally.
I do not know who has perpetrated these acts
of wanton vandalism. Anyone on campus could
have done it, including people who are not
members of the university community. But one
thing we can be sure of—the blame for these
shameful destructive acts is ours to bear. The
first finger is likely to be pointed at the students,
Doonesbury
THRESHING IT OUT
letters to the editor
but administrators, staff, faculty and trustees
will all hear about it in their personal and profes-
sional lives outside the university.
By the time this Thresher is in your hands,
Irwin will be on campus, expanding the two-
dimensional scrims into architectural volumes.
He will return in March for lectures, projects and
meetings with any class or group who negotiates
a session with him. In the person of Robert
Irwin, we have someone who is capable of
enlarging and intensifying the way we see and
think. I fervently wish that that will be our
moment with him, not a time tainted by guilt and
shame. One person bent on destruction can dash
all of this, and we may have little control over
it—but respect for our guest, our university and
ourselves cries for the effort to make this an
experience worthy of the best in all of us.
William A. Camfield
Professor, History of Art
Member Cullinan Chair Committee
Sports fan knocks
Thresher coverage
To the editor:
Joel Sendek is obviously proud of the
Thresher sports section's coverage of Rice
sports events as seen in last week's article "Rice
Sport's Fans Don't Know How Good They
Have It." In his commentary, he writes "...it is
remarkable how extensive the coverage of Rice
athletics is, most notably in the Thresher."
Sorry, Joel, I have to disagree with you. The
Thresher has failed to cover too many varsity
athletic events too many times for the paper's
coverage to be considered anywhere near re-
markable.
How extensive is the Thresher's coverage?
Football and basketball are covered quite well,
receiving basically the same coverage from the
Thresher as they do from the Houston Post and
Houston Chronicle, excepting the fact that the
Thresher only comes out on Fr iday s. Club teams
get Thresher coverage as well; whether they win
or lose they receive worthy reporting.
However, when it comes to the other varsity
sports—track, cross country, tennis, swimming,
and baseball—the coverage is very different; it
sucks.
This lack of coverage prevents the paper's
readers from knowing about many of Rice's
outstanding athletes and teams that excel not
only at the conference level, but at the national
and international levels as well.
In addition, this lack of coverage is probably
a major factor in perpetuating the popular idea
that Rice cannot compete at the Division I level.
At Rice, if people never hear about a team, they
assume that the team is bad.
Rice athletes are not bad. In fact, many are
outstanding. And, unlike the football and bas-
ketball teams, the remaining varsity sports have
to rely on the Thresher for coverage that has in
the last few years been extremely poor.
The following are just a few examples of Rice
athletic successes that either received no cover-
age or did not get the coverage one would expect
of the success achieved. They come from only a
couple of sports, track and cross country. The
list is by no means exhaustive.
. First, eight-time All-American shotputter
Regina Cavinaugh was chosen as a finalist for
the Honda-Broderick Cup, an award naming the
NCAA National Woman Collegiate Athlete of
the Year for 1987. Second, Courtney Brown
represented Canada at the Track and Field
World Championships in Rome this past sum-
mer. He was a semi-finalist as a member of the
mile relay team. Third, Patrick Gordon ranked
29th in the world in the 400 meter dash for 1987.
Fourth and finally, the men's and women's
BY GARRY TRUDEAU
...AND IF YOU BELIEVE IN A
STRONG, BUSH-FREE AMERICA,
' AS IDO, THEN, DAMMIT,
OKAY, I'LL TAKE-
QUESTIONS NOW!
GIVE ME YOUR
LIEUTENANT HA/6,1MJONPER
IF YOU COULD TELL US WHO YOU
WERE IN YOUR PREVIOUS LIVES.
I THINK THAT SAYS A LOT
ABOUT A PERSON. .
GET BEHIND MY
CANDIDACY
OH, YEAH? THEN
SHOW MB! HIT
THE DECK AND
GIVE ME
FIFTY!
WHY NOT?
YOU'RE NOT
ONE OF THOSE
HOLLYWOOD
APPEASEMENT
FRUITCAKES,
ARB- YOU ?
GENERAL, DO
YOU REALLY EX-
PECT VOTERS TO
| BUY INTO SUCH
AN AG6RESSIZE
o GEO-POLITICAL
/ FUTURE1?
YOU HEARD
THE GENERAL!
pom
WELL, NO.
I WOULDN'T
SAY I'M..
WHAT?
BOOPSIE, I CANT
BELIEVE YOU
CALLED HIM
\ LIEUTENANT-
•n haig!
r
THE GENERAL'S GOT MORE
STARS THAN THIS BEACH
ON A GOOD DAY, AND YOU
CALL HIM A UBUTENAHT!
y
B.P., I'M SORRY, BUTT DON'T
THINK RANK IS A TRUE MEASURE
OFTHEMAN! DO YOU THINK RANK
EVER MATTERED TO ANY OF US
WHO WORKED ON CORPORAL
^ v— ^.SHRJVERlS
^ / \OMMI6N?\
JESUS CHRIST
AND EISENHOWER.
wocu...
I'M GIVING
THE LIMIT!
SIR1
ONE...TWO...
GUEST
THREE...
IS COM-
'PUFF!-
PLYING.'
FOUR...
SIR.!
9
X
THIS
BUNCH
MAKES
ME SICK'.
THAIS 0OY.
SAR66NT YOU'RE
SHPJVER! HUN6UP,
/ I
1987 cross country teams both finished their
seasons in the nation's top twenty. The men
were 19th, the women were 15th. Even though
the Thresher did not completely ignore this,
they did not give coverage one would expect of
such success, especially considering that no
single Rice team has finished in the nation's top
twenty this decade, much less two in the same
semester.
Appropriate articles were written; they were
just never published. Anthony Wills, a frequent
Thresher writer, submitted two articles (one for
the men, one for the women) befitting top
twenty teams. However, something happened
between the typewriter and printing press. In-
stead of publishing both articles, the editors
consolidated the two into one, shrunk that down
into less than one-sixth of a page, and then hid it
in an area usually reserved for filler or continu-
ations of stories begun elsewhere. Top twenty
teams deserve better coverage than this.
As long as the Thresher continues to relegate
the importance of the non-basketball and foot-
ball varsity team coverage to a level equal to
filler, the students and faculty who read this
paper will never know of most of the athletic
excellence that now exists on campus.
So, Joel, I hope that when you stop patting
yourself on the back you will realize that the
Thresher sports section still has a lot of room for
improvement.
Jon Warren
Jones'88
The thesis of my article was that Rice sports
fans should appreciate the fact that the Thresher
covers more extensively relative to newspapers
at other schools which have unarguably more
athletic excellence than Rice.
We reserve no room in the sports section for
"filler," although it is unfortunate that the
quantity of athletic success here at Rice—like
two Top-Twenty finishes in eight years—would
not fill much more than that.
—Joel Sendek, Thresher Sports Editor
Policy versus
personality
continued from page 2
As such, we are treating the candidates as we
treat our other symbols (celebrities). The Re-
aganization of the Presidency means a triviali-
zationof actual public policy and aprioritization
of myth and personality.
The only thing left to do, I suppose, is to learn
to play the eyebrow game, to invent non-issues
upon which to base support for a candidate.
Take Mike Dukakis (who Democrats might
have to take, not just because of his eyebrows,
but because he's raised twice as much money as
anyone else). Perhaps a vote for Dukakis is
justified because of the "Mike" issue.
What is the "Mike" issue? Well, it has to do
with the unfortunate stereotype into which the
name Mike has fallen. Imagine you're watching
a movie with a high school character who's
physically bigger than everyone else but men-
tally shallow. What's his name?
Mike. Nine times out of ten. A "Mike" is the
type of guy who can get lots of women—but
only for one date. "Mikes" are people whom
everyone likes but no one takes seriously.
"Mike" is always clean-cut, good-natured and
fun, but not someone you'd trust and confide in.
Ever notice how few Mike's and Michael's
are well-known? Sure there's Jackson and
Douglas and Schmidt, but as pop singers, actors,
and athletes they only serve to perpetuate the
shallow "Mike" stereotype.
A Mike in the Presidential office would do
wonders for Mikes and Michaels everywhere. It
would lift us out of the locker rooms, fraterni-
ties, and comedy clubs and into the executive
branch. It would fire the spirits of a diverse
group of citizens oppressed only because of
their first name.
Dukakis doesn't have particularly cogent
methods for reducing the deficit or handling
foreign policy. But perhaps I'll vote for him
because he's a fellow Mike.
That's not too logical, but it's surely an appro-
priate way to vote in a country where any boy
can grow up to be President, unless his eyebrows
are a little too blond.
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.
Wucker, Michele. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 5, 1988, newspaper, February 5, 1988; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245684/m1/4/: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.