The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, May 13, 1988 Page: 2 of 16
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Friday, May 13,1988 THRESHER Opinion
Breadth of education
at Rice questioned
Hearing all the graduates' names being read over the loudspeakers at
graduation raised a few questions in my mind regarding the breadth of
education that each of those graduates had obtained in his or her years
at Rice. Rice is well-known for its academic excellence, and the faculty
make it their first priority to push the students by continually challeng-
ing them in their classes. The workload is stimulating, but, at times,
unbearable.
Every graduate has much to be proud of, for graduation means that the
hellish work is over. But what does the opportunity cost? Are these the
best years of our lives or the worst? The scary fact is that, at Rice, this
issue is debatable. Who has not heard the story of the Rice engineering
graduate who underwent "woik-withdrawal" during the first six
months on the job? The point is that Rice should be able to remain on
the same academic level without demanding so much from the students.
Excessive work has a definite negative effect on Rice students. Rice
students are not eager to become involved with campus-wide activities
as much as they should be. Most are content to have perhaps one
position, usually of little responsibility, and at the college level; if there
is any type of time committment involved, Rice students immediately
run away and point to a pile of books for justification.
Consider the Campanile situation. At most other universities, students
would line up with "about to buy Springsteen tickets" fervor for a
chance to take on the position of yearbook editor. At Rice, the current
editors are forced to take time out from working on this year's book in
order to comb the university in search of a person willing to take on the
job.
There is no doubt that the talent is plentiful; I am continually amazed
at how multi-faceted the typical Rice student is. Consider how many
double majors there are, many in wholly unrelated fields. Yet, college
is not a time to see how many requirements one can fulfill, but to
broaden one's horizons in areas totally unrelated to academics. By
being burdened with overbearing workloads brought about not only by
overzealous faculty, but also by the students themselves, the "Rice
experience" will never be the best four years of anyone's life.
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Editorial policy set
The Thresher serves a small but diverse audience by providing objec-
tive campus and local news as well as an open forum. To thisend, letters
to the editor will be accepted subject to the provisions below;
•Letters to the editor must be signed, and should include the writer's
college and expected year of graduation or departmental affiliation. It
is strongly encouraged that letters to the editor be submitted on a
Macintosh disc (3.S inch discs using any release of the Macwrite
application). Typed and neatly written letters will still be accepted. The
Thresher will not edit content or ideas. However, we reserve the right
to edit for clarity, grammar, and length, and we reserve the right not to
print all the letters we receive.
•Misclassified submissions need not be signed. Unsigned editorials
will be run as misclass. Again, we reserve the right to edit or not print
all submissions. We will not print personal attacks. We will not keep
misclass off the backpage solely because it contains "off-color" lan-
guage; however, we will not print submissions solely because they
contain "off-color" language. The backpage editor and co-editors will
determine the content of the backpage and their decisions are final.
•Normally, the deadline for letters to the editor will be noon on the
Wednesday prior to publication. The deadline for backpage material,
including announcements, will be 5 p.m. on the Monday prior to pub-
lication.
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Alum upset over lecture incident
To the Editor:
I attended the final lecture of the
Rice University President's Lecture
Series on Wednesday, April 27, intro-
duced by Provost Lane and moder-
ated by Professor Dessler. The speak-
ers, Apollo astronaut Walter Cun-
ningham and Soviet cosmonaut Oleg
Atkov, discussed the future of Ameri-
can-Soviet cooperation in space.
Unfortunately, an ugly incident
marred the otherwise enjoyable lec-
ture. As a Rice alumnus and an attor-
ney, I was appalled and incensed by
the action taken by Rice authorities.
During the question-and-answer
session, a member of the audience
rose and was recognized by the chair.
The tone of his intended question
appeared to be negative, since he
began with criticism of the Soviet
space program. The man never threat-
ened any kind of violence, and tried
only to speak. The chair rebuked him,
and demanded that he ask a question.
When he began again with a preface
of criticism, he was shouted down and
not allowed to finish his question.
This stifling of debate was bad
enough. (Mr. Cunningham, by con-
trast, had answered an earlier nega-
tive question with considerable
aplomb.) What followed the shouting
down, however, was inexcusable.
Uniformed Rice police ran over to
the man, grabbed him, and physically
ejected him from the auditorium. The
chair ignored his protests as he was
hauled out I went to the hallway to
THRESHING IT OUT
letters to the editor
speak to the man, who had been hand-
cuffed and was surrounded by two
policemen. As I tried to talk to him,
the Rice policemen picked him up and
hustled him out of the building.
This disgusting use of brute force to
silence questioning is repugnant to
First Amendment rights and any con-
cepts of academic freedom. Does
Rice not believe in freedom of
speech? In the marketplace of ideas?
In free and open debates? The abuse
and mistreatment of an audience
member with questions, in a public
forum, in front of a Soviet cosmonaut,
was disgraceful. At the very least, the
man deserves an apology from the
university.
Shame on you, Rice. Shame on you.
Paul F. Simpson
Class of '76
Perhaps the university wanted, to
make Mr. Atkov feel more at home.
-pjm, ed.
Alumna reacts to
monitor article
To the Editor:
I was shocked and embarrassed to
read, in the May, 1988, issue of
Newsweek on Campus about the
undercover informer program that
has been established at Rice to en-
force responsible drinking. It has
been my great pride since 1971 to
brag about the honor code at Rice and
hoW it is obeyed out of a sense of
ethical and moral correctness. Imag-
ine my honor to find out that trust and
responsibility have become so tenu-
ous that undercover informers are
scouting out illegal drinking.
It is unclear to me what good these
sort of gestapo tactics are supposed to
accomplish. It is true that consump-
tion of alcohol by persons under 21 is
illegal, but that has nothing to do with
responsible drinking. Being a respon-
sible drinker has multiple aspects
including assigning a designated
driver, knowing one's, limits and the
syptoms of incipient alcoholism.
Whether we as university educators
like it or not and whether it is illegal or
not, the students are going to drink
alcoholic beverages. It is, therefore,
up to us to instill safe drinking habits,
and not present ourselves as distrust-
ful adversaries.
I find it particularly disturbing that
the students are monitoring each
other. I can't think of a better scenario
to ruin one's college experience. The
undergraduates at Rice should defi-
nitely obey the state's drinking laws.
It adds insult to injury, however,
when student informers are encour-
aged to spy on their fellows. I feel that
spying and informing on one's fellow
students is an order of magnitude
worse, from a moral standpoint, than
having a drink of beer at a party.
Blinda E. McClelland
~ Class of '75
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Sendek, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, May 13, 1988, newspaper, May 13, 1988; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245695/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.