The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 25, 1989 Page: 1 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:
m /)AJZ.?ST4-
SINCE 1916
VOLUME 77, NO. 2
LAST ONE LEFT STANDING WINS
AUGUST 25, 1989
No Beer? No Problem
Dry O-Week proceeds smoothly
by Gilbert Saldivar
For the first time anyone can
remember, Rice University is enforc-
ing with almost shocking success, an
alcohol policy banning public alco-
hol consumption by anyone, regard-
less of age, during Orientation
Week. For minor infractions (pub-
licly consuming alcohol) the advisor
is banned from attending the next
major Orientation Week activity, and
for a major infraction (suggesting
alcohol consumption to a freshman)
the advisor is banned from subse-
quent Orientation Week activities.
The University's success in en-
forcing this policy directly reflects
the high degree of cooperation
achieved among the students, fac-
ulty and administration. The penal-
ties and criteria for infraction of the
policy were defined by student advi-
sors and coordinators but its frame-
work was conceived by the College
Masters.
In their weekly meeting in late
March, the Masters and Presidents
decided that no alcohol consumption
would be allowed on campus at any
time during this year's O-Week.
Rumors of the decision circulated
among the coordinators, creating
outrage and confusion, and culmi-
nating in Sid Richardson Coordina-
tor Tracy Shelby and Jones Coordi-
nator Cynthia Johnson appearance
before the final Presidents and Mas-
ters Meeting four weeks later to offer
the coordinators' alternative and
negotiate a general compromise.
Richardson Coordinator Raymond
Reynosa said, "The Masters were
really surprised it was such an issue
among the coordinators, but they felt
if the coordinators could come up
with a reliable alternative they
should cooperate to the fullest de-
gree."
The resulting agreementwas that
enforcement of the alcohol policy in
production and execution would fall
under the jurisdiction of the colleges
for both philosophical and practical ■
reasons and that a two-tier frame-
work disjdnguishing major infrac-
tions fromninorones would be most
beneficial. Under this agreement,
the coordinators were to leave for-
mulating penalties for breaking alco-
hol policy up to the advisors them-
selves, ensuring their full apprecia-
tion of the policy they would be pro-
posing to the college masters and the
Vice President for Student Affairs,
Ronald Stebbings. "In theory, each
college was supposed to submit a
proposal," says Will Wee Coordina-
tor Jen Cooper, "but Will Rice was
the only college to do so. Doctor
Stebbings recommended our pro-
posal to the other masters and coor-
dinators who adopted the policy by
the end of the summer."
The experimental nature of en-
forcing this new policy, in spite of the
cohesion of various portions of the
university, causes a certain degree of
confusion regarding its execution
inevitable. When asked why the
administration fostered a somewhat
artificial environment concerning
on-campus alcohol consumption, as
the freshmen will inevitably be ex-
posed to alcohol use and abuse dur-
ing the semester, particularly during
the first few weeks, Dr. Stebbings
responded, "This is basically just a
slightly different policy for an un-
usual week. After all, freshman of
legal drinking age are quite rare, and
it is unfair to prohibit them from
drinking while their upperclassmen
advisors are consuming in front of
them. This policy deemphasizes the
use of alcohol now, providing an
opportunity for greater comfort
among the freshmen without those
initial pressures, and gives them a
chance to formulate their own values
in the Rice community to better
make their own choices."
The newly-appointed Dean of
Students Sarah Burnett, whose of-
fice assumed the responsibilities of
the now-dissolved Proctorship, re-
sponded to concerns about her over-
ruling judgements handed down by
the college courts concerning infrac-
tions of Orientation Week alcohol
policy. She said, "As far as I am con-
cerned, all prosecutions will be lev-
ied on the college level. If, however,
an unusual circumstance arises —
personal injury, damage to univer-
suity property, etc., my office may
get involved but will decide the pun-
ishment of an individual only after
SEE ALCOHOL, PAGE 7
Marina, Alexi and Galina begin their own "Rice Experience"
Three Soviet students arrive at Hanszen
by Greg Kahn
They have come.
Three Soviet students arrived in
Houston on August 16, and on Mon-
day they, along with the other 627
new students in the Space City, be-
gin a week long odyssey that in-
cluded learning what exactly assem-
bling a build-up entailed and how to
correctly operate a combination lock
in the gymnasium.
Alexi Bolshakov, Galina Frenkel,
and Marina Lytkina all were placed
in Hanszen College, where they will
spend the 1989-90 school year. Bol-
shakov, a 20 year old from Moscow
State University, will be a fourth year
Mechanical Engineering student,
while Frenkel and Lytkina, both 21
year old women from Gertzen
Teaching College in Leningrad, will
be studying Linguistics and English
respectively.
Before moving into Hanszen,
Bolshakov was staying with Larry
Oswald (see story on page 9), who
described his guest as "a good look-
ing guy.... His English is very good,
and I don't think that he will have any
problem with understanding the
language, especially after living in
the college for a couple of weeks.
He's a remarkable young man."
0 swald has taken his guest, along
with the other two students, to such
diverse Houston spots such as "Taco
Bell, Pizza Hut...the GalJeria, be-
cause I wanted to show them how
American businesses price goods
differently, depending on where
they are located." Oswald has also
taken the Soviets on a drive through
the Fifth Ward of Houston and to a
baseball game at the Astrodome.
(Bolshakov seemed to enjoy the
Astros more than his female counter-
parts. Lytkina described the game as
"slow," although she did say that she
enjoyed the hot dogs at the park).
Frenkel stayed at the home of
Robert and linda Spiro, whose
daughter Lisa is a Hanszen College
sophomore. Lytkina stayed with the
family of Sociology professor
Stephen Klineberg. Klineberg said
he was "very happy" to host the stu-
dent, and anticipated no major prob-
lems for any of the Soviet students.
"[The Rice Community] is lucky to
have this opportunity, and we feel
lucky to be a part of it"
The Rice administration has do
cided not to publicize the arrival of
the Soviet students for another
month in an attempt to let them settle
in to their new environment before
being thrown into an anticipated
media crunch.
"Well-rounded" Class of
'93 matriculates
by Fran Roberts
Advisors and family memebers helped new students move in
The Office of Admissions had to
accept fewer applicants than in the
past to compensate for the unexpect-
edly high number of accepted fresh-
men who matriculated last year.
Consequently, "this year's freshmen
are among the most well-rounded
and generally impressive classes
that I have ever seen," said newly-ap-
pointed Dean of Students Sarah
Burnett Out of an applicant pool of
5218, by the largest margin in Rice
history, only 24% were accepted. As
expected, 50% (630) of those who
were accepted matriculated this past
Tuesday.
Breakdowns among the disci-
plines under which the freshmen
entered, which tend to be virtually
meaningless by the end of the sec-
ond semester, showed a rise this
year among the Social Sciences and
Humanities, comprising 35% of the
incoming class. The next largest
segment fell under the Engineering
category with 31% followed by the
Natural Sciences with 27%, the Mu-
sic Department with 3% and finally
the Anderson School of Architecture
with their staple number of 25.
One reason for the higher per-
centage of freshmen under the
Humanities and Social Sciences has
to do with the fact that the Office of
Admissions, beginning this year, has
begun to include freshman athletes,
who tend to be liberal arts majors,
into their statistics. I Next week the
Thresher will include a demo-
graphic comparison among this
freshman class and those of the pre-
vious three years. 1
Cultural demographics reveal
that Blacks and Hispanics each rep-
resent 6% of the freshman class and
two freshmen come from Native
American backgrounds. Geographi-
cally, a significant portion of the
matriculating freshmen, 45%, come
from Texas high schools, while at
the same time the foreign students in
the entering freshman class repre-
sent twelve different nations from
around the world. Also, the percent-
age of women in the freshman class
remained rather static at forty.
SEE FRESHMEN, PAGE 7
TRASH THE
THRESHER.
Deposit in a waste
container
or recycling bin.
THANK YOU
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.
Kahn, Greg & Leedy, Sarah. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 25, 1989, newspaper, August 25, 1989; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245725/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.