The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, February 1, 1991 Page: 1 of 16
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Rice Thresher
VOLUME 78, NO. 23
"ART, LIES, & VIDEOTAPE" OR "THE ARSONIST, THE THIEF, THE BARREL, AND ITS CRITIC'
FEBRUARY 1,1991
Not pro-war, not anti-war...
About 250 students attended a candlelight vigil recognizing the war in the Middle East Tuesday night. Rabbi Stuart
Federow addressed the crowd. The vigil was intended to honor the troops, the wounded and the war casualties.
Larcenists nab Nation's
'no blood for oil' piece
SRC elevator complaints deluge Rupp
by Heidi Huettner
President George Rupp, after
receiving over 90 copies of a
complaint letter from students
regarding ongoing problems with the
Sid Richardson College elevators,
appeared for lunch at SRC
unannounced last Friday January 25.
The letter states:".. .recently there
have been several confirmed reports
of brief free-falls in the only operable
elevator and instances of the same
elevator crashing into the top and
bottom of the elevator shaft While
this presents an extremely serious
safety issue in a building of 14 stories,
there is also the practical concern
that even the most physically fit of
students cannot climb as many as 14
flights of stairs more than a few times
a day.
"Consistent operability of
elevators is a necessity in aresidential
high-rise buildling, and safety should
be unquestioned. To this end, I
requestyour immediate attention and
intervention to see that BOTH
elevators are returned to a level of
reliable and safe service upon which
the many members of Sid Richardson
College and the Rice community can
rely."
Rupp would not comment on the
issue.
Problems with the elevators
apparently started as early as 1972,
two years after the elevators were
installed in Richardson tower. A letter
from former SRC master J.V. Leeds,
Jr. to J.R. Sims at the Campus
Business Office, dated May 22,1972,
complains, "The elevators, as you
well know, were installed poorly, were
actually installed incorrectly (had to
be rewired) and finally have never
been put in shape that anyone would
call complete."
Another letter, from then-SRC
master and Professor of Sociology
William Martin to Marion Hicks and
three other Rice administrators dated
August 3, 1977, stated, "I want to
impress upon you how disappointed
I am that the elevators at Richardson
College are still not in proper working
order. Frankly, I amangry aboutthis."
The letter also reported a serious
accident as a result of the
malfunctioning elevator. "They broke
down on the first day and continued
to break down repeatedly,
culminating in a fire in which three
people, including a mother of one of
the students, came quite close to
being killed."
The letter also reports many
humorous anecdotes: "I [Martin] was
sitting in my office and heard the
emergency bell. When I went out, a
workman...had finally got the door
to open...He said he had been riding
up and down for ten minutes, trying
to get it to open somewhere.
Anywhere."
And, The door opened, but did
not close again for approximately
eight hours....I did not, therefore,
have the opportunity to test it further
to see what other faults itmighthave."
But the letter concludes in
summary "Thus, the only problems
with the newly fixed machine are
that 1) it does not open reliably at the
ground floor, 2) it does not always
obey the commands it is given; and
3) it could rather easily destroy
someone's arm or leg."
In an interview this Wednesday,
Martin looked back on the continuing
elevator problem. "My guess is that
the elevators were in fact abused
during the early years of Sid's
existence," he said.
He added that by his term as
master, "The elevators were in quite
fragile condition...Certainly the
gentlemen of Sid [then all-male]
didn't coddle the elevators...
"Instead of putting the necessary
money into completely renovating
the elevators [the people in charge of
repair] used half-measures repeat-
edly so that the elevators remained
in a fragile condition and would break
on their own without abuse."
"Because they did break down so
often, the students became angry with
the elevators and heaped abuse on
them."
Martin also said, "At the time I felt
quite strongly that the administration
was taking a very short-sighted view
of theproblem.. .They had an inferior
contractor on a cheap contract and
they got what they paid for." He noted
one incident specifically: "[The con-
tractor] told me that the elevator
couldn't catch on fire, and I saw the
fire!"
According to Facilities and
Engineering Maintenance Manager
James Kerneckel, major repairs have
been made to the elevators that
should solve the recent problems.
"I just spent over $40,000 trying to
bring these elevators up to snuff," he
said. Kerneckel said the gear box in
the left elevator had to be completely
rebuilt after the shaft broke during
the first week of classes this semester.
"Then last week the generator went
out," he added.
"I hired an outside consultant for
$3400 for two days. We will go over
the elevator with a fine toothed comb
and make sure that it is operating
properly." Kerneckel said he thinks
the current problems are "a matter of
neglect over the years," and added
"we [F and E] just picked up
[responsibility for the elevators] in
the last three years."
Kerneckel said, "I think [the
elevators] are pretty sound... We did
a lot to them and I think after the
revisions next summer they should
be in good mechanical
condition...what was wrong is now
fixed."
Kerneckel admitted, though, "The
problem [with the gearbox] should
have been caught earlier...Maybe
some backlash [an indicator of gear
box trouble] was occurring and we
didn't notice it...What we've done
was a correct move; the timing was
off"
Food and Housing Director
Marion Hicks said, "According to [F
SEE ELEVATOR, PAGE 4
by Anne Chettle and
Shaila K. Dewan
The anti-war oil drum sculpture,
designed by Lovett senior Rachel
Nation, was stolen last week from the
RMC Cloisters, marking a dramatic
turn of events of an already contro-
versial issue.
According to director of Student
Activities Sarah Nelson Crawford,
Philippa Angelides, her secretary,
saw a group of people loading what
may have been the sculpture wrapped
in a red blanket into a van on
Thursday, January 24 around 5:30
p.m. The van was parked in the inner
loop between the RMC and the
biosciences building, Angelides told
Crawford.
Angelides would not comment
directly to the Thresher.
Brown junior Rodney Gibbs said
he observed four or five males rolling
the sculpture away and loading it into
"what looked like a black Bronco"
parked in the inner loop. He said it
was wrapped in a blanket Gibbs said
he thought they were the artists and
were simply collecting their own
property.
Gibbs said he recognized one of
the males as Will Rice College junior
Tom Karsten.
Karsten denied involvement in the
theft
Nation spoke with Dean of
Students Sarah Burnett on the fol-
lowing Tuesday, January 29 and
Burnett informed her that someone
had turned in names of three
perpetrators. According to Nation,
Burnett filed the case with the
University Court
Nation said Burnettdid notreveal
the names but did say that the theft
had been videotaped.
Burnett told Nation that after
removing the sculpture from the
Cloisters, the robbers threw it into a
bayou.
Burnett said through her
secretary that she herself had not
viewed any video of the theft Her
secretary said Burnett would not
disclose her source of information
about the theft
Gibbs said he did not observe
anyone videotaping the event He
added that he was not watching
closely.
"I feel like I made a statement by
putting the sculpture out and they
made their statement by taking it
away," Nation said. "Freedom of
speech allows them to take it away.... I
guess it would be better to put another
sculpture up, though, expressing
their side."
Director of Student Activities
Sarah Nelson Crawford, who
authorizes all displays or protests,
gave permission for the sculpture to
be displayed in the courtyard on
Thursday, January 17.
The actual date of the theft is
unclear, Crawford said. "There was
so much going on last week...It was
hard to know which was the first day
[the sculpture] was gone." Nation
said she was told the theft occurred
Thursday, January 24.
The theft was not reported to the
Campus Police, according to Chief
Mary Voswinkel.
The University Court plans to
discuss the issue on Monday,
February 4, said Chair Phillip Miller,
a senior at Baker. Miller refused to
make a statement about the details of
the theft until the case has been
adjudicated. The names of the three
people involved in the incident have
not been revealed.
When asked if she would be
willing to settle the case out of court,
Nation said yes. "If they gave me
back my sculpture or else paid me for
the materials, I would be willing not
to press charges."
Since Nation did not file the
complaint herself, she does not have
the power to drop the charges. She
could, however, request that Burnett
drop the charges.
Sarah Nelson Crawford seemed
optimistic about the "two factions
communicating" and settling the
affair directly.
Although she was unaware of the
particulars of the case, she said she
hoped the affair could be settled out
of the University Court
Karsten was a perpetrator of the
theft and return of the Thresher
printed right before Christmas break
("Threshers stolen, returned later that
night," January 11,1990 Thresher).
Hoodlums rob students at gunpoint
by Kurt Moeller
At least three armed men held up
two Rice students very close to mid-
night Monday in Lot S, the Sid
Richardson College lot The suspects
forced the students out of a car be-
longing to one of them, assaulted one
and stole the auto.
The students spoke with the
Thresher only on the condition that
they and the vehicle stolen not be
identified in any way. They will be
called "StudentX" and "Student Y" in
this article.
The car was recovered Tuesday
afternoon from an auto storage lot off
Interstate 45 in far north Houston,
and the Rice University Police De-
partment is cooperating with other
police departments in a search for
the suspects. The suspects are be-
lieved to have committed the same
type of crime three times since Sep-
tember in the immediate Rice Uni-
versity area, but this is believed to be
the first time it has happened on the
Rice campus.
Student X was driving a compact
car registered to his parents, with
Student Y as his passenger. The car
pulled into Lot S, and Student X turned
the engine off, said Student Y.
Then, said Student Y, "We real-
ized the car was surrounded by at
least three black male youths. We
think four."
One person knocked on each front
window, motioning for StudentX and
Student Y to leave the car, according
to Student Y. The person confronting
StudentX held arevolver and the one
motioning toward Student Y held a
sawed-off shotgun, she said.
After they left the car, the suspects
asked for car keys, wallets, and purses
from Student J^nd Student Y, Stu-
dent Y said. Trrc students surren-
dered the first two, and one suspect
thanked StudentX with a blow under
the eye with the end of his revolver,
Student Y said.
Two of the men entered the
compact, with the remaining one or
two climbing back into their Subur-
ban or Blazer. "We really didn't take
note," Student Y stated, adding that
the suspects' vehicle was "dark in
color, perhaps navy."
"Looking back, thei e was nothing
suspicious going on," Student Y said.
"We didn't do anything
different...We have no reason to
believe [that we were being fol-
lowed]."
The car was reported in a hit-and-
run accident in north Houston about
3:20 a.m. Tuesday and was found
abandoned, Student Y said. The
Houston Police Department officer
who arrived at the scenedid not check
if it was stolen, Student Y added. "We
understand that he was supposed to,
but he didn't," Student Y stated,
"wh ich mean s that all the fingerprints
SEE ROBBERY, PAGE 7
A8.E
Will Rice Presents
the "No Holds
Barred, Anything
Goes, Dada
Surrealistic Art
Show"
See page 11
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Moeller, Kurt & Yates, Jay. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, February 1, 1991, newspaper, February 1, 1991; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245774/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.