The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 8, 1991 Page: 4 of 16
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4 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1991 THE RICE THRESHER
Competing in Division I the real problem for Rice's athletic program
To the editors,
Professor Paul Pfeiffer's letter to
the editor last week, titled "Coaches
the real problem for athletes," was an
exceptionally thoughtful and timely
contribution to the growing debate
over Rice's athletic program. Timely
because of a coincidence: lastweek's
Thresher headline announced the
laigest Honor Council case in Rice's
history, in which 28 students were
convicted of cheating in a class that
had been specifically arranged to
meet the scheduling needs of the
Athletic Department
What made Professor Pfeiffer's
letter thoughtful was his close and
sympathetic attention to the circum-
stances in which Rice athletes live.
Those circumstances shed light not
only on Pfeiffer's main concern, the
quality of student life, but also on
violations of the honor code. The
problem, Pfeiffer stressed, is that
coaches treat athletes as players first
and students second. Impossible
demands are made on the players'
time. "Pressure is put on students to
avoid certain courses, regardless of
their interests or ability." Coaches
do not appreciate the academic de-
mands their students face. They
"seek to dominate the total life of the
athlete." Pfeiffer even goes so far as
to declare that "scholarship athletes
are treated by some coaches as prop-
erty. The coaches talk of 'invest-
ment' They seem not to understand
that an athletic scholarship is a schol-
arship, not a salary."
Professor Pfeiffer is right Al-
though Rice is less blatant about it
than many universities, it does exploit
its athletes, using them to further
coaching careers, entertain their fel-
low students, and earn gate receipts.
But 1 think we must carry the inquiry
one stage further and ask why the
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coaches impose such unreasonable
demands on their players. If coaches
are the "real problem" for athletes, is
not Division I competition the "real
problem" for Rice coaches? It seems
unrealistic to ask coaches to stop
skirting admission standards and
regimenting their players' lives as
long as their professional reputations
depend on winning games in the
Southwest Conference.
If Rice really must have the
ephemeral glory of participation in
big-time spectator sports (which I
veiy much doubt), then Spike Lee's
advice—given last spring on Bill
Moyer's three-hour PBS special on
college sports scandals—is more
realistic. Let's end the pretense of
"scholar athletes," says Lee; let's put
sports performers on the university
payroll and pay them a competitive
salary, which they would then be free
to spend on an education whenever
and wherever they please.
Lee's advice is a counsel of despair,
not anything we can take seriously as
a policy suggestion. But it effectively
dramatizes the realities of our situa-
tion. For a third of a century, Rice has
been conducting an experiment that
is either daring or recklessly unreal-
istic, depending on your point of view.
Can a small, highly selective univer-
sity, with 2800 students and average
SAT scores in the 1300's, compete
against the likes of UT and UH
without corrupting its admission
standards, distorting its curriculum,
fragmenting its student body, and
spending inordinate sums of money?
It is common knowledge in faculty
circles that Rice's athletic program
has recently been running annual
deficits in the vicinity of $4.5 million
dollars, enough to provide scholar-
ships for an entire freshman class or
pay the salaries of 125 new assistant
professors. Leaving the SWC would
save only a portion of this wildly
disproportionate sum, but it high-
lights the urgent necessity of re-ex-
amining our priorities. The recent
honor council case speaks worlds
about pressures on admission stan-
dards and distortions of the curricu-
lum—pressures and distortions that
are not new, but usually reman con-
veniently hidden from public view.
Last week's Honor Council case is
but the tip of a dismal iceberg of
compromise and equivocation in
which the entire university is impli-
cated.
What Professor Pfeiffer wants is
what I want a campus on which ath-
letes and other students respect each
other's diverse gifts and mingle on
equal terms in the same classrooms
and the same extracurricular activi-
ties. But I cannot imagine that hap-
pening until athletes are admitted by
the same standards as other students
and given enough time and encour-
agement to pursue their studies seri-
ously. And that, in turn, will happen
only when Rice athletes play in a
conference of comparable schools—
or so it appears to me. We all eagerly
await the facts that the President's
Athletic Review Committee has been
gathering. But having watched
coaches, winning streaks, and honor
code violations come and go for
twenty years, I think the burden of
proof rests on those who think the
experiment should go on any longer.
The costs—especially the human
costs that Professor Pfeiffer de-
scribed so well, and that lie just be-
neath the surface of the Honor
Council's abstract of the case — are
just too high.
Thomas L. Haskell
Professor of History
Rice bill is steep, moral bill steeper
RT
by Mark David Schoerthals
I dread official mail from Rice. If it
arrives via campus mail, it may be a
statement of library fines or a bill for
my mainframe account. If the mail
goes to my permanent address, it is
probably one of three things: the
Sallyport, my grades, or The Bill. I
enjoy the Sallyport, and even my
grades, but The Bill is always a
source of at least temporary distress.
It's easy to dread a bill for more
than $6,000 — especially when we
know that at least eight will come
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A minimum order of $500.00 is required to obtain this discount.
We are a full service agency but we also allow this special discount
for your assistance.
Last year, TravelTrends saved over $50,000.00 for Rice University
and its people.
We are two blocks from the Rice Campus.
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before we graduate, each demanding
more than the one before. The total
cost of a Rice education to the stu-
dent not receiving financial aid is
about $50,000.
We get a lot for our money, but it
is easy for us to get a different im-
pression sometimes. Rice has its
problems with inefficiency and even
blatant waste. No matter how effi-
cient Rice becomes—and it is al-
ready extremely efficient compared
to other universities—it will always
be expensive. It costs a lot to main-
tain a strong faculty, a small student-
faculty ratio, and fine facilities.
It's easy to forget all of this. I was
reminded by the gift of $51.4 million
from John Jay Moores to the Uni-
versity of Houston, his alma mater.
Recently, James Michener also gave
several million dollars to his alma
mater, Swarthmore College.
Each of these men cited the ad-
vantages that his university had
provided him as the motivation for
his gift. Each knew that, without
significant financial assistance, he
could not have attended college at
all Each man apparently found his
university education extraordinarily
rewarding.
Although these men were not le-
gally bound to reimburse.their alma
maters, they felt morally obligated
to repay them—with interest These
universities sponsored them for four
years, so they believed that they
ought to help their universities do
the same for other students.
Although I expected Rice stu-
dents to feel a similar obligation to-
ward our university, what I have
heard in my four years here are
negative remarks, like "I would
never give any money back to Rice."
Partly this is because many of
us feel like we're getting stiffed by
outrageous annual price hikes. But
no matter how much our bill in-
creases each year, we continue to
enjoy a terrific bargain. We simply
must be grateful.
"Oh," it's easy to say, "I'm differ-
ent This doesn't apply to me. I pay
my way at Rice. Rice doesn't give
me a cent" Wrong. We are all getting
a lot that we aren't paying for.
Even those of us not receiving
any financial assistance—need- or
merit-based—should feel like we are
getting a real bargain. U.S. News and
World Report calculates that Rice
spends almost $30,000 per student
per year. We pay less than one third
of the cost of our education.
We should remember that when
we decided to attend Rice, we de-
cided to accept a sizable gift, given
generously without any legal stipu-
lations. Especially if we have not
qualified for financial aid, Rice has
provided many of us with an educa-
tion which we otherwise could not
afford. More expensive universities
were out of the question for us.
By coming to Rice, we accept a
gift In response, we ought to assume
two obligations. We should get out of
Rice everything that we can. We
should work hard so that our time at
Rice is a meaningful learning experi-
ence. Then, we should work hard to
help ensure that this experience re-
mains rewarding and accessible to
others like ourselves—not necessar-
ily members of the most privileged
socioeconomic class. We should give
back to Rice everything that we can.
People in the past were looking
out for our futures. We know the
names of some of them: Rice, Brown,
Jones, Shepherd, Richardson, Cox,
Sewall, Fondren, Wiess. Many
other patrons have given but re-
main unknown. Rice has been able to
give to us because so many have
given so much to Rice in the past.
Rice's endowment will ensure that
going to college at Wee will always
mean the opportunity to get a tre-
mendous education. If we want Rice
to continue to improve, however, we
must plan to give back to Rice.
It's easy to carry the dread of
official Rice mail through com-
mencement and into the world, but
in fact we should welcome mail from
the Rice development office urging
our donations as alumni.
Honor
FROM PAGE 3
means or even attempts to provide
other students with answers. For
exams that require extremely long
periods of time to take, such as six
hours or more, the professor should
allow fifteen or thirty minute breaks
at consistent intervals in which all
students are carefully monitored to
insure that they do not exchange any
answers or information. Such a sys-
tem will replace the untimed take-
home exam. Finally, the Honor
Council will remain as a pun itive body
whose purpose will be to punish se-
verely any violations that may still
occur among the student body.
What would Rice University rather
have: an honor code in which the
average honest person often per-
forms poorly compared to the oppor-
tunistic cheater, and is ultimately
disadvantaged in his job search be-
cause he or she chose to respect a
modicum of decency and honesty, or
a fair system that insures that only
those who are the most qualified will
risetothetopoftheirclassand receive
the academic and financial benefits
which they truly deserve? A vote held
by the student body instituted the
Honor Code; it could revoke the sys-
tem just as easily.
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Zitterkopf, Ann & Howe, Harlan. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 8, 1991, newspaper, November 8, 1991; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245796/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.