The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 20, 1992 Page: 2 of 24
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2 FRIDAY, MARCH 20. 1992 THE RICE THRESHER
OPINION
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Novak, Schnee's leaving a
reminder of importance,
advances of Health Services
"Every time you go to Health Services, they say you're pregnant or you've
got mono."
It's an old Rice joke, but despite the jokes, students depend on the
judgement of the people at Health Services every day.
Whether Doctors Dain Novak or Amanda Schnee are distributing decon-
gestants, examining a broken nose from an intramural game, giving con-
traceptive counseling or administering allergy shots, Health Services affects
us all
Therefore it is critical that this may be Novak and Schnee's last semester
at Rice.
Novak has found other employment and Schnee's contract negotiation
with Rice is locked in a stalemate. Their departures will leave a void.
Schnee and Novak transformed Health Services over the past 12 years
from an impersonal office with 10 doctors on rotation to a consistent, friendly
clinic.
They have developed a rapport with the students. They know the personal
histories not on thecharts. (For example, if a woman is sexually assaulted and
concerned about a venereal disease or even AIDS, she would need to explain
her history again to the new doctor, someone potentially less sympathetic.)
Schnee and Novak have a reputation for understanding students' personal
problems. They know that it is not practical to expect students to stay in bed
for a week with a cold, and they understand the academic demands regularly
placed on students. They know Rice.
Additionally, Schnee and Novak are familiar with the Houston medical
services and know where to refer students. Many of the specialists even offer
discounts to referred Rice students.
If Schnee and the administration cannot reconcile their disagreements, it
is imperative that Health Services not revert back to the indifferent environment
that existed before Schnee and Novak came to Rice.
Health Services is here to provide a low cost, on-campus facility (espe-
cially for those Rice students who do not have a car). Currently, Health
Services gives antibiotics and other medications to sick students. This must
continue—it would be ridiculous to hand a feverish student a prescription and
expect him to walk to the Village to obtain the medicine.
One of the replacement doctors hired must be female. This allows women
to feel more comfortable during gynecological exams (for disease or even
regular Pap smears). It is intimidating to talk to a male about a feared
pregnancy or discuss the possibility of disease. The ensuing examination
could be even more embarassing.
Dean Burnett, in a news story this week, said the students will be polled
about potential changes in the Health Services program. These changes
could include moving the location or changing the services offered.
Moving the facility to Jones college or even off-campus could only be
detrimental, as these locations are less accessible. It is difficult enough to
persuade students to trek across campus to Jones for parties when they are
healthy. When they are sick, they want the closest possible facility. Addition-
ally, Rice students do not have time to schedule appointments off-campus
with other physicians for routine throat cultures, especially when the campus
police do not have time to drive them. Yet these are some of the suggestions
Dean Burnett proposed.
Change is not always bad, and we should not automatically reject sugges-
tions to alter the status quo. At the same time we need to be careful not to
throw away the work of Schnee and Novak on the development of a better
Health Services clinic as soon as they leave their office.
Ann Zitterkopf, Harlan Howe
Editors-in-chief
Chad Carson
Managing Editor
NEWS
Leezie Kim Editor
Eric Carmichael, Kraettli Epperson
Assistant Editors
Sam Cole, Henry Wiltshire Mahncke,
Kevin Mistry, Mark David Schoenhals
SPORTS
Peter Howley Editor
Terzah Ewing Assistant Editor
Tim Lam Scoreboard
Paul Abosh.JohnAkers, Randy Block,
Laura Boms, John Garrett, Erica
Ijevine, Marilyn Moore
PHOTOGRAPHY
Chris Sonne bom Editor
Eric Hahn, Barbara Solon
Assistant Editors
James Yao
FEATURES
Shaila Dewan Editor
Leezie Kim, Jill Salomon
BACKPAGE
Heidi Huettner Editor
M. Wasz Cartoonist
David Mansfield
Business Manager
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Shala Phillips Editor
Ross Grady Columnist
Brian Beeghly, Brandon Brown, Shaila
Dewan, Stan Hsue, Jennifer Lee, Bra-
dley Monton
PRODUCTION
Josh Denk Production Manager
Thomas Anderson, John McCoy,
Laura Atkinson, Marc Hirsh, Jeremy
Hart, Kei Furukawa, Kevin Mistry
OPINION
Mark Schoenhals Editor
John McCoy, Amit Mehta, Bradley
Monton, Michael Overcash
BUSINESS
Shane Speciale Ads Manager
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George Nickas Ads Production •
Keith IaFoe, Adrian C. Liserio, John
Schwartz, Circulation
Phone; 527-4801
© COPYRIGHT 1992
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, Is
published each Friday during the school year, except during examination perlpds and
holidays, by the students of Rice University. Editorial and business offices are located on
the second floor of the Ley Student Center, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas, 77251.
Advertising Information available on request. Mail subscription rate per semester:
$15.00 domestic, $30.00 international via first class mail. Non-subscription rate: first
copy free, second copy $1.00. Letters to the editor must be received by 5 p.m. on the
Monday prior to publication. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the
Thresher Editorial Staff. All other pieces represent the opinion of the author. Obviously.
Board ignores, contradicts facts on
athletics; rubber stamp is premature
To the editors,
After a year of work by the Athletic
Review Committee, it took the Board
of Governors only a few hours of de-
bate to overwhelmingly decide to keep
Rice athletics at its Division IA status.
While this decision is bothersome to
many members of the Rice commu-
nity, including myself, I am sure that
we could all accept it, as long as we
knew that the Board of Governors
had carefully reviewed the ARC re-
port However, from statements made
by Charles Duncan, chair of the board,
it appears that this careful review was
not done. As a result, Duncan has
made several statements which are
directly contradicted by the facts
contained in the report.
Duncan was quoted by the
Chronicle as saying that the athletic
department "is doing quite a good
job. We are reducing the deficit."
When Table 3-1 of the ARC report is
examined, this statement is shown to
be patently false. While there have
been fluctuations, the general trend
of the net cost of athletics to Rice is an
upward one. For the 1982-83 year,
the net cost of athletics was $1.39
million. In 1987-88, the costwas$3.76
million. In 1990-91, the costwas $4.32
million. This year, the ARC estimates
the net cost of athletics to Rice to be
a record $4.6 million. It is inane for
Duncan to call this a "reduction."
Duncan also said, "the graduation
rates are just exceptional; one of the
highest in the nation." The ARC re-
port compared Rice to seven other
schools that are similar academically,
and found that we ranked sixth out of
eight with regard to graduation rates.
Our five year graduation rate of 70.1%
for athletes was worse than Duke,
Notre Dame, Northwestern, and
Stanford. It scares me that the chair of
our own Board of Governors can call
such mediocrity "exceptional."
Somehow, I would hope that he would
expect something better from Rice.
Duncan went on to assert, "I'm
proud of the athletic department at
Rice. They're doing it just the right
way with absolute integrity." I fail to
see how anyone could associate ath-
letics with "integrity" after reading in
the ARC report that, from 1986 to
1991, over half of the students con-
victed of Honor Council violations
were athletes, whereas athletes make
up only 11% of the student popula-
tion. I am relieved that most Honor
Code-abiding Rice students do not
view integrity in the same way that
Duncan does.
Duncan summarized the decision
of the Board of Governors by saying,
"it is an unqualified statement of sup-
port." This, in effect, is an absolute
mandate to the athletic department
to keep doing what they have been. It
would have been much more logical
to qualify theadministration's support
on whether or not the athletic de-
partment can fix the academic and
financial problems outlined in the
report President Rupp explained the
reason the Board chose not to do
that; "Anything less than such full
support would be unworthy of the
excellence that characterizes this
University." I find it disappointing
that Rupp and the Board of Governors
do not realize that the continued ex-
istence of the athletic department is
unworthy of the excellence that
characterizes this University. The
status quo has, I am afraid, been
rubber stamped.
Bradley Monton
Jones '94
Goldsmith misses distinction between
rational discourse and barbarian threats
To the editors,
Two weeks ago, an article was
printed stating that an outspoken
critic of the athletic program here
had been threatened over spring
break, and that as a consequence,
this critic would write no more articles
for the Thresher.
This disturbs me greatly. The
barbarians have won again; certainly,
I would find it difficult to continue
criticizing a program if I had had my
well-being and that of my parents
threatened as a consequence of my
criticism. However, I too believe that
Rice has no place in Division I athlet-
ics. I'm in the directory, and I even
have an answering machine, so
would-be phone terrorists don't have
to confront me personally. A word of
caution to the anonymous caller:
finding and threatening everyone who
dares to criticize Rice athletics will
certainly be time-consuming, and
probably counterproductive.
The anonymous caller—whether
a "young black male," a major sup-
porter of the Rice athletic program,
neither, or both—clearly has no place
in a civilized society; his action lies
far beyond the pale of anything so-
cially acceptable. What bothers me,
at least as much, however, if not more,
than some barely housebroken thug's
threat to someone's person based on
arguments presented in rational, if
vituperative, discourse, is Coach Fred
Goldsmith's reaction—or lack
thereof—to this threat
"I obviously can't condone...it,"
he said to the Thresher. The very
phrasing of such a statement con-
notes, "I can't condone it, but I really
would like to." No one, I think, asked
Mr. Goldsmith to condone the phone
call. What he should have done—in-
deed, what any person who believes
that rational discourse is a better
method than mindless violence for
solving problems should do in such a
case—is to unequivocally condemn
such acts of anonymous terrorism,
whichever side's cause one believes
to be just The closest he came to
doing so was saying that "juvenile
acts like threats and criticism of the
athletic program '[continue] to po-
larize people on campus'."
This brings me to the second bone
of contention with Goldsmith's state-
ment in which he also claimed that the
phone call was "like the criticism of
[the football players].. .justan example
from the other side." There is a great
d£al of difference between stating "I do
not believe that Rice should compete
in Division I athletics, for the following
reasons," and "You watch your step
now...0r you'll hurt like you've never
hurt before." As far as I am aware,
nowhere in the long-protracted battle
over the athletic program, did anyone
ever propose intimidation of athletes
and their families as a solution to the
problem. If Mr. Goldsmith is unable to
perceive the difference between rea-
soned arguments, proceeding logically
from certain facts and assumptions,
and anonymous promises of impend-
ing dismemberment then I question
his fitness for inclusion in civilized so-
ciety.
Adam Thornton
WIess '94
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Zitterkopf, Ann & Howe, Harlan. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 20, 1992, newspaper, March 20, 1992; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245809/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.