The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 22, 1993 Page: 2 of 24
twenty four 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:
2 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1993 THE RICE THRESHER
Resolution
SA Senate takes a step in the right
direction on Navy ROTC
The Student Association Senate has taken a stand that places it
squarely behind the principle that discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation is unethical and thus inconsistent with Rice ideals. This
Monday evening, the Senate demonstrated its conviction by passing a
resolution 15-5 that calls upon Rice to begin removing the Navy ROTC
program from campus in five years if the government has not reversed
its policy of discrimination against gays in the military.
Many on both sides of the issue have argued that the resolution'scost,
politically, will be too high to justify the resolution's potential as a form
of protest.
What they have not been able to adequately justify is the cost to the
student body of not taking this stand. While we should allow the five
years for the government to settle on a policy, the time has come to voice
an opinion, both to contribute Rice's protest to that of other major
universities who have taken similar stands, and to state definitively that
this student body will not abide injustice. A position must be voiced now
to avoid a harder decision later about Rice's Navy ROTC.
It is unfortunate that if the university adopts this resolution and if the
government's policy of discrimination does not change, a few students
per year will not be able to receive Navy ROTC scholarships. This is,
however, a small price to pay to make this a more consistently tolerant
place for all students.
Several ROTC members have said graduating Naval officers from
Rice makes the Navy a better institution. But what of making Rice a
better institution? Rice is not responsible for the Navy's environment.
The Navy must take responsibility for itself.
We will probably never know whether this resolution made any
difference to decision makers outside the university, or even to decision
makers within the university. Ultimately, the resolution was passed not
for the Navy, other university communities or even the Rice administra-
tion. The resolution was passed to state that this student body has
principles that it is willing to advocate.
pinion"
P
C/i
ihe nm 1 |NcE 1918
Rice Thresher
Kraetfli Epperson, Peter Howiey
Editors-in-Chief
Shane A. Speciale
Business Manager
Melissa Williams
Sei Chong
David Hale
Vivek Rao
MaiyAnn McKibben
Marc Hirsh
Torrey Folk
Amy Jeter
Erica Levine
Rachel Domhelm
Terzah Ewing
Eric Stotts
Kevin Mistry
Monica Weinheimer
Haley S. Robertson
Kathy O'Steen
News Editor
Asst. News Editor
Opinion Editor
Asst. Opinion Editor
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor
Sports Editor
Sports Editor
Asst. Sports Editor
Features Editor
Assistant Features Editor
Backpage Editor
Production Manager
Photography Editor
Ads Manager
Asst. Business Manager
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University
since 1916, is published each Friday during the school year, except during
examination periods 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. Phone 527-4801.
Advertising information available on request Mail subscription rate per
semester. $20.00 domestic, $40.00 international via first class mail. Non-
subscription rate: first copy free, second copy $1.00.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher
Editorial Staff. All other pieces represent the opinion of the author.
Obviously. © COPYRIGHT 1993
I''*}'.
OPINION
"°rther
,v,ve
\ v • . -/. *
vo/fe
Drop forms not attached to tests
Decreased enrollment hurts, not helps, science departments in the long run
To the editor:
The editorial headlined "Hell 101,
Big Three Profs weed-out efforts-are
disservice to university" is itself a dis-
service to the Rice community. It is
merely a string of unreasonable infer-
ences ultimately based on factual er-
rors.
I have ascertained that drop slips
were indeed passed around onegroup
of PHYS 101 students at the 7 p.m.
ried out this sophomoric practical joke,
I find it hard to believe that it would
dissuade a serious student from pur-
suing a carefully considered career
choice. Surely any student capable of
succeeding at Rice, as most matricu-
lating students do, can cope with an
THE EDITOR
Letters
exam session last week. A single slip
remained for the 9 p.m. group in the
same room. Contrary to the Thresher
statement, drop forms were not at-
tached to the tests. The professors in
charge of the course deny knowledge
of the incident, and would obviously
have had no reason to pick only a
subset of the class. Several freshmen
recognized that the forms were in-
tended as a joke and assumed that it
was a student prank of the sort that
frequently occurs in the first BigThree
exams each fall.
Even if a faculty member had car-
' Surely any student
capable of succeeding at
Rice, as most
matriculating students do,
can cope with an
impersonal insult. *
impersonal insult Theeditorial writer
grossly underestimates his or her fel-
low students by assuming that they
cannot
The remainder of the editorial
seeks to imply that science and engi-
neering faculty are eager to drive stu-
dents out of their classes, allegedly to
make more time for research. The
editorial writer provides no facts to
support this contention, but there are
data that suggest the opposite.
First and foremost, about 40 per-
cent of Rice students graduate with a
science or engineering degree. By
national standards this is a very large
fraction of each class, so at the very
least it implies that any faculty efforts
to discourage students have not been
very successful over the years. More
to the point, faculty gain nothing in the
short term by reducing enrollments
in their classes. Lectures still need to
be prepared, demonstrations orga-
nized, tests written and grades as-
signed. Over many years, fewer stu-
dents will mean fewer faculty in a
given field and hence fewer colleagues
with which to collaborate. Decreased
enrollment does not, therefore, im-
prove the research enivronment but
rather tends to make it worse.
It would have taken very little re-
portorial effort to obtain thefacts about
this incident In the future I hope the
Thres/ter editorswill undertake at least
a minimal investigation before shar-
ing their fantasies with the Rice com-
munity.
Stanley A. Dodds
Associate Professor, Physics
and Divisional Advisor
Science profs strive to hold on to students
To the editor:
I was greatly dismayed to see the
editorial "Hell 101..." in the Thresher.
The headline led me . to believe that
the Thresherhad uncovered some fac-
tual evidence to indicate that the Rice
science faculty is intent on driving
students away from scientific majors.
As one of the Big Three instructors,
(The faculty in the Big
Three... have
demonstrated a strong
interest in encouraging
students to major in the
sciences. y
couraging students to major in the
sciences. This is evidenced by the
creation of new courses specifically
tailored to the differing backgrounds
of new students (e.g. the separation of
CHEM 101 and CHEM 111), by fac-
ulty organizational activity of student
groups (e.g. the Student Affiliates of
the American Chemical Society, which
Professors Whitmire and Hwu spon-
sor) , and by the modification of grad-
ing procedures so as to reward dili-
gent effort (e.g. the elimination of grad-
ing "curves" in CHEM 101,102 and
105). These actions are evidently hav-
ing the desired effect as enrollments
in allofthe BigThree courses, as well
as in the biosciences, have risen con-
sistently over the past several years.
During the same time, the attrition
rate in CHEM 101 has dropped to
about 10 percent There is simply no
truth to the claim that we are trying to
force students away from a career in
science.
My dismay over this column arises
from the damage to the students that
such a baseless claim can cause. It
must have been disheartening for
many students to read a claim that
their professors were trying to drive
them away. In reply, I assure you that
my motivations in teaching CHEM
101 are to make chemistry interesting
and challenging, but rewarding, and
to provide the analytical skills neces-
sary for the study of science.
John S. Hutchinson
Associate Professor, Chemistry
such intent would have been news to
me. I was relieved, however, to dis-
cover that the editorial contained ab-
solutely no such factual evidence,
other than the misinterpretation of a
prank unattributable to any professor.
The factual reality is exactly the
opposite of the Thresher's claim. The
faculty in the Big Three, in general,
and, in chemistry, in particular, have
demonstrated a strong interest in en-
HW
NOVESS,
TWCKWt)
FUMBUN&
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.
Howley, Peter & Epperson, Kraettli. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 22, 1993, newspaper, October 22, 1993; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245851/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.