The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 14, 1997 Page: 6 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER
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; — , Mil. . I .
forum settles
f!m§m
discuss
Members
!■
cro8.se team met Tuesday
discuss a recent flier promoting ;
lacrosse game.
Christa Robbins, a Baker Col-
lege senior and Pride member, saw
(lie flier,twhich uses the phrase
"steers and qiivers." while fin her
way to class. Offended by the de-
rogatory term, she sent e-mail to
other Pride members describing the
sign and a letter to Jeff Darlington,
president of the lacrosse team.
Darlington responded by sending a
letter over e-mail formally apologiz-
ing for the sign.
At the forum, which was held
Tuesday night, the two sides met to
discuss and, as Robbins said, "put
an ending to everything."
(ilen l evy, Pride faculty spon-
sor, said, "Ideally, there is an educa-
tional factor. A lot of people have
Debate
FROM PAGfi, 1 ,
nity service as an incentive to in-
crease service learning, lie, cited
Stanford University and Yale Uni
versitv as schools which have al-
ready implemented such programs,
Shorter emphasized furthering
traditional SA Senate projects, as
well as expanding opportunites and
options available to Rice students.
He hopes to expand the scope of the
Silver Savor cards to include national
chains such as McDonald's, Target
and I Hmkin Donuts. Shorter's main
point, though, was the diversifica-
tion of both faculty and student sat
Rice, namely by expanding efforts
to recruit minority and women fac-
ulty.
Dharamraj's opening remarks
focused on her committment to ful-
filling the visions and dreams of stu-
dents andDrganizat ions on campus.
She expressed a willingness to take
risks andexperiment with new ways
to achieve goals.
Saunders described his approach
as "loose minded." Unlike the other
candidates, lie dressed down in ol-
der to emphasize his position as a
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I.SA1 //432 Rice 4/19 SuMoWe
PRINCE1X
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info.houston@review coir-
i" information about free
James Jacksjon, a Jones College
freshman and Pride member, said
he hoped the forum would "promote
awareness of the little things people
tend to overlook . and think of who
gets offended." *
Sid Ricftardson College freshman
Chris Washington and Brown Col-
lege junior Brian Welch, two other
Pride members, stated concern over
people who might be considering
coming out. "It comes off as threat-
ening to them," Washington said.
"1 would once again like to apolo-
gize," Darlington said. "It was an
oversight on my part.... There needs
to be a little more sensitivity."
The forum was informal and
mainly served, according to those iri
attendance, as an opportunity for
the two sides to put faces with the e-
i nails.
cfr
in&iiSM ■*>
student, and as a doer, rtot a talker,
Following the opening remarks,
the candidates fielded questions
from the moderators and the audi-
ence.
A recurrent theme was student
apathy and how to mend this per-
ceived problem. Other issues- in-
cluded the role of the SA in repre-
senting the student body; the role of
the SA in campus media groups in-
cluding KTRli and the Thresher;
campus climate with regards to sex-
ism, racism and homophobia; the
relationship between students and
administration; and the college sys-
tem.
Much of the audience question
and-answcr session focused on tV\«
pros and cons of the college system.
All candidates concurred that while
the system has its merits, it can also
be restricting for students. One au-
dience member suggested an "ex-
change program" between colleges,
which all the candidates supported.
During the closing remarks, the
candidates reiterated their main
points and emphasized their com-
mitments to being approachable and
available to the students.
For more information, see the
election supplement on page M,
Alan Thornhiil (right) and his wife, Cynthia, sit outside Anderson Biological Laboratories after his lecture titled
"Richness of Life: A Personal Perspective on Biological Diversity.* which was given earlier this month. The lecture
was part of the Rice Student Environmental Conference.
Stanford initiates campaign to
universities on
Maya Balakrishnan
A'cii i kilitnr
An entirely student-run, nation-
wide movement called the Universi-
ties for Students Campaign rt'cenwy
evolved out of the Stanford Univer-
sity campus. It is based on t he broad
idea that society,needs to build "uni-
versities for1 students and society;
not students for universities."
An earlier version of the cam-
paign was conceived this past fall by
a group of Stanford students who
saw the negative effects of the quan-
tified number-ranking system on uni-
versity students and potential stu-
dents alike.
According to the Forget U.S.
News Coalition, students often treat
published rankings found in peri-
odicals like U.S. News and World
Ueport as dogma and consequently
make their college decisions based
upon them, However, the numbers
can be misleading.
"1 think (ranking systems I lead
students to make bad decisions,"
Rice President Malcolm Gillis said.
"I fear that some universities are
already changing their policies so
as to protect their position in the
rating's. That definitely does not ap-
ply at any of the top 15 universities,
That definitely doesn't apply to tht>
Harvards or MITs or Rices." How-
ever, according to Gillis, the prac-
tice of ranking universities is bound
to have problems.
According to Student Association
Internal Vice President Michael
Munson, everyone — administra-
tors as well as students — is in favor
of the movement; over 9() percent of
u n i versity presiden ts agreed that the
U.S. News and World Report
rankings had deleterious effects on
students.
The strongest motivational idea
behind the campaign is that students
felt that university decisions are
made for the sake of inflating their
number in U.S. News College
Rankings, rather than for the good
of their students or the community.
However, the U.S. News campaign
is part of a much larger struggle.
'The Forget U.S. News Coalition
is where the Universities for Stu-
dents Campaign originated. Both
reflect an attempt by students to
begin thinking about actions that
differentiate a university from a for-
profit company," Student Associa-
tion President Maryana Iskander
said.
With this general theme at its
core, the coalition grew to include
students from around 10.universi-
ties across the nation. The group's
goal is to develop a set of principles
which will allow individual schools
to initiate programs of reform on
their own campuses.
The campaign believes in the-fol-
lowing four tenets: Universities were
created for students; they are funda-
mentally different from for-profit
businesses and should not just pro-
iracl c
WpMfJRM
Residential Colleges
Lovett
Academic Buildings
Anderson Hall
Other Buildings
Lovett Hall
Fondren
Sammy's'
Mudd Lab
Graduate House
Feb . 6
Feb. 5
Feb. 4
-ttb. 5
Fab. 6
Feb* 7
Fab. 9
Parkin* Lota
Madia Clnrar Lot "W- feb.6
!U i
Fanny pack containing Rice ID,
Keys and credit cards lost or
stolen/
Sander and vacuum reported
missing from wood shop.
Suspect seen taking books from
Duncan Hall, chased into Lovett
Hall and taken into custody*
Unattended backpack stolen. .
unattended jacnet reported ,
stolen on Jan. 31.
Wallef stolen.
Report-of reside* being scared
tycaHir'a message.
PatketfcaratrucKby fouibal!
from Cameron Field during
baseball game.
vide a private benefit; they also need
to work for the public welfare; and
they must be aware of their social
impact. Based on those principles,
the coalition believes that universi-
ties need to recreate themselves.
These ideals do not strictly de-
fine: the campaign in any certain
terms. Instead, it leaves students of
each university to apply them to their
campus situation as they see fit.
"The Universities for Students
Campaign is vague. But it needs to
be because many different vie w
points need to be incorporated into
a discussion about what purposes a
university serves. I hope students at
Rice are a part of this," Isk&ntler
said.
Students at Stanford translated
these principles into specific move-
ments and attempts at concrete ac-
tion. Among many other objectives,
they are working toward encourag-
ing Stanford to boycott the U. S.News
rankings, winning support for inter-
disciplinary majors and increasing
the arnount of student group work
space on campus. ,
The Stanford wing of the coali-
tion is setting up a socially-respon-
sible endowment fury! for the
project.
Recently, the Student Associa-
tion has introduced this campaign
for discussiqp and consideration.
Rice students have varied re
sponses to whether they feel Rice
appropriately treats students as the
focal point of its efforts.
One student said, "I have to say
that Rice is ruled by money. It seems
to favor professors who bring in the
money and reputation rather than
quality of teaching."
Another student said," I Rice 1 is a
research university and I think they
do cater to how they look to corpora
tions that may give them money."
A more moderate viewpoint is
that in the past, Rice has been very
student-oriented. However, as Wiess
College sophomore Joseph Abra-
ham said. "I think (Rice is) moving
away from tfcat. .... It wants to in
crease the role of graduate students,
which isn't necessarily bad thing.
Regardless of their opinions
about whether students are well
served by the university, many agree
That becoming part of the campaign
would be" a healthy move,
Gillis saicf of the campaign,"!
think this is very healthy. One of the
purposes of such student groups is
to try to make sure the periodicals,
such as U.S. News or Money Maga
zine, are asking the right question "
"It would be good for the Rice
campus 'bcTausei^Ob'n'Otorin'tisly
apathetic," Wiess College freshman
Benjamin Kiev said.
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Beard, Marty & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 14, 1997, newspaper, February 14, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246560/m1/6/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.