The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 5, 1997 Page: 2 of 16
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<•'••- ' ' ' ' , - ■ ■
Students must act to head off a
repeat of last O-Week's fiasco
—
t— ■ '"■
2 FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 5. 1997
>—
ii Apr*..
Control
%
-eist week's editorial, written by Ihresher editor Steve Jackson in
1972, described the "fundamental purpose of the University" as an
individual process of exploration different for every ohe of us. But what
kind of administrative control should be placed on it? And how should
it be applied? Those are the questions recent events beg us to ask.
The situation into which the administration exerted its control
during Orientation Week seems almost absurd on the surface. Student
() Week coordinators, planned, obtained Office of Student Affairs sup-
port for, participated in and even led O Week jacks during the matricu-
lation ceremony. Then, the very next day. they decided to ban them.
They also decided not to tell anyone'why, perhaps for fear of appearing
loolish.
O-Week advisers have told us about rumors that Vice President for
Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho's job was at stake and that student
coordinators acted to keep him from being fired, but we find them hard
to believe. Camacho is a friend of all students and a trusted, visionary
administrator who does a difficult job well. And it's simply not his job to
police the students
Another story seems more likely. The information we have suggests
that the jack ban came at President Malcolm Gillis's request. At this
point, it should be said that on matriculation night, Gillis and Cumacho
were right to call out tor students to slop their jacking. A BrownCollege
jack that involved several students mock-beating another student into
the ground and then slowly 'dropping their pants soured what Should
have been a more auspicious moment for the class of 2001. Students
were no less wise than (iilfisand C'amacho in deciding to call off the rest
of their jacks (two more pre-approved jacks were left on the program).
But there's a huge difference between Gillis' bold leadership on
matriculation night and any involvement he or anyone else in the
administrat ion may have had in coercing O-Week coordinators to make
the decision to ban jacks. All the worse that the administration at-
tempted to pass oil its meddling in student affairs as tmelicited student
action The president's role should be that of leader and mentor, not
dictator.
Neither should his role be that of high school assistant principal or
summei camp head counselor. The administration seems bent on
making Rice a kind ol summer camp where nothing can go wrong and
everyone plays nice. Jacking matriculation has always served to alert
freshman that, at Rice, students aren't beholden to professors, admin-
istration or parents. It is the most important statement of student power
and independence that freshmen receive
But by last week. O-Week jacks were already more.carefully-orches-
trated demonstrations than the unanticipated pranks they once. were.
The issTie of whether officially-sanctioned jacks will continue during
O Week, when most upperclassmen are away from campus, is still ip
question Jacks during the year will continue — Rice did not invent
college pranking, after all.— but playing tricks on each other during the
year pales next to interrupting matriculation.
The Thresher issues a challenge to President Gillis, Admit that jacks
have been a vital part of O-Week, and even of matriculation*. And then
leave students to run O-Week for themselves.. Clamping down on
student expression is not your job. For the administration to act on the
presumption that it always knows better than students only insults us.
Rice sUnk-pls know what gi>bd and bad taste are.l'uiversijy Court, the
student run judiciary, should investigate and punish acts of vandalism
or violence if they occur.
Students, it is our right and duty to carry on the tradition of jacking
()-week. It is something that can and must be done with or without the
administration's sanction. So long as creativity .and not male nudity,
distinguish our jacks, and no important laws are broken, we need fear
no reproach.
3 Letters to the Editor
Jacks belong in orientation events
To the editor:
Phis O-Week went much as any
other. However, over it all lies a dark
pall that the freshman are likely only
dimly aware of: the cancellation of
jacks,
Jacks have historically been one
of t he finer pleasures of college stu-
dents everywhere, and this experi-
ence is only heightened by Rice's
college system. Jacks give students
an opportunity to express their sense
of humor and creatively blow off
• steam while also helping define our
college's unique identity and sense
of community. Stating that jacks are
"too competitive to add to the
new student's experience" is absurd.
It is this very competition that helps
instill in the new student his own
college's character.
When I heard that jacks had been
cancelled, I was astounded. 1 was
suspicious'that the administration
had acted yet again in its high-toned
manner to further curtail the "woe-
ful immoralities" of the student body.
When I later heard that the college
O-Week coordinators had made the
decision, I asked a friend who is
coordinating. Her rather un-forth-
coming answer was that yes, the
coordinators had made the decision
themselves. It wasn't until reading
the Thresher article that I under-
stood the reason for her reticence:
She was merely abiding by the col-
lective decision to not discuss the
issue. However, the article also indi-
cates that the decision was far from
a unanimous one. Since the coordi-
nators had chosen to have jacks,
and they were all approved by
C'amacho-, it does not take much
thought to realize that the decision
was coerced by the administration.
And, since the vice president ap-
proved the jacks, it is also rather
plain that the force at work here is
the prudery of Gillis himself.
Gillis justifies his wrath by stat-
ing that people were outraged, felt
shame and incredulity and that none
found it remotely amusing. How-
ever, the photo in the Thresher mocks
(iillis's words. It shows a naked male
running through the proceedings.
And it shows faculty, who do not
have the appearance of unamused,
outraged individuals.
This is not to say that there were
"not-members of the audience who
found t hemselves offended, The stu-
dents have differing views on moral-
ity. Baker 13 is not for everyone,
much as not everyone drinks, or, for
that matter, enjoys jacking. How-
ever, college confronts students with
many different, new lifestyles and
forces them to challenge their own
beliefs.
I'm not going to say that the nu
dity was necessary. But, regardless,
Gillis's anger in this matter and his
role, whatever it was, in the cancel
lation of jacks is unjustified. His po-
sition should not t$e that of censor,
but to foster the free thought and
action that is so vital to a liberal
education.
The big losers in all this are the
freshmen. One of the most difficult
things is to convince someone that
they should have something they
have never had.This makes ()-Week
an. ideal place to begin to curtail
students' freedoms. 1 exhort new
students to make themselves aware
of this slow erosion of their liberty.
Gillis needs to make an effort to
differentiate between his sensibili-
ties and those of the students. But if
there are no official jacks next year,
I encourage students to return to
the true spirit of the jack: unofficial,
unannounced anil fdr fun.
Jaey Grannis
Baiter '98
damaged rooms and missing furniture
Letter Policy
1 ,
TO SUBMIT Letters may be sent in by ...
e i na i 11Ii resh ertfQrire. rdu
campus mail: Letter to the Editor, c/o The Rice Thresher
I S Mail: Letter to the Editor, The Rite Thresher,
6100 Main St.. MS-524, Houston, '1"X 77005-1892
in person: Thresher Office, Second Floor. Student Center
DEADLINE — Deadline fomll letters is 5 p.m. on Monday. Letters
received- after the deadline are generally not considered for
publication until the following week.
RULES
1 AH letters must include your name, college, year of
graduation and phone number.
2. Short letters (200-500 words is a good guideline) have a better
chancP*of being published than long ones.
;i letters received via campus or U.S. mail must be signed. If you
are not submitting via email, we strongly recommend that you
submit letters on a Macintosh or IBM-formatted disk.
4 We do not accept anonymous letters, hut names may be withr
held by request in special circumstances.
5. We reserve the right to edit for length, spelling, grammar
and stvle.
To the editor:
The new students arrived two
weeks ago and moved in, and the
upperclassmen moved in this past
weekend. We've barely been here a
few weeks, and already the prob-
lems with the rooms .have started.
At Will Rice College alone, I've
heard many complaints about the
rooms not being ready to move into,
i'vejteard complaints ranging from
extensive water damage on ceilings
to torn up carpet, missing furniture,
and no window blinds over the win-
dows. Some of t he windows that do
have blinds have broken ones. My
room alone has a gripe list with over
15 things wrong in our room, It's
almost like an insert in Highlights
magazine: "Find the fifteen things
wrong with this picture."
I'm glad to be back on campus,
but I wish that Food and Housing
- would mak# suT*e rooms are ready to
move into when students return.
We get charged for damages at
the end of each year, and yet those
same damages aren't corrected
when school begins. I know of one
particular quad at Will Rice that men-
tioned their missing fire extin-
guisher at the beginning of last year.
When they moved out, it hadn't been
replaced, and they g#t charged for
it. The charge was overturned once
F&H realized that the complaint had
been logged at the beginning of the
year, but the fire extinguisher was
still missing when they moved back
into the same room this year.
I know that Food and Housing is
busy, especially when students are
returning at the end of the summer,
but I don't think it's too much for us
to expect that, after having been
charged for damages'at the end of
one year, the problems will be fixed
by the time we return.
Erin Makulski
Will Rice '91)
Owl "baseball wins admiration of Aerie fan
To the editor:
Greetings from Aggie land!
Congratulations on an outstand-
ing baseball season. I'm saddened
by your quick exit from the College
World Series, because I don't think
those games were indicative of how
good your team really was.
1 am an Aggie by degree and
loyalty, and in particular an Aggie
baseball fan, but I've always had a
soft spot for Rice and its athletic
program, mostly because of your
high academic achievements and
your spirited student body, which
has supported your athletic program
through bad times and good •
Your success on the baseball dia-
mond in recent years is a credit to
your basebaJi program, coaches and
players. They should all bttcom-
mended.
As an Aggie baseball fan, I know
the disappointment of going into a
big tournament with high expecta-
tions and then going two and barbe-
cue, as they say.
Your team emerged on top from
O
a tough regionS tournament and
was one of the Elite Eight in Omaha.
That itself is an honor that I hope
isn't lost in the final analysis of your
season.
I look forward to following the
Owls, albeit from a distance, to
Omaha again. As we say here in
Aggieland, there's always next year,
With highest regards,
Jim Hiney
Texas A&M '85
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Hardi, Joel & Siy, Angelique. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 5, 1997, newspaper, September 5, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246578/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.