The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, October 10, 1997 Page: 4 of 20
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4 FRIDAY. OCTOBER 10. 1997
THE RICE THRESHER
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harmful
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p.m.
Dedication
$16.5 milli<
on the front
homeoftheBakerl
lie- Policy.
McrttaHM of itato
Mayor Bob l.anier will
U.S. secretaries of stale
Baker HI. Warren
(1 Cyrus Vance and
edicating the James
ingon Oct. 15 at 6
•remonies. of the
ill take place
akerHall
to ipoilt at Young
Donworaio luncheon series
George Greanias, one of the lead-
ing candidates in the Houston may-
oral race and a Rice alumnus, will be
the featured guest at the second
ice Young
Wwmi
ititute for i
stitute will begin its annual confer-
ence at 9 a.m. in Autry Court. Baker,
Christopher. Vance and former Sec-
retary of State Henry Kissinger will
make presentations, which will be
followed by a panel discussion mod-
erated by CNN's Bernard Shaw on
"The Foreign Policy Priorities of the
United States on the Eve of the
Twenty-first Century." At noon the
presentation of the Baker Institute's
Enron Prize for Distinguished Pub-
Ik Service will commence, followed
by remarks from this year's recipi-
ent. former Soviet Premier Mikhail
(.orbachev. :
fp| tpai
nounced Monday that an
can biologist, Stanley B. i
of the University of California at
San- Francisco, will be "awarded
the 1997 Nobel Prtzein medicine.
Prusiner discovered prions
new class of germs response
fnrnmamg "mad fQW* 1
other brain
Prions, unlike other
contain no genetic i
' harmless
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alu
DeLTras'pSem J*™ GiZm
"'cireanias, author of the play
"Hello Hamlet,"sometimes featured
by Wiess College, has served as a
Houston City Council Member, City
Controller and as a Rice faculty mem-
ber.
Hisopponents in the mayoral race
are Rob Mosbacher, Helen Huey,
Prusiner his research
25 Veara ago, after one of his pa-
tients died of Creutafeldt-Jakob
disease, a type of dementia then
thought to be transmftted ^ an
infectious agent He identifiedthat
behind a sponge-like agent as • 'prion" (short for pro-
ah Prusiner's discovery teinaoNmsfa^sctiOMpailicle) pro*
also lead to advances in fete leu yesrs later and isolated
• resesrch, the Nobel the prion gene in 1984.
said, because there is Souras: USA Today Online,
thatAkheimer's disease Oct 5, Reuters, Od. f.
into ad
Foreign
S ■
said. ,
"The international students are
so cosmopolitan, you don't even
know they're international," Baker
said.."The undergraduates just get
lost in th«* college system."
"The president has shown inter-
est in M|||^onaIizing the univer-
Gracie"Saertz and Rice Socioio^ sitV" Baker said. Besides on«am-
Professor Lee Brown. Pus- international student issues, an
additional goarofthe OlSSand RJSA
. . ■ ' "I i ' ■ " 11 i iji'ii
is to promote Rice overseas.
"Students come over here from a
lot of countries, and they don't know
how great Rice is," Baker said.,
"They don't realize that they're
at an extremely prestigious school.
It's a significant disadvantage for
Rice, because we're not as widely
known. So we want to organize an
outreach program to international
advising centers so we can let the
best and the brightest in the world
know about Rice."
These overseas educational ad-
vising centers, sponsored by the U.S.
government, number over 4()0 and
provide information on US higher
education in over 150 countries.
Baker hopes to utilize both inter-
national students as well as Rice
students who study abroad to con-
vey information about Rice to advis-
ing centers in their respective coun-
tries.
For more information, contact
Wiess College sophomore Harsha
Vaswani at tinoo@rice.edu.
iVfffc'JN
viwsr&i
The Student Association Senate met Monday. The following were
discussed: ' *
• The RPC is looking for BeerBiKe chairs. Interested parties should
send e mail t<i dcgal@rice.edu by Oct. 12.
• Leadership Rice held the first session of a new discussion
lecture series called "Leadership & the Arts" Wednesday. The
series will bring seven directors of local arts organizations
together to talk about how leadership is manifest in the art world.
Dean of the Schdol of Humanities Judith Brown moderated the
discussion, and refreshments were served.
Next meeting: Monday at 10 p.m. In Kelley Lounge in the Student
Center. • -
Cancer
FROM PAGE .1
the same lime?" Dang said. Vice
President for Studeni AffairsZenaido
Camacho said that when he initially
heard of Dang's plans, he was ex-
tremely impressed. "My initial frac-
tion was (to say) 'what a courageous
person.' I thought this ImusfbeJ a
student who [lives) life to the full-
est," Camacho said. After Dang's
decision to give Rice a try, the
registrar's office notified Paul
U>ckey, professor ofHumanities and
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an academic advisor, about Dang's
unique circumstances.
Lockey, whose wife is a social
worker on the leukemia and pain
floors of M.D. Anderson, said he
knew the importance of giving pa-
tients in Uang's condition every op-
portunity to resume a normal life. "I
knew it was critical that cancer pa-
tients not be cut out of life because
of cancer," Lockey said.
Dang repeatedly said how im-
portant he feels it is for people to
treat cancer patients as individuals.
"It is a continual problem — the
defining of a person solely on the
fact that I Key are a cancer patient,"
lie said. With Ixxk<-y as a guide,
Dang set out to find a set of classes
taught by professors who could
adapt their schedules to the life of a
cancer patient. He also had to plan
to miss a week of classes to recuper-
ate from final surgery held Sept. 22.
"All [the professors) were help-
ful. honest, supportive and willing to
do extra work so I could attend their
classes. I only met a few who inti-
mated their courses might be too
tough to handle," Dang said.
Lockey himself became one of
Dang's professors, for Humanities
lOl. "My original plan for Dang was
to have more work done before the
surgery than afterward. But, alas,
that was not to be. because of tfie
immediate need fo have the sur-
gery," Lockey said.
Another of Dang's professors,
Sociology professor William Mar-
tin. also had a bout with cancer,
though it was much less severe than
Dang's. Martin said he now finds
himself in a position he has never
been in before. '"Die only other situ-
ation I have been in where someone
in my class has gotten cancer has
been me," he said.
Martin said he understands
Dang's need to complete assign-
ments on his own timetable. "He
doesn't need any more pressure than
he already has," Martin said.
Dang's father's died of cancer
when Dang was 15, which forced
him To confront mortality even be-
fore his own trials began. For him,
cancer is war. "The war is being
fought inside ourselves against re-
bellious tissues," Dang said.
"1 have seen so many people die
around me. You can see people with
their bandages, things missing — a
man with a face mask such that you
can tell his nose has been removed
— it's war," he said. Bouts of activity
are like tours of duty, Dang said, and
the scientists and doctors who work
to treat patients are the generals.
"They give us the weapons, orders
and conduct strategy. 1 have com-
plete confidence and faith in every
one of my physicians."
Through this terrible war, Dang
said he based his decisions on those
of Hamlet — the title character of
one of his favorite plays. "Hamlet
looks at his existence and asks
whether he should submit or fight.
Hamlet chooses to fight. Life is worth
fighting for," Dang said.
Dang's experience means he-
looks aflife in a remarkable way. He
speaks of the dark days when sur-
gery and treatment were at their
peak, of days when he did not taste
anything when a lemon was
squeezed in his mouth, when he
was bedridden and on the verge of
losing his mind. Now that such harsh
times have passed, he said "I will
walk and notice how beautiful a tree
is and ponder it."
Dang scolded those who take
ordinary things for granted. "I want
('others] to gain an appreciation of
the life they have right now, at
present. People who say 'I don't have
the time' are deceiving themselves
and robbing themselves," he said.
Dang has spent much of the past
few days catching up on classes that
had to be put on hold for his recent
surgery. Dang said that he appreci-
ates that students at Rice have the
opportunity and are even encour-
aged to delve into diverse academic
disciplines. He pointed to the fact
that, while atTulane, he would never
have been able to take a photogra-
phy class, which he is doing this
semester at Rice while pursuing a
computer engineering degree.
Lockey said that Dang's case
shows how important it is for admin-
istration and faculty to put in extra
time and effort so that students like
Dang can have the opportunity to
excel.
Martin said he approves of Dang's
return to college, but cautions Dang
not to overexert himself. "He sees
[continuing his college education!
as important, and there is no ques-
tion that one's frame of mind is im-
portant in fighting cancer or any
other disease. It would be unwise of
him to work so hard that he depletes
his strength. If need be he can drop
out of school and attend to his
health," Martin said.
Dang has attempted to return to
school twice before. "Both times,
things had boded well — tumors
had not returned for several
months," he said. "And for those
months, I made preparations to re
tunvtO school at Tulane. And both
times, at the last moment, some
strange ghost on the X-ray or CT
scan revealed itself, and I was pro-
nounced with new metastasis in the
lungs."
This time around, Dang is
through with chemotherapy treat-
ments, But he cannot know for cer-
tain if his career at Rice will proceed
frputite-TrW, or if new danger -sig-
nals will arise, "It's a waiting game
now," he said.
rany p.jnrispi.iwf; - v-,
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Hardi, Joel & Siy, Angelique. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, October 10, 1997, newspaper, October 10, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246603/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.