The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 21, 1997 Page: 2 of 16
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Dean of Student Judicial Affairs Patricia Bass was quite right to
threaten Brown College with the revocation of its alcohol privileges
unless it begins to comply with the alcohol policy immediately.
Brown's student government seems to have practiced negligent non-
enforcement of the alcohol policy punctuated by a couple of spectacularly
blatant policy violations, the most recent a party that engulfed the entire
7th floor Friday The consequences of excessive drinkit\g have sent
Brown freshmen to both the hospital and the county jail this year.
Brown College isn't alone in having elected student leaders who take
a soft line on the alcohol policy, and if isn't the only college to have played
host to "a "private" party that spilled out into the hallway But the
foundation of tlie alcohol policy rests on the principlesof self-responsibil-
ity and self enforcement: Texas and Houston trust Rice to enforce state
law and the Campus Police, Bass and University Court expect the
colleges to uphold the school rules written to comply with that law.
In this last regard, Brown failed in its duty. The death of a freshman
student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology earlier this year should
remind us that college students, oftenffreshmen and underage, often die
ol alcohol poisoning. Everyone needs to take responsibility to ensure that
such a tragedy does not strike Rice.
For its part, Brown needs to do more than simply hold a meeting in
which the masters, resident associates and hitherto ambivalent college
It-aders call for greater responsibility, (liven the pall cast by Brown's
negligent nonenforcement, the Brown cabinet should draw up a more
concrete plan of compliance, one that outlines exactly what Brown
students should do if they find themselves in particular scenarios.
What would happen, for example, if a Brown student had to decide one
night whether his drunk, unconscious roommate needed medical care?
That student would have to choose between taking his roommate to the
hospital and thus risking the (very unpopular) end of alcohol at Brown or
with fust leaving the roommate passed out on the floor.
Most Rice students like to drink, at least occasionally, and blatant
breaking of Rice's alcohol rules risks our health, our lives and, conse-
quently, the continued existence of the policy that leaves us with a fairly
remarkable degree ot freedom to make our own decisions about alcohol.
Acting irresponsibly imperils that freedom and undermines our dignity
the ultimate consequence of continual intentional negligence is a fate
much worse than Brown's.
International Influence
Rice's recent establishment of lour S1 :>.000 scholarships for students
studying abroad could not have come at a better time. This year, approxi-
mately 120 students will spend at least part, of the year studying in a
foreign country, up from 82 last year, and Director of International
Education Patricia Martin anticipates that the nunVbei; will continue to
rise quickly in tlte coming years.
Rice, which in the past found itself accused of provincialism by critics
from both within and without, now seems to be "internationalizing," even
if its ties to Houston remain as scant as ever. For most overworked Rice
students, spending a year, semester or summer elsewhere is the most
practical way of exploring what lies bev<*nd the hedges. . ^
Very welcome, then, are the university*? efforts to expand opportuni-
ties for foreign study and to make Rice a more worldly place.
Rice students are finding their way abroad via increasingly disparate
means Career Services Director Cheryl Matherly is in Germany right
now, helping to set up a new summer internship abroad prograhi to begin*
this summer, and 40-50 students already participate in work abroad
programs each year. Rice Habitat for Humanity sends a group of students
to volunteer abroad each spring, and last year two college courses
included travel to the countries they studied. Both classes have been
picked up again this year; Sid Richardson jtnd Brown colleges plan trips
to Palestine and Guatemala, respectively, for the spring semester.
Returning study abroad students make Rice a more cosmopolitan,
better educated and more interesting place. Students who have studied
in other countries also make up the majority of those who apply for
prestigious scholarships during their senior year.
New faculty appointments to specialists in underrepresented parts of
the world, the activities (both high and lower profile, like yesterday's visit
by the president of Kazakhstan) of the Baker Institute and the establish-
ment of the new Center for the Study of Languages are making foreign
and language study better and more easily accessible at Rice.
One key component of the equation, however, is still largely absent:
foreign students at Rice. Hundreds of graduate students are foreign, but
international students make up less than 3 percent of undergraduates. Of
those, typically only five or so are visiting just for a year. The only way
those Students can afford to come here is through one-for-one ex
changes, which require a great deal of administrative work for their one-
student yield. Having more foreign students would invigorate Rice with
new ideas and fresh perspectives. For language students, conversation
with native speakers adds something that cannot be replaced by years of
written homewitrk or by group wg^ with.other Americas.
With Wee students finding opportunities abroad in a myriad of places
and a broader, but still decentralized, emphasis on international issues at
Rit eitself , tin* niwsiwg link in the ^-ham is all the more apparent
1
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Evolution supporters
-present poor argument
To the editor:
I am writing in response to the
column of Joseph Blocher ("Gish
falls short on support for creation-
ism," Nov. 7), as well as the letter to
the editor from Professors David
Queller and Joan Strassmann
("Gish's argument light on real sci-
entific fact," Nov. 7). I have several
objections to the contents of these
items.
Blocher started by comparing
Duane Gish to a dinner guest'who
ends up punching his host's mother.
However, Gish was not really in-
vited to speak at Rice by its "scien-
tific community," as BloCher's anal-
ogy implied. Neither was his pre-
sentation supposed to be "an intel-
lectual dinner party." More impor-
t an tly, Blocher's analogy implies that
Gish did something offensive that
was unexpected and shocking, when
everyone knew Gish would argue
for creation.
Although inconsistencies in the
documentation of the evolutionary
process do not disprove the theory,
as Blocher said, such inconsisten-
cies do indicate that it is open to
debate.
Furthermore, the creation of the
universe cannot be compared to a
Mr. Wizard-like magic trick..The
universe is more complex than a
magic trick or physics demonstra-
tion, by several orders of magni-
tude.
Queller and Strassman said that
the arguments based on probability
were invalid, because life could have
been based on different chemical
"building blocks." For Gish to estab-
lish his theory completely, then, he
would need to list all possible alter-
native "building blocks" and show
why each would not have worked.
For Queller and Strassman to dem-
onstrate their theory, all they would
need to do is show how one such
alternative chemical structure could,
or actually did, lead to biological life.'
Many millions of years are sup-
posed to have elapsed between the
extinction of dinosaurs and thf ad-
vent of man. Yet creationism says
that man and dinosaur should not
be separated by such great intervals
of time. They should actually have
been contemporaries.
Gish did not really deal with the
issues associated with this question.
In as few words as possible, here's
tjie creationist answer: Creationists
question the validity of standard
dating methods and the results
which they yield. Creationists as-
sert that the fossil record that we
have is really the result of a recent
worldwide deluge.
I cannot fully outline in this letter
the argument for creationism, but#
t here are beoks available ip Fondren
Library which do so in detail. Look-
ing into these books may lead
Blocher to conclude that evolution
would have to be, as he put it, "dis-
carded."
Richard Sadka
graduate student
Department of Economics
Darwinian view of art
ignores its purpose
To, the editor:
While I am grateful to Christine
Grossman and Brian Pietruszewski
for their thorough and spanking refu-
" tation ofTodd Makse's short-sighted
NEA-bashing article ("NEA uncon-
stitutionally wastes our money,"
Nov. 7), I write to suggest that, while
both respondents effectively cover
the political/ideological side of the
pro-NEA argument, no such rebut-
tal to Makse would be complete with-
out some consideration for the
purely artistic side of the argument.
Makse wants to see art subjected"
to J.S. Mill's mythological market-
place meritocracy, because, of
course, only that art which survives
this rigorous test deserves to exist.
The trouble is, we already have a
Darwinian force called commercial-
ismi to check freeloading. bourgeois-
mooching artists.
There is also a thing Makse may
have heard of called the record in-
dustry. It is a meritocracy that is so
utterly populist and democratic that
armies of consultants are hired to
keep their ears firmly planted upon
the pulse of popular taste and fancy.
"Serious" artists who support their
wojk with help from government
resources are verifeble spit conru
pared to the ocejyi that is popular
commercial art.
Ironically, many proponents of
arguments such as Makse's will be
the first to sound the alarm on "de-
generate" musicians such as Snoop
Doggy Dog and the like. But they
are ultimately nothing more than
the logical end of Makse's pseudo-
popmlist argument.
Much ojf that bad, vulgar roek n*
roll and rap that conservatives com-
plain about is nothing more than art
which has survived the rigors of the
marketplace; and, according to the
ideology of any conscientious con-
servative, that, in and of itself, vali-
dates it as inherently good. Conser-
vatives want to have it both ways,
but they can't.
Conservatives have a propensity
for decrying the spiritual-deteriora-
tion of our culture. And yet, art which
is commodlfied loses its spiritual
value. Makse's faith that Shell Oil
will pick up the tab for deep, mean-
ingful art over the long term is sadly
* misplaced. Deep, meaningful art has
little "market," and Shell Oil will, in
the long term, be interested in the
bottom line. Like it or not, much
great art has values that are subver-
sive and question conventional
orthodoxies.
There is a corresponding lack of
diversity of values in the corporate
world, and little or no expertise in
the arts. Corporations are happy to
underwrite Yanni concerts and make
no critical distinction bet ween popu-
lar composers like Yanni and highly
skilled,; highly trained and deeply
illuminating masters of the craft. Hie
world of corporate sponsorship is a
far more censorious threat to artists
than NEA-sponsored art — and
nearly every artist knows it.
Of course, while Makse would
doubtless consider us "elitist" art-
ists arrogant, nothing is more arro-
gant than to presume what ought to
be good enough for everybody. If
great art touches even a small num-
ber of people, it should exist and
should be funded. If nothing else, it
should be funded to mitigate the
soul-less hollow void that is much of
crass commercial art.
Lastly, I resent the implication
that because I aspire to compose
great music and have no problem*
hypothetical^, with utilizing NEA
grants to do such, I am inherently
elitist or anti-populist. I do not com-
pose contemporary classical music
See NEA. Page 4
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Hardi, Joel & Siy, Angelique. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 21, 1997, newspaper, November 21, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246608/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.