The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 23, 1998 Page: 2 of 20
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Joel Hardi
Editor in Chief
Brian Stoler
Opinion Editor
/ N
How much has changed?
The following editorial originally appeared in the September 12,
1968 issue o/The Rice Thresher. In this same issue, the Thresher
covered President Kenneth Pitzer's exodus to Stanford, Republican
Presidential candidate Richard Nixon's visit to Houston, the subse-
quent Rice student protests and rallies and the cataclysmic events of the
Chicago Democratic National Convention. We chose to run this
editorial after being struck by the relevance of the author's comments to
the Rice campus today. Rice students, whether in the '60s or the '90s,
are undeniably apathetic about world events.
Perhaps the author of this piece (today approximately the same age
as our nation's president) was indeed a bit naive when he asserted that
the few student and faculty activists on campus could significantly
impact the conduct and development of this university. Today, we find
it easy to discourage this type of optimism.
Perhaps this naivete, this optimism, this belief in the ability of people
to change the world, is what our generation lacks. Perhaps not,
Rice University, condemned in an infamous phrase as "dead" as
recently as 1966, shows small signs of rising from the grave in these
first few weeks of the year.
Rice has traditionally been a quiet place — quiet physically with
its tree-shaded, small-private-Southern school campus, and quiet
intellectually, with its reputation of non-involvement with the press-
ing problems of the Houston community, and stony silence on vital
issues such as the war in Vietnam and the covertly racist nature of
many of this country's social and political institutions.
Rice was felt somehow to be "better" than its surroundings, so it
should have nothing to with them. Intellectuals and their administra-
tors, it was believed, should refrain from using their position as a
platform from which to voice their views, so nothing was said. Many
associated with the university thought of it as a center of sanity in its
surroundings, a welcome island of intellectual objectivity in the
swirling world beyond the hedge.
Student have never been politically or socially activist in the
broadest sense of the word. The Rice campus and its students have
borne little resemblance in their- social attitudes and modes of action
to those of Columbia, Harvard, of any other school with which Rice
is often spuriously compared. Rice students have been content with
the system pretty much as it was. They have gone on from the
university to become 'scholars, technocrats, and small businessmen.
Radical political activists are in the minority nearly everywhere; at
Rice they have been almost totally nonexistent. Those who did hold
unconventional views dropped from the campus scene altogether,
and remained silent and introspective.
Many members of the faculty at times have seemed professionally
proud that nothing they did was important but their scholarly re-
search and writing, and as a consequence took no stcips either to
improve their relations with students or to become more intensely
involved with the world outside their labs and offices.
Rice's administration has maintained ail aloofness to the injus-
tices of the non university world that, while characteristic of univer-
sity administrations all-over the country, leaves a vacuum of enlight-
ened leadership to be filled only by those not as intimately concerned
with the educational process.
It might be unreasonable to expect an overnight awakening of the
administration, but there is a definite mood of awakening and
awareness among important segments of the student body and the
faculty which has never been present before.
For the first time, there are a few committed activists on campus,
both students and faculty, dedicated to placing.Rice in a realistic kind
of national perspective. How much has Rice contributed, through
both its action and inaction, to the growth of a monstrous defense
machine which eats up more and more of the nation's resources each
year? These people want to know. How much have this university's
policies of de-facto segregation done to further stymie the develop-
ment of such a significant part of America's population as the Black
race, and to effectively deny to members of that race a fair opportu-
nity to determine their own destiny? How do "the principles and
standards upon which Rice's educational program has been built," in
H. Malcolm Lovett's words, prevent any kind of education from
taking place at Rice? What can and must be done to convince people
that the situation Rice has created for herself over the years is truly
shameful, and finally, what should be done to correct it?
Some preliminary answers have already been offered for these
questions. More concrete ones will be forthcoming in the future.
The issues of Apathy with a capital "A" is no longer the central ope,
for once machinery for a meaningfulChange is is set in motion, things
will happen whether anyone cares about them or not. The major task
is precisely one ofVaising" issues, and dealing with them in a wa^
likely to produce results. For the first time in the history of the
university, there are people at Rice who won't be dissuaded frdm
raising these issues and demanding that they be faced.
ISIiafiiliiii
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Wi'M a
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Rice should place
more emphasis on art
To the editor:
Nobody seeins to know what's
going on with Rice art Nowadays,
which is why it's lucky for you that
sculpture students are busy putting
together a show to bring you up to
date. In fact, the other day when I
was telling a friend about this one-
night soiree, lie remarked, "Rice has
sculpture?"
Yes! And that's the point: No-
body knows about it. Not only does
Rice have great work coming out of
the sculpture studio (as well as the
painting studio, the printmaking stu-
dio, etc.), but, with all those bright
minds populating the campus, we
have the potential for a really great
art scene. We're not talking about
high-falutin' wine and cheese par-
ties; we're talking personality, cre-
ativity and joie de vivre. What we
have in mind is a cultural party to get
people involved.
Jan. 23's "Zero Visibility," in ad
dition to being a blunt commentary
on art's presence here on campus, is
designed to showcase student tal-
ent. Student s from some of the least
likely of majors — music, human
performance and health sciences
and even biochemistry — have liter-
ally put blood, sweat and tears into
their work.
'Hie pieces displayed are intelli-
gent. honest and meant to be shared
with others. See the show and chat
with the people who have braved
fire, high Voltage and buzzsaws to
bring you their ideas. But, even more
importantly, get involved with Rice
arts.
Are the arts underrepresented at
Rice? Without a doubt. If you had
ever walked around the University
of Houston campus, you would have
noticed howprolific sculpture is. You
can't help but feel a bit envious,
especially when the closest thing to
works of sculpture we have are
HeizerVmarble slabs, which come
off more as mechanical feats than
compelling works of art.
Rice arts are well-represented off-
campus: graduate students, and
alumni work at QuAC (the Queer
Artist Collective), Diverse works and
Infernal Bridegroom Productions.
An alumnus even runs the Com-
merce Street Artist Warehouse.
Despite little visibility on cam-
pus, elsewhere, Rice people are find-
ing a way to make .and show new
work. It's more crucial than ever
that we bring such initiative back
home, especially now that the De-
partment of Art and Art History is
irying to better define its role here
on campus. Is it a place to blow off
steam after pondering the fate of
Schroedingerls cat or is ila.ser.ious
arts program? Are we just helping to
create well-rounded scientists and
architects, or can we provide the
education and support to produce
the next Frank Stella?
Just this last year, the Rice Art
Gallery became independent of the
Art Department and, though it will
probably continue to do a student
show in the spring, there is a real
need for a student gallery. The great-
est problem" with student work is
that, if you're not walking down the
art corridor in Sewall, chances are
you're not seeing it. This lack of
representation correlates to a lack
of both financial and spiritual sup-
port.
The Art Department has been
going without necessary tools and
facilities for years. The sculpture
studio has no crane, plasma cutter
or kiln. The senior painting studio
doesn't even have the ventilation
systems needed for students to
work' with oil paints.
Printmaking got a new studio
with adequate ventilation only after
people came down with strange
respiratory problems. Now is the
time to demonstrate, through stu-
dent-led initiatives, thatpthe creative
arts^are important to us and that we
need adequate facilities in which to
work.
Because Rice sculpture is not all
about "sober," "tipsy," and "drunk."
Because your fellow students hdve
worked hard to make the Sewall
courtyard a friendly but dangerous
place to be. Because one student
show a year will never be enough,
and because you honestly have
nothing better to do before dinner
on Friday. Come by the sculpture
courtyard and studio (located in the
nether regions of Sewall Hall) from
4-7 p.m., and have a cup of cocoa on
us.
Next time we'll have a friendly
chat about how to get your ass "be-
yond the hedges" for events in the
Houston-art scene
Jenne Giles
Sid '97
Lynn Stewart
Jones senior
Jews not the sole
victims of Holocaust
To the editor:
I applaud Kwa Thompson for
pointing out that Jews were not the
sole victims oftfie Holocaust ("Stu-
dents should revisit the Holocaust's
reality," Jan. 16). What a pity that
she did not mention the vast num-
bers of Rumi (a.k.a. Gypsies) who
were also murdered in concentra-
tion camps. -
The world has numerous public
..memorials, dedicated toJhe Jewish
victims of the Holocaust. I know of
only one such memorial for the
Rumi. It stands in a park in
Amsterdam, only a stone's throw
from the U.S. Consulate on the
Museumplein.
Denying that the Holocaust oc-
curred falsifies history. Failing to
mention the Rumi in the context of
the Holocaust distorts history. It
seems that groups only recognize
their own victims.
1 have talked to quite a few "Ho-
locaust deniers" in Berlin and
Amsterdam. I wasinterested in their
motives.
To my surprise, I found that less
than one-half of them were genu-
inely anti-Semitic. The others were
mainly teenagers who groused that,
so much attention (and money) was
spent on the Holocaust and its
victims. "Nobody talks about our
problems," was an oft-expressed
view.
Dieter Heymann
Retired Professor
Rice University
CONTACTING THE
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Hardi, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 23, 1998, newspaper, January 23, 1998; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246611/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.