The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, February 19, 1999 Page: 5 of 24
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 19. 1999
Rice to host first Solutions conference
ABI COHEN/THRESHER
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Psychology Professor Steven Pinker
speaks in the Grand Hall as part of the President's Lecture Series.
MIT cognitive scientist Pinker
entertains, educates audience
by Andy Shirey
FOR THK THRKSHKK
Passion. Honor. Vengeance.
Computational Models. While this
combination might not be altogether
unfamiliar to many who roam this
campus, chances are that only a spar-
ing few have spent any time trying to
describe the first three in terms of
the last.
Thankfully, frizzy-haired cogni-
tive scientists from Massachusetts
have been busily at work doing just
that for decades.
Prominent among this crew is
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology's Steven Pinker, who
lectured in the Grand Hall Tuesday
night as part of the President's Lec-
ture Series. Pinker managed to en-
lighten an overflowing audience in
everything from the evolution of
pride and chivalry to the logical un-
derpinnings of our inherent distaste
for "cooties."
Pirikerhas distinguished himself
as one of those few academics who
can not only comprehend torturously
complicated material but also com-
municate it eloquently to droves of
popular science enthusiasts. Dem-
onstrating this, Pinker set about con-
Connecting ideas and action
Get Engaged
The Century Institute
Summer Program
June 21st to July 9th
at Williams College
in the Berkshires
This three-week fellowship is intended for under-
graduates with an interest in careers in public
service or the non-profit sector. Students, schol-
ars, and prominent policy practitioners together
will explore the challenges America faces in
building a just and prosperous society.
The Institute wil? cover all expenses including
transportation, and students will receive a $1,000
stipend.
For more information or to apply, visit:
www.centuryinstitute.org
or contact Ann Stinson
via e-mail at stinson@tcf.org
•' or by phone at (212) 452-7705
by Jen Frazer
THKKSHKK KDITOKIAI. STAFI
Representatives from the student
governments of a number of other
universities will be here at Rice
March 5-7 to participate in the first
Student Leaders Network, or Solu-
tions, Conference.
Students from Amherst College,
Bryn Mawr College, Carletori Col-
lege, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Swarthmore College
and Washington University have
responded to an invitation to the
student governments of Consortium
on Financing Higher Education
member schools.
"We're looking for schools we
have a lot of similarities with,"
Hanszen College junior and confer-
ence founder Anne Countiss said.
"The nature of the schools deter-
mines the nature of the student gov-
ernment."
Countiss said she believes the
schools have a lot to learn from each
other. "Based on conversations with
other student government officers
from COFHE-affiliated universities,
it appears that student governments
are working on similar issues and
challenges," she said.
The schedule for the conference
includes four discussion sessions,
each covering three topics. Proposed
topics for these sessions include ad-
ministration relations, alcohol poli-
cies, curriculum reform, technology
and student activity funding, but the
final topics will depend on the inter-
ests of the attendees.
Although the event is strongly
linked to the Student Association,
the funding comes entirely from out-
side sources.
The Solutions Conference is sup-
ported by the President's Office, the
Office of the Vice President for Stu-
dent Affairs, the Office of Student
Activities, Leadership Rice and
Lovett College' Master Connie
Burke, as well as by conference reg-
istration fees. Student volunteers will
run the conference.
Countiss said she began forming
the idea for the conference when
she analyzed the state of the SA for
her Leadership Rice class in fall 1997.
Partly funded by an Envision
grant, she attended the Ivy Council
meeting that fall, a conference held
by Ivy League member schools, to
research the structure of such an
event.
"I was very frustrated with the
SA, with how insulated and isolated
we were," Countiss said. "I saw one
way to prevent this would be to com-
municate with other schools and see
what they were doing."
Although the conference is not
directly sponsored by COFHE,
Countiss said she hopes that once
the SA has proved the event can be
sustained and successful, it will give
.formal support.
"It would have a lot of weight and
validity," she said. "It's difficult be-
cause you want someone to support
the idea, but everyone wants to see
it take off first."
Solutions Conference Hospital-
ity Coordinator and SA Secretary
Susan Egeland agreed that this first
year is critical. "1 think this is an
ambitious endeavor," she said. "It
probably won't be as well attended
this year, but With positive feedback,
it could become permanent."
vincing his audience that many of
our seemingly illogical behaviors can
be accounted for in evolutionary and
computational terms.
After first dispelling the Freud-
ian notion that psychology is right-
fully the study of deeply seeded pres-
sures and their manifestations —
which he jeeringly referred to as the
"hydraulic theory of mind"—Pinker
expounded on the idea that thinking
takes place as a causal chain of men-
tal computations and representa-
tions. Being the evolutionary pre-
cipitates that we are, these computa-
tions do not necessarily provide us
with any "true" representation of
reality, but simply one that has stood
the test of natural selection, one that
serves our interests in terms of sur-
vival and procreation.
Pinker went on to apply this idea
to such things as the patterns of
light and shading that our minds
automatically use to discern (or com-
pute) three-dimensional images. He
also touched on the impressive in-
nate abilities of pre-lingual infants to
accomplish tasks like distinguish-
ing living things from non-living
things, leading him to conclude that
"babies are not as stoned as William
See PINKER, Page 7
BEYOND THE HEDGES
a project of
The Century Foundation
formerly the Twentieth Century Fund
underwritten by
The Sagner Family
Foundation
Dartmouth fraternities,
sororities to go coed
HANOVER, N.H. — Students at
Dartmouth College received news
Feb. 9 from the administration that
all fraternities and sororities must
become coeducational. The change
came as a part of the university's
overall plan to transform residential
and social life at Dartmouth.
The news shocked students. "It
seems to be all anybody is talking
about," Dartmouth Editor Jacob
Elberg, a member of the oldest fra-
ternity on campus, said. "The frater-
nities are trying to rally to stop it."
"Dartmouth must provide stu-
dents with an environment that en-
courages them to reach their full
potential in non-academic as well as
academic activities, that sees them
as individuals, that permits them
choices in their social life, and that
encourages respectful relationships
between women and men," the board
said in a statement mailed to stu-
dents and faculty.
Thehoard outlined five principles
to "characterize the residential and
social system": greater choice in resi-
dential living, additional and im-
proved student-controlled social
spaces, a co-educational system,
fewer off-campus students, and less
alcohol abuse.
About 35 percent of Dartmouth's
4,100 undergraduates belong to
Greek organizations, including 17
fraternities, eight sororities, and
three co-ed groups.
Dartmouth President James
Wright said students were not con-
sulted before the changes were an-
nounced but would now be invited
to offer suggestions.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher
Education On-line, Feb. 11
Notre Dame does not
extend policy to gays
SOUTH BEND, Ind. —The Univer-
sity of Notre Dame's governing
board decided Friday that the
school's policy of nondiscrimination
would not be extended to include
discrimination based on sexual ori-
entation, despite student protest.
Over 70 students went on a three-
day hunger strike to support the
policy change.
After some Notre Dame students
and professors asked thaj the
university's policy be changed to
include protection for gays, the ad-
ministration began a lengthy review
process. The change was rejected
last Friday by the Board of Trustees.
University officials argued that
protecting homosexuals from dis-
crimination would undercut the
institution's ability to carry out the
teachings of the Catholic Church,
which regard homosexual acts as sin.
They also argued that such a
policy change is unnecessary.
"Across the board, we don't believe
that there is discrimination here,"
Dennis K. Brown, assistant director
of public relations, said.
Timothy Byrne, a member of the
Progressive Student Alliance, felt
otherwise. "At a practical level, we
are still discriminated against," he
said. "That is why we want some
legally actionable position taken on
the part of the university."
Source: The Chronicle of Higher
Education On-line, Feb. S
Study finds integrity,
ethics among felons
MUNCIE, Ind. — A recent study
suggests that business graduate stu-
dents have less ethics than convicted
felons.
Marketing professors James
Stearns of Miami University and
Shaheen Borna of Ball State Univer-
sity surveyed 300 incarcerated fel-
ons taking part in college programs
at minimum security prisons. They
compared these results to another
survey of students at 11 master's of
business administration programs.
The study found that inmates
showed as much or more integrity
than the graduate students regard-
ing difficult business decisions.
For iexample, prisoners' answers
showed they were less likely to hire
skilled employees away from com-
petitors, more likely to follow orders
regardless of the outcome and more
likely to put customers first, while
business students' results showed
they prioritized the shareholders.
The two professors said that they
hoped the study would lead to better
opportunities for ex-convicts.
'The perception is that convicted
felons are unemployable because
they adhere to a different set of val-
ues," Stearns said. "This research
shows that their values are not that
much different. And, in some situa-
tions, their values are more laud-
able."
Source: The Chronicle of Higher
Education On-line. Feb. 9
Alabama escapes
NCAA penalties
TUSCALOOSA, .Ma, —The Univer-
sity of Alabama became the first in-
stitution under "repeat violator" sta-
tus to escape major penalties from
the NCAA's Committee on Infractions.
In January 1998, Assistant Bas-
ketball Coach Tyrone Beaman al-
legedly asked boosters for $5,000 to
recruit two Houston high,school stu-
dents. The boosters reported
Beaman, and he was ultimately fired
Chairman of the infractions com-
mittee David Swank said .Alabama
had done everything the committee
expects of a university that uncov-
ers a violation.
"The university should be quite
proud of their actions," Swank said.
Alabama fell under repeat viola-
tor status in 1995. Any other infrac-
tions could lead to the NCAA's "death
penalty," which can result in a team's
suspension for two yeass.
Any institution hiring Beaman
will be required to appear before the
. NCAA committee to justify its action.
Source: The Chronicle for Higher
Education On-line, Feb. 10
POLICE BLOTTER
The following incidents were reported by the Campus Police for the
period Feb. 12-18:
Residential Colleges
Hanszen College
Feb. 15
Academic Buildings
Alice Pratt Brown Hall Feb. 15
Person was struck by water
balloon and had to be taken
to hospital. Case pending
Wallet and watch reported
stolen. Case pending.
Baker Hall
Other Buildings
Central Kitchen
Pacing Lots
Facilities and
Engineering Lot
Feb. 16 Items taken from building.
Feb. 16
Feb. 16
It Phis fraudulently charged
to Cohen House account.
Items taken from Facilities
and Engineering area. Case
pending.
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Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, February 19, 1999, newspaper, February 19, 1999; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246640/m1/5/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.