The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 10, 2000 Page: 2 of 28
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 10.2000
the Rice Thresher
Brian Stoler
Editor in Chief
Jose Luis Cubria,
Mariel Tam
Managing Editors
Michael Nalepa
Opinion Editor
Fitting the punishment
to the crime
The Oct. 24 Sid Richardson College Council minutes contained
unacceptable sexually harassing personal attacks against members
of the college. Former Sid Secretaries Patrick B. Murphy and Vinay
Kini should be punished for writing them.
But their actions do not exist in a vacuum. They live in an
environment where such offensive attempts at humor have been
encouraged and even expected to be a part of the college's minutes.
There is clearly something wrong with this environment, and Sid
must work swiftly to identify and fix its problems.
However, Kini and Murphy should not be overly vilified for
fulfilling the role their college elected them to fulfill. They have
publicly apologized, and they admit that they made a mistake in
writing these minutes. And these minutes — as admitted by Sid
President Laura Rees, herself a former college secretary — exem-
plify the kinds of minutes the college's previous secretaries pro-
duced.
So, without question, Kini and Murphy must be held responsible
for their actions. But they should not be punished in a way that
threatens their academic careers. In other words, they should not be
suspended or expelled as a result of this case.
Making an example of Murphy and Kini would in no way serve the
Rice community or alleviate problems in the campus atmosphere for
women, homosexuals or anyone else.
Maintaining decency
The old "sticks and stones" adage does not apply to college
cheers. Collectively shouting phrases that are sexually degrading
and convey hostility toward women and homosexuals is damaging
to the university community as a whole.
Sure, you may not be thinking about the sex act when you and a
hundred other voices shout that a rival college "sucks my dick." But
the language of sexual power and domination is not something to be
taken lightly.
By institutionalizing this language, students make Rice seem like
a hostile place to women and gay men. We establish an environment
in these cheers in which power is being an aggressive male and
being able to take sexual advantage of other men and women.
Whether or not this is true, the appearance is so alienating that we
cease to be the open community of ideas we claim to be.
We are not calling for an end to college cheering — or even
cursing in college cheers. We recognize a distinct difference be-
tween benignly obscene cheers ("Will fuckin' Rice") and cheers that
make students extremely uncomfortable by including sexual sce-
narios and language.
Students have the opportunity and the responsibility to make our
environment welcoming.
If the students don't do something to solve this problem, the
university might do it for them, on its own terms. Students need to
show the rest of the community that they can be responsible.
We agree with the students who are taking the lead in this campus
discussion. We hope that they will focus their argument on college
cheers, to make a clear and direct statement about this issue.
Colleges whose cheers are degrading should simply stop teaching
them and come up with substitutes. Cheers should be witty, funny
and maybe even tacky. They shouldn't be derogatory.
Learning to compromise
For all the rumors and anger, it doesn't look like this year's Beer-
Bike parade will be changing all that much. If the plan proposed by the
student coordinators is approved by the masters, there will be fewer
students riding in vehicles along the parade route, but the parade will
still move, and students will still throw balloons at each other.
It's true that there's never been an extremely serious injury as a
result of the large trucks that the colleges have used for the last few
years. But as a general rule, we support the idea that we should not
wait for serious injury to make an event safer.
We applaud the coordinators' plan and their willingness to make
concessions for the sake of safety. Had they been stubborn and just
said, "No, no, no," the administration might have acted without
considering students' input at all.
We call on the masters and presidents to approve this plan at their
Nov. 29 meeting. The Beer-Bike coordinators have done their part
in this compromise.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Backpage should not
mock Christianity
To the editor:
I^ast week's Backpage article
("Jesus graces Night of Decadence,"
Nov. 3) ranks among the most offen-
sive and juvenile pieces of writing I
have ever encountered. Apparently,
Backpage Editor Ben Johnson has
no respect for others' beliefs.
Though I am a Christian, I don't
take this article personally or as a
serious intellectual attack on my faith
(after all, it's not). I do, however,
find it offensive — it ridicules my
faith and slanders a man whose life
is best known for its purity and self-
lessness. To put this in perspective:
Suppose another religious figure had
been attacked, perhaps Mohammed
or Buddha. Rice would be up in arms,
myself included. Rice would face
national criticism. The Thresher
might face serious consequences.
None of that will happen now.
Why? Despite "political correct-
ness," Christianity is still seen as
fair game. Indeed, the article was
intended to provoke anger: 'Hie fine
print reads, "Send your angry let-
ters to backpage@rice.edu."
It failed. 1 am offended, but 1 am
not angry. I am sad. 1 am sad that
some in our "tolerant,""enlightened"
society cannot tolerate my faith and
still consider it humorous to ridi-
cule another person's beliefs. This
brand of disrespect has no place in
ouruniversityorthe Thresher. Ifyou
wish to discuss others' beliefs, please
do so in a mature and intelligent
manner. If you cannot do so, please
do the university and your classmates
a service and leave the Thresher.
Ed Cottrell
Baker senior
'Thresher' unfairly
attacks Christians
To the editor:
This year, the Thresher has pub-
lished several articles containing
anti-Christian sentiment: articles
poking fun at religious beliefs and
practices, name-calling of Christian
groups attending Night of Praise
and student disgust at flyers being
posted around campus. It seems
harsh to me that any group of people
at Rice should be the center of such
childish name-calling and critique.
If Rice is supposed to be a place
where you can freely express your
beliefs and ideas, this should include
all campusgroups, even the large ones.
Night of Praise is an opportunity
for people of the Christian faith to
come together in fellowship on a
night surrounded by Night of Deca-
dence. f or most, N 01' is not a chance
to make a list of sinners attending
NOD and burn it in the eternal fire.
In fact, most of the people 1 talked to
attended both and enjoyed both ex-
periences. While I personally did
not attend, I did not feel the need to
dissuade others from going because
of my beliefs. Part of the Christian
doctrine is morality, but another part
is not judging others' actions.
The Backpage of the Nov. 3
Thresher, "Jesus graces Night of
Decadence," was in poor taste. A
story mocking the miracles of Jesus
and insulting the being of God and
the Holy Ghost isn't funny, even if
you're not Christian. As a Christian,
I don't go around makingjokes about
Buddha or quoting the Ramadan
incorrectly at attempts to be funny.
Those are part of people's funda-
mental beliefs and should be re-
spected, not derided.
I'm not asking for people to cen-
sor their thoughts or to convert to
Christianity. All I'm asking is that
people think before they publish
something that is distasteful in a
poor attempt at humor. Perhaps
there is no way to avoid offending
everyone, but a stronger attempt
could be made to show some re-
spect for your peers. Make Rice a
safer place for people of all walks of
life: Watch out for people's toes.
Lee Cagle
I^jvett sophomore
Lubawy misses point
of Zyp 's column
To the editor:
In the Nov. 3 Thresher, Andrea
Lubawy'scolumn "Actingengineers
enrich college theater," supposedly
contained a valid refutation of
Victoria Zyp's Oct. 27 column 'The-
ater needs quality, not quantity."
Lubawy presents a compelling case
for disliking Zyp: however, she ac-
complishes this by using untruths
and misrepresentations. Lubawy's
refutation makes one wonder if she
finished the column, let alone at-
tempted to comprehend its intent.
Lubawy focuses on Zyp's intro-
ductory anecdote of crying over the
thought of acting engineers to which,
as an acting engineer herself,
Lubawy clearly took personal of-
fense. However, Zyp writes, "Rice
has to remember why theater is
important to this campus—it brings
the benefits of creating theater to
people who will move on to become
engineers, lawyers, teachers and
doctors." Zyp's personal anecdote
only served the function of illustrat-
ing how personal experiences with
Rice theater have completely
changed her mind.
Lubawy also criticizes Zyp for
having no appreciation of the resi-
dential college system despite
straightforward evidence to thecon-
trary. As a member of the Martel
Founding Committee, Zyp has vol-
unteered to devote a sizable amount
of time to the continuing success of
the residential college system.
Lubawy even refutes the main argu-
ment of Zyp's article, that there is
too much theater for Rice's commu-
nity to be able to support, by saying
that Zyp is not helping the situation
by starting a theater program at
Martel. She overlooks the fact that
Zyp's intentions for Martel's theater
program do not include multiple
productions a year and do involve
Martel carving out its own niche in
Rice's theater community. These are
exactly the objectives Zyp's column
champions.
I would encourage Lubawy to
keep in mind that Zyp has partici-
pated in five Rice productions in
three semesters, is founding the
Martel program, wrote a play that
was performed at the Alley Theatre
and is about to begin her second
internship in three semesters at the
Alley Theatre. No one, including
Lubawy, should question that level
of dedication.
Jennifer Canada
Mess sophomore
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THRESHER
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Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 10, 2000, newspaper, November 10, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth442991/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.