The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 2, 2005 Page: 2 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2.2005
the Rice Thresher
Gulf Coast tragedy
requires best of Rice
The entire world is watching the waters in Louisiana and Mis-
sissippi, and we are eerily close to the front lines. (See Story,
Page 1.) It is surreal and frightening that only a few hundred miles
from campus, Hurricane Katrina has leveled a major city and likely
killed hundreds if not thousands of people. But it is also a chance for
the Rice community to show its strength and compassion.
Humans have been struggling against nature's wrath for their
entire existence, and the best strategy has always been to shelve
despair and start rebuilding—not just the physical structures leveled
by forces beyond our control but also our social fabric. We expected
Rice to lend its small but significant resources to that rebuilding, and
those expectations have been well-fulfilled so far.
We applaud President David Leebron and his administration
for offering visiting student status to Tulane University students
from the Houston area. And we hope that as individual professors
are deciding whether or not to admit individual students to their
classes, they will err on the side of accepting them. By the same
token, as many Houston-resident students as possible should be
accepted from other New Orleans colleges and universities as
well. These students may not have lost their homes like so many
of their peers who actually live in Louisiana and Mississippi, but
they have lost a major fixture of their lives — their schools — for
the time being. Whatever we can do to reintroduce structure,
routine and purpose should be done.
Rice students, meanwhile, should follow the lead of the Com-
munity Involvement Center, which is already organizing ways to
help the thousands of evacuees coming to Houston. They should
donate time, money, blood and ideas to the American Red Cross
and similar charities.
In addition, we ask Rice students to "roll with the punches" when
students from Tulane and other universities arrive on campus. Try
to make friends quickly with the visiting students; beyond the fact
that they are probably interesting people, they have had a horrible
week and could use some hospitality.
Finally, students should reach out not just to the evacuees in
the Astrodome and the new faces on campus but to each other.
The scale of this event is just starting to set in for many students;
others, with family or friends affected by the storm, are already
experiencing the tragedy full-on. Remember that Rice has student-
run and professional resources for anyone feeling overburdened,
but remember also to take care of each other more informally.
Recognize that students' stress levels are going to be high for
a while, for reasons totally unrelated to taking a few too many
credit hours.
Houston may become a great deal more significant to the
nation in the coming weeks as evacuees pour in. The students,
faculty and staff of Houston's most prestigious university should
set the pace for the way we want this city to be remembered when
people think back to Hurricane Katrina. We can do that by apply-
ing our small population and limited resources to this immense
humanitarian crisis in the most selfless, generous and creative
ways we can muster.
Public service initiative
will aid image, students
Universities are defined by their people, their research, their
campuses and much more. But one of a university's most public
faces is its placement of graduates into the workforce. And in
recent years, Rice's job placements have sent an inaccurate mes-
sage: that we are an energy trading, management consulting,
investment banking school. Nothing is inherently wrong with
any of these fields, but they alone do not represent what Rice is
increasingly seeking to be: a school producing socially aware and
engaged graduates.
So Career Services' public service initiative is welcome and long
overdue. (See Story, Page 1.) If the program works, not only will non-
engineering majors have more post-graduate options, but students
in general will be better equipped to demand social responsibility
from their companies — whether they are in the private, public or
non-profit sector.
We are also pleased Career Services is moving to O'Connor
House. The move will allow job interviews to take place in spaces
less reminiscent of closets, and it keeps the Office of Admissions,
which was originally slated to move to O'Connor House, in I»vett
Hall. The Office of Admissions' current location, in the oldest and
arguably the coolest building on campus, makes an impression on
prospective students we would like to see maintained.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher
editorial staff.
AMPHIBIANS FOR EVOLUTION
C mon, sign up!
Some of you must
have opposable
thumbs by now!
Self-proclaimed gadfly
Profs should protect Rice's intelligent design
In his Call to Conversation, Presi-
dent David Leebron made the case
for increasing Rice's size. Students
are quick to attack any increase in
size, because our small
size and tight-knit com-
munity make Rice great.
Unfortunately, size is also
one of our weaknesses, as
was made obvious to me
over the summer when the
Discovery Institute — a
conservative organization
leading the war against
evolution, with no rela-
donship to the television
network — released a
list of 400 scientists who
question Darwinism.
The "Scientific Dissent from
Darwinism" stated: "We are skeptical
of claims for the ability of random
mutation and natural selection to
account for the complexity of life.
Careful examination of the evidence
for Darwinian theory should be
encouraged." Unfortunately, 300
million amphibians were unable to
sign a petition of their own.
Evan
Mintz
CONTACTING THE
THRESHER
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The list contains the usual
random Ph.D.s and visiting
professors — and five distinguished
professors from a little Texas school
called Rice University.
Leebron has called for
Rice to take various steps
to achieve national recog-
nition. While most people
around the nation will prob-
ably not hear about our
plans for a research tower
or expanded enrollment for
several years, the Discov-
ery Institute now proudly
advertises some Rice pro-
fessors as members of its
anti-evolution troops.
Regardless of their beliefs on evo-
lution, the burden is on professors to
understand who they are endorsing.
'ITiese professors should have recog-
nized that for the Discovery Institute,
science is only a handmaiden for
political aims and that their own
opinions would be published in a way
embarrassing to the university.
While professors at M.I.T., Princ-
eton and most of the usual suspects
also signed this dissent against
Darwin, Rice is in an especially vul-
nerable position. Unlike Oxford or
the Ivy league schools, we are not
only small but also just branching
out from regional powerhouse to
national leader. While other schools
have a large enough faculty and
extensive enough history to have
an unassailable position, Rice is still
forming its national reputation. It
would be unfortunate if that reputa-
tion were one of a university that
was more Thomas Aquinas than
Thomas Jefferson.
we have in Houston. All it takes is
one creationist guest on a Sunday
morning talk show pointing to a Rice
professor for support to make us a
complete laughingstock.
Forget "Harvard of the South":
Rice is now a few steps closer to
"Bob Jones of the West." Rather than
being regarded alongside Stanford
or the Ivy League, we are cozying
up to our elite neighbors to the
north, Lubbock Christian University.
Go Chaparrals!
These professors
should have recognized
that for the Discovery
Institute, science is
only a handmaiden for
political aims and that
their own opinions
would he published in
a way embarrassing to
the university.
Forget "Harvard
of the South": Rice
is now a few steps
closer to "Boh Jones
of the West." Rather
than being regarded
alongside Stanford
or the Ivy League,
we are cozying up to
our elite neighbors
to the north Lubbock
Christian University.
Go Chaparrals!
We already have a strike against
us for being in Texas, no matter
how many ballets and museums
If these professors really doubt
Darwinism, rather than sign point-
less lists, they should write and
publish peer-reviewed research
that actually supports their position.
Imagine the fame Rice would achieve
if its professors graced the covers
of Nature and Scientific American
for disproving the unifying tenet of
modern biology. Maybe we could
even celebrate those publications in
conjunction with Rice winning the
Cotton Bowl again — but the odds
of all this seems less likely than
blowing up a junkyard and ending
up with a 747.
While the Discovery Institute
struggles to get the name of Rice
University to fill the otherwise
empty argument of intelligent
design with prestige and actual
content, we need to cut off this
name-dropping leech from Rice's
intellectual vein. leebron and the
faculty as a whole need to launch a
public relations blitz to make sure
Rice will be taken seriously as an
institution and not some Texan
excuse for a university.
Having new buildings is nice.
A better library would be great.
But a faculty that commands
respect is what really makes a
university — especially one as
small as Rice — and that should be
the primary target of any plans for
improving our university.
Evan Mintz is a Hanszen College
sophomore and opinion editor.
I
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Obermeyer, Amber. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 2, 2005, newspaper, September 2, 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443002/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.