The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 26, 2007 Page: 2 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, JAN JARY 26, 2007
the Rice Thresher
Baker Institute fails
students with Clinton plan
We are thrilled that former President Bill Clinton is coming to speak
at Rice in two weeks. (See story, Page 1.) That said, we have been let
down by the event's organization. The dearth of student seats, poor
ticket distribution and an improperly selected group of students for a
Clinton photo-op tarnish what should be an event to celebrate.
Venue
Clinton will be speaking in a 781-seat auditorium, while the uni-
versity has at its disposal Autry Court, which has a capacity of up to
5,600. Managing Director for Programs and International Studies
Mark Scheid explained that Clinton's speech will occur too soon after
the previous day's Rice-Southern Miss basketball game to give Autry
the security detail and setup required for a former president.
We are sympathetic to that problem, but we cannot help wondering
whether the Baker Institute for Public Policy could have negoti-
ated an agreement with the Athletic Department. Sure. Autry is
not as picturesque or as easy to secure as the Shepherd School's
Stude Concert Hall, but this event should be about bringing a
political rock star to the Rice community — not impressing him
with a pretty stage.
And while we hold concern for the former president's security,
Autry seated 1,100 in Spring 2004 as a venue for the highly-secured
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, just two weeks after an attempt
on his life.
Tickets
If there is no way to grant more undergraduates the opportunity
to see Clinton in person, the limited seats should at least go to those
who are most bent on attending — not those who have obsessive-
compulsive e-mail-checking disorder. Rather than randomly select-
ing 300 names from the 1,000-plus that flooded the Baker Institute
inbox, tickets could be distributed like they were for the Dalai Lama:
in person, first come, first served. This way, tickets would go to the
students who actually want them most, instead of those with merely
the timeliest e-mail access.
Rice Athletics has never had fans line up for tickets like Duke's
"Cameron Crazies," but if the e-mail volume was any indication, this
could have been the chance for Autry to see "Clinton Crazies." It
would be hard to argue that Rice has a politically apathetic campus
in the face of a 300-head line of students waiting to get tickets for a
political speech.
Indeed, there is something special about seeing a president
in person — rather than the usual Internet videos or television
speeches — and it is something students clearly want to experience
for themselves.
Photo-op
In addition to considering student attendance at Clinton's speech,
Baker Institute planners should have used a different method of
selecting students to represent Rice at the photo and coffee session
that will precede the speech. While it may seem intuitive to send
campus politicians—the college presidents, the Student Association
and Graduate Student Association presidents, two members of the
Baker Institute Student Forum and heads of four campus political
organizations — we cannot support this choice.
We know any personal interaction with Clinton will probably
be little more than a publicity stunt, but the select group should
encompass a wider variety of Rice students. The self-selecting subset
of students who make up. for example, the college governments
tend to reflect only a particular segment of the student body. And
the campus political organizations are notoriously internal, with the
current president of Rice Young Democrats not even elected by the
club as a whole.
So while these groups serve their purposes on campus and
undoubtedly contribute to the Rice community, we fail to see the
connection between holding such positions and deserving this rare
opportunitvto (maybe) haveacupof coffee with Clinton. As it stands,
this supposedly representative group fails in its goal to demonstrate
Rice students' ranges of interest and diverse backgrounds.
There are many ways a more fair and representative group could
be chosen. If the Student Association was given the task — rather
than someone in the Baker Institute who rarely sets foot this side of
.Alumni Drive — students would at least be able to petition it with ideas
and hold the selection committee accountable for its choices.
While it may be too late to fix these problems, we look forward
to the next visit by a former president or political rock star. .And it
given opportunity, we hope students will show the same interest and
excitement that campus has seen this past week.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher
editorial staff.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Student loan relief
just pandering politics
To tlic editor:
I^tst week in Congress 1 voted
against a bill called the College Relief
Act of2007 ("Congress helps college
students with loan relief," Jan. 19). I
made this decision because I believe
American students deserve a serious
and thoughtful student loan policy,
rather than gimmicky, headline-
grabbing solutions that do nothing
to increase college enrollment or
lower tuition costs.
The misguided Democratic bill
would not help a single student
afford tuition or expand access
to America's universities. As the
Wall Street Journal editorialized
Jan. 17, "It makes for a good sound
bite, but on closer inspection the
connection between lower interest
rates and 'college opportunity' is far
from clear."
Under the College Relief Act,
need-based applicants will not
receive an increase in the amount of
their loans, which means that aspir-
ing college students will still have
the same amount of money available
to pay for their college career. If aj>
plicants do not receive more money
to spend. Democrats cannot claim
their bill would allow more students
to afford an education.
During the 14 years Republicans
held the majority. Congress tripled
the size of student aid to a record
S90 billion and increased Pell
Grants by two-thirds. These propos-
als have allowed more students to
receive federal benefits and obtain
a higher education.
If the Democratic majority really
wanted to help Americans attend col-
lege, they would increase Pell Grants
and would hold colleges accountable
for the excessive rise in tuition. Un-
fortunately, it seems unlikely that the
new majority wants to develop serious
common-sense proposals.
k'ep. John Culberson
U.S. Representative, TX-7
Thresher misquotes,
misses point in article
To the editor:
An article in the Thresher rvpar\s
on a forum I led, along with Assis-
tant to the 1 )ean of Undergraduates
Matt Taylor (Ph.D. '92), at llanzsen
College ("Committee seeks to
define undergraduate experience,"
Jan. 19). This event was an exciting
and vigorous exchange of ideas,
which I greatly enjoyed. Unfortu-
nately, a few points in the reporting
do not live up to the Thresher's usual
standards for accuracy.
1 will mention only the most
troubling example. In the article.
1 am quoted as saying. "Here at
Rice, you learn theory after theory,
equation after equation, but you
kind of lose the real world." lliis
pithy remark was also the featured
quote on the Thresher's front page.
The unmistakable impression is
that 1 was expressing my own view,
lliis is simply not the case. Rather,
to encourage conversation 1 spoke
about some of the comments we
had heard in previous forums. 1
informed the audience that, "A few
students have told us that thev feel
that during their time here at Rice
they learn theory after theory, and
example after example, and kind of
lose touch with the real world." I then
asked for responses.
Ser LETTERS, page 1
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Brown, David. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 26, 2007, newspaper, January 26, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443012/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.