The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, April 14, 2006 Page: 2 of 24
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4- IV
THE RICE THRESHER
FRIDAY. APRIL 14,2006
the Rice Thresher
New minors proposal
shows no progress
Minors proposals have been floating around the Faculty Senate
and its committees for several months. Until Wednesday's meet-
ing, each proposal was limited to interdisciplinary minors—ones
that represent fields of study that do not have majors. But if the
faculty's latest proposal is passed, any department will be able to
propose a minor version of its major. We have always been opposed
to any minors proposal, but the possibility of departmental minors
is the worst of all (see Faculty Senate Box, Page 6).
Creating departmental minors will damage the intellectual
atmosphere for both faculty and students — and consume pre-
cious resources in academic administration.
Interdisciplinary minors would be difficult to create. They
require a dedicated group of faculty from different departments
willing to create a curriculum and follow it through. It is dif-
ficult to imagine the faculty creating any more than a handful of
these minors. Therefore, they are unlikely to incite any sort of
fundamental disruption. No such guarantee can be made for
departmental minors.
After a few departments establish minors, other departments
will probably be compelled to follow. And if multiple departments
offer six course minors to undergraduates, future course catalogs
could look very different from what we have now.
For example, course schedule revisions will inevitably result
as department heads feel pressure from minor-fulfillment-seeking
students. Faculty may be forced to teach more required courses,
preventing them from offering new courses or ones students might
otherwise prefer, but cannot take because of minor requirements.
Or, equally unfavorable, minor-seeking students will not be able
to take necessary courses if minors directors cannot influence
professors' course offerings.
In the end, we cannot help but wonder why Rice needs minors at
all. Some may claim that the addition of minors will allow students
to receive recognition for work that does not quite reach major
requirements — or that this recognition will encourage students
to study areas they would not before. However, if students are
taking classes simply to get the warm, fuzzy self-congratulating
feeling of a minor, perhaps they are taking classes for the wrong
reasons. Students should take classes to gain knowledge and
experience, not a line on a transcript.
RPC should broaden
target audience
Rice Programs Council is a blanket tax organization to which
every undergraduate pays $8 per year. As such, it should be con-
cerned with serving every undergraduate — not just the small
fraction who attend each formal or the few who currently benefit
form each of RPC's subsidized ticket offers.
As RPC's new leadership takes over, we hope it will keep
this in mind. We appreciate the efforts being made to maintain
Esperanza and Rondelet traditions — we only hope next year's
leadership will have better advertising and make them more ac-
cessible and appealing to students with lower ticket prices and
more desirable locations.
More importantly, we hope RPC will revise its ticket-subsidizing
programs to provide $5-$ 15 tickets to a wider range of students.
We hope RPC will consider subsidizing fewer events so that when
those popular events do come up, there are enough tickets for
everyone who wants one. In the end, we prefer ticket volume to
event volume.
Additionally, we would like to see RPC organize more free
on-campus events. This year's capture-the-flag success and the
popularity of Wiess* annual Jamfest suggest that students will
attend these sort of events. And RPC could certainly work with
other campus organizations such as KTRU to help organize fun,
free, inside-the-hedges events.
We want RPC to bring events to more students. This requires
soliciting student opinion, and it requires diligent advertising
once events have been scheduled. Listserv announcements are
not sufficient. RPC college representatives should publicize events
vocally, and we are not opposed to flyers — either paper ones or
general announcements on Facebook.com.
RPC was created to enhance the quality of life at Rice by provid-
ing social, cultural, educational and recreational events. We hope
next year's leadership will host programs that will bring the proper
events to a larger percentage of the student body.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher
editorial staff.
My pleasure,
sweetie.
Thanks for
coming, Mom.
Have you asked your chaperone to Rondelet yet?
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Diploma procedure
harms graduation
To the editor
As an alumna and former coor-
dinator of commencement at Rice,
I am disappointed by the decision
not to hand out the diplomas at the
commencement ceremony ("Diplo-
mas to be mailed after commence-
ment," March 31). I expect Rice to
change over the years in ways with
which I will sometimes agree and
other times disagree, but I think
this decision was made without
the deserved esteem for both the
students and for the traditions of
the university.
I know firsthand how much
work goes into this undertak-
ing. But whenever a change was
proposed — from shortening
the lengthy ceremony to min-
imizing workload or costs to
making an improvement to the
festivities — changes big or small
were never made without extensive
and collaborative deliberation and
certainly never on an ad hoc basis.
While I had many responsi-
bilities at Rice in addition to com-
mencement, I likened the planning
of this event to finals as a degree
candidate. It was challenging,
tedious, exhausting and stress-
ful, and adding insult to injury,
students sometimes did foolish or
sanctimonious things that made
me feel they were not worthy of
my time or care.
But somewhere in between the
sunrise in the quad when I arrived
on campus commencement morn-
CONTACTING THE
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ing and seeing the joyous students
visiting with their families in Found-
ers' Court after the ceremony, I
felt invigorated by a sense of pride
that made every sleep-deprived
effort worthwhile. My efforts, in
collaboration with the efforts ofhun-
dreds of other people on campus,
enhanced a significant moment in
the lives of thousands of people.
While most of the graduates
and their families will only see
the big picture, that big picture
is composed of thousands of little
pieces, much like the dots in a
Seurat painting. And when you
start erasing some of those dots,
the bigger picture begins to lose
some of its magic.
Sue Dimenn Deigaard
Brown '91
Theater column fails
Thresher standards
To the editor:
As the Thresher is one of the
top-rated college newspapers, one
would expect your editors to verify
their own articles, aside from con-
sidering whether their criticisms
are based on the mistakes of those
they are criticizing. Julia Bursten's
column last week is an embarrass-
ment to your newspaper ("Lack
of communication hurts campus
theater," March 31). Not only is
her article poorly researched,
but she also criticizes the Rice
theater community for having to
schedule around breaks set by
the university.
The theater community has tried
to organize itself. There is a mailing
list In fact, it is called THEATER,
which I feel is fairly "creative." 1 have
taken the liberty of subscribing Ms.
Bursten to it so she can eliminate
any "kinks" in her schedule. The
Iistserv is there, but 1 cannot make
people use it or even read it. There
needs to be more organization than
just a Iistserv.
The only way to fit a production
in the spring semester with audi-
tions, rehearsals and performances
between breaks is to have the per-
formances on the two weekends
before spring recess. Bursten
criticizes the five productions for
scheduling shows on these two
weeks — she claims that, "inevita-
bly most viewers are unable to set'
every production that interests
them." Most of these five shows had
five or more performances. With
this in mind, please remember to
check how well-researched all ol
your articles are, and please con-
sider external factors that may be the
cause of your writers' criticisms.
Michael Benza
Martel freshman
Listserv just one part
of communication
To the editor:
Julia Bursten suggested that col-
lege theater leaders band together to
formatheater listserv. They did.years
ago. It fell into disuse in 2003, and
the listserv administrator graduated
without passipg on her duties.
The list still exists, at
theater@mailman.rice.edu, and
Rice Information Technology has
assisted me in rehabilitating it.
List membership is open to all, but
posts will be moderated. I invite
anyone interested in college the-
ater to apply to the list by visiting
mailman.rice.edu/mailman/list-
info/theater.
A working listserv will solve
some of the communication and
publicity problems that plague
college theater, but it is only a
beginning. The Thresher does not
maintain a comprehensive college
theater calendar in its pages, and
often the only exposure a show gets
is its review. Students and student
groups cannot easily post calen-
dar items on the main Rice Web
calendar, events.rice.edu, which
does not even list "performance"
as an event type. Rice's theater
program maintains no regular re-
lationship with college theater, nor
does the Rice Program Council.
Rice has nearly a dozen inde-
pendent theater groups operating
with no overarching leadership or
coordination. In some respects,
that is a good thing. But college
theater leaders would benefit
from meeting at least once each
semester — in person and not by
e-mail—to work out their common
scheduling, space and personnel
issues. I will soon propose such a
meeting to the listserv.
Jen Frazer
Hanszen '01
Rice Light Opera Society
publicity manager
Practice saving
water every week
To the editor:
William Hoy's letter is right
on the money about Beer-Bike's
display of American excess
("Willy Week wasteful with water
balloons," March 31). Even so,
considering everyday water use
in residential halls, the serveries,
academic and administrative
buildings, labs, fountains and for
lawn maintenance, his estimate
of 152,000 gallons of water for
Willy Week is probably equal to
just two or three days of regular
Rice water consumption.
Instead of banning the balloon
fight, why not make a concerted
effort to use less water in our ev-
eryday lives to make up for what is
used during Willy Week? If 2,000
students pledged to use just five
gallons of water less per day — by
taking shorter showers, flushing
toilets less, not running water while
brushing teeth, et cetera — we
could save 152,000 gallons in just
fifteen days. Maybe students would
even take it into their minds to save
water all the time.
Instead of boycotting this
exhilarating and memorable event,
it might be a better idea for me
to start a water-saving campaign
to balance out Willy Week water
use. If anyone else is interested, I
know you know how to reach me
on fdcebook.com.
Ian Ragsdale
Hanszen junior
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Brown, David. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, April 14, 2006, newspaper, April 14, 2006; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443047/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.