The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 21, 2008 Page: 2 of 24
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2 op-ed
the Rice Qhresher
College night:
respect is a two-way street
Whoever thought of college night is an absolute genius —
having an excuse to wear ridiculous costumes all day long is
liberating and being able to drink in class feels so wrong, and
yet so right. But just as we must temper our drinking so we don't
die of alcohol poisoning, we must also temper our college nights
so they don't fall victim to the same affliction. Because at this
moment, college night is in danger.
It started a few weeks ago when Jones College hosted its col-
lege night and many Jones students raided Professor Zhiyong
Gao's classroom, wreaked general havoc and left a trail of de-
struction in their wake (See story, page 1). Now, there have been
many a crazy college night, but in this case, students left so
much debris behind that the custodian who cleaned class after-
ward became upset and alerted Gao, who filed a complaint with
chair of the Math Department and Will Rice College Master Mike
Wolfe. Consequently, Brown and Martel colleges hosted their
college nights in their respective commons, allowing students
to drink while their masters lectured on different topics.
We are greatly disappointed that a group of students were in-
considerate and disrepectful of others by leaving behind their
trash. As it is, respect for college students is hard to come by.
We're often accused of being messy and having things catered
to us (especially if we're living in dormitories). If we want to
ask for financial autonomy within our clubs or the freedom to
choose classes without prerequisites, we need to prove that we
are mature and responsible. Unfortunately, the actions on Jones
College Night seem to prove otherwise.
With that said, we also want to point out that not every Rice
student is an idiot. In fact, we would argue that most Rice stu-
dents know better and are, in fact, considerate people. There-
fore, we hope that the administration will not cancel college
night should another fiasco occur. Instead, we urge masters and
the administration to punish the few individuals involved rather
than the university as a whole.
In the meantime, we must prove ourselves again as respon-
sible and mature adults by showing the university that we are
not just a bunch of immature, collegiate jerks. We hope — no, we
know — that we're better than that.
School of Jones rocks
Recently, publications like The Financial Times, The Econo-
mist and U.S. News and World Report have ranked the Jesse H.
Jones Graduate School of Management as among the top 25 in
the nation (see story, page 1).
Compared to the lackluster numbers from previous years,
these new rankings, which are measured based on the salaries
of Rice MBA graduates, are considerably better and indicate that
the Jones School must be doing something right.
Though we believe, now as always, that Rice should re-
main first and foremost an undergraduate institution, there
is nothing wrong with improving graduate-level programs at
Rice in order to spread the Rice prestige and get its name out
there. In the end, Rice undergraduates can only benefit from
these new numbers.
Dear flag stealer:
fess up!
Last Thursday, Nov. 13, the Baker Institute staff arrived in
the morning to find that 22 international flags had been sto-
len from the Centennial Campaign tent (see story, page 10).
The flags, which were meant to be decorations for Secretary
of State Condoleeza Rice's speech later that afternoon, have
still not been recovered.
We strongly encourage anyone with any information
to contact RUPD so the university can reclaim the flags as
quickly as possible. If those involved are indeed associated
with the university, we hope they keep in mind that a crime
of this nature, even if it started out as a jack, has now crossed
the line from harmless to uncalled for. To make restitution
to the university, the culprits should at the very least return
the items, even if it is anonymously.
Erratum
In last week's issue, the Thresher reported in "Esperanza gets
record turnout" that the DJ for the formal was Lovett College
sophomore Alex Marks. We did not realize that Lovett College
junior Evan Gilmore also deejayed at the event. The Thresher re-
grets the error.
the Rice Thresher
Friday, November 21,2008
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
thresher-ops&rice. edu
Arts, VADA stories
need clarification
To the editor:
Readers of the Nov. 14th edition
of the Rice Thresher saw a two-page
spread entitled "The state of the
arts." The spread contains two arti-
cles: one, by Logan Beck, focuses on
the student art show and support for
the arts in general at Rice; the other,
by Josh Rutenberg, focuses specifi-
cally on reforms and goals within
the Department of Visual and Dra-
matic Arts. The general impression
conveyed by both articles is one of a
difficult struggle for recognition and
resources to support the arts at Rice,
aimed at a university administra-
tion that appears to place secondary
value on the arts in relation to other
priorities of the university.
I am responding to the article to
set the record straight and offer the
student readership another perspec-
tive, which I believe to be rather
more balanced and accurate. My
main concern is with the larger mes-
sage about the arts, but I will make a
briefer comment on the specific issue
of the student show and the Rice Gal-
lery, where Beck's article, in my opin-
ion, is carefully balanced and fair in
presenting both sides of the issue.
With regard to support for the arts
in general, i cannot comment on the
period before 2003, prior to my arriv-
al at Rice. But I ask students to con-
sider the following facts from the pe-
riod 2003 to the present: Over the last
six years, approximately $500,000 of
new funding has been poured into
VADA. Except for extraordinary phil-
anthropic opportunities that have es-
tablished new professorships in the
School of Humanities and the Ph. D.
program in Art History, no other de-
partment in the School of Humanities
has received as much new support.
Where has this funding gone?
With the support of another major
philanthropist, Suzanne Deal Booth,
the School of Humanities has been
able to hire between six and nine
Core Fellows each year from the
prestigious program at the Glassell
School of Art, part of the Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston. Together these
core fellows have taught an addi-
tional 33 studio classes which would
not otherwise have been available to
VADA majors, bringing fresh talent
and expertise into the department.
The school has supported the other
media that are part of VADA as well,
with the incorporation of the theater
program into VADA in 2006-*07, a
move proposed and fully supported
by former VADA chair Karin Broker, in
an effort to bring greater vitality and
breadth into the curriculum in light-
ing design as well as filmmaking. Ad-
ditional faculty have been added to
VADA, including Paul Hester, who is
quoted in Beck's article.
The university undertook a to-
tal renovation of the cinema in the
Rice Media Center, with new seating,
a glass bead screen and projector
equipment, making it the only glass
bead screen theater in this entire
region, with full capacity to screen
35 mm films.
With regard to film studies, I have
to admit to a bit of a surprise at read-
ing that Professor Brian Huberman
is single-handedly in talks with the
University of Texas-Austin about
the establishment of a film institute,
since I brought Professor Huberman
into that discussion several months
after I personally initiated that ef-
fort at collaboration, which is still in
the works. The film initiative is men-
tioned in the Rutenberg article.
Looking beyond VADA, at the arts
more generally, students may wish to
consider additional facts pointing to
Rice's support for the arts.
The School of Humanities in-
vested $200,000 in the Rice Gallery
to upgrade its lighting, and with
more philanthropic support from Ms.
Booth, added two new staff positions
to the gallery. The School of Humani-
ties received one of the largest gifts
ever made by the Brown Foundation,
$10 million, to launch a new Ph.D.
program in Art History. This is just
one of the great success stories about
the visibility and strength of art his-
tory at Rice.
In the area of creative writing,
many students, I'm sure, are aware
of the launch of a new student liter-
ary journal, R2, the addition of new
courses in creative writing with our
Parks Fellowship program and the
opportunity to bring great writers
to campus, like Robert Pinksy or
Ha Jin, through our Campbell
Lecture Series.
When you put together all the
philanthropic support for VADA,
Art History and creative writing over
the last five years, it amounts to an
impressive number, upwards of $17
million. Contrary to the impres-
sion that Beck's article gives, many
alumni and faculty ask me, how did
the arts at Rice soar into such vis-
ibility in such a short time?
Outside the School of Humani-
ties, President David Leebron, who
is treated with gross unfairness in
the article, has stood behind a ma-
jor effort to launch a campus art
program. It is clear from another
article in the Thresher, the opinion
piece by Sarah Bronson, that a great
deal of work remains to be done in
providing a larger educational con-
text for artworks on campus and
that is part of the president's vision
as well. Bronson fails to mention
that the "hundreds of thousands of
dollars at [Rice's] disposal" are ac-
tually a gift from two donors with
deep attachment and love of this
university, whose contribution to
the university she mocks.
I have little to add to the report
about the student art show. I think
in that respect Beck's reporting is
very fair and balanced. The Rice
Gallery has traditionally been the
strongest supporter of the student
show, offering up a portion of its
own budget to strengthen the show,
raising the professional standards
and making an honest effort to
serve the students. The gallery can-
not be held responsible for the de-
terioration of the show. The burden
of proof this year is on the students
and faculty. Rice Gallery Direc-
tor Kim Davenport has stated that
the door is open to future student
shows if the dedication and com-
mitment of the students and faculty
are there.
The last point I would like to
make concerns space and enroll-
ments. It is true that the facilities
of VADA are scattered. The separa-
tion of studio, theater, printmaking
and media does impose burdens
on faculty and students. Unfortu-
nately, space is a problem across
the entire university, whether it is
adequate laboratory space for our
science and engineering programs,
office space for the faculty of so-
cial sciences, recital space for the
Shepherd School and so on. The
School of Humanities continues to
work on solutions and I hope there
will be good news to report on new
O see LETTERS, page 3
Lily Chun & Dylan Farmer
Editors in Chief
NEWS
Sarah Rutledge Editor
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Cindy Dinh Asst. Editor
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Zach Castle Designer
OP-ED
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SPORTS
Natalie Clericuzio Editor
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Julie Armstrong Editor
Joe Dwyer Asst. Editor
COPY
Nick Schlossman Editor
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CALENDAR
Sean McBeath Editor
PHOTOGRAPHY
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WEB
John Michael Cuccia Editor
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BUSINESS
Sarah Mitchell Manager
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BACKPAGE
Timothy Faust Editor
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 21, 2008, newspaper, November 21, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443130/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.