The Rice Thresher, Vol. 90, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 2002 Page: 2 of 20
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TOE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22,2002
the Rice Thresher
Limiting the budget
Monday's hiring freeze for non-faculty and non-research staff shows
a refreshing amount of foresight on Rice's part (See Story, Page 1.)
The troubled economy has forced other institutions to put faculty
positions in jeopardy. But Rice, by planning ahead, may be able to avoid
such unfortunate measures. Despite uncertain times, academic sectors
of the school will not be affected. In addition, some office jobs previously
unavailable to students will open for the duration of the freeze, which
still allows Rice to hire employees—like students—who do not receive
benefits. Considering the scarcity of jobs for non-work-study students,
this will be a great perk, even if it is only a temporary one.
However, non-academic hiring will not be stopped ruthlessly; the
university has wisely allowed for exceptions. Departments that are
short-staffed or in dire need of certain positions can be exempted from
the policy; for example, an assistant director of Student Activities should
still be hired to oversee the Orientation Week Steering Committee.
Proactive measures such as the hiring freeze strengthen our
belief that Rice will be relatively unaffected by the economic slow-
down, even in the face of a shrinking endowment and even in light
of the fact that 50 percent of the university's annual budget is
consumed by staff and benefit payouts.
Now, if only they would plan this well when it comes to parking.
Changing parking
Yet again, it appears as if well be paying more to park on campus,
but get less for our parking sticker. (See Story, Page 1.)
Parking fees are likely to increase and the stadium parking lot is
scheduled to be ready to be gated. Unsurprisingly, students are not in
support of paying more to park. In addition, it is now projected that
parking will not be self-sufficient for 22 years, instead of the 10 years
initially cited to students, meaning the relief to the monetary burden
the unviersity is carrying is even farther away.
We don't want to pay more for parking, but there is little students can
do to prevent that from happening. Instead, students must now work to
gain the benefits that should come with increased fees — an assured
parking spot, an improved concrete lot and a shuttle stop in the West Lot
The parking plan keeps changing and campus constituencies
don't have a voice. Students need to work to keep our parking spots
empty while paying as little for them as possible.
Working it out
Most students come to Rice to learn about and be intellectually
challenged by science, the humanities, music, architecture or engi-
neering — not country western dancing.
The activities of the Lifetime Physical Activity Program are fun
and emphasize the value of fitness in a healthy lifestyle. (See Story,
Page 1.) But classes that are not primarily academic should not be
listed with a grade on official transcripts.
If LPAP classes were graded as satisfactory/unsatisfactory, in-
structors would be more likely to base their grades on participation
and attendance in order to adapt to the wishes and tendencies of
those in their classes. And that's the way it should be.
The system as it stands now is lose-lose. Instructors assign letter
grades that do not effect students' GPAs because LPAP classes earn
no hours of credit. And students have a grade on their transcript that
may not affect their GPAs but can still make an impression on a
graduate school; a "D" in anything is not viewed well.
Students can be expected to show up to such classes and to
participate, but we can't really be expected to treat them as seriously
as we treat a class like MATH 211.
Solf scheduling exams at the registrar; a tradition
dating back to Gorbachev's Russia.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Lining up
We appreciate the Registrar's extension of the self-scheduled
exam registration deadline from Wednesday noon to 5 p.m., after
students waited in lines for more than an hour. However, the need
to postpone the deadline should never have occurred.
Little publicity wentoutconcerningthedeadline, and itis therefore not
surprising that lines were so long Wednesday morning at local spots.
Furthermore, it is unnecessary to have the deadline at noon.
Deadlines in the middle of the day are difficult for students to meet
because of varying class and work schedules; giving students until
5 p.m. would allow maximum flexibility to facilitate their compliance.
Therefore, it was only reasonable for the Registrar to extend the
deadlines, and we are glad the office recognized this. However, the
Registrar should work to make sure it doesn't have to happen again.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher'
editorial staff. „ „,
Vote Coalition reaches
out to student body
To the editor:
As the "well-meaning adminis-
trator" mentioned in the recent "Get-
ting out more votes" editorial
(Nov. 8), I wish to respond. The Rice
Thresher's, assertion that the Rice
Vote Coalition's efforts are under-
mined by its distance from students
is perhaps somewhat valid, but I
assure you that is not by design.
Negotiations to reopen Rice's
precinct required months of sus-
tained effort with county officials
(largely during the summer). This
could not have been pursued by no-
toriously overworked and seasonly
unavailable Rice students. Instead,
these issues had to be addressed by
the Rice employee charged with re-
sponsibility for local government
relations: me.
Similarly, though the student
coordinator of Orientation Weekand
other Vote Coalition members be-
gan organizing O-Week voter regis-
tration efforts last fall, the real work
behind it occurred during the sum-
mer, when student volunteers were
not available. The Rice Vote Coali-
tion did appeal to O-Week coordina-
tors and advisers for help, but got
very poor response and so, once
again, "well-meaning administra-
tors" had to step in.
The Vote Coalition asked student
organizations to send representa-
tives (ones who actually cared about
voter registration) to an organiza-
tional meeting, but this was just the
beginning. They also were asked to
identify other groups and individu-
als to participate. To date, those ap-
peals have resulted in only a few
volunteers, but make no mistake:
The Rice Vote Coalition welcomes
any interested individual's partici-
pation.
Anyone who has ever visited
www.vote.rice.edu and clicked the
Vote Coalition button on the page
has found an invitation to join the
group, but clearly this and the other
appeals have not been enough.
The Vote Coalition will work to
make its invitation more clear; we
appreciate the Thresher calling at-
tention to the issue editorially and
ask for future editorial and advertis-
ing support for the idea of active
student involvement in the Rice Vote
Coalition, voter registration and elec-
tions.
Greg Marshall
Baker '86
Member, Rice Vote Coalition
Director of University Relations
Diversity of Rice staff
should be recognized
To the editor:
The level of disrespect shown to
the cleaning staff of Rice University
in Stephen Huey's letter to the edi-
tor ("Club 13 lacks respect for 'our
community,'" Nov. 15) is appalling. I
would argue that the writer's as-
sumption that the cleaning staff
should be appropriately addressed
in the morning with a "buenos dias"
displays a far worse attitude than
that of a Club 13 runner. While many
staff members at Rice are Hispanic,
that doesn't imply that they all speak
Spanish or that one should assume
they speak Spanish based on their
apparent ethnic background. Given
that the vast majority of Rice stu-
dents aren't at all fluent in Spanish,
there is also an underlying insinua-
tion that the English skills of the
staff member being addressed are
inadequate to a degree that requires
even non-Spanish speaking students
to address them in Spanish.
I feel when addressing the disre-
spectful nature of the student body,
it would be a good idea to refrain
from being disrespectful.
Adriana Ramirez
Lovett sophomore
Greenbriar shuttles
fail to run on time
To the editor:
I have a problem with the incon-
sistency that the shuttle system has
shown time and time again, espe-
cially with the Greenbriar route.
According to the schedule that is
posted on signs within the buses,
the Greenbriar buses run every 10
minutes from the Greenbriar Lot. I
have come to depend on this sched-
ule as any commuter would come to
rely on any bus schedule. However,
it has come to my attention that this
schedule is less than perfect, and I
don't mean to say that the buses run
a little late. I have witnessed total
disregard for this schedule time and
time again. I have seen shuttles pull
up to the stop five to six minutes
before they are scheduled to arrive,
only to almost immediately leave
once again.
And I know these shuttles are
not running late because I end up
waiting 15 minutes at the stop. If the
previous bus has just been running
late, I would have only waited five. I
have seen a woman chase the bus
down, waving and flailing to catch it
after we were both walking toward
it. The shuttle driver did not look
around or even wait for more than a
second before deciding to drive off.
The woman practically ran up to the
shuttle and had to hit the door to get
the driver's attention.
All I am really asking for is a little
consistency here because I think it
is a little absurd to have to be at a
shuttle stop 40 minutes ahead of
time just to be sure you will be able
to catch a shuttle and get to where
you want to be on time, especially if
the shuttles are supposedly follow-
ing a schedule.
Manuel De la Mora
Brown senior
Homophobia T-shirts
hurt attempts to heal
To the editor:
Although I am very much appre-
ciative of the recent hard work by
students and faculty to promote a
more tolerant campus atmosphere
in light of the recent comments made
by head football coach Ken Hatfield,
I would like to comment on the re-
cent misguided effort by the univer-
sity involving the distribution of T-
shirts with the printed message "I
am not homophobic."
The message "I am not homopho-
bic" does little to further tolerance
and respect for homosexual people.
What would be accomplished if we
wore shirts that said "I am not an
asshole" or "I am not a racist"? Just
as very few people would label them-
selves as assholes or racists, most
people do not think of themselves as
homophobic, including the very
people who make inflammatory com-
ments about homosexuals and ho-
mosexual behavior. I would even be
willing to bet that Hatfield would say
he is not homophobic, and would
use the same "I am not homopho-
bic" phrase as an excuse to justify
his intolerant beliefs.
My experience has been that the
phrase "I am not homophobic" is
almost always followed by a big
"but." "I am not homophobic, but I
don't think those people deserve
'special' rights." "I am not homopho-
bic, but I think homosexuality is dis-
gusting." If you don't believe me,
search for this phrase on the Internet
and count the number of pages that
come up with these statements and
more.
In the same way the "I am not
racist" phrase is often used to tone
down a statement that is derogatory
against minorities, the phrase "I am
not homophobic" is used as an ex-
cuse for saying something which is,
in fact, homophobic or outright de-
meaning to gay people.
A phrase that is so frequently
used as a justification for intolerant
comments is not an appropriate
choice for a campaign designed to
increase tolerance. Although most
of the students, staff and faculty of
this institution would label them-
selves "open-minded," we need to
realize that all of us carry our own
prejudices and stereotypes, and we
must continually re-examine our
beliefs.
I think a more positive message,
such as "1 appreciate diversity" or "I
promote tolerance of all people,"
would have resulted in more people
recognizing and challenging their
personal intolerant behaviors.
Daniel Conway
Brown senior
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Rustin, Rachel. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 90, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 2002, newspaper, November 22, 2002; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443153/m1/2/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.