The Rice Thresher, Vol. 92, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 2005 Page: 2 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINIOW FRIDAY, JANUARY 21,2005
to h,
—
.
the Rice Thresher
Everybody wins all the
time with 24-hour access
It makes so much sense that we're surprised no one's thought
of it before: 24-hour ID card access to all the residential colleges
(See story, page 1). We're glad that administrators have supported
the change, which was proposed by Student Association President
Derrick Matthews last semester.
The current ID access policy, which shuts out non-college mem-
bers between midnight and 7 a.m. weekdays and midnight and
8 a.m. weekends, seems stuck in the era of gender-segregated dor-
mitories and adds little — if any — security. If residential buildings
are open to all students all the time, campus life will be that much
more convenient.
We hope all the college governments will approve the proposal and
extend nighttime ID access to members of other colleges. Life will
be simpler for everybody if there is one rule for all the colleges.
In addition, we think all public residential spaces should be acces-
sible via ID. Card readers should be installed on the outer doors of the
Lovett College Commons and the Will Rice College Commons, the
only two residential buildings on campus that can only be accessed
by key. The card readers would allow non-college members to enter
both at night and during the day.
Finally, we like the suggestion that ID access revert to daytime
hours during Willy Week. If students could enter any college they
wanted during the week leading up to Beer Bike, jacks might either
lose their appeal or get out of control. The temporary fix would
preserve the jack tradition.
Shuttling our parking
problems into Houston
Because owning a car at Rice has turned into a soul-sucking ex-
perience involving proximity cards, high parking fees and, worst of
all, driving in Houston, we applaud the recent decision to reinstate
shuttle service to Target, Fiesta Mart and the Rice Village on the
weekends for the first time since fall 2003. (See story, page 1).
Such shuttles will make it not only possible, but also tolerable
to spend four years at Rice without a car (assuming one can secure
four years of on-campus housing). Students will no longer be at the
mercy of their car-driving friends to get groceries or go off-campus
for non-Subway dinner on Saturdays.
In addition, this decision has a great deal of foresight. Parking fees
are only going to increase, and Houston traffic is probably not going
to get better anytime soon. In coming years, students will have greater
incentives not to bring a car, and the off-campus shuttle service will
help accommodate them. We are glad 1 his step is being taken now,
before a huge demand is present, and we hope students will take
advantage of the new service so that it continues to be financially
practical in the future.
Lower transcript fees
mean happier students
Registrar David Tenney (Sid '87) won the hearts of most Rice
undergraduates, including ours, last week when he recommended
a reduction in transcript fees. (See story, page 7).
The recent increase in transcript fees from $5 in 2002-'03 to $7 the
following year to $10 this year was a needless inconvenience. For
many students, applying to graduate school is expensive enough
without having to pay an extra $10 per official transcript.
Servery lines again
As Monday's holiday came to a close, we were disappointed to see
long lines stretching out of the Wiess/Hanszen Servery — again.
Holiday weekends usually mean limited food service on campus, even
the night before classes resume. Not to sound like a broken record,
but we wish Housing and Dining would offer full meal service at the
end of three- and four-day weekends, not just in the serveries, but also
in kitchens at Lovett, Baker, Will Rice and Sid Richardson Colleges.
Although everything appeared to run smoothly during the other
meals this weekend, lines at dinner stretched out the servery doors
on the Hanszen Commons side and almost to the doors on the Wiess
Commons side, inconveniencing many students.
If H&D is going to require on-campus students to purchase the
meal plan, then it should provide meals that can be enjoyed by all
in a timely manner, and that means anticipating when student meal
attendance will be at full volume.
The new off
is shuttle system means different things to different people!
Now I don't have to
bother my roommates
to qo to Target!
Now we don't have to
walk to the Village
to ao on dates!
Now Fiesta is just as
convenient as the Pub,
but with more selection!
Mindless communist filth
Bush does good (for once) with donation
From a financial perspective, be
ing president of the United States
is a really nice gig. Actually, being
president is a nice gig from a lot of
perspectives — but the
financial perspective is
one of the rosiest.
The president makes
$400,000 per year, which
for many of those who
ascend to the Oval Office
is a huge pay cut. But what
does he spend that money
on? The White House
mortgage is covered by
Uncle Sam. So are the
grocery bills. And so is gas
— a particular irony in this
administration. I suppose one must
always be saving for retirement, but
let's be realistic: The post-presidency
lecture circuit will pay those bills for
all eternity. In fact, besides the mort-
gage on the "Western White House"
and his daughters' college tuitions, I
cannot think of any major expenses
that have been passed directly along
to George W. Bush.
So until Jan. 5,1 wondered: If his
salary is public record and if anyone
can figure out how marvelous his
personal financial situation is, why
has Bush not gone public with a
major donation toward the tsunami
disaster relief effort?
Then, on Jan. 5, Bush did ex-
actly that, announcing a $10,000
personal contribution to tsunami
relief. Although little fuss has been
made about it, I worry that when the
"legacy" talk begins in 2008, the Bush-
bashing set, of which I am usually
a part, will dismiss this decision to
go public as shamelessly self-serv-
ing. Such attacks would be gravely
Nathan
Black
misplaced. For once, 1 am going to
defend the guy.
Bush just won the last election
of his life. His career has hit the
ceiling. In that sense, he
has nothing to gain from
a public donation, and
his personal generosity is
tough to dismiss as an act of
self-centered ladder-climb-
ing. At the same time, in
his capacity as a guardian
of American, and to a great
extent global, security,
Bush has much to gain
from such a move.
Whether we like it
or not, the president is,
to shamelessly lift a saying from
the State Department, "the face of
America to the world." When people
complain about American swagger
and arrogance, they are usually not
talking about the average American,
and they are usually not talking about
people like Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld or Secretary of
State nominee Condoleezza Rice
either. Instead, they are largely bas-
ing their perceptions on Bush, who
does exude a great deal of arrogance
and swagger.
When I think of why our world
standing has sunk so low — a fre-
quent observation during my semes-
ter abroad — I think first of the Iraq
debacle, for which an entire admin-
istration is to blame. But I also think
of Bush's big, smirking face on Irish
television, telling an interviewer that
the Irish simply "don't understand"
the United States, and that is why
they do not agree with him. In other
words, Bush's personal conduct has
an unfair but undeniable effect on
the level of respect the United States
commands.
Bush turned this mostly nega-
tive fact of life into a positive for this
country by publicly donating to the
relief effort. He showed a part of
the developing world — including
Indonesia, which has more Muslims
than any other country on the planet
— that he personally cares about
the people in that region and is not
simply motivated by oil revenues.
The gesture may at least temporarily
reduce the effectiveness of terrorists'
anti-American rhetoric.
So, besides the small immediate
impact his personal funds have had
on the region, the president's public-
donation may help shield the world
from the man-made disasters that
have plagued it in recent decades
— events that are smaller in scale
than Mother Nature's wrath but
which, by their preventability, are
to me much more disturbing. People
like me who bemoan Bush's general
approach to world affairs should thus
support his choice; if we don't give
credit when it is due, we risk being
cast as impossible to satisfy.
I do not doubt that Bush has made
donations like this before, and it is
his prerogative to remain tastefully
silent about them most of the time.
But — I write with grit teeth — it
was wise of him in this instance to
disclose his donations and give the
I Inited States' global standing a major
boost in the process.
So, fellow Bush-bashers, let's let
this one slide. We've got plenty of
other things to talk about.
Nathan Mack is a lovett College junior
and opinion editor.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher
editorial staff.
Maintain student
input on college fees
To the editor:
President David Leebron's pro-
posal to incorporate college fees
into the general tuition ("Board may
roll fees under tuition." Dec. 3) has
many advantages over the current
division of fee-collecting between the
university and the colleges, among
them making the system fairer by
leveling required fees campus-wide
and relieving college treasurers
from having to deal with hundreds of
students' checks every fall. I am also
encouraged by Leebron's affirmation
that despite the centralized collection
mechanism, the colleges will retain
control of how money is allocated
and spent.
I am less enthusiastic, though,
about the prospect of the Board
of Trustees setting fees without a
significant element of student input
on a regular basis. While the new
proposal would allow the college
masters and presidents to appeal
to the dean of undergraduates, who
could then submit a request to change
college fees to the board, that is a far
cry from the current process used to
change college fees — the vote of a
college cabinet.
Rice rightly promotes its strong
traditions of student self-regulation
to prospective students and others.
Maintaining serious student input
into the colleges' funding amounts is
central to the abilities of the colleges
to govern themselves.
Ian Everhart
Hanszen College treasurer
Hanszen junior
Your letter
could have gone
here.
An irate
complaint about
your letter could
have gone here
next week.
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Gilbert, Lindsey & Yardley, Jonathan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 92, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 2005, newspaper, January 21, 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443161/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.