The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 21, 1971 Page: 2 of 6
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m
Drouilhet - Students cannot
be trusted to govern themselves
editorial
Yesterday Pacifica. FM 90, returned to the air
for the third time. KPFT is an important part of the
communications and news network within Houston. Pa-
cifica has consistently aired facts, programs, and opin-
ions which would otherwise not be heard by the residents
of Houston for one reason or another.
From 68 straight hours of Beethoven (next week) to
readings of Tolkien, the programmings have been varied
and always there is something to attract one's attention.
In addition, the quality of the programming has improved
over the last year.
However, with the two bombing disasters, Pacifica
has had a difficult time financially. It would not be diffi-
cult for a suite or an apartment to subscribe as a unint. In
addition, tickets to the Joan Baez concert are being given
with each subscription. Now is the time to support free
press in Houston.
&
Rubenstein and Cox bring
controversy to Lecture Series
Th;' Chapel Lecture Series will
!*:iv'■ two prominent theologians
speaking1 at Rice within the next
•month. Dr. Richard L. Ruben-
stein and Dr. Harvey Cox will
.-•peak on January 21 and Feb-
ruary 4, respectively.
Rubenstein* a Harvard Ph.D.
graduate, will speak on the sub-
ject "God after the Death of
Cod" tonight in the RMC Chap-
. 1. He has published many
hooks and appeared in various
periodicals, including Playboy.
Rubenstein is very much in-
volved in tiie movement for hu-
man potential. In both 19(59 and
ip?(> he has conducted work-
shops on Religion and Human
Potential. He has lectured at
over 100 colleges and universi-
ties throughout the world and
conducted television symposi-
ums. He will lecture at 7:30 pm.
Cox is one of the most cele-
brated and. controversial speak-
ers .to appear in the Series.
Professor of Divinity at Har-
vard, Cox will speak on "Imag-
ination and Community". He
has authored several books on
the urban experience and the
relevance of the church within
the context- of this increased
urbanization. Cox said in an
article in Commonweal:
"Despite the enormous
problems and obvious dangers
of urban civilization, I still
contend that the widened
range of choice it offers peo-
ple, in marriage partners,
work opportunities, and mo-
ral options, provides the pos-
sibility of immensely ex-
panded, freedom for man. It
is our misuse of the gift of
urban life and denying it to
certain people that I would
oppose, not the essentials of
Urban life itself."
Cox will speak on Thursday:
February 4, in the Grand Hall
at 2:30 pm and the following
morning at 9 am. He will speak
in the Chapel at 7:30 on Feb-
ruary 4.
To the editor:
In the December Sallyport, Dr. Donald Baker,
recently selected to be the new master of one
of the Colleges, was interviewed about his opin-
ions of the college system at Rice. He stated that,
'Leadership, and the formation and enforcing
of rules and regulations, is the job of the stu-
dents", i.e. students should be efljfo-usted with the
management of student affairs^nne went on to
say that he viewed the master's job as that of
an advisor. Such an attitude can only be charac-
terized as naive. Time and time again, examples
in the past have proven that while such a sys-
tem of student government would be theoretically
desirable in practice it is unworkable.
The student courts are entirely too lax in
their prosecution and discipline of violators of
university rules, and in some instances are even
unwilling to take such action because of the direct
conflict between the personal philosophies of
some of the justices and the explicit statements
of college and university policies. In some serious
cases last year, it was necessary for the Dean of
Students to intervene before meaningful (and
completely justified) discipline could be meted
out. As a former member and officer of Baker
College, I witnessed incidents which demonstrated
that the administration could not trust student
government to be completely honest and open
with it in handling student affairs. At one meet-
ing of the Baker Cabinet in spring of 1970, the
President ordered the secretary to avoid mention-
ing in the minutes one matter we had discussed,
because, according to him, the Dean of Students
would read about it and might be influenced to
rescind some new privileges recently granted to
the residential colleges, but on other occasions
the same president had criticized the administra-
tion for not being completely open with students.
In many instances, student government fails to
conduct its business openly before the student
body, and its actions have overtones of elitism.
For example, some college matters are considered
too indelicate to be handled by the Cabinet or
by the Student Courts as a whole, and only the
President or Chief Justice handle them. On at
least one occasion last spring, during the Hoff-
man crisis, the Student Senate held a closed
meeting which was so secret that even the Thre-
sher editor was not allowed to cover it; unless a
general student had friends on the student senate,
he was unable to learn about any of the specific
topics which had been discussed at that meeting.
On other occasions last year, it was not unusual
to find certain groups of student officers using
secret and irregular means and abusing their
powers of representation to use their offices to
promulgate their own political philosophies.
The most notable failure of students to gov-
ern other students has been in the area of viol-
ations of drug laws on campus. This failure is
partly due to the presence of some student offi-
cers who are either in complicity with, in sym-
pathy with, or indifferent to the drug abusers,
as well as those who defend their actions in the
name of libertarianism. Last year, partly as a
result of a poll taken among students, the admi-
nistration decided to let drug matters be handled
informally at the college level by the student
government, assisted by the masters. What were
the results ? Here are a few examples. The mas-
ter of Baker College told me that as a result of
his handling of some drug cases in Baker the
previous year, he had become aware that some
Rice drug sellers had direct contacts with pro-
fessional criminals in the Houston area; it was
rumored that such contacts persisted through
last year. The Jones College Roundtable published
a report qn the method of Jone^' selection of
freshman advisors: one of the questions asked
prospective advisors was whether they would
turn in a girl found smoking marijuana; if the
applicant responded yes, she was automatically
refected. The Will Rice Phoenix contained an ar-
ticle suggesting that drug use in Lovett College
had reached such a level that a Lovett member
had influenced a policy decision of his college by
threatening to certain officers that he would in-
form legal authorities about the drug violations.
For me, the culmination of the failure of stu-
dent government to take firm measures to coun-
teract drug abuse, came in May of 1970. As a
result of events of that month, four high-ranking
members of Baker College government said to
me that they were either at (that time drug users
or that they had used illicit drugs in the past.
Their attitudes played a large role in the up-
surge of drug use in Baker. Three of them are
still on ithe Cabinet this year, and while Baker
has adopted an (extremely lenient, and in my
opinion, ineffective) policy of handling drag
violations, one of them clearly maintains an at-
titude of non-interference with drug users when-
ever possible; suoh an attitude in a high-ranking
Cabinet member can only be detrimental to Baker.
The actions of these four persons last May em-
phasize the fact that students cannot be trusted
to govern themselves. One of this group of of-
ficers, assisted by another, planted marijuana on
me while the other two looked on. Naturally their
action placed me in a difficult and serious posi-
tion. One of the two onlookers made numerous
attempts to dissuade me from taking effective
steps to deal with the situation, and he even went
so far as to (unsuccessfully) attempt .to deceive
my roommates and me into thinking it was not
marijuana; he even offered to dispose of it. This
officer was a good friend of the one who had
planted the drug on me, and I could not help
feeling that he was placing his own beliefs above
his duty as an officer of the college. Letting stu-
dents handle the matter was out of the question,
and it was necessary to consult the master of
the college as well as the Dean of Students. A
statement the master made in the course of dis-
cussions with him has since made me wonder if
the reason so many faculty believe in govern-
ment of students by students is that they aren't
aware of incidents such as these; the master
said, "I would appreciate, it if this matter doesn't
get any higher in the administration than it al-
ready bas." If this is a result of giving students
complete control over one segment of student
affairs, how can a conscientious student be ex-
pected to submit to student government?
While many student officers are dedicated to
fair, honest government, the presence of the
types I have mentioned above only tend to ne-
gate their efforts. More contemptible than the
specific actions of irresponsible officers is the
fact that their attitudes of active condonation of
certain dubious practices and their failure to
firmly deal with others lead to a morbid atmos-
phere of universal indifference to responsible be-
havior, which leads in turn to widespread diso-
bedience of university regulations. For example,
of the three admitted [ito Drouilhet—Ed.] drug
usei-s still on the Baker Cabinet, one has
such influence and prestige that when these
qualities are coupled to his benign attitude
towards drug violations, they assist in creat-
ing- an atmosphere of tolerance of drug use
in certain groups in the college; so his' role
is as harmful as the role of the continuing*
drug violators in pei'petuating the problem. Par-
tially as a result of certain student officers to
exercise vigorous, positive moral leadership, this
atmosphere of irresponsibility developed to such
a point last May that during final examinations,
the president of Baker College told me, a com-
pletely blameless student, that some administra-
tion people' had instructed him to tell me to leave
the campus and not return until after the exams,
because my physical well-being and property
were in danger of violence"from other Rice stu-
dents and my safety could not be guaranteed if I
remained at Rice. If student control of student
affairs has led to such a situation in the past,
what will it lead to in the future? Until the ad-
ministration can be assured that situations such
as those described in this letter do not arise
again, any extension of student power beyond
its present level should not be considered. Until
that time ithe administration will have to op-
erate in more than just an advisory capacity
with regard to istudent affairs.
Jimmy Drouilhet, Baker '70
JOHN MAULDIN
Editor-in-Chief 11
RICK GRIDER
Business Manager
Jack Murray Senior Editox ■
Mike Ross Calendar iEd.
Gary Rachlin Sports Ed.
Becky Strader Copy Ed. j |||
thresher
Charles Szalkowski Editor-at-Large
Mike Smith Exec. Assoc. Ed.
Marty Belasco Sports Ed.
DeBow Freed Managing Ed.
The opinions expressed in this paper are those of its writers and editors
and are not necessarily those of Rice University, its administrators or
officials.
Advertising: Jack Murray.
Circulation: Doug Williams.
The Rice Thresher, official student newspaper at Rice University, is
published weekely on Thursday except during holidays and examination
periods by students of Rice University, Houston, Texas 7701. Phone JA8-4141,
ext 221, 645.
the rice thresher, january 21, 1971—page 2
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Mauldin, John. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 21, 1971, newspaper, January 21, 1971; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245097/m1/2/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.