The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 26, 1983 Page: 1 of 12
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Stoll advises freshmen on nature of college, humor
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AM
SL
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The Rice Student Association
traditionally invites a repre-
sentative of the Rice faculty to
address the freshman class.
Continuing a tradition, the
Thresher presents the comments of
Dr. Richard Stoll. professor of
political science and this year's
speaker, in their entirety.
When I was first asked to give
this speech, I spent some time
trying to figure out what it was I
was supposed to say. Quite
frankly, I got very little help. The
faculty and administrators I talked
to said, "Well, it's whatever you
want to tell the students, whatever
knowledge you want to impart to
them," which I thought was just an
excuse, because they didn't know
either, and most of the
undergraduates 1 know somehow
managed to miss this event during
their freshmen year. Probably
something very important
someplace, no doubt.
So, what I decided I'd try to do is
give you some reasonably practical
advice, at least from my
standpoint, about getting through
your freshman year. Now, I've
never been an undergraduate here,
and hope never I will be, because
Dr. Richard Stoll c. Clay
that would mean they've taken
something away from me, hut 1 do
get to see a number of them in
various moods and various
situations, and hence the title, "An
Outsider's View." And hopefully,
since 1 get to see more of your
problems than you experience
yourself, maybe I can point out a
few things that might be of some
help to you.
Which is not to say, by the way,
that you aren't unique in any way,
but when you do run into some
kind of a problem, because other
people have seen it or run into it
themselves, that means number
one, there are people around you
who can help you, and number
two, you are really not being
singled out by whomever or
whatever for some unique form of
punishment, so please bear that in
mind.
The first kind of punishment I
guess you could undergo here
I'd like to do just a brief opinion
poll here — how many of you lived
with someone in the same room lor
an extended period of time,
brother or sister? Uh-huh. Okay,
well now you get to break in a new
roommate, right? And for those ot
you who've never had that joyous
experience, it's a whole new
ballgame. Now most roommate
see There's, page 4
r~v
Volume 71, Number 2
WRESHER
Friday, skmtrcrry 1983
INSIDE:
• Braque reveals Cubist roots.
See p. 7.
• Summer flicks froth but fun.
See movie reviews, p. 8.
• Look inside yourself.
Hurricane Alicia goes easy on Rice, flooding avoided
by Dave Collins
Hurricane Alicia,the first major
hurricane to hit the Houston-
Galveston area directly in 22 years,
passed over Rice without serious
incident. Alicia, which insurance
companies are calling the most
expensive hurricane ever, left large
sections of East Texas without
electricity and other utility
services. Seven counties were
declared major federal disaster
relief areas.
. Students and faculty on campus
early or living in the Rice area for
the summer were at worst
inclffivenienced. Rice junior
Jennifer J u d a y commented
Tuesday, "I have to go home and
let my apartment air out,"
referring to her Montrose area
garage apartment which has been
without air conditioning or even
power to drive a fan for five days.
"My son left for UCLA Monday
morning — he couldn't have been
happier," Rice professor Dr. Ed
Doughtie, also without electricity
said Wednesday morning. "He
called me at eight this morning say-
ing it was 68 degrees and he'd just
finished drinking juice from an
orange he picked off a tree. Hejust
wanted to rub it in."
On the Rice campus, only a
small amount of damage to
W*
m
Tree falls victim to Hurricane Alicia
buildings occurred. According to
Tom Offett of Physical Plant, the
storm broke windows at some of
the colleges and at Lovett Hall.
These windows were quickly
replaced. The only power outage
occurred at 5 a.m. August 18;
Houston Lighting & Power
restored the flow of electricity later
that morning. In the next few days
power fluctuations and flickering
occured as neighboring com-
munitiess had power returned to
them. Offett reported that the
—C. Clay
power loss knocked out air
conditioning on campus through
the morning of August 19.
The largest post-hurricane
project for Physical Plant
employees has been the removal of
fallen branches and trees. Offett
stated that a large effort to clean up
the vegetation began August 19
and may continue for a number of
weeks. Employees worked through
last weekend on overtime to clear
the grounds of stray branches.
Offett mentioned the loss of
some "major trees" such as old
oaks lining the Main Street
entrance. A large concentration of
arboreal debris fell in the"cowbird
grove" east of the Herring Hall
construction site.
During and after Alicia's
assault, physical plant workers
endeavored to keep the drains free
of debris so water could drain into
the storm sewers. The goal of this
action was to prevent a return of
the 1976 Great Flood which left
campus basements in three to four
feet of standing water.
Though the Rice campus did not
become a temporary lake, there
were still problems with flooding.
The basement of the Rice Campus
Store received minor damage
when water began to seep through
its ceiling. The total damage to
books was limited to $50,
according to book department
manager Alison Creagh.
Remembering past floods, book
store employees began Wednesday
August 17 shifting books in
anticipation of a foot of standing
water. Stacked books travelled to
the second floor of the RMC, while
shelved books required for courses
were shifted up one shell. Book
store staffers spent ten hours at this
task and most of Friday moving
bo' ,s back to their original
locations.
Physical Plant employees
worked on repairing the section of
the foundation of the RMC where
the water got in. Chip Clay and
Stan Barber, two RMC
employees, stayed in the closed
Memorial Center Thursday,
August 18 to monitor the
situation. "When the water came
through," said Creagh, "they were
there to put the trash cans and
buckets under the leaks." Creagh
gave credit to Clay, Barber and her
staff for limiting water damage to
the books.
"When we came in Friday
morning there was a muddy, gooey
mess on the floor of the office,"
Creagh said. "The water came
through over the office, travelled
down an I-beam, and wound up
here," she continued, indicating a
soaked plaster ceiling p'«nel. "You
probably know more about how it
happened than 1 do."
The way in which the water
entered the building remains a
mystery. Creagh said she did not
regret moving the books despite
assurances that the store section ot
the basement had been
flood proofed after the 1976
deluge. But the labors put the hook
see Storm, puftf
Freshmen few, smart
by Paul Havlak
Once again, Rice's arriving
freshmen represent an improve-
ment in academic quality
according to standard measures.
The average freshman SAT score
of 1299 represents a six point
increase over last year's average,
according to Admission Office
statistics. The entering class
includes 138 valedictorians, 90
salutatorians, and 190 National
Merit Scholars — more in each
category than in last year's much
larger class.
Of the 697 new students arriving
at Rice this month, 574 are
freshmen. There were 2,800
applicants, fewer than last year, of
whom 1,025 were invited to attend
Rice. "We purposely reduced the
number of entering students" in
order to avoid problems caused by
last year's abnormally large class
-with its 629 members, commented
Assistant to the President for
A£fmissionsuand Records Richard
Stabell. As a result, almost all of
the new students are on campus.
Of the new arrivals, 334 are male
and 240 are female. Fifty-three
percent of the class of'87 are from
Texas, with Florida leading the
rest of the pack as a source of
freshmen. Only 39 of the admittees
are Black, Mexican-American, or
American Indian.
Those scholarship athletes not
admitted under normal admissions
criteria are not included in the
compilation of these statistics.
According to Athletic Department
secretary Barbara Tolar, 56 male
and 20 female athletes have been
signed this year, of whom three or
four were admitted by the
Admissions Office before being
awarded athletic scholarships.
Only nine are transfer students,
and 16 are from outside of Texas.
*
Freshmen postpone commons dining at Baker cookout
—C Clay
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Ekren, Christopher. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 26, 1983, newspaper, August 26, 1983; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245534/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.