The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 15, 1989 Page: 1 of 16
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SINCE 1916
The
VOLUME 77, NO. 4
Huston named 1989
Professor of the Year
NUMBER ONE IN THE SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE
SEPTEMBER 15, 1989
by Sarah Leedy
The Council for Advancement
and Support of Education (CASE)
announced on Wednesday that J.
Dennis Huston, a Professor of Eng-
lish at Rice University for twenty
years, has been named the 1989
Professor of the Year.
Huston was chosen from a pool of
over 500 applicants by a panel of
education experts and writers, and
university and college deans. His
selection was based on his scholastic
achievements, his involvement in
many aspects of the Rice commu-
nity, and on recommendations writ-
ten by Rice students, alumni and
colleagues of Huston.
"I'm very excited. I knew I'd been
nominated, but I had no idea I would
win," Huston said at a meeting with
the press, held Wednesday after-
noon at the Allen Center.
When asked what he planned to
do with the $5000 cash award he will
receive from the Carnegie Founda-
tion for the Advancement of Teach-
ing, he replied, "I have two kids in
college myself right now, and I sup-
pose some of it will go to that But I
also want to have fun with it like
taking the people who wrote recom-
mendations for me out to dinner."
Those people are Paige Rey-
nolds, Rebecca Epstein, Kathryn
Vanderbeck Smyser and Robert
Dubose, all students or former stu-
dents of Huston, as well as Albert
Van Helden, Chairman of the His-
tory Department These recommen-
dations played a key role in the final
selection of Huston, who has won
every teaching award Rice offers.
"During the past two years Den-
nis has performed exceptional
service... in his role as director of our
two semester core courses in the
humanities," said President George
Rupp.
"Because of the respect he com-
mands among his peers, as well as
his tact and selflessness, Dennis has
transformed a fractious group of
professors [those involved in the
humanities program] into a close
intellectual community," he said.
- " '
J. Dennis Huston talks about being chosen the Council for Advancement and Support, of Education's Professor of the Year
"Dennis Huston is the kind of
teacher we all hoped we could be. He
is utterly devoted to the students and
to his craft, he works extremely
hard, and he has a classroom pres-
103 courses cancelled this semester
ence that is unequalled at Rice,"
wrote Van Helden in his letter to the
CASE selection committee.
At Wednesday's press confer-
ence, Huston discussed his involve-
ment in Rice student life over the
classroom technique. "When I'm
teaching, I feel transported, in a way,
along with the students, into living
from moment to moment., spontane-
ously. I feel this in acting, too, but i
feel more confident in the class-
years, as a favorite professor of room."
by Mark Permann
More than 100 undergraduate
and graduate courses listed in the
Schedule of Courses Offered were not
offered in the updated course list
which were printed in August
Fifty-two undergraduate and 51
graduate courses were cancelled,
while only 19 undergraduate and 16
graduate courses were added to the
schedule, (not including courses
offered by four colleges). The psy-
chology and philosophy depart-
ments had the highest proportion of
classes cancelled.
Associate Registrar Laura
Branch said certain departments
had more cancellations than usual.
But when asked whether the num-
ber of courses cancelled for the fall
semester was unusually large,
Branch said, "No, it is not, when you
take it university-wide."
The psychology, art history, na-
val science, and philosophy depart-
ments had the highest percentages
of cancellations. Fifty percent of the
psychology department courses,
both undergraduate and graduate,
were cancelled.
Psychology department chair-
man Kenneth R. Laughery was out of
town and unavailable for comment
Wednesday.
Branch said she knew a change in
the department curriculum caused
the large number of psychology
course cancellations. She added that
since the printing of the updated
schedule "some of the [undergradu-
ate] courses were reinstituted due to
demand."
Of 18 undergraduate HART
courses, four (22 percent) were
cancelled, and only HART 306,
Greek Art, was added to the sched-
ule.
The naval science department,
which planned to offer'only ten
classes, cancelled three and added
none.
The philosophy department
cancelled four of its 13 undergradu-
ate fall courses. In addition, eight of
the nine remaining classes had a
time change, an instructor change,
or both.
"We have had as many, if not
more, changes thisyear than we ever
had in the past" said department
chairman Mark A Kulstad. The
changes and cancellations were due
to a number reasons, explained Kul-
stad. Two tenure track positions that
Captain Mike Sullivan, professor of Naval
seen here in a ceremony honoring him for
Science, retired on September 1. He is
his service to the Navy ROTC program.
were to be filled last year remain
unfilled.
"The President [George Rupp]
had urged us to be extremely selec-
tive. We only made two offers,
though we could have made six or
seven just from the short list," Kul-
stad said. Both people chosen re-
fused the offers, which were made in
February, the same month in which
the course schedules were due to be
turned in to the Registrar.
Kulstad said, "The philosophy
department was under the under-
standing that one way or another,
the positions would be filled," which
meant that temporary faculty would
be hired in case the tenure track
offers were refused.
However, when the tenure track
positions were not filled "funding for
the department was cut to two-
thirds," he said.
Kulstad said he had not known
this would happen and the reduced
funding allowed the hiring of only
one full-time and some part-time
temporary faculty members. *
Another problem, according to
Kulstad, was that some facu lty leaves
of absence were finalized later than
usual. "Dr. [Ken] Waters, who was
going to teach Philosophy of Science.
[PHIL 313], did not receive notifica-
tion of a one year research grant
awarded by the National Science
Foundation until the first of July. We
were not able to fill his positions until
the last day of that month," said
Kulstad.
The department was only given a
week to make up a course schedule,
and the schedule he made did not
reflect the deliberations between
himself and the faculty of the depart-
ment, Kulstad added.
"We have to collect data in Febru-
ary so that we can give it to the
printer in time for the schedule to get
to students by April," said Branch.
She said department chairs were
given a week and a half to two weeks
to make up the schedule, and were
then invited to edit and^enfy the
schedules as recorded by her,
a which, she added, is the normal
£ procedure.
| Kulstad said although this was
g the first time he had made the sched-
ule, the circumstances would have
impeded even an experienced chair-
person.
"Chaucer to 1800,"arequired course
for English majors, as an actor in
many campus productions, and as a
former Master of Hanszen College.
He related his acting on stage to his
A formal presentation of the na-
tional award will be made at Rice by
CASE President Gary M. Quehl on
October 10th, during National
Higher Education Week.
Rice students to join
national homeless rally
by Amy Keener
The Rice Student Volunteer Pro-
gram, joining a nation-wide effort to
help the homeless, plans to send a
group of students to the Third An-
nual Leadership Conference and a
rally against hunger and homeless-
ness in Washington D.C.
The "Housing Now!" rally, sched-
uled for the first weekend in Octo-
ber, is sponsored in part by the Na-
tional Student Campaign Against
Hunger and Homelessness and
American University's Center for
Student Volunteerism and Commu-
nity Service. Approximately 150 dif-
ferent organizations are sponsoring
the rally.
RSVP External Vice-President
Becky Evans said she hopes to in-
crease awareness at Rice about the
problems of homelessness through
direct exposure to leading figures in
homelessness efforts.
The goals of this rally are to
express concern and to try to edu-
cate the public," she said. "It is not
for any one particular political bill."
"Hopefully the people we send
will come back and organize pro-
grams to help the homeless in Hous-
ton," said Paul Winkler, Rice alum-
nus and director of RSVP.
Winkler said the conference will
give students the opportunity to get
involved. RSVP plans to initiate pro-
grams this year that deal directly
with the growing population of
homeless men, women and children
in Houston.
The Reagan administration cut 77
percent of federal housing funds,
from $32 billion down to $8 billion,
resulting in a loss of $25 billion for
federal funded housing, Evans said.
This cut was the largest of any
federal social development pro-
grams, and has affected not only low
income housing, but also loan and
grant programs for college gradu-
ates.
As a result, middle class Ameri-
cans are finding it increasingly diffi-
cult to find affordable housing. Fig-
ures now also estimate that one
quarter of all homeless people are
children, and this proportion is ris-
ing continuously, Evans added
The rally is attempting to bring
the housing issue to the public's at-
tention, make the agenda for the
1990 Congress, and to pressure Jack
Kemp, secretary of Housing and
Urban Development under Presi-
dent George Bush, to actively ad-
dress the problem.
Jonathan Kozol, a national figure
in the homelessness effort, will be
speaking at Rice on November 13, as
part of the President's Lecture Se-
ries. Kozol is a graduate from Har-
vard and author of Rachael and Her
SEE RALLY, PAGE r
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Kahn, Greg & Leedy, Sarah J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 15, 1989, newspaper, September 15, 1989; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245727/m1/1/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.