The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, April 20, 1990 Page: 3 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1990 3
A reminiscence on the role the Thresher plays on campus
BY MICHAEL RAPHAEL
ought
At graduation time, a young
man's fancy turns to nostalgia.
Strangely, I'm much more nostalgic
about writing this, my last of many
articles for the Thresher before I
graduate, than I am about finishing
up that last English paper, which
makes me feel more queasy than
sentimental.
This selective nostalgia may have
something to do with how big a part
the Thresher has played in my four
years at Rice. It's telling that as I
recall my freshman and sophomore
years, I cannot remember a thing I
wrote for classes, yet I could reel off
a list of Thresher articles and col-
umns I wrote at that time.
Reminiscing is not realism You
remember the unusual and forget
the mundane. When I think about
the hundreds of hours I spent at the
Thresher, mostof itmelts into one big
mass of all-nighters, choices about
what goes on which page, computer
crashes, and writers who strangely
disappeared around deadlines.
But it seems that for each year at
the Thresher, one or two principal
memories spring to mind. With the
self-indulgence that only a graduat-
ing senior should be allowed to get
away with, and constrained by space
from discussing them all, I'd like to
spend this column recounting two of
those main memories—and along
the way perhaps provide an interest-
ing perspective on the role the
Thresher can play at Rice.
During my freshman year, I saw
how much influence the Thresher
could have on this campus, if it is
properly used. As news editor, I
spent quite a bit of time covering
what was the most important cam-
pus issue that year, the university's
intention to require "coherent mi-
nors" of all students, which meant
that academs and S/Es would have
to minor in a subject in the other part
of the curriculum. A coherent minor
committee, composed of, it seemed,
almost every key faculty member
and administrator on campus, was
working on constructing the minors
and deciding how to implement the
plan.
The small group of us who com-
posed the Thresher editorial board at
the time were strongly opposed to
the idea, as I felt most students would
be if they were somehow motivated
to have an opinion. In editorials, I
helped represent our opinion: forced
minors were unnecessarily restric-
tive and would hurt the Rice curricu-
lum—and probably harm admis-
sions as well.
The breakthrough came when
the administration announced an
open forum to discuss the coherent
minors with the faculty who were
planning them Two weeks in a row,
we printed prominent boxes on the
front page announcing the forum
and urging all students to come, and
we continued hitting away with our
opinion on the editorial page, hoping
that someone was reading it
To all of our surprise, though the
forum was held in December, right
before exam week, students took the
time to pack the Chemistry Lecture
Hall, most of them disapproving of
the forced minors and cheering
speakers who opposed the proposal.
The coherent minor committee, fac-
ing a sea of dissatisfied students,
must have been taken aback. Just
weeks later, to my amazement, I was
writing a news story about how the
minors were to be made optional,
sparing future Rice students—to-
day's freshmen and sophomores—a
needless, burdensome requirement.
From my standpoint, watching
the issue play itself out, it is clear that
we at the Thresher, by consciously
giving the issue publicity, had a lot to
do with how things ended up. Today,
by the way, it is important to note that
after five years of optional coherent
minors—three years from now—the
university plans to review the minors
and consider making them required.
At that time, I hope those in charge
realize the stupidity of that option,
and do the best thing—allow all stu-
dents, regardless of major, to get
solid minors in normal subjects in-
stead of the harebrained "coherent"
ones (that is, develop minors in "psy-
chology," not "the Earth in space") .
My sophomore year's main
memory involves a heated contro-
versy over the proposed Office of
Minority Affairs. My involvement
with the issue actually began the
April before, when President Rupp
asked me to leave a meeting he was
having with the Black Student Asso-
ciation, saying that he could not see
any purpose in having a Thresher
reporter in attendance.
At that meeting, Rupp told the
BSA that Rice would not be able to
servative (and, in my opinion, ultra-
wrong) argument against the office,
but he came off as a quasi-racist,
offending a large portion of the stu-
dent body and outraging almost
Sarah J. Leedy, Greg Kahn
Editors-in-Chief
Felix Dawson
Business Manager
NEWS
Kurt Moeller, Jennifer Rios Editors
Lone Listitais&ztt/ Editor
Amy Keener, John Weimer,
Marc Kossover, Jay Yates, Stan Hsue,
SKI
PHOTOGRAPHY
Nguyet Vo Editor
Chris Sonneborn Assistant Editor
James Yao, Mike Gladu
OPINION
Michael Raphael Editor
Steve Lait Cartoonist
Christiane Pratsch
FINE ARTS
Tim Carroll Editor
Shaila Dew an Assistant Editor
CJ. Lukas, Louis Spiegler, Mike Trafton,
Eric Salituro, HK Kahng, Reena Kawal,
Ann Zitterkopf
FEATURES
Greg Kahn Editor
Shaila Dewan, Tim Carroll, Kurt Moeller,
Jennifer Rios, Sarah J. Leedy
© COPYRIGHT 1990
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since
1916, is published each Friday during the school year, except during exami-
nation periods and holidays, by the students of Rice University. Editorial and
business offices are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center,
P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas, 77251. Advertising information available
upon request. Mail subscription rate per semester: $15.00 domestic, $30
international via first class mail. Unsigned editorials represent the majority
opinion of the Thresher Editorial Board. All other pieces represent the opinion
of the author. Obviously. Write me in New York, and always remember that
in the end it is only a rock and roll fantasy. See ya...
SPORTS
Myra K Rucker Editor
Darrell Speck Assistant Editor
Wes Gere,.Leezie Kim, Ahin Huang, Paul
Abosch, Charles Kuffner, Ozgur
Bayazitoglu, Todd B. Ballengee, Sam
Johnson
BACKPAGE
Pete Limperis & Jay Yates Editors
PRODUCTION
Harlan Howe Manager
Stephen Boucher Assistant Manager
Christiane Pratsch, Ed Warren, Nick
Dobson, Ann Zitterkopf, John Weimer,
Leezie Kim, Mike Phillips, Josh Denk,
David Broman, Alicia Butler, Myra K
Rucker
BUSINESS
Michael Flanigan Ads Manager
Chris bav/e Assistant Business Manager
Lucien Tenn, Jay Williams Ads Production
John Zearfoss Staff Assistant
Scott Braunhardt, Doug Hooper
Circulation
(713) 5274801
The Thresher plays an immense role in
campus dialogue...working in such
a situation is an experience, I think,
that you can get in few places.
support their request for a minority
affairs office. This was an position
that, I suppose, Rupp wasn't eager to
have covered in the Thresher. We
covered the story anyway, with a
front-page article based mainly on in-
terviews with BSA members after
the meeting. As editor of the
Thresher that fall, I wrote a couple of
editorials in support of the minority
affairs office and made certain we
covered any developments in the
BSA's quest for it
The exciting part of this issue
occurred in a strange way: a Jones
college sophomore, disagreeing
with one of my editorials, wrote an
audacious letter to the editor oppos-
ing the minority affairs office. Ironi-
cally, his letter did Rice a big favor.
I think the student was trying to
make a principled, though ultra-con-
every black student at Rice.
The barrage of letters that poured
into the Thresher office was unlike
anything I've seen, and the hastily
scheduled debate that followed in a
packed Baker College library was
the most powerful experience I had
at Rice.
The "debate" degenerated (or
rather, consolidated) into a massive,
heartfelt complaint about the homo-
geneity of Wee, the assumptions
made on campus about minority
students, and the lack of ethnic activ-
ity here—things the minority affairs
office has, in its first two years, done
quite a bit to improve. Without such
extremist opposition, support for the
minority affairs office might never
have united so forcefully.
Again, with the minority affairs
office, the Thresher served as a ve-
hicle for change at Rice. Most people
realize that journalists can affect
society by the things they explicitly
write about But it's also important to
realize how much editors can affect
the world by what they choose to
cover, how aggressively they pursue
it, and the prominence they give it in
their publication.
Nowhere can you get a better
demonstration of this than the
Thresher, a virtual media monopoly
on a communication-starved
campus. Thresher editors know that
what they choose to put on the front
page (and, not insignificantly, in the
misclass) is what everyone on cam-
pus will know about and discuss that
Friday—and often afterward.
In my opinion, the Thresher plays
an immense role in campus dia-
logue. Its a part of every important
campus issue. Its credibility is con-
stantly on edge, depending mainly
on whether the latest important
story was well-done or not Working
in such a situation is an experience, 1
think, that you can get in few places,
that you remember after you do it
I wonder if I'm alone in saying that
when 1 remember my time at Rice, I'll
think about many things, but few will
have to do with classes. Pathetic?
Sign of a true academ? Whatever.
You remember the things that really
made an impression on you.
Reflections that graduation brings
GUEST COLUMN
By Mary Elliott
Graduation. Fear. Elation. De-
pression.
Yes, I am one of the dazed, shell-
shocked individuals stumbling
around campus that the rest of you
refer to as seniors. You know, the
people who keep on ignoring any
conversations about next year. We
won't be here to advise, to take
classes, to volunteer, to sleep late, to
stay up all night talking, or to eat CK
food.
But don't ask us where we will be,
because some of us don't know and I,
for one, don't want to think about
what is going to happen in a little
more than two weeks.
It's not that we don't want to
graduate. Not at alL It's just that
many of us are finding that the real
world is much harsher than anything
we've ever experienced before. After
being worshipped in high school, it
was a hard pill to take to be average
here at Rice. But that surprise was
nothing compared to the shock of
receiving an abundance of rejection
letters.
I guess I thought that finding ajob
would be as simple as snapping my
fingers. Boy, was I wrong. But, more
than anything else, these letters
have helped me to find some per-
spective on the past four years and on
the future. I guess, in a way, these
letters completed my undergraduate
education.
A student was quoted in the Sep-
tember 25, 1919, edition of
the Thresher as saying, "I never let
my studies interfere with my educa-
tion." And I haven't Campus activi-
ties became my life, and, in a large
way, define my life up to this point I
can definitely say that I would not be
the same person if I had not partici-
pated in these activities.
I've always enjoyed being in-
volved in campus activities, but now
I really think that my participation in
these activities, which caused a cor-
responding lack of interest in my
studies, resulted in my current lack
of employment
I was so interested in campus
activities that these activities always
came first to the detriment to my
studies.
Not that my CPA is all that bad,
but it seems that most employers
Rejection letters
have helped me
to find some
perspective on the
past four years and
on the future.
focus on this variable more than any
other.
But, to be honest, I wouldn't have
changed a thing.
Mary Elliott, a Will Rice College
senior, was internal vice president of
the Student Association this year, and
is currently on an unwavering quest
for employment.
Join the Earth Day demonstration
on Sunday for a better environment
GUEST COLUMN
By
George Busenberg
The first Earth Day—April 22,
1970—marked the beginning of the
popular environmental movement in
America.
An estimated 20 million people
throughout America participated in
demonstrations and activities relat-
ing to environmental issues. In its
wake the EPA was formed, and the
Clean Air and Clean Water acts
passed in Congress.
This April will mark the twentieth
anniversary of Earth Day; it is ex-
pected to be one of the largest organ-
ized demonstrations in human his-
tory.
The reason for all this concern is
simple. Environmental degradation
has become one of the greatest
threats now facing humanity.
The combination of a rapidly
growing world population and un-
sustainable economic practices is
straining the Earth's capacity to
support us.
Many species are now facing ex-
tinction as the result of our activities,
but the impact is not limited to wild-
life. The fact is that humans also de-
pend on their environment to sur-
vive.
Improper disposal of toxic waste
pollutes our drinking water, and air
pollution goes straight into our
Environmental
degradation has
become one of the
greatest threats now
facing humanity...
Earth Day is a
sendofffor the cru-
cial decade that lies
ahead.
lungs. Depletion of the ozone layer
will increase the number o^; skin
cancer cases. Global warming has
the potential to wreak havoc by
changing local climates. And the
farmlands that are presently being
depleted through misuse may soon
be unable to provide food for the
world.
Solving these problems will re-
quire a long-term international ef-
fort. We will have to both control our
population and create a world econ-
omy that is sustainable (i.e. one that
does not endanger the survival of
future generations).
The purpose of Earth Day is to
muster popular support for the ac-
complishment of these goals. Earth
Day is not an end in itself, but a
sendoff for the crucial decade that
lies ahead.
While it's often said that we live
on a fragile planet, that actually isn't
true. What is fragile is the set of'
conditions on this planet that allow
us to survive, and it is our responsi-
bility to ensure that those conditions
remain to support future genera-
tions.
Earth Day 1990 will be a declara-
tion of that commitment
George Busenberg, a freshman at
Sid Richardson College, is the presi-
dent of the Rice Environmental Club.
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Kahn, Greg & Leedy, Sarah J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, April 20, 1990, newspaper, April 20, 1990; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245751/m1/3/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.