The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, March 1, 1996 Page: 2 of 16
sixteen pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
'1 *V« s Lfj ,. u i1f j* 3 7WtKBfc^w &Li!F fj; ™|>! j v tl ^ 4 T 1 --j jJ ^ r' ^ ■,£ ruj
Mil■. .^.P,.|..||.4|.,«|...«>.i.li,.l. ....i ii..L,. 1.III.■.■■!■!.. ......., ...I.. I i uiii. a..i I. Iiiii.lii I'inirni-.i'
IE RICE THRESHER
.iii|iiiiii;l|jiiiiiiiiiii Ml 11 mint nun. II II I .. I Willi — i n
v.O'^vf ir J '4't!liiu^SSfl • fe15C?fci1«\tf4 ^ 1 hir««f * 1 ifi«
.. . ■ ■ ■ ^
Renovations decision is a soap opera.
As a college journalism professor once said, the college editor's job can
be defined in three words: To raise hell So, Here we go.
The Wiess College renovation situation has gotten out of hand. Back-
room politicking, students being cut off from the decision-making process,
(acuity members' comments being ignored, administrators being slan-
dered behind t heir backs -- these jfre but a few of the activities surrounding
the issue. Parties on all sides have told the Thresher bits and pieces of the
story off the record. All the -deception has led to two things — a huge
hi .idaeht-and a political cesspool,
Die Wiess College renovation decision (see story, page i) is something
that may have a lasting impact on this university, A ninth' college, one of the
original and apparently currently-debated proposals, will alter the very
institution that we now attend in a drastic manner With the implications of
this decision being so groat, all student's deserve to know the whole truth
And yet. the parties involved have continuously told the Thresher one thing
on the record, "No comment." While it" is obviously everyone's right to say
■this, we have one question, "Who exactly do all of you think you are?" We
don't'care if you area Rice vice president or a Wiess College constituent, thrs
issue has become a "universitv-vvide" issue and must be given over to all
students for input, especially since it can affect the dynamics of this school.
All parties have fumbled and bumbled through this one. Why not try
actually talking openly instead of trying to hide the facts in a bunch of closed
meetings and muttering about the situation in private? Drop the politicking
there is no room for it in this decision. The students of this university
deserve better.
All of the people involved in this need to take a step back and look at this
issue from a university standpoint instead of making it into some big
melodrama where the world revolves around this issue. It's no longer about
Wiess College pride; it's about Rice University. One of the parties has to take
a risk Dancing around the issue will accomplish nothing, and the current
course of action is a detriment to this university.
<#
vtu*e,
Letters to the Editor
Anti-abortion insert claims to
educate but cites dubious facts
Elections
The electoral system needs help.
Now is the time for change. When the thrill of victory is still in the heart.
When the sting of defeat is still weighing down the soul. When the residue
from those damn fliers is still on the walls. Now is the time for change in the
Rice electoral system.
What, you might ask, is wrong? The Rice student body votes in a number
i it races they don't care about, campaigning is out of hand and the preferen-
tial balloting system has some flaws.
Whom We Vote For
In much the same way as American voters react to the long list of judicial
candidates at election time. Rice students just skim over the names of the
* andidates running for many offices and quickly move to the next page. It
only makes sense that rtie Rice student body vote on some officers in the
blanket tax organizations, but why is it that we are voting for Rice Student
Volunteer Program secretary? While deposition is no less important than
any other position at Rice, students just don't care. Affer witnessing the
ballot-counting process, there is not only a significant drop in ballots cast
between the Student Association president race and the RSVP rgces (1,362
to 975 this year), but the pattern of
0_ 'voting quickly becomes a one vote
pmiOIXOr 'UI the first candidate and a two vote
^ for the second and so on.
O Neither the RSVP nor the RPC
W £3. art' political organizations, and for
# C^> this reason, students should elect
c/5 the chair and president of those re-
spective organizations only. This
would fall into line with the slow reform process that has occurred over time
wit li die Thresher and < "am pontic Since 1989, students have not voted on the
business managers tor these organizations. ASA ballot should thus include
v\ president. SA internal vice president. SA.external vice president, RPC
president. RSVP chair, Thresher editor and Campanile editor. This would
allow the organizations to have a more cohesive set o! officers, most oj
whom would be appointed, while keeping A level of accountability to the
students
Campaigning
C ampaigning has become ineffective because of the current system.
( here are too many fliers which do little to actually sway the voter either
way. The posters lack content K-ruail campaigning is a horrid prospect, but
Web pages are a nice, free way to get to the student body, at least in the
future. The $25 limit on campaign expenses only fosters this plethora of
paper garbage, while not really being enforceable (after all, deals can be
struck at copy centers, receipts can be faked or receipts can just be thrown
away). Signs are frequently hung in illegal places because of the sheer
number out there. How could you solve all these problems? Simple. Instead
of limiting the money spent", limit the number of fliers you can put up. Say
each candidate gets-five fliers at each college. Maybe this would produce
more thoughtful fliers arid weed out the people who are running only
because they think they are popular and can sway the electorate with lots
of neat fliers. The limit and an established postyig area would also put an end
to the tearing down of fliers. E-mail campaigning should be banned outright.
How We Vote
List but not least, the preferential balloting system has some holes. It
may be time to imitate the United States elections in a plurality, winner-
takes-all system. Yes,tun-offs would be a problem, but a winner-tikes-all
system eliminates weird happenings like in the 1994 elections where
Michol McMillian lost to Kelly Dorman in the RPC external vice president
race. McMillian had 40 more first-place votes than Dorman, but she lost the
election by 26 votes after redistribution, a process where the ballots for the
candidate with the least number-one votes get redistributed to the other
candidates based on whom the voter put down as the number-two candidate.
In the end. Rice organisations would be more cohesive; and irtudents
wouldn't have to deal with annoying fliers everywhere, Everyone wins.
To the editor:
We were both amused and ap-
palled by last week's insert in- the
Thresher by the Human Life Alliance
of Minnesota Education Fund.
Its claim to be "educational"
rather than propaganda must rely
on a new definition of the word or
possibly is a joke.
The Human Life Alliance makes
some interesting claims, such as
"IPills) fail to suppress ovulation 50
percent of the time!"
However, the PDA-approved in-
formation on Ortho-Cept, a widely-
used form of the pill, says, 'The
typical failure rate of large numbers
of pill users is less than 3 percent per
year I even] when women who miss
**~j>ills are included."
Another supposed "fact" that is
mentioned several times in the in-
sert states that abortion leads to a
"two to four times higher risk of
developing breast cancer."
Besides the fact that the study
, from which Jhis statistic is pulled i£
' not cited, this particular bit of infor-
mation does not reveal the whole
picture.
In actuality, a recent study found
lhat women who have an abortion
and have a family history of breast
cancer may have an increased risk
for breast cancer.
The "proven fact" that the Hu-
man Life Alliance wants us to be-
lieve is, in reality, data taken out of
context with a very important vari
able (that women must also have a
family history of breast cancer) left
out. Educational indeed.
One of the more disturbing as-
pects of the insert was an article
written by a David C. Reardon on
victims of rape and incest.
According to Reardon, "At a sub-
conscious level, the rape victim feels
that that if she can get through with
the pregnancy she will have con-
quered the rapt;."
While none of us have ever been
raped (as is probably the case with
Mr. Reardon), this seems a very sim-
plistic view of the complex emotional
responses which a raped and preg-
nant woman has,
Reardon also states, "Having the
child [conceived by incest] can'not
only help expose the incestuous
relationship but also give hope of
beginning a truly loving relation-
ship."
It is extremely difficult to imag-
ine that anyone who would sexually
assault his own child would make a
good father to another child.
Nor is it easy to imagine that he
would be so moved by the experi-
ence as to suddenly become loving
toward his assault victim.
If the Human Life Alliance truly
wishes to educate people, be it on
pro-life issues or on other health/
moral concerns, then it should accu-
rately reference the medical articles
and books to which it refers.
By writing and publishing this
type of (often unsubstantiated) pro-
paganda, the Human Life Alliance
not only insults the reader's intelli-
gence by inaccurately making
claims, it also paints simplistic and
possibly dangerous portraits of all
aspects of the abortion debate.
Any decision about abortion is an
agonizing and difficult one. Informed
discussion from both side? of the
issue is important. Biased and igno-
rant propaganda helps no one, espe-
cially the people who most need in
telligent advice.
• *
Anne Kimbol
Baker '98
Laura Heath
Hanszen '96
Maggie Large
Hanszen -98
Letters miss crux of cultural education
To the editor:
Irphan Gaslight wala ("Ignorance
begets racism," Thresher, Feb.. 9}
and Lisa De lit TorreVDesire to
learn about own culture should not
be perceived as ignorance, racism,"
Thresher. Feb. 16) have both written
letters about the places of Western
and non-Western cultures in educa-
tion at Rice.
1 take particular exception to De
la Torre's letter. She writes that "it
is most rational to choose to learn
about the history gf the culture that
will be most useful in your day-to-
day living — that of the country in
which you live."
She argues, then, that because
students at Rice live in a Western
society, they must study Western
culture to get ahead.
In other words, the purpose of a
university education is to make
money,'and lots of it, and to hell with
broad understanding and deep learn-
ing. Even on these terms, her argu-
ment is probably false.
The university is an institution
for teaching critical thought and prq:
moting a rational understanding of
the world, not merely an advanced
trade school.
The humanities in particular must
be committed to examining all hu-
man experience, not just the experi-
ence ofthepeopte in one'sown soci-
ety. You cannot truly understand
something without understanding
what it isn't.
* I am not opposed to making
money or to capitalism in general;
far from itTiut is making money the
purpose of education?
No, no more than it should be the
purpose of marriage. De hi Torre
should be grateful for the opportuni-
ties Rice offers her, whether or not
she seizes them.
However, I hasten to add that
such education should be based on
rationally examining ideas, not
uncritically staring at everyone's
navel but one's own.
Gaslightwala mentions the con-
tributions of Asian culture to the
world, for example.
But cultures are not indivisible
primaries. Does Gaslightwala em-
brace all of Indian culture uncritical-
ly, even to the centuries of religious
warfare there?
I am sure he does not. Neither do
I celebrate the cruel enslavement of
Africans.
Education iflust see people as
individuals, for only individuals can
hold ideas. Groups cannot.
Otherwise, a putative education
is really indoctrination, the dreary
struggle to supplant one unthinking
passion with another. Either we are
educated to understand the past, or
we will be swallowed up By old
struggles revived.
And if is in this that .American
education is such a failure.
There is no institution in Ameri-
can society more committed to
multiculturalism than public educa-
tion, despite the gloss given it by
the Reagan and Bush administra-
tions.
However, despite Gaslightwala's
assertions, American schools al-
ready teach about other cultures
just as anti-conceptually and vainly
as they teach every other subject.
I was exposed to the Han Dy-
nasty, the Moghul Empire and the
cultures of West Africa in social stud-
ies in elepientary school; I even re-
member being shown a film on the
life of Gautama Buddha. In third
grade in Texas, no less!
However, to be tossed an
unintegrated body of facts is not to
receive an education.
But would it have been better
only about the West?
Rather, both alternatives are
equally unsavory: Neither approach
is concerned with intellectual devel-
opment but with emotional adjust-
ment.
Neither approach leads to criti-
cal thought, but both lead to an un-
thinking acceptance of the world as
it is.
MIKael TKoinpsdn
Jones '98
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Klein, Charles & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, March 1, 1996, newspaper, March 1, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246534/m1/2/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.