The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, April 19, 1996 Page: 2 of 20
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Strategic Plan's lack of specifics
makes document almost worthless
It's unfortunate that such a potentially important document as the Strategic
Plan has little to no value, and it's unfortunate that the collective resources of 15
members of our community were drawn away from projects that could have
actually made a difference at Rice to work on this document. What could have
been a guiding influence at this university has been boiled down to no more than
a public relations document of the highest order.
litst week, we took a look at a few elements of the Strategic flan, but aside
from these very tew specifics, the plan is vague, vacuous and lacks any clear
■ • , • ' «a"V-' < ** —' * "
direction.
At the recent Strategic Planning Forum, the members of the committee in
attendance didn't even seem to know what was written in the plan, specifically
in term's of increasing undergraduate enrollment.
Another topic of controversy was graduate studies and the quality of the
faculty in regard to research This brought up the typical Rice mentality that our
professors havtWto produce a certain number of papers and presentations in
order to earn tenure. 'The best faculty in tfie country are people who can
research ... 1 mean, that's just a fact," Assistant Professor of History Carol
Quillen said. She proceeds to clarify that the best researchers are not necessar-
ily the best teachers. Funny, what are we, the 2.700undergraduates, here to do?
To learn by being taught, maybe? We wollder if Graeme Rankine agrees with her
statement. We agree that a large portion of the best faculty are indeed good
researchers, but the rest are those who have a passion for teaching and molding
the leaders of tomorrow, something that Rice fiat,-out ignores in its tenure
process. Another aspect of Rice that is glossed over
But what is even more comical about the pfau is that the few specifics that are
actually distinguishable among the vague words are things that President (iillis
has been talking about for some time, For example, (iillis has mentioned on at
least two separate oi casions that he would like to set1 a 10 percent increase in
enrollment and two new colleges. Was the committee afraid to take a hard line
on anything that the president didn't already support? Where are the real
changes and answers (o hard hitting problems?
l.ovctt C ollege Master Connie Burke said it best at the forum when she
addressed the problems facing the colleges in terms of Food and Housing. The
plan proposes more "support" be given to the piasters. Burke responded, "I
don't need an administrative assistant or a better secretary; what! need are tor-
tile problems to go away,"
She hits on a valid point. This plan is devoid of substantial content. There is
no refutation or agreement with the current tuition plan, which raises tuition
according lo the CPI There is no mention of the ongoing complaints over food
quality or any number of other issues.
Instead, we have a Strategic Plan that appears to have been written by If)
different people who never readied a consensus. And that is What thin-document
should have been —-a consensus opinion on the course of action to be taken by
this university entering the 21st century. This university cannot afford to take a
tentative step into The lulu re by proposing a bunch of abstract goals that have no
attached solutions,
1 'nlorlunately, the Strategic Plan in its current lorm leaves Rice University
with only one option: Politics as usual.
Unfair
Athletes should be exempt from
HPER 101 and 102
Natural Sciences 101, Pnglish 1(.K' take a lesl and these graduation
requirements disappear Students who pass exemption exams demonstrating
that they haw mastered the material covered in those courses are free to pursue
more in depth classes in Hnglish or even completely un'related courses.
( \ hilike S/'Ks who can write well or academs who have a solid background in
the sciences, athletes have no opportunity to "test, out" or receive credit for
Human Performances 101 and 102 through their hours of practice.
Think of the athletes at Rice. (>n aver
nininnw age they practice about 25 hours a week.
|.(1, instance, volleyball players tend to
practice two-and-a-half to three hours a
day; this does not include game time. T)ui
wig the spring, they work out every morn
ing. This schedule is roughly representa-
tive of all team sports at Rice. If the HPER
requirement is to ensure that Rice students participate ill some sort of physical
activity during.their years here, athletes already satisfy this goal.
However, despite their evident dedication to physical fitness, Rice athletes
are still required to take two semesters of HPER in order to graduate. Not only
is the HPER requirement for athletes simply unfair, it also causes many hassles
and difficulties in scheduling academic classes.
With stric t practice schedules, most of them are unable to take classes on
certain afternoons. The pracfice schedule already limits the academic choices
thai the student would normally have if he or she were not part of the team. In
addition to this limit, the students als*> face the challenge of scheduling a HPER
course which further constricts their times available for academic courses. The
fact that athletes must choose their classes to accommodate HPER contradicts
the idea of coming to college to obtain an academic degree.
Exempting athletes from HPER is an idea that makes perfect sense.
—
___________
to t-fcft is 1h6
.z. official-ticket
of ricc.
Letter Policy
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e-mail: lingjjvjpwlnet. rice.edu
campus mail; letter t<> the Editor, e/o The Rice Thresher
U.S. Mail: letter to the Editor, The Rice Thresher,
6100 Main St., MS-524,.Houston, TX 77005-1892
in person: Thresher Office, Second Floor, Student Center
DEADLINE I >eadhue lor all letters is p.m. on Monday
Letters to the Editor
source
inconvenience, tension
To the editor:
We are glad that Neill Binford is
concerned about our safely ("Bik-
ers, skaters speeding on campus will
be fined," Thresher, April 12). We
are a little distressed, however, by
the general enforcement of traffic
policies by the Campus Police
Our primary area of concern lies
in the adversarial relationship be-
tween student drivers and traffic
enforcement. Recently Binford an-
nounced that he would be forming
special patrols to ticket speeding
bikers and skaters.
Before this problem is addressed,
we should address older, more per-
sistent problems. One such prob-
lem is the use of booting.
To us, ticketing is a better re-
sponse to the traffic problems of the
Rice community. We are disap-
pointed that, booting of cars has be-
come commonplace on this campus.
While we recognize that this iseasier
than towing, it has several disadvan-
tages.
The most significant disadvan-
tage is that while punishing one
member of the Rice community for
parking illegally if simultaneously
punishes others by depriving them
of parking spots until the boot is
removed. It seems that in a commu-
nity such as ours, booting vehicles is
excessively punitive for an act that is
not malicious in nature.
Af times, the current policy seems
to encourage ticketing when it i*
easy rather than when it is merited.
Although we do recognize that tick-
eting is sometimes necessary, it
seems that a warning, more often
than not, would suffice.
We applaud the recent decision
to open some staff lots at 3:30 p.m.,
but we suspect that this time could
"be moved as early as the end of the
lunch hour.
We feel that other improvements
could be made to the traffic enforce-
ment policy.
Fines for failu re to register should
be dropped when the car is regis-
tered. The fine is imposed to prevent
abuses of Rice parking facilities by
Medical Center personnel, but, yet
again, it most often serves to punish
Rice students unnecessarily.
As members of Sid Richardson
College, we are sympathetic to the
plight of those individuals who have
received tickets for very short,-term
violations of the parking policy (even
with their flashers on). We feel that
short-term parking with flashers
should be allowed in all lots, not just
on the inner loop.
There is simply no other alterna-
tive for those individuals who do not
-have parking privileges in the col-
lege lots.
The lot already has two 45 minute
spots", but these are often full, while
t here is clearly space available ii) the
reserved lot for the short-term needs
that residents have.
We would also like to see more..
clearly marked parking areas. For
example, the SRC lot was not delin-
eated from the Herring Hall lot for
more than one semester. We would
even go so far as to suggest that
some kind of color-coding scheme
for the parking lots should be insti-
tuted. Since the stickers are already
color coded, why not the lots?
Finally we request that Binford
examine the possibility that the lots
should not be ticketed until they are
nearly full. Some form of guideline
(80 percent capacity) should be es-
tablished so that students who park
in half-empty lots can feel sure that
they will not be ticketed unneces-
sarily.
We concede that if the lot should
fill up, the student should not have
any recourse for appeal on grounds
that the lot was not full when he
arrived.
In closing, we would like to reit-
erate that we are all in the same
community. We are disappointed
that animosity between students,
administrators and Campus Police
persists over an issue as mundane
as traffic enforcement policy.
We hope that Binford will seek to
eliminate this element of adversity
as he re-examines Uje policies gov-
erning traffic enforcement at Rice.
Josh Earnest
SRC'97
Paul O'Brien
SRC '97
New traffic policy unclear, goes too far
To the editor:
I urge m^colleagues to pay close
notice to the latest edict ("Bikers,
skaters speeding on campus will be
fined," 'Thresher, April 12) from the
associate vice president for finance
and administration.
I will try to keep in mind the fact
that I should always drive my car
(slowly of course) to work and never
bicycle regardless of anything.
The EPA may be disappointed,
but they do not have the Campus
Police to back them tfp.
Moreover, not only do 1 not know
which are the "few" streets officially
permitting bicycling, 1 actually
couldn't care less.
It's important that we keep our
campus commuter-unfriendly, dog-
unfriendly, bike-unfriendly and who-
knows-what-tomorrow-unfriendly.
F. Curtis Michel
Professor
Department of Spqce Physics
and Astronomy
Removal of SOSC 102 hurts liberal education
To the editor:
1 for one am sorry to see that Rice
has elected to delete Social Sciences
102 from the list of required courses.
None of the alternatives in the course
catalog offer the depth or breadth of
human and political insight found in
SOSC 102.
1 have heard numerous engineer-
ing students complain about the "ir
relevance" of the course, but that
very statement in itself shows how
badly* a course of this nature is
needed.
The world revolves around inter-
actions amongst people, and the
technology we so avidly pursue to-
day is but a blip in the course of
human history. It is equally impor-
tant that future leaders and voters
have some idea of the origination of
the principles under which we are
governed.
Half the problem with today's
electorate is an inability to fathom
why society and the individual are
separated the way they are. SOSC
102 filled this role like none of the
alternatives could or will.
Sure, there are a few problems
with the course The primary prob-
lem is the auditorium setting, which
essentially precludes any opportu-
nity for discission and expansion of
ideas.
By the time discussion section
rolls around, the idea is long forgot-
ten. I would encourage the Commit
tee on Undergraduate Curriculum
to Speedily create a similar course.
Instead of a large group setting,
teach the same material in smaller
classes. SOSC 102 really-fs a neces-
sary part of a well-rounded educa-
tion.
Wayne Herbert
Brown '97
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Beard, Marty & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, April 19, 1996, newspaper, April 19, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246540/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.