The Rice Thresher, Vol. 98, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, August 20, 2010 Page: 3 of 24
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M
!.Op-Ed
4
4
Great Expectations await new students
In the past two months, I have been
£peating one consistent theme to
anyone and everyone about my phi-
losophy as your new dean of under-
graduates. That philosophy is based
on many years of teaching Rice stu-
dents in the classroom and working
with them in the colleges. Succinctly
j^ut, it is this: When we have high ex-
pectations for our students and when
■ve articulate these expectations, our
students will invariably meet or ex-
ceed them.
that you have chosen to come here is
evidence alone that you must have
high expectations. But it is worth
sitting down to create your own list of
expectations for your time at Rice.
At Rice, we choose to give you great
flexibility in the curriculum with a
wide variety of majors, minors, inter-
disciplinary programs and distribu-
tion courses. We leave it to you, with
the help of your advisers, to define
your choices and to set your priorities.
U
johr. Hutchinson
^ This simple theme runs through-
out the entire Rice student experi-
ence, from the classrooms to the
colleges to athletic fields. Over my
years at Rice, I have found this to be
so consistently true that I am con-
vinced that the single most impor-
& it thing that we as a university can
do for you as a student is to set high
expectations.
Having said this, I am grateful to
the Thresher for the opportunity to
do as I say, to tell you what my own
expectations are. I could provide
'ong and detailed list, but my list
can be captured in two simple state-
ments.
First, have high expectations for
oelf individually. Let this be your
{ a. Whether in the classroom,
. iiie laboratory, in scholarly compo-
4P ion, in the recital or concert hall,
an the playing field, track, pool, or
court, in the studio, in community
involvement or in college or organiza-
tion leadership, set your sights at the
Nghest level.
^ You are a Rice student, and the fact
Ask yourself, in your
remaining semesters
at Rice, what experi-
ences and courses
will you include in
your personal cur-
riculum? How will you
challenge yourself to
get out of your com-
fort zone?
99
Years ago, we defined this as
creating your "personal curriculum."
Ask yourself, in your remaining
semesters at Rice, what experiences
and courses will you include in your
personal curriculum? How will you
challenge yourself to get out of your
comfort zone? Will you include an
international study experience?
Will you pursue scholarly research
studies with a faculty mentor in
your field? Will you reach out to
the community you live in, inside
of Rice or outside of Rice? Will you
contribute to and learn from the full
range of multicultural experiences in
our diverse student body? Will you
learn new skills in communication,
writing, music or athleticism? To
be clear, we expect you to do these
things at Rice and we expect you to
own the responsibility to integrate
them into your personal curriculum.
Second, take care of each other.
I recently commented that, of the
many things I love about our stu-
dents at Rice, the single greatest is
the culture of care that exists among
you. This is manifested in many
ways, perhaps most conspicuously
in O-Week where hundreds of you
give up your time in the spring and
summer as coordinators, advisers,
fellows and mentors to assist your
fellow students in finding their ways
in their new community.
The list of your volunteerism
continues on end. You serve as
academic fellows and mentors, peer
academic advisers, health advisers,
multicultural facilitators, EMTs,
caregivers and tutors. Beyond these
defined roles, however, is the even
greater responsibility each of you
has to simply watch out for each
other. Let us know if a fellow stu-
dent is in distress or need. Expect of
yourself that you will intervene when
you see a fellow student behaving
recklessly or endangering them-
selves or others. Contribute to our
civic culture by abiding by the rules
and policies of your college and your
campus home. Stand up for each
other, and know that others will
stand up for you.
Rice is an extraordinary place to
study and to live in largely because
of the extraordinary people who
are our students. We brought you
here with the expectation that you
will help us become even better. We
hope that you came here expecting
to do just that.
John Hutchinson is
the dean of undergraduates.
Don't sleep through this opportunity
£elcome, and welcome back.
For those of you about to com
plete The Best Week of Your Life, I
hope that you managed to get some
sleep in the process. You've only just
begun a nonstop four-year (give or
take a year) adventure that will leave
Y>u wondering why you ever protest
TO naptime in kindergarten.
feu-
Anna Wilde
For those of you who have al
ady done this song and dance a
\.m times already, I hope that you
also managed to get some sleep be
tween summer research, internships
and other adventures.
Suffice it to say that in facing the
ginning of the end of my time at
ice, I'm perhaps more apprehen
# ; about keeping my good sleeping
record from the summer going than I
am about job searches, resume revi
sions and all of the other fun aspects
of joining the real world.
After all, we don't sleep at Rice.
Those of us on staff at the Thresher
Specially don't sleep.
"What is the Thresher?" you new
students may ask. Well, according
to the page opposite this column,
the Rice Thresher is the official stu-
dent newspaper at Rice University
since 1916.
£ And that's the extent of your
thoughts about the purpose of
the Thresher as Rice's student-run
publication as you quickly flip to
the Backpage.
But have you ever considered
working for the Thresher?
New students, you've already
been bombarded with information
about joining different organiza-
tions from packets, fliers and fairs. I
encourage you to be open to trying
something new - especially some-
thing different from what you did
in high school - but also be wary of
overbooking yourself. Both are easy
to accomplish at a school with so
many options when it comes to ex-
tracurricular activities.
Those of you who aren't new
students are, rather than looking
for new organizations to join, prob
ably trying to figure out how to get
out of some of the organizations that
you got involved with during fresh
man year, in hopes of having better
grades or maybe just an opportunity
to check out that whole sleep thing I
was talking about a few minutes ago.
However, you are also the ones
who are already familiar with the
Thresher. Maybe the extent of your
familiarity is the progression of the
Backpage. Maybe you skim through
the pages to find out the latest news,
entertainment and sports informa-
tion as it pertains to Rice. Maybe
you check out the Calendar and do
the crossword during lunch. Maybe
you go to our website, www.rice-
thresher.org, and leave an insight
ful comment about what should be
done better.
Well, if you have good ideas, why
aren't you on the Thresher staff ?
National audience
awaits Thresher writers
To misquote former Thresher car-
toonist Dan Derozier, there are three
reasons for alumni to write Thresher
columns: loneliness, revenge and the
fetishization of lost youth. This col-
umn is probably a combo of all three,
although the more obvious purpose
is to encourage you to write for the
Thresher.
I don't have sarcastic intentions
behind that question. (At least, not
all of the time.) It really does puzzle
me when people easily offer up ad-
vice and corrections for the paper
but are not as willing to put it into
action themselves.
Yes, we know that you're busy.
However, you can choose your level
of commitment here at the Thresh-
er. Sure, you could end up like me
and start wishing that the RMC had
showers so that you could officially
live in the office.
Or, you could take a healthier ap-
proach by only writing one column a
week. By taking on one two-hour co-
py-editing shift. Signing up for one
photography assignment. Coming in
to do layout or design for a couple of
hours. That's right: you don't have to
be a writer to work for the Thresher,
nor do you have to have newspaper
experience. I'll let you in on a little
secret: When I started at the Thresh
er during my first O-Week, I didn't
have a shred of newspaper experi
ence, nor was I a writer. (I'm still not,
as you can tell from this column.)
Give it a shot. We'll train you in
whatever you'd like to do, whether
it's writing, design, editing or pho-
tography. The bottom line is: The
Thresher is the only student organi-
zation that pays all of its members.
We even have couches in the of-
fice where you can catch up on those
sought after ZZZs.
Anna Wilde is a Martel College
senior and Thresher editor in chief.
For more information on joining
the Thresher staff, please send an
Evan Mintz
Back in my day, there were a
few key reasons to write for the
Thresher. Ranked in ascending
effectiveness: resume building,
money, power, experience, attention
and fun. However, in the few years
since my graduation, the way the
Thresher functions has undergone
a paradigm shift. It used to be the
Thresher news and opinion only
reached a limited sphere. It cer-
tainly had its influence on campus,
in the historical records, and among
its 6,000 or so subscribers, but that
influence was provincial nonethe-
less. We had a website, but the less
said about that, the better.
Now the Thresher's online
influence has the potential for the
monumental. The website is good,
no doubt, but the potential lies not
there, but in one simple link. The
Thresher is one of the few uni-
versity newspapers linked on the
Huffington Post's college site. The
Huffington Post's mix of reporting
and celebrity gossip may serve as a
sick purgatory for the necropolian
denizens of that dying city we call
Journalism, but dang if it doesn't
get page hits. Given Rice's small
student body and open process for
writing for the Thresher, this gives
students the chance to reach the
Huffington Post's millions
of viewers.
However, it is only a chance.
There is a difference between a
link at the bottom of the page and
being a featured article. However,
the trained reader can find some
key patterns in the Huffington
Post's featured articles. Adhere to
these, and your column could
go national.
1. Applicability beyond the hedges:
Rice is notoriously insular, and that
is often a good thing. Students focus
on problems that directly affect them
and hr.w to fix the problems. How-
ever, if you want that sweet Internet
attention, you are going to have to
write about something bigger. How is
Rice affected by immigration issues?
What about student loans; don't
those suck? And what about the
gays; how does a university in Texas
deal with all that? Inquiring minds
want to know.
2. Green light topics:
Often, the news cycle will somehow
greenlight a topic to gain newswor-
thiness. There is no real rhyme or
logic to it, but you should follow it.
One week marijuana legalization will
gain an undo amount of attention.
The next week, typography will be a
media darling. Write about the topic
of week, whatever it inanely may be.
3. Lists:
The Huffington Post loves lists. Peo-
ple read more if it is in list form, and
the list format lends itself to multiple
page hits, which is the key to Inter-
net money. Write your column in list
form, like 1 am doing right now.
4. Celebrity and politico gossip:
Celebrity gossip gets page hits, and
politico gossip gets page hits while
letting the reader feel smart and the
writer feel like she is reporting on
something important. Hang out at
the Baker Institute and see if anyone
important shows up and says some-
thing wacky. Rice fundraisers often
bring in the big names, and Lynn
Wyatt getting drunk may be enough
for a Huffington Post link, or at least
a Houston Press blog. Celebrities also
sometimes send their kids to Rice,
and that can always lead to a great
column. I, for one, am disappointed
that no one wrote about Daniel
Ledeen's kids at Rice.
5. Something sexy:
Sex sells, and despite the "Rice Girls
Are Ugly" lies, Rice is full of sex.
Write something about NOD. Maybe
you know a Rice student who is
also a professional stripper. Baker
13 deserves some first person Gonzo
journalism.
6. Things that look like other things:
For some reason, the Huffington Post
loves running lists of things that look
like other things. South Servery fries
look like ex-presidents? Maybe you
can mold your mashed potatoes into
a perfect replication of Mario riding
on Yoshi. Or that tree has an amaz-
ingly convincing scary face. The best
is if you can combine other Huffing-
ton Post fetishes into this category,
something like: fruits that look like
the breasts of former first ladies. I
don't get it, but the Huffington Post
loves it.
a
The Rice Thresher is
one of the few uni-
versity newspapers
linked on the Huffing-
ton Post's college site
... Given Rice's small
student body and
open process for writ-
ing for the Thresher,
this gives the chance
to reach the Huffing-
ton Post's millions of
viewers.
99
7. Something about Arianna Huffington:
Every week, the front page of the
Huffington Post features an article
about Arianna's adventures on Sun-
day morning talk shows. This should
be no surprise; anyone willing to
name an online newspaper after
herself probably has some degree of
an ego. And given the page hits, a
ego deserved. Feed this ego by writ-
ing columns that mention Arianna.
Better yet, combine this with other
categories. 10 points to the first
person to write a column about:
Maureen Dowd v. Arianna
Huffington, who is hotter?
It used to be that the Thresher's
three weekly opinion columns would
naturally arrange themselves so that
every issue there would be a column
about campus issues, a column
about issues beyond the hedges and
a funny third thing. However, times
change, and the never-relenting hunt
for page hits and Internet stardom
may change this paradigm. So, if vou
are going to take advantage of the
Thresher's Internet attention, at least
do it right.
Evan Mintz graduated from Hanszen
College in 2008 and is a former
Thresher executive editor.
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Wilde, Anna. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 98, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, August 20, 2010, newspaper, August 20, 2010; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth398476/m1/3/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.