The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, April 17, 2009 Page: 3 of 20
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Op-Ed
Recession promotes humanitarian careers McMurtry slated to thrive by
establishing Mongol identity
In the past few years, graduat-
ing college seniors have flocked
toward jobs in investment banking
or consulting, thanks to their rela-
tively high starting salaries and the
prestige they add to a resume. This
trend is particularly true at some
of the most competitive and elite
schools in the nation; The New York
Times has reported that 40 percent
of recent Harvard undergraduates
go on to careers in finance.
Rachel Marcus
At Rice, the Career Services survey
of recent aiumni indicates that a large
number of bachelor's degree recipi-
ents who do not go on to graduate or
professional schools choose banking
or consulting for their first jobs out
of college. However, with the current
state of the economy, finance has
lost much of its pull: Jobs are scarcer
and less secure, and the industry no
longer holds the prestige it once did.
With these sudden changes in the job
market, many current college seniors
are left without the traditional career
paths that their predecessors took in
previous years. Now, the question is,
in what direction will the new genera-
tion of college students choose to go?
In the 1950s and 1960s, science
and technology-related industries
were the fields of choice for many
of America's top students. Jobs in
government and public service were
more popular, as Cold War-era con-
flicts motivated many individuals to
serve their country. During that time,
as Paul Krugman noted in The New
York Times, banking was considered
"boring;" its glamorous and lucrative
reputation has only been acquired in
the past few decades.
Much has been made of the no-
tion that "the best and the bright-
est" young people have gone on to
careers in finance rather than us-
ing their talents toward developing
cures for cancer, for instance, or
helping to solve the conflict in the
Middle East. Many of those people
lamenting the rise of the financial
industry see the popularity of in-
vestment banking and consulting
as indicative of a greedy streak
running through American culture.
However, I do not believe it is pru-
dent to blame young college stu-
dents for preferring to go into these
fields. It is only natural to want to
maximize one's chances for suc-
cess, both in terms of status and
financial rewards.
At the present moment, soon-
to-be and recent college graduates
are facing the challenge of having
to make decisions about their future
careers without a clear blueprint for
success. Given that in this economy,
financial success is not a safe bet in
any industry, many people are turn-
ing to jobs in government and pub-
lic service-related positions, such
as teaching. The competitiveness
of programs like Teach for America
certainly gives credibility to the no-
tion that a new generational shift is
taking place. Indeed, the Teach for
America program has given teaching
jobs a certain amount of prestige. Ad-
ditionally, some of the new education
policymakers, such as Michelle Rhee
of the Washington, D.C. school dis-
trict, have made raising teacher sala-
ries a central issue; the higher pay
for teaching jobs may lure more high-
achieving students into the field.
Not long ago I spoke to friend of
mine, a recently laid-off banker who is
now going back to school to get a mas
ter's degree in public health. "Working
in a bank just wasn't really satisfying
to me," she said. "I started off want-
ing to go to medical school, but I went
into banking for the money. Now that I
don't have my banking job anymore, I
have the chance to do something that
really interests me, in a field where I
can make a real difference."
Perhaps this kind of attitude is
the greatest upside to the recent fi-
nancial crisis. Now that people are
no longer tempted by the promise of
vast amounts of wealth in finance,
they have the freedom to pursue
careers that may be more directly
beneficial to society. In this sense, I
expect that we will be entering a new
era in which the potential to make a
difference in society will have greater
value to young people making career
choices, and we should expect to
see some of our "best and brightest"
once again pursuing goals toward ef-
fecting social change.
Rachel Marcus is a /ones
College senior.
Student insurance plan requires balance
Rice University has invested con-
siderable effort in recent years to im-
prove health insurance coverage for
students. Success can be measured in
many ways, improved care and lower
costs among them. By those mea-
sures, we have been successful.
1.
Michael Winters
Negotiating a student insurance
plan is a complex task with many
different considerations: How much
overall cost should students bear?
What essential services do they
need? What kind of provider net-
work best serves students? Is the
insurance company stable? Should
all students on the plan pay a higher
cost for a few students who may be-
come ill, or should overall costs be
kept to a minimum with students
who become ill paying for a higher
percentage of their care?
The procedure for negotiating a
plan at Rice begins with a health
insurance committee composed
of graduate students — no under-
graduate students have applied to
be on the committee in the past few
years — physicians and administra-
tors. This committee met several
times this year. The insurance com-
mittee reviewed the current plan
and considered changes to increase
value or provide needed services to
students. We created a list of modi-
fications to propose to the insur-
ance provider. The provider then
enumerated the cost of each modi-
fication. As Rice's health plan ad-
ministrator, I made the final choice
of plan options, advised by other
staff members who have expertise
in health insurance.
Rice has chosen Aetna as its plan
provider because Aetna has one of the
largest local and national networks
of health care providers. We feel it
is important for students to have as
much variety in choosing providers
as possible. By working with Aetna
over several years we have been able
to address problems in communica-
tion and service delivery.
Rice consults with a broker to re-
view the student health plan, but not
to negotiate it. Retaining a broker can
increase the premium cost for the
insurance plan and not necessarily
produce the best outcome. By nego-
tiating directly with Aetna we were
able to enhance the plan benefits at a
total cost of $1,486 per student for the
2009-'i0 policy year. That's an annual
savings of $246 compared with the
previous policy year and a one-third
reduction from the $2,193 premium
in 2007 '08. The 2009-'i0 price is the
lowest cost for a Rice health insur-
ance plan since 2003-'04.
So what will the plan for next
year look like? In addition to the sub-
stantial savings in premium costs,
some important enhancements have
been added, including adjustments
for prescription coverage, mental
health care and routine office vis-
its for children through 12 months.
Specifically, the annual prescription
deductible of $100 is eliminated,
the annual prescription policy year
maximum is increased from $1,500
to $3,000 and prescriptions can be
filled up to a 60-day supply with
one co-pay, which will reduce from
12 to six the number of co-pays for
a medication that has to be filled on
a monthly basis. The annual men-
tal health outpatient maximum of
$50 per visit and the annual mental
health outpatient maximum of $500
have been eliminated, and the plan
will allow 60 visits per policy year
for a substantial improvement in
mental health benefits.
In addition, Rice will now sub-
sidize health insurance for doctoral
students who subscribe to the plan
in their first eight years of study, as
opposed to six before.
While it is impossible to com-
pletely satisfy every need, I believe
that the lower cost and increased
benefits in this plan are a major im-
provement for our students. Over
time we will continue to explore ad-
ditional options, but we will always
try our best to keep the plan afford-
able to all and provide the appropri-
ate level of insurance for our popula-
tion as a whole. In addition, we will
continue to engage students as we
explore choices for health care insur-
ance as one of many ways that Rice is
seeking to improve the overall educa-
tional and living environment for our
hardworking and talented students.
a
In the medieval world, the Mon-
gols were the ultimate menace.
They attacked with speed and ruth-
lessness, trying wherever possible
to terrify their opponents and use
the element of surprise.
Brian Reinhart
What made the Mongols especial-
ly fearsome was that you could not
attack them back: A nomadic people,
the fierce tribe had no home base to
invade and no central government to
overthrow. If for some reason your
empire wanted to fight the Mongols,
all you could do was sit and wait for
them to attack you.
U
We feel it is important
for students to have
as much variety in
choosing providers
as possible. By work-
ing with Aetna over
several years we have
been able to address
problems in commu-
nication and service
delivery.
99
As in the past, we will work
with students to resolve problems
or complaints about the insurance
provider. Students can contact me
at winterstfbrice.edu if they feel they
have not gotten fair treatment or an
appropriate response from Aetna, or
need additional information about
the Rice plan.
Michael Winters, Acting Assistant
Dean of Student Affairs for
Health Programs.
Like the Mongols did
700 years ago,
McMurtry finds
itself in the middle,
between the north
colleges on one side,
with their own distinct
traditions and cul-
tures, and the south
colleges on the other,
farther away but
greater in number.
99
McMurtry College borrowed a
trick or two from the Mongol play-
book during Willy Week last month,
when the unfinished college made
its debut on the Rice stage by pull-
ing jacks on its future rivals. The
McMurtry jacks had the element
of surprise and a certain theatri-
cal flair. They were far cooler and
better-executed than pranks played
by many of the established colleg-
es. (I'm looking at you, Will Rice.)
And, like the Mongols, McMurtry
did not have to fear reprisal. It had
no home base to counterattack. You
might even call McMurtry's future
advisors nomadic.
As we look ahead to the new resi-
dence's opening this fall, we should
explore other ways McMurtry can cre-
ate a Mongol sense of identity. There
are obvious reasons for supporting
the idea. For one, having a "Mongol
college" would be awesome, and for
another, it would instantly give Mc-
Murtry the kind of heritage we all
forgot to give Martel.
We are already too late to really
make McMurtry a Mongol college in
one sense, of course. Students there
will be housed in a regular brick-
and-mortar building, whereas por-
table yurts would have been a far
superior — and far more distinctive
— mode of lodging. But McMurtry
can still honor the new tradition in
the same way they unintentionally
began it: skillfully planning jacks
that arrive before anybody is ex-
pecting them. As I have previously
noted in the Thresher, the Mongol
college always strikes first!
I think, however, that there is an
even greater role McMurtry can play
in the Rice community, one which
again is directly inspired by the
Mongol example. After the warrior
hordes conquered central Asia, Per-
sia, Russia and China, they became
crucial in bridging the gap between
East and West. The peaceful admin-
istrations which followed Genghis
Khan's death promoted interaction
between Europe and Asia.
It was during the Mongol rule
of Asia that Marco Polo traveled
to China. It was during the Mon-
gol times that the technology of
gunpowder spread from China to
the Muslim world and parts of Eu-
rope. The Mongols reopened the
Silk Road, established a flourishing
trade network, exported Chinese
painters and architects to the Mid-
dle East and welcomed emissaries
of the Pope in the steppes of central
Asia. One could almost say that the
Mongols, not content with mere-
ly being conquerors, went on to
invent globalization.
My suggestion is based on the
fact that McMurtry is perfectly
situated to promote interaction
between the north and south col-
leges. Like the Mongols did 700
years ago, McMurtry finds itself in
the middle, between the north col-
leges on one side, with their own
distinct traditions and cultures,
and the south colleges on the other,
farther away but greater in number.
McMurtry, with its foothold on the
inner loop and its initial popula-
tion of uprooted southerners, is in
a unique position to bridge the gap.
This situation is our best chance to
finally bring the north and south
colleges together. j
It should be left to the new col-
lege's residents to decide how ex-
actly to foster unity between north
and south in the same way that the
Mongols connected east and west.
But I have no doubt that this oppor-
tunity is one too good to pass up.
It is a mission which would make
McMurtry indispensable to campus
life, even from its birth.
Some people might object to the
idea that McMurtry should be the
Mongol college. Are the Mongols
poor role models, perhaps? Maybe
but they were no more ruthless than
Will Rice College at Beer Bike and
no more alcoholic than the seventh
floor of Sid Richardson College. Mc-
Murtry is a Scottish name, yes, but
so is Duncan, and they were prob-
ably going to have a fight about
that anyway.
a
Are the Mongols
poor role models,
perhaps? Maybe, but
they were no more
ruthless than Will
Rice College at Beer
Bike and no more
alcoholic than the
seventh floor of Sid
Richardson College.
99
Besides, I think the benefits out-
weigh the risks. The Rice Mongols
would be tasked with fostering a
new culture of unity between the
north and south colleges, and they
would be uniquely able to increase
the quality of our jacking culture.
And anybody who dares suggest
that McMurtry is anything less than
completely awesome would do well
to remember the first rule of deal-
ing with the Mongol college: Never,
ever piss the Mongols off.
Brian Reinhart is a Wiess College
sophomore and calendar editor.
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Michel, Casey. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, April 17, 2009, newspaper, April 17, 2009; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth442989/m1/3/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.