A" -rf Hackerman shrugs off low ratings of grad programs - Rice ...

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Money should be spent Rice University has an endowment of about 400 million dollars. Unfortunately, too much of it seems to be gathering interest. The recent national faculty rankings comparing Rice to other institutions tend to support an opinion I have long held. Rice should invest its funds in what it professes to believe in: education. Specifically, Rice should follow the example of schools like Princeton, which plunge millions into teaching and research, targeting weak departments for extra attention. Princeton recently decided that it was weak in microbiology, so it is committing a cool 30 million dollars to excellence. By spending money on graduate research, Princeton has not compromised its excellent undergraduate program, the program Rice was originally modeled after. Size in and of itself does not confer greatness, and smallness does not relegate universities to obscurity. With less students to teach, Rice should be able to spend more on the students and professors it does have. Only Princeton has more money per student than Rice, yet over 30 colleges often overshadow Rice in many fields. Rice's failure to realize its tremendous potential can be squarely blamed on Rice's administration. A modicum of fiscal conservatism is always prudent. With close to 400 million dollars, however, Rice is very unlikely to wither away. Rice's Board of Governors needs to stop managing investments and start running an institution of higher education. — Christopher Ekren Phys Plant fixes my a/c Last Monday I received a call from the Physical Plant Director Ed Samfield. He had read about my cold room, and asked if he could please send his air conditiong expert over to have a look. I assented, and on Tuesday Tony Ullrich inspected the vent in my room, affectionately known as 'Dalhart.' Walking into my room from class Tuesday, I felt a deliciously foreign sensation: warm air. "You must have been freezing this winter," Samfield told me when he checked back later. "We should have heard from you sooner." Well, 1 thought he had heard from me sooner. I have told my B & G representative many times that my room is icy, Arctic/Antarctic, or a designated Laplander preserve. 1 thought I had gotten the message across. Now it is obvious that if a student needs repair, he must deal with Physical Plant directly. Sometimes this is no more efficient than carping to the B & G, but it least it saves a step. Physical Plant will not perform any labor until it receives a work order. My speculation is that students reps fear that Physical Plant will not let them have their resumd-enhancing job again if they submit too many work requests. This fear is everywhere. The Food and Housing director says he "can't answer for Physical Plant," but will he even ask them to overhaul the decaying residential buildings on his own initiative? Will either ask for budget increases? The campos need another patrol car, but they won't ask for it. Will Vice President William Akers ask someone for them? There's an answer out there waiting for the question. Don't be afraid to ask. Then demand. Make yourself heard until they do the job. It could get your a/c fixed. —Jeanne Cooper knew**., PLEASE! cant**) W \JEAST WNT 'TIL^NE HEAR. weVEBKT? • warn mmc: '.""Hi The Riec Thresher, February 4, 1983, page 2 NUKING THE HEDGES/by David Curcio Murder by injection on Death Row is no better than murder by handgun in a back alley. In fact, it is worse. For the killer now is not some worthless punk wit ha violent antisocial past, but a sane, calculating state acting for us all in the name of justice: The street hoodlum hyped up on drugs doesn't care or doesn't know of the immorality of murder; we know killing is wrong, yet we sanction it anyway. The vain hope of preventing future murders is the standard justification for capital punishment. Study after study, including one in 1978 by the National Academy of Sciences, has shown that letting the state kill does not clearly deter people from killing. While deterrence works when individuals behave rationally, murder is most often an emotional crime perpetrated by one who does not weigh the pros and cons of his actions. Occasionally, the murderer is aware of the consequences, but is either equally aware of the probability of conviction or is intentionally seeking to take the risk and bask in the publicity. As a general deterrent, capital punishment is a farce. The real reasons behind the death penalty are as emotional as the original killer's motives. Fear of a growing crime rate and the satisfaction gained from retribution lurk behind" the deterrence theory. The fear, though understandable, is exaggerated; while the murder rate has increased in recent decades, it has now levelled off at 9.8 per 100,000 population: the same rate as fifty years ago. Nonetheless, this powerful emotional force has fostered a movement to make punishment more severe and less humane than our current system of incarceration and death. It would be better to channel this force towards more effective and positive actions such as controlling handguns, which are involved in half of American murders. Retribution does satisfy a legitimate human and social need. It convinces us that our system works in conquering evil. However, a society that needs to resort to murder to preserve its legitimacy hardly seems worth defending. The doctrine of an eye for an eye serves only to equalize the moral fabric of society with that of its lowest element. In response to the inevitable "what if someone you loved was n murdered" question, I have this answer: while my immediate reaction would be vengeance, in the long run, I would rather have the murderer, not I, live with the guilt. A lifetime injail is betterthan a lengthy appeal that dredges up the horrible memory again and again. Also, what if someone you loved was on Death Row? Partly in recognition of the baseness of capital punishment, some semblance of humanism has been coupled with the fear and the wrath. Numerous safeguards, including the lengthy and expensive appeals process, were created to ensure that no innocent person is put to death, and to make the whole procedure a little less discriminatory. More recently, there has been a trend in America towards "humane executions." Thus, cells on Death Row are painted blue and yellow, some have televisions and, in Texas at least, UJ iDccum HnxCOl U V electrocuting the person has been replaced with an allegedly painless lethal injection. These "reforms" are the ultimate in hypocrisy; swabbing the victim's arm with alcohol before injecting the poison does not make the killing any less real or evil. Replacing the electric chair with a gurney does not relieve us of the responsiblity for the death. No one has the right to take another's life regardless of what that person may have done. Society does have a right to remove those who violate this fundamental proscription from the mainstream, that is what those hell holes we call corrections institutions are for. Killing can never be justified as a deterrent; it is done not in pursuit of what is right, but rather in response to a barbaric element in all of us. Capital punishment is not justice, it is murder. Patty Cleary News Editor Deborah Knaff Fine Arts Editor Mark Mitchell Sports Editor John Krueger... Back Page Editor * * * Todd Cornett Advertising Manager Lorraine Farrell Managing Editor Conrad Reining Photography Editor Matt Petersen "Copy Editor Jay Grob Senior Editor Jeanne Cooper Editor Sandra Wasson Business Manager Contributing Staff Assistant Editors David Koralek (Advertising) Alan Mathiowetz (Sports), Ray Isle (Photography), Contributing Editors Michele Gillespie, Harry Wade, Chris Ekren, David Curcio Graphics Lynn Lytton, John Lemr, Debbie T oletovich News Staff Paul Havlak, Bob Terry, Larry Lesser Sumit Nanda, Ian Davidson, Brad Sevetson Chris Dieckmann, Joseph Halcyon Fine Arts Staff Chris Boyer, Geoffrey Westergard Andrew Tullis, Barry Watkins, Geoff Spradley John Krueger, Ray Isle, Paige Pool, Recta Achari John Svatek, Allison Kennamer, Rick Hunt Sports Staff Steve Bailey, Carolyn Burr, Heather Gillespie, Ed Brittingham, Ed Swartz, Genie Lutz Kay Abrahams, Mike Friedman, Steve Corbato, Joseph Halcyon Production Staff Alysha Webb, John Krueger Susan Sheridan, Elaine Bienkowski, Renate Neuendorf Joyce Ivy, Mark Rome, His ham Smed Sarah Jordan, Karin Murphy Photography Staff Tom Cassidy, John Gibson MikeGladu, David Dean Business Staff Assistant Business Manager Susan Brown Circ lation..' Matt Petersen Subscriptions David Steffens Staff Michelle Grant, Jane Mitchell, Kay Gratke The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is published each Friday during the school year, except during examination periods and holidays, by the students of Rice U niversity. Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the Rice Memorial Center, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251. Telephone (713) 527-4801 or 527-4802. Advertising information available upon request. Mail subscription rate: $20.00 domestic, $40.00 international, (via first class mail). The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of anyone except the writer Obviously. ®I982. The Rice Thresher. All rights reserved. xiSS^taS>t ® n Dux femina facti.
BEYOND THE HEDGES/by Michele Gillespie Pizza Thugs: Part Two Aggies indicted for heist Two former Texas A&M football players, dismissed in December by head coach Jackie Sherill after they allegedly stole a pizza from a delivery man, have received misdemeanor indictments from the Brazos County grand jurors. In an indictment alleging assault and theft, the grand jury named former A&M freshman defensive end. Gary Rogers and former junior linebacker Burnis Simon. Witnesses for the case included Rogers, Simon, Sherill and the delivery man, Brenton Bailey. Beside dismissal from the football team and indictment, the perpetrators of the "Pizza Heist Case" must now undergo university disciplinary proceedings, according to A&M Student Affairs Office Assistant Director Bill Kibler. Simon and Rogers have received notification of the proceedings and must respond by requesting formal hearings or Kibler will hear the case without their presence. Possible disciplinary measures range from a reprimand to permanent suspension. Though Simon and Rogers attest to a different version of the incident. Bailey, maintains that he was requested to deliver a pizza to Room 306C in Cain Hall. Upon reaching 306C, he discovered the room was a broom closet and then was grabbed from behind by two large men in hoods. One man fled with the pizza and the other man shoved him down the stairs. Bailey was not injured. Although Simon and Rogers hve made no comment since the incident, their statements to the police claim they found a pizza in a hallway and after eating part of it were suddenly accosted by an angry Bailey, who shoved them away from their spoils. Rogerssaid he shoved Bailey back accidentally down the stairs. Peso devaluation disrupts UT Mexican students' life Although Texas university! officials are unable to recite exact figures, many fear that the devaluation of the Mexican peso has made financing a college education very difficult for many Mexican students. Since foreign students remain ineligible for any form of U.S. government financial aid, the Mexican students' situation may become a desperate one. Some schools are providing short-term financial assistance and considering long-term financial assistance programs for the future geared to the needs of Mexican Pepper UMLD "b «EVE HOUOA ROA^S CA/avv) TWILIGHT IN H.C.U - --V vjAHTA 1 nsmili .students. In Mexico, scholarships are being decreased and fewer scholarships are given out. Alma Guzman, a University of Texas English major, recently discussed the financial worries she and her husband must face. "We were receiving money from our families in Mexico. We can't receive money now because they were sending us dollars and now they can't get dollars," Guzman explained. "We do have our own money, and we have saved to come over here. We are trying to get some dollars through the border but they are very expensive," she said. The Guzmans will have less than half the money they expected to have before the devaluation if they exchange their pesos through the black market. Prep queen visits A&M, falls for esprit de Corps A recent visit to Texas A&M University has convinced Lisa Birnbach, author of the Official Preppy Handbook, to include A&M in her new venture, another expose to be entitled Lisa Birnbach's College Book. Scheduled for publication in 1984, the book will include analyses of non-academic college life at 150 American colleges and universities. Focusing on social activities, political orientation and sexual attitudes, Birnback's latest endeavor will be informative but will not compare or rank the schools. "1 want to let people knowabout each school's climate, politically and socially," Birnbach stated. "College — and college students — have changed a lot just since I was in school, and I'll be writing about what it's like to be in school now." Prompted by students she met at colleges and universities across the country while promoting her very successful Preppy Handbook, Birnbach realized that a need for a good guide to college life existed "This definitely won't be a satire in the Preppy Handbook vein," she asserted. "Of course, I'm going to be as witty and entertaining as possible but it will be a serious work, one I hope will be useful." Birnbach first heard about Texas A&M only a year ago, but immediately planned to visit the school. After spending a day on the campus, Birnbach was awestruck by the school's uniqueness, its dedication to sports, its wealth, its efforts to upgrade the faculty and its traditions. "I've never, ever seen such loyalty or adherence to tradition," she commented. "And wherever we went, students kept smiling and saying hello. It was truly unlike by Lynn Lytton f PRoftLfA to W\lP IS TV*W0ME/4 HERE I A*Z AIL TfttG-lp. R UUP STEVE N-OWIY J TM60OGW TUILLL6TW I ISEAACW *T A VIOL PLACt, I 10 HUH, AT , ^'^5=31 any other campus. All this will probably get a chapter of its own." Television trains children, Harvard researchers find Dubbed "Project Zero" in 1967 to indicate how little they knew, a team of Harvard researchers have spent the last fifteen years studying television's effect upon children's actions and thought. The researchers have found that children as young as two years learn to make distinctions between the television world and the world of parents and home. In fact, television may stimulate children BLOOM COUNTY M VIEWS WFTH THIS TCTH TOMEPITDRON GUN CONTROT. / H * UlEN IWTUB AHEM. TP UKE- 70 SUBMIT A IE ITER TO THE EPIT0R MAYBE I SHOWR HAVE REQUESTSP THIS TRAN5FERTOTHT BCACON'S NEW "PERSONALS" SECTION... CLASSIFLEP I PERSONALS 'Pirn f\n HEI G00P MORNING, MAWM > NOPOMY6R H6&T0 APTERTISE FOR THAT • GRI/VT -MR.WON vexewajT / THERE WHO SHARES YOUR PERSONAL H0BB/ES MP INTERESTS. v OASSIF/EP PERSONALS IV Ufc TO PLACE AN AP IN THE CERTAINLY " PERSONALS," PLEASE. rajl HOW WOULP you UKE IT ' 70 REAP? \ aAssiFiep PERSONALS z-t I...T THINK I'P UKE TO Ft ACE AN AP PERSONALS OASSlFIEr PERSONAL:. to differentiate between fantasy and reality at a very young age. Another discovery indicates that children learn how to interpret people's feelings much better through television than through books. The researchers also believe that television may aid the development of reason in children and foster early abstract conceptualization. In one study, researchers monitored television viewing of three children over a three-year period. One child grew totally absorbed with telelvison. Another played with friends in front of the screen, oblivious tothepictureand WH6N msmmM,]), ONtYWTMWS WI16 06 „ RUING PONT wo. Kill GUNS, F M '^^ovrwws.-; urif Sluiim Sraru YOU U SEE. THERE HOW I PEMANP THAT THE GOVERNMENT FROVIPE. A HOUSE A VOLVO, A HEATEP WATERBEP ANP A SUBSCRIPTION TC MOWER JONES TO EVERY POOP, HER SON ON EARTH. Uhr loom feirun APVERT15IN& FOR A MATE IN THE CLASSIFICP6... PRETTY WEIRP S7VFF IF YOU ASK ME _ I OEFLPUNN li,hr i tjowjl Slonm Srarun t WEU-/ FINE ' WE'LL JUbT TAKE A QUICK REEK A1 YER AP ANP CHECK FOP. SPOUNO Sloom "SlNGL£ MACE, 29, 6 3" ROBUST, STRAPPING ; SEEKS FEMALE COMPANION. " I- sm CLASSIFIEP PERSONALS "SINGLE WHITE FEMALE 26. PLAIN COOKS FUIN 0OPR PLAIN HAIR ANP SQUASHED SEW 1 ESTEEM, WHICH HAS BEEN THOROUGHLY TRAMFUP &Y THOUOKTIESS PKRS THR(XX^-| XV OUT UF€; m-ouN Nl/T5 .00/1Hey JU5T. co/ ru, m y/1 m i - m i o o . M C M i v - HOW'S ATI- THA GONNA 6ET PFILP FOR 7 lihr [until Brariin JUS; IMAGINE WHAT KLNP OF NUT THIS 50RT0F rHINb ATTKACT5.. CLASSIFIED PERSONA. sound. The third child consistently used television as a tool for discussion, commenting on the actions and asking questions about them. Co-director Howard Gardiner asserts that television's influence on children is determined by their environment. "The degree to which you relate what you see on TV is modulated by what you see in the non-TV world," he said. "If the people around you talk i n terms of violence, TV can give you some new ideas. Someone who lives in an environment that is very placid wouldn't be inspired by television to change the way he is." by Berke Breathed lit Sloom Srnrm CLAS5IFIEP REJ^SONALS CLA SS/F/EP PERSONALS TAXES rfa I A IS SEEKING. UH.. IS SEEKING.. OA5SIFIEP V?J?S0NAi5 ANYWAYS... IT'S ALL TWEKE VERBATIM IN THE LETTER . I / 1 Slnnm Spar 70 A FASCIST YOU RAY GOVERNMENT TAXES? ' J 2=3 ahr onm Srnrnn *m)tou%Y HftNP60fAe WAl ML£,2b,$eWb Mi nxvNfffD, 18-21, WR IMAGINE. MANHFLNPT/NG ^ ? ANVUGHT jy . i m a m m *31 v cjj&wiep PiF.bOUPi ' FLOGGING " HAS TWO _ "G 5" ,— SOMETHING WRONG SHORTY 2 ' AM>B0Py V / CLASSIFIER PERSONALS OASSIREP I€rs (iASSlFICP PEPSONALS I GUESS NOT \ The Rice Thresher, February 4. 1M83. page 3
Page 1: A" •$ z -rf , Hackerman shrugs of
Page 5 and 6: THRESHING-IT-OUT continued from pag
Page 7 and 8: Heliums given grant to explore plat
Page 9 and 10: Thresher/Fine Arts Shange finds tea
Page 11 and 12: Preview Players continue success of
Page 13 and 14: Cinema Children give their comments
Page 15 and 16: THE RICi THRESHER/SPORTS Healthy ne
Page 17 and 18: INTRAMURALS Cinzano romps to soccer
Page 19 and 20: Obedience to form, while no more bl

A" -rf Hackerman shrugs off low ratings of grad programs - Rice ...

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