The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 12, 1981 Page: 1 of 28

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Keystone insurance plan in danger
Monday's Student Health Committee meeting was sparsely attended.
—R.
Dees
by Chris Ekren
Rice's current student insurance
policy is on a "downward slope to
oblivion," according to history-
Professor Albert Van Helden,
chairman of the Student Health
Committee, at an open meeting of
the committee Monday night in
the Chemistry Lecture Hall.
Van Helden was addressing
what he called "the two big
issues": student insurance and the
Rice student health service.
According to Van Helden, if Rice
continues to use the current
Keystone policy students can expect
a 25 percent increase next year:
The meeting was held to air
student complaints about health
and insurance services for Rice
students. Several committee
members were present along with
Dean of Undergraduate Affairs
Katherine Brown and Director of
Student Activities Bonnie
Heliums.
Keystone Health Insurance
spokesperson Kay Carlisle
remarked that even with continual
rate increases over the past five
years, Keystone has been losing
money. Carlisle's statement
brought sharp questioning from
the audience asking why, if it is
losing money on Rice, it keeps on
accepting Rice's business. Carlisle
admitted that Keystone has
accrued substantial cash-flow
benefits from Rice's patronage.
In response to dissatisfaction
with the current system. Van
Helden outlined three basic-
options for Rice: l)that all Rice
students be required to purchase
either supplemental or primary
insurance policy, 2)that the
university not bother with
see Keystone, page A17
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1HRESHER
Volume 68, number 23 .
Thursday, February 12, 1981
INSIDE:
• DeCello gets booted from
basketball team, p. A12.
• Statements and other
election stuff, second section.
• Riding with the police,
a personal view, p. A10.
Room and board rises 15 percent for 1981-82
by David Keen
Room and board fees will rise
15 percent next year to a total of
$2900. President Norman
Hackerman and the Board of
Governors approved the increase
at a board meeting on January 22.
Students will now pay $380 more
over the present $2520 for room
and board. Meal charges for off-
campus students will also rise, by
an as yet unspecified amount.
The raise will be the second 15
percent increase in room and
board fees in two years. When the
increase is implemented, room and
board will have risen 57 percent in
the last five years.
Hackerman said that the
increase, recommended to him by
the Residential College
Management Advisory Commit-
tee, is a necessity. "It has a cost-
recovery basis," he explained.
Referring to his past assessment of
Food and Housing budgets,
Hackerman commented, "This
year Food and Housing has made
a better calculation." Hackerman
had stated in December 1979 that
44 Wiessmen get bills
Marion Hicks —D. Keen
by Gus Acevedo
Director of Housing Frank
Petru billed Weissmen Friday
for the labor involved in removing
stains from Wiess and Sid
Richardson Colleges. Petru
received the students' names from
Wiess Chief Justice Bob Canby
last Thursday, following a lengthy
controversy over who would pay
the bill.
Last month, Petru sent SRC a
bill for $115.92 for the clean-up of
eggstains from the commons
windows and lobby walls. SRC
refused to pay, as several Wiess
members had admitted to Wiess
President George Hall that they
had thrown the eggs. Hall agreed
with SRC President Bruce Deskin
to compile a list of the guilty
students so that the SRC court
could prosecute, and possibly
collect fines to cover the bill.
Problems arose, however, when
SRC learned that their court has
no power to prosecute members of
other colleges and that the Wiess
college court has no jurisdiction
over crimes committed by Wiess
members at other colleges. (Only
those who had thrown eggs at
Wiess were eligible to be fined by
the Wiess court.)
Finally, Hall was able to
expedite a solution by sending the
list of names to Director of Food
and Housing Marion Hicks, who
in turn gave it to Petru. Petru
charged those who had damaged
SRC $4.50 each and all those who
had damaged Wiess $4.22. As of
this Wednesday, several of the 44
students have already paid. The
Cashier's Office has the bill on
account, so the students will have
to clear the fine if they are to
receive their semester grades,
request transcripts, or register for
next year.
According to Petru, the Office
of Food and Housing began billing
students directly for damages last
year. "I notify the colleges and they
send me names." If a college can't
submit any names, the college
repaired must pay for the labor.
"there's always a tendency to
create budgets larger than what is
needed to compensate for possible
mistakes."
Director of Food and Housing
Marion Hicks, who consulted with
RCMAC and recommended the
increase, said that the higher fees
have been made necessary by rising
costs, particularly by an
anticipated rise in costs for next
year. "The 15 percent increase that
we're proposing for next year is
based on anticipated cost
increases, mainly food and
utilities, for the next academic
year." he stated, "plus about $25
per student to recover one-third of
the deficit ($200,000) we've
accumulated from last academic
year."
see Room, page A17
$3000 —
$2500
ROOM AND BOARD
Increases 1976-81
$2000
H
1976
T"
1977
r~
1978
T~
1979
1980
1981
Edwards decries black sports myth
by Ken Mitteldorf
The "American Sports Dream"
is the road to failure for young
black athletes today. According to
Harry Edwards, a noted professor
at University of California-
Berkeley, sports is not the rags-to-
riches path it appears to be.
Edwards pointed out in a speech
last week in the RMC Grand Hall
that the likelihood of athletes
running through airports (a la O.J.
Simpson) is far surpassed by the
Calendar proposal made
by Mike Trachtenberg
The Student Association
Senate voted Monday to approve
the proposed changes for the 1982-
83 and 1983-84 calendars. The
changes include a one-week mid-
term break, a two-day spring break
to coincide with Easter, and an
eight-day finals period with a two-
day dead week period.
The proposal will now go on to
the University Council with a
suggestion by the senate to
"reconsider their policy
concerning the Easter Holiday."
The present policy of the
University Council is to schedule
breaks without regard to religious
holidays.
The senate also voted
unanimously to uphold a two
year-old rule which forbids the
selling of student directories to
outside firms for mailing purposes.
Also established Monday night
were two new committees: 1) the
University Escort Committee, to
coordinate escort services between
the colleges; and 2) the University
Flood Prevention Committee,,
which will coordinate flood efforts
for particularly vulnerable
university buildings.
A club called AWARE was also
approved. It plans to offer
speakers, movies and discussions
about womens issues and how they
relate to Rice graduates an;d
undergraduates. AWARE stands
for the Association for Women's
Awareness for the Right to
Equaltiy. English Professor Janis
has agreed to be the faculty
sponsor. AWARE will hold its
second organization meeting
Wednesday February 18 at
7:00p.m. People interested may
contact Pat Niewenhuizen: 664-
4584.
probability of sweeping them.
Although the sports myth does not
apply only to blacks, they have
been historically victimized more
by the "sports mill."
Edwards' speech was jointly
sponsored by the Department of
Physical Education, the
Department of Sociology, and the
Black Student Union. BSU has
hosted several speakers this month
in honor of Black History Month.
Edwards continued his speech
by noting that attempting to assign
responsibility to any one party is
extremely difficult. Sports are big
business enterprises for colleges
and universities—involving gate
receipts, television and product
royalties, and alumni donations.
For this reason, coaches are cast as
victims g^s often as victimizers. A
coach, for example, who does not
sign an outstanding athlete who
"speaks English like a foreign
language" will not be considered
noble for upholding the academic-
traditions of the institution; he will
be branded a traitor and replaced
with someone who will put that
type of athlete on his team.
Edwards holds, however, that
coaches are to blame as well as the
institutions are for attempting to
create a class of "twentieth-century
gladiators." The average college
football player now spends 49
hours per week in football-related
activities. The remaining time for
study is even further limited by the
athlete's state of "permanent
fatigue." The result is that 75 to 80
percent of all scholarship athletes
never graduate; of the ones who do
receive a degree, 75 percent
graduate with physical education
degrees or degrees designed
see Edwards, page A17
Various SA deadlines near
The filing deadline for eight
university positions is Monday,
February 16. Petitions for
Campanile editor, Student
Association off-campus senator,
two fifth year Honor Council
positions, one junior Honor
Council position, and for
TexPIRG president, vice
president, secretary/treasurer, and
parliamentarian should be
submitted by 3 p.m. in the SA
office on the second floor of the
Rice Memorial Center
The position of SA secretary is
also open for petitions after the
withdrawal of Wiess sophomore
Jeff Manciagli from the race. He
was running unopposed. Petition
deadline is Friday, February 20 at
3 p.m. in the SA office.
Finally, applications for
university standing commitees
must be submitted by 3 p.m.
Friday, February 13. Forms may be
picked up in the SA office.