The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 2, 1988 Page: 1 of 20
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The rryj 1 since 16
KceThresher
VOLUME 76, NO. 2
New meal
plan off to
shaky start
By Sue-Sun Yom
This past week the residential
colleges experienced a backlog in
the food lines due to changes in food
service procedures, but administra-
tive officials and students involved in
the changes expected substantial
improvement in efficiency.
Recently, food service switched
to an a la carte system rather than
charging a set price for each meal.
Newly appointed Director of Col-
lege Food Service William Boorom
said the worst delays were at Jones
College, Brown College, and
Hanszen College. Hanszen College
had problems finding students to
work at the card-reader machines.
Boorom said a shortage of staff
plagued the new system.
There is a shortage, and it is
critical to get someone in there.
Since we don't have the staff, we have
some units operating on paper
(plates), though we would prefer
not," Boorom said.
"We want to maintain the grub
system, but we have to operate, so we
hired temporary service workers
today from 8 to 2 (Tuesday) from
American Personnel Service,"
Boorom said,
Boorom mentioned the possibil-
ity of hiring high school students. He
said high school students have been
used in the past as kitchen aides in
the afternoon and on brunch days.
Director of Food and Housing
Marion Hicks said, "1 feel we will
have enough applications in the end
so that we won't have to use high
school students for the dinner shift,
though we use them now as aides."
Boorom said the point of conges-
tion was at the card-readers, because
two people are required, one to tabu-
late the total cost and one to read the
cards. Some colleges did not have
RICE'S NON-BLUE PAPER
SEPTEMBER 2, 1988
Students wait in long lines at Hanszen
College on Monday.
two people at the card-readers.
Boorom noted improvement oc-
curred on only the second day. He
said he felt optimistic about contin-
ued improvement.
"You have to understand that this
is a 180-degree change for the people
in the kitchens. We are asking them
to cook and serve in small batches
for better food, which means more
attention to the status of the food
which is out for the students,"
Boorom said.
Hicks said, "It went slowly the
first two days, but I expect great
Women's commision report revealsLinequalities
By Mich&le Wucker
The Report of the Commission on Women, released last week, found
that many of Rice's employment policies are unfair to female employees.
The Commission recommended extensive changes to remedy these
problems, and will meet next week with President George Rupp to review
those recommendations.
Percentage of undergraduates who
have experienced given catagory
sexist assault
jy sexual bribery
explicit sexual
propositions
Male
Female
ggSBE
physical advances
verbal & non-verbal
sexual expression
sexual discussion
W sexist exclusion
sexist comments
IV
To"
6 0
8*U
100
Undergraduates' personal experience
Sexual harassment
survey reveals attitudes
By Mich&le Wucker
Although much of the work of the Women's Commission task forces
are related to faculty and staff issues, the report of the task force on cam-
pus climate for women addressed attitudes among undergraduates and
graduate students as well
Its work included a formal survey of800 undergraduate and 500 gradu-
ate students and informal interviews of 124 undergraduate and 62 gradu-
ate women. It also conducted a brief preliminary survey of facu lty and staff.
Because only 49 percent of students sampled returned the surveys, the
results may reflect unknown biases. They do, however, shed some light
on how much perception of sexual harrassment there is on campus.
Approximately half of male and female repondents said they hear
sexist comments as often as once a week; a total of 83 percent of males and
SEE SEXUAL, PAGE 9
Professor of Human Performance and Health Sciences Hally Beth
Poindexter, who heads the Commission, said that although many of the
findings were already obvious, "there were some things that were more
dramatic."
Rupp said he will comment on the report after he meets with the Com-
mission.
The report cited five principal, recurring problems. First, too few
women are in top positions of authority and decision-making. Poindexter
said one of the clearest indicators of inequality is that no woman holds any
of the highest administrative positions.
"The lack of visibility among women was not surprising—we expected
it We're going to have to take a stronger position to see that women are
attracted to campus," she said.
In addition, there are inequities in the university salary system.
Women receive an average of seven to ten percent—roughly $1,183—less
pay than their male colleagues. However, Poindexter said she was "pleas-
antly surprised" at the ratio of female to male salaries compared to the
situation a few years ago. "WeVe made some giant strides in equity," she
said.
Rice's personnel procedures regarding job classification, hiring, train-
ing, performance evaluation and promotion are insufficient, according to
the report It found that men and women took about the same time to be
promoted, but that women are much less likely to receive tenure.
"We seem not to be getting and holding young women assistant profes-
sors," Poindexter said.
A problem in attracting female professors is that the university needs
to add to the staff and resources in the Affirmative Action Office. A part-
time director and one assistant run the office.
Finally, there is a lack of record-keeping and information systems for
monitoring the status of women, making decisions and forming policy.
The report cited four issues that affect campus climate for women,
according to ideas offered at last fall's forum on women s issues. Female
employees are concerned about policies for part-time workers, many of
whom are women; equal pay for equal work; benefits allocation; and
campus safety and physical facilities.
'Hie report also criticized the use of a Rice version of the Hay Point
System for determining the equality of work. Under this system, salary
discrepancies are less than three percent. According to the report, the
system may discriminate against women in assigning points for work.
To remedy the problems, the Commission recommended changes to
be implemented on various administrative levels around campus. It
provided that both measures be carried out immediately over two years.
Among other measures, the report suggested that the president
inform campus administrators of "an institutional comrnitmentto increase
the hiring of women at assistant, associate, and full professor levels." It
also advocated education programs for administrators, better perform-
ance evaluation techniques, and better record-keeping practices and
equipment.
It also recommended that the university investigate the feasibility of a
University Women's Center to provide support
SEE WOMEN, PAGE 9
improvement."
Boorom recently hired an execu-
tive chef, Steve Domokos, who will
start September 12.
Domokos will serve as a kitchen
staff advisor and trainer. Boorom
said he and Domokos were also re-
vising menus.
Domokos is European-trained
and was formerly working in Canada
and at the San Luis Hotel in
Galveston as catering chef. One of
his specialities is catering, so he will
cater masters' events as well, said
Boorom.
"We are and will continue to be
aware of which items sell well in the
colleges, and the executive chef will
remain in constant contact with the
residential colleges. We are looking
for a fresher, quality-upgrade ap-
proach," Boorom said.
Boorom noted that the ham-
burger patty, a very popular item,
had been changed from a 3-ounce
frozen patty to a 5-ounce fresher one.
According to Student Association
President Andy Karsner, the new
hamburger patty "is exactly the
same one that Fuddrucker's uses."
Boorom said he hopes to improve
the quality of the stir-fried vege-
tables and is considering many simi-
lar changes in preparation and serv-
ice.
Boorom said, "It's a dramatic
learning adjustment 'Be patient' is
what I want to tell the students, be-
cause once we overcome that learn-
ing curve in the colleges and the
kitchens, we can get caught up, and
we'll have more efficacy and better
quality food."
Proposed math changes postponed
By Andrew Li
As a result of proposed changes
in the Mathematics curriculum, stu-
dents registering for calculus this
semester are experiencing confu-
sion over math classes.
Student advisors were first intro-
duced to a new sequence of math
courses at their orientation August
21.
Professor of Mathematics Ron
Wells described the proposal to re-
place Math 101, 102, 211, and 212
with Math 112,113,114, and 115 re-
spectively, and add Math 111 as an
introductory course for students
without a high school backgroud in
calculus.
Wells said the impetus behind
the changes was student and faculty
concerns that Math 101 was poorly
designed, especially for students
who had never had calculus tyefore
college.
Wells stressed that the changes
were tenative, pending approval by
the Provost Neal Lane.
However, the newspaper adden-
dums to the curriculum showed
cancellation of Math 101 and the
addition of Math 111 and 112 as the
introductory calculus courses.
Freshmen were told to assume the
changes were correct and plan their
schedules around the new system.
A document circulated by the
Department of Mathematics on
August 24 showed the original math
sequence correct, and listed offered
courses under their old titles.
Professor Wells later stated "not
enough departments had been in-
formed of the proposals in time to
modify their degree requirements,
so the changes have been postponed
a year.
"There was a lack of communica-
tion," he added.
To address the original concerns
of the revisions, the document said
that students wanting to take calcu-
lus should "enroll in a course as
advanced as you can possibly
handle" with the option of dropping
down to an easier course.
The department is "convinced
that most science-engineering fresh-
men should skip at least Math 101"
and leave it to freshmen who have
never had calculus.
But many majors require a mini-
mum number of credit hours in
mathematics.
Students opting to skip 101 may
later have to take another course.
As a result, stronger math stu-
dents may still register for 101, along
with first-time calculus students
encouraged to take the course.
Most students have responded
with confusion. One freshman pre-
medical student commented, "I'm
notsure-if I can skip 101 and still
meet medical school admission re-
quirements."
Others have also expressed
doubts. Some students said they
believe 101 may be worse than last
year, with stronger students compet-
ing against even more freshmen en-
rolled without calculus back-
grounds.
There is, however, a general opti-
mism about the revised curriculum.
One sophomore engineering stu-
dent commented, "If people register
for the course they should be taking
and the professors teach the class for
that level, this new system should
work out much better than last year."
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McGarrity, Patrick & Sendek, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 2, 1988, newspaper, September 2, 1988; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245698/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.