The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, February 23, 1990 Page: 1 of 20
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SINCE 1916
VOLUME 77, NO. 21
RICE'S LAME DUCK NEWSPAPER
FEBRUARY 23, 1990
Yu, Jaasma win presidential races in campus-wide elections
by Jennifer Rios
lengee and 237 for Brown junior
Leslie Raneri. The second choices of
Raneri's supporters were redistrib-
uted for a final tabulation of 670 for
Chen and 538 for Ballengee.
WRC sophomore Rachel Levitt,
who ran unopposed, will be next
year's SA secretary. Jones sopho-
more Mitra Miller defeated Hanszen
junior Kristianna Schmitt for SA
treasurer by a margin of 141 votes.
The three unopposed positions
for Rice Program Council's presi-
dent, internal vice president and
secretary will be filled by WRC so-
phomore Keith Jaasma, WRC junior
Will Rice College junior Spencer
Yu defeated Lovett sophomore Sean
O'Connell and Brown junior An-
thony Kocica by a wide margin in the
race for Student Association presi-
dent in Tuesday's campus-wide elec-
tions.
Receiving 783 votes, Yu won a
clear majority over O'Connell's 309
votes and Kocica's 203 votes. Yu
carried every college except Brown
and Lovett.
"I appreciate the strong support
from students. I will make my best
effort to represent their views," Yu
said after the election results were
released. "I want to make the SA
better for students because it is for
the students."
Brown junior Shelley Fuld de-
feated Hanszen sophomore Merritt
McReynolds by a margin of 20 votes
in a close race for SA external vice
president.
Tallying for first place votes for
SA internal vice president yielded
550 for Hanszen junior Grace Chen,
428 for WRC sophomore Todd Bal-
Affirmative Action
office caught in shuffle
■aw*- V
New SA president Spencer Yu
by Sarah Leedy
In an action that the administra-
tion found necessary in order to
make additional room for a growing
accounting department, the Affirma-
tive Action Office was recently
moved from a two-room office into
three separate rooms on two floors of
Allen Center. Although the admini-
stration promises that it is only a
temporary arrangement, the poorly
timed move has occurred just as
many female and minority faculty
candidates visit campus for the re-
cruitment.season. .
"This is the third time in 15 years
that my office has been moved to
make room for a growing depart-
ment, and usually I am relocated,"
says Affirmative Action Director Eva
Lee. "But this arrangement is not
suitable."
The poor timing of the office
shuffle, as well as the fact that the
Affirmative Action Directorship is
only a part-time position (Lee is also
a professor in the human perform-
ance and health sciences depart-
ment), forces examination of Rice's
commitment to affirmative action: Is
Rice merely paying lip sendee to
federal regulations? Or is Rice will-
ing but unable to compete with
schools like Harvard and Stanford
for top-quality minority and female
candidates?
Lee puts Rice in between these
two positions, saying that although
nearly all members of the faculty and
administration recognize the need
for and accept the goal s of affirmative
action, few departments will actively
perform affirmative action, aggres-
sively seeking out female and minor-
ity candidates for positions.
The main goal of affirmative ac-
tion is to diversify wor!^areas and
schools that are traditionally domi-
nated by white males by increasing
the number of minorities and fe-
males. In professions such as acade-
mia, where professors serve as role
models to young people, affirmative
action is especially emphasized.
"In almost any position, there will
be far more white male applicants
that meet the specified qualifications
than female and/or minority appli-
cants that do," said Lee. To simply
say 'choose the best candidate' will
not increase the number of qualified
female and minority hires."
To do that, Lee explained, a
search committee needs to make a
point of examining its female and
minority candidates closely. Instead
of leaving it to chance that the best
qualified\cand idate will be female or
a minority, a search committee
should look first to see if there is a
female or minority candidate who is
most qualified.
•Lee feels that this attitude is more
in evidence in some departments
than in others. In her dealings with
various departments, she did not see
much ambivalence towards affirma-
tive action's aims. Based on her fif-
teen years of experience as director
of Rice's Affirmative Action Pro-
gram, however, she feels successful
recruitment of high-qualified minor-
ity and female applicants requires
more than acceptance of affirmative
action's goals, but concerted effort to
fulfill its credo.
To demonstrate what this rather
ethereal concept means, Lee re-
called hearing on the radio last week
that a prominent black female Eng-
lish professor at a major southern
university had recently won an
award for excellence. "When I hear
that, I hope that our department calls
her up and asks, *Would you con-
sider coming here?' We have to jump
at every high quality candidate."
The main measure that deter-
mines if a department or office is
sufficiently diverse is called "utiliza-
tion." For instance, census records
are used to determine the total
number of secretaries in the area
from which Rice hires its secretaries,
which, in this case, is the local Hous-
ton metropolitan area. If Rice has a
lower ratio of minority and female
secretaries than the local ratio of
total available minority and/or fe-
male secretaries, then it is "under-
utilized."
How this situation' is corrected.
depends, Lee said, on state regula-
tions.
"In California, the laws are very
SEE AFFIRMATIVE, PAGE 8
Chris Briggs, and Baker sophomore
Pat Huttenbach, respectively.
The RPC external vice president
will be elected in a runoff election
due to the failure of either candidate
to receive a majority. Junior Rosalind
Martz received 514 votes to Jessica
Patterson's 510. The majority re-
quired to win was 549 votes.
In the race for RPC treasurer,
Baker sophomore Kate McPartlin
received 591 votes to defeat Greg
Shephard's 377 votes.
Hanszen junior Kurt Moeller and
Will Rice sophomore Jay Yates won
the Thresher editor election with 838
votes over SRC junior Myra Pucker's
277 votes and Wiess junior Marc
Kossover's 176 voles.
Hanszen junior Ross Goldberg,
running unopposed, was elected
Campanile editor.
WRC juniors Sarah Leedy and
Russell Ross will be next year's two
University Council student repre-
sentatives.
A referendum that would raise
the blanket tax appropriation for
KTRU was approved.
Tuesday's elections revealed a
high voter turnout The highest
voter turnout was recorded by WRC
with 245 voting in the SA elections.
Among the colleges with the lower
turnouts were SRC with 149 of its
members voting in the SA elections.
Students choose representatives for
Honor Council, first elected U. Court
by Kurt Moeller
In history-making elections, un-
dergraduates elected six represen-
tatives to University Court Tuesday.
Elections were also held for another
component of the judicial system,
Honor Council.
Like elections for positions on
Honor Council, the elections for
University Court were campus-wide,
with each class electing its own rep-
resentatives. While previous courts
had been composed of the chief jus-
tices of each of the eight colleges,
this year's court was appointed as a
transitional step toward the elec-
tions of justices and a referendum on
a constitution, which will take place
March 13.
"It was a historical first," stated
University Court Chairman George
Thomas. "It was the first opportunity
for people to be elected to the court."
At least four students ran for two
positions in each of the three classes
that elected them. "I was very happy
with the amount of people that de-
cided to run," Thomas said. The
idea of students judging students is
very appealing."
University Court
Senior class representatives will
be Anu Bajaj and Teresa Schiller,
who were both justices this year. The
two won by slim margins against four
other candidates, with Bajaj receiv-
ing 134 votes, Schiller 121 and run-
ner-up David Bixby 104.
Next year's juniors elected
Audrey Chang and Charles Walker
to be their representatives on the
court Chang won easily, but Walker
garnered only five votes more than
Keri Baxter, who benefitted from 49
votes at Hanszen.
Sophomore class representatives
will be Shaila Dewan and Brad Smith.
Dewan received 186 votes and Smith
164, narrowly defeating Franklin
Kang who received 154 votes.
Kang, too, was nearly carried to
victory by tremendous support at
Hanszen, where 56 freshmen voted
for him. As a whole, the sophomore
class had the highest turnout for
judicial elections, with more than 400
ballots cast
Honor Council
In elections for Honor Council,
Chap Attwell and Ben Worsley were
elected senior class representatives.
No one else ran for the position, even
though four positions on Honor-
Council are set aside for senior class
representatives. The two unfilled
positions will be converted to at-
large positions, increasing the num-
ber of at-large positions in the March
13 elections from three to five,
Attwell said.
When asked why there was a
shortage of candidates, he replied,
That's a good question. I don't
know. We've thought about it"
Attwell, who has served on Honor
SHE COUNCIL, PAGE 6
Taking a look inside...
hH -
School children flock around the back of a Life Flight helicopter on its educational visit to campus Tuesday,
Health problems force cancellation
of McCartney concert at Rice Stadium
by Kurt Moeller
Health troubles have forced the
cancellation of a Paul McCartney
concert which was tentatively sched-
uled for April 9 at Rice Stadium.
"He cancelled concerts in nine
cities due to throat problems," said
Beckie Levin of Pace Concerts,
McCartney's Houston promoters.
McCartney's current U.S. tour is his
first since 1976.
Levin and Assistant to the Presi-
dent Carl MacDowell both said
there was little chance that McCart-
ney would reschedule the planned
concert in Houston.
Levin responded "no comment"
when asked how far negotiations
with Rice had proceeded, but mem
bers of the Rice administration werer
willing to elaborate. MacDowell and
Assistant Athletic Director Steve
Moniaci said Pace approached Rice
and asked if it could use Rice Stadium
as a concert site, at that point saying
it was still unsure of the date of the
concert
The administration gave its ap-
proval, and Pace asked to hold the
concert April 9. "We had begun mak-
ing plans for that date," Moniaci said.
Pace was drawing up the contract
when it called Rice back and said
there would be no show.
"The show was never confirmed
in the first place," Levin said. Moni-
SEE CONCERT, PAGE 5
FEATURE
CHILE
THE U\ND OF FIRE AND ICE
See page 10
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Kahn, Greg & Leedy, Sarah J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, February 23, 1990, newspaper, February 23, 1990; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245744/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.