The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, March 22, 1991 Page: 6 of 20
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6 FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1991 THE RICE THRESHER
Religious studies job opening stirs controversy within department
by Kurt Moeller
RICE UNIVERSITY, Department
of Religious Studies, seeks a scholar
for the Rayzor Chair in Philosophy
and Religious Thought whose research
has earned national and international
recognition or shows clear promise of
doing so, and who has demonstrated
excellence in teaching. The person
should have focused scholarly
achievements in philosophical,
phenomenological, hermeneutical, or
theological approaches to religious
thought, and have demonstrated
expertise in comparative religion,
history of religions, or religion and
gender, in relation to one or more of
the major world religious traditions.
The holder of this position will help
integrate the department's various
fields and traditions, shape the
direction of graduate and
undergraduate programs, and have
the opportunity to play an integral role
in developing programs at the Rice
Center for Cultural Studies.
The above job description, which
appeared in the January/February
issue of Religious Studies News and
has been published in other academic
publications, has been the immediate
source of controversy in the Rice
Department of Religious Studies. The
Rayzor chair is currently held by Niels
Nielsen, the department's founder
Religion
FROM PAGE 1
that I misunderstood."
Kelber then wrote the letter
releasing Sellers. Sellers said, "It
d id n "t give any explanation... It d idn't
say 'Let's talk it over.'... .He said tyou
are released."* Sellers said the letter
was 33 words long.
Kelber said he had not offered an
explanation because, "I really
thought that's what he wanted."
Kelber sent the letter of release
February 25, the first day of spring
break. He said that while he had read
Sellers' letter to the editor in the Feb.
22 Thresher, "My mind was not on
the Thresher article but on a good
deal of accumulated business" that
he had been unable to finish before
break.
Sellers' February 22 letter
repeated his earlier criticisms that
the job description for the
department's Rayzor chair "unwisely
downsizes the study of theology and
philosophy of religion, and that it
unfairly minimizes the intellectual
resources of the Western tradition."
It also blasted President George Rupp
for comments he had made in an
interview with the Rice Sentinel, and
criticized Kelber for his
unwillingness to release the minutes
of a November 14 departmental
faculty meeting at which the final job
description was agreed.
Minutes not released
The minutes would indicate the
voting and most important comments
of those at the meeting, which was
restricted to tenured or tenure-track
faculty. John Stroup, a tenured
professor who serves as the
department's historian/secretary in
meetings, said he has been ordered
by Kelber not to release those
minutes.
Kelber said minutes of meetings
between all religious studies faculty,
including part-time faculty and
lecturers, have sometimes been
mailed to the department's friends
and benefactors. But, he added, The
minutes of the second type of meeting
[tenure-trackonly faculty] havenever
been made public, have never been
released in this department"
Sellers said, "I was in the civil
rights movement at Vanderbilt, and
this [request for minutes] happened
all the time. Sometimes they were
made public, and sometimes they
weren't"
Veteran professors in different
departments said they had not been
asked by outsiders for minutes of
departmental faculty meetings.
English professor Alan Grob, who
has been at Rice for 30 years, said,
" [The release of minutes] is never an
issue that's arisen."
Sociology professor Bill Martin, a
professor at Rice since 1968, said, "It
really has not been a pertinent issue
forus....We've never had a case that
controversial." History professor
John Boles, who began teaching at
Rice in 1981, said "not that I know of,"
when asked if anyone had requested
the history department's minutes.
Kelber said, "The minutes are not
my personal property, and I don't
think I have authority to release
them to anybody....Unless, let's
assume my faculty gives me authority
to release them. Then I probably have
to do it"
In that interview, which occurred
and long-time chairman.
"I have been in this department
since 1973," said current
departmental chairman Werner
Kelber. "I do not recall a job
description ever being discussed as
exhaustively as this one. We couldn t
resolve our differences, to be sure."
Kelber said the department chose
the above description for two
reasons. "We wanted to cast the net
widely" in order to receive the
maximum number of applicants
possible.
"We will have to attract a person
to Rice University, to this department,
whose academic qualifications are
such that they warrant full
professorship.. .That's tough.. .to get
a senior person to move.... However,
I'm happy to report...that we have,
received a very large number of
applications," Kelber said, with awide
grin crossing his face.
The secbnd reason, he said, was
the "broad framework of intellectual
requirements" required for the
position. "We would like to see a
candidate who has developed
expertise both in oneofthe normative
approaches to religious studies and
one of the descriptive approaches to
religion."
Professor James Sellers, in a letter
to the editor in the Feb. 22 Thresher,
said "this job description unwisely
downsizes the study of theology and
philosophy of religion, and that it
unfairly minimizes the intellectual
resources of the Western tradition."
President George Rupp
disagreed, saying, "I think it is
crucially important that the
department of religious studies... like
the other humanities and social
science departments give a good
grounding in the Western traditions
that have shaped life in this country
and across the West
"I don't think it necessarily
understates what we're trying to
accomplish in being grounded in
Western traditions," the president
continued. "And it will be very
important that we apppoint the right
person to make sure that doesnt
happen. It does, nonetheless, pay
attention to a comparative dimension
that is not always the case in religious
studies."
Sellers wrote that with one set of
interests being "yoked" with another,
the person hired "might perform as a
sort of utility-theology person."
Neither interest "will get full-time
professional attention," he stated.
Rupp said one reason for asking
for non-Western expertise is that "it
seems to me increasingly important
that we be aware of other societies,
other civilizations... My own
experience is that we become more
aware of our own identity very often
by seriously engaging another very
different tradition."
Kelber stated, "In knowing the
other I come to know myself better
than I knew myself before."
March 11, a Thresher reporter asked
Kelber if he would ask the faculty to
release them. "If you want me to,"
Kelber stated, assenting, "Um-hum"
when the reporter asked him to.
Wednseday Sellers said Kelber
had not asked him for permission,
but that his opinion was well known.
Also contacted Wednesday,
Kelber said he had not requested
permission from the other faculty
who were present at that meeting.
"We haven't had a [tenure-track]
faculty meeting. I would want all of
them to be present"
"I can't really be sure," Kelber
sad, in reply to a question about
when he expected to ask the faculty.
Kelber said even if the faculty gave
him authority to do so, "I would still
have that problem, our relationship
to other departments.. .Are we setting
a precedent and how would other
chairs and departments feel about
that?"
Martin said, "I believe people have
the right to keep someoftheir debates
away from the public."
However, biology professor Ron
Sass said he would have no problems
in having the public know about a
disagreement on the job description
for an endowed chair.
"[Disagreement] is what we're in
business for," said Sass, adding that
such discussion would come in the
open part ofthe biology department's
meetings. The department divides
its meetings into open and closed
portions, he said.
Rupp's rare appearance
One departmental member who
attended the Nov. 14 meeting was
President Rupp. Kelber said, "I asked
him for his input and I invited him to
attend this meeting....It was a very
crucial issue; I wanted his counsel."
Kelber said Rupp "very rarely"
attends tenure-track faculty
meetings. "I do not want to impose
on the president's time," he stated.
In an interview Tuesday, Rupp
said, "the best way to get [his
attendance] nailed down, I guess,
would be to ask my eminent
department chair, Werner Kelber.... I
guess I go no more than a couple or
three times a year."
Kelber could not give an exact
figure when asked how many such
meetings a year there were.
In the January/February issue of
the Rice Sentinel, Rupp said, "I go to
departmental meetings and Jim
Sellers has been unwilling to come to
those."
Sellers' letter to the Thresher
stated that he refused to attend
because he has cardiac artery disease
and "was following the avoidance-of-
stress regimen clinically tested" by a
well-known cardiologist
Tuesday Rupp said, "Unless we're
into comic relief, it's not worth
pursuing here. I made an accurate
observation....It really isn't worth
dragging in the question of whether
Jim's doctor should or shouldn't be
advising him to attend or not attend
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departmental meetings."
Rupp said the minutes quoted him
correctly as saying, "'philosophy of
religion is an anachronism.'...To be
blunt about it, there are no
philosphersof religion anymore. That
is to say, I would defy Jim Sellers or
anyone else to name to me a
significant major thinker who
designates himself or herself as a
philospher of religion....And that's
the very specific sense in which I said
the term was an anachronism."
"The universities are full of them,"
said Sellers, adding that across the
country there are many courses in
religion taught in theology or the
philosophy of religion. Philosophy of
religion, said Sellers, in the American
context of freedom of religion, is "a
pluralistic and critical investigation
ofthe spiritual heritage that has come
to this country....We're not talking
about the promulgation of
orthodoxy."
CSC hosting
dinner on
etiquette
by Jonathan Briggs
Have you ever considered that
choosing to order dessert at a meal
could make or break your future
career? Maybe this is an extreme
case of worrying too much, but
etiquette considerations do play an
important role in landing a career.
In order to ensure students have
the proper business etiquette tools,
the Career Services Center is
sponsoring a business etiquette
dinner on Monday night to address
questions students may have as well
as instruct them in dinner etiquette
over a business-like dinner.
"We want students to be more
comfortable in what can be
uncomfortable business situations,"
said Christine Lorenz, assistant
director of Career Services.
"Business etiquette is very different
from social etiquette; for instance,
you don t address gender differences
in business etiquette."
The dinner is open to juniors and
seniors, hopefully providing some
basic skills for interview and
professional-world dining, such as
the roles for the host or hostess, the
guests' roles, proper table manners,
appropriate table discussion, suitable
dress, and smart entrees to order.
The attire for the evening is
professional dress and the cost for
the dinner is $8.50, which may be
paid in cash or on a meal card.
"The deadline for signing up is 5
p.m. Friday afternoon, and it's limited
to 30 students," sad Lorenz. "We
want to help the students simply to
feel more comfortable and to realize
thatmostoftheirworrieshave simple
solutions."
Five recruiters will be guests at
the dinner to help simulate an actual
business dinner.
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Moeller, Kurt & Yates, Jay. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, March 22, 1991, newspaper, March 22, 1991; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245780/m1/6/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.