The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 1, Ed. 1 Monday, September 14, 1964 Page: 2 of 12
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Rice University Woodson Research Center.
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Hugh Rice Kelly, Editor
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John Durham, Associate Editor
Charles Lanford, Managing Ed.
Jim Zumwalt, News Editor
Richard Poster, Copy Editor
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People go to college for many reasons.
Some seek the degree as the passport to
the comfortable status and income of the
middle classes. Some are looking for social
excitement and good connections. Others
are after one of the trades commonly
taught at the universities, such as histori-
cal research, bibliography or bridge-build-
ing. Yet others go because there is simply
nothing else to do. Yet all claim to seek
something called "an education."
But the true ends sought by the 1.25
million member Class of '68 could be sat-
isfied more simply and cheaply by other
arrangements than those of the traditional
university.
For example, the would-be historians
could pursue their craft at a Historical
Institute in one part of the state, while the
engineers, scientists and English majors
could follow theirs at similar establish-
ments in other parts. Alternate routes
could simply be found for the status and
excitement seekers, while the undecided
could remain that way.
But by a fortuitous 'combination of his-
torical development and conscious if incon-
sistent purpose, the diverse branches of
higher learning are customarily housed in
one place, under a common code of behav-
iqj\ with a common heating plant, one
football team and a single bookkeeping
department.
The beauty of this arrangement is not
economic. The beauty lies ih the rather
hazy realm of "education," which in our
time has lost any specific denotation it
may have had and has come to refer to
virtually any sort of training, be it manual,
secretarial or scholarly.
The fact is, the term "education" in its
pure sense cannot be rigorously defined,
hence cannot be directly sought, regard-
less of the illusions of the class of '68. You
will find no course entitled "Intellect 100—
an Introduction to Intellectual Life and the
Culture of the West" in the catalogue.
Like the rest of the world, the universi-
ties don't know how to make an educated
man, so they do the next best thing: they
don't try, overtly at least.
Yet the universities still manage to turn
out a certain number of educated 'men
each year, and the rest of society produces
virtually none. So they miflst be doing
something. And they are, in a way.
The university does two things for its
students which tend-to transform at least
some of them from intelligent men to men
of Intellect, from trained and knowledge-
able men into educated ones.
The first is the easiest to see in action.
It consists in teaching the students the
shorthand of intelligent existence; how to
read analytically, for example, or how to
write cogently. Certain basic concepts of
logic and logical method, in addition to
such simple things as the use of a library
catalogue, are other examples.
The second is a much less concrete
proposition. John Henry Newman called it
"a pure and clear atmosphere of thought,
which the student also breathes, though
in his case he only pursues a few sciences
out of the multitude." The university com-
munity is the one place in society where
the only acknowledged value is truth; it
receives universal and unanimous lip-
service in the universities, and not a few
actually use it as their practical guide.
The practicing student member of such
a community soon, in theory, comes to
possess what Newman called the "philo-
sophic habit." A compound of any things,
the chief marks of this "habit" are an
expanded awareness of the world and ap-
preciation of its beauties, together with
the ordinary habits of the educated—
moderation, dispassionate judgment, con-
sidered action, accurate thought.
Thus actively formed in certain of the
habits of the educated, and exposed to the
unique atmosphere of a university, the
student perchance becomes educated. Like
the oft-examined Bumblebee, whom all
engineers know is incapable of flight, the
university,' which obviously cannot edu-
cate, still manages to do so.
But poorly.
In our idealistic considerations of the education-
al powers of the American university, we have
neglested the hordes of uneducated graduates
the U.S. turns out yearly along with the others.
For every educated man graduated, there are
• probably a dozen footnote-collectors, status-seek-
ers and outright lowbrows in the graduation
line.
Holding a college degree, from Rice Univer-
sity or elsewhere, guarantees you nothing. And
for the great majority of graduates, the degree
means little more than a certificate of mental
competence.
For the intellectual impress of the American
university on its students is notoriously shallow.
Studies have shown that the chief permanent
effects of university training on the majority of
grads consists of a more refined set of prejudices
plus a tepid toleration of ideas and those who
have them.
And for all their high-powered College Board
scores, Rice graduates and students do not seem
to depart much from the dreary national pattern.
It is by no means certain, that in coming to a
university you will manage to get an education.
You may handle your grades well, and learn
the craft of researcher or bookkeeper to a fine
point. But you could leave the university as
intellectually innocent as you arrived without
having neglected a single curriculum requirement.
If you want an education, you will have to go
out of your way to get it.
Avoid the company of your fellows, and you
may find yourself cut off from the academic
community, such as it is at Rice. Tailor your
course load to all "crips" (and this can be
arranged at Rice as well as anywhere else) and
you may never reach the threshold of education.
Abandon all goals but The Grade and you have
sold your birthright.
Seek out the serious* people, the great books,
the discriminating magazines; seek out the
places where the Great Issues as well as the
"small ones are fair conversational game. They
will not be hard to recognize, if you take the
trouble to look.
* * #
The personification of failure at college is
not the flunkout who sprouts a beard and
scribbles bad novels irt the da£k of night. The
ultimate failure is represented by the legions
of clean-shaven, clean-living graduates who re-
join society without anything to add to it but
marketable skill. The permanently narrowed
horizons of the grad are a subject of concern;
the loss to a society which seems permanently
on the brink of intellactual starvation is im-
measurable.
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Through The Looking Glass
A SMALL SELECTION OF RICE HOMILIES
?DISCIPLINE AND HOW TO AVOID IT
i| At Rice, most disciplinary cases are handled through
?:*; student courts whose jurisdiction covers the colleges which
|:| select them and then some. Final appeal is to and ultimate
| authority is vested in the Deans of Students and the Uni-
| versity President.
•' Rice has no exhaustive formal code of offenses and no
table of prescribed punishments. In addition to the University
If and College rules which you have heard or read, it is safe
to assume that any offense against the criminal laws of the
♦ State of Texas will also be treated as being against the
! peace and honor of Rice University.
Rice's Riot Act—two or more students gathered to-
ll gether in one place may be construed as civil disobedience—
: and its general amenities clause—any conduct unbecoming
|| a gentleman is surely unbecoming a Rice man—are seldom
§f used but still on the books.
As indicated by the presence of student courts and the
m. Honor Cuoncil, discipline is generally regarded as the stu-
ff dent's responsibility, but the University Administraton has
the power of veto and mandamus, and it Ihas been known
■ to use them.
| CLASS ATTENDANCE
Class attendance policy is set by the individual in-
II structor and varies from course to course. Many students
II come to feel that no class is uncuttable and that all are so
designed that they are impossible to meet with regularity.
An evening class is inconvenient, a one o'clock too soon
|| after lunch and any class before noon unthinkable.
Many Rice professors are eager to make contact with
| their students outside of class and most who are are worth
the effort. They should be sought in their offices, over
in coffee, at lunch in the commons, or in the middle of the
|| academic quadrangle. No matter how forbidding his appear-
§| ance in class, no instructor should be regarded as inacessible
!! until he is approached, and none who are accessible should
f! be ignored.
| THE VANISHING FRESHMAN
Beanies may be a nuisance and name tags an incon-
| venience, but both will disappear with the turkey dressing
§| and the tags are more boon than bother. Otherwise, there is
.1 little enough to differentiate the freshman, from his betters,
If and that little is being eroded willingly enough by the
II upperclassmen.
Vestiges of class government remain, and each of you
will keep a fairly accurate running assessment of your
: position on the road to a degree, but class attachment should
|| not concern: you much. It will concern almost no one else.
Your colleges will make every effort to bring you into
|1 contact with those who have been your way before. The
i! sophomores and seniors you meet during the special fresh-
■: man programs will still live in the same college when the
activities are over. They will always speak if spoken to, even
;;; to a frsehman.
| BOOKS AND THEIR HIDING PLACES
Books are to be found in the Library, in the Campus
| Store, in student's bookshelves and on their desks, in de-
. creasing order of frequency. Also magazines and newspapers.
Reading some of each regularly will repay the effort. Most
who gain Rice admission are presumably able to do so, but
|i the evidence from their performance is inconclusive.
The Library gets crowded around finals, so you are
; advised to come early in the semester and avoid the rush.
Books can be purchased as well as borrowed and a good
I collection will impress your friends now and be a joy forever.
|§ The Campus Store is long on textbooks and getting
|| longer in other categories; anything you request will be
|| ordered. ,
|| The store also stocks air mail copies of the New York
| Times at a special student's price as well as a small selection
ii| of magazines.
THE RICE THRESHER, SEPTEMBER 1 4, 196 4—P AGE 2
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Kelly, Hugh Rice. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 1, Ed. 1 Monday, September 14, 1964, newspaper, September 14, 1964; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244919/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.