The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 15, 1966 Page: 1 of 6
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Rice Thresher
AN ALL-STUDENT NEWSPAPER FOR 51 YEARS
Humbug
Volume 54, Number 13
RICE UNIVERSITY, HOUSTON, TEXAS 77001
December 15, 1966
Arrowsmith to exercise barbed wit
in teaching talk at Hanszen -- Jan. 3
William Arrowsmith, an out-
spoken educational theorist and
one of the country's leading
classicists, will discuss "The
Future of Teaching" on Jan-
uary 3 at Hanszen College.
Dr. Arrowsmith is the Chair-
man of the Department of Clas-
sics at the University of Texas
and has prepared definitive
translations of writings by the
Greek authors. His stories, po-
ems, reviews, and articles have
appeared in scholarly publica-
tions all over the world.
He has also done extensive
writing in the state of under-
graduate and graduate educa-
tion in America. His essay, "The
Shame of the Graduate
Schools," which appeared in
Harper's magazine achieved
wide recognition, and he was
recently the subject of an ar-
ticle in Time magazine.
Esquire magazine also hon-
ored Arrowsmith, naming him
one of the country's "Super
Professors" in this year's col-
lege issue.
Arrowsmith holds degrees
from both Princeton and Ox-
ford Universities. He has held
both Woodrow Wilson and Gug-
enheim Fellowships, and last
year at Texas was named the
Piper Professor of 1966 "for
outstanding academic achieve-
ment."
His lecture will begin at 7
pm, in the Hanszen College
Commons.
Finals
Any student who has not
yet scheduled his final exami-
nations should get in touch
with his college officc irame-
diatel. The deadline was noon
today.
f
Thresher l'hnto by Tim I.i
New profs from
new endowments
Three endowed professorships
have been created recently at
Rice by grants totaling $1.5
million from the Brown Foun-
dation and Houston Endow-
ment, Inc.
A grant of one million dol-
lars from the Houston Endow-
ment (established by the late
Mr. and Mrs. Jesse H. Jones)
will create the Mary Gibbs
Jones Professorship in History
and the Jesse H. Jones Pro-
fessorship in Management.
An endowed chair in mathe-
matics in the name of Dr. Er-
gar Odell Lovett, Rice's first
President, will be established by
the Brown Foundation's $500,-
000.
The grants were made as
part of the University's $33
million campaign. Rice seeks
twelve new professorships dur-
ing the three-year fund drive.
These grants bring to seven the
number of chairs so far real-
ized.
SCONA says a united Europe may be new
force
By TERRY O'ROURKE,
LEE HORSTMAN and
KAREN SAGSTETTER
"As the North Atlantic Alli-
ance and the Warsaw Pact
weaken, the United States faces
new challenges in its relation-
ships with Europe," said Asst.
Secretary of Defense Charles
McNaughten; the keynote
speaker on Texas A&M's
twelfth Student Conference on
National Affairs (SCONA).
Over 160 student representa-
tives from over 60 colleges and
universities throughout the
United States, Canada and
Mexico including three from
Rice met last week in Aggie-
land for a four day session to
discuss America's commitment
to Europe.
If 20 Soviet divisions pour
into West Germany will Lyn-
don Johnson really push the
button signaling American
devastation for a Pyrrhic vic-
tory 3000 miles away ?
The student representatives
debated this problem and many
others attempting to under-
stand DeGaulle's nationalist
move for an independent nu-
clear striking force in France
and the West German demand
for a share of the finger that
pulls the nuclear trigger.
Sec. McNaughten explained
that U.S. forces must remain
in Europe regardless of the
demands of the raging war in
Viet Nam.
American ground forces can-
not possibly challenge the
powerful Soviet army stationed
in East Geymany, McNaughten
explained, but these U.S. men
affirm our commitment to the
defense of Europe.
Believability
U.S. forces combined w i t h
the French, British and West
Germany do create the "be-
lievability" in the power poli-
tics that is necessary to deter
aggression, he added.
Students, teachers strongly favor
pre-Christmas final examinations
This "believability" is part
of America's new policy of
flexible response to aggression.
Essentially this means that
there is now a choice between
total holocaust and submission
to a Soviet invasion of Western
Europe, he said.
Roundtable Discussion
The SCONA delegatps were
divided into eight round tables
with 20 students, one European
diplomat and one college pro-
fessor in each.
In these round tables much
of the debate centered on the
growing European Economic
Community (EEC) or the Com-
mon Market.
As economic integration and
to a lesser degree political inte-
gration become a fact in Wes-
tern Europe, the U.S. must
either, participate in the new
community without internal
tariffs and uniform tax struc-
tures, or to stay independent
on the other side of the Atlan-
tic, with high protective tariff s_
for inefficient industries and
favored nation trade with coun-
tries like Japan and the Philip-
pines.
Over two thirds of the faculty
members and over three fourths
of the students participating in
a recent poll taken by the Sen-
ate's Calendar Change Com-
mittee favored the proposal to
start school three weeks early,
finishing exams before Christ-
mas.
A second proposal offering a
change in the length of the
Christmas-Midterm break from
three weeks to either two or
four was rejected by over five
to one by both faculty and stu-
dents.
A proposal to split the Spring
vacation essentially failed be-
cause of apathy rather than op-
position.
A total of 585 students and
127 faculty members responded
to the poll, a response that the
committee said "far exceeded
expectation, demonstrating the
degree of interest on this ques-
tion."
Objections to the proposed
changes included the interfer-
ence with summer research
projects and ROTC progTams,
the lack of synchronization with
other schools, the resulting
"lame duck" session after
Easter, and the lack of educa-
tional value of the alterations
under consideration.
Additional opposing comments
cited the possible necessity of
grading finals over Christmas,
the interference with pre-holi-
day festivities, and the pros-
pects of lost travel discounts.
Commentary in favor of the
proposals noted their success-
ful operation at other schools,
the elimination of the long
break in first semester, the re-
duction Of pressure between se-
mesters, and the earlier avail-
ability of grades and graduates.
Among many additional re-
marks were the suggestions
that Rice investigate the three
quarter system, a shorter se-
mester, or the use of the "Eu-
ropean" system.
Third Force
^Tied clftsely with the debates
•" over economic integration in
Europe was the concern over
the possibility of a third force.
The delegates consensus in
resolutions showed that neither
France nor any other European
nation could be strong enough
to be a military third force to
challenge the super powers of
the U.S.S.R. or the U.S.A.
If a third force does come
from Europe, the students rea-
soned, that it would be a com-
bination of nations with eco-
nomic power as opposed to
military.
Multi-Lateral Force
Most of the European diplo-
mats who led the round table
discussions persuaded the stu-
dents that the Multi-Lateral
Force (MLF) was dead.
They said that Europe can-
not live securely with inde-
pendent control of nuclear wea-
pons or even a greater voice
in determining defense policy
for a nuclear exchange.
The red or dead alternative
does not seem to be very attrac-
tive. It is this reasoning that
creates European demands for
a re-structuring of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO).
The recurrent problem of
German reunification entered
into student considerations.
Most of the delegates were in
favor of a "one" Germany but
admitted that the Soviet and
French traditional fears were
too strong to see unification
in the near future.
The students viewed the Ber-
lin wall as a reasonable and
effective action by the East
German government.
The wall, they pointed out,
has not been without blessings
for the West either. It has re-
duced the tensions over Berlin
by defining the western sector
as a clearly independent unit.
The building of the wall has
enabled the East Germans to
stabilize their previously un-
stable currency. Now with a
stronger internal economy for
the East the avenues for nego-
tiation toward unity seem
stronger.
Third World
The relationship with the
"third world" also dominated
the discussions during the*con-
ference.
The students generally agreed
that the gap between the
"have" and "have not" powers
will continue to grow in the
future. They also agreed that
foreign assistance on bilateral
terms can be detrimental to
developing nations.
Most of the student round
tables viewed the U.S. foreign
aid program as an unsuccessful
attempt to create the independ-
ence and self-respect essential
to close the technological and
socio-cultural gap.
Foreign Aid
One student group called for
a multilateral development pro-
gram stressing educational aid.
They reasoned that the Soviet
and American programs had so
many military and economic
strings attached that the pro-
grams were useless.
Pointing out that France
gives more per capita in foreign
aid than the U.S. and other
powers like Britain and West
Germany have substantial -as-
sistance programs of their own,
the students said that a multi-
lateral program of aid would
benefit everyone.
The imbalances of competing
programs as those in India, the
Milddle East and South America
could actually reduce the cost
while increasing the benefits.
United Nations
The "third world" debates
usually turned to the evaluation
of the effectiveness of the
United Nations.
One student round table reso-
lution said that "the institution-
al structure of the U.N. has
doomed it to he a failure as.
an effective peace keeping
force."
Most of the round tables did
not take such a strong stand
but instead commended the
U.N. for the excellent work of
its social and economic agencies
particularly toward promoting
world health and literacy.
Red China
Several of the student groups
called for the admission of lied
China into the U.N. Most of
them, however, were not specif-
ic on the terms. Generally they
called for an end to the U.S.
policy of trying to isolate the
Chinese.
Besides the "third world,"
the emerging "third commun-
ism" figured into discussions.
The growing independence of
Yugoslavia, Romania and Al-
bania seems to present new
ways to break the wall of com-
munistic solidarity and lessen
the cold war tensions.
Changing Challenges
Practically all students called
for more trade and cultural re-
lations with the communist
countries. In various resolutions
they argued that the way to
reduce the communist threat
was to trade with them.
Concluding the conference
most delegates said that the
most important challenges to
America and Europe were not
centered on hard-line ideologies
but instead on performance
through economic growth, bet-
ter worldrwide living standards
and technological progress.
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Coyner, Sandy. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 15, 1966, newspaper, December 15, 1966; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244988/m1/1/: accessed July 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.