The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, September 10, 1982 Page: 4 of 20
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THRESHING-IT-OUT
Honor Council defends
present honor system
To the Editor:
Your " sacred slaying" of the
Honor Code reveals a fun-
damental misunderstanding of the
general concept behind the
existence of an honor system, of
our system specifically, and of
people and reality in general. To
address a few of the more glaring
errors:
1)The editor's suggestion to
abolish the Honor Code:
The reasoning here is so flawed
that a thorough answering would
require a great amount of space;
and we feel that other similar
letters will sufficiently accomplish
this. One point: an Honor system is
based upon the "freedom of self-
discipline" and "integrity," and
cannot function without it. The
externally imposed academic
disciplinary code of most schools
(the Ivy League, state schools, etc.)
might be accused of "imposing
honor" upon its students, but
certainly not ours. The editor
seems to be confused as to the basic
definition of an honor system in
general.
2)The editor's suggestion to make
proceedings public:
Abstracts (without names) of all
cases are available in the reserve
room of the library. But probably
the editor would still insist on
knowing names and sitting in on
trials. The advantages of secrecy
are so obvious that it hardly seems
worthwhile to make a reply.
Nevertheless—the issue is not
"washing Rice's dirty linen" in
public, but that of washing one
particular student's (to condescend
to the same cliche). The editor did
not state a single reason why
people should be submitted to the
humiliation he suggests other than
it would be like the "real world,"
presumedly the absolute authority
on correct and moral policy,
attitude, and judgement in all
situations. The editor's assessment
of what the general attitude toward
an accused might be was also
particularly unrealistic. There
would be a stigma associated with
any Honor Council investigation
or trial simply because some
people would choose to create one,
a situation of obvious unfairness.
( By the way any accused has the
right to publicize his own
involvement with the Honor
Council, as the editor said he
would prefer. Others may be more
sensible, though, and they should
have that right.)
3)The editor's attitude about the
H.C. exam:
The test does not intend to
"teach" honesty; it seems obvious
that is a motivation for new
students to learn the system as well
as a protection, ensuring that there
will be no violations due to
ignorance. Another obvious point
the editor missed is the reason for
learning three of the H.C.
members names. The new student
simply becomes, as a result,
familiar with a few members
(hopefully those in their college) in
case he needs to contact the
Council.
4)The editor's call to not sign the
pledge:
The editor correctly assessed
this as a "small" and "silly" protest.
The constitution does not state the
reason for signing the pledge; we
interpret it as only a symbol of the
system, an affirmation of the
honor which backs each pledged
assignment. A more paranoid
perspective might be that the
pledge is a threat, an insult, a cruel
imposition of authority upon
students. But we seriously doubt
such defensiveness is widespread.
We have only addressed a few of
the problems with the editorial,
and even those are fairly obvious.
The rest, most likely, occurred to
the readers while reading the
commentary; we see no reason to
reiterate. Usually we appreciate
and even seek out constructive
criticism of ourselves and the
system—after all, part of our job is
to "improve." But we felt that this
commentary was so far from the
point, so in error, and yet so
widespread and visual, that it
warranted some reply.
The Honor Council
Marshall protests edit,
asks for boycott of page
To the Editor:
After reading with first
incredulity and then disgust the
last two weeks' attempts at
journalism in the editorial column,
1 would like to raise a protest of my
own against journalism that is
either purposely filled with
inconsistencies, absurdities, poor
observation, unrealistic as-
sessment of the Rice community,
sloppy and illogical reasoning, etc.
with the "Sole purpose of eliciting a
justifiably strong emotional
response from its readers in order
to generate editorial replies; or is
written by individuals whose
outlook is so strange and bizarre
and inferior that it cannot be of a
quality worthy of publishing.
Classes start
week of
Sept. 27
Effective Reading and
Advanced Learning Skills
Applications are available in the Office
of Student Advising, Rice Memorial
Center Courtyard
The Rice Thresher, September 10, 1982, page 4
Therefore, 1 ask you, the readers,
to join this protest. Don't read the
editorials; make the Thresher
respect the intelligence level of its
readers.
Randy Marshall
Econ/ Psych/ Premed
Vice-Chairman, Honor Council
Krueger wants swords
turned into plowshares
To the Editor:
As regards the slaying of sacred
cows, you have made a valid point
in that tradition can be a
convenient excuse for shoddy
practices. Unfortunately, the flip
side of the coin can also be
dangerous. Asa new student, I was
made very aware of the honor
system from the earliest mailings.
Honesty does indeed get down to
the individual student and the
cheater does indeed cheat himself.
One would be naive to assume that
the honor system eliminates
cheating here at Rice (or that
"prevailing moral standards"
eliminates it in the real world).
However, until you can guarantee
that Rice students will not cheat, it
might be wise to put away the
sword.
John Krueger
Shepherd School of Music
Core curriculum called
a poisonous pablum
To the Editor:
1 hope that Rice students will
rally in opposition to the proposed
core curriculum. I already have
taken too many classes in the
liberal arts from alleged Top
Scholars whose syllabi are thinly-
disguised apologies for their own
beliefs, personal views which
conflict with what I have learned in
my family, faith, education, and
experience. My parents and I do
not pay Rice several thousand
dollars a year so that I may be told
at what hour and in whose class 1
will have to read forgettable texts
about injustices to Cherokees. I
have a high school diploma,
thanks. Rice is small enough not to
have to mass produce its students.
Next we'll be wearing uniforms! It
is more important now that I and
other students develop self-
reliance and a critical ability for
whatever path 1 may eventually
follow. Life stimulates an interest
in fields in which I want specifics;
the college system gives variety.
The core curriculum is a poisonous
pablum\
Cyndy Brown
Financial aid process
criticized for coldness
To the Editor:
For the past three years I have
been a student at Rice University
and have received considerable
financial aid from the school along
with various scholarships 1
acquired on my own. The aid the
university gave me is much
appreciated and was very much
needed, for without it I would not
have been able to pursue my
education here. My appreciation
of the help Rice has given me does
not prevent my indignation and
anger at the way in which the
administration has handled the
Financial Aid Forms for the year
1982/83. Because of the way in
which the FAFs were handled this
year I seem to owe the university
much money along with my first
born son.
Part of the administration's
distribution, or lack of
distribution, of financial aid is
obviously linked to the cutbacks
inflicted by President Reagan on
federal grants, loans, student aid,
and student Social Security
benefits. While it is true not as
much money is being given to the
various universities I think Rice
has overreacted to the situation.
Reagan's economic policies have
sent Rice into a panic. Rice is
cutting spending, lending, and
other student aid packets as if the
market will crash any day now.
Believe me, Rice University has
nothing to fear, it is one of the
better endowed privateinstitutions
in the country and has investments
in various oil and gas interests
around the state of Texas.
In all fairness, Rice University
should cut back on student aid
where it is feasible and will not
cause excessive hardship on the
student, but when that student is
not notified of these cutbacks until
he or she arrives to register and be
"validated" and finds he or she
owes a large sum of money to the
university it is less than fair to that
student. In a situation as the above
a student has no opportunity to
make provisions and has hardly
any choice other than to followthe
"emergency advice" the university
see Threshing, page 5
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Morgan, Tom. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, September 10, 1982, newspaper, September 10, 1982; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245507/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.