The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 31, 1995 Page: 2 of 20
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2 FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1995 THE RICE THRESHER
OPINION
Why?
Experience teaches the importance
of questions, communication
I learned a lot as editor this year. The most valuable lesson was a simple
one: listen. And ask why.
Obviously this is useful for anyone whose occupation is gathering
information. But the position of editor is more administrator than inter-
viewer, more negotiator than writer.
I learned to listen and ask why from dealing with people, not from writing
stories.
At the beginning of the year I, along with editor emeritus Kraettli
Epperson and incoming editor Charles Klein, put together a journalism
class. After it seemed to have gone through all the approval process and we
had apparently received the support of the administration, a faculty member
allegedly protested the class.
I say allegedly because I do not know for sure: he did not ever talk to any
of the three of us. He spoke to the administration. He spoke to the college
master. He spoke to the college president, whose only relationship to the
class was that he signed up for it. But he didn't talk to us.
If he had talked to us, if he had asked us why we did the things we did,
he might have been convinced that we knew what we were doing. He might
have understood why we planned the assignments in the way we did. He
might have had his questions answered.
Instead, for reasons that are unfathomable from a practical standpoint
(but which may be brutally apparent if viewed from the perspective of an
expression of dominance), the professor caused undue confusion, killed
worthwhile assignments in favor of pointless ones, and generally caused a
great deal of undue stress. Power is important. Courtesy, however, some-
times makes things run more smoothly.
In another example, the recent parking question raises the two sides of
the listening question in high relief.
Our new Student Association president recently sat with Associate Vice
President of Finance and Administration Neill Binford for four hours to find
out the details of the new parking plan. Binford explained to her exactly why
each aspect of the plan was adopted, why each choice was made. This
explanation will probably convince the student body of the merits of the
plan. If it had been instituted without explanation, student protest would
have been great.
Unfortunately, it almost was. More unfortunately, the plan, which has
been confirmed as a virtual fait accompli, lacks the other side of the listen
equation. It had no student input. From the student's perspective, it is just
one more example of the administration's view that the university would run
so much more smoothly if the students could be eliminated. From the
administration's perspective, it should also be viewed as dangerous. The
plan does not have the stamp of approval from the students, a situation that
could only make an administrator's life more difficult.
Communication is good. I've always known that, or I never would have
gone into journalism. Communication is more than talking or writing,
however; it's about listening, and asking why.
—David Hale, editor
T""\ • The A ■ A| 1 SINCE 1916
Rice Thresher
David Hale
Editor in Chief
George E. Hatoun
Business Manager
Sei Chong
Chetan Kapoor
Frederick Wen
Vivek Rao
James Ling
Amy Jeter
Joanna Winters
Marty Beard
Tony Tran
Grant A." Flowers
Peter Stokes
Rachel Dornhelm
Christof Spieler
Amy Ferranti
Adam Richardson
Susan Galloway
Joel Hardi
Rakesh Agrawal
Charles Klein
Nina Olien
Drew Bagley
Lily Fu
Meredith Hamm
Melissa "Muffie" Goodwin
News Editor
Asst. News Editor
Asst. News Editor
Opinion Editor
Asst. Opinion Editor
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor
Sports Editor
Asst. Sports Editor
Asst. Sports Editor
Features Editor
Features Editor
Backpage Editor
Backpage Editor
Copy Editor
Photography Editor
Asst. Photography Editor
Production Manager
Ads Production Manager
Asst. Business Manager
Asst. Business Manager
Staff Cartoonist
Staff in-law
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University
since 1916, is published each Friday during the school year, except
during examination periods and holidays, by the students of Rice
University. Sid Rich rules.DEATH FROM ABOVE!
Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the
Ley Student Center, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas, 77251. Phone
5274801. Fax 285-5238. e-mail: thresher@owlnet.rice.edu. Advertising
information available on request. Mail subscription rate per semester:
$22.00 domestic, $40.00 international via first class mail. Non-
subscription rate: first copy free, second copy $2.00. Sid Rich rules.
The Thresher reserves the right to refuse any advertising for any
reason. Additionally, the Thresher does not take responsibility for the
factual content of any ad. Sid Rich rules. DEATH FROM BEHIND!
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher
editorial staff. All other pieces represent solely the opinion of the
author. Sid Rich Rules. WE'RE DEAD! © COPYRIGHT 1995
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HAtlrt
Instead of anayzing causes of apathy,
campus should search for remedies
To the editor:
I read with interest Jenna
Christensen's letter relating the "pre-
professionalism ... encouraged
among Rice engineering majors" to
a general student apathy and a dor-
mant intellectual climate at Rice.
THE EDITOR
Letters
I don't believe that one particular
segment of the curriculum can be
blamed for what Ms. Christensen
termed an "anti-intellectual atmo-
sphere."
Assuming her assessment of the
out-of-classroom environment is cor-
rect, how can less than one-third of
the student body weigh so heavily
on the entire campus?
I don't equate professionalism of
any sort (engineering, law or medi-
cine) with anti-intellectualism. Two
hallmarks of a profession exist.
One hallmark is practitioners who
directly interact with and personally
affect their customers. In this sense,
professionals must be humanistic,
dealing with ethical issues, develop-
ing effective interpersonal commu-
nication skills and weighing the con-
sequences of their actions or recom-
mendations.
The other hallmark is lifelong
education to keep up with develop-
ments within the profession and al-
lied areas.
In the courses they teach, engi-
neering faculty do try to instill such
broader views, complementing a
thorough understanding of the "tools
of the trade:" science, mathematics
and design. Admittedly, the engi-c
neering student's curriculum is de-
manding, but the engineer's role in
society is similarly demanding and
competitive.
A university education has both
vocational and educational compo-
nents. At Rice, students can choose
the ratio as they see fit. Engineering
students as a group could be consid-
ered as being skewed more than
most to the vocational, but I don't
believe this makes them anti-intel-
lectual or an overwhelming power
on campus.
I do believe in the value of a lib-
eral education. Courses in all disci-
plines contribute to a student's intel-
lectual strength, but cohesion — fo-
cusing and creating interplay among
them — is also important.
For some reason, the American
university career is nominally four
' I don't equate
professionalism of any
sort (engineering; law or
medicine) with anti-
intellectualism. *
years of study. No one would argue
that learning stops then, or that all
that we need to know can be cap-
tured in so little time.
• Perhaps the primary goals of a
university like Rice are to provide
students with facts and with critical
analytic skills, enabling the student
to discern truth through a reasoned
composition of facts. No matter what
a Rice student's chosen path to exit-
ing the Sallyport might be, the Rice
SEE ENGINEERING, PAGE 3
Blame student attitude, not curriculum
To the editor:
I read Jenna Christensen's letter
regarding the Rice curriculum with
great interest. Because I hold a B.A.
in History, an M.S. in Environmen-
tal Engineering and am currently
pursing certification as a professional
engineer and my Ph.D. in Environ-
mental Engineering, I feel that my
perspective may be of interest re-
garding the long-standing S/E vs.
Academ curriculum debate. I offer
the following in response to Ms.
Christensen's points:
' Encouraging the B.A.
option is a bad idea. To
my knowledge, there is
no job market for people
with B.A. 's in
engineering. 9
• Not allowing engineering to be a
preprofessional degree is absurd.
Most people like to get jobs after
they graduate. I'd love to see Rice
abandon ABET accreditation, as I've
heard that Caltech has done. Never-
theless, Rice must maintain stan-
dards of excellence at least as high
as ABETs or our degrees would be
meaningless.
• Encouraging the B A option is a
bad idea. To my knowledge, there is
no job market for people with B.A's
in engineering. A B.S. in engineer-
ing is not vocational training; it is
training in the application of theory.
A B.S. in engineering is no more or
less rigorous than a B.A in pure
science; it just has a different focus.
• A pass/fail freshman year does
nothing to encourage students to
pursue a broader education. Why
not advocate a pass/fail curriculum?
Grades mean something, including
freshman grades. How they're inter-
preted depends on the sophistica-
tion of the reviewer. Rice can't con-
trol that.
• The problem with equalizing
graduation requirements is that it
overlooks the fundamental general
difference between pursuit of knowl-
edge in the sciences and the liberal
arts.
Ahistory major should do no less
work during four years at Rice than
a physics major. True, the physics
major will pursue about 137 semes-
ter hours of laboratories and courses,
while a history major will pursue
about 120 semester hours of courses.
But the history major will spend
countless hours in the library, trav-
eling, attending lectures, being ac-
tive in relevant social movements,
etc. To understand the humanities,
you have to do more than read books
and write papers. You have to do
things which don't directly translate
into semester hours (like writing
letters to the Thresher).
• A core curriculum is a horrible
thing. The last thing Rice needs is a
fruitless debate over what to force
SEE ATTITUDE, PAGE 3
Short letters (200 words or
less) may be sent in by
E-MAIL:
vivekrao@owlnetrice.edu
or
lingjj@owlnetrice.edu
CAMPUS MAIL:
Thresher
Longer letters should
besubmitted on a Macintosh
disk in the Microsoft Word
format Include a paper copy.
Deadline for all letters is
5 p.m. on Monday
All letters must include
your name, college,
year of graduation and
phone number (names
may be withheld by
request in special
circumstances).
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Hale, David. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 31, 1995, newspaper, March 31, 1995; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246509/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.