The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 9, 1996 Page: 2 of 16
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THE RICE
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Barbara Jordan deserves a chair.
<\t Wednesday night s memorial for tlu* late conglfesswoman Barbara
Jordan, university officials hinted at the possibility of a chair in some
department being established in Jordan's honor sometime in the near
future What a wonderful idea. May we suggest quick and decisive actions
toward this end. May we also surest that, the Political Science Department
or tin - Maker Institute net the honor b{ having tlx1 chair because oft he nature
of Ionian's life and earevi
Barbara Jordan was one of the all-time legends in Texas and national
politics. Her voice may have been her most recognizable trait. but her
actions, honesty mid integrity will live on forever. What a great honor for her
and this university to have a chair in her honor — a chair at a university
with a newly established Public Policy Institute, a chair at a university that
is celebrating the 30th anniversary of desegregation, a chair at a university
initially intended lor only whiles, especially white males. God rest your soul
Ms Jordan, and may vow-spirit live on at this'tmiversitv
to the Editor
Proposal to raise fees needs work.
A serious problem exists at Rice - - there is a severe paucity of funding
tor student organizations and the diverse projects that they undertake,
Prom the Pride Rally to Habitat for Humanity's Spring Break trip to
Honduras to the l.unar New Year celebration, funding is scarce. This is not
to say that t he admin ist ration is not trying hard to find ways to lund activities
as Vice President for Student AffairsZenaidoCamacho stretches his budget
to pay lor various activities and President Malcolm Gillis devotes thousands
of dollars to student organizations from his discretionary fund. Even with
these generous actions, a problem still exists.
I'ii solve this problem, some students have proposed a student activity
blanket tax hi principle, this is an extremely good idea, but much work
remains before the blanket tax can be realistically implemented. First, the
proposal currently suggests a S10 a year tax, As we all learned during I he
debates over a simple economically-driven shuttle fee, S10 can be an
extremely touchy subject for students, Besides, il student body reaction to
sin h a proposal holds true, it will be resoundingly defeated Students
weren't even in support of a SI ,50 raise in the KTRU blanket tax in 1994; a
Spl new tax will receive an even chillier welcome.
Besides the actual dollar amount eff the blanket tax. the other problems
with the plan relate to its structure and inability to fulfill one of its goals The
structure of the tax and its implementation are pretty much up in the air. To
go into the details would take too long and would not clarify anything, as the
Student Association Senate learned when they budgeted five minutes for
discussion and then spent over 20 minutes on the proposal.
Finally, one of the primary goals of the fund involves giving student
organizations one place to go for appropriations. Prom all indications, the
colleges are not willing to give up thej^appropriations Also, if the SA Senate
and the Rice Program ( otmeil were to lose their appropriations arms and
then need an increase in any of their blanket taxes, they would have a niucli*
harder tune doing so because they would have no real financial accountabil-
ity to the student, body a justification lor appropriations in the first place.
Both organizations could use a helping hand in the appropriations arena
though The Rl't has recently run into problems with appropriations where
they literally didn't have any appropriations budget To support events like
the Pride Rally, they were forced to take money out of the Beer-Bike tax
mon< v to give to Pride While this was a noble cause and gesture, that
'money was understood to be set aside
for Heer-B'rke with any leftover funds
being applied to track improvements,
or other such Beer-Bike related ex-
penses. I his further proves that there
is a severe lack of funding on this
campus for student organizations
OpinionS
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Letter Policy
TO SUBMIT I otters may be sent in by,...
e-mail: lingjj<faowlnH. ricv.edu
campus mail: I-etter to the Editor, c/o The Rice Thresher
I !.S. Mail: Letler to the Editor, The Rice Thresher,
IU00 Main St., MS-524, Houston. TX 77005-1892
in person: Thresher Office, Second Floor, Student Center
DEADLINE - Deadline for all letters is 5 p.m. on Monday
RULES f
1 All letters must include your name, college, year of
graduation and phone number.
2. We reserve the right to edit for length, spelling, grammar and
Million dollar gates will only
To the editor,
As the father of two undergradu-
ate daughters currently attending
Rice University, I have been follow-
ing the recent campus security de-
velopments with grave concern.
I hope [the new gates
proposal] is not an
intention of those in a
decision-making
capacity.
Despite the apparent resolution
of the most recent rash of assaults,
I can unequivocally state that my
anxieties are not allayed in the
least. <
I have to agree with Mr. Jason
Ciarochi in his letter ("More lights,
officers better than gates") published
in the Jan. 26 issue of the Thresher.
The expenditure of almost one
million dollars on the part of the
University for permanent entrance
gates seems but a cosmetic fix to a
major security problem for the Rice
campus,
These gates will, at-best, lend a
false sense of security to those po-
tential students and their families
visiting the campus for the first time.
1 hope this is not an intention of
those in a decision-making capacity.
It seems very unlikely that these
proposed gates will lower campus
crime, an important statistic that
colleges and universities are man-
dated to compile and report for the
purpose of informing prospective
students and their families.
I hope that if these gates are con-
structed, that additional, more sub-
stantive and proven measures be
undertaken as well.
In the meantime, I hope that Rice
students will continuiLto be person-
ally vigilant, and nonse lulled into
any false sense of security.
I hope that if these
gates are
constructed, that
additional, more
substantive and
proven measures be
undertaken as well.
And I hope that university offi-
cials are not lulled as well.
Jerald Winakur, M.I?.
San Antonio
Macs have proven worthy on campus
Aside Irom this, the RIV has also created by-college appropriations
lunds for the future. I bis seems very contradictory to the philosophy of
t onsolidating appropriations and suggests that not everyone is sold on the
idea of appropriations coming from a single source
While this fee is a very good idea, it is just that right now an idea.
Students should seriously consider making this happen, but the tax should
b<; a lot smaller and a lot belter defined. All of the curcent appropriating
bodies have to be on the same page for this to be effective, and they clearly
are not. Alternatives really need to be explored in depth. It's an idea whose
lime-has not come — yet
To the editor:
In reading-Mr. Spieler's editorial
("Exclusively Macintosh campus
does not make any sense," Thresher,
Feb. 2). I am forced to wonder if he
is living in the present or the past.
As a full-time consultant for User
Services who supports PCs with
Windows 95,1 concur that Windows
95 has a great deal to offer, and that
in today's market there is little rea-
son for adhering to any brand name
computer or operating system
simply on the basis of past achieve-
ment.
However, if Mr. Spieler would be
so kind as to travel back with me to
1988, the era when the Macintosh
computer was in its heyday on this
campus, he would find a radically
different landscape.
At the time, there was no compe-
tition with the Macintosh in many
important areas.
There was no standard for net
work printing on the PC. There was
no widely accepted operating sys-
tem with a graphical user interface.
Iliere was no font standard, no
standard for networking hardware
ntir even standards tor high-resold-*
tion displays or large monitors.
There was no standard for high
speed external storage devices. „
The Macintosh had all of these; it
was the only choice for a campus
Hying to make the best of its net-
working facilities.
At the time, there
was no competition
with the Macintosh in
many important
areas.
In only a couple of years, the Rice
Macintosh network grew from a few
isolated workgroups using the built-
in Ix>caltalk connections to a highly
interconnected set of Ethernet-ca-
pable Macs in dozens of Appletalk
Zones with many publicly available
file servers and printers.
So what mistake did Rice make
10 years ago?
I can't imagine what it was. We
supported the only personal com-
puter capable of satisfying users'
needs.
The landscape has changed, and
if Mr. Spieler wants to print to a
Windows 95-attaehed printer or send-
files to another Windows 95 com-
puter at Rice or across the world,
he can do so on the campus net-
work,
In time, the Rice campus network
will support Windows 95 just as well
as it supports the Mac today.
It will take some time for the
infrastructure to build up, of course.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and we
will hardly be ready to equip the
colleges with used Windows 95 ma-
chines until a few years from now.
But much of what Mr. Spieler wants
is here now, if he's willing to learn
how to use it.
Rick Russell
Consulting Specialist
« Jones *92
To the editor:
I must take exceptioh to the egre-
gious comments made by fellow se-
nior Garrett Wotkyns ("'Campanile'
to bedistributed after spring break,"
Thresher, Feb. 2), who said ojf the
efforts by Mr. Klein and the other
Campanile editors, "I think it's ri-
dlnitans that thev can't get it frat in
a prompt and punctual manner. It's
not all that theoretically complex."
In retort, I would like to say, "Who
are you to make such disparaging
remarks?"
What contributions have *you
made to the 512-page yearbook that
allow you to criticize our staff?
For that matter, what publishing
experience do youhavetngenenri?
What you have assessed as a task
"not theoretically complex" is still
"practically a miracle."
Well, maybe not a miracle. Just a
lot of hard work not appreciated by
another ungrateful batch of apathetic-
nay sayers ruining,campus morale
for everyone.
William Li
Jones *96
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Klein, Charles & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 9, 1996, newspaper, February 9, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246531/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.