The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 7, 2001 Page: 2 of 24
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7,2001
RanonaLe...
Leslie Liu, Robert Reichle
Editors in Chief
Shopping 'till we drop
for the best classes
Hie freedom to add and drop classes without penalty at the start
of each semester allows Rice students to personalize their sched-
ules in a way no bureaucracy could do for them. Experiencing
several classes before making final decisions allows students to fit
the content, coursework and teaching styles they want into their
personal scheduling puzzle.
When students "shop" for courses, professors are often chal-
lenged to adjust their teaching style to unexpected class sizes
during the first few weeks. They must also accommodate students
who miss the first few class meetings. Class shopping also creates
headaches for the registrar, who must reassign classrooms and
drop unpopular classes once enrollments stabilize. We appreciate
the flexibility and willingness of the faculty and staff that make this
wonderful system function.
Often, students must sit 011 the floor in overcrowded classrooms
until room changes can be made. We think this is a small sacrifice
for the opportunity to make truly informed decisions about the
classes we will attend for the next three months. When students
join a class after missing the first few sessions, they should be
prepared to do the necessary work to catch up with the class.
Treating class shopping as a privilege will ensure that academic
quality is not sacrificed.
We urge all those who are inconvenienced by this quirk of Rice
academic life to hang in there — its long-term benefits outweigh
the confusion we face at the beginning of each semester.
Improving RBT with
blanket tax funds
Rice Broadcast Television received over $10,000 this year from
undergraduate students, and with this money the organization
was able to buy new equipment to streamline and refine their
broadcasts. We think that's great.
But now, it's time for RBT to give back to the Rice community
in a way only they can. RBT is unique because it can cover events
in real time. For campus news, they can provide a format that may
be easier and faster to digest.
We understand that the staff of RBT has been busy moving their
studio and setting up new equipment, and were unable to begin
broadcasting immediately when the school year began. However,
we expect to see original programming within the next few weeks.
And with this original programming, we hope to see better
publicity that lets students know what's playing and when.
During the past few years, RBT has been an entertaining
showcase for the fruits of some dedicated students' efforts. Add
$10,000, some new equipment and a new year to the equation, and
expect better programming and a higher quality for the product
RBT has to offer.
Opening student
spaces during holidays
Labor Day is a university holiday, one of a select few during the
year. Unfortunately, it's also one of even fewer holidays when
students are actually on campus at the time.
Last weekend, many students were unpleasantly surprised to
discover that Fondren Library, the Student Center and Autry
Court had limited holiday hours (or none at all). On the first
weekend of the school year, a time students traditionally use to
settle into school life and run errands, it's especially inconvenient
to be locked out of such important campus hot-spots.
However, these student spaces are not closed out of any malice
toward students, but rather because of staff and budget constraints.
It costs extra to staff these buildings on a holiday, and these extra
funds can't be allocated to these facilities' budgets without ample
evidence that students want extended holiday hours.
So instead of sulking quietly or raging angrily about the fact that
you couldn't check out that required reading from Fondren at
11 p.m. Monday night, calmly walk over to your student space of
choice and submit some feedback. Even better, tell your SA
senator to pursue the issue. Dozens of polite requests are more
likely to expand their budgets than a few loud, aimless complaints
are.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Redisricting column
inaccurate, partisan
To the editor:
I appreciate the sentiments ex-
pressed in Megan Kemp's column
("The disenfranchisement of diver-
sity in Texas," Aug. 31) but fail to
understand the partisan tilt that she
chose to emphasize. Gerrymander-
ing is a serious problem that should
concern all voters as it tends to am-
plify the extreme viewpoints of both
sides by creating safe districts.
Although it may be relevant to
discuss Texas in particular as we
live here, it is disingenuous to not
address or even simply mention the
current Democratic gerrymander-
ing in other states such as North
Carolina or California. By ignoring
the 1991 gerrymander in Texas by a
Democratic governor and an over-
whelmingly Democratic legislature,
she also shows that she may be more
concerned about the loss of Demo-
cratic seats than the problem of ger-
rymandering.
Furthermore, it is misleading to
blame racially concentrated districts
on the Republican party, as it was
the Democratic party that supported
the importance of race in drawing
districts as an attempt to increase
national representation of minori-
ties.
Erik Hughes
Graduate student
Chemical engineering
Texas redisctricting
plan fair to voters
To the editor:
In her column, "The disenfran-
chisement of diversity in Texas"
(Aug. 31), Megan Kemp alleges that
the redistricting process threatens
the rights of Texas voters. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
There are no voting rights with
respect to one's party affiliation. The
redistricting process in Texas is al-
ways partisan. The party in power,
whichever it may be, seeks to
strengthen the position of its incum-
bents and weaken the position of
the other party's incumbents. The
Supreme Court has repeatedly re-
fused to find fault with this process.
One can debate the merits of parti-
san redistricting, but it is disingenu-
ous to criticize a state party for suc-
cessfully strategizing under the cur-
rent system.
Ms. Kemp goes out of her way to
praise two of Houston's "wonderful
Democrats" and bemoans the likeli-
hood of them losing their seats. Be-
ing a good representative, however,
does not entitle one to a winnable
district. No representative can claim
any right that their seat be redis-
tricted in any particular manner. The
rights reside only with the voter.
Her next assertion is that voters
have the right to "viable candidates
in a competitive race." This fabri-
cated right, even if it existed, would
be nearly impossible to apply, espe-
cially in states that are not particu-
larly competitive at the statewide
level.
That leads to Kemp's most ri-
diculous claim: pretending that
Texas is not a heavily Republican
state. Her statement that Democrats
win more elected offices in Texas is
intellectually dishonest as it ignores
the important political variables of
incumbency, constituency size and
candidate recruitment. If Texas is
competitive, where were the last two
Democratic presidential candidates?
She also implies that the status
quo is more fair than the proposed
new districts. Surely, she knows that
the 1990s round of redistricting in
Texas favored Democrats much
more heavily than the proposed plan
favors Republicans. If she wants to
see the "worst gerrymandering con-
ceivable," she should study the
Texas congressional districts of the
1990s, which political scientists
widely consider one of the most suc-
cessful partisan gerrymanders in
history.
Finally, Kemp alleges that the
creation of majority-minority dis-
tricts dilutes minority voting power
and is thus wrong and illegal. There
is, in fact, a spirited debate in the
minority community as to whether
minority districts are beneficial or
harmful to minority interests. The
Democratic Party. 011 the other hand,
has no such internal debate because
it knows that minority districts are
harmful in strictly partisan terms.
When politicians feign outrage
over redistricting, they know these
facts and still make dramatic claims
of "disenfranchisement" to rally their
supporters and donors. As a senior
political science major, I am certain
Ms. Kemp knows these same facts
as well, and is trying to deceive the
less politically oriented members of
the Rice community with her own
feigned outrage.
If Ms. Kemp truly was concerned
about fairness in redistricting, she
might advocate an independent re-
districting board, such as those in
Arizona, New Jersey and other
states. It is clear from her article,
however, that she equates "fairness"
only with the interests of the Demo-
cratic Party.
Todd Makse
Sid '01
Research analyst, Jones Graduate
School of Management
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 7, 2001, newspaper, September 7, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443165/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.