EDITORIAL: BELL CURVE
The route it did take was to provide a venue for the all-important debate phase of the symposium which will feature Bell Curve author Charles Murray and prominent scientists flown in from around the country to challenge his findings. Sunday, after meeting with other sponsors of the event, Texas Southern University withdrew its sponsorship (and the venue) of the debate, citing a previous decision not to allow National of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to speak on that campus.
If Rice had not decided to step in and take the lead role in the event after Houston's black organizations pulled their support, the conference would likely have collapsed. The scholars would probably never have another opportunity like this one to challenge The Bell Curve , and that "evil book," as sociology professor Steven Klineberg calls it, would continue to pervade our community. There is a good chance now that the unsupported conclusions of that work can be brought to light in this effort.
Rice could have followed in the footsteps of the NAACP, the Urban League, Texas Southern University and the American Jewish Committee and abandon the much-anticipated conference. There was a lot of pressure to go that route: The very people who a Bell Curve symposium would benefit -- the black citizens of Houston -- wanted the conference canceled. They said, in effect, that giving the author of the controversial book which claims that blacks are inherently intellectually inferior to whites an opportunity to speak would help to legitimize his ideas.
The easiest and least controversial route for Rice would have been to simply let the conference drop after the black community pulled out. After all, Rice was only participating in an advisory role. Since neither of the major forums were scheduled for this campus, the university could simply have walked away then, and nobody would have had any grounds for complaint.
But Rice did not walk away. The university saw an incredible opportunity: The AJC had promised to continue to honor its fiduciary agreement to support the conference despite withdrawing its official sponsorship when the black organizations pulled out, the speakers had already been paid -- and paid well -- to come, the agenda had been set and Stude Concert Hall was available for next Wednesday night. Everything was in place and all Rice had to do was say yes.
Sure, they'll be problems. Security will be a nightmare, but we've handled security for visiting Presidents of the United States and foreign dignitaries before.
And yes, they'll surely be protests. But that's what it's all about. We are a university, and like it or not, we have a responsibility to provide a forum for debate. All of the books in the library, architecturally superior buildings and brilliant professors are meaningless without application. And next week, they'll be two symposia here: one inside Alice Pratt Brown Hall and one outside. Both will be educational, informative and Rice should be proud to welcome all participants in this debate to our campus.
Whether Murray's book and the theories it forwards are correct, simply misinformed or inherently racist is still a matter of debate (which is why we're having this symposium). Regardless of the answer, the issues of race, education and class stratification are very important topics. Just last Sunday, Rice hosted journalist and author David Halberstam; in part, Halberstam stressed the importance of education and the growing disparities in educational levels between different classes in America today. This will likely be an important issue for the rest of our lives.
Rice must continue to bring the David Halberstams, Charles Murrays and their critics to our campus. We have a long and somewhat sordid history of race relations at this university, and we have rarely been on the cutting edge of that issue. It's about time we did something about that.
This item appeared in the Opinion section of the October 6, 1995 issue.
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