LETTER: Banning jacks will stifle spirited fun but promote harmful pranks

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by James Koh

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To the editor:

I am honored to have been an enthusiastic participant in the past four O-Weeks at Brown College.

I have seen a number of bad jacks, and I have seen a few good ones.

I believe that a ban on jacks, from administrators, from students, from anyone, would only worsen the jack situation on this campus.

It is my experience that jacks fall basically into two categories.

Some jacks can contribute positively to O-Week. They are clever and intelligent; jacks which involve danger to innocent people, mindless distribution of edibles and meaningless destruction of property do not fall into this group.

The best of jacks should make both the jacker and the jackee say, "That was pretty cool."

There is another category of jacks: rewiring a college's elevators, smearing Crisco on walls, putting Vaseline on doorknobs, dumping manure into a volleyball pit and so on.

In my opinion, these types of activities only detract from O-Week.

Rice is a unique school, and part of O-Week is relaying this fact to the new students.

However, this kind of behavior only says that we are capable of being as sophomoronic as any fraternity in America.

If a ban were placed on jacks, the first kind of jack, already rare, would be less common.

I believe that the type of people who are interested in these types of jacks would be reluctant to continue their upward battle.

On the other hand, perpetrators of the second type of jack, angry that their fun is being taken from them, would step up their efforts a few notches.

In the end, the administration cannot control the students; only we the students can control ourselves.

I challenge the administration not to stifle us, but to encourage us to have fun, to enjoy life (if only for one week) and to show each other how clever and creative we really are.

Likewise, I challenge next year's O-Week coordinators to choose advisors who are intelligent and who will make jacks during O-Week fun again.

James H. Koh

Brown '96

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the February 2, 1996 issue.

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