LETTER: Attitudes, not colleges, should change

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by Amy Harrison

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To the editor:

I couldn't help but feel a sharp retort rise when I read last week's letter ("College system limits social life at Rice," Thresher , Feb. 9) proclaiming that the college system limits social life at Rice.

Come again? I am willing to wager that Rice would be just like any other school -- where social activity is strictly off-campus and exclusive to cliques -- were it not for the college system.

Granted, my first friends were found in my own college, but it is easy and pretty common to make friends all over campus.

You do not have to necessarily be "uncommonly outgoing" or even involved in student organizations, although organizations are a great way to meet people.

Truth is, your social life is what you make it.

There's nothing wrong with staying close to your own college or going to parties with people from your own college if that's where your friends are.

But nothing says that people from your college have to be your only friends.

And if you're coming out of your room pretty frequently, even if it's just to go to the library or the Coffee-House, you're bound to run into someone from somewhere else, maybe not even from Rice.

But if lack of social life is the problem, the college system is hardly to blame.

For a campus (and a city) with so much to offer every weekend as a way to unwind, it seems like a matter of choice if you stay in by yourself.

Nobody's stopping you from picking up a copy of the Houston Press , planning a date and calling up that interesting-looking person in your one o'clock class -- and that goes for guys and girls.

Sure, there are a few things that could use changing around here, but I'd hardly list the college system as one of them.

Attitudes, on the other hand, can always use a little improvement.

Amy Harrison

Jones '98

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the February 16, 1996 issue.

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