LETTER: New O-Week policies arose from careful planning by coordinators

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by Jasmin Tiro

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We would like to discuss some important issues regarding Orientation Week and its coverage in the Aug. 30 edition of the Thresher . The Thresher claims the administration dictated O-Week policy; in truth, the O-Week coordinators were collectively responsible for constructing all policies.

Our primary goal was to create, through policy decisions, a week which would most benefit the new students.

Virtually every decision about O-Week was made by student coordinators, not the O-Week Steering Committee. (This is perhaps the body which the Thresher refers to as "the administration.") The commit-tee's role was to advise, critique and offer suggestions.

For example, when key decisions about jacks were made, the members of the steering committee each gave their opinions about jacks, then listened as coordinators discussed and resolved the issue themselves.

Though members of the committee may have held different opinions about the final policy, not a single one of them questioned our right to make the decision for ourselves.

According to the Thresher , "Rice isn't like O-Week." We agree, and we didn't hide that from the new students.

Through conversations with advisors and faculty, they certainly saw how things would change after O-Week.

O-Week is not a time to experience "normal Rice life."

Instead, it is designed to facilitate the transition into normal Rice life and to establish a support network based upon mutual respect and a sense of honor.

To the staff of the Thresher , your responsibility during O-Week was to document new student activities and thereby contribute to welcoming them to Rice, not to bitterly pass judgment.

If the Thresher had taken its "Mistrust" editorial and written it from the opposite perspective, retitling it "Trust," a more accurate picture of O-Week would have been pre-sented.

To the new students, thanks for a memorable week. We hope you benefited from and enjoyed O-Week as much as we did.

Jasmin Tiro

Student Director of Orientation and the 23 college O-Week coordinators

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the September 13, 1996 issue.

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