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Rice has grown in the past 12 months. The Thresher in this period covered the opening of the Computational Engineering Building and the opening of the Baker Institute building, with more growth coming as the nanotechnology building approaches its completion. This year saw the 40th anniversary of the college system and Beer-Bike. We have had the opportunity to cover international leaders and Nobel laureates alike.

We have strived over the past year to foster open debate on a variety of topics. Some of the issues tackled in the Thresher 's pages during our administration include the history of women at Rice, student-administrator relations, KTRU and the possibility of its oversight, needed improvements to facilities and grounds, the effects of Hopwood vs. State of Texas on minority enrollment at Rice, assaults and campus safety.

Of course, for every story we did cover, there are a dozen others we did not, due to a lack of resources. Many students do not realize how time-intensive putting out the Thresher is. Each person in the staff box -- on average -- spends about 20 hours a week in the Thresher office (some, in fact, spend twice that amount); if you don't believe us, just ask a roommate of any of our Editorial Board members. We would need to spend even more time to put out the type of paper we would like to. Time and advertising revenue govern how big we can be.

If you want to see more from the Thresher , get involved. You can talk to staff members, you can write letters to the editor -- but the best way to enact positive change is simply to get involved. If you don't have time to be on the Editorial Board, there are always other, smaller commitments: writing stories, taking photos, selling ads. Like bit players in a full-scale drama, it can safely be said that there are no small roles, just small actors.

Overall, it has been an educational year for us, to say the least. The Backpage once again became a hotly-debated issue. Dealing with the criticism of the infamous "Rice Women Are Like ..." Backpage taught us the importance of good public relations. We freely admit that we could have dealt with the controversy better, and probably should have taken the time to explain to the entire student body our reasons for having a Backpage. But we felt at the time the best way to handle the situation was by being receptive to students who cared enough to bring their opinions directly to the staff.

The Backpage has, in the past few years, been a part of the Thresher that editors have regularly re-evaluated. The Backpage is simultaneously the most hated and the most loved part of the paper. Some question whether it belongs in its current form in a student newspaper, or in any newspaper.

Most of the Thresher staff supports the existence of the Backpage because it attracts readership, and past surveys of undergraduates have revealed that more students want to keep it than eliminate or drastically change it. The reaction of readers to the Backpage this past year suggests that student opinion may be changing, and our successors will be dealing with this issue by conducting another survey.

The main lesson we have learned as editors in chief is this: You can't make all of the people happy all of the time, but you can damn sure try. We've learned that we should have worked more on public relations and that we should never assume that others understand our reasons for our decisions.

With this being our final issue as editors in chief, we would like to thank the students, faculty and staff who have been supportive of our efforts to produce a quality student newspaper. Without the audience, especially the students, there would be no reason for the Thresher to exist. But most of all we want to thank our hard-working staff. Without the section editors, assistant section editors, writers, proofers, photographers and other staff members, there would be no Thresher .

-- Marty Beard and Vivek Rao

1996-97 Editors in Chief

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the March 21, 1997 issue.