Send Comments to the Editors

U.S. Mail:
The Rice Thresher
6100 Main Street (MS-524)
Houston, TX 77005-1892

I am writing in response to a letter submitted by a group of alumni on April 4,(" `Gnome' said with respect,"). This group of alumni states that the term "gnome" is said by Rice students with respect. I beg to differ. When referring to a person who "miraculously" cleans and fixes everything that gets defaced after Thursday night at the Pub, a more respectful form of address is to use that person's name and not the word "gnome."

Even more respectful would be not to urinate in the Sid Richardson College elevators or not to keep the bathrooms looking like "pits." Maybe the "lecture" that Cathi Clack gave us in the March 21 Thresher should not have come from her office, but from our parents. I would be very offended if someone referred to my Latin-American parents as "gnomes."

The authors of this letter are very mistaken when they comment that Clack speaks of a "culture about which she apparently knows little," probably because they have been gone from Rice for eight years.

Not only is Clack in tune with the Latin American culture at Rice, but she is extremely responsive to all of our requests to bring our culture to this campus.

If it is the Rice culture to which these people are referring, then they are again mistaken. As a person who uses Clack's office on a regular basis, I can say that her concern is always for Rice students, no matter what their ethnic make-up may be.

Personally, I take offense at the opinions of these long-ago graduates concerning Clack, the groundskeeping staff and people in general. If they think it necessary that Rice students apply such a derogatory word to the beautiful people who are here early every morning to clean up the vomit from the stairwells, then I am ashamed to be a part of this institution.

Rice is known to be a place where great minds join to excel in education, but as my mother always told me, education is nothing when you are not humane in your treatment of others.

Michelle Nasser

SRC '99

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the April 11, 1997 issue.