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This year's freshman class not only contains the largest number of Oregonians in history, it's also the most socially skilled in years, if the first-day opinions of several advisers and college masters are to be believed.

Matriculation 1998 took on extra significance last spring when Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho forbade advisers from attending the ceremony, moved it into Stude Concert Hall, and scheduled it for the Sunday of O-Week instead of Monday.

Camacho's changes had no small effect. Sunday's matriculation passed without incident, free of the college chants and pranking that interrupted last year's event. Also absent was the traditional scuffle for control of Willy's statue.

And then there's the freshmen, who a number of O-Week veterans said were the chattiest and the least frazzled they'd seen in years.

On the walk from Stude to the Sallyport, Wiess College freshman Lydia Baldridge said her first few hours at Rice had been easier than they could have been.

"It was a lot less hard than I expected," she said. "A lot of times, people just sit around looking at each other."

Lovett College Master Connie Burke said she'd met about half the Lovett freshmen so far and had been positively impressed.

"They talk a lot -- they don't just sit there like lumps," she said. "It's very encouraging."

Another Wiess freshman, Robert Hawke, said he had no complaints so far.

"The strange thing is, I really don't feel weird at all," he said, mentioning a lack of pretentiousness at Rice. "Which is one of the reasons I liked it, over the Ivy League schools and some others."

President Malcolm Gillis, introduced by Camacho as "a president who truly loves students," offered 20 items of advice to Rice's only palindrome class.

"Number two, do remember that you have some of the highest SAT scores in the country," he urged. "And number one, do not ever talk about it again."

The 648 freshman come from an applicant pool of 6,469, of whom 1,533 were offered admission. Gillis praised the class for its diversity: Among them are 40 blacks, up from 30 last year, 74 Hispanics, up from 59, and four Native Americans, down from five.

And when he announced that the class was Rice's first 50 percent male, 50 percent female class, applause erupted from the crowd, much as it did in 1995 when he made a similar statement.

Although none of the speakers -- who also included Student Association President Bill Van Vooren and Honor Council Chairperson Courtney Kelso -- made a reference to last year's "aggressive vulgarity," as Gillis described it then, Gillis said Rice is a place where all strive to show others uncommon courtesy.

"You also know already that ours is a university that places a very high premium on civility," he said. "This is something that really is not all that common in our society anymore.

"In any community where people from different backgrounds and cultures congregate, and where highly divergent ideas compete for intellectual allegiance, there can be no greater asset than understanding tolerance for other individuals and other perspectives."

Kelso outlined the Honor Code's basic principles. "Own your actions -- make them completely and honestly yours," she said.

Van Vooren risked Honor Council sanctions himself by borrowing a metaphor from Kurt Vonnegut's commencement address, although he gave the author ample credit.

"Rice is like the garden of Eden," he said. "You're in for the best four or five years of your life."

As the freshmen began exiting Stude, a faculty member in academic regalia turned to two colleagues for direction.

"What are we doing now?" he asked.

"We're trooping out to Lovett Hall," another answered. "It's actually a lot of fun."

This item appeared in the News section of the August 28, 1998 issue.