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ONLINE
01-DEC-00
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Letters to the Editor
Camacho takes wrong approach with KTRU
To the editor:
A couple of angry DJs disrespected the basketball team. Then a couple of angry administrators disrespected the entire student body.
Two wrongs don't make a right. Shutting down KTRU was as impulsive and silly as playing music over the game. Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho could have just made the DJs apologize and everything would have been all good.
James Douglass
Brown junior
KTRU decision shows that Rice doesn't care
To the editor:
I am upset about the shutdown of KTRU. I am also upset about the recent developments concerning college cheers, college minutes and the Beer-Bike parade. But while I can understand the motives behind actions taken by the university on these last three issues, I cannot understand the motives behind the actions taken on the KTRU issue and still believe that the university cares about its students.
The presence of offensive college cheers and offensive college minutes, as well as trucks in the Beer-Bike parade (all of which I enjoy), do in fact put the university in a position to be threatened legally. So I can grudgingly accept action taken on these issues as the most pragmatic, economically and legally, thing to do.
I am even willing to half believe that the university took these actions in the best interest of its students. After all, if the university's good name, reputation and endowment are threatened, so is our education, which is the ultimate reason for our being here.
However, when the university asked KTRU to broadcast more athletic events, it did so at the request of the athletics director, who is not a student. This action was met by a great deal of student protest, but the university paid little attention.
How are we to believe that direct subversion of a student-run organization and undermining of student wishes is in the best interest of the students? The answer seems quite clear to me. If the university truly cared about student wishes, it would have simply said, "No, let the students decide what to play."
How difficult would that have been? I would have been thoroughly impressed.
And so now I have proof that I was always correct in being suspicious of the university's claim that it cared about its students.
And for those of you who have believed this claim, I submit a reason to doubt it. Maybe the university and its agents (namely Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho) ought to be a bit more honest with us.
Peenesh Shah
Sid junior
Rice should not have shut down KTRU
To the editor:
Shutting down KTRU, which is the administration's response to a single incident of hooligan behavior, is equivalent to ejecting all the students in a college because two of its students got drunk and yelled abuse at a professor.
True, such behavior as interfering with a broadcast is not to be tolerated. But if, as has been alleged, KTRU's management has been intransigent in its dealings with the administration, padlocking the station is not the answer either.
Rice means a great deal to our family. But freedom of broadcasting means more. Our family's name is on the premier award for excellence in broadcast journalism, the Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.
So I say, if you don't like the management, replace it. If broadcasters (in a college environment only, I mean; the airwaves in all other respects must be entirely free) are disruptive, fire them. But never close the station. I am very distressed by this unhappy event.
Lewis C. Taishoff
Parent of a DJ
Rice's actions need to match its goals
To the editor:
I came to Rice in awe of the respect and acknowledgment the administration had of the importance of the students. This environment encouraged and fostered creativity, independent thinking and cooperation between students and institution. Now, due to lack of respect on both ends of this relationship, our school is facing the important re-evaluation of the role that the institution wishes to play.
I am disappointed in everyone right now for how the KTRU situation is being handled. In a game between the institution and the students that involves a true and bitter power struggle, everyone is made to look bad.
The fundamental conflict does not lie in the respect of Rice students, or lack thereof, for the administration; rather, we are dealing with an issue of whether or not the goals of Rice University coincide with the policies that exist. If I'm going to believe that the Rice administration truly wants the best for us as students, their goals need to be clear and have to consistently match their actions.These wonderful attributes our school has will no longer exist if this immature battle continues.
I'm disappointed at the tyrannical position the university has taken. I'm disappointed that the students are disrespectful. Yet I'm hopeful: I see the other methods by which the administration has compromised and included students. I believe a resolution can be made in this circumstance as well. I see Rice as a school of amazing opportunity and great potential.
What's most important right now is that everybody involved consider if our actions truly represent who we are.
Maeve Quigley
Sid freshman
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