Letters to the Editor

12/3/09 6:00pm

Gratitude due for Mary Ellen Lane

To the Editor:We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Professor Mary Ellen Lane for her contribution to our university and undergraduate experience ("Refusal of tenure highlights university's misplaced priorities," Nov. 13). She truly embodied the archetypal Rice professor in her commitment to research, teaching and service to our university.

Lane's passion for her subject and students was obvious and contagious. Her lab offered a highly stimulating research environment in which she welcomed the intellectual contribution of Rice undergrads and included them in a vibrant, active scientific community. Students consistently raved about her upper-level biosciences course, BIOS 443: Development. Alumni in medical and graduate schools continually mention the course's and her lab's considerable influence on their scientific journeys. As a mentor, educator and researcher, Lane truly inspired students and faculty alike to have no upper limit.

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Lane was also a critical faculty member in the neuroscience minor initiative. She proposed new upper-level courses and was in the process of developing the curriculum for an introductory course in the subject. Her involvement in the process offered students a different perspective on the minor and helped identify obstacles and strengths in their proposal. Without Lane's dedication, the initiative for a neuroscience minor would not be where it is today.

Beyond her lab, she also cared deeply about the undergraduate experience - the kind of experience that brought many of us to this university. She participated in the college system as an active associate and divisional adviser at Baker College, earning her honors as Baker's Outstanding Faculty Associate and Distinguished Faculty Associate. She also served as a faculty sponsor of Addressing Current Events in Science, a science outreach program, for which she provided intellectual guidance and moral support.

Lane's departure from Rice is a great loss for our university. She truly embodied the values outlined in the Vision for the Second Century. Her commitment to research and collaboration both within and outside the university, as well as her dedication to mentoring students and improving undergraduate education, affected generations of both students and professors in her time at Rice. We hope that as Rice enters its second century, the university will not lose sight of its emphasis on a unique undergraduate experience and on the outstanding faculty that make this experience possible.

We wish the best for Professor Lane, her family and her future endeavors. Rice will miss you.

Jing Luo

Arthi Satyanarayan

Nazima Zakhidova

Sid Rich juniors

Harry Han

Martel sophomore

Celine Santiago

Martel senior

Sarah Wu

Will Rice senior

NOD runs parallel to feminist ideals

To the Editor:

About three weeks ago, Johanna Ohm wrote an Op-Ed arguing that Night of Decadence is detrimental to the self-esteem and dignity of women and wondered how one can be a feminist and attend such parties ("NOD enforces contorted body perceptions," Nov. 13). As a Women's Resource Center coordinator and happy NOD attendee, I have to disagree with Johanna's position. I believe that feminists come in every shape and size - from an ultra-liberal lesbian to the most macho guy. However, the common thread that runs throughout the feminist discourse is the idea that every woman should have the choice to pursue her own version of happiness. If she wants to be a housewife, all the more power to her, as long as she still has the freedom to walk away. Likewise, if she wants to dress as a slutty Cinderella and dance at NOD, I do not see her actions as being contradictory to the ideals of feminism at all, so long as she has the choice to spend the night in her room with her textbooks.

Of course, parties like NOD are inherently dangerous due to their highly charged sexual atmosphere and alcohol consumption. The WRC has organized Consent is Sexy Week in an attempt to spread the word about the legal and social definitions of consent and to encourage our fellow students to have an active, continual discourse with their partners regarding their desires and boundaries. Even though the issues of sexual harassment and assault are extremely serious and require our utmost attention and outrage, they should not prevent people from expressing and exploring their (consensual-for-all-parties-involved) sexuality, be it in the privacy of their rooms or in the frigid Wiess College commons.

Dina Yangirova

Wiess senior

Rice unprepared for BCM merger

To the Editor:

We strongly support the arguments made by Professor Moshe Vardi in his "Counterpoint" editorial ("Inside the Merger: Point/Counterpoint," Nov. 20) regarding the proposed merger between Rice and the Baylor College of Medicine. This merger presents potential research opportunities, as emphasized by President David Leebron in his accompanying "Point" editorial, but it comes at a heavy cost to Rice, as outlined by Vardi.

Rice would inherit an institution that is about two-and-a-half times its size in terms of annual operating budget and about three times its size in terms of faculty ranks. And BCM is facing insolvency. The Rice endowment would be jeopardized to a degree that is unprecedented in the university's history. Other potential negative impacts include compromising Rice's institutional character as a broadly-based center of learning and scholarship, the resulting deterioration of Rice student life, and the loss of future opportunities to pursue new emerging fields of research that are not directly related to the practice of medicine but are equally important to society. BCM should be saved, for Houston's sake, but Rice is not the appropriate savior.

Pedro Alvarez, George R. Brown Professor and Chair, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Philip Bedient, Herman Brown Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Karin Broker, Professor, Visual & Dramatic Arts

Robert Cartwright, Professor, Computer Science

Jane Chance, Andrew W. Mellon Professor and Chair, English

Paul Cloutier, Professor Emeritus, Physics & Astronomy

Vicki Colvin, Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Alexander Dessler, Professor Emeritus, Physics & Astronomy

Stanley A. Dodds, Assoc. Professor, Physics & Astronomy

Arthur A. Few, Professor Emeritus, Physics & Astronomy and Research Professor

Arthur Gottschalk, Professor and Chair, Composition and Theory, Shepherd School of Music

Tom Hill, Professor, Physics & Astronomy

George Hirasaki, A. J. Hartsook Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Alan Levander, Cary Croneis Professor and Chair, Geology & Geophysics

Dan Mittleman, Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Matteo Pasquali, Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry

Dan Sorensen, Noah Harding Professor, Computational & Applied Mathematics

Paul Stevenson, Professor, Physics & Astronomy

William Symes, Noah Harding Professor, Computational & Applied Mathematics; Professor, Environmental Science

James Thompson, Noah Harding Professor, Statistics

Herb Ward, AJ Foyt Family Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Martin Wiener, Mary Gibbs Jones Professor and Chair, History

Richard Wolf, Professor Emeritus, Physics and Astronomy and Research Professor

Kyriacos Zygourakis, A.J. Hartsook Professor & Chair, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Smokers require designated areas

To the Editor:

The larger number of people smoking around the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion and the fountains this semester is becoming a big annoyance. I sit down in one area, have a smoker sit next to me, move, only to have more smoke waft my way from a different direction. Cigarette butts and empty packs litter the ground every afternoon. The fountain area should be available for those who don't want to have to breathe in carcinogenic fumes from secondhand smoke. Smokers, of course, can enjoy the area, but they should be polite enough to not force others to inhale smoke along with them; i.e., smoke away from people who might not want to have that decision made for them. Designate a separate smoking area or ban smoking near Brochstein altogether. I know the smoker is being fenced in here in America like the buffalo, but when it comes down to it, I don't feel I should have to threaten my health every time I want to study outdoors.

Grant Hayes

Lovett senior

Rice-BCM merger to boost reputation

To the Editor:

Aligning ourselves with the Baylor College of Medicine is the single greatest thing Rice University can do to enhance its reputation while preserving its educational values and climate. It is a great and exciting step that will have the immediate effect of magnifying our reputation and focusing worldwide attention on our gem of a university. This will benefit students, scholars and researchers in all departments and enhance the worth of the Rice diploma. We are confident that our administration and the Board of Trustees will only let this happen if it is truly the great step forward that we see, and will not compromise us financially. A Rice acquisition of BCM is likely to be sufficiently exciting in that it will shake loose some major philanthropic donations. On the other hand, fear of taking this step might have the opposite consequence. We support this forward-thinking step, and hope that an excellent agreement can be concluded expeditiously.

Joan Strassmann

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Professor

Elias Bongmba

Religious Studies Professor

Courses inaccurately evaluated

To the Editor:

I was extremely disappointed with your course evaluations insert ("Take your pick," Nov. 13). Not only did you fail to categorize any department without "Engineering" in the title as part of the School of Engineering (COMP, CAAM, MSCI and STAT), but your "Easiest/Hardest Majors" rankings are extremely misleading. Off the top of my head, I can think of five methodological flaws with how you arrived at those rankings: 1. You took the averages over departments, not majors. Thus, you not only included in-department courses for non-majors (or grad students), but you excluded courses outside of the department that are required for a major; 2. You did not weigh averages by how many students are in the course. This means an obscure, small course has the same bearing as a core, required course; 3. You did not take into account that courses are worth a varying number of credit hours; 4. Evaluations for first-year courses are often completed without perspective; 5. Different groups of students are evaluating different courses. I shouldn't need to explain how this is a problem. Given these flaws, it would have simply been better not to print those rankings, as they in no way reflect reality.

Nicolas Feltman

Will Rice junior

Merger institutes financial dangers

To the Editor:

Most of the discussion surrounding the projected merger with the Baylor College of Medicine has focused on particular issues. Yet the larger financial concerns facing the university now and in the foreseeable future have, I believe, not received the attention they demand. In fact, any consideration of these concerns should raise powerful warning flags.

As President David Leebron has said, merging with BCM would be a bold leap. However, although there is always an attraction to boldness, the "macro-economic" situation in which such a merger would be carried out is as unfavorable as any that has existed in our lifetime.

First, Rice is already in the midst of a bold leap, the Vision for the Second Century, which involves the enlargement of the student body and the construction of a number of new facilities. To do this, the university has, for the first time in its history, gone into debt, selling approximately $600 million in bonds, which of course it has to repay with interest - a new future obligation. In addition, the increase in student population will not be matched by a proportionate increase in faculty; this means somewhat larger classes and some classes filling to their limit, with greater pressure on faculty time to teach and be available to a greater number of students than in the past. So we already face a challenge that did not exist a few years ago.

Second, this challenge has to be faced with a sharply reduced endowment. And while last year's fall in the endowment has been partly made up by the recent stock market recovery, the future of the market is quite unknown, with an equal number of experts predicting either continued recovery or renewed fall. In this situation, a recovery of the endowment may take place, but cannot be counted on.

Third, our federal government's deficit is, it is generally agreed, out of control. Over the next generation all federal programs will face drastic pressures for reduction. This includes programs that Rice has relied on, and that a merged Rice-BCM would rely upon even more, from tuition loans and grants to work-study programs to scientific research grants. In the past generation, these programs have greatly expanded to Rice's (and Baylor's) benefit; with these programs at a minimum, we cannot count on this expansion to continue, and it may even go into reverse.

Finally, our nation also has a health care crisis. Once some legislation passes through Congress to expand coverage, the focus of political attention will have to shift to cost control. Thus, in the future all aspects of our health care system, from physicians to hospitals to medical schools like Baylor, will come under increasing pressure to save money. A Rice with a medical school will be subject to these pressures, however much it is claimed that the medical school will remain "a tub on its own bottom." If its survival is threatened, despite whatever legal arrangements are made, Rice may feel it necessary to come to its assistance financially.

All in all, today is about the worst time since World War II for Rice to take over a medical school, particularly one that has serious financial problems. The prime duty of the university's leaders, including its Board of Trustees, is to ensure the preservation of its existing high level of educational quality. Enhancement and extension into new areas is always something to be considered, but not if it places our prime duty in danger.

Martin Wiener

Professor of History

History Department Chair

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