Letters to the Editor

When I read Falan Mouton's letter to the editor about the Rice Annual Fund two weeks ago in the Thresher ("Rice just a business; donations are purely optional for graduates," Oct. 8), I had one of those "spit out your coffee" moments that Jon Stewart likes to use for comedic effect. Dr. Mouton seems to be quite upset that the Annual Fund calls her to ask her to support Rice. A large part of her complaint against Rice centers around the fact that she got too many parking tickets when she was on campus. I can't really argue with her there - parking on campus sucks, even when you chair the Annual Fund. Sorry. But I do have to argue with much of the rest of Dr. Mouton's letter. A lot of what Dr. Mouton gets wrong is financial. After noting Rice's $3.6 billion endowment, the market value as of June 30, 2009, Dr. Mouton asserts: "This is not money that goes to education. This is money that sits and hopefully collects interest."