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Eation \loco TuF MAGAZINE OF RICE UNIVERSIT1 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 1994 \Cf/k A_IAJITPORT ?) ;rid ts. rt :e gne Won't you consider sending Rice something back? Your voluntary subscription helps cover the cost of our prizewinning magazine. Please see the bound-in, postage-paid envelope for full subscription details and subscribe today. 111111RI 14 The Arts at Rice Despite funding challenges, Rice programs in the visual and performing arts offer students many paths to artistic expression. —by Katharine O'Connell 22 The Science of Art Over the centuries the developments of science have profoundly influenced the creations of artists, proving that science and art are not, in fact, worlds apart. —by Philip Montgomery 28 A Potter's Work Fance Franck '48 has helped raise appreciation of ceramics as art in the West. —by Polly Morrice February / March '94 1 4 Letters Through the Sallyport Rice art professor Bas Poulos is pooling talents with cue manufacturer Richard Black to create a signature line of sticks. 6 News International summit meets to discuss human genome research; plans for nanotechnology lab announced; Board approves new tuition program; Ken Hatfield named head football coach; and Rice hosts play development workshop. 8 Viewpoints New football roach, page 7. Should Rice develop the arts further? Two faculty members consider the question. 10 Academia The art and art history department welcomes students from all academic back- grounds and levels of experience. 12 Books, Etc. Letters of an alleged madwoman reveal details of life in a southern insane asylum; psychologist offers tools for identifying and treating job-related anxiety and other work dysfunctions; and musicology specialist examines gender bias in the Western musical canon. 34 Students A brief history of Rice radio, aka KTRU. Life in an asylum, page 12. 35 Sports Recap of fall sports. 36 Gifts and Giving Memorial scholarship for music students established; Shepherd Society supports students and special projects of the Shepherd School of Music; and gift societies provide annual funding for university's fundamental needs. 38 Alumni Gazette Alumni Affairs reaches out to Houston-area alumni; and staying involved. 40 Sally Forth Castles, lochs and bagpipes await Rice alumni in Scotland. 42 Classnotes 64 Yesteryear Skirling in Scotland, page 40. 65 Calendar 2 Sallyport The Third Pillar Rice's intellectual foundation. In our newly revived viewpoints sec- MIAMI This issue of Sallyport is dedicated tion, Sandy Havens, drama profes- and, specifically, sor and director of the Rice Play- FEBRUARY/MAKII 1994, VOL. 50, NO.4 to the arts at Rice to the visual and performing arts. ers, and Michael Hammond, music We have included in our discussion professor and dean of the Shep- Published by the External Affairs Division music, drama, painting, ceramics, herd School of Music, debate film, photography, drawing and whether Rice should develop the Managing Editor, Greta Paules other realms of artistic activity, arts further. Art Director, Jeff Cox while excluding poetry, prose fic- Phil Montgomery's article exam- tion and other manifestations of ines the points at which the arts and Editorial Staff: David D. Medina '83, literary arts. In so limiting our science intersect. The computer, to Phil Montgomery, staff writers; the C. S. Monholland '89, copy editor subject matter, we have not meant many the supreme to suggest that there is anything icon of modern sci- Design Staff: Tommy LaVergne, photographer; painting ence, has found its 11 Christine Minuto, designer more creative about, say, ................................ than about composing poetry or way, not only into the on. writing novels. Rather, we have office and home, but The Rice University Board of Governors Trustees: Charles W. Duncan Jr., chair, chosen to focus on the visual and also into the painter's Josephine E. Abercrombie, vice chair, D. Kent performing arts because these ar- studio and the musi- Anderson, J. Evans Attwell, John L. Cox, Burton comparatively cian's chamber. Com- J. McMurtry, Jack T. Trotter. Term Members: eas have received J. 0."Bucky" Allshouse, James A. Baker, III, little attention in the past, not only puters are being used E. Willi Barnett, A. L. Jensen, George R. in Sallyport, but at Rice in general. to draw, to alter pho- Miner, Paula M. Mosle, James L. Pate, Selby W. Sullivan. Alumni Governors: T. Rsibert "Bob" More than 80 years ago, Edgar tographs and to com- Jones, G. Walter McReynolds, Steven J. Shaper, Odell Lovett—reiterating the pose. They will never Stephen B. Smith. wishes of the Institute's founder— replace the artist, but n; Administrative Officers announced that Rice would dedi- in some areas of artis- President, Malcolm Gillis; Acting Provost, James cate itself to the advancement of tic endeavor,they have er Kinsey; Vice President for External Affairs, Frank TI1 B. Ryan; Vice President for Finance and Adminis- literature, science and art. Since already irrevocably al- tration, Dean W. Currie; Interim Vice President do ev- tered the creative pro- for the Institute could hardly Student Affairs, Sarah Burnett; Vice President cess. for Graduate Studies, Research and Information erything at the outset, however, it Systems, G. Anthony Gorry; Treasurer and Vice would begin "at the science end" Polly Morrice's ar- President for Investments, Scott W. Wise. building strength in literature as ticle reviews the life SallYPort Editorial Board circumstances might permit. and accomplishments Ryn Bowers '64, Paul Burka '63, Sidney Burros "With respect to the art end," of Rice graduate 57, David Butler '80, Lynda Crist '67, Sara Rice McDaniel '71, Bill Merriman '67, Rebecca President Lovett remarked, Fance Franck, an in- Udden '73, Ronny Wells '62. Ex officio: Frank would endeavor "to take architec- ternationally acclaim- B. Ryan '58, Vice President for External Affairs; ture seriously in the preparation of ed potter who is credited with Scott Biddy '86, Director of Alumni Affairs; Albert Kidd '64, President-elect, Association of all of its plans, and to see to it that helping to elevate ceramics to the Rice Alumni; Joseph Elias '93, President, the physical setting of the Institute level of art in the West. Interest- Graduate Student Association; Julia Farnham, beauty as well as of ingly, Franck did not study studio President, Student Association. be one of great more immediate utility." art at Rice. In fact, studio courses Sallyport is published bimonthly by the External Rice's interest in the arts has were not offered when she was Affairs Division of Rice University and is sent to all university alumni, faculty, staff, graduate certainly exceeded Lovett's initial here in the 1940s. students, parents of undergraduate students and concern with creating an aestheti- A university cannot be all things friends. Editorial Offices: News & Publications, the to all people. And it is not obliged Allen Center for Business Activities, Rice Uni- cally pleasing campus. While versity, 6100 S. Main St., Houston, TX 77005. arts may not yet enjoy the promi- to try. It should, however, do what Mailing address: P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX nence of letters and sciences, ours it has chosen to do well. One of 77251-1892. Rice University is an equal oppor- tunity/affirmative action institution. is an artistically vibrant university. the things that Rice does well is in- In her overview of the arts at spire its students with the desire Voluntary subscriptions to Sallyport are and drive to available for a $15 suggested contribution. Rice, Katharine O'Connell finds pursue knowledge— that much of the artistic activity artistic or otherwise—beyond the Postmaster: Send address changes to Sallyport, that takes place here falls outside classroom and beyond graduation. Office of News & Publications, Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892. the curriculum proper, and that Taken together, the offerings of this extracurricular status lends this issue seem to suggest that ©1994 Rice University these activities a distinctive flavor. whatever Rice's shortcomings in an ‘,0 Sallyport is printed on recycled paper. She finds too that funding for the the visual and performing arts, in arts is in some places thin, raising this we have succeeded. concern among those members of the faculty who are committed to —Greta Paules strengthening this third pillar of managing editor February / March '94 3 LETTERS' The Polities of Feminism Martha Washington, Harriet Eastern Europe Revisited Tubman, etc. What he got was a Sa//ypores journalistic standards room run by senior undergrad en- The article "The Transformation of appear to have followed Amtrak forcers who stopped people in Eastern Europe," published in the into that Alabama bayou, because, mid-sentence to criticize their Sallyport's October issue, was brim- unlike your fine piece on athletics choice of words and even the fact ming with logical inconsistencies a while back, the authoress of your that women wore makeup. The and factual mistakes. Although the ludicrous puff piece on women's graduate teacher made up phan- author of this piece, David D. ("womyn's?") studies clearly had tom statistics to bolster her con- Medina, based his writing on The an ideological ax to grind. tentions that lesbianism was supe- Walls Came Tumbling Down, a Women's studies partisans would rior to heterosexuality. When the work of highly regarded Rice his- have you believe that the essence man criticized the teacher out tory professor Gale Stokes, of their mission is to make the loud, he was shouted down and fi- Medina's article only served to per- woman's perspective as crucial as nally expelled from the class. De- petuate myths about the transfor- the man's in fields ranging from spite letters of support from class- mation of Eastern Europe. medicine to history. This goal is mates, the administration did not Apparently, the initial purpose of certainly laudable, but it's a little reinstate him.