<p>I just started to investigate schools for S2. He is a lacrosse player. I found this article, any comments from current Rice students? It surely turns me off to the University…TIA</p>
<p><a href=“http://the.ricethresher.org/news/2005/04/29/lacrosscaptainlawsuit[/url]”>http://the.ricethresher.org/news/2005/04/29/lacrosscaptainlawsuit</a></p>
<p>From the article:
“At the party, about 20 new members of the mens and womens teams were handcuffed in pairs using metal novelty handcuffs, and each pair was given a fifth of a gallon of hard liquor to drink. Two of the new members of the mens team and two of the new members of the womens team were hospitalized for alcohol-related illnesses the night of the party, according to Assistant Dean of Student Judicial Programs Don Ostdieks investigation.”</p>
<p>I can understand how that news story would turn you off from Rice as a school for your son. It was a pretty appalling news story. The thing about it is that the happenings were completely appalling to everyone at Rice, too. Many of the students involved in that story were suspended and the lacrosse team was dissolved by the administration. (If your son wants to continue to play lacrosse as an intramural sport, that may be something to take into consideration.)</p>
<p>It’s just so out-of-character for students at Rice University to be involved in things like this. I’d never heard of any hazing during my time at Rice (graduated a year ago), save for most freshmen getting doused with water several times during orientation week… That’s all in good fun, but what happened at that Lacrosse party, I’m sure all Rice students would agree, was a complete anomaly. It was dealt with harshly, perhaps a little too harshly, but as it would be dealt with at a university where they were treating this as the exception to the general rule of conduct, where they would try to react harshly in order to offer greater incentive to prevent something like this from happening again.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your son. I’d definitely still consider Rice as an excellent choice for a college education, despite what happened this past year.</p>
<p>Amy Barr
BSCE 04, SRC</p>
<p>Agree that this event is NOT typical of Rice, although there is a lot of drinking on campus. My D and her friends understood the administration’s reaction, although it was harsh. The new president needed to make a statement, and the team’s conduct was certainly horrible.</p>
<p>My DD is actually a lacrosse player, but had been more involved in another club sport, so only attended some of the lacrosse practices. She had another event, so was not present at this “party” - but she heard about it afterwards. She was told by lacrosse players present that the new lacrosse players were told that it was totally optional, and that they didn’t have to participate if they didn’t want to, no pressure… etc. etc. It never fails to amaze me how smart kids can be SO stupid in some ways! I’m glad that the administration is coming down hard on those involved, even though it means no club lacrosse for another year and a half. I hope that they do a better job with alcohol education and work to reduce the presence of alcohol on campus. That being said, my daughter loves Rice and is a very light / infrequent drinker. There are many, many, many things to do on-campus and off-campus, and this “hazing” incident is totally atypical of Rice. It’s still a terrific school and a couple of stupid decisions by the lacrosse team captains should not make you dismiss it totally!</p>
<p>Wow. I just read the whole article. (I posted above without having read the article.) Good for Leebron and Hardin. Suspend them!</p>
<p>I agree anxiousmom. Bottom line, this article just confirms that the administration at Rice will not tolerate this type of behavior from its students. I realize that Rice is a “wet” campus…but, really, aren’t they all? My D said that alcohol was definitely available on campus when she visited on Owl Weekend but she chose not to partake and felt more then comfortable with that… you’re right, it is funny how such bright students can make such stupid decisions. I hope that the OP takes a better look at Rice before ruling it out based on this isolated event (that the administration handled very well in my opinion).</p>
<p>I too, was glad to hear that the administration took a hard line on this issue. If students were hospitalized, it must have been pretty serious. </p>
<p>We won’t completely rule out Rice due to this incident. I am not naive enough to think that there is no drinking on campus.</p>
<p>Thanks to those who posted to say how much they like Rice and have had a good college experience there.</p>
<p>With regard to Rice being a wet campus, I really like their philosophy… They’re realistic in that they realize that college students <em>will</em> drink. Since Rice is several blocks away from the nearest off-campus bar, they’d rather encourage students to drink on campus, in a safe environment. The alternative for the students would be to get trashed off campus, and either drive drunk back to campus or stagger as drunken pedestrians and risk being hit by a car in the dark streets.</p>
<p>-Amy</p>
<p>I’m an American and I’ve lived in London, England where the drinking age is 18 (at 16 you can have a beer in a pub if you buy a meal too) for 11 years. I’m glad that Rice is wet as it won’t be such a strange transition for me. I also think their policies are very logical.</p>