The Rice Thresher an All-student Newspaper for 49 Years

By SANDY COYNER Thresher Staff Reporter More than 500 Rice students walked quietly in a single file around the academic quadrangle fo r f i f teen minutes yesterday afternoon, to demonstrate their interest in a statement bearing 1000 signatures which was presented to University President K. S. Pitzer's office by five members of the Student Affai rs Committee. Although the students were heckled by some of the spectators ringing the quadrangle, they remained orderly throughout the presentation. Spectators also viewed the students f rom the windows of the surrounding buildings. The students lef t the vicinity of the RMC at 12:45, walked single file to the Sallyport, then circled the central sidewalk and the statue of the university founder, William Marsh Rice. The line circled the quadrangle while the petition was being presented, then marched through the Sallyport and dispersed. 1000 Names The students were demonstrat ing their support fo r the 300-word statement, which had been adopted by an ad hoc meeting of 500 students on Sunday afternoon. One thousand signatures to the statement were collected between 8 pm Sunday and noon Monday. The statement admitted that Thresher Editor Hugh Rice Kelly had been guilty of "grave discourtesy" to the Dean of Students, but questioned a disciplinary structure in which due process was not defined, and one man could take action whose effect was to remove an elected student officer f rom office.