MORE O-WEEK COVERAGE

Faculty Address, Common Reading Program focus on moral revolutions
O-Week winds down with discussions of honor, social change

BY AMY HODGES
Rice News staff

How do moral revolutions occur? This and related questions were addressed Aug. 16 during Rice University’s annual O-Week Faculty Address and in the selection for this year’s Common Reading Program, ”The Honor Code.”

	JEFF FITLOW
	Elias Bongmba, the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Chair of Christian Theology and professor of religious studies, delivered the Faculty Address.

Elias Bongmba, the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Chair of Christian Theology and professor of religious studies, delivered the Faculty Address. He encouraged incoming students to challenge preconceived notions of honor and contemplate what they can do to influence progress not only within the Rice community, but also in the world around them.

”As a university, we cannot ignore the challenges we face as members of a global community,” Bongmba said. ”We should be open to asking new questions, questions that have not been answered. We should be able to bring to the table ideas that have not been explored.”

He invited students to take advantage of opportunities to explore the world around them, noting that one person can have considerable influence.

”We are called to pledge the very best of who we are in exploring the world. This exploration has made Rice what it is today – a rich and dynamic environment. And what we do here has a great impact not only in our individual lives, but in the lives of the people who we love and the lives of the many, many people around the world who we might not even have the opportunity to meet.”

The discourse continued Aug. 18, when small groups around campus gathered to discuss the text chosen for this year’s Common Reading Program, ”The Honor Code.”

JEFF FITLOW
How do moral revolutions occur? That question was addressed Aug. 16 during Rice University’s annual O-Week Faculty Address and in the selection for this year’s Common Reading Program, ”The Honor Code.”

Written by Princeton University Philosophy Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, the book shares four case studies examining ”moral revolutions.” Appiah assesses how honor has been used to justify horrifying human rights violations. At the same time, he shows how it has led to the end of some of history’s most abhorrent practices, including the Atlantic slave trade, and can lead to favorable social change.

In the small-group sessions, students discussed the book’s notions of honor and honor codes and how they relate to Rice’s honor system and events taking place in the world around them.

Dana Glicksberg, a Baker College freshman from Chicago, appreciated the opportunity to engage with her fellow classmates and draw comparisons between the reading material and current affairs. ”We got to apply what Appiah was talking about to things that are happening right now,” she said.

Glicksberg herself believes in the ability of one person to start a moral revolution, she recalled a time in high school when she and her fellow classmates led a campaign to eliminate use of derogatory language that was offensive to many members of her school community.

”These students needed someone to draw attention to what they were doing,” she said. According to Glicksberg, as their campaign progressed, it brought awareness to the real issues at hand. The offenders began to recognize not only that their behavior was wrong, but why it was wrong.

Currently in its sixth year, Rice’s Common Reading program was established to welcome students to the Rice intellectual community, stimulate conversations across the campus community on pressing issues of the day and introduce new students to the critical inquiry, scholarship and civility they will encounter – and learn to practice – at Rice. The Office of the Dean of Undergraduates sponsors the program.