Dean's Cup both petty and redudant

By Staff Editorial     4/12/12 7:00pm

To eliminate the unfair advantage the Graduate Student Association has in college sports, the idea of establishing a Dean's Cup has been proposed. In this new Dean's Cup, the GSA would be eliminated from the running.

The Thresher believes that the establishment of the Dean's Cup would be both petty and redundant. The university already has a working cup and does not need the addition of a second one. Furthermore, to remove the GSA from this second cup would be a motion contrary to the unified spirit of the campus. Ousting the GSA would create hostility between undergraduates and graduates while adding to the divide between the two factions. Rice has always been characterized by its relaxed and laid back attributes, and this sort of harsh statement toward members of our community does not reflect what we are as a student body or as a university.

Furthermore, the addition of the Dean's Cup would undoubtedly diminish the honor of winning the President's Cup over the next couple of years. In all likelihood the Dean's Cup would supplant the President's Cup entirely over time. Colleges would begin to view matchups against the GSA as exhibition games which do not affect standings, and the GSA would be unfairly deprived of quality and competitive matchups. The accomplishment of winning the Dean's Cup would also be slightly diminished by the knowledge that the cup does not acknowledge dominance over the entire campus.

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However, that is not to say that GSA's unfair advantage over the undergraduate colleges has gone unnoticed. The GSA has a far greater pool of students to choose from and a lot of the competitors are much older than the average undergraduate student. Furthermore, ex-varsity athletes can compete for the GSA, while varsity athletes are not allowed to participate on college teams. To make matters worse, many of the graduate students who compete in college sports have had more experience with these organized sports during their undergraduate and graduate experiences.

It is thus apparent that a change needs to be made in order for the President's Cup to stay equitably competitive. The best solution to countering GSA's competitive advantage without excluding them completely would be the inclusion of freshman sports in the standings. The President's Cup should begin including the results from the two freshmen sports - flag football and basketball - in the final standings. Since the GSA will be ineligible to accrue any points in these two events, the undergraduate colleges will have a chance to bridge the unfair point gap between themselves and the GSA.

This solution allows the GSA to still compete in intramural sports and to do so in a manner that is fair to all the President's Cup participants. Most importantly, it maintains the integrity of one of this campus's main avenues of undergraduate-graduate student interface. The Dean's Cup must be rejected because it represents an absolute affront to the values of this university. However, it is important to remedy the current competitive imbalance as well. The best remaining solution is the inclusion of freshmen sports in the President's Cup standings.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher editorial staff. All other opinion pieces represent solely the opinion of the piece's author.

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