Sometimes there isn’t much you can say, except that times change. I’ve recently been doing some research into the history of parietal rules at Rice–that is, dormitory regulations and controls over the students’ social life in general. Rice did a pretty thorough job of this for quite a long time. But some things that were perfectly fine back in the day seem a bit shocking when you see them now. This would be one of those things.

The folks at Reynolds Tobacco were so pleased with this letter that they went ahead and sent cigarettes to all the Rice trustees too.