After the crisis
Faculty and students were faced with a sudden return to normalcy once the Masterson crisis was resolved. There were classes to attend or teach, exams to take or give, and a university to run.
Shortly after Masterson's resignation, the Trustees made several changes to Rice's administration, including the appointment of Dr. Frank Vandiver as acting president.
In April 1969, plans for an oral history project to document the crisis were announced. Faculty and students were encouraged to give any documents about the crisis to the University Archives, and to volunteer to be interviewed about their experience.
While some celebrated the victory of Masterson's resignation and felt relieved that the controversy had ended, many questions soon arose about the meaning of the crisis and the effects that it would have on the university. Had the Trustees learned their lesson? Would Rice's next president be chosen in consultation with faculty and students? Or had the crisis contributed to deeper divisions between the components of the university, and tarnished Rice's reputation in Houston and beyond?
As the year drew to an end and students and faculty prepared to leave for the summer, they reflected upon the events of the semester. For many, the Masterson crisis marked the moment when they realized how much Rice meant to them and how invested they were in the fate of the university. In the words of Buford Alexander, President-Elect of Will Rice College, the crisis was "one hell of a weekend."
Events that took place after the controversy - an alleged 10% reduction of the university budget, the reorganization of campus administration, and the controversial Charlie Freeman readmission case - left others with mixed feelings about the Masterson crisis and concerns for the future of Rice. According to the April 24 issue of the Thresher, "recent actions and current attitudes of Board, administration, faculty, and students reveal a malaise far deeper than can be explained as a "crisis in communication.""
Masterson himself expressed similar convictions in a letter he wrote to Zevi Salsburg, Professor of Chemistry at Rice. As he wrote, "I would only remark that the "danger of a breakdown in the relationship between Rice and the Houston community" that you speak of is not a future or potential danger but a long-accomplished fact which has occurred during the last ten years, as most of the Houston community knows."
