Glasscock School of Continuing Studies planning new facility

By Staff Editorial     10/7/10 7:00pm

The Glasscock School of Continuing Studies is officially slated to receive a brand new facility once the remainder of project funds is acquired (see story, page 1). The price tag? A whopping $24 million. Currently, $9.5 million (a seemingly common sum of money these days) has been collected and the rest is anticipated to be accumulated by the Centennial Celebration.While this new facility allows the School of Continuing Studies to expand and offer more opportunities to Houston-area residents, the Thresher feels it is a bit of a disappointment to see this extravagant sum of money being funneled into a project that will affect a disproportionately small portion of the undergraduate student population. This concern is particularly valid at this current time of undergraduate enrollment expansion; it seems that as greater freshman classes expand the student body there should be a truly concentrated focus on undergraduate student needs.

It is true that the funds for the Glasscock School project are being raised purely by alumni contributions; however, there are a multitude of higher-priority needs than relocating the School of Continuing Studies from its current residence in the Martel Center for Continuing Studies. Take, for example, the Beer Bike racetrack - the centerpiece of this university's greatest tradition. Currently the track possesses the ability to host 10 racers at once, which falls short of the necessary 12 racers (11 residential colleges plus the Graduate Student Association). There are plans to alter the age-old tradition of Beer Bike in order to accommodate the extra racers. Possible changes to the race range from shifting to a heat format (necessitating three races instead of one for the men's and women's competitions) to randomly eliminating two colleges from the race. The most frustrating aspect is that this alteration of Rice's tradition could be avoided by expanding the track for about $300,000 - a minuscule sum in comparison to the 80 times more expensive Glasscock project.

The myriad of necessary renovations does not stop at the Beer Bike track. Older residential colleges are slowly but surely showing signs of dilapidation (and rodent infestation) and will undoubtedly soon require critical attention. Furthermore, the promises of an RMC upgrade have yet to come to fruition, leaving Rice with a student center that will soon be too small to house the swelling population of undergrads. Finally, parking has long been a weakness of Rice's campus. This problem will inevitably be compounded by the planned building of the Glasscock facility in a section of West Lot.

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Particularly in light of the many ongoing upgrades to improve student life, the Thresher acknowledges that all of these desired capital improvements take both time and money. However, improvement is a continuing process which must be constantly reassessed, and its objectives must be appropriately prioritized. While providing a Continuing Studies program does strengthen Rice's link to the Houston community as part of the Vision for the Second Century, the Thresher simply believes that this university has more pressing needs than a $24 million School of Continuing Studies facility at this point.

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