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Barnes & Noble will soon over take more real estate in the RMC (see story, pg. 1). The contract of 13th Street, Sammy's and Smoothie King has expired, thus allowing a "Recharge U" convenience store, operated by Barnes and Noble, to open.
Rice has instituted a new policy by which students who are a semester behind graduating with their matriculating class may partake in walking across the stage during Commencement (see story, pg. 1). This new policy arrives after years of students with valid reasons being denied the opportunity to walk with their class; nonetheless, we expect this long-needed change will be very well received.
In the relentless world of top-20 academic institutions, Rice succesfully poached the best of the best for its next dean of engineering. Edwin Thomas was the chair of MIT's material sciences department, the best in the country. The addition of faculty of Thomas's caliber is definitely an accomplishment, and his mere presence gives further validation to our already strong engineering department.
The outpouring of support at Rice for Japan has been simply extraordinary. Conscious groups of students have gathered and implemented massive efforts to raise funds for the recovery process.
Rice University recently announced a plan to rejuvenate its webmail system by transferring over to a Google interface and google servers. This decision will definitely yield improvement over the current webmail, and it is certainly exciting to see administration and IT making a proactive decision to shift our outdated system to one of the best and most proven email clients on the market.
The ALFA committee has concluded its survey process and made its recommendations to administration (see story, pg. 6). Unfortunately their recommendations were influenced by a meager 24 proposals. Out of the over 3,500 students at Rice University, a remarkably small proportion of us as a student body contributed to the process.
Kudos is due to Matt Sawyer, the university-wide Beer Bike coordinator, and the Beer Bike coordinators from each college (see story, pg. 1). Beer Bike came and went smoothly, safely and too swiftly. The Beer Bike leadership was met with a multitude of challenges never seen in the past, and each problem was addressed with great success.
The long anticipated shortage of Beer Bike balloon fight trucks has finally come to fruition, and the campus Beer Bike Coordinating team has been caught much like a deer-in-headlights (see story, page 1). The success rate of colleges acquiring trucks has taken a distinct drop-off in the past few years as the true purpose of Beer Bike truck rentals became more apparent to local truck proprietors. Unfortunately, 2011 was the breaking point; many colleges are without trucks, and the university is without a solid backup plan. Although the blame for the truck shortage does not lie directly with the Beer Bike coordinators, they can be held culpable for a significant lack of foresight. When deciding on an alternate parade plan earlier this year, the coordinators should have noted the recent decline in truck availability and selected an alternative that minimizes the need for trucks.
Rice's 11 mandatory college-wide meetings were called at the most appropriate of times (see story, page 1). These meetings were in tandem with the hard liquor moratorium and sought to address the alarming rise of on campus alcohol abuse. Administration made the appropriate decision for drastic action; however, the colleges' execution of the meetings was not quite as commendable. While most colleges used a standard format with speeches from chief justices, presidents, Resident Health Advisors and EMS personnel, some presentations failed to capture the attention of students. With all due fairness, the succeeding with this sort of meeting was not easy; many students attended due to fear of penalty instead of genuine desire to be there. Furthermore, the cramped setting and poor acoustics made it difficult for student leaders to truly connect. Nonetheless, the meetings failed to address the issues behind the alcohol abuse and served more to defend the drastic action of the moratorium. While the stats about EMS calls were emphasized, the reasons behind those calls were harped on meagerly. By focusing so strongly on stats such as EMS calls, the meetings may have had the effect of scaring students away from making such calls. Since students are constantly told that a high volume of EMS calls is the problem, students may try to solve the problem by simply not calling EMS. Clearly this is not the message that administrative or student leaders intended to convey, but it is one which may have been perceived by students because of the approach taken at the meetings.
We, as a student body, stepped over the line in the sand and now the consequences have arrived (see story, page 1). There was the alcohol forum, there were the alcohol talks at the residential colleges, there were the Thresher articles, there was the formation of a Student Association task force, there was the discussion all around campus - all addressing the issue of massive alcohol abuse around campus over the past year. Ignoring all of these endeavors, the student body has continued to consume alcohol with a total lack of responsibility; the recent abuse of alcohol has justifiably forced the university leadership to shift from idle threats to concrete action. The alcohol policy probation will cause a sweeping change to the party scene of campus; punch, a common staple of private parties will no longer be a legal choice of beverage. Ultimately the decision for this probation came at a time when forgoing intervention was an invitation for tragedy. Despite the calls for a return to our Culture of Care, alcohol abuse has yet to cease. It is unacceptable to have three or four students transported for hospital care from a single party on consecutive weekends; however, the lack of alcohol responsibility has made this sickening scenario an actuality. Therefore, it is difficult for us as a student body to strongly debate this decision. The administration has a definitive responsibility to protect its students and its university's reputation. This decision by the university leadership was not a tough one or even a controversial one. If the status quo remains, students will continue to endanger themselves to the point of injury and inevitably death.
With all the talk about Rice intending to increase its international presence, we find it refreshing to finally see some action being taken, most recently in the form of the delegation from American University of Cairo visiting campus (see story, page 8). While many students may not have directly seen the efforts of Campbell and the Public Diplomacy and Global Policymaking program, their contributions will certainly have lasting effects.Aside from being a source of good press for the university, the AUC delegation brought together students from different backgrounds and life experiences to share their collective knowledge in a mutually beneficial process. Rice prides itself on diversity. Heck, there's a whole essay about it just to get accepted into the university. Cultural "swaps" like these further contribute to the goals of the Vision for the Second Century and could potentially play a key role in the provost's newly formed "international strategy" initiative.
Let's assume the KTRU sale isn't stuck in legal battles for the next ?five years. The sale would net $9.5 million for the university, and the committee established to spend proceeds of the sale would need to go to work (see story, page 1). Subtracting pre-allotted amounts, the committee will advise the administration on how to spend about $6 million. The Thresher believes the funds would be most effectively spent in two capacities: improvement of the Rice Memorial Center and Rice Program ?Council endowments.The RMC is quite frankly outdated. A quick comparison of the RMC to counterpart facilities at peer universities immediately exposes the dramatically poor condition of our student center. With the exception of Willy's Pub, the RMC lacks popular lounge-like spaces that are conducive to relaxing or hanging out; the lack of study space is also something that needs to be addressed. On the food front, the RMC also lags behind its peers. While most student centers provide food that college students find attractive, such as Whataburger, Taco Cabana or another popular chain restaurant, Rice students are stuck with 13th Street's boring sandwiches and boxed sushi. As Rice continues to grow, the Grand Hall's grandeur also seems to be lacking a bit. Functions such as the Screw Yer Roommate reception and the South Asian Society's Dhamaka are simply too big for the Grand Hall, and Rice needs to quickly implement changes to establish new spaces so it can continue to foster the cultural and social university-wide events that make Rice special.
The RESET blanket tax that is paid by every undergraduate at this university has not gone to waste (see story, page 1). Half of the funds, approximately $15,000, have been allotted to six projects which are aimed at making environmental sustainability improvements. These initiatives are wonderful; they are a testament to the initiative of Rice students and to the commitment of Rice to support its students and its environment. Furthermore, the program is planned to continue each year that RESET is funded by blanket taxes; over time, the number of sustainability projects implemented will make a
Housing and Dining continued its baffling tradition this past winter break of further limiting access to students' residences. While some sort of campus closure over break is necessary for security and resource conservation, the remarkably tight window left for students' arrivals back on campus is unacceptable. Students were told to not arrive on campus until 2 p.m. on Jan. 8, the Saturday before classes started.The establishment of this ultimatum gives students fewer than 48 hours to arrive on campus, get settled, prepare for the semester and begin classes. This short time period leaves students scrambling to finalize preparations on the eve of the semester. The crunch is even worse for international students, who are reeling from journeys that eclipse 24 hours and from the jetlag that inevitably ensues. The 48-hour time period for international students is remarkably brief.
Diversity and inclusion. Unity and togetherness. Rice prides itself on its "one big happy family" philosophy. The attitude is actually a good one that promotes a pretty positive campus culture. But a line needs to be drawn.Quite simply, the Graduate Student Association needs to become a more independent institution. It is not and never will be a residential college, so there is no need to continue the charade. There is no need to include the GSA in the traditions belonging to residential colleges such as intramural sports and Beer Bike.
Rice has experienced several losses over the past month. The deaths of two Owls during winter break - Dexter Gannon, a Hanszen College junior and Brandon Cooke, a Baker College sophomore - have left a hole in our community. The Shepherd School of Music has also sustained several deaths this year; regrettably, Violin Professor Sergiu Luca and Concert Manager Tom Littman both died in December. This loss comes in addition to David Waters, a Shepherd School Trombone Professor who died in September. The Thresher extends its condolences to these individuals' families and to those they touched on a daily basis.While these losses, particularly in such quick succession, are tough to stomach, it is important to take away what we can for the future. While many of these sorts of tragedies are a natural part of life, it is imperative that we as a community continue to support each other, especially in the most difficult of times.
With 2010 coming to an end, the Thresher would like to reflect on the plethora of incidents over the last year which have hindered the success of the administration in terms of its relationship with the student body. As a small university, we have the rare opportunity of having administration and student body present a unified, synchronized front in which the desires of each party are mutually understood. However, over the past year it seems that a great disconnect has emerged between the administration's actions and the students' desires.Needless to say, this shift toward disconnect is epitomized by the KTRU debacle. The nature of secrecy and lack of communication surrounding this business deal which dealt a severe blow to a major student organization was simply unprecedented. The administration could have, quite frankly, not cared about student desires less than they did during the KTRU sale. There was no student input in the decision because they was simply no opportunity to contribute at all. While President David Leebron said the unilateral process of the KTRU decision was simply a one-time happening, other occurrences around the university suggest a potentially dangerous trend forming to the contrary.
The Thresher would like to wish Coffeehouse a wonderful 20th birthday (see graphic, page 1). For the last 20 years, Coffeehouse has done everything from providing the setting for Rice students' awkward first dates to providing the only thing that could get an engineer through the late nights of finals. We've seen the menu expand from just coffee to a lineup that includes just about every nuance of caffeinated beverage possible (minus Four Lokos). Coffeehouse has shifted from just a place to refuel to one of the eminent student groups on campus. We at the Thresher certainly hope that the administration will soon reward Coffeehouse's loyalty and service to the Rice community with a new and improved home in the Rice Memorial Center.
The Thresher would like to commend three graduating seniors, Will Rice College seniors Ye jin Kang and Anthony Austin and Sid Richardson College senior Jingyuan Luo, for achieving an array of academic honors never received by one graduating class (see story, page 8). For Rice to have two Marshall Scholars and one Rhodes Scholar in the same year is a testament to Rice's academic prestige, and these three students have certainly made this university and its students proud. They have bettered Rice in their time here and the Thresher wishes them the very best going into the future.
Last week, the Thresher stated that Sally Ride was the first woman in space ("Rice hosts yearly Sally Ride Science Festival"). Ride was the first American woman in space. The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova.In last week's photo accompanying the article "Students buy eco-friendly surrey bike for trial run," Lovett senior Alicia Hernandez was incorrectly identified as Carrie Boland.
