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NEWS 4/15/15 10:12am

Silva says Senate approval not needed for second-round election ballot

By Anita Alem

The Student Association did not vote to approve the ballot for the second-round elections conducted from March 23 to March 28. Former SA Parliamentarian Zach Birenbaum declined to comment; the position is currently unfilled. Director of Elections Austin Cao initially said the ballot was presented at the SA meeting on March 18, with March 23 set as the deadline for finalizing the ballot. The ballot consisted of the unopposed candidate for SA Secretary Brianna Singh. Cao said the SA made announcements at multiple SA meetings encouraging candidates and announced on its Facebook page when the ballot was released. According to Cao, the elections were also publicized on the SA website.SA President Jazz Silva said the SA presented the ballot on March 18 but did not conduct a vote.“We did not vote to approve the ballot because we interpreted that the constitution said we were not required to approve [it],” Silva said. “This election received less public attention than usual because it was an uncontested race in which quorum was not required.”According to Silva, a Sid Richardson College junior, Section XII.B.4 of the constitution requires only that the Director of Elections present the ballot at Senate. This section of the constitution states: “The Director of Elections shall present the ballot for each election, including a list of all candidates for each position and the text of all initiatives and referenda approved in accordance with Article XI (Initiatives and Referenda), to the Student Senate at its last meeting before the election. After addressing any inaccuracies, the Senate may approve the ballot by a majority vote.”Former Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Revisions Brian Baran said he does not recall any discussion of the ballot on March 18. The SA minutes for the meeting also do not include any discussion of the ballot.“I therefore believe that [the discussion] did not occur,” Baran, a Duncan College senior, said.Baran said a common-sense reading consistent with the spirit of the constitution indicates Senate approval on the ballot is necessary for a legitimate election. “If you look throughout the constitution, it’s clear that the language ‘may approve by’ along with a voting threshold... is used to specify the threshold needed to approve something, not to remove the need for approval,” Baran said. “The Senate can choose to approve it if it has enough votes to meet that requirement, or its other option — hence the ‘may’ — is to not approve it. And if Senate doesn’t approve the ballot, it’s by definition not approved and can’t be used in the election.”Baran said the SA interpretation that Senate approval is not required is unreasonable considering the wording of the article and the title of the section of the constitution, “Approval of Ballot.”“To get to the SA’s interpretation, you have to accept that the drafters of the constitution would have written this and intended that it mean that there’s two options: The Senate approves it and the election goes forward with that ballot, and the Senate does not approve it and the election goes forward nonetheless with that ballot,” Baran said.Baran said he finds this to be indicative of a larger issue of a lack of transparency from the SA. “I don’t think that burying something on a website constitutes public announcement and I think it’s important, especially with elections, and on SA matters in general, for students to be informed,” Baran said. “Part of the way for students to be informed is for the SA to tell the student what it’s doing.”

NEWS 4/15/15 10:11am

Language courses reduced to three credit hours from six

By Minoti Kale

The Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication recently announced that all introductory language classes will be worth three credit hours instead of six starting next semester, though they will still offer distribution credit.The move marks a reversal from the past two years, when CLIC’s introductory language classes were increased from four to five credit hours entering the 2013-14 school year, then to six credit hours in the 2014 spring semester.CLIC director Rafael Salaberry said the center made the switch to six-credit-hour classes because these classes are easier to fit into schedules based mainly on multiples of three credit hours. Also, according to Salaberry, the center hoped longer classes would also give students a greater depth of understanding of their target language. However, students expressed concern that they would not have time to take such credit-heavy classes along with their majors, despite the fact that the classes offer distribution credit.According to Salaberry, the current administration at CLIC decided that three-credit-hour classes would be more familiar and easier for students to include in their schedules, as well as making classes more accessible to students from majors with stringent requirements. Lovett College sophomore Amber Tong said the change could increase enrollment in CLIC classes. “Reduction of hours would probably encourage more people to try out language courses considering the limited hours on our schedules,” Tong said. “But as far as learning goes, this would only work if the continuing courses are also restructured to accommodate the change.” According to Tong, who is currently enrolled in Intermediate Hindi II, restructuring would be difficult. Tong said the process of becoming familiar with a new alphabet and system would not be feasible given the shorter class period.Lovett College sophomore and linguistics major Katherine Borden also believes this change will impact the thoroughness of the language learning experience. “I’m glad it was six hours when I took beginning German,” Borden said. “It was a big time commitment, but my ultimate goal is to become fluent, and I just don’t think I could accomplish that with only three hours of instruction a week.”According to Borden, it may be difficult for students to learn languages effectively under the new system, though the classes are available to more students.“Languages are heavily nuanced, and that’s something you can’t pick up on without spending a lot of time with a fluent speaker,” Borden said. “The shorter classes make the languages more accessible, but that’s in exchange for a depth of instruction that I wouldn’t want to give up.”

NEWS 4/15/15 10:10am

Rice administration faces student, faculty concerns over rising tuition

By Andrew Ligeralde

As students fret over their GPAs, they can rest assured that there is one number that will not be dropping anytime soon. Concern is growing across campus in light of the administration’s recent announcement that the cost of tuition will rise to $41,560 for the next academic year, a 4.2 percent increase from this year’s cost of $39,880. Over the last 15 years, tuition has climbed by 135 percent, with the new total cost of attendance amounting to $55,903. Brown College Student Association senator Andrew Gatherer, who is leading an initiative in response to the tuition increase, said the administration must provide more information when addressing the rising costs. “I think it would be useful to see where the increased tuition is going,” Gatherer, a freshman, said. “You don’t really see the effects of [increased tuition] in the university. We don’t really know where it goes.”Professor of earth science Jerry Dickens stated in a letter to the Thresher that the administration must clearly explain the tuition hikes, referring to Vice President of Finance Kathy Collins’ statement that the money will be used for “educating students, faculty salaries, library resources and other operational expenses.”“The Rice community, especially students and parents, deserve at least an accurate answer for the skyrocketing tuition,” Dickens said. “I think most professors at Rice would be happily amazed by anything close to a salary increase rate of 135 percent over the last 15 years.”According to Collins, however, tuition increases help cover a number of costs beyond faculty salaries. “I did not say faculty salaries have increased 135 percent over the last 15 years,” Collins said. “I explained that tuition increases help cover a number of costs, and I cited a few examples, including faculty salaries, library resources and other operational expenses.”Vision for the Second CenturyCollins said tuition increases over the past decade have helped expand resources like the Program in Writing and Communication, create new undergraduate minors, bolster academic advising and wellness services and build projects like the Moody Center for the Arts, to be unveiled in 2016. “Inspired by our strategic plan known as the Vision for the Second Century, Rice has invested in strengthening and expanding the quality and range of its educational, research, recreational and community service opportunities,” Collins said.Rice’s operating expenses increased by 129 percent from 2001 to 2014 as a result of the investment in the Vision for the Second Century, according to Collins. Three major revenue sources — endowment distribution (57 percent), net tuition revenue (26 percent) and overhead recovery on grants (5 percent)  — account for 88 percent of the revenues to support the core budget.  Keeping the Cost AffordableAccording to Collins, Rice has tried to keep the rising tuition costs affordable through financial aid and loan programs. Rice’s financial aid packages currently require no more than $2,500 a year in loans and require no loans for families making $80,000 or less in annual income. According to data from the Federal Student Aid website, the unsubsidized federal loan maximum for first-year undergraduates is $9,500.“Rice has made an effort to keep its tuition about $5,000 to $6,000 less than most of its peers while also providing a generous financial aid policy to keep Rice affordable to qualified students from all socio-economic backgrounds,” Collins said. According to Gatherer, despite these efforts, there are still issues with transparency between students and the Office of Financial Aid that he is looking to address through the SA.“A lot of students have trouble connecting with the office,” Gatherer said. “They have to speak to many people before they actually realize how much money they owe and where it’s coming from.”Shaian Mohammadian, recipient of the Beverly and Donald Bonham Scholarship, said he experienced a lack of communication with the Office of Financial Aid.“I didn’t even know there was a tuition increase, and no one from the office has notified me about anything,” Mohammadian, a Jones College freshman said. “The transparency doesn’t seem to be where it needs to be, for sure.”Gatherer said that in light of the tuition increase, students should be aware of how rising costs affect their financial aid plans. “A lot of information is available on their website, but a lot of the time, you don’t realize the specifics for you until you’ve talked to about four or five people at the office,” Gatherer said. “We want to make sure students don’t feel like they’re sinking.”Gatherer said the SA also wants to ensure that the university expands their financial aid and loan programs to accompany rising tuition costs. “It’s not really the SA’s place to complain to the university about how much tuition is,” Gatherer said. “But what the SA is doing is, we’re trying to nullify the bad effects of increasing tuition. Some people come in with so much money in scholarships, and they feel that over the four years they see that money disappear, and if not marginalized, because of the increase in tuition.”Gatherer said despite the current problems with financial aid, he is confident that the office is willing to cooperate with the SA.“I know they’re very busy dealing with all the students who need financial aid,” Gatherer said. “But they are receptive to student concerns. It’s just about having that outline and knowing how much money you’re going to pay.”

NEWS 4/15/15 10:10am

SA seeks proposal for student initiatives program

By Anita Alem

Yun said he cannot guarantee whether they will be executed following approval due to complications from involved parties, although those are easier to solve than issues with funding.“Following through with an initiative is 80 percent planning and working with campus departments and 20 percent actual implementation,” Yun said. “However, students should not be discouraged. Rice staff and faculty are all very supportive, and in the past initiatives were halted due to cost.”Yun said feasibility and timeline were the main criteria for evaluating proposal ideas. Yun said he has received ideas on a wide variety of topics, including mental health resources and physical changes to the Rice Memorial Center. “If initiatives fall in line with the mission statements of already existing standing committees, then I move them forward to work with those committee chairs,” Yun said. “If it does not and requires significant manpower, like the potential ‘Campus Appreciation Day,’ which is still in the design phase, the student will get its own committee with its own [New StudentRepresentatives].”However, Yun said he agreed publicity for the Student Initiatives Program was not as successful or far-reaching as possible. He said the SA will push for publicity again in the fall semester. Campus Appreciation DayFalade said she has centered her proposal around giving back to the Housing and Dining staff and appreciating community members who support campus beauty and sustainability. To this effect, a new Campus Appreciation Committee would plan a staff appreciation week that culminates in an “Inreach Day.”“For Inreach Day, I see a group of willing and hardworking Rice students gather as a team and tend to our campus and take on some of the responsibilities that we are otherwise never faced with here — things like taking out the trash or tidying some of the areas around campus,” Falade said. “According to Falade, the planning process is still tentative and in early steps. She said she has had full support and approval of the proposal, but understands that not everything can be executed as imagined. Falade said she first thought of the idea for Inreach Day while at the Impact Rice retreat, although she had considered the privileged nature of Rice students ever since arriving on campus.“Volunteering and community outreach might not be such a priority to a lot of students because its importance [is] lost on some of us,” Falade said. “[I thought,] ‘Charity begins at home.’ How could we foster a desire of community serve if we didn’t create that feel for the Rice campus? I believe that once we learn to give back to our immediate community, doing the same for the Houston community will come more naturally.”

NEWS 4/15/15 10:08am

Graduate school mentorship introduced

By Jieya Wen

The graduate/undergraduate mentorship program that intends to facilitate interaction and mentorship among graduate and undergraduate students attracted 207 undergraduate student applicants according to Chris Sabbagh, a former Jones College senator.Once the Graduate Student Association collects applications for graduate student mentors, the Student Association Academics Committee will pair graduate and undergraduate students before the program official begins next semester, Sabbagh, a Jones College sophomore, said.“The idea is to pair at most three undergraduate students with a graduate student,” Sabbagh said. “We will be considering the location of college, hopefully keeping them at a close area. Then we will also be considering the academic specialization that they want to go into.”According to Sabbagh, there will be an introductory kickoff event for undergraduate and graduate students to socialize in next semester. The program suggests the paired students meet three times during a semester. “We don’t want people signing up for this program and having nothing come out of it,” Sabbagh said. “We are thinking of sending out follow-up surveys saying, ‘Did you meet with your graduate students,’ ‘Did you feel this was beneficial to you’ and ‘What would you like to see in future meetings.’”The program will close with a “celebratory mixer” event, recognizing the work people did for this program and the students who get into graduate school.Sabbagh said he realized that Rice lacks in certain graduate programs, such as medical schools or journalism school, so the mentorship program cannot satisfy every students’ needs.  “The goal is to ultimately utilize the [graduate programs] that will be most beneficial to undergraduate students,” Sabbagh said. “I think what we are doing is focusing on what we do have right now, seeing if that is going to be successful and then in the future expand on that.”According to Director of Academic Advising Brian Gibson, statistics show about 70 percent of students at Rice will attend professional programs within five years after they graduate. Graduate students will be a good resource for students who want to apply for graduate schools, Sabbagh said.“One [aspect of this program] is a mentorship side, which is a way for undergraduate students to talk to graduate students about advice on how to apply to graduate school and what the culture of graduate school is like,” Sabbagh said.Sabbagh said the second aspect of the program is to increase interaction among graduate and undergraduate students. The mentorship program integrates graduate students into the associates program. “So through this program, graduate students will be like associates in the sense that they will be able to eat a limited amount of free meals at the colleges,” Sabbagh said. “They will be able to attend associates nights at their colleges. This would increase the personal connection between the graduate and the undergraduate students here.”Amritha Kanakamedala, former SA external vice president, said the program was initiated by students. The idea for the program was suggested by Mitchell Massey, a Jones College senior, who has worked on this program with Kanakamedala and Sabbagh since last semester. “This program has received a lot of support from students, both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the administration,” Kanakamedala said. “We have support from the [Office of Academic Advising], Dean Hutchison’s office, as well as from the office of Dr. Matsuda, the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Students.”Sabbagh said there are more applicants than expected, as well as support from the administration that will ensure the longevity of this program.“Our hope is that we are formalizing this process so that it can happen every year,” Sabbagh said.Cassie Peretore, a Martel College junior, said she applied for the program, which she thinks would be beneficial for students who want to apply for graduate schools. “Rice has always had great resources for students on pre-med tracks or pre-law tracks,” Peretore said. “But those of us who are interested in different types of grad schools struggle a little more to find mentors. I’m really excited about this program because it’ll give me an opportunity to meet a grad student I never would have met and get valuable advice I never would’ve gotten. For those of us who applied to this program and are interested in grad school paths that are less ‘paved out,’ this will be really beneficial.”

NEWS 4/8/15 5:17pm

RiceX prepares for first rocket launch

By Sapna Suresh

RiceX completed a major milestone in the form of a successful motor on March 22, a large step towards their goal of creating and launching a hybrid rocket this summer.RiceX began the year with less than $1,000 in their budget and no set goals for the year. Lovett College junior and RiceX president Sarah Hernandez said Brown College freshman Andrew Gatherer’s interest in the club helped spur their growth.“Andrew emailed me even before school started with questions about how to get involved in RiceX. The club wasn’t serious at all back then, but after getting his messages, I felt like I couldn’t let this kid down,” Hernandez said.With a keen desire to build a functioning rocket, Hernandez, Gatherer and other committed team members actively recruited members and generated interest in the club. These efforts allowed the club to expand significantly. They were able to recruit many younger undergraduate students in particular: The team consists mainly of freshmen and sophomores, alongside one junior and one senior.According to Hernandez, one of the factors limiting their success was the lack of funding for the project. To raise money, they worked to get sponsorships from outside organizations. “At certain points, students were paying with personal funds for parts to build the project in hopes that, as their project grew, it would acquire more funding,” Hernandez said.The two biggest successes of RiceX so far have been the model rocket launched about a month ago, as well as the more recent successful motor test.At their single allotted table in the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, members of RiceX constructed the engine. According to Gatherer, each piece of the engine was machined in house, including the nozzle, body and ejector plate. Additionally, they made the fuel out of a mixture of candle wax, rubber and nitrous oxide.“Not more than approximately 10 other universities in the nation have been able to construct a hybrid rocket motor,” Gatherer said.As members of RiceX’s avionics and aerodynamics teams work toward a launch this summer, they hope to gain greater funding from the Brown School of Engineering and outside organizations, as well as acquire a larger workspace, accoording to Gatherer. Additionally, they plan on traveling to the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, where they will see the different kinds of rockets that other top universities around the country are developing.

NEWS 4/8/15 5:16pm

Environmental studies minor to launch fall 2015

By Salem Hagdu

A new environmental studies minor will be available to undergraduate students next fall, according to Dominic Boyer, co-chair of the Environmental Studies Faculty Working Group. Rice currently offers several degree programs related to environmental issues: an energy and water sustainability minor, an environmental earth science track within the earth science major and an environmental studies second major. However, the second major requires students take at least thirteen 300-400 level courses, making it  difficult for students from other majors to add.Boyer, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences and a professor of anthropology, said there is room for a holistic environmental studies minor in Rice’s current offerings. “[The environmental studies major is] very very heavy on the science component and lighter on the humanities and social sciences component, so we kept hearing from students that these programs were all very effective in a more narrow sense, but if a student wanted to get an introduction to environmental problems more holistically and comprehensively, they were not as effective,” Boyer said.The new environmental studies minor will serve as an introduction to environmental issues for students of all majors. Boyer said the working group designed it to be interdisciplinary, with  courses from a wide variety of departments. “38 different departments and programs [teach] courses related to environment and sustainability issues, which is a lot of departments,” Boyer said. The minor will use current faculty and will not require Rice to hire, according to Boyer.To develop the minor, the working group asked for student and faculty input on current environmental studies course. Boyer said he never heard anyone oppose the idea of a more holistically conceived minor, and that both students and professors were overwhelmingly in favor of an environmental studies minor. The working group also placed questions related to the minor on the fall 2014 Survey of All Students. “When we asked if students supported forming an environmental studies minor, 61 percent said yes and about 300 students said they would have considered taking the minor had it been available to them when they started at Rice,” Boyer said.Rice Environmental Society president Ashley Ugarte said the minor was a great step for Rice. She and other students participated in the town hall meeting and showed student support for the minor.“I’m really excited. It’s great. You know something that students and the administration have been working on,” Ugarte, a Martel College senior, said. “If I could start over and take this minor, I would.”Boyer said in the past few days, six or seven students have contacted him about the minor. Seniors who have already taken the courses cross-listed in the minor and in their own degree programs need to take only the new Environment, Culture and Society (ENST 100) core course to complete the minor. Boyer said he cannot determine how many students will be taking the courses next year, but is hopeful because the numbers on the survey show there is demand for the minor. The working group consists of faculty from the schools of Architecture, Engineering, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.

NEWS 4/8/15 5:14pm

Budde named commencement speaker

By Jieya Wen

Dennis Budde, a Baker College senior, will speak about improvisation as the student convocation speaker at the commencement ceremony on May 16. “[My speech] is about improvising and making sure that you leave some room for improvisation in your life,” Budde said. “But you also need to make sure you’re sticking to your plans and working hard. … Appreciate the balance.”Budde said he plans to talk about how he discovered improvisation in college. His experience in comedy groups, particularly Rice’s Kinda Sketchy, will be a major part of his speech. “I’m in the sketch comedy group here and I joined it freshmen year,” Budde said. “The people that I met in theater are the ones who encouraged me to start doing sketch comedy, and if I had just been just trying to stick to my plan, I wouldn’t have done that – it wasn’t anything I ever thought about doing. But instead I went for it. I improvised and it turned my life around.”Budde said he has always been interested in performing and writing. One of his writing principles, “the smaller you go, the bigger your audience ends up being,” helped him decide on the content of his speech. “If you are trying to make some big blanket statement then you will just get something wrong,” Budde said. “So I decided that I’ll just talk about something that’s important to me that I’ve personally learned and hoped that it worked.”One of the messages he wants to deliver to the graduating class is the balance between planning and improvisation, Budde said. “People don’t really think about improvising in their lives so much,” Budde said. “You want to set up your five-year plan and leave no room for improvisation. Maybe what you are doing next is what you had always been planning on doing, but don’t force yourself to stick with it if it’s not what you want.”Budde said it is important to him that the audience has fun listening to his speech. “One of the problems is that commencement speeches in general don’t keep people interested,” Budde said. “With that in mind, I really tried to make [my speech] entertaining as well.”

NEWS 4/8/15 5:06pm

Rice alumnus Josh Earnest recalls path to White House

By Tina Nazerian

When Josh Earnest first moved from Houston to Washington, D.C. in January 2001, he spent about six weeks sleeping on the floor of a friend’s spare bedroom.He had no job prospects, only a few contacts and friends and had left the life he had known since graduation — working in politics in Houston.What he found, however, were new possibilities.“I drove here from Houston,” Earnest (Sid Richardson ‘97) said. “And I still remember driving around town and even driving in front of the White House at that point sort of thinking about how what a tremendous experience and honor it would be to work at the White House.” Now, as White House press secretary, the 40-year-old Kansas City, Missouri native wakes up early to prepare for the White House’s daily press briefings, where he answers reporters’ questions about both the administration and its reaction to current events. Meetings pack his mornings, such as a 7:45 a.m. meeting with senior White House staff during which he asks them questions about news he had read about the night before.“It’s an opportunity for me to … ask the national security advisor or the president’s top homeland security advisor about news that occurred overnight that’s related to national security,” Earnest, dressed in a dark suit and green tie, said in his West Wing office.  Earnest said he received thorough academic training and learned a lot about writing as a political science and policy studies major at Rice. His extracurriculars included some writing for the Thresher and serving as campus-wide Beer Bike coordinator. “My Rice experience ... genuinely broadened my horizons,” Earnest said.During his senior year, Earnest took a course that sent him to Israel and Gaza for spring break. In Jerusalem, he went to a memorial dedicated to the Holocaust’s lost children at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum. In Gaza, Earnest visited locals and learned about the territory’s public health conditions when he went to a center for deaf children. One of his first times overseas, the trip deeply impacted him. “I learned a lot about [the Israeli-Palestinian] situation, and it continues to form the basis of a lot of my knowledge about that situation that I draw upon in the context of this job in particular,” Earnest said.However, Earnest did more than just advance his knowledge of public policy and politics in and out of the classroom. His favorite memory at Sid Richardson College was going to what used to be an annual early-winter “tower party,” in which every floor would have a different theme, such as a piano bar theme or a country western theme.  Prior to being named White House press secretary, Earnest’s jobs included being then-Senator Barack Obama’s Iowa communications director and working for Jay Carney, now his predecessor, as the principal deputy press secretary. “I wouldn’t say that every step of my career has been easy, by any means,” Earnest said. “But I don’t think there’s anything that I regret.” Earnest’s ascent to the press secretary position became a real possibility when Carney left the White House. Very few people knew Carney was stepping down. “I had been involved in an interview process that had only involved a small number of people,” Earnest said. Right before he found out he got the job, which he assumed on June 20, 2014, Earnest was in the middle of an energetic discussion in his office with Jonathan Karl, the chief White House correspondent for ABC News. Brian Mosteller, one of the president’s assistants, opened his office door and told him he was needed upstairs, not wanting to say the president wanted to see Earnest in front of the reporter. Earnest asked Mosteller if he needed to come up immediately, and Mosteller said he did. As Karl started to leave the office, so did Earnest. Earnest, who was not wearing his suit jacket, had taken one step out of his office when Mosteller looked at him and said, “Don’t you think you should put on your suit jacket?” “I thought, oh, yeah, I guess I probably should,” Earnest said. “So I reached for my jacket, and went into the Oval Office and had a conversation with the president, where he offered me the job.”After Earnest returned to his office, he saw that he had missed calls from his wife, Natalie Wyeth, who was then six months pregnant with their first child. She was dealing with an air conditioning repairman at their new townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia. “I called her back, and I said — she obviously knew what was going on — and I said, sweetheart, I’m sorry I wasn’t here to take your calls, but I have the best possible excuse for not being by my cell phone,” Earnest said. “And she knew exactly what I was talking about and she was very excited.” Earnest has had to answer hundreds of questions during his time at White House press briefings, but his favorite response came after 2015 Super Bowl semi-playoff. Referencing New England Patriots’ Tom Brady’s press conference after “DeflateGate,” Earnest answered a CNN reporter, “The one thing I can tell you is that for years it’s been clear that there is no risk that I was gonna take Tom Brady’s job as quarterback of the New England Patriots, but I can tell you that as of today, it’s pretty clear that there’s no risk of him taking my job, either.” His line on Brady elicited comments from many people, including emails from Earnest’s two brothers and friends from other jobs — and a response from the president on Air Force One before traveling to India.  “I was sitting in the conference room,” Earnest said. “And I could hear the president get on the plane and bellow down the hallway, ‘Josh, why [are] you being so mean to Tom Brady?’” Earnest encouraged Rice students to take their academic pursuits seriously, but not too seriously, and to take advantage of as many opportunities at the university as they can to expand their horizons — including faculty. Earnest, who was not a “political junkie” as a teenager, said he got his first political job because of his advisor at Rice, Robert Stein, the Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of political science. Stein not only influenced his interest in public policy and politics, but also introduced him to people involved in politics around town.  “You can’t put a price tag on something like that,” Earnest said. “Somebody who’s willing to inspire you in that way, and who’s willing to mentor you in that way.” Stein said Earnest was a smart and empathetic student whom “everybody” wanted to work with on class team papers. And Stein’s reaction when he found out his former student had become the White House press secretary? Not shocked at all. “Trust me, this kid was born to have a political career.”Edit (4/13/2014, 11 AM): It was previously stated Earnest was 38. This is incorrect. He is currently 40.

NEWS 4/7/15 3:59pm

Admission rate decreases slightly for Class of 2019

By Christy Leos

Rice University acceptance letters have been distributed and the campus is gearing up for the roughly 2,600 students invited for Owl Days. For the Class of 2019, there were 17,900 applications, and Rice admitted around 14.7 percent, according to Chris Munoz, vice president for enrollment.Munoz said that determining the exact admission rate is currently in preliminary stages and that the exact number of students attending Rice will not be known until May.“Why [the admittance rate] could change is related to if we elect to take anyone off the waitlist,” Munoz said.Students admitted through the regular decision process may decide before May 1 to attend a different university, and some waitlisted students may decide not to accept a Rice admission offer. Munoz said his office refers to this as the “summer melt process.”“[The admission rate] could go up higher, but again this is speculation because we don’t know of how many students we’ve admitted up to May 1 who are going to make a commitment,” Munoz said.Munoz said each year’s class to excel more than the last. “We’re attracting incredibly well-qualified students,” Munoz said. “The students who are applying to Rice, their qualifying academic records in terms of their grade performance, the rigor of the courses they’ve taken and their test scores are just breathtaking. As a future alum, you want each class behind you to be better than you were because this only raises the value of your degree.”Rice’s admission rate has decreased over the last couple of years, according to Munoz.“Our admit rate over the last eight years has gone from around 25 to 26 percent, down to a low 15 percent and that includes even the fact that we were growing,” Munoz said.Recently, Rice was listed at 29th in desirability in the 2015 Top 100 Colleges by Student Choice, a report by GradReports that considers only acceptance and enrollment, or yield, rate. Last year, Rice had a yield rate of 37.9 percent when 978 of 2,581 accepted students chose to attend.“Anytime Rice is put in favorable light … adds to increasing the perception of the quality and [desirability] of a Rice degree,” Munoz said. “However, U.S. News has the most recognition for its university rankings.” McMurtry College senior Grant Patterson said he didn’t give rankings much weight. “When I was looking at schools, I wasn’t really looking at anything besides the U.S. News rankings, and even then, I was skeptical of rankings in general,” Patterson said. “I was more concerned with visiting the school and whether I could picture myself there.”Patterson said school prestige, if not at the top, didn’t mean much.“A school is either prestigious or it’s not, and the rankings don’t really matter,” Patterson said. “Rank 17th or 10, it doesn’t really matter.”The Student Admission Council aids the Rice Admission Office in recruitment and yield events, SAC director Timothy Chang said. The SAC works to promote Rice, answer questions and help prospective students decide if Rice is the best fit for them.“SAC members serve as ambassadors for Rice both on and off campus through a variety of mediums,” Chang, a Baker College junior, said.

NEWS 4/3/15 8:34am

Conscious college campaign teaches enviornmental sustainability

By Anita Alem

The Rice Environmental Society and Turning Green partnered for the third time to bring the Conscious College campaign to Rice University on Thursday, according to event coordinator Emi LaFountain and RES president Ashley Ugarte. According to LaFountain, more than 400 people were in attendance and the event was a huge success.There were a lot of people who I think had those "oh wow" realization moments and became conscious of the scale at which their actions could impact the environment,” LaFountain said. “Seeing those gears turn in so many people's heads made the event super worthwhile for me.”LaFountain said Turning Green reported the stop at Rice had one of the highest turnouts of all the universities they have stopped at.“Turning Green has made Rice a priority during their annual campaign,” LaFountain, a McMurtry College senior, said. “Given their history with Rice, coming [here] was probably a no-brainer.”The event at Rice included a Conscious Information Station where students can learn about sustainability themes, including food, style, zero waste, clean, hemp and space and sample items from environmentally responsible brands. Additionally, a town hall meeting allowed students the opportunity to discuss developing campus-wide programs for sustainability.According to its website, Turning Green is a student-led global movement encouraging sustainable living among the youth through various programs, including the Conscious College Road Tour. The tour visits 16 universities in the United States to educate and mobilize college students. LaFountain said RES has been gathering volunteers for the event and gauging student interest. Turning Green donated travel fees and food to make the event essentially free for RES to host.Following Ugarte’s internship with the organization, Turning Green began visiting Rice as a part of the tour in 2013. Ugarte, a Martel College junior, also served as the Student Advisory Board president in the past year.“In partnership with Turning Green, we hope to provide our fellow peers with tangible ways for students to live more consciously and to be the change that supports specific, relevant, actionable sustainability projects here at Rice,” Ugarte said. “Ultimately, we hope this event unites all students, whether they’re passionate advocates for the environment or not … to realize that their everyday choices do indeed have an impact.”Ugarte said living consciously includes obtaining education about safer and healthier practices and products, while instigating change can include introducing advocacy programs.LaFountain said the event gave students a look at internship opportunities associated with Turning Green, including the Project Green Challenge. PCG is an annual event where young adults learn about sustainability issues during the month of October.“Each day students [complete] different challenges, kind of like the Green Dorm Initiative,” LaFountain said. “I was one of the 12 students [with the highest scores and was] flown to San Francisco for a weekend of sustainability awareness. It was a life-changing experience.”

NEWS 4/2/15 11:16am

RMC Robber Arrested

By Anita Alem

A man who robbed a student at the Rice Memorial Center on Tuesday, March 31 was arrested Thursday morning and charged with second-degree felony.

NEWS 4/1/15 6:45am

Student robbed at RMC

By Anita Alem

A student was threatened and robbed at the Rice Memorial Center on Tuesday afternoon, according to Rice University Police Department Chief Johnny Whitehead.

NEWS 3/25/15 4:50pm

Rice engineering joins Grand Challenges Initiative

 

In a public letter to President Barack Obama, Rice University joined 121 other American engineering schools Monday in committing to prepare engineers to address a number of “Grand Challenges” facing modern society.The letter, signed by Dean of Engineering Edwin Thomas, mentioned Introduction to Engineering Design (ENGI 120), Senior Capstone Design, the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership and Engineers Without Borders as examples of Rice’s ability to successfully educate engineering students.According to the website of the National Academy of Engineering, which coordinated the Grand Challenges initiative, the initiative targets a set of 14 challenges developed with the White House Strategy for American Innovation and the United Nations Millenium Development Goals. Each of the committed schools plans to graduate at least 20 students each year who are prepared to work toward solving these issues.

NEWS 3/25/15 4:50pm

News in Brief: Nick Thorpe chosen for Luce Scholars fellowship

 

According to a press release from Rice University, the Henry Luce Foundation has chosen Lovett College senior Nick Thorpe as one of 18 nationwide Luce Scholars for 2015-16 who will be placed in a professional setting in an Asian country for 10 months. The Foundation chose Thorpe for the fellowship after a long selection process, according to the Foundation’s website. The fellowship is open to graduates and graduating seniors who do not have extensive experience with Asia.  After orientation and language study over the summer, the website said an associated organization, the Asia Foundation, will place candidates in professional positions in Asia. Thorpe will conclude his fellowship in July 2016. “My year as a Luce Scholar will be the most challenging and transformative experience that I have ever encountered,” Thorpe said. “Through this scholarship, I hope to gain a better understanding of [the] communities and governments in the Asian region.”

NEWS 3/25/15 4:49pm

Coadvisor apps increase to more than 400, acceptance rate at 25 percent

By Jieya Wen

 Orientation Week 2015 received more than 400 co-advisor applications campus-wide, an increase from 375 in 2014. Colleges received 90 to 140 applicants each, according to Chris Landry, assistant director of First Year Programs. Landry said each college has 10 to 13 spots, so about a quarter of the applicants are offered a position.Mohammad Kassim, a Martel College O-Week coordinator, said his college received approximately 95 co-advisor applications. Around 60 students applied to co-advise at Martel in 2014, according to Thomas Plackemeier, a junior and former Martel O-Week coordinator.“We initially did some paper cuts, and then we offered around 60 first-round interviews,” Kassim, a Martel College junior, said. “You have a bigger pool now, so it’s hard to cut people. Especially when you have only 12 [available positions], you want to get the best of the best.”Bridget Schilling, a Lovett College O-Week coordinator, said Lovett received more applications than last year too but declined to reveal the number of applications. “There was a lot of crossover this year,” Schilling, a Lovett junior, said. “A lot of people applied to multiple colleges. [Many] got up to second round for multiple colleges too.”Schilling said she thinks the online common application for co-advising contributed to the increase. “[The common application] makes it easier for people to apply,” Schilling said. “The paper application was a little bit harder. [It] took more effort to fill out. It did make it easier for people who are abroad to access all the applications.”The online application additionally provided every college’s mission statement for O-Week, a factor that may have made students consider more options when applying to co-advise, Schilling said. “Being able to have listed our mission statement, versus having to pick up the application, [gave] people who would otherwise not consider Lovett a platform to look at our mission statement and think, ‘I can relate to that and I might want to be a part of this O-Week,’” Schilling said. Both Schilling and Kassim said the pool of applicants was more diverse this year. “I thought we got a good number of international students, a number of typically less-represented Rice population applying,” Schilling said. “That could be through a combination of outreach and accessibility.”

NEWS 3/25/15 4:48pm

SA developing survey of all students

By Drew Keller

The Student Association is developing questions to ask the student body through the mandatory Survey of All Students, which students will complete during course registration later in the semester.According to Lovett College President Griffin Thomas, the purpose of the SAS is to collect information from the student body about both academic and non-academic issues. Thomas said the compulsory, biannual format of the survey is an improvement on the SA’s past system of collecting information.“The SA used to send out more surveys,” Thomas, a sophomore, said. “However, because they were not required, participation was not high or necessarily representative of the entire student body.”While the university administration creates most of the survey each semester, Thomas said the SA also proposes questions to be included on a variety of subjects.“There is not any one issue area that the survey is trying to address,” Thomas said. “It is rather used to identify trends across multiple topics related student life.”Weiss College President Alex Tran said the SA hopes to measure student opinion on a number of different issues.“The SA portion of the SAS will poll students on their priority and preference of use of resources for topics such as parking, campus wide spirit, grade inflation and student activism,” Tran, a junior, said.According to the minutes of the SA Senate meeting on March 18, the SA is also considering topics including athlete representation in student government, activism on campus, graduate-undergraduate interaction, campus mentorship programs and communication between students and student resources.Thomas said he plans to use the results of the survey to help determine his actions as a student leader.“This survey will definitely help to inform my campus wide priorities moving into next year, and I hope that it will help direct the agenda of the SA as [a] whole,” Thomas said.

NEWS 3/25/15 4:47pm

Sid Rich party theme change unrelated to Title IX talks, 'not a new problem'

By Andrew Ligeralde

A varied crowd of flower children and prep school students filled Sid Richardson College this past Saturday for their annual spring semester public party. In previous years, “Sid Schoolgirls” accumulated a wide following of students dressed in button-down shirts, ties and skirts. This year, however, the new theme, “Sidstock,” marked a change in tradition that, according to Sid Richardson President Lauren Schmidt, was only a matter of time and was unrelated to Title IX.“Since its conception, every year Sidizens have come forward and either talked to [resident associates] or masters about how uncomfortable the theme makes them feel,” Schmidt, a junior, said. According to Schmidt, this is not the first time the college changed the theme of the public.“The opposition to the schoolgirls theme is definitely not a new problem,” Schmidt said. “Last year, the theme was [discussed] too late to change it. So the socials changed the name to ‘The Academy’ to diffuse the schoolgirls connotation, which elicits a lot of negative emotions should the person have experience with some sort of rape in high school.” Schmidt said the college’s executive council met this past September to gauge student opinion in response to the controversy surrounding the party. The council initiated an open forum for Sidizens to voice their concerns in addition to releasing an anonymous survey containing questions like, “What offends you about the theme?” and “What would you like to see changed about the party?”“We looked at the feedback and it was clear we needed to change the theme because it did elicit negative emotions from a lot of people,” Schmidt said. “Whether or not they attended the party wasn’t the issue. It was more that, as a college, we were institutionalizing the sexualization of underage women, and that was unacceptable.”As a result, Sid Richardson’s election process for socials this year happened earlier than usual to ensure that the socials could lead the selection of the new theme. According to Schmidt, however, the theme change was not popular with everyone. “Some people liked the classy attire of schoolgirls, but we couldn’t come up with a theme that embodied that without objectifying women,” Schmidt said. “There were a lot of schoolgirls at Sidstock. I don’t know if that’s a protest of the theme change, or people just trying to have some fun.”Schmidt said she views the change as positive regardless.“[Some] people were saddened to see [the schoolgirls theme] go, but there were definitely people excited to see it go,” Schmidt said.  “I think the change was positive because I firmly believe that if something makes people uncomfortable, then it should change. And the minority opinion is very important to me.”According to Schmidt, the open forum talks were successful in creating a safe environment for students to vocalize their opinions.“I [would say] that you could use the discussion at Sid as a model for how people should go about discussing things in the college that make them uncomfortable,” Schmidt said.Despite rumors, the name change is unrelated to recent events and controversies surrounding Title IX, federal legislation that prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex, according to Schmidt. “We started the discussion last year, so it’s totally unrelated,” Schmidt said. “It just happened that the timing of our party happened after the events.”Schmidt also said the college did not change the name under any pressure from the administration.“The perception I’ve been feeling from [the] campus in general is that a lot of people think the administration made us change the name, which is not the case,” Schmidt said. “It was an initiative started by a few Sidizens in the spring and our outgoing president Nick Cornell, who really pushed to have a safe discussion about it [and] see how people felt about the party and what needed to change so that we could have a safe environment.”Schmidt said she is confident the change will proceed smoothly in coming years. “Sid will decide in the fall whether or not we like Sidstock and want it to be a continuing theme or whether we want to [change] every year,” Schmidt said. “As far as schoolgirls showing up to Sidstock, institutional memory is only four years. So four years down the road, I bet there’ll be much fewer schoolgirls at Sidstock.”Ana Gonzalez, a Sid Richardson College freshman, said the theme change was well supported among the college community. “We as freshmen didn’t really know about the Schoolgirls party to begin with,” Gonzalez said. “But we all worked hard to give Sidstock a positive image.”Akeem Ogunkeye, a Jones College sophomore who attended the party last year, said he enjoyed Sidstock just as much.“It was generally the same this year as it was last year,” Ogunkeye said. “At the time I hadn’t even thought about [the theme], but if anyone complained I understand why it was changed. I’m okay with it. I know a lot of people who miss the theme, but it is what it is.”

NEWS 3/25/15 4:43pm

Alumni to skip colleges on Beer Bike

By Drew Keller

The Association of Rice Alumni has asked alumni not to participate in Saturday morning activities at their residential colleges during this year’s Beer Bike; instead, according to the ASA, the alumni tent will open earlier and offer expanded amenities.Assistant Vice President of Alumni Relations Marthe Golden said the goals of the changes are to not only enhance the alumni experience, but also to give undergraduates the opportunity to have their own unique Beer Bike experiences in the residential colleges on Saturday morning. Student safety has also previously been an issue with alumni on Beer Bike.“We are sensitive to concerns in the colleges regarding having alumni present in the students’ residential and private areas, and in some cases, creating a potentially unsafe environment for students,” Golden said. “We are committed to supporting the well-being of our students and alumni, in order to make Beer Bike the best possible event it can be.According to Rachel Mis (Will Rice ’10), a member of the alumni Beer Bike host committee, alumni will still be able to take part in other activities at their residential colleges before Beer Bike.“There are various events throughout Willy Week that the residential colleges are inviting alumni to attend, but we are being asked to respect that many of the Saturday morning activities are intended for the current undergrads,” Mis said.Each residential college will hold an alumni tailgate on Friday, according to the ASA. The alumni tent will open at 9 a.m. Saturday morning, earlier than in past years, and will have more food and drinks as well as a disc jockey. However, alumni will also have to pay a $10 admission fee to make up for the added costs.According to Mis, the ASA developed this year’s changes due to several factors, including feedback gathered by the alumni office. Mis said the Houston 2.0 Group, made up of alumni who graduated more than 10 years ago, showed particular interest in adding alumni Beer Bike activities. “When you’re only one or two years out, it’s very easy to return to Rice for Beer Bike because you still know a lot of current students,” Mis said. “But once you’re five, 10, 20 or more years out, there’s not much for you to do. We hope some of these alumni tent improvements will meet this need.”Mis said she hopes the changes will increase alumni participation in Beer Bike.“With these changes, I think we have a chance to make Beer Bike an all-around better experience for alumni,” Mis said. “If we can build up the number and quality of alumni-focused events during Beer Bike, then alumni will be more likely to return year after year.”According to Mis, the ASA will continue to look for ways to improve the way alumni participate in Beer Bike.“We’ve implemented some experimental changes this year, and we’re going to have to see what works best and what doesn’t so that Beer Bike can continue to be the amazing experience that we all love,” Mis said.

NEWS 3/18/15 4:25pm

Office of Information Technology merges IT and administrative systems into eight divisions headed by Klara Jelinkova

 

A new Office of Information Technology launched March 1 and merges Rice University’s academic and administrative IT units: Information Technology and Administrative Systems. The new office will be headed by Klara Jelinkova, who arrived at Rice on Jan. 1 as vice president for information technology and chief information officer. According to Rice News, Jelinkova said the new office will implement university-wide security standards, improve data analytics and reporting and provide stronger support and management of new teaching and scholarship technologies.Eight divisions will compose the new office: enterprise and administrative services; networking and telecommunications; systems engineering; campus services; business intelligence, data warehousing and analytics; teaching, learning and scholarly technologies; IT security; and research computing and cyberinfrastructure.

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