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NEWS 2/18/15 4:07pm

QEP seeks student opinion

By Jaecey Parham

A task force of faculty, students and administration has begun the process of developing a new Quality Enhancement Plan for Rice University  aimed at a measurable and fundamental improvement in student education.The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools requires Rice to create a QEP every 10 years. Rice’s previous QEP in 2006 created the Center for Civic Engagement, which is now the Center for Civic Leadership. The goal in opening the center was to better integrate the Rice and Houston communities by providing community-based research and civic engagement opportunities for students.The QEP Task Force is co-chaired by James Weston, a professor of finance at the Jones School of Business, and Susan MacIntosh, a professor of anthropology. Weston said the QEP will be spearheaded by Rice faculty and will incorporate input from the entire Rice’s community. Weston said he credits the lead of faculty to the overall goal of the program.“The purpose is an initiative to improve student learning, which makes it a curricular objective,” Weston said. “So if it’s a curricular objective, then it becomes a faculty initiative, but [we will] gather input from all stakeholders in the community— student, staff, alumni, administration, everybody.”Weston said the task force is currently launching a website that will allow everybody to submit their opinions regarding student learning.“We are in the process of casting as wide a net as possible,” Weston said. “We are looking at broadening the input to the entire community.”Weston said the task force will filter through the input submitted over the next six weeks.“The committee will give two [representative] proposals to the administration, Weston said. “Ultimately, it’s the president and the board’s decision about what we do.”According to Weston, though the QEP is required by SACS, the program is not being created simply because it is obligatory, but because it is what should be happening.“We are constantly in the process of developing and evolving curriculum,” Weston said. “And here’s an opportunity for us to point a focus on something that we’ve been up to or want to get up to and communicate that to our accreditation body.”Weston said the QEP’s goal is to significantly improve student learning outcomes. The key parts to making it a successful program are the administration and resources.“Whatever this initiative is, the university as an institution has agreed with this initiative and is putting resources in place to see it happen,” Weston said.

NEWS 2/18/15 4:06pm

Rice Left members protest Hillel-hosted IDF soldier talk

By Anita Alem

After listening to a presentation from former Israeli Defense Force soldiers, community members, students and representatives of Rice Left silently walked out of HUMA 120, where the talk was held. Elad, an IDF soldier in reserve who could not give his last name due to security reasons, was discussing the composition of the IDF when protesters walked out.“The IDF, like America, is a melting pot,” Elad said. “Like I said, there’s Jews, Christians, Muslims — guys, this is very unfortunate. I came all the way to tell my story hoping that you would stay and be respectful and let me finish.”Hillel hosted the hourlong event, which was co-sponsored by the IDF and Stand With Us, a nonprofit, pro-Israel education organization.Members of Rice Left planned the walkout, which students from the University of Houston and other community members attended. The protesters met prior to the event in an adjacent classroom. Four Rice University Police Department officers were present as protesters convened. Jeremy Reiskind, vice president of engagement with Hillel, said the event was held to promote a dialogue between groups on either side of the issue between Palestine and Israel.“The focus of [Stand With Us] is not about combat and hating of the Palestinians,” Reiskind said. “We want peace also. The biggest thing is in issues like this that are so big and have so many complex issues is dialogue.”However, Rice Left member Heather Dial said she does not believe the event provided opportunity for a dialogue.“They have only invited a very narrow group of people from one side of a discussion,” Dial, a psychology graduate student, said. “We’re walking out because there is no room for dialogue in a biased conversation.”The talk was not listed on the Rice University Events Calendar, but was advertised through a Facebook event. “The soldiers’ stories on this tour are inspirational, human, personal and demonstrate clearly how the IDF employs the strictest moral standards while fighting a terrorist foe that callously puts civilians on both sides in harm’s way,” the event description states.Rice Left member and mathematics graduate student Kenan Ince said he found the description to be one-sided.“If you look at the killings on both sides, there is an enormous … imbalance of Palestinians being killed by Israelis, and I thought that was something they were definitely keeping out of their dialogue as well,” Ince said.Stand With Us Central Region Program Coordinator Vida Velasco introduced the event and said the purpose of Stand With Us is to convey the facts about the Israeli military. Velasco said she was aware of the walkout and preferred people stayed to promote a dialogue and understanding.“You should be informed that in Texas, it is a misdemeanor to create a premeditated disturbance, verbal or physical,” Velasco said. “So if you do choose to leave, please do so quietly.”Elad and another soldier, Tamir, spoke of their experiences in combat as well as their personal lives and background.“I don’t hate,” Elad said. “Palestinians are not our enemies, nor have they ever been our enemies. I’m here today to share our stories.”Elad said he unexpectedly came across different languages, religions and cultures as a part of the military, at which point the protesters walked out of the classroom.“We came from the other side of the world to talk to you, from Israel,” Tamir said as the walkout proceeded. “We’d love to answer your questions.”According to Rice Left member Michelle Pham, the event’s lack of publicity, despite its controversial topic, was problematic. Pham also said she did not think hosting a politicized event fell under the responsibilities of a cultural organization. “People have looked at Rice Hillel as a cultural club,” Pham said. “Promoting Israel, the nation state, is a move away from that. That’s a different orientation.”Reiskind, a Duncan College sophomore, said the role of Hillel extends beyond culture.“Hillel deals with all aspects of being Jewish,” Reiskind said. “We are in charge of helping students in different ways, [including] connecting with Israel.”Hillel member Zach Birenbaum said he would be open to hosting an event with Rice Left regarding Palestine.“They showed a pro-Palestine propaganda film [Five Broken Cameras], and I didn’t feel like that was an open dialogue,” Birenbaum said. “So I guess you have both sides where we’re kind of showing both perspectives on the issue.The event continued after the walkout, when Tamir and Elad more explicitly explained the combat zone and Hamas war tactics. During the question and answer session that followed, Hanszen College junior Aruni Ranaweera said she agreed with the sentiments of the protestors but planned to stay and listen to the presentation. Attendees applauded her choice to remain at the event, but Ranaweera said she questioned the goal of the discussion.“In the case that this is supposed to be a dialogue, I felt it was very one-sided,” Ranaweera said. “There were only Israeli soldiers, and no Palestinians. I just want to know what kind of dialogue you were expecting.”Velasco responded to Ranaweera’s question and said the goal is to start a more nuanced conversation.“The full story of Israel is not being told,” Velasco said. “One of the most demonized groups when talking about Israel is the military.”The soldiers provided information on Israeli tourism at the event’s closing.In a private interview, Elad and Tamir said it is important to remember them as regular people, as opposed to representatives of the IDF itself.Tamir said these events are not easy for him, considering how many people resent the existence of Israel. “I am the IDF soldier you’ve seen on TV in the last operation,” Tamir said. “I am that guy you allegedly saw killing and murdering those innocent people on purpose. I am here, talking to you, and that’s not me and as that guy that you saw in the media, I tell you one on one: I want peace.”Elad responded to criticism of bias towards the Israeli forces.“We just tell the truth, that’s all,” Elad said. “I’m over here because I believe in the truth.”

NEWS 2/12/15 5:40pm

Rice professor links Mayan decline to drought

By Sarah Frazier

Rice University professor of earth science Andre Droxler and a graduate student have found further evidence that the disappearance of the Mayan urban civilization was linked to a drought.“The decline of the Maya was so unexpected...it was very fast," Droxler said. “The demise of the Maya could well be connected to this one-century drought."Droxler said he and earth science graduate student Ayca Agar Cetin used measurements of titanium in layers of old sediment to reconstruct the rainfall history for the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived.“When you have … high precipitation, these metamorphic rocks are going to be altered chemically and release titanium," Droxler said. “[The titanium] goes to this lagoon, it settles down, and you have a kind of a record.”The team used X-ray fluorescence to identify the elements in cores of sediment from a location off the coast of Belize.“You can scan the core, and it gives you certain elements," Droxler said. “You could see there was a trend [in the titanium measurements].”According to Droxler, they compared the measurements of titanium and aluminum in this sediment to estimate how much rain there was in the region during that time — more titanium means more precipitation.“This titanium aluminum ratio becomes a precipitation record,” Droxler said. “We call this a paleo-precipitation proxy.”Using X-ray fluorescence, they identified a century-long period of low titanium, which meant there had been very little rainfall during that time. The drought period corresponds to the time the Maya abandoned their southern urban civilization, Droxler said.“The Maya kind of disappeared between 800 and 900,” Droxler said. “Some of them migrated … [to] the northern side of the Yucatan Peninsula [at] Chichen Itza.”Droxler said another major Maya city, Chichen Itza, was abandoned about 150 years after the southern urban civilization.“Chichen Itza was abandoned at 1040,” Droxler said. “[1000-1100] is another point where you have low precipitation.”Droxler’s work is just another piece of evidence pointing toward the idea that drought was a major factor in the demise of the Maya urban civilization.“There are at least three different types of paleo-precipitation records [that support this], plus [the] tropical cyclone record.” Droxler said.Another study that Droxler collaborated on used sediment samples to show there were fewer tropical cyclones during these periods, which supports the drought hypothesis, Droxler said.  “When you have … very little precipitation, you have no cyclone,” Droxler said.Droxler says an understanding of how climate affected the Maya civilization is more than just historically interesting.“It’s very important for us to study the past … to try to assess the change in climate we’ve witnessed in the past 50 years,” Droxler said. “How will our civilization … react to this change of climate?”Droxler said a drought of even a few years can significantly change an area.“The summer [of 2011] with no rain, in Memorial Park we lost one-third [to] one-half of all the trees,” Droxler said. “Imagine if that summer [were] three or four years in a row. South Texas would have changed completely.”

NEWS 2/10/15 9:01am

EVP candidates split on REF initiative results

 

At first glance, Student Association external vice president candidates Madhuri Venkateswar and Joan Liu appear to campaign on similar platforms of empowering students to control their own Rice experiences. However, McMurtry College senator Venkateswar and SA treasurer Liu differ in their approach toward this broader goal of realizing student interests.Venkateswar cited her experience as a part of the Rice Education of the Future initiative as an indication of her ability to collaborate with administration. However, Liu said she finds the future plans of the REF to be outlined vaguely and desires more tangible results.“To make student priorities a reality, I want to translate these into something accomplishable, as opposed to [just] setting a vision and revolving around it,” Liu said. “When I asked how we could realize REF, I never got a clear response. It was always, ‘We’re deferring to administration’ or ‘We’re working on it.’”Liu said although considering the big picture is important, being able to create something real is what students want.“Experiential learning, like the ideas from REF or the SA40K — that’s what the SA should be making a reality,” Liu said. “So many good initiatives came from giving students money via the SA40K. That shouldn’t be a one time thing. Making something like that happen on a regular basis — that’s what the SA is for.”Venkateswar said the projects she tackled as a senator were particularly suited to preparing someone for EVP and that she will apply the lessons learned working on REF to ensure changes come to pass.“I want to continue initiatives like blanket tax reformation and parking and look at tangible things to do in the short term,” Venkateswar said. “I also want to take the ideas REF came up with and implement those ideas over the long term. We’re at a unique point where [both students and administration are] in agreement that something needs to change.”Liu said her role as treasurer allowed her to work closely with the Blanket Tax Crack Team and contribute to the final SA40K proposal. Venkateswar said, as a senator, she has contributed more to legislation, including the initiative for oral communication courses in different schools of study.“I’m uniquely qualified because I took the senate position not just as, ‘Let me represent McMurtry,’ but I took it as, ‘What do I see in the Rice community?’” Venkateswar said. “It’s about noticing specific things and saying, ‘I can make a difference here.’”

NEWS 2/10/15 8:50am

RPC candidates offer differing skillsets, styles

 

Rice Program Council presidential candidates Dixita Viswanath and Jodie Nghiem present different approaches to leadership centered upon their current roles in the organization. Viswanath, a Will Rice College junior, is the publicity co-chair while Nghiem, a McMurtry College sophomore, is the socials co-chair.Nghiem said she has two years left at Rice, allowing for the possibility of either a second term or the ability to provide mentorship to the next president.“Continuity in leadership is important,” Nghiem said. “I’ll be there after my term as a source of guidance.”Viswanath said being a part of Rice Emergency Medical Services provided her with a sense of calm in stressful situations as well as the ability to see the big picture of any event.“I redesigned the website and added a line-by-line budget so students can see exactly where their blanket tax goes for each event,” Viswanath said. “I have different ideas that I want to see changed, [such as] the entrance fees for some of our events so it could be a more equal chance for everyone.”Nghiem cited her crisis management throughout Esperanza as evidence of her communication expertise, and stated that the RPC president would need to deal with emergencies and unexpected difficulties.“The [Esperanza] experience has taught me to keep calm during high-stress situations, [so I] really think about choices as we run at them,” Nghiem said. “[I learned to] deal with repercussions and respond to student feedback. My co-chair and I responded to every single email and created an extensive FAQ to answer any questions.”Both candidates stressed that they respect each other but have different visions for the organization. “As publicity chair, Dixita is more in charge of how RPC is perceived,” Nghiem said. “At the end of the day, RPC is planning events, and my experience gives me the perspective I need to really improve RPC. RPC is my Rice experience.”Viswanath said her role of gaining feedback actually aids the co-chairs and said she has different skills to offer from Nghiem.“I have a very broad way of thinking and very specific goals for RPC,” Viswanath said. “Jodie’s a socials chair and is very focused on individual events. As publicity chair, my role is more big picture. I help bring students to events and see how we can improve by gauging student feedback and incorporating social media into this.”

NEWS 2/3/15 2:08pm

SA passes 40K, splits on NROTC

By Drew Keller

 The Student Association Senate finalized the allocation of $40,540.92 of blanket tax money at the Senate meeting last Wednesday and rejected an initiative that would have granted NROTC midshipmen guaranteed on-campus housing. Following a deliberative process starting in the fall, the SA unanimously approved Resolution #7, which distributes the funds to the Rice Environmental Society, Queer Resource Center, Rice Emergency Medical Services, Rice Bikes and a Student Initiative Fund. The second piece of legislation the Senate considered was “Midshipmen Housing.” This bill proposed reserving on-campus housing for Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps midshipmen in a similar manner as EMS’s housing guarantee. The legislation received an equal number of votes for and against. However, the SA constitution requires a two-thirds majority for resolution approval, and the legislation was not passed.

NEWS 2/3/15 2:08pm

Baker Institute among premier think tanks

By Aparna Narendrula

Rice University’s Baker Institute ranked 18th-best think tank in the United States, rising two spots since 2013, according to the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank survey. “Despite our small size, [in addition to the U.S. ranking,] we have succeeded in being ranked in the top 10 of university-affiliated think tanks in the world,” Baker Institute Founding Director Edward Djerejian said.The Baker Institute is a 22-year-old nonpartisan public policy think tank focusing on domestic and foreign policy issues. Ranked the fourth-best global think tank on energy studies, the Baker Institute’s competitive advantages are mostly linked to its Houston location because most top-tier think tanks are located on the east and west coasts of the U.S., according to Djerejian.“We do health policy because right across the street from Rice is the Texas Medical Center,” said Djerejian. “[We do] the Middle East largely because of my experience as a former American diplomat and Secretary Baker’s experience in the Middle East … We do space policy because NASA is just to the south of Houston and George Abbey [senior fellow in space policy] is the former director of the Johnson Space center. We just created a Mexico center because ... we think location, location, location.”The Institute engages in cutting-edge policy research, but Djerejian emphasized the importance of Rice’s undergraduates becoming more engaged with the think tank.“We call ourselves Rice University’s Baker Institute,” Djerejian said. “We have always wanted to gravitate toward being part of the education role of Rice with the student body. We just like to get students as fully engaged as possible. We have created this thing not just for the decision makers, but also for the students.”Rice students are involved with the Baker Institute through the Baker Institute Student Forum, internships with fellows and scholars, internships through the Jesse Jones Washington, D.C. intern program and as students in courses taught by Baker Institute fellows. In addition, this year, the Baker Institute will begin to offer a graduate Masters of Global Affairs, according to Djerejian.“The Institute has always been very supportive of us and always very supportive of students engaging with public policy,” Nathan Joo, president of the Baker Institute Student Forum, said. “[They] do a lot on student outreach and student support. They offer really great internships; they offer other great opportunities for students to do policy work ... [Fellows are] enthusiastic about meeting students.”

NEWS 2/3/15 2:07pm

Six-floor parking garage to be built on Lovett Lot within three years

By Amber Tong

A 500-spot, six-floor parking garage will be built on the Lovett Lot within three years, according to Student Association Parking Committee members Jazz Silva and Jacob Hernandez. The new parking garage offers a net gain of 350 spots over the current 150-spot Lovett Lot.The garage will benefit both faculty and students by providing more spots in a prime location, Silva, Sid Richardson College Senator, said.“The goal is to move parking toward the front of the campus,” Silva, a junior, said. “Because right now it’s pretty focused on the back, which is really inconvenient for faculty and staff — and also a lot of students. Greenbriar lot has 1,800 spots, and it’s only 32 percent full right now.”According to Silva and Hernandez, a Sid Richardson senior, the new garage is part of a plan to reorganize parking space on campus.“With the addition of the new tennis court, and possibly the opera house, we are just looking at a change in the distribution of parking,” Silva said. “Rice doesn’t have a shortage of parking spots; we just need to restructure the location and pricing of the spots.” According to Hernandez, the administration is in the design stage, and it is expected that most of the construction will be done in one summer, at most three years from now.“It’s a little bit more than just putting in a lot; you have to change the road by Lovett College, you have to widen the entrance, so there’s a couple logistical things that they have to do as well,” Hernandez said. “But I think the plan is to do it in just one summer.”Meanwhile, Silva said the Parking Committee is looking to recruit student consultants to work on restructuring the prices of each parking lot in a way that will be both convenient to students and economically viable for the parking office.“[The parking office is] actually in a deficit right now that they are slowly pulling themselves out of,” Silva said. “So whatever models students come up with [are] going to have to make economic sense.”Citing a previous unexecuted proposal of building a garage under the new tennis court as an example, Silva said discussion about adding parking spots has been going on for a few years, but this year the SA gave particular attention to the issue.“Parking has been an issue on campus for as long as I can remember,” Silva said. “But I’d say in the last year and a half it’s really taken off.”Hernandez said it is important for the student body to keep up the commitment to parking issues.“I think we may face a problem with lack of student involvement,” Hernandez said. “Since parking is an issue that crosses over year to year, the SA needs to make it a point for members to stay involved.  Without making parking an undergraduate priority, it could be overlooked in the future.” Silva said she is confident that as long as SA takes the lead to stay on top of parking issues, other stakeholders will also do their part to make things work for students.“The administration [wants] to help so long as it is a priority for the student body,” Silva said. “If there’s one message I think the students should know, it’s that everyone wants to help, and being optimistic is the best way to get things done.” 

NEWS 2/3/15 2:06pm

WRC publishes monthly magazine "Engender"

By Andrew Ligeralde

The Women’s Resource Center released the first issue of its new monthly publication, Engender magazine, last week. Referred to as a “zine,” Engender features original content such as personal reflections, music and movie reviews, surveys, research papers and original artwork. According to Editor-in-Chief June Deng, the content in current and future issues will represent a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives. “The goal of a lot of these articles is really broadening the definition of feminism and feminist issues so that it’s more inclusive,” Deng, a Duncan College senior, said. “We are emphasizing the fact that there’s more than one definition of feminism and you should identify with whichever one you feel comfortable in. That’s why we’re reaching out to a lot of different departments, hoping to get stuff from different majors, not just people involved with the [WRC].”The writing in Engender spans a variety of disciplines, including a study of changes in Rice’s campus architecture due to the university’s shifting demographics and a personal essay regarding the author’s experience in the class Gender and Transnational Asia (ASIA 452). The zine also features several pieces of artwork concerning the influence of pop culture in social view of gender.“There [aren’t] really hard and fast rules about what can and can’t go in,” Micaela Canales, a Will Rice junior and this month’s guest editor, said. “It’s not like only students can submit. We’re really interested in what’s coming out of the whole Rice community.”According to Canales, the zine originally began as a monthly newsletter for volunteers only. However, the coordinators saw the publication as an opportunity to inform the community about today’s gender-related issues.“Some people hear feminism and they get a negative emotion, or they think about historical things, like how the women’s rights movement took place a long time ago,” Canales said. “There are current movements happening right now that people are unaware of.”According to Canalaes, the goal of the magizine extends beond simply presenting the issues; the WRC seeks to promote involvement as well as an ongoing community discussion through the publication.“While one of the purposes of the magazine is to inform people, it also provides a platform to share their thoughts,” Canales said. “It was much more like, we were having these cool ideas — why not write them down and share them with other people?”As the publishers prepare to release the March issue, they are already planning to expand the zine’s circulation and further the discussion. According to Deng, the WRC is considering adding an online blog along with the print publication to make it more accessible. Canales said the coordinators also want to increase their funding to support future efforts. “This was published using funds that come out of the [WRC]’s operating budget,” Canales said. “Our account used to be under student activities, so now our account is under well-being. But this funding is limited, given the scope of things we want to do, so we’ve recently applied for Student Activities President’s Programming funds.” For now, however, the primary aim is raising awareness of the magazine, Canales said.“Let people know that it’s there,” Canales said. “That’s the goal this semester, to hopefully increase submissions.”The zine is now available for free at the Women’s Resource Center and online at issuu.com/ricewrc/docs/engender_2015feb_page

NEWS 2/3/15 2:05pm

Committee considers two-week spring break

By Isabella Bender Zevallos

After gathering student opinions regarding possible calendar modifications, the Committee considering the 2017 academic calendar now contains a subcommittee considering the possibility of a two-week-long spring break. President David Leebron first presented this idea at a Faculty Senate meeting in November.The Academic Calendar Committee, which consists of student representative Lovett College Senator Aishwarya Thakur and several faculty members, was appointed by the Faculty Senate in early November, according to Thakur, a sophomore. Initially, the committee was told to consider a two-week spring break, but was later told to consider one-week options in which Rice’s spring break would align with that of the Houston Independent School District. Thakur said she sought feedback from college senators, then  briefed the Student Association to include student feedback in the decision. Thakur said the general student feedback reflected a preference for starting on a full week in order to not shorten class time. The Committee reported its three options of calendars to the SA on Jan. 14. “I heard that people really like the midterm break we have in April, so if we did move to the 10th week, we would have to put a break in February around the fourth or fifth week to break up those 10 weeks,” Thakur said. “[The 2017 Spring Calendar Committee] decided that we would get rid of that April break and just have a two-day break in February and then move spring break to the tenth week, start on a Monday [and] end on a Friday.” According to Thakur, the Committee has decided on a calendar, based on student responses, to propose to the Faculty Senate, and the Committee made their suggestion to the Faculty Senate, although the vote was not unanimous. The Faculty Senate then recommended the Committee return to considering a two-week spring break. Thakur said an extended break could potentially allow for more frequent and extended learning experiences outside the classroom, including internships and Alternative Spring Breaks.“Would we just expand these programs?” Thakur said. “You could go on the service trips in week one and have a break in week two, or have a break in week one and go on a service trip in week two. Or we could have programs that run one and a half weeks or two weeks, such as international trips, which require more time.”Thakur said the Committee is considering the possibility of providing academic credit for programs completed during spring break as well. However, the Committee may not begin or end the calendar earlier.Professor of mathematics and Faculty Senator Michael Wolf said students should see the positive aspects of moving spring break.“Particularly, one should not imagine that the situation is we align these spring breaks at the cost of many other things,” Wolf said. “Unlocking spring break from where it is moored between two apparent chronological halves of the class schedule provides all sorts of opportunities beyond the lining of spring breaks.”Wolf said he hopes the calendar will be finalized by March, and the Committee recognizes that the decision is important to multiple groups at Rice.“It affects everyone, and [all affected feel] they’re an expert because they live it — and they are,” Wolf said. “[We must] take all of the effects of the calendar on student life, on pedagogy, on family life for the workers, and try to weigh each factor in terms of its importance and in terms of the importance of the mission. There is no formula for that, but we’re sincerely trying to do an honest job.”

NEWS 2/3/15 2:04pm

Blanket tax crack team finalizes proposal for ballot

By Jieya Wen

Jieya WenThresher StaffThe Blanket Tax Crack Team is currently collecting student signatures for a petition to bring the “pot of gold” blanket tax proposal to a vote, according to Nick Cornell, chair of the BTCT. The petition requires the signatures of 200 students, or 5 percent of the student body, to be included on the General Election ballot. The proposal requires a 20 percent referendum and two-thirds in favor to pass.Under the proposal, current blanket tax organizations would become subsidiary organizations. The estimated total blanket tax fee will be $85 per student, not including a $20 intramural fee. Subsidiary organizations would have their budgets approved by the standing committee and would not be allocated less than 75 percent of its budget from the previous year. Organizations could apply for further funds from the “pot of gold,” which would consist of unallocated funds. If funds are not used in their entirety, surplus above 125 percent would be returned to the pot of gold. “The biggest risk is we don’t have enough turnout at all,” Cornell, Sid Richardson College president, said. “The Crack Team will be visiting college government meetings to talk to students who want to know more or have questions about the system.”The BTCT presented details of the proposal at the SA meeting on Jan. 28, including the timeline of the blanket tax process, the composition of the blanket tax standing committee and ways to handle blanket tax surplus. “The standing committee is chaired by the SA treasurer, [who is a voting member,]” Cornell said. “The voting members [also include] two student members that are officers, treasurers or presidents of blanket tax organizations, two students in at large positions who are not officers of blanket tax organizations, a college president or senator and one staff advisor to a blanket tax organization. Two members of the committee are non-voting: a SA parliamentarian and the SA advisor, who advises on the process.”The standing committee would review subsidiary organizations’ budgets in April. Initiative funding applications will be available in late September for fall semesters and late February for spring semesters. On Jan. 21 and 22, the Crack Team held sessions to answer questions and gather feedback on the proposal. Cornell said students were interested in how new organizations could become a subsidiary organization under the new system. Under the current blanket tax system, organizations must petition through the General Election in order to gain more funding.“An organization can become a subsidiary organization without necessitating a funding increase,” Cornell, a senior, said. “Simultaneously, a funding increase can happen without adding any new organization or tying that funding increase to a specific organization. So, now the blanket tax funding serves student interests.”The Crack Team addressed how current blanket tax organizations would apply for more funding. Cornell said the standing committee can sign off on organizations’ requests for more money.“In the case that it’s a significant increase, they would meet with the standing committee to discuss [the budget],” Cornell said. “The committee’s job is to evaluate the proposed increase and how well it serves its missions and the mission of blanket tax, in line with Rice’s spending policies as well. So it’s not a competitive process.”Cornell said subsidiary organizations have priority on funds, and any other student organizations requiring funding for events can apply for funds from the remaining initiative fund. Julie Neisler, advisor of Rice Program Council, said RPC is excited about the new blanket tax proposal and is confident that RPC’s budget will receive full funding under the new blanket tax model. Neisler said RPC does not get enough funding under the current blanket tax process and that it is hard to convince students to vote for an increase in their blanket tax.According to Neisler, RPC requires extra funding beyond blanket tax in order to provide sufficient programming, but the proposed model will make funding requests easier for subsidiary organizations. “With the opportunity for additional funding, RPC would be able to bring back some programs that were cut, create new programs and not need to depend on Student Activities President’s Programming funding for late-night substance-free programming,” Neisler said.

NEWS 2/3/15 2:02pm

LGBTQA advocacy finds home in Queer Resource Center

By Isabella Bender Zevallos

After a kick-off party and first official meeting, the Queer Resource Center has been newly inaugurated at Rice University. The launching event was held on Jan. 29 and attendees included LGBTQA+ community members and allies from the undergraduate and graduate student bodies, as well as staff members.According to QRC co-founder Nick Hanson-Holtry, the event served as a thematic continuation of the Queer State of the Union event hosted by Queers and Allies,  which occurred the day before the inauguration. “The purpose of it was to get everybody on campus who [might not] usually come to events on campus to come out and give us input,” Hanson-Holtry, a Sid Richardson College junior, said. “We are a resource center and we want to be getting at what resources people care about and which ones they don’t.” To conclude the initial activities of the QRC, the QRC task force held its first official meeting on Feb. 3. Hanson-Holtry said the purpose of the meeting was to organize committees and allow any interested members to get involved — as facilitators to a committee or solely as members who contribute with their presence and opinions. Hanson-Holtry also said the QRC aims to work with as many diversity groups on campus as possible, but their closest relationship will most likely be with the Women’s Resource Center. While the QRC is officially located in an office in the Rice Memorial Center basement, members of the QRC will volunteer with the WRC in its more visible office. “The QRC has a three-pronged mission statement [including] activism, visibility and support,” Hanson-Holtry said. “Visibility is huge, and if we are underground, no one is going to see us, no one is going to know who we are. [But we will] start doing speaker events and start doing activism and more — and having a space is kind of a secondary concern.”Hanson-Holtry said the QRC is not a completely new initiative; another Queer Resource Center was founded about 15 years prior, but, upon merging with the current Queers and Allies group, eventually disappeared. Hanson-Holtry said the QRC aims to remain a part of Rice just as the WRC has in past years. “We wanted to make sure that queer activism [doesn’t] go away on campus,” Hanson-Holtry said. “Maybe four years from now Query will disappear, maybe four years from now Q&A will disappear, but we wanted to establish something more permanent.” Hanson-Holtry said the QRC will be sustained through direct oversight from both the Office of Student Wellbeing and the Office of Multicultural Affairs, who will provide them with $1,000 each year if they hold an annual event aimed at promoting diversity on campus. According to Hanson-Holtry, the $5,000 awarded to the QRC from the SA40k will be used to bring in speakers and host events that relate to activism, although the plans have not been completely finalized. Nonetheless, Hanson-Houltry said he is thankful for the support and reaction from the student body.“It’s amazing that the student body has supported us and given $5,000 and [been] on board with everything,” Hanson-Holtry said. “I think it’s really exciting, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the course of the next semester.”Duncan sophomore Maria Emilia Duno said the creation of the QRC impacts the discussion on queer issues on campus overall.“I think that because Rice is so progressive in so many ways, people assume that there aren’t still queer issues that need to be addressed,” Duno said. “This space gives people who need their voices heard a platform from which to speak.”

NEWS 1/31/15 8:48am

Deans discuss teaching and technology at Rice

By Mengjia Liu

At a lecture sponsored by Scientia on Jan. 27, Dean of Humanities Nicolas Shumway and Dean of Social Sciences Lyn Ragsdale discussed challenges faced by their respective schools and the impact of technology on teaching at Rice.According to Ragsdale, the School of Social Sciences faces the challenge of large class sizes due to the popularity of its majors.“We have over 200 psychology majors and almost 200 economics majors at Rice,” Ragsdale said. “The average class across the entire curriculum in economics has 43 people in it and almost 50 in psychology. In addition, our intro classes are sort of bursting at the seams with 700 students a year in Intro to Psychology [(PSYC 101)].”Ragsdale said the school considered offering its large introductory classes online when the first wave of Massive Open Online Courses began, but the idea did not take off because faculty members were not enthusiastic about videotaping and creating online versions of their courses.“The social sciences currently have two summer classes that are solely online, but they are teaching very small numbers of students — roughly between four and eight students per summer,” Ragsdale said.However, Ragsdale said the School of Social Sciences has adopted technology in other ways to facilitate active learning and to allow students to study human behavior more effectively.“While we haven’t done the online component in the last five or six years, we have a number of courses across departments that are either flipped classrooms or are classes that take place outside of a truly academic setting,” Ragsdale said. “There is also an opportunity to actually engage students based on the way in which they like to communicate, such as through Facebook.”Shumway said technology will impact the educational system and research by enabling access to information and new methods of assembling information in ways that were inconceivable before.“Looking at a dissertation in music history now, [using technology,] you can actually see the score, hear the music and parse out the parts all at the same place and at the same time,” Shumway said.According to Shumway, the vast amount of information made available by technology poses new challenges.“When we generate knowledge, the first thing we do is eliminate all the information we cannot possibly deal with,” Shumway said. “We have to interpret, eliminate and organize. Technology has made that task so much more complicated because we have so much more information available.”Lecture attendee Mackenzie Nettlow said she expected more discussion on specific uses of technology in the classroom rather than generalizations."I thought the lecture was interesting, but I expected them to focus more on the actual classroom than what people would study outside the classroom or in research areas,” Nettlow, a McMurtry College junior, said.

NEWS 1/28/15 3:12pm

Kinder Institute expands to campus-wide think tank on urban research, community engagement

By Aparna Narendrula

The Kinder Institute for Urban Research is currently in the process of transitioning from being a part of Rice University’s School of Social Sciences to being a multidisciplinary campus-wide think tank, like the Baker Institute, according to Director of the Kinder Institute Bill Fulton. The institute was founded four years ago by professors Stephen L. Klineberg and Michael O. Emerson of the department of sociology.“The Kinder Institute is designed to use the resources on the Rice campus to do research into urban issues [and] issues of cities, particularly Houston,” Fulton said. “[The institute] then finds ways to work with politicians, civic organizations, private business and so forth to try to take the solutions to those urban challenges out into the real world and try to implement them and see whether they work.”Currently located in Sewall Hall, the expansion involves collaboration with the School of Architecture and the departments of civil engineering and computer science, among other disciplines. Fulton said the Kinder Institute will now broaden its approach to solving urban issues in order to achieve more visibility and a wider-reaching practical impact.“Certain aspects of its [past research] have had a very important impact. Professor Klineberg’s survey … has had a very important impact helping people in Houston understand what the city really is today,” Fulton explains. “Thirty years ago Houston was almost entirely white; today it is 45 percent Latino. It’s very multi-ethnic. There are various issues associated particularly with educational attainment of non-whites, so the Houston area survey has highlighted that.”The survey quantifies Houston area residents’ attitudes and beliefs in response to changes in the area. The institute aims to share the information found from the annual survey with scholars, leaders and the public.In the past, the Kinder Institute also worked on projects such as the Houston Education Research Consortium, through which scholars work with the Houston Independent School District to help administrators understand the effect of their programming.Fulton said he hopes for a future of collaboration between Rice’s two think tanks. Allen Matusow, academic director of the Baker Institute, also serves on the advisory board of the Kinder Institute. According to Fulton, the Kinder Institute emphasizes quantitative research, unlike the Baker Institute, although future plans involve more policy analysis.“The Baker Institute, as you may know, focuses largely on national and international issues. But we are beginning to talk about what the overlap is,” Fulton said. “The Baker Institute does very good work on health policy, for example. We do work on urban health here, particularly health in the urban areas. And so we are currently trying to identify areas of collaboration [between] local city and metropolis [analysis and their] state national and international stuff, so there will be some overlap and we are trying to identify how we do that.”For now, the 4-year-old institute will remain housed primarily in the basement of Sewall Hall. Fulton is thinking about future research on education, health and strengthening the global cities program. Fulton said he is particularly interested in the growth of the Houston region.“Houston is going to take its place as one of America’s and the world’s greatest cities,” Fulton said. “I think Houston is highly underappreciated. It’s a big, complicated, sophisticated cosmopolitan city. Our job is to help everybody else in the U.S. understand that Houston is a big, important city, and that lots of really great ideas about how to improve city life and how to deal with urban problems can come out of a city like Houston in addition to a place like New York or LA.”

NEWS 1/28/15 3:10pm

'Green dorm' promotes students' roles in environmental sustainability

By Drew Keller

The Rice University EcoRep Program is preparing for the February launch of the Green Dorm Initiative 2015, its biggest annual event, with hopes of educating Rice students about environmentally sustainable living through a contest designed to increase interactivity compared to past years.The Rice EcoRep Program, which includes members of all residential colleges, implemented the first GDI in 2011 as a means of gathering more information about the environmental habits of the student body. This year, however, the GDI has expanded to include more of an emphasis on sharing information on sustainability with students, according to Head EcoRep Zach Bielak.“This year, the structure of the competition has changed massively,” Bielak, a Sid Richardson College senior, said. “We took a step back and re-examined the purpose of GDI, and we decided to make it more focused on teaching students new things every day and also getting them to carry it through in their daily lives.”GDI 2015 focuses on three themes: Energy and Water, Wellbeing, and Waste. Each theme lasts one week and includes specific daily activities to complete. Participants can win prizes based on their involvement with the program. Bielak said the activities are no longer simply based on recording energy and water usage. “We are not really concerned just with dorm life anymore,” Bielak said. “We are focused on greener lifestyles in general, lifestyles that reach beyond just living spaces. We have days that are focused on biking to places, on building community and on getting outside.”EcoRep Lindsy Pang, a Martel College junior, said the daily activities are designed to encourage sustainable practices without taking up much of students’ time.“Sustainable living is easy,” Pang said. “It is all about paying attention to what you do and creating new habits. They say it takes 21 days to develop a new habit. GDI helps with this by making the process educational, fun and interactive.”Bielak also said the GDI hopes to promote lifestyle changes, which would have a lasting impact beyond the three weeks of activities.“Our sole goal in hosting [GDI] is to get participants to start critically examining their lifestyles and behaviors and perhaps start to change them,” Bielak said. “There are so many irresponsible and wasteful actions that we commit every day without even thinking about it, and we [hope] that GDI will start shedding some light on these actions and issues.”Richard Johnson, the director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management, said the GDI has the potential to not only improve environmentally friendly practices at Rice, but also to inspire students to pursue sustainable research and careers.“I’ve not met a Rice student who isn’t interested in the betterment of the world,” Johnson said. “The GDI will give students an easy way that they can pursue this from an environmental perspective.”According to Bielak, the EcoReps’ goal is to have 500 students involved  in this year’s program, which would mark an increase from last year’s total number of participants. Students have until Jan. 31 to sign up for GDI online, after which the contests begin.“We believe that this year will be the best yet,” Bielak said. “I think the change of structure will get more people involved on a daily basis and will also retain the interest of people who have done GDI in the past by giving them new things to think about.”Johnson emphasized the collective nature of this year’s GDI as one of its most important attributes.“It will foster a shared culture of sustainability on campus,” Johnson said. “It’s not just an individual activity; it’s also a community activity, a shared experience.” Brown College freshman Radhika Sharma said the community aspect of the GDI drew her to the program.“What really appeals to me is the opportunity to participate in an activity with a bunch of friends and like-minded people who want to support environmental causes,” Sharma said. “[The GDI is] a chance to work for a common cause that is important to our collective values – sustainability [and] the environment.”

NEWS 1/28/15 3:09pm

FERPA records requests reveal little

By Drew Keller

Rice University students hoping to gain access to admissions records through a 40-year-old federal law may not find the revealing information they expect, according to Director of Admissions Dan Warner. A website started by Stanford University students, the Fountain Hopper, recently piqued interest in accessing admissions records by publicizing the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and urging Stanford students to request their records. This 1974 law, known as FERPA, allows students to request access to their admissions records at any university receiving federal funding, but has rarely been used for this purpose historically. Warner said he had not received any FERPA requests at Rice until the Fountain Hopper published its article; since then, the admissions office has received around a dozen.“The law has been in place for 40 years,” Warner said. “I’ve been in admissions for 25 years, and it’s been 20 years since I’ve gotten a FERPA request at any of the schools where I’ve worked. So it’s not a usual thing.”By law, the university has 45 days after a request to comply and provide the students with their records. The information provided depends on the department from which it is requested; for example, a student would receive different information from the registrar’s office or the admissions office.“Different offices retain different information at the same institution, and the same office might retain different information at different institutions,” Warner said. “We might, for example, keep different information on file permanently [from] Stanford.”According to Warner, the admissions office does not keep most of the records used during the consideration process, including teacher recommendations, internal notes and almost all material authored by the student.“It’s interesting for students to exercise  [their FERPA] rights,” Warner said. “Frankly, it’s a nice professional development opportunity for my staff – but at the same time, there’s not a whole lot of information of the nature I suspect students are wanting.”Warner said the admissions office does keep demographic information such as name and address, as well as test scores, while the registrar’s office also retains students’ high school transcripts and test scores. Additionally, the admissions office keeps records of messages sent out to prospective students, including whether messages have been opened by students, according to Warner.“We can do some analysis on how many messages were opened, how many students actually came, so we can assess the efficacy of different messages and our process,” Warner said.Warner also said the office keeps certain pieces of information about matriculated students to generate a profile of the incoming class for publicity, with information such as the number of class presidents or students involved in community service.“We aggregate that information,” Warner said. “[But] there’s really not any need for [most records]. Once a student is admitted and matriculating to Rice, we don’t have a need to keep [the information].”According to Warner, students wishing to see records must submit a request to a particular office. The admissions office is developing a process to provide information to students. “We’re not going to get 1,000 requests like Stanford has gotten, but we obviously want to facilitate multiple requests,” Warner said. Under the new system, Warner said the admissions office would likely schedule appointments during which they would show students their electronic records. However, the office is not required to and will not provide a hard copy, partially to protect the proprietary software used to organize student information. According to Warner, students who made information requests should receive a response from the admissions office detailing next steps sometime in the coming week.Warner said the increased attention to FERPA requests will not have any effect on the practices of the admissions office in the future.“We’re still going to ask for the same information we asked for in the past,” Warner said. “Every year we try to improve on what we do but it’s largely going to be the same.”

NEWS 1/28/15 3:08pm

Class size growth prompts concerns

By Jieya Wen

The size of Rice University’s student body has increased by 36 percent over the last 12 years as called for by President David Leebron’s Vision for the Second Century; however, the growth has prompted some students and faculty to express concerns about class sizes. According to Leebron and Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson, the administration has addressed this by hiring more faculty and looking further into optimal class sizes.

NEWS 1/28/15 3:06pm

SA revamps election timeline, voting

By Amber Tong

The 2015 General Elections have officially begun and according to Director of Elections Austin Cao, they will be conducted through an improved version of Owlection, a program that contributed to the partial invalidation of last year’s elections.Positions to be contested are the Student Association Executive Board and Blanket Tax organization leadership, including Rice Student Volunteer Program, Honor Council, University Court, Rice Program Council, Campanile, Thresher, KTRU, RTV and Sammy the Owl.In the first-round elections of 2014, two candidates, Lovett College junior Min Ji Kim and McMurtry College senior Trent Navran ran for the SA presidency. Navran gained the most votes in the election, but it was found that a loophole in the Owlection system permitted alumni to vote. “Last year in the first round of elections, we allowed all Rice students who had a NetID to vote in the general elections,” Cao, a Hanszen College freshman, said. “We discovered last year that there were alumni who voted, so we had to redo the elections.”Two SA senators filed a petition to contest the results, citing this issue as one of their four claims. University Court acknowledged the validity of two of the four filed complaints and partially invalidated the outcome of the presidential election. Consequently, a re-run of the entire elections was held via Qualtrics as opposed to Owlection. Ravi Sheth, the current SA President, ran as a write-in candidate in this second round and won; Ravi then appointed Navran as the SA executive vice president. In addition, three candidates began running for the position of SA internal vice president in the second round, when none had run in the first round; Hanszen College sophomore Sai Chilakapati won the position. The election re-run also saw a greater turnout than in the first time it was held, although several candidates were afraid a 20 percent quorum would not be reached. In light of the invalidation of first-round elections results last year, Cao said this loophole has been corrected.According to Cao, the Election Committee will again utilize Owlection, a webapp developed by Rice Apps, in the voting process. Cao said Owlection now has built-in functionalities that will restrict the pool of eligible voters to the currently enrollwed undergraduate population.“Our solution now is to get a list of all the current undergraduates from the Registrar first,” Cao said. “We’re now able to limit voting to that specified list of Rice undergraduates.”According to Cao, this year marks the beginning of a move toward the full adoption of Owlections, which shows support of Rice student initiatives.“In terms of the voting system itself, we don’t want to rely on third-party software anymore,” Cao said. “We want to continue using Owlections, which was created by Rice students, and continue to support them and help them make it more stable.”In addition, Cao said a webapp is currently under development so that, in the near future, candidates may turn in electronic rather than paper copies of their petitions. According to Cao, online submission could potentially become available in time for the second-round elections.“Our Director of Technology, Xilin Liu, has been developing a webapp for submitting petitions,” Cao said. “That way we can guarantee that people are getting the right number of signatures, that there aren’t repeats and that petitions don’t get lost in the process of turning them in.”Along with its decision to invalidate first-round election results, in a letter written last year, UCourt also emphasized the importance of publicizing meetings held by the Election Committee. Two of the petition statements that were not validated by UCourt were concerned with Cao said the Election Committee will remain transparent throughout the process.“All of our meetings are open to the public,” Cao said. “We’ll announce it on the SA website. [If anyone] wants to come join … they can definitely stop by.” 

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