Special Projects

Event to encourage health

The Wellness Center is holding a month-long event this February called "Love Your Body Month," which focuses on promoting a healthy body image. LYBM is a campus-wide campaign that will be an education and outreach program aimed at increasing awareness of healthy body image around campus. Wellness Center intern Sherry Lin and Dietician Maria Tsakalis are coordinating LYBM events. The events center around educating students about healthy eating habits.

Meet the new RAs

Sid Richardson College and Martel College welcomed new residential associates this semester. The Thresher sat down with them to discuss traditions, buildings, historical figures, expectations and their favorite types of rice.

Musical revival a fresh, new take on old classic

Inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story is a modern version of the romantic tragedy and has been a popular musical since its first production in 1957. Although the current production of West Side Story is the second revival of the original musical, it is definitely the best so far and is a musical must-see.Opening on the streets of New York City in the 1950s, West Side Story focuses on the rivalry between two gangs - the Jets and the Sharks. The Jets, a rebellious group of light-skinned teenage boys, do not like the idea of sharing their territory with any new gang, especially not the Sharks, a group of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans. Problems arise when one of the Shark girls, Maria, falls in love with a loyal Jet, Tony. Like Romeo and Juliet, Maria and Tony are natural-born enemies sharing a forbidden love.

New Decemberists album mellow, country

Originally from Portland, Ore., the Decemberists released their first full-length album, Castaways and Cutouts, on independent label Hush in 2002. Now the Decemberists are signed to Capitol Records and are more popular than ever: Their previous album, The Hazards of Love (a rock opera of sorts), reached number 14 on the Billboard top 200. Their newest album, The King Is Dead, was released on Jan. 18 and is a mellow follow-up to The Hazards of Love.The Decemberists certainly like to keep an element of whimsy to their appearance, citing Orangina as the band's official drink and claiming that they travel exclusively by "Dr. Herring's Brand Dirigible Balloons." This eccentricity carries over into their lyrics, which tend to be imaginative and poetic, though they have been criticized for being too aesthetic, conceptual and intellectual (nerdy) to the point of pretension. Even though The King is Dead still has references to obscure historical figures of the Gilded Age (in "Calamity Song"), the Decemberists have majorly simplified their vocabulary from their past albums, a change that gives the album a relaxing vibe.

Netflix CEO advises ending elected school boards

Replace elected school boards with school boards that select their own members. That was the recommendation Reed Hastings, CEO and chairman of Netflix and former president of the California State Board of Education, brought to Rice Wednesday night for improving K-12 education.Hastings, who came to Rice as part of a lecture series presented by the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program and the Knowledge Is Power Program, presented his thesis before he was joined onstage by Houston Independent School District Superintendent Terry Grier.

Relish:NYC food like Houston's but with more expensive Mexican food

And so we decided to embark on a journey to the urban cesspool that is New York City. After a three-day car ride with brief stops in Arkansas, the Maker's Mark distillery in Tennessee, and West Virginia (where bars are open until 3 a.m.!), we arrived in glorious Chatham, New Jersey. Chatham was certainly the coolest place ever, but this is a column about New York City, so Chatham will have to wait until another day. Full disclosure: We were only in New York for two days, so we totally know absolutely everything about it. Our editor says that in order to make this relevant, we need to compare New York to Houston, so we'll provide y'all with a handy Texas analogue to each restaurant we visited.

Swimming takes out UNT at home

John Wooden, considered to be one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time, said, "Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character." And character, indeed, was what the Owls displayed in their last home meet of the season, winning all 14 events to bring down the house, 168-97, against the University of North Texas last Friday. The Mean Green came into the meet ranked 12th nationally by CollegeSwimming.com/CSCAA Division I mid-majors poll, so Rice, unranked, had its work cut out to pull off the upset. Looking to avenge last year's defeat, the Owls came out strong, taking the 200-yard medley relay by a solid two seconds. It was the first of a slew of Rice season-bests, with junior Nicole Delaloye winning the 1,000-freestyle (10:22.29), and senior Ashten Ackerman taking the 200-yard butterfly (2:06.77) and 200-breaststroke (2:24.28) in the last home meet of her career.

Letters to the Editor

To the editor:After reading last week's staff editorial on GSA involvement in college sports ("GSA not a residential college") the GSA officers have decided to issue this response. In the online comments there are already several corrections and counterarguments to the poorly researched claim of competitive advantage. Since these points have already been made, there is not much reason to repeat them here, but what does need to be addressed is the narrow viewpoint displayed in this editorial. Just like undergraduates, GSA members are Rice University students, part of Ricew's "student body." This inclusivity has been encouraged in recent years by the GSA's efforts alongside the SA to improve graduate-undergraduate relations. This includes graduate mentoring for undergraduates, and the recent and very successful Research Mixer. Unfortunately, last week's editorial does not carry the same sentiment. It plainly takes the opposite viewpoint, stating that graduate students should not participate in college sports and other on-campus recreational activities like Beer Bike and powderpuff. For grads, as for undergrads, these activities are a respite from class and research that provide a social opportunity with other students. Close friendships are made through GSA sports. Also, engagement in such activities is not uniquely a "college experience." Employees at companies of comparable size to Rice University nearly always have opportunities for competitive recreational activities available to them, even though they are no longer in college. We strongly oppose removing the GSA from sports and recreational activities. It would not only go against the inclusive nature of the campus community, but also take away recreational opportunities for graduate students. Nonetheless, we remain committed to efforts aimed at improving graduate-undergraduate relations and increasing interactions between graduate and undergraduate students, including friendly and fair competition. Graduate students are here, after all, for reasons other than raising Rice's national profile. We are willing to both listen to and participate in discussions with sports representatives on ways to improve the fairness and competitiveness of the aforementioned sports. ?

Freshman and throwers shine for men's track

After the men's track team walked off the Yeoman Fieldhouse track, it was clear they were going to have to look for a few silver linings among the clouds of their overall team placing. While Rice fielded an incomplete team at the Leonard Hilton Invitational at the University of Houston that did not feature any middle or long-distance runners, Head Coach Jon Warren (Jones '88) saw need for improvement after Friday's events that left Rice with 25 points and a ninth-place finish."We had some good efforts from everyone, but we've got our work cut out for us," Warren said. "We need to see if we can get those times down and the jumps up by next weekend."

Photo: Remembering Martin Luther King

Students and other Rice community members at the Rice Memorial Center Chapel participate in a Martin Luther King Day vigil organized by the Black Student Association.

Five student projects receive Dr. Bill grants

In late November, five student-led projects received funding from the Dr. Bill Wilson Student Initiative Grant. The fund backs student-initiated projects that work to improve the quality of student life as the grant's namesake, electrical and computer engineering professor Bill Wilson, suggested at the fund's creation.Wilson was a Wiess College resident associate for 28 years. The grant was established in 1999 by Wiess alumni to honor Wilson in his 20th year as an RA. The grant had its first recipients in 2000 and has continued supporting student- initiated projects ever since.

Tennis notebook: Men's tennis sweeps Lamar and Prairie View A&M, Women's tennis puts away Islanders easily

Men's tennis sweeps Lamar and Prairie View A&M

Men's conference woes continue in El Paso

The men's basketball team needed less than half of the 2010-2011 season to reach its win total from last year. But if improvement is measured strictly in wins for the Rice program, its progress has come to a screeching halt thus far in Conference USA play. The Owls fell to the University of Texas-El Paso, 66-43, in El Paso last Saturday due to a sluggish second half beleaguered by poor offensive execution. The team fell to 8-10 on the season and 0-4 in C-USA play.

CEO's support remarkable

The Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program and the Knowledge Is Power Program recently wooed Reed Hastings to speak at the university (see story, page 4). This high-profile speaker is the current CEO of Netflix and ex-president of the California Board of Education. The Thresher would like to commend the program on successfully acquiring a speaker of such high caliber.Hastings spoke from his background on education with fervent support for the charter school system. Rice, of course is vested in the charter school system because of its proximity to the first KIPP schools - one of the main models for the efficiency and success in the charter school system. Furthermore, Rice's selection of Work Hard, Be Nice as the university O-Week novel further ties Rice to this issue of charter education. Thus the selection of Hastings to speak on campus was particularly impressive; the topic of his speech was particularly relevant to students, and it was a privilege for those interested to hear from an expert in the field.

Rice University alcohol policy review: spring 2011

The Rice University alcohol policy and the future of its enforcement seems to be in question after a semester of unparalleled alcohol abuse this past fall. Something needs to be done, and ultimately it falls on everyone from students to staff to get together and act appropriately. Drastic action could jeopardize the essence of this university, but lack of response by students and administrators could result in unprecedented tragedy. This is the time to take notice, react and respond to a university issue that has the rare distinction of being universally relevant. This series of letters represents the collectivity of the burden and the numerous components that this crisis entails.

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Recent RUPD activity should be exceptions of the past, not future precedent

Everyone may have a different reaction when someone yells "Cops!" at a party. Some may run (not recommended, you will just go to jail tired), some may hide ?and some may not be in a state to take any action. However, the common ground is that everybody knows the police are present. This was not the case around 3 or 4 a.m. on Jan 15. At Duncan College, RUPD officers entered two suites completely unannounced and confiscated any and all alcohol. Admittedly, one of these suites is occupied by underage students, but there are 21-year-old students in the other. There were also rumors of similar incidents at other colleges ?that night. This is cause for concern for several reasons. During O-Week, I specifically remember an RUPD officer telling a room full of new students that they would not be going into rooms in the above manner. Of course, this incident did not start by the police simply patrolling the halls everywhere. The reason for RUPD's presence at Duncan was due to two alcohol-related EMS calls. The suites that were raided were in no way involved with the alcohol consumed that led to these calls. The manner is also troublesome. More so, however, is that this action was provoked by EMS calls. We know that the person who calls EMS does not get in trouble, and that is why he or she does not hesitate. But if he or she fears that his or her friends down the hall may be reprimanded, then an element of hesitation arises. Action by the police should never derive from a call to EMS. What Rice needs is a good faith contract between RUPD and the student body that will always be upheld.

Burn Season of the Witch

Every job involves perils, and when I took up the noble calling of reviewing movies for our fine newspaper, I knew the danger I would be facing. I knew that carefully crafting articles would take my precious time, that inferior movies would test my already stretched patience and that deadline-focused editors would push me ever closer to the brink of insanity. Yet I never foresaw that a movie would seriously and forever damage my intelligence. After bearing witness to Season of the Witch, a veritable war crime on good taste and cinema in general, I now fear that my GPA will suffer because my brain's cerebral cortex has shrunk after being exposed to pure idiocy (and as Rice students, we all know that our grades define not only our futures but our very souls).

Beyond The Hedges

National

Booze forum successful

The Jan. 20 "Booze Talk" forum regarding the future of Rice's alcohol policy was, simply put, the epitome of what makes Rice such an enduring community (see story, page 1). The discussion provided a comfortable venue for students to voice concerns and suggestions about the issues at hand. The outstandingly attended intimate gathering brought together students, student leaders and administrators in an absolute testament to Rice's culture of involvement and unity.Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson led a panel that included representatives from REMS, Socials Committees, chief justices and Judicial Affairs. The forum was established to ensure student input in the important issue of alcohol policy. This commitment to administration-student communication has been advocated by the Thresher in the past, and we would like to acknowledge the administration's distinct attempt to include the students and encourage similar discussion in the future.