Special Projects

Volleyball picks up win to close out season

Returning to the Tudor Fieldhouse floor after a halftime intermission, the volleyball team was staring at the possibility of ending their season on a low note. The team had lost its previous two matches at the University of Tulsa (30-2, 20-0 C-USA) 3-0 and a heartbreaker at Southern Methodist University (25-6, 17-3 C-USA) 3-2. The Owls were down 2-0 at home against the University of Houston (19-13, 13-7 C-USA) on senior night and were on the verge of falling into a three-way tie for fifth place in Conference USA. Rice's star senior setter Meredith Schamun had to leave the game in the second set because she was feeling ill. In short, everything was going wrong for Rice. However, the Owls would not let their season end so quietly. After Houston won the first two sets 25-18 and 25-23, Rice fought back, winning the next two sets 25-21 and 25-19 to push this intense match to an all-deciding fifth set. The Cougars were not done fighting either, but their effort was not enough, as Rice edged them out in the fifth set 16-14 to win the match 3-2. It was a season sweep for the Owls, as they had also defeated the Cougars 3-0 in their first C-USA match of the season.

Last week's online poll results

Beyond The Hedges

National

A brief look at the history of Coffeehouse

April 29, 1967: Coffeehouse's predecessor, Hanszen Coffeehouse, opens. Later known as Breadsticks and Pomegranates, the coffeehouse operates in Hanszen's basement but later closes due to flooding. Dec. 3, 1990: Rice Coffeehouse officially opens, serving coffee temporarily in the RMC courtyard and Sammy's PDR.

Clubs may lose space

Due to rules regarding the use of available office spaces in the Student Center, student organizations RTV5 and the Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice are at risk of losing their spaces in the spring because they do not fulfill the required minimum 10 hours of office hours each week.Every club with space in the Student Center is required to hold at least 10 office hours per week, with at least one officer present during that time. Director of the Student Center Boyd Beckwith said that at the last Student Center Advisory Council meeting Nov. 8, it was discovered that RTV5 and HACER are having trouble getting their requirement of 10 hours per week. Beckwith said that these two organizations have been notified that they need to increase their office hours or they will risk losing their space in the spring. They will be invited to the next council meeting if they wish to explain why they cannot meet the 10-hour requirement.

Study break planned

The President and Dean's OWL-KART Study Break will take place this Sunday from 9 to 11 p.m. Featuring a Mario Kart theme, the biannual study break is organized by Rice Program Council, Rice Cyber Sports and Rice Annual Fund Student Initiative. Director of the Student Center and Campus-Wide Programs Boyd Beckwith said the turnout is expected to be around 1,000.The study break is a long-running tradition at Rice, with one at the end of each semester. Beckwith said it was running before he came to Rice in 1988. This year, the event's budget was cut by 50 percent because of cuts to the dean of undergraduate's budget. Last year's budget was $19,000 for both the fall and spring study breaks - $9,500 for the fall break alone, RPC Treasurer Mia Velasquez said. This year, the budget for both the fall and spring study breaks is $9,500; however, RPC gathered funds to keep the budget as close to last year's as possible.

Saudi Prince on energy policy

Saudi Arabian Prince Turki Al-Faisal paid a visit to the Baker Institute on Nov. 11 and spoke about Saudi Arabian energy policy as part of the institute's Shell Distinguished Lecture Series.Al-Faisal's speech, titled "A Pillar of Global Stability: Saudi Arabia's Petroleum Policy," was about Saudi Arabia's role as a major oil producer and as a key figure on the world energy stage.

Volleyball swept by Marshall, takes out ECU

It was an up-and-down weekend for the volleyball team, as they finally ended their three-game home losing streak by defeating East Carolina University (1-27, 0-16 C-USA) 3-1 on Saturday, but not before they were handed a deflating 3-0 loss by Marshall University (10- 18, 4-12 C-USA) on Friday. Against Marshall, the Owls could never quite gain momentum; every time it seemed like they were going to catch up, the Thundering Herd pulled away to take the lead and eventually take the set. Rice fell to Marshall in straight sets in one of their worst home losses of the season, 25-21, 25-23, 25-21. For the match, senior middle blocker Nancy Cole had 18 kills, while junior outside hitter Jordan Meredith had 12. Senior setter Meredith Schamun led the team with 22 assists and senior libero Tracey Lam had 12.

Errata

Last week, the Thresher stated that Sally Ride was the first woman in space ("Rice hosts yearly Sally Ride Science Festival"). Ride was the first American woman in space. The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova.In last week's photo accompanying the article "Students buy eco-friendly surrey bike for trial run," Lovett senior Alicia Hernandez was incorrectly identified as Carrie Boland.

Last week's online poll results

Parade Proposal Strong

As we prepare for Beer Bike 2011, it would be simply imprudent to ignore the lessons of past Beer Bikes. In order to assure the continued success of our most beloved tradition, it must evolve in some capacity.One of the growing problems that Beer Bike coordinators face is the increasing difficulty to acquire rental trucks for the parade. Local establishments have grown wiser in past years, realizing that their property faces great liability when rented to drunk college students holding a 4,000-person water balloon fight. Furthermore, the mixture of trucks and drunk students is a less than palatable combination from a safety perspective. While any major injuries have yet to occur as a result of the trucks on the route, one has to assume that it is only a matter of time.

Open records requests unveil how KTRU sale was kept under wraps

Last week, KTRU and investigative reporting blog Texas Watchdog each released the documents they received from their separate open records requests to the University of Houston regarding the sale of KTRU's broadcast tower, FM frequency and operating license to UH. As a public institution, UH was obligated to comply with these requests and provide the relevant correspondence, but Rice, a private university, is not bound by public information laws and would not be required to fulfill such a request if it were made of them. The 667 scanned images of printed emails between Rice and UH revealed how both parties sought to keep details of the deal from reaching the public for as long as possible.President David Leebron announced news of the sale in an email to students, faculty and alumni on Aug. 17. In an interview with the Thresher that week, Leebron elaborated on the necessity of not releasing information of the sale earlier.

Q&A with McLendon

George McLendon, Rice's new provost, sat down with the Thresher to talk about his past, the current state of affairs and his plans for the future.McLendon came to Rice after serving as the Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University. He is a well-known researcher, entrepreneur and administrator and comes to Rice as a native of Texas.

Graphic: University president annual compensation comparison

Men's basketball torches undersized opponents

The scene inside Tudor Fieldhouse last Friday evening was a memorable one for the men's basketball team. With a strong student turnout and a surprisingly potent section of hostile University of St. Thomas fans in attendance for the season opener, the stage was set for a team looking to build around a young nucleus and improve on last season's disappointing 8-23 season. But for Head Coach Ben Braun's squad, the first 20 minutes against their National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics foes were a half of basketball to forget. Sophomore forward Arsalan Kazemi picked up two fouls in the game's first three minutes and was forced to go to the bench for the majority of the first half. Both teams started off the game cold from the field, as St. Thomas led 3-0 at the first media timeout five minutes into the game. Rice did not make a field goal until the first six minutes of the game had passed, overcoming an 0-9 start from the field with strong defense and excellent rebounding to keep the game close. Facing an extremely undersized St. Thomas squad, the Owls settled for jumpers in the game's early minutes rather than utilizing their conspicuous size advantage in the post. Rice pulled ahead 17-9 following a three-point play from senior center Trey Stanton, but St. Thomas kept the game close early by getting hot from the three-point line.

Computer Science curriculum change

The Computer Science Department announced its new curriculum that will officially take effect for the class of 2015. Major changes in the new curriculum include a new introductory course sequence, removal of the previously required discrete math course and more consistency in programming languages taught.Computer Science Department Chair Joe Warren said the success of COMP 140 following its introduction three years ago motivated the change in curriculum. Rather than only focusing on learning a programming language, COMP 140 provides more hands-on problems, such as music processing and network analysis on Facebook, as initiatives to building programming techniques.

Women's cross country books ticket to nationals

In her four years of cross country competition, senior Nicole Mericle has had her fair share of successes, but this past weekend, she cemented her place among the best of the best in the history of the sport at Rice, winning her second South Central Regional championship meet by finishing in 20:16 minutes. Mericle is the only Owl to ever win the meet, much less win it twice in her career. Her first Regional championship title came in 2008.

Graphic: Rice University expenditures vs. revenues

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Weekend servery schedule to change

Beginning next semester, the weekend schedules for each of the serveries will be reconfigured following the opening of East Servery. South and West Serveries will be closed all day on Saturdays, while the Baker and Sid Richardson Serveries will be closed on Sundays.In order to alleviate the pressure on South to feed most of the population of the south residential colleges, the individual serveries of Baker College and Sid Richardson College have been open on Sundays this semester. According to Director of Residential Dining David McDonald, without these additional serveries available, South would have been over its capacity. This was a one-semester anomaly, however, and will no longer occur once East opens.