Houston Mayor Annise Parker gave a speech followed by a question and answer session at the undergraduate history majors dinner Wednesday. Parker discussed the future of Houston, her experiences at Rice, her vision for the city and what makes Houston unique. Questions ranged from challenges posed by the new healthcare bill, to education, to what Parker does to relax.
We've survived it. "The Decade from Hell," as Time called it. The 2000s - or Aughts, or Double-O's, or whatever you want to call them - were not for the faint of heart. Sparkling towers felled by manned missiles; a pair of wars foisted with thought to neither fiscal or physical costs; a hurricane turning America's soul, New Orleans, into a watery, ransacked shell. No, it wasn't for the faint. And it sure as hell took long enough.
In 1998, China's Ministry of Public Security initiated the Golden Shield Project, which blocks access to information deemed subversive, including some foreign news and pornography. In 2006, Google agreed to censor keywords deemed inappropriate by the People's Republic of China. This was an agreement to internally monitor content: A department of Google would constantly discover what was being blocked by the Golden Shield, and consequently censor those results for Google China.
The past two weeks have been extremely busy for the 42nd-ranked women's tennis team. Playing four matches against tough opponents and going 2-2, the team is entering the final stretch before conference championships, and wear-and-tear is beginning to show. In the team's last four matches, they faced Ohio State University, University of South Florida, Virginia Commonwealth University and Louisiana Lafayette University. For their first of the four matches, the team faced No. 30 Ohio State (14- 4) on March 27. After playing a close match with them last year and losing, Rice hoped they could change the result this time around. Unfortunately, history was doomed to repeat itself, and the women lost 4-3.
Although Rice lauds its international emphasis, in both its students and fields of study, the university just got a little less worldly with the decision to cut the doctoral track in the French Studies Department (see story, page 5). The death of this program, the result of university budget cuts, marks the end of the line for graduate programs in language study.Although we understand that the small size of the French graduate program makes it a predictable target for required budget cuts, this decision is the latest in a longterm university pattern that is disappointing and unworthy of the status the university seeks to maintain.
The Thresher is retracting the usage of the word "fraud" in the March 19 article "Annual Fund monies fraud," following the decision by Vice President for Resource Development Darrow Zeidenstein to send a letter to Martel College parents and alumni explaining the unintentionally misleading machine-generated signature that appeared on a letter previously sent by the Annual Fund in Martel President Sean McBeath's name. The Thresher regrets any mischaracterization that may have occurred.
Just as spring turns, just as the baseball team revamps, so too does the men's tennis team. Two weeks ago, the season was in the dumps. But with a 5-2 thumping of then-No. 58 Texas Christian University March 27 and a to-the-limit 4-3 loss against No. 12 Texas A&M University four days later, the season now appears a bit rosier for the 42nd-ranked Owls (10-9). The turnaround took long enough to arrive, but it's not easy to see just what caused it. The team's losses have almost all been handy, with very few of the 4-3 heartbreakers the team ran into in 2009. And while there is a prominent number of underclassmen, with sophomores generally comprising two-thirds of the singles starting lineup, all of them gained hefty experience in their first-year campaigns. The team was simply sputtering, underperforming, losing one too many tiebreakers, double-faults and set points.
In order to ensure that any budget cuts required in the future are made with attention to students' opinions, the Student Association has established a Budget Planning Committee to represent student interests in budgetary issues to the Dean of Undergraduates and the Office of Finance (see story, page 1). This step, if properly enacted, will promote a financial system that works with, rather than against, the student body and produces outcomes that, if not optimal, are at least mutually agreed to be the best options under the circumstances.The SA has decided to limit the committee to six student members. While this small size will allow the program to be more efficient, it also risks reducing the influence of the committee into obscurity. Such an advocacy organization can only succeed if it truly voices the opinions of all it represents.
As a result of university-wide budget cuts, masters and doctoral degrees in French studies will no longer be offered for incoming graduate students, effective next semester. The decision was made last semester by Provost Eugene Levy. With this decision, the University of Texas-Austin will be the only university in Texas to still have doctoral program in French studies. Additionally, the end of the French studies masters and doctoral programs marks the end of the only remaining graduate foreign language programs at Rice. Graduate students in all departments are free to take undergraduate language classes, however.
Prospective Owls will flock to campus on April 15-16 for Owl Days. At least 600 prospective students - up from 450 last year - and their parents will arrive on the Rice campus to experience a taste of what they can look forward to for the next four years if they accept Rice's offer of admission. Student Admission Council Event Volunteer Recruitment Chair Wharton Wang said events held Thursday - such as a Club and Activities Fair, workshops about studying abroad in college, academic panels, facility tours and college mixers - will be geared toward prospective students. The Rice Philharmonics and Rice's improv comedy troupe, Spontaneous Combustion, will also be performing.
The stories of My First Time range from romantic to funny to painful to absurd, as eight actors on a bare stage recount others' tales of the first time they bared it all. With anecdotes gathered from the Web site www.myfirsttime.com, the play showcases multiple perspectives on virginity and delivers the message that no matter how your first time worked out, never fear, for there will be many, many other chances to get it right. Co-directed by Wiess College sophomore Matt Banks and Lovett College senior Sarah Lyons, the off-Broadway show is appearing at Rice for a second consecutive year, and it reveals a significant maturity in this run. The onstage monologues are supported by a multimedia display, which provides statistics and celebrity quotes about their own initiations. While most of the stories are scripted, the audience is encouraged to get involved by filling out an anonymous survey that is then given to the actors. As a result, there's a chance your first time will be part of the act.
The Student Association is forming a Budget Planning Committee to make sure students have a voice in the fiscal process and to ensure highly valued programs stay despite budget cuts. According to its charter, passed at the March 22 SA meeting, the Budget Planning Committee is charged with "representing the interests of the student body to the Dean of Undergraduates and the Office of Finances on matters having to do with departmental budget planning."
The Student Association put faith in its most recent poll, which opened March 8 and surveyed students about perceptions concerning the availability of spiritual resources on campus.Fifty percent of the poll's 250 respondents said they felt spiritual resources at Rice were sufficient, and 40 percent said that they had no problems fulfilling their spiritual needs. However, 80 percent said they would like more online resources available. Currently, there is a database of books and Web sites students can refer to for guidance, but SA Internal Vice President Selim Sheikh said he would like to see these resources expanded.
Beer Bike was not the only sporting event that fell victim to last weekend's torrential downpours. Last Saturday's events at the Texas Southern Relays were canceled due to inclement weather, leaving many of the members of the men's track team still searching for their first chance at outdoor track-and-field action of the season. Despite this misfortune, the Owls still competed in the first day of events Friday and put up strong marks in the shot put, hammer throw and 400-meter hurdles.
On Tuesday, with the strokes of 22 different pens, President Obama signed into action the Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act in tow. In an era characterized by issues with global implications that can only be solved by the concerted efforts of the world's governments, the passage of this legislation has demonstrated the ill effects of a breakdown of consensus within government, with the winning Democrats resorting to forcing through their desired changes, and the opposing Republicans steadfastly declaring that they will continue to "just say no." The conservative voter base has been whipped into a blind rage by political pundits; liberals seem able only to wring their hands and hope for the best.
