As the Beer Bike coordinators prepare for the 50-day countdown to Beer Bike on Jan. 29, they are also proposing significant changes to the parade and security system and have reached a final decision about accommodating Duncan College and McMurtry College in the races this year. New track will wait
It is one thing to have your work read on your own campus, but one Rice student recently found her work read on campuses across the nation. Cintia Roman, a Lovett College sophomore, had her short story, "Birthday in Ecuador," published in the fall 2009 issue of The Collegiate Scholar, which is produced by The National Society of Collegiate Scholars.The Collegiate Scholar, NSCS's online literary magazine, is published once at the end of every semester and features poems, short stories, essays, journalism, art and photographic pieces. All members of the society may submit work, Janine Deegan, the Outreach and Communications Coordinator for NSCS, said.
It's the start of the second semester at Rice. This means a last-minute scramble for books and classes as Owls gear up for another academic term at one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the nation. But before getting back into the hustle and bustle of school life, this is a good time to reflect on what was, for many, their first semester at Rice.Reactions can vary depending on the student, and answers encompass everything from relief at still being alive and functioning, to the expression of boundless joy that radiates with the warmth of the Houston sun.
In keeping with its recent efforts to go green, the university has also attempted to stay in the black. The university decided to close the residential colleges over winter break with the hopes of reducing its carbon footprint with the aim of saving an estimated $100,000 in utility bills. Although Housing and Dining is in the process of computing more accurate data and numbers, it is clear that the university saved at least $35,000 by closing the colleges, Housing Operations Manager Mark Chaszar said. This figure is a preliminary number, but is expected to be much higher once all the calculations are complete.
Jason Colwick hasn't let up. The defending national champion in pole vault, the senior, who also ranks fifth in the world in his sport, has kept a healthy training regimen that should make him the odds-on favorite to grab another crown. But Colwick can only do so much when trying to attain his final, furtive goal: a conference championship. Fortunately, according to Head Coach Jon Warren (Jones '88), Colwick is still doing everything he can to improve on his team's third-place finish in 2009.
One of my favorite parts of going home to Washington D.C. for the holidays is the opportunity to find out what's really going on in national politics. Sure, you can watch the news or read the newspaper anywhere in this country and learn about current events. But only in D.C. are people truly immersed in the political arena.So when I went home this winter break, I was surprised to discover that one of the hottest topics had nothing to do with the White House or Congress, but rather with the intense battle brewing between the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, the City Council and the homeless. The issue? Believe it or not, gay marriage.
Martel College junior Chris Kopcynzski speaks at the McMurtry College town hall meeting Monday to discuss the college's future. McMurtry and Duncan College are still without many of the necessities of a college, such as masters or upperclassmen, but both colleges are ramping up the process to fulfill these necessities.
From a studly detective to a blossoming queen, this year's holiday films delivered delightful gifts wrapped from top to bottom. As they often do, a deluge of notable films flooded theaters over the past few weeks in order to take advantage of vacationing moviegoers and attempt one last swipe at an Oscar nomination. While the wealth is often distributed fairly equally during the winter months, 2009 propelled one film to the head of the class handily. James Cameron's (Titanic) Avatar outperformed any other film over the holidays by bringing in more than $441 million at the time of this writing - plus $906 million internationally - to make it the second-highest grossing film of all time. Even with its two-and-a-half hour runtime and middling plot, Avatar's stunning visuals pleased audiences and critics alike and earned four Golden Globe nominations.
Since Lance Berkman did not answer our calls for aid ("An open letter to Lance Berkman, concerning Beer Bike," Nov. 20), we applaud the necessary parties for taking it upon themselves to pony up the funds to construct the new Beer Bike track (see story, page 1). The annual event is unfairly shunned by the university, so the recognition of its inherent importance - to the tune of more than $100,000 - is a commendable feat.Alas, that is where our applause ends. We've looked over the proposed changes. We agree with sentiments - safety should be the preeminent concern of the organizers of the school-wide race. However, and we hesitate to sound like codgers opposed to any notion of change, the proposed shifts of the parade, both in location and logistics, are resoundingly incompetent.
The oud is a millennia-old Middle Eastern musical instrument that Arab conquerors brought to Spain, where the locals trimmed down its size, lightened the sound and renamed it the "guitar." However, the guitar never caught on in the Muslim world, and the oud remains, to this day, the stringed instrument of choice in countries like Turkey. My great-grandmother was one of the premier oud teachers in Turkey, meaning, then, that my mother lived in a household filled with great music. All her memories came flooding back after I put this new CD, Istanbul, into our stereo. Istanbul is a carefully researched, gorgeously performed album of Turkish folk music, uniting musicians from political rivals Turkey and Armenia. "The best Turkish music I've heard in ages," my mother mused, before singing along to several instrumentals.
It's been a cold winter. A winter of noses turned faucets, bones turned brittle and fingers turned frigid. Cold enough that the Washington Wizards' Gilbert Arenas had to pack heat just to stay warm. Cold enough that Tiger's remaining mistresses will have to wait until spring to unveil their allegations. Cold enough that Colt McCoy's tears actually warmed his blubbering cheeks - as well as the hearts of 'Horn-haters from Pensacola to Portland. Yeah, it was a cold winter. But if you were huddled around baseball's annual Hot Stove, there was little discontent to be found.
This week the Thresher presents an exclusive video report on women's track and field. See also the full article.
After delivering mixed performances throughout their non-conference schedule, the Owls have finally arrived at their Conference USA competition. With it comes an opportunity for Head Coach Ben Braun to show the strides or stumbles that the squad has made in the coach's second year at the helm. Since Braun arrived at South Main last fall, the C-USA picture has changed dramatically. The conference, once known for greater girth in the midsection under the domination of the University of Memphis, has suddenly become top-heavy and now appears to be moving up as one of the tougher conferences in the nation.
With Leap Year, it's clear that the 1960's legacy of Rock Hudson and Doris Day movies lives on. The plot of Leap Year is simple, the humor is basic and the romance is perfectly clean - no messing around in the bedroom for this couple. And while audiences still enjoy Hudson's and Day's flicks - Pillow Talk was added to the National Film Registry just last month by the Library of Congress - Leap Year lacks the special spark that marked Hudson and Day's movies, and instead exhibits a minimalism that tosses aside both excitement and originality. In Leap Year, Anna (Julie & Julia's Amy Adams) is a sharp young professional living in Boston with Jeremy (Step Brothers' Adam Scott), her boyfriend of four years. When Jeremy gives her diamond earrings instead of a diamond engagement ring, Anna decides to follow him on his business trip to Dublin after her father (Confessions of a Shopaholic's John Lithgow) tells her about an old Irish tradition that allows a woman to propose to a man on Leap Day. Anna's trip to Ireland turns into an adventure full of pitfalls and passion, and after many mishaps, she falls in love with her Irish cab driver, Declan (Watchmen's Matthew Goode).
It was slated to be the biggest development Rice had seen since the advent of the college system. It was going to propel Rice into the upper echelon of educational institutions in terms of both prestige and research monies. It was going to create the intellectual and innovative center of the fourth-largest city in the world's wealthiest nation.Instead, the proposal to merge Rice and the Baylor College of Medicine was the biggest anticlimax our university has seen in recent memory (see story, page 1). The sound of the deal failing earlier this week was deafening, and reverberated across the university. We can't say we're not disappointed that the deal fell apart - everyone likes to be part of a historical occurrence, of course - and it is worrisome for those in the Rice-Baylor program, who will soon be attending a medical school whose finances are in such unsteady waters that the most logical course of action, merging with Rice, was torpedoed.
As you may have already heard, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduates has offered a limited number of students the option to transfer to Duncan College or McMurtry College at the beginning of the next academic year. The process was intended to populate the new colleges, which each currently boast one class, with upperclassmen - a necessary goal.But unfortunately, a seedy and despicable result has taken place. Instead of fostering a new sense of community within the new colleges, this process has engendered a wave of infighting within the other residential colleges.
At the Student Association meeting Monday, SA President Patrick McAnaney presented the history of the Rice Memorial Center and opened a discussion over future plans concerning the Student Center. The presentation focused on the Student Center's fragmented distribution of space. Because of its internally focused circulation design, the building does not interact with the central quad, Brochstein Pavilion or the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation Center. Additionally, the RMC is in need of additional space in order to accommodate a growing student body.
Construction of the Wilson House, the brand-new Wiess College masters' house, will begin next month. The house is named after longtime Wiess Resident Associate Bill Wilson, who died last spring. The construction should be completed by the end of the year, and the house is aiming for silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, Project Manager Tina Hicks said. The house will be located next to the east side of Wiess by the South Power Plant. Facilities, Engineering and Planning Manager of Communications Susann Glenn said the cost of construction will be paid for by a donation from Wilson's estate, supplemented by money from Housing and Dining.
