This week the Thresher sports staff sat down and discussed what's happening in Rice sports. We thought y'all might enjoy listening in on our conversation about the golf team's historic tournament win, two cross country meet titles and what to expect from the football team this weekend. Enjoy!
This weekend, parents will discover what their sons and daughters have actually been up to in college. Families Weekend began yesterday and continues through Sunday, allowing students and parents alike to experience what Rice and Houston have to offer.This year's Families Weekend theme is "Rice Students. Global Citizens.", according to the Office of International Students and Scholars. This theme is especially fitting, as the university has students representing more than 99 countries, Director of Reunion Programs and Special Events Jennifer Harding said. Rice also welcomed more than 900 new students this year, 13 percent of them international.
The last time we saw the football team, they were hoisting a glistening Texas Bowl trophy to the sky, the crowning spectacle to an unforgettable season in which Rice grabbed its first bowl win in 58 years. The stars that night were big and bright, deep in the heart of Reliant Stadium.My, how time flies.
While Rice may not have lost as much as of its investments as other universities, its endowment still took a hit during the most recent recession. For fiscal year 2009, Rice incurred an 18.2-percent loss on the endowment's investment returns, worth about $838 million. The university also spent $215 million of the endowment, $55 million of which was recouped in endowment gifts, according to unaudited reports issued from the Office of the Vice President for Investments Treasurer.
I was extremely pleased when I read about the recommendations of the Working Group on the Honor Council in The Rice Thresher two weeks ago ("Honor Council working group presents findings," Sept. 11). The council has had trouble keeping up with its caseload for a while, and the measures suggested could greatly alleviate the pressures on the council, allowing things to run much more smoothly.These changes, however, do not address some other major procedural problems with the Honor Council.
The golf team got the season off to a hot start this Monday and Tuesday at the UTA Waterchase Invitational, scorching the field of 19 while notching their first tournament win since Head Coach Drew Scott (Wiess '98) was in school. The Owls took the invitational by two strokes over the host school, the University of Texas at Arlington, shooting a final round 286 (-2). Rice's cumulative score was 858, putting them six strokes under par for the three-round tournament.
In an effort to increase talks by notable speakers at the residential colleges, Martel College hosted Ambassador Swashpawan Singh last Thursday. Speaking to an audience of about 30, Singh, the former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, gave a talk entitled "The India Story: More Fact than Fiction," where he discussed his country's current success, in addition to its development and obstacles to becoming a world power.
Thanks to the 2006 film Borat, the nation of Kazakhstan has quickly, if infamously, earned household recognition. However, unlike the film's hirsute and skimpily-swimsuited main character, Kazakhstan Ambassador to the United States Erian Idrissov, who spoke at Wiess College Monday, promoted a message of peace and progress. This talk was part of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy's partnership with the residential colleges.
Over the last week, Rice has been graced by the presence of a pair of highly-respected diplomats: Edrian Idrissov, Kazakhstan Ambassador to the United States, and Swashpawan Singh, former ambassador for India to the United Nations (see stories, pages 4 and 7). Meanwhile, it was announced that Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, would be the commencement speaker at the 2010 commencement (see story, page 1).Even though the endowment may have dropped by double-digit percentages (see story, page 1), it is nice to see that Rice can still attract the kind of envoys and world leaders that make our university as prestigious as we've been led to believe. And yet that prestige was not on full show for Idrissov and Singh, who both spoke in college commons. Lacking the pomp and showmanship of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy - and all the perceived intimidation that students may feel when they gape at the building's imposing beauty - the ambassadors were instead treated to the dining facilities for the university's students.
After a year and a half of construction, the much-anticipated Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center opens today at 2 p.m. The center more than doubles the square footage of the former Rec Center, and boasts a variety of new rooms, spaces and workout facilities that will be available to students, faculty, staff and their families, Director of Recreation Programs Tina Villard said.
While the men's tennis team already had a weekend's worth of competition under their belt a week ago, the women's squad traveled to Midland, Texas, to begin their fall schedule at the Midland Invitational. The doubles duo of junior Varsa Shiva-Shankar and senior Rebecca Lin performed the strongest for the Owls, playing their way to the semifinals of the tournament. Shiva-Shankar and Lin began the tournament on Friday with a win over Amy Joubert and Shannon MacKenzie of the University of North Texas by a score of 8-5. With that win, Shiva-Shankar and Lin met the No. 3 seeds in the tournament, Carla Lindlar and Karolina Filipiak of Baylor University. Although Lindlar and Filipiak came in with a higher ranking and a day of rest after enjoying a bye in the tournament's first round, Shiva-Shankar and Lin handily won the match by a score of 8-2.
There are some things a New Yorker inherently misses when transplanted thousands of miles from home and left to cope in a new college environment. The hectic buzz of a new life chapter - in my case, residing at 1601 Rice Boulevard - seems at once marvelously invigorating and sadly lacking in the comforts of home.After my first month at Rice, I can assuredly say, "Houston, you are not New York."
Dear Denver,I've never been a "life of the party" kind of person, but does that mean that I have to spend the rest of my life doing things when it's convenient for other people? Am I just being petty and selfish? I always end up feeling like I'm inferior in some way, and I hate that. What should I do?
If you've ever wondered what it's like backstage at a fashion show, you're about to get a taste. Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of working behind the scenes as an intern at the Simon Fashion Now fall runway show, which kicked off the night on a majestic pop-up runway over the Galleria's ice rink and was held exclusively for the press and VIPs. In a nutshell, the event is a three-day animated window display of the clothing that will soon be available in stores, focusing on ready-to-wear luxury and mid-range sportswear and whetting appetites for their eventual retail.
The volleyball team was looking forward to the opportunity to face second-ranked University of Washington last week, but an influenza outbreak forced the Owls (8-3) to cancel their trip to San Antonio and abandon their chance at taking on the Huskies. Rice will restart play on Friday evening's road match against the University of Memphis in their Conference USA opener. Rice defeated Memphis (2-12) in three sets in their only match last year, which took place at Fox Gym . Memphis should not present much difficulty, as the Tigers have won only two of their first 14 games. The Owls continue play on Sunday afternoon against the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Rice and UAB (7-8) played a five-set thriller last year at Fox Gym, with the Owls emerging victorious. Though UAB made the NCAA Tournament last year, the team lost its core group of seniors and have opened this year with a mediocre showing.
The Commencement Speaker Committee announced Monday that Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, will be the 2010 Rice commencement speaker, concluding a search process that lasted nearly six months. Best known as one of the chief proponents and purveyors of microcredit, Yunus is the founder of the Grameen Bank, which makes small loans to the poor that can be used to help start businesses.
As capitalism moves ever closer toward cultural universality, it is important to discuss whether our adoption of this particular socioeconomic system has brought the gains and advancements it is often credited with.It is generally agreed that capitalism is an effective means to economic growth, keeping innovation-breeding competition fervent while maintaining government regulation at minimum levels. Less consensus exists regarding the direct cultural effects of the world capitalist system; for example, when discussing the appearance and growth of capitalism in Asian cultures, there is debate as to whether the local culture facilitates and dictates the eventual implementation of capitalism, or the other way around.
