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Christine Pao

NEWS 3/25/10 7:00pm

Messy behavior demonstrates disrespect

By Christine Pao

I have always felt strange about having Housing and Dining staff clean up after me. H&D staff members take out my trash each day and clean my bathroom on a weekly basis. As someone who was raised with her fair share of chores, I found it odd to shed the responsibility of cleaning up after myself just as I was finally approaching the point of maturity and self-sufficiency. But, realizing there are probably dozens of reasons why the administration rightly employs staff members to maintain students' personal facilities - among them allowing students to focus on their studies - I accepted it.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Sporadic, inconsistent security beleaguers METRORail system

By Christine Pao

I have a love-hate relationship with the METRORail. On one hand, I can't live without it. I don't have a car, and when the hospitality of other drivers runs dry, I rely on the METRORail to get around. With a simple tap of my METRO Q Fare Card, the rail rapidly ferries me to my destinations of choice: My beloved Tacos A Go-Go, the Angelika, the museum district and several other prominent Houston locations are just a few stops along the track. The METRORail is relatively quick and easy, and best of all, free for Rice students.

NEWS 9/10/09 7:00pm

Choosing majors a personal journey

By Christine Pao

By now, it has become devastatingly clear that the summer is no more - stacks of books, unending problem sets and dozens of exams and papers remind us that we are in for a long, grueling semester of nonstop academia.For those students still working their way through their first or second years (or a select few in their third, fourth or even fifth), the daunting task of choosing majors must be addressed. Although it seems fairly obvious that students should choose their majors based on their interests, some people, for several reasons, just don't get the message.

NEWS 5/14/09 7:00pm

Overinvolved students expose pretension

By Christine Pao

Rice is home to some of the brightest young minds in the country. Students hail from all sorts of backgrounds, and there is no denying that we are all highly intelligent and capable. There is no doubt at all that Rice is a prestigious university - but prestigious universities attract overachievers.Coming from a competitive high school, I felt immensely pressured to get involved in school and extracurricular activities. All around me, overachieving students participated in several sports and academic teams, were very active in several clubs and held positions in student government - all while maintaining stellar grades. I was brought up to believe that this standard was normal, so I gave in and joined the overinvolvement bandwagon, even though I didn't particularly enjoy half the clubs and teams I was a part of.

NEWS 2/26/09 6:00pm

RUPD deserves respect from students

By Christine Pao

When students think about everything they appreciate at Rice University, a lot of things probably come to mind: the residential college system, the abundance of on-campus social activities, the great academic opportunities. Unfortunately, students tend to focus on what directly affects them on a day-to-day basis, sometimes ignoring the people who, underneath the surface, help them along the way. While we are often absorbed in our own lives, there is one group at Rice whose efforts are often overlooked: the Rice University Police Department.From the Campus Watch Program to the lost and found service to the night escort, it is evident that RUPD goes to great lengths to protect us and our property. We might get frustrated and annoyed every now and then when RUPD hands us a parking citation, but deep down we realize that we probably did something wrong to deserve it (most of the time, at least). And the recent policy that allowed RUPD to take our possessions preemptively may have been frustrating, but it reminded us not to leave our belongings lying around with the risk of being stolen.

NEWS 2/5/09 6:00pm

Rice needs to fix rec center, not ignore it

By Christine Pao

As someone who makes use of the Autry Recreation Center often, I can't help but notice the deteriorating state of the facility. Conditions at the Rec Center have always been lackluster, but after a section was closed off due to the construction of the Tudor Fieldhouse and Youngkin Center, we lost practically half of Autry, including the old weight room, and consequently a lot of our exercise opportunities were cut short. Sadly, I am reminded of this every time I follow the ominous signs leading to the temporary entrance, and upon entering, I am greeted with Autry's currently dismal conditions.On more than one occasion, I have journeyed across campus only to find that all of the cardio machines are already in use. As a result I am forced to wait in the corner, staring down the users of each machine in hopes that someone will finish in a reasonable amount of time - yet several times, I have waited upwards of 20 minutes for a cardio machine to free up. That's not really a long enough time to incite me into an angry protest, but it is a considerable block of time that I could be using to do more productive things. Let's face it: Nobody wants to wait in line for exercise, an activity that arguably many people view as a tedious responsibility. If I'm willing to make the ridiculously long, perilous trek from Martel all the way to Autry, I expect to be able to get a decent workout without delay.

NEWS 1/29/09 6:00pm

'Open' critics need to update their views

By Christine Pao

Recently, ABC News released an article titled "Student-Run Sex Magazines Surface Across U.S." in which Rice University's very own Open Magazine was featured. The article truthfully exposes the origins and the nature of Open, while comparing it to other sex magazines that have been springing up in various schools, including Washington University in St. Louis, Columbia University and Harvard University. After reading through the article, however, I noticed that a host of readers had posted scathing comments criticizing Open for a range of reasons, and I realized that those who have never opened the magazine are interpreting it in entirely the wrong way.What people unfamiliar with Open don't seem to realize is that it is not a porn magazine containing stories of erotica, promoting casual sex, exploiting women or preaching promiscuity. Its approach to sex is completely different: As the mission statement asserts, the magazine "aims to promote a healthy attitude toward sex by presenting a wide range of perspectives on the interplay of sex and culture through articles, editorials, interviews, poems, short stories, photos and art." It's fine to critique Open, but unfair to condemn it without even knowing what it really stands for. It appears that people are getting the wrong impression, that the magazine promotes casual sex while exploiting women, when in reality it serves as an outlet for students to express their viewpoints on various sexual issues.

NEWS 1/15/09 6:00pm

Outer Loop hazard to drivers, pedestrians

By Christine Pao

A substantial hazard exists that surrounds all of Rice University: the Outer Loop. As someone who has traveled and crossed the Outer Loop several times, whether merely for exercise or as a pathway to reach an alternate destination, I am fully aware of the large number of pedestrians who make use of it daily. For anyone who uses it, the sacred Outer Loop serves as an excellent jogging and walking lane, a convenient route to different parking lots and a barrier that, coupled with the hedges, shields Rice from some of Houston's more unsavory aspects. But the Outer Loop itself presents several dangers to both the students who use it and the drivers who cross it getting in and out of Rice. During the nighttime and early morning hours, the Outer Loop becomes a deadly intersection of pedestrians and cars. I frequently have been the passenger inside a car whose driver nearly crashed into an innocent jogger, a incident caused not only by the alarming lack of light but also by the general dynamics of the Outer Loop. The first impulse might be to blame the driver for his recklessness, but it is not completely his fault.

NEWS 10/23/08 7:00pm

Shorter add/drop time detrimental to students

By Christine Pao

As a current freshman, I may not yet fully understand the importance of choosing classes or majors. But as a devoted part of the Rice community, I do understand the importance of these choices in shaping our academic paths.The new add/drop deadlines that are being imposed upon us will be completely detrimental to our autonomy as students. Beginning next fall, the amount of time to add a class will be cut in half, and the time period to add a class without a fee will decrease from two weeks to one. Further adding to the pressure of decision making, students will only have five weeks to drop a class, as opposed to the current 10 weeks.

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