This Week's Front Page
McMurtrians and their advisors mingle outside of their tent commons, waiting for a dodgeball game to begin on Wednesday. To find out how the McMurtrians and their rival Duncaroos are being welcomed into the college system, turn to our four-page spread on Rice's two newest members. (0) comments
We're number one! As detailed in the Princeton Review's new The Best 371 Colleges, Rice ranked at the top in the "best quality of life" category. The rankings were based on a survey of 122,000 students attending the 371 colleges featured in the book. The quality of life ranking was an aggregate of students' assessment of food on- and off-campus, dorm life comfort, campus beauty, ease of getting around campus, relationship with the local community, safety on campus and the surrounding area, interaction between students, friendliness and happiness of students and how smoothly the administration is run. (0) comments
Despite a tough economy and cutbacks in spending, Rice received $11.1 million in funding this summer from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to aid in construction of the Brockman Hall for Physics. Rice competed for and was awarded one of NIST's construction grants as part of federal stimulus funding. (0) comments
The new Spanish Resource Center, which opened this summer, will offer students an opportunity to learn about Spanish language and culture through an extensive reference database and educational activities, hosted in conjunction with the Department of Hispanic Studies, Spanish Resource Center Director Miguel Hernáiz said. (0) comments
Finding work in this economy can be a job in itself, from scouring classified ads and bulletin boards to relying on word-of-mouth or random online postings. Finding a job on campus, however, has been streamlined to a single Web site on the Rice Financial Aid Student Job Board. (0) comments
In an unconventional venture beyond the hedges, Rice is hoping to have established a beneficial relationship with a local business by appealing to their pocketbooks. The employees from a recently-opened H-E-B Grocery Store, located on Buffalo Speedway and South Blvd. (0) comments
Even though the size of the freshman class increased substantially, the percent of students passing the composition exam remained at 71 percent, indicating both the reliability of the exam and the consistent strength of the incoming class, Program for Communications Excellence Director Deborah Barrett said. (0) comments
Stone Taylor Weeks, 24, and William Holt Weeks, 20, died in a car crash July 23 en route to Washington, D.C. The brothers, both researchers at the Baker Institute of Public Policy, were traveling to visit family and friends, and to attend a party celebrating the release of history professor and Baker Institute fellow Douglas Brinkley's new book, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America. (0) comments
Edith Wyschogrod, a former religious studies professor, died July 16. She was 79. Wyschogrod, a native New Yorker, started her career teaching philosophy at Queens College of City University of New York. She advanced from lecturer to a permanent member of their faculty and, in 1967, to chair of the department. (0) comments
Historic Will Rice opened up this year to ensure that all incoming first-year students have beds on campus, and it will provide temporary on-campus housing to about 75 continuing and transfer students, Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman said. Although Will Rice College and Baker College will be under construction this year, the 1912 wing of Will Rice is not being renovated, and will stay open this year to house these students. (1) comment
Not only did they open at the same time, but McMurtry College and Duncan College share many of the same measurements and features. Both measure 125,700 square feet, for a total of 281,200 square feet, including the joint-servery. Each features five floors and 324 beds, split among 150 singles and 87 doubles. (1) comment
Burton ('56) and Deedee ('56) McMurtry Burt and Deedee McMurtry, both alumni from the Rice University class of 1956, have contributed numerous gifts to their alma mater for a variety of purposes, but the couple has been saving a Rice fund for "something big and important. (1) comment
As the newest additions to the residential college system since Martel College in 2002, Duncan College and McMurtry College have already begun forming their own unique cultures and traditions. While the question of how to integrate the new colleges has long been in the works, Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman and others working on the transition are confident that the colleges will be able to find their own identities. (0) comments
Fondren unveils new "One Search" tool for users Fondren Library has made several changes to their system to make research easier for students and faculty. Over the summer, Fondren introduced "One Search," a comprehensive search engine similar to Google that will simultaneously pool results from Fondren's catalog and the approximately 50 different journals it subscribes to, Sara Lowman, the Vice Provost and University Librarian, said. (0) comments