Opinion

Athletic Department effective in distributing NCAA Finals tickets to students

The Athletic Department, not to be bested by RPC's Harry Potter pre-midnight showing ticket distribution last semester, generously provided students around campus the opportunity to obtain free NCAA Final tickets (see story, pg. 9). A portion of the unsold UConn tickets were donated to Rice for use by its students; a similar donation was made to the University of Houston. Furthermore, instead of exclusively dealing the tickets to athletes, the Rice Athletic Department allowed all students equal opportunity to experience this exclusive event.

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Matriculation Policy receives much-needed revamping

 Rice has instituted a new policy by which students who are a semester behind graduating with their matriculating class may partake in walking across the stage during Commencement (see story, pg. 1). This new policy arrives after years of students with valid reasons being denied the opportunity to walk with their class; nonetheless, we expect this long-needed change will be very well received.

Vision's program fails to facilitate diversity

As prospies flood Rice's campus for Owl Days, current Rice students survey the high-schoolers with keen interest to catch a glimpse of what the Class of 2015 might look like. While Will Ricers are already busy looking for bikers to recruit, everyone else is busy gauging the prospective class' sociability, ability to integrate, and of course attractiveness. However, no matter how hard we seek to assess the class of 2015 through the Owl Day prospies, we will be unsuccessful because Owl Days omits a vital aspect of Rice — diversity.

RUPD could benefit from emailed ticketing

Recently, my car was towed at Rice University. I spent an hour looking for it before I learned what happened. This situation has affected at least two other people I know, one person twice.

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New Dean of Engineering primed for greatness at Rice University

In the relentless world of top-20 academic institutions, Rice succesfully poached the best of the best for its next dean of engineering. Edwin Thomas was the chair of MIT's material sciences department, the best in the country. The addition of faculty of Thomas's caliber is definitely an accomplishment, and his mere presence gives further validation to our already strong engineering department.

Rice webmail's union with Gmail a welcome addition for students

Rice University recently announced a plan to rejuvenate its webmail system by transferring over to a Google interface and google servers. This decision will definitely yield improvement over the current webmail, and it is certainly exciting to see administration and IT making a proactive decision to shift our outdated system to one of the best and most proven email clients on the market.

Environmental conservationism a duty not a decision

With all the coverage of exciting environmental initiatives on campus recently, Rice looks from the outside like a leader in sustainable living. We have classes dedicated solely to green campus initiatives, top-notch LEED certified buildings, green roofs, single-stream recycling, bike sharing programs and even part of our tuition now goes toward improving our carbon footprint. There's no doubt that Rice students are smart enough to know about the importance of maintaining a sustainable lifestyle, but are we smart enough to care?

Environmental productivity key to future

Productivity. We all strive for it. Students inhale Red Bulls and lock themselves into their rooms to be productive. Athletes, doctors, lawyers, farmers, workers in every profession, you name it, want to be productive. And why not? In our society, productivity is rewarded handsomely. You can't get an A+ or a stack of Benjamins if you're not a productive worker.

Rice students' fundraising efforts for Japan exemplary

The outpouring of support at Rice for Japan has been simply extraordinary. Conscious groups of students have gathered and implemented massive efforts to raise funds for the recovery process.

Support for Libya a moral responsibility

This Monday, President Barack Obama spoke at the National Defense University explicitly describing the motivations and justifications for our action in Libya. And yet so much of what people feel he left out was crucial to "making his case" to the American people.

ALFA rec's overly specific

The ALFA committee has concluded its survey process and made its recommendations to administration (see story, pg. 6). Unfortunately their recommendations were influenced by a meager 24 proposals. Out of the over 3,500 students at Rice University, a remarkably small proportion of us as a student body contributed to the process.

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Terrorism in the Homeland: Unity with Muslim Americans neccesary

Since the beginning of the war on terror, many Americans have expressed a concern about "homegrown" radicalized terrorist cells and the best way to prevent them.

Beer Bike successful despite setbacks

Kudos is due to Matt Sawyer, the university-wide Beer Bike coordinator, and the Beer Bike coordinators from each college (see story, pg. 1). Beer Bike came and went smoothly, safely and too swiftly. The Beer Bike leadership was met with a multitude of challenges never seen in the past, and each problem was addressed with great success.

LPAPs unncessary and potentially dangerous for Rice varsity athletes

More than halfway through my final semester as a student at Rice, I have begun to realize that I rarely take time to reflect on my experience as an Owl. Many seniors panic at this point in their academic careers, terrified of missing something on their Rice "bucket list," now faced with the realization that they will soon be unable to ever go back and relive their glory days.