News in brief: Student's purse snatched near campus, Coffeehouse robbed, Duncan attains LEED gold status

8/19/10 7:00pm

Student's purse snatched near campus

Beware of village thieves! A student was robbed of her purse Aug. 3 while walking back to campus around 6 p.m. via Rice Boulevard, on the west side of Greenbriar. She was accompanied by another student and both attempted to pursue the thief, described as a slender Hispanic male, roughly five feet tall. He escaped his pursuers when he was picked up by a white station wagon, which headed north on Kirby Drive. An eyewitness reported that the vehicle's Texas license plate appeared to be 533NTN. Any information regarding the crime should be reported to Rice University Police Department. As of earlier last week, no new leads had been discovered.

-Johanna Ohm

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Coffeehouse robbed

Coffeehouse was robbed over the June 26-27 weekend. Assistant Director of Student Businesses Karim Davis said that roughly twelve hundred dollars was reported missing on the morning of June 28 when a Coffeehouse employee opened for the morning shift that Monday.

The funds were the earnings from a large portion of the previous week and had supposedly been locked up after closing the store safe.

The only suspicious activity reported was that the cleaning staff said they found the safe door left ajar when they went in to clean that weekend. The outside door was locked with no evidence of tampering or obvious signs of a break-in. Davis said he suspects the job was done by a recent graduate or employee, as those are the only people who have access to the door code and keys.

The robbery was reported to Rice University Police Department.

Coffeehouse is considering installing a video camera to prevent future larceny, but this decision has yet to be made by the student management team, said Davis.

-Johanna Ohm

Duncan attains LEED gold status

Duncan College stayed true to its recently selected green and gold colors, as the U.S. Green Building Council awarded the college with a Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for the building's "green" eco-friendly features, including infrared- and motion-sensor-controlled thermostats and lighting systems and pre-constructed "pod" bathroom units, affectionately known as "poddies."

Facilities, Engineering and Planning and Sustainability at Rice had gold aspirations early on for the building, which was constructed thanks to a $30 million donation by Charles ('47) and Anne Duncan. However, according to Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson, both the design and construction of any building must go under scrutiny by the USGBC via a points system that determines the building's certification level, which can be LEED platinum, gold, silver or certified. The process takes six months to one year following completion of construction. Rice was committed to designing and constructing Duncan using both new and old technologies to reduce waste, energy consumption and, by extension, students' costs.

"It was like hard-wiring financial aid into the building," Johnson said. "It made sense to do it anyhow."

Susann Glenn, the manager of communications for FE&P, emphasized the role that Duncan's eco-friendly design would play in inspiring students.

"We wanted to awaken Duncan students to be inspired to think outside of what they learn in the classroom and think of even better ways to use this technology," Glenn, a Duncan College associate, said.

Duncan junior Jonathan Stewart agreed that the building stood out as a green achievement on the Rice campus.

"Spot environmental efforts around campus can be largely ineffective to the bigger picture," Stewart said. "It's comforting to see Rice make a larger commitment to green standards with the construction of Duncan College."

-Anna Wilde

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