Rice University’s Student Newspaper — Since 1916

Friday, April 26, 2024 — Houston, TX

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New voting laws may lessen voting participation at Rice

(09/22/11 12:00am)

Last year, more students at Rice came out to vote in the gubernatorial election – a quadrupled increase – than in the last mid-term election. Achieving similar success may now virtually be impossible. Voters everywhere in Texas have been struck by a blunt force with the Texas Legislature's passage of S.B. 14, a new law requiring voters to have photo identification and a listed address that matches their voter registration to be eligible to vote.


McMurtry master wins award for 15,000

(03/11/11 12:00am)

The Thresher sat down with Composition and Theory Professor Karim Al- Zand, who was one of four composers to receive the 2011 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for $15,000 in music. These national awards are given annually to artists, writers, composers and architects. Al-Zand, a McMurtry College master, will apply half of his award toward a recording project for a


Online only: Rice hosts annual law panel

(11/05/10 12:00am)

Eight local lawyers, judges and law professors joined students Monday at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy for the annual Legal Career Panel hosted by Legalese - Rice's pre-law society, the Baker Institute Student Forum and LOVE 237: Introduction to Law course. The panel is hosted every year to give students some insight on various areas of law, what lawyers do, what a typical day is like and how they got their positions, Assistant District Attorney for Fort Bend County Rudy Ramirez (Lovett '01) said.


Voting an important way to stay involved with the Houston community

(09/24/10 12:00am)

IT'S THAT TIME of the year again: a time when employers allow their employees to leave work early, professors permit students to slink into class late, a time where we collectively take a break from our usual daily routine to perform an act bestowed upon us as citizens of the United States. Yes, it's election season! Most elections kicked off their campaigning on Labor Day weekend, but another important date is looming upon us: the voter registration deadline. The prerequisite of all prerequisites. The unfortunate reality is that many of our fellow students either forget to vote (via absentee ballot or in person) or feel so disconnected to the candidates' platforms that they don't even bother to vote. I used to accept these excuses from my friends when they told me why they didn't vote in the last election, until I found out that a Rice student who registers to vote using their residential college address can vote on campus!


PSL studies leaders

(09/10/10 12:00am)

Vision, drive, humility - these are the makings of a leader, according to some of this year's undergraduate fellows within the Program for the Study of Leadership. The new program, which focuses on the scholarly study of leaders and their role in society, was launched this summer. This year, 15 undergraduates received a yearlong fellowship to conduct research under PSL Director D. Michael Lindsay.The PSL is housed under the Institute for Urban Research, which launched in May under the direction of Institute for Urban Research co-directors Michael Emerson and Stephen Klineberg.


Colonel reflects, compares Rice to West Point

(05/17/10 12:00am)

What does a public institution that trains military personnel have in common with Rice? At their essence, both have leadership development and the ability to enhance social-cultural relationships as Colonel Daniel Ragsdale, a visiting administrator from West Point, noted from his year observing Rice. As part of the American Council on Education Fellowship, Ragsdale, vice dean for education at West Point Academy in West Point, New York, has spent the past year at Rice meeting with faculty members, administrators, program directors and students to observe how the school runs. Since 1965, between 40-50 fellows in the program are selected from nominations to spend an academic year at a host institution, immerse themselves in the culture and work directly with the institution's presidents and administrators as part of a leadership development program in higher education. Next year, Rice's own Joel Thierstein, Executive Director of Connexions and Associate Provost for Innovative Scholarly Communication, will be an ACE fellow for the 2010-2011 academic year.


Chefs enter culinary combat in today's Samurai showdown

(02/19/10 12:00am)

Three top chefs from North, South and West Serveries will duke it out today in a cooking competition complete with sugar, spices, flames and knives. The Servery Samurai showdown, which begins at 3 p.m. in West Servery, gives chefs two hours to prepare a nutritiously balanced entrée using all of the ingredients from a five-ingredient mystery basket. The winner will possess the title of Culinary Shogun 2010.


News in brief: Rice musicians to set sail with song

(02/19/10 12:00am)

Next year, a trio of Shepherd School faculty members will be hitting the high C's in more ways than one. Professor of Orchestral Conducting Larry Rachleff, Lecturer of Voice and soprano vocalist Susan Lorette Dunn and Professor of Violin Cho-Liang Lin will perform classical music on board the Celebrity Mercury, a luxury Caribbean cruise from Celebrity Cruise Lines, next January.The group will be featured as guest artists on the inaugural debut of the Symphonic Voyages, a Caribbean cruise designed with fans of classical music in mind. Rachleff will conduct the 60-piece Symphonic Voyages orchestra, whose members are professional musicians from the East Coast. Symphonic Voyages, which invited Lin, Rachleff and his wife Lorette Dunn to perform, will hold auditions to determine the members of the orchestra.


Government officials discuss border safety

(01/15/10 12:00am)

Rice, like the rest of Houston, is a short trip from the U.S.-Mexico border, and is directly impacted by immigration, making the campus an ideal site for discussions of border security and U.S.-Mexico relations. Both Alan Bersin, Assistant Secretary of the Office of International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, and Undersecretary of the Interior of Mexico Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández spoke about U.S.-Mexico border security at Rice Wednesday in Duncan Hall. Bersin, who is responsible for developing strategy on security, immigration, narcotics and trade matters affecting Mexico, describes the two nations' relationship as "friendly but proper."



RTV5 set to feature new health show

(11/13/09 12:00am)

Sex on television is no longer as taboo as it once was, so it may come as little shock that RTV5 is combining business with pleasure by creating a new show that mixes entertainment with a healthy dose of sexual education. The main objective of the show, "Strapped for Rice," will be to highlight different health issues as well as provide artistic performances in what religious studies graduate student Aundrea Matthews, the creator of the show, calls "edutainment."


Brown set to go green

(11/06/09 12:00am)

In a push for more sustainable living, students will now have another, less scandalous reason to turn off their lights. The Green Dorm Initiative, which launched Wednesday, is a way for students to rate their dorm and receive incentives based on their levels of environmental friendliness. The Green Dorm Initiative committee, part of the Environmental Club, is working in conjunction with EcoReps and the Rice Student Green Building Initiative to encourage students to assess their current behavior and reward them for adopting more environmentally friendly practices, GDI committee leader Nicole Kwan said.


CDC promotes HIV awareness

(10/23/09 12:00am)

Changing health behaviors may require more than scary statistics to motivate people to act. In an effort to stave off the spread of HIV and AIDS, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is teaming up with local media to get its message across. As part of Act Against AIDS, a five-year communication campaign to reduce HIV incidence in the United States, the CDC is hosting round-table discussions across the country.



Jones coordinator to leave

(09/11/09 12:00am)

After 17 years at Rice, Jones College Coordinator Lisa Bryan has announced she will be leaving her position in November. She will be joining her husband, English professor Dennis Huston, as he goes on sabbatical at the beginning of December through next August. Her last day as coordinator will be Nov. 6.Bryan had a long history with Rice before she joined Jones College in March 2005. Before assuming the position of college coordinator, Bryan worked in the Office of Admissions as Assistant Director of Admission from 2004-05. Prior to that position, Bryan and Huston were masters at Hanszen College from 1992-98.


RUPD reminds students to be cautious with belongings

(08/28/09 12:00am)

In the first few weeks back at school, new classes, friends and social gatherings are most students' top priorities. However, safety and crime prevention should also be on top of the list. The first six weeks of the school year are when students, especially freshmen, are most vulnerable to crime and personal theft, Rice University Police Department Chief of Police Bill Taylor said, adding that this pattern applies to college campuses nationwide."First-year students are the most vulnerable, since they're distracted by social gatherings, classes and situations that they have not dealt with before," Taylor said. "When students come back to school they may be unfamiliar with their surroundings and don't pay enough attention to what they do with their personal property, [such as] new bikes, laptops and iPods."


New director set to take over Leadership Rice

(08/28/09 12:00am)

As the new school year begins, Leadership Rice will have a new head. David Niño is taking the helm this month as the new director of the club. He replaces previous director Brad Smith who will pursue a doctorate degree in sociology at Princeton University.Niño will be administering two programs under Leadership Rice: the Summer Mentorship Experience, which places Rice students with internships and mentors over the summer, and the Envision Grant, which awards up to $2,500 to fund a student project that impacts Rice or the community.


Financial aid simplifies job search with new board

(08/21/09 12:00am)

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. Students can now go online to search for jobs on campus such as office assistants, research assistants, lifeguards or class graders.Students can access the job board at jobs.financialaid.rice.edu by signing in with their NetID under the tab "Applicants."


Rice ranks top in quality

(08/21/09 12:00am)

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.


2009 Rice Phi Beta Kappa initiates

(05/15/09 12:00am)

Seventy-three alumni were inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society by the Rice University chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Beta of Texas May 8. The society emphasizes learning for the sake of learning, Beta of Texas chapter Secretary Randal Hall (history graduate student '98) said. In addition to graduating within the top 10 percent of their class, students must also have a minimum of 90 credit hours in the liberal arts with at least 10 of these classes outside of their declared major. All inductees of Phi Beta Kappa this year are in the top 10 percent of their class, with a GPA of 3.937 or above, Registrar David Tenney said. During the induction ceremony, the two top ranking seniors, Edward Swidriski III (Hanszen College '09) and Mimi Zhang (Baker College '09), gave a speech on their experience at Rice.