Rice University’s Student Newspaper — Since 1916

Friday, March 29, 2024 — Houston, TX

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Rice's Indian dance team snags first place

(05/15/09 12:00am)

Catching on to the dance fever, the Rice Chowl Bhangra team earned its place in fame by securing first place at Nasha 2009, a state-wide competition in traditional Punjabi dances held at the University of Houston on April 10. Chowl Bhangra, which means Rice Bhangra in Punjabi, competed against six other collegiate and dance academies in Texas, placing first overall.


Students look for explanations, solutions to genocide

(04/10/09 12:00am)

One week after Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, announced he would expel 13 humanitarian aid groups in the country, three scholars fielded student questions on ethnic conflict and genocide at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy on March 31.Michael Emerson, Professor of Sociology; Gale Stokes, past chair of the History Department and Dean of Humanities; and Mary Lee Webeck, Director of Education at Holocaust Museum Houston, spoke to students on the commonalities of ethnic conflicts and the factors that lead to genocide.


Outreach Day exposes students to community

(03/20/09 12:00am)

Whether planting trees, registering children for health insurance or hearing the stories of undocumented workers, Rice students came out in droves last Saturday to volunteer with various organizations in the city as part of Spring Outreach Day, sponsored by the Rice Student Volunteer Program. This was the third Outreach Day of the academic year, a one-day group volunteering event that introduces students to the needs of the Houston community and its social services organizations. Each semester, Outreach Day is coordinated by members of RSVP. Additionally, the Community Involvement Center organizes an Outreach Day immediately following Orientation Week each year.


MSA hosts Irish Muslim convert

(03/13/09 12:00am)

If she were not wearing her hijab, most passersby might not notice that Fidelma O'Leary was a devout Muslim. O'Leary, who teaches neuroscience at St. Edward's Universtiy in Austin, spoke on campus last Tuesday, not about the intricacies of neurons, but about religion and her struggle as a converted Muslim. The lecture, entitled "A Muslim Woman's Jihad," is the first in the Islamica series sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.


Former Israeli ambassador to EU speaks on Israel's stances on conflict

(02/27/09 12:00am)

Oded Eran, former Israeli ambassador to the European Union, spoke on campus last Friday about the status of the Israeli-Arab conflict and the process of international negotiations. The lunch and lecture, entitled "The Peace Process in the Middle East," sought to address these issues from an Israeli official's perspective.


Archis behind on Paris trip funding

(02/20/09 12:00am)

Sophomore architecture students may have to incur a larger percentage of the funding for their annual educational trip to Paris, France, than in previous years due to the economic downturn and problematic timing of their main fundraising party, Archi-Arts. Baker College sophomore Aya Matsumoto, an architecture major, estimated that 300 people attended Archi-Arts, the annual formal hosted by sophomore architecture students, short of their expected attendance of 500-600 people.


Bus route shift allows more trips to Rice Village

(02/20/09 12:00am)

Students can look forward to more ventures to Rice Village during the weekdays, as a new graduate apartment bus route features extended service from campus to the Village areaEffective since Jan. 20, the shuttle service for the graduate route now links the campus' Inner Loop Road and parking lots to the Rice Graduate Apartments on 1515 Bissonnet Street and the recently opened Rice Village Apartments on 2410 Shakespeare, which began leasing Jan. 10.


Sid gets new college coordinator

(02/13/09 12:00am)

Corinne Cammarata, who previously worked as a grant writer for the Houston Area Women's Center, has filled the vacancy for Sid Richardson College's college coordinator. She began work on Tuesday and will continue through the rest of the academic semester. The Sid College Coordinator Search Committee began fielding applications after the previous office coordinator, Kelly Penrod, announced her resignation in early December last year. She worked until the end of the fall semester before leaving for a position with a counseling center.



Rice changes budget

(02/06/09 12:00am)

In response to a 20 to 25 percent loss in the endowment's value, President David Leebron announced a 5 percent university-wide budget cut on funding from unrestricted sources last Wednesday during January's plenary meeting of the faculty. Deans and vice presidents will be responsible for including a 5 percent budget reduction individually in each academic school and administrative division's financial plans for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The overall reduction amounts to approximately $13 million, 3 percent of the entire university budget and a $7 million increase over the budget cuts announced Dec. 1 last year. Portions of the budgets and endowment, which are restricted for certain uses, such as scholarships, will not be affected by the cut.


Rice staff member assaulted

(01/30/09 12:00am)

An investigation is in progress to find a man who assaulted a Rice staff member late Tuesday night. At approximately 10:57 p.m. a staff member in the Humanities Building radioed in a call for help after she found a man sleeping on a table in Room 327. When she asked him to leave, the man got up and ran toward the staff member where a struggle ensued. She used a university radio to call for help and escaped to the women's restroom. The man followed her in and physically assaulted her. However, he fled the scene after hearing feedback from the radio from those responding to her call. The staff member then locked herself in the bathroom stall before the Rice University Police Department and co-workers arrived, according to Captain Dianna Marshall. The suspect is described as a male, white, about 25-28 years of age, 5 feet 6-7 inches tall with light brown hair and eyes. He had three pre-existing red scratches on the right side of his face. At the time of the incident he was wearing a black jacket and black gloves.


Dawson searches for future for Rwanda

(01/30/09 12:00am)

Dale Dawson, a University of Texas graduate and successful entrepreneur, spoke last Thursday at the Jesse H. Jones School of Management on his work, which involves building schools and bringing entrepreneurship skills to people in Rwanda. In a lecture presented by Rice 360ø, the Institute for Global Health Technologies, Beyond Traditional Borders Initiative and the World Affairs Council of Houston, Dawson described how he was drawn to Rwanda's plight.


Clubs to begin switch to BANNER at end of month

(01/23/09 12:00am)

The changes to Rice's club financial structures, which have been a point of contention for many students, will finally be executed.Rice student organizations and colleges are about to face change as they usher in the new BANNER system to perform all of their future financial transactions. The first clubs and all colleges will make the official switch on Jan. 31.


Chao Center for Asian Studies welcomes new directors

(01/16/09 12:00am)

While the rest of Rice may be experiencing a temporary hiring freeze, the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Center for Asian Studies welcomes new leadership. Earlier this month, Tani Barlow started her five-year term as the inaugural director of the Chao Center after being selected from an international pool of applicants in May 2008. Barlow, who previously worked as a professor in history and women's studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, takes over where interim director Richard Smith left off.


Graduate student dies

(01/09/09 12:00am)

Graduate student Han Li, 31, died on Tuesday night after falling unconscious after using a stationary bike at the Recreation Center. Li came to Rice in 2006 from China to work on his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. Shortly after 5 p.m. Li was getting off of a stationary bicycle in the weight room when witnesses saw him collapse, Rice Recreation Center Associate Director Evan Stein said. Officials in the Recreation Center alerted Rice Emergency Medical Services, which came to the scene and immediately began administering CPR. The Houston Fire Department later arrived and transported Li by ambulance to Methodist Hospital. His cause of death is unknown. There were no known malfunctions with the gym equipment, Stein said.


President Leebron visits Iran with educational delegation

(12/05/08 12:00am)

In times of international turmoil and political hostilities, connections between countries can still be forged through neutral institutions like universities. Last month President David Leebron and five other American university presidents traveled to Iran to visit the Iranian minister of science and research technology as well as four universities highly regarded for their science programs. "The basic idea was to start a conversation about where science is going in the 21st century and lay some groundwork for increased interactions between Iranian and American universities and faculty and institutions," Leebron said.


Condoleezza Rice speaks to Rice

(11/21/08 12:00am)

From a non-partisan standpoint, the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president showed the world an example of true democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a speech last week. Rice spoke at a gala last Thursday commemorating the 15th anniversary of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, a nonpartisan scholarly think tank focusing on research on domestic and foreign policy issues. The institute was ranked among the top 30 think tanks in the United States by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in January.


Jones Graduate School of Management ranked among top 25 in nation

(11/21/08 12:00am)

In a time when job security is questionable, it is comforting to know that at least one degree at Rice can earn you money. The Financial Times and The Economist have both ranked Rice MBA programs at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management within the past two months among the top 25 in the nation this year based largely on post-graduate salary, and U.S. News and World Report ranked the Jones School 40th in the nation. These rankings have increased from last year and have been steadily on the rise since 2004, Sean Ferguson, Jones School assistant dean of degree programs, said.


Registrar adds ESTHER restrictions

(11/14/08 12:00am)

As online registration for spring semester classes began this week on ESTHER, some students encountered several inconveniences which prevented them from signing up for upper-level courses. For this registration period, the Registrar's Office is implementing the prerequisite rule established by the academic departments, which bars students who have not taken the required courses from registering for classes, Registrar David Tenney (Sid '87) said. Instead, students will need to bring a Special Registration form to the appropriate department and obtain the professor's signature to enroll in the course. However, the main difficulty was differentiating between what the academic departments deemed as hard prerequisites, which are absolutely required courses, and soft prerequisites, which are recommended courses, Tenney said.


Sociology professor Lindsay wins award for work in religion

(11/07/08 12:00am)

Assistant Sociology Professor Michael Lindsay won two coveted awards last month for his work in chronicling the rise of the religious evangelicals in American society. The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion annually selects one article as exemplary in advancing religious studies. This year the Distinguished Article recognition is awarded to Lindsay for his article entitled "Evangelicals in the Power Elite: Elite Cohesion Advancing in Movement," which was published in the academic journal American Sociological Review.