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(04/09/10 12:00am)
The Thresher is retracting the usage of the word "fraud" in the March 19 article "Annual Fund monies fraud," following the decision by Vice President for Resource Development Darrow Zeidenstein to send a letter to Martel College parents and alumni explaining the unintentionally misleading machine-generated signature that appeared on a letter previously sent by the Annual Fund in Martel President Sean McBeath's name. The Thresher regrets any mischaracterization that may have occurred.
(04/09/10 12:00am)
In order to ensure that any budget cuts required in the future are made with attention to students' opinions, the Student Association has established a Budget Planning Committee to represent student interests in budgetary issues to the Dean of Undergraduates and the Office of Finance (see story, page 1). This step, if properly enacted, will promote a financial system that works with, rather than against, the student body and produces outcomes that, if not optimal, are at least mutually agreed to be the best options under the circumstances.The SA has decided to limit the committee to six student members. While this small size will allow the program to be more efficient, it also risks reducing the influence of the committee into obscurity. Such an advocacy organization can only succeed if it truly voices the opinions of all it represents.
(04/09/10 12:00am)
Although Rice lauds its international emphasis, in both its students and fields of study, the university just got a little less worldly with the decision to cut the doctoral track in the French Studies Department (see story, page 5). The death of this program, the result of university budget cuts, marks the end of the line for graduate programs in language study.Although we understand that the small size of the French graduate program makes it a predictable target for required budget cuts, this decision is the latest in a longterm university pattern that is disappointing and unworthy of the status the university seeks to maintain.
(03/26/10 12:00am)
Unlike the campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators, the university's architects seem to have nothing to do but plan. Last November, University Architect David Rodd presented the Campus Master Plan to the Rice community ("Master plan presented at SA meeting," Nov. 13, 2009). In the months since, the Student Association has been scrambling to ensure that the student body's opinion will be considered in these designs. The results of the SA's Master Plan Survey were presented Monday (see story, page 1).The 640 students who participated in the survey clearly had strong views on the aspects of campus that they valued. Students expressed support for green space, student center renovations, underground parking garages, traditional architecture and the retention of the current football stadium.
(03/26/10 12:00am)
Even the best-laid plans for outdoor events can be derailed by weather. However, plans for Beer Bike were not as well-laid as they could have been, and on Saturday a day of frigid showers threw the event into chaos.Although weather forecasts days in advance all but guaranteed rain for the event, as of Saturday morning, Beer Bike was scheduled to occur as planned. It was not until thousands of drunken, shivering college students arrived at the Beer Bike track that the campus-wide coordinators announced that the men's, women's and exhibition races would be rescheduled. Massive supplies of food that were ordered in advance had to be reshuffled, and hundreds of pizzas were left unclaimed, advertised only by some e-mail listservs, in the Rice Memorial Center that afternoon while students at the tracks and at their colleges went hungry. Why not leave the food at the tracks for the duration of the event or at the colleges?
(03/19/10 12:00am)
In the March 19 issue, the Thresher reported in the article "Casino party security pays off" that undercover Houston Police Department officers made an appearance at Lovett's Casino Party. The officers in attendance were actually representing the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission. The Thresher regrets the error.
(03/19/10 12:00am)
This Saturday, more than 60 students attended a healthcare debate hosted by the Baker Institute Student Forum and Rice Young Democrats at Hanszen College (see story, page 1). Sure, the food may have played a part - serveries were closed, and the event promised Vietnamese sandwiches and tacos. But the food ran out in the first few minutes, and students remained to listen to Democratic and Republican students debate the relative merits and issues of healthcare reform.We at the Thresher are pleased. Not necessarily because the Tacos a Go Go proved the event to be a success - those wandering in the Hanszen Commons just two minutes after the debate began were too late for the food - but because of the implications of this attendance. Sure, serveries were closed, and the food was a step above what most might purchase on campus on Saturday evening, but more than 60 students remained for the final vote at the end of the debate, which showed a fairly even bipartisan split. For a campus that must alert, and almost force, its students to attend alumna and Houston Mayor Annise Parker's (Jones '78) Rice speech by delaying servery dinner, getting this many students to show up to a student debate is especially noteworthy.
(03/19/10 12:00am)
We are pleased with Rice's selection of Rick Greenspan as athletic director, following Chris Del Conte's departure for Texas Christian University in October (see story, page 1). Greenspan has some large shoes to fill: Under Del Conte's tenure, Rice saw the opening of Tudor Fieldhouse, the renovation of Reckling Park, three consecutive Conference USA championships for the women's track and field team and back-to-back bowl appearances by the football team, just to touch on a few of Rice athletics' accomplishments in the past three years.However, we are confident that Greenspan will rise to the challenge and continue to take Rice athletics in the direction that Del Conte started. With experience at big conference schools that also do not put a main priority on football, such as Indiana University, Greenspan is the perfect fit for Rice athletics, especially when facing potential team conference reassignments. Also, we are happy to hear that Greenspan is planning to increase student involvement even more so than Del Conte did, and we are hoping that the recently established Varsity Sports Liaison program in the residential colleges has an opportunity to flourish under his purview, to encourage students to support teams other than their college's bike and chug teams.
(03/19/10 12:00am)
And so begins the event that needs no introduction. Maybe the alumni wandering back to campus have tipped you off, or maybe the abnormally copious amounts of free booze have alerted you to this weekend's festivities. Regardless, tomorrow begins the most sacred tradition in Rice history: chugging, biking, chanting college cheers.So we'd like to be responsible for a minute and just remind you a) to wear sunscreen, and b) to not be stupid. The former should be simple enough: You can even get sunburned on overcast days, and according to the latest weather reports, it looks like Saturday will be rainy. The latter, however, we cannot stress enough. This semester alone has seen its share of Beer Bike parade debates, and we'd be overjoyed to see this year's parade and races go off without a hitch. So control yourself. Have fun, but if you can tell, even in a drunken stupor, that what you're doing is a bad idea, don't do it. It's (probably) not worth maiming yourself to earn the respect of that tattooed hottie.
(03/12/10 12:00am)
In the article "Non-major Humanities courses cut" in the Feb. 26 issue, the Thresher reported that all Humanities courses not directly related to a major would be cut next year. Instead, just two pre-professional journalism courses, HUMA 250: Writing for Print Media and HUMA 251: Typography and Design, will be cut. No other courses are slated to be cut at this time. In the article "Tuition rises 5 percent due to endowment losses" in the Feb. 26 issue, the Thresher reported the total for tuition, fees and room and board for 2010-11 would increase to $48,500. Tuition will actually only increase to $45,500, which is $3,000 less than the Thresher reported.
(03/12/10 12:00am)
It's that time of year again: Some staffers are stepping out, and new ones are stepping in, contributing to a vastly different office environment. We'd like to look back on this year and offer our thanks to the following seniors for their dedication:Casey Michel, our outgoing editor in chief, led us through countless late nights with his mellow attitude and refusal to nap - instead, fearlessly preferring to power through the night with countless cans of Red Bull. He helped bring the Web site into the 21st century by expanding our multimedia efforts and helped push the Thresher into the Twittersphere.
(03/12/10 12:00am)
Rice may be an arboretum, but an art museum it is not. So we were pleased to hear of the university's successful bid to host sculptor James Surls' bronze and steel work through the end of August (see story, pg. 1). Rice secured the sculptures over several Houston parks and promenades, and the works, which were previously exhibited on New York's Park Avenue, are scattered across campus. In light of next week's events, our first question has to be: Are these sculptures jackable? But, Willy Week aside, we see this as a positive addition to our campus that does not destroy the ambiance. Our only beef with the sculptures has to do with their aesthetic appeal. The works are divisive, and in fact, many on our staff consider them downright ugly, which is why we are also relieved this is a temporary exhibit. However, when push comes to shove, we hope this signals the beginning of a trend to bring more art to campus and to appreciate structures beyond the construction of the next mega-college. We hope Rice will strengthen its ties with the Houston art scene - a large, talented community - and look into bringing more traveling exhibits to campus. What better way to connect with the surrounding community?
(02/26/10 12:00am)
Rice recently announced that it is perpetuating a disheartening trend in tuition hikes, increasing undergraduate tuition by 5.4 percent for the 2010-11 school year to reach a whopping $33,120 (see story, page 1). This continues the university's decades-old pattern of steadily increasing tuition year after year, often without regard to the national economic picture or external considerations of its students. In the past 10 years alone, the increases have combined to entail more than a doubling of undergraduate tuition. The latest increase is, frankly, insensitive. The administration has spent the past year preaching about the difficult economic situation in justification of multiple budget cuts. Since the fall of 2008, we have endured cuts in academic departments, budget reductions in the residential colleges, staff-wide hiring freezes, the non-renewal of contracts and the elimination of many courses. Times are hard, we're told, so we simply must learn to do without luxuries such as newspapers and college courses taught by professionals.
(02/19/10 12:00am)
Though Duncan College and McMurtry College have made large strides in their paths to becoming full-fledged residential colleges, they are still facing an enormous setback: Both of the colleges still do not have enough transfer students from Baker College, Brown College, Hanszen College and Wiess College to fully subsist. To rectify this, all freshmen from these colleges have received invitations to transfer (see story, page 1). Though we are happy that Baker freshmen now have an opportunity to transfer and remain with their Duncan friends, we are disappointed that the university underestimated college loyalty when planning the transfer process. As a result, Duncan and McMurtry will face more challenges in the future: Both colleges will now have an incredibly large class of 2013, in addition to their disproportionate upperclassmen classes and larger classes in future years.
(02/19/10 12:00am)
After weeks of preparation by candidates and referendum representatives, Student Association General Elections began at 11:59 p.m. last night, and will be open until Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 2 p.m. Voting is open at sa.rice.edu and all candidates can be found in this year's Student Elections pull-out, beginning on page 11. For the three blanket tax proposals, the Thresher makes the following recommendations:-By-Law Amendment #2009.01 - KTRU Blanket Tax increase
(02/12/10 12:00am)
In last week's article on college budget cuts ("College course budgets face cuts," Feb.5), the Thresher reported that college courses began two years ago. Student-taught courses began two years ago, whereas college courses have been around for more than ten years. The Thresher also reported that college course budgets were cut after some colleges did not use up their college course budget. However, the colleges were spending their entire course budget on courses taught by professional instructors, and the decision to cut the college course budget was based on an expression of support for, and confidence in, the continued growth and impact of the student-taught course program. The Thresher regrets these errors.
(02/12/10 12:00am)
As group invitations supporting particular Student Association candidates begin to clog our revamped Facebook feeds this week, we realize another SA election is rapidly approaching. When looking to the future of the SA and the university as a whole this time of year, the Thresher has begun a tradition of evaluating the SA's actions over the previous year, offering suggestions to the presidential candidates as they plan not only for their campaigns but also their future terms.Brown College junior Tiffany Wu and Martel College junior Selim Sheikh have begun campaigns for the position of SA president for the majority of the 2010-11 school year. One of them will take on the position at a relatively good time for the SA, as the association has evolved from the "rubber-stamp" institution that we admonished three years ago into the student forum for discussion and movement that it was intended to be ("SA needs its own Vision," Feb. 23, 2007).
(02/05/10 12:00am)
On Monday, the proposed changes to this year's Beer Bike parade were put to a vote to the college coordinators, who proceeded to veto the proposal (see story, page 1). We commend the college coordinators for reflecting the majority student opinion, illustrated in the recent Student Association poll, and for supporting the continuation of the original parade format. We thank all the Beer Bike coordinators for listening to the student voice. While on the subject of voting, we feel that in the future, it would be prudent to elect campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators rather than appointing them, in order to avoid a distinct disconnect between the campus-wide coordinators and the rest of the student body like the one which arose this year.
(02/05/10 12:00am)
The Office of the Dean of Undergraduates has announced that college course budgets will be cut in accordance with next school year's university-wide 5 percent budget cuts (see story, page 1). In what was once a budget flush with $5,000 allotted per college, the college course funds were hacked to $3,000 this year, and will plummet to a proposed $250 next year. It is the university's expectation that students will come to the courses' rescue by opting to fund college courses from their general college budgets. While we understand the need to cut costs in an economy as tepid as this, we are perplexed by the current trend of dumping intellectually invigorating Rice traditions in lieu of other means. For instance, it was just a year ago that we had local and national newspapers scattered on our commons' tables. But due to budget constraints, they are no more. And it now appears that college courses, student-taught or otherwise, are on a similar path, which is both disturbing and disappointing.
(02/05/10 12:00am)
The administration has decided to postpone a final decisionregarding the potential installation of granite rings around Willy's statue in the academic quad to commemorate donors giving at least $4.6 million - the amount which William
