Elaine Howard Ecklund, director of the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University, presented the results from a survey on the relationship between science and religion. The conference, titled “Matter and Meaning: Exploring the Religion and Science Dialogue,” was held at various locations across campus on Oct. 24.
The Rice University Smash Community raised over $100 for charity in its first Super Smash Bros. tournament, which took place Oct. 21 at the Rice Memorial Center Grand Hall lobby.
Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy hosted a question-and-answer session on Israel’s regional security issues with Meir Dagan, former director of the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, on Oct. 14. It was moderated by the Honorable Edward P. Djerejian, the founding director of Baker Institute.
In accordance with the post-centennial vision, the Student Association University Standing Committee on Teaching is reassessing teacher and course evaluations. The new subcommittee collected results of its survey on how to improve the current evaluation system and asked for feedback from SA members at the second SA Senate meeting on Oct. 21. The survey had a sample size of 72 students and consisted of multiple choice questions and free-response space for suggestions. Student representative Amber Lo said the Esther course evaluation survey offers the Committee license to implement any changes it may seek to make.USC student representative Alexandra Franklin said many students suggested mid-semester evaluations. She also said changes may be difficult to institute in light of the differences between course and exam structure, midterm dates and class sizes. She said some evaluations may be outliers that are not representative overall.“One really bad review — even if all other reviews are really great — can really affect how your ratings come out in the spreadsheet,” Franklin, a Brown College junior, said. “One of the ideas is to cut the ‘extreme evaluations’…so that the students have a more accurate view of what a typical student feels about the class.” Currently, teachers must generate their own questions to conduct mid-semester surveys, which are rarely conducted. Lo, a Hanszen College sophomore, said the Committee is looking into a possible standardization of these mid-semester surveys. Franklin said a likely obstacle is that there is no foreseeable way to penalize students who don’t complete mid-semester evaluations, whereas viewing grades may be put on hold for incomplete end-of-semester surveys.Franklin said while the Committee is still gathering feedback, they have been discussing with Registrar David Tenney (Sid Richardson ’87) the option of adding a survey question at the end of the add/drop form related to why the student decided to drop the class. Franklin sees this as a solution to the current exclusion of opinions of those who left a course. “In this committee, we’re really advocating for the student voice, and we’re making sure that the students are able to continue seeing what they want out of the evaluations — and getting even more out to them,” Franklin said.Lo said all 72 surveyed students consider the course evaluations an important factor in choosing their classes, and the Committee’s ultimate goal is to make this tool more effective. Both student representatives said, while changes will not be made this semester, the University Standing Committee on Teaching will continue to meet to set an action plan for future modifications.
Rice recently established the Rice Office of STEM Engagement, abbreviated R-STEM, in order to coordinate all the science, technology, engineering and mathematics outreach efforts at the university, according to Director Carolyn Nichol.“The office will serve as a main source for people to go to if they have questions about STEM outreach at Rice, because there are quite a lot of different ones distributed throughout campus,” Nichol said. “We can help people with their outreach efforts by, for instance, telling them what forms they need to fill out or supporting their efforts with funding.”According to Nichol, the office will help faculty by recruiting students for outreach programs that are required by their grant proposals. R-STEM will also help undergraduates who wish to reach outside the hedges and increase K-12 students’ interest in STEM fields. R-STEM also hopes to ensure that the undergraduates’ teaching relates to what the students are learning in class. “R-STEM will work with school districts and teachers in the Houston area, as well as Rice faculty and students,” Nichol said.According to Nichol, the office will serve K-12 teachers and school districts by working with them to improve their STEM education. The office will also serve as a point of contact between faculty and school districts to streamline the process of creating STEM programs.Additionally, R-STEM will help nonprofit organizations, such as Project Grad, Genesis Works and Houston A+ Challenge, as well as connect with Rice undergraduates to help students in the greater community. Many of these nonprofits seek to help potential first generation college students gain an interest in continuing their education by showing them the opportunities that are available to them in STEM fields, according to Nichol. According to Vice Provost of Research Yousif Shamoo, the impact R-STEM will have is two-fold; it will help faculty with obtaining funding for their research by helping them satisfy their grant proposals’ requirements for broad impact STEM programs and will help increase Rice’s impact on the greater community.Rice has a large impact on the community for a school of its size, Nichol said. “We have so many people with great hearts who share their knowledge with the greater community,” Nichol said.According to Nichol, many of Rice’s faculty are involved with STEM outreach. For example, once a week, biochemistry and cell biology professors Elizabeth Eich and Beth Beason-Abmayr teach high school biology teachers engaging teaching strategies. Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson teaches high school chemistry teachers, and physics professor Jason Hafner teaches high school physics teachers. Additionally, Rice faculty and teachers who are involved in ConocoPhillips Rice Elementary Model Science Lab teach elementary school teachers nontraditional and engaging educating methods.Former Vice Provost of Research Vicki Colvin suggested that a central office for STEM outreach programs be created. This streamlined the process of creating outreach programs. Students and faculty who wish to establish these programs can now learn how to design and start these programs through the central office. Nichol said she believes STEM outreach is crucial for Rice and for the greater Houston community.“A lot of students, especially inner-city students, don’t have role models or mentors and don’t know what the possibilities are in STEM careers,” Nichol said. “These students don’t see all of the opportunities that could be available to them if they get science or engineering degrees. We want to engage them at young ages and help them become the science and engineering leaders of the future.”
The members of the Student Association Blanket Tax Standing Committee have been finalized and will review organizations receiving blanket-tax funding. As of Oct. 8, appointed members include Lovett College freshman Andy Yuwen, McMurtry College sophomore Giray Ozseker and Jones College sophomore Akeem Ogunkeye. The blanket tax organization officers are Duncan College senior and University Court Chair Brian Baran and Martel College junior and Rice Program Council Treasurer Ronald Foo. SA Treasurer Joan Liu said the Committee is currently working on submissions and meetings with organizations. “Our next steps are to meet with each organization’s president, treasurer and sponsor to discuss the submitted documents and any questions the committee has for the organization,” Liu, a Jones sophomore, said. Liu said the Committee is responsible for conducting the annual review of all organizations receiving blanket tax funding. The Committee is also responsible for accessing proposals to increase or decrease existing blanket tax allocations. “We are also responsible for providing the Student Association with an understanding and evaluation of how subsidiary organizations’ operations and use of student funding aligns with their individual missions and purposes as well as with the interests of the student body and the Rice University community,” Liu said. In light of the ongoing Honor Council contingency process, Liu said she does not anticipate any major changes. “We, as a committee, will review all organizations to the best of our ability in accordance with the Student Association Constitution, and I am confident the blanket tax organizations will do their best to follow the process constitutionally,” Liu said.Baran expressed a similar opinion. “While the Committee will be aware of the outcome of the contingency process for Honor Council, its review will be conducted in the same manner as the review for any other subsidiary organization,” Baran said.
Fondren Library administration implemented a new, more restrictive food and drink policy this month, according to Rice University Librarian Sara Lowman. “It was only three years ago that we actually started allowing students to bring food or drink in the library, and we never had an official policy,” Diane Butler, Fondren’s director of Information Technology and Access Services said. Butler said the unregulated flow of food into the library has created various problems for the administration.“First of all, the furniture is expensive,” Butler said. “But we’re also trying to preserve the collection. This is a very expensive [environment]. We have computer equipment and rare archives. So the motivation for this policy certainly wasn’t just one incident; it was a culmination of everything. We finally felt we needed an official policy.”With Lowman’s approval, Butler oversaw policy development, coordinated staff and revised proposals with an executive board. Fondren did not solicit student input to craft the new food and drink policy. “A rough draft of the policy was drafted among access services, which monitors the doors and building,” Butler said. “They researched the food/drink policies at other universities. Then [the executive] tweaked the policy according to what we thought would be best.”However, the library’s lack of concern for student opinion has generated negative feedback, according to some students.“Student input should be considered when forming policies that would affect studying habits in Fondren,” Jackie Olive, a Duncan College sophomore, said. “[Students] can represent their residential colleges or other interest groups to provide input into policies that best serve students.”Fondren administration sought student input when renovating study rooms this past summer.“In the spring of 2014, we ran two focus groups, one with undergraduates and one with graduate students,” Butler said. “We asked them what their ideal study environment was. Based on their comments, we decided what to do in the 24 study rooms due for renovation.”Olive suggested the use of online student surveys to gauge student opinion beforehand.“I was unaware of any serious concerns of the library staff, faculty or students, so it would have been beneficial to increase awareness of the issues before the policy was constructed and enacted,” Olive said. One of the policy’s key components is that it prohibits disposable cups, such as those provided at Coffeehouse and in the serveries.“The reason for [the prohibition of paper cups] is because, if you’ve ever had a disposable cup, you know that if you drop it, the entire cup explodes on the floor,” Butler said.Lowman said the library also views the policy as a push for sustainability on campus.“[The food and drink policy is] actually a green initiative, too,” Lowman said. “We’re just cutting down on waste.”Wiess College sophomore Olivia Nixon said she would have been more supportive of the policy if she knew it was meant to be a green initiative. “If that was the real reason they changed the policy, that would be a good thing,” Nixon said. The new food and drink policy relies on the student body’s sense of respect and understanding, according to Lowman.“We hope that students will understand that this policy is meant to enhance the experience and is in everybody’s interest,” Lowman said. “It’s green, it’s going to help preserve the library, it will make it feel cleaner and people can still eat self-contained foods that are not messy or smelly. We hope students will comply and just bring their coffee in these sealed cups.”
After two website crashes, a random lottery drawing and a first come, first serve sale, Esperanza tickets are currently completely sold out. This year, the homecoming formal held by Rice Program Council is being hosted off campus for the first time in three years at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. RPC is currently looking into booking the second floor of HMNS to allow more students to attend, according to RPC President Aisha Jeeva. Esperanza tickets first went on sale through the Rice IT signup.rice.edu site at lunchtime on Oct. 15; the website crashed in ten minutes because of high traffic. According to Jeeva, RPC sold 300 tickets during this period. RPC has used this site for the past three formals without any issues.RPC contacted students whose purchases were successfully processed and released the link for purchasing tickets again on Oct. 20. Jeeva said the site crashed again after 128 more tickets were sold. “After the first crash, Rice IT said there were issues with their coding and the traffic, that they should have fixed them all, and they didn’t anticipate another crash,” Jeeva said. “Clearly, that was not the case. We will most likely not use signup.rice.edu again. The crash has caused significant stress and trouble for us, and this has been compounded by the fact that it was completely out of our control — we are not Rice IT and cannot maintain control over the website as it is hosted and maintained by Rice.”In light of the difficulties with the website, RPC decided to sell the remaining 772 tickets through a random lottery drawing.“We were not willing to risk a third crash of Rice IT’s website, and IT was unable to guarantee us that their website would not crash again,” Jeeva said. “[Additionally,] we received a lot of feedback about students who have … time commitments that would prevent them from being able to log on and purchase tickets at an assigned time.”Students were notified if they were selected to purchase tickets on Oct. 24, after which they had the opportunity to claim their ticket on Oct. 27 and 28. If a student did not pick up their ticket, it was given to the next person on the waitlist. Approximately 950 students remain on the waitlist.Will Rice College freshman Anecia Gentles said she requested two tickets through the drawing, but was not sure if she had been chosen in the lottery or not due to an email mix-up.“I got an email saying that I got [tickets] in the drawing, and then 20 minutes later I got an email saying that unfortunately I had not [won tickets] in the drawing,” Gentles said. “I ended up getting the tickets and RPC said someone just copied and pasted my name into the wrong email.”According to Jeeva, RPC negotiated with HMNS and the Houston Fire Department to increase the venue capacity from 1,200 to 1,375. Jeeva said these additional 175 tickets were sold on a first come, first serve basis as students requested.Martel College freshman Marisa Hudson waited in line for two hours for tickets but was too far back to receive any. “[My] only objection to the lottery system is that people cannot give/sell tickets to their friends who desperately want tickets but were not selected in the lottery drawings,” Hudson said. “Several of my friends have offered to give me tickets, and I have to keep reminding them that they have to do it through the RPC, and that it goes to the next person on the waitlist.”Jeeva said that since Esperanza was not being held at an accessible, on-campus location, demand was difficult to predict. She said the novelty of this year’s venue may have contributed to the high demand.“While we definitely expected to sell out, we did not expect this degree of popularity,” Jeeva said. “It took 16 days to sell out the 2013 Esperanza, and 20 days for the 2012 Centennial Esperanza.”In total, about 36 percent of Rice’s 3,800 undergraduate students have the opportunity to attend. According to Jeeva, the current size of 1,375 is more than twice that of Rondelet in spring 2014, and increasing the size of the venue would result in increased costs not only from renting the space but also from hiring EMS staff and police officers, reserving ambulances, and providing amenities and transportation.Jeeva said RPC is looking into booking the second floor of the museum and is currently getting quotes from caterers, the museum and police. Booking the additional floor would allow for 500 to 600 more attendees. According to Jeeva, RPC’s current blanket tax allocation places a restraint on the organization’s events.“If it is fiscally sustainable, we will book it,” Jeeva said. “If the increased prices cannot be sustained by our current budget, we won’t. We could absolutely seek larger venues with additional blanket tax going towards the event, in which [case] more students would get to go. RPC frequently puts out surveys asking for feedback, and we will be sure to include questions regarding this before making a decision.”Jeeva said RPC is currently evaluating possible changes to the ticket selling method for Rondelet in the spring.“Will we use a random drawing system again?” Jeeva said. “Probably not. Did we think it was the best decision at the time, a way to provide a fair shot for everyone to get tickets and a quick response to people’s frustration without having to risk a potential third crash? Absolutely. [For Rondelet], we will do our best to find an online first come, first serve way to distribute tickets.”Emily Rao and News Editor Andrew Ta contributed to this article.
The Student Association Blanket Tax Contingency Committee met with Honor Council on Oct. 27 to discuss the organization’s projected budget for the coming year. Honor Council’s projected 2014-15 budget, which was submitted two days after the Contingency Committee’s Oct. 20 deadline, allocated $6,107.33 for annual expenditures out of the $12,190 revenue from its current $2.00 blanket tax. This leaves an annual surplus of 50 percent the current proposed budget does not account for. Missing DocumentsHonor Council has not yet submitted its expense reports from the past four years, which were requested by the Contingency Committee two weeks ago. The deadline for these submissions was Oct. 20. According to University Court Chair Brian Baran, if Honor Council does not comply with the Contingency Committee’s requests, it can be referred to UCourt and held in violation of the SA Constitution. “An organization that fails to comply with the oversight procedures for student money is not a good steward of student money,” Baran, a Duncan College senior, said. BifurcationAn issue Honor Council raised in the meeting was the Faculty Senate’s proposal to bifurcate Honor Council into two separate undergraduate and graduate branches. In a letter to the Contingency Committee, Honor Council Chair Hurst Williamson said bifurcation will lower the total blanket tax amount the organization receives and will make any blanket tax amount lower than $2.00 insufficient for the needs of Honor Council if it goes into effect.“If graduate students no longer contribute to the Honor Council’s blanket tax income, any blanket tax less than the current $2.00 puts the Honor Council at risk of being unable to fulfill its mission,” Williamson, a Hanszen College senior, wrote. The possibility of Honor Council’s bifurcation assumes that, with 4,000 undergraduates, the $2.00 blanket tax will result in $8,000 revenue for the organization. This still leaves approximately $2,000 of surplus unaccounted for in the proposed budget. Replacement CostsThe proposed budget allocates $2,000 for furniture replacement every five years and $6,898 for technology replacement every three years. The three-year replacements include a $1,099 computer, a $549 printer and $5,250 for tablets priced at $350 each. During the meeting, the committee questioned whether it was necessary for computers and tablets to be replaced every three years. However, Honor Council advisor Lisa Zollner said the organization has consulted with sources, and concluded that this replacement schedule is appropriate.“We’ve chatted with people who have been through many, many cycles of replacement and their notion was that replacing a computer any longer than every three years, you’re putting the data at risk of being lost,” Zollner said. According to the United States Internal Revenue Service property depreciation values, computers are scheduled as five-year property while furniture is seven-year property.Baran said his organization does not feel the need to replace UCourt computers on a three-year schedule. “UCourt replaces computers when they stop working,” Baran said. According to Zollner, it is important that Honor Council replaces its computers and tablets frequently to ensure that important files and transcripts aren’t lost due to old computers crashing. “I don’t want to wait until [Honor Council is] in a crisis,” Zollner said. “I want to make sure that the Council has clean, well-functioning machines, because if it crashes and inhibits their ability to hear cases, it is a disaster.” Contingency Committee voting member and Blanket Tax Officer Anastasia Bolshakov said there are more reasonable ways to ensure the safety of files than to purchase new hardware every three years. “There are more economical ways to ensure that your files are backed up, such as a backup drive, which is what [blanket tax organizations] Thresher and Campanile use, or a Rice-provided server,” Bolshakov, a Duncan College senior, said. Bolshakov, who is also editor in chief of the Campanile, said her organization does not frequently replace computers, despite the fact that they store hundreds of gigabytes in files and are used for extensive design and editing.“We wait until [the computers] are on their dying legs,” Bolshakov said. Changeover DinnerThe committee also raised concerns regarding the projected expense of $1,500 for Honor Council’s changeover dinner, which takes place at a private venue off campus. According to Williamson, the Honor Council changeover dinner requires privacy due to the sensitive nature of the topics discussed and the officer elections that take place at the time. “We want to make sure that we are not opening up any cases [or] student’s names, even though we never use student’s names, heaven forbid, slip of the tongue,” Williamson said. “We want to make sure nobody from Rice is potentially around to hear that. It’s an argument for moving it off of campus [and] getting a private room.”The Committee asked Honor Council to look into other options of private places on campus and lowering the overall cost of the dinner from its current price of $50 per person to $25 per person, which is comparable to the amount other blanket tax organizations spend on their end-of-year dinners. Last year, Campanile and Thresher spent $779 on a joint dinner catered at Farnsworth Pavilion, which cost $19.48 per person. UCourt spent $18.50 per person for a 17-person dinner that totalled $315. SurplusIn the meeting, Zollner said while the surplus in the projected annual budget has not been allocated for any specific spending, it might be used in the future to fund educational conferences for members of Honor Council.“I do know that at some point the Honor Council leadership attended conferences and received training,” Zollner said. “That’s something that we’d like to leave a little space for [in the budget].”While Williamson’s letter said Honor Council members have attended conferences in previous years, there is no record in previously submitted budgets and expenses of the organization’s surplus being used to fund the expenses for these conferences in the past. Williamson also wrote in his letter that Honor Council would be willing to return $16,000 of its current rollover budget to the SA if its blanket tax funding remained at $2.00. Bolshakov said this proposal does not address the issue of how student blanket tax money is being handled. “It’s a valiant proposition, but what is the SA going to do with that money?” Bolshakov said. “It’s the blanket tax of students that no longer go here.”
A new, mandatory survey for all Rice University undergraduate and graduate students will be released through email by the end of this week. A hold will be placed on registration until it is completed, according to John Cornwell, the associate vice president of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.Cornwell said the purpose of the new survey is to collect much-needed information for the university in a more convenient and streamlined way. The survey will average 15 minutes or less to complete and is designed to be highly specific.“We don’t want to bother students with questions that are not relevant to them,” Cornwell said. “Questions in the survey will be divided into sections specific to various student subpopulations — first-year freshmen, transfer students, international students, athletes, etc. The survey is actually going to be a lot bigger in terms of data collected, but what the students get should be tailored to what we need to know from them. If a question doesn't apply to you, you won’t see it.”According to Cornwell, the survey is a collaboration among various administrative groups on campus and the Student Association. It will include questions on academic interests and major declaration, dropping courses after the add/drop deadline, new student transition, internship and research experiences, and extracurricular interests.“Our approach was to keep the survey fairly short — because we know that’s important — and to collect information that we really need and that will be used,” Cornwell said. “We want to know what we should be putting our energy behind in terms of what students can do here at Rice. With the survey scheduled earlier in the semester, we’ll have results out before the semester is over, so if there are issues we need to act upon we’ll be able to deal with it a lot faster.”In the long term, the survey will be conducted twice a year, and the data will be used to identify trends to improve student life and maintain standards, according to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. The spring semester survey will include more questions about student satisfaction with the variety of services and resources on campus.“By that time, students will have experienced more and developed more informed opinions,” Cornwell said. “The time boundary means that we can ask appropriate questions in the spring that wouldn’t make sense to ask in the fall and vice versa.”“We should be creating a culture here where students want to give feedback because they’re intrinsically motivated to help the university become a better place,” Cornwell said. “There’s a reverse obligation from the university to do something with that information. The bottom line is that with this new survey, we’re trying to be convenient, we’re trying to honor the students and we want students to expect something out of it.”Brian Baran, a Duncan College senior, said he hoped questions would be asked in a way so that legitimate conclusions could be drawn from the data produced.“The last big survey I remember was the add/drop survey, which I found quite problematic,” Baran said. “Many of the questions were biased, the data did not support the conclusions drawn by the Committee on the Undergraduate Curriculum, and most of the results were never made public. If the all-student survey can avoid these issues, I think it can be a positive development for the community.”Surveys attempted by the SA in the past have been limited by the lack of student response, according to SA Treasurer Joan Liu.“I think the mandatory nature of the survey is a good effort towards collecting information more representative of the entire student body,” Liu, a Jones College sophomore, said. “I’m confident that however the survey is executed will be in the best interest of the student.”
A team of three Rice University students entitled Rice Gray won first place at the South Central USA regionals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest on Oct. 4. The winners are Jose Vera-Garza, a Lovett College sophomore, Philip Taffet, a Duncan College sophomore, and Nick Merritt, a Martel College junior.
Concur, a web-based travel and expense system, launched on Oct. 20, according to Tessie Skulskih, assistant controller of disbursements in Rice University’s Controller’s Office. “Now, they start using [Concur] to process expense reports; people can use it to book travel,” Skulski said. According to the Rice Concur website, this new system centralizes two things: first, travel issues such as booking and travel reimbursement; second, expense reimbursement processing, which includes Purchasing-Card reconciliation and cash advance processing. According to Skulski, the travel planning portion, although optional, helps faculty, staff and students traveling for university business better organize their trips. In addition, Skulski said it lowers costs for the university.“The travel part of it is not a mandatory tool,” Skulski said. “But it’s a mechanism for the university to be able to book airfare, hotel [and] car rentals in order to try and capture savings for the university on those expenses.”The expense system, according to Skulski, is applicable to various kinds of reimbursement and therefore points to something bigger: it signifies a fundamental shift from paper-based to Internet-based processing systems.“[The expense product] is a mechanism...that will replace the current system that we have in Webapps,” Skulski said. “It will move us away fromhhh paper.”Skulski said another advantage of Concur is that it is more mobile and accessible to users than Webapps because it eliminates the constraints of media and geographical location. “Up until today, you had to work with paper, and you had to have a computer,” Skulski said. “If you’re away from campus, you had to have VPN access. [Concur] is an internet-based application, does not require VPN access and it works not only on computers, but [also] on your tablets and mobile phones.”As the first day of operation ended with no unforeseen challenges, Skulski said she looks forward to the enthusiasm that whole-campus roll out will elicit. “I think in all the trainings that we have done, I sensed excitement about it,” Skulski said, “At the college treasurers meeting last month, we really sensed excitement from them because they want to get out of paper business as well.”Skulski said in the coming months, the Controller’s Office will continue to help all involved parties become familiar with the system.“We’re booked through the first week of November, and we’ve got more requests for departmental trainings,” Skulski said. “We foresee that we’re going to continue doing training to make sure everybody is on board and is comfortable using the product.”Vicky Yang, a McMurtry College treasurer, said she feels positive about Concur although she hasn’t started using it.“Right now we’re supposed to keep receipts for [a long time],” Yang, a sophomore, said. “[The new system] is good because it’s convenient, and we don’t have to do extra paper organizational work because everything is online. We can clear charges [and] upload electronic receipts, which makes more sense anyway.”
The Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (CENHS) is gathering student and faculty opinion on the possibility of a new environmental studies major, according to Dominic Boyer, director of CENHS and professor of anthropology.“We haven’t drafted a proposal or submitted anything, but the working group is meeting and doing events like [town hall meetings],” Boyer said. “We’re also reaching out to faculty and key members of the administration to try to get as many viewpoints as possible before drafting a proposal. We expect to have a proposal ready within just a few weeks.”According to Boyer, growing student interest motivated the proposal for a new environmental studies major.“The greatest motivation is that we’ve heard a lot from students who wished that there was an environmental studies degree program at Rice that worked for them in terms of their interests,” Boyer said.Although there are some programs already currently offered at Rice related to environmental studies, such as the environmental science secondary major and the energy and water sustainability minor, Boyer said the proposed environmental studies major will be more interdisciplinary in nature.“What we’re talking about is the need for a broad, cross-campus approach to environmental studies, one that’s not so much a specialized topic within one discipline, but more of an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that requires students to have some knowledge of science, engineering, humanities and social sciences, and to bring it all together,” Boyer said. “We’re thinking about giving students the opportunity to have a broader, more comprehensive introduction to environmental studies.”Boyer said there is no specific structure for the major at the moment and options are still being considered. According to Boyer, student opinion is also part of the planning for the proposal. “We don’t have a specific model that we’re trying to push, and we are looking closely at what our peer institutions are doing,” Boyer said. “We are exploring a range of options, from doing a minor to a major degree, or from a major degree with a single track to multiple tracks. This whole initiative is to try to provide a better approach to environmental studies from the point of view of the students.”Student Association Environmental Committee Co-Chair Ryan Saathoff said he would like Rice to have an environmental studies major, because it would provide more options for those who come from a social science and humanities background. “Coming here, if you’re interested in the social sciences and want to be involved in environmentalism, there’s not really a true track for you,” Saathoff, a Jones College junior, said. If you look at the current environmental science secondary major, it’s extremely engineering and natural science focused. That’s just not my cup of tea.”According to Boyer, students have voiced similar concerns about the current offerings in environmental studies.“From what I heard, especially at the end of the [town hall meeting], what we have in terms of our degree program is too specialized,” Boyer said. “We have such an abundance of courses but students feel like they’re having to put things together themselves. I think there’s a middle ground there where we can put a structured, well-rounded environmental studies learning experience.”Boyer also said there may be a need for more faculty once the new major is created, and the current offerings in environmental studies have not been maximized. “I think there is going to be a need for some increase in teaching power, but we have amazing resources that haven’t been fully tapped in some good way,” Boyer said. “We have 170 courses on the books right now that can contribute to this major or minor, and yet we don’t have them organized in a way that we’re really making full use them.”“I would say that, first thing, we should make better use of what we have, figure out where the gaps are and try to work with departments and the administration to see if we can fill in those gaps,” Boyer said.
The Class of 2015 had an opportunity to participate in their Senior Gift Campaign during the Senior Toast held at the Rice Gallery and Susan and Raymond Brochstein Courtyard. The Rice Annual Fund, which covers everything tuition and endowment cannot cover, including providing scholarship aid, hosted the event.Lovett College senior Sayra Alanis said she is a recipient of financial aid, and said she likes that she can now give back. “Somebody did it for us,” Alanis said. “We should do it for future students.” Students can choose to donate specifically to undergraduate scholarships, their respective college, athletic team, organization or simply to the area of greatest financial need. Hanszen College senior Hannelle Fares acknowledged that tuition is already steep , which brings to question whether students should have to feel compelled to give more money. “Helping out the student clubs that are important to me is worth the donation,” Fares said. Other seniors seem to also enjoy the ability to give back to the groups they were involved with during their four years at Rice. Baker College senior Rico Marquez recognized that college can be a formative time for all.“It’s nice to give back to organizations that helped make us who we are,” Marquez said.Jones College senior Vaughan Andrews also said he appreciated the option to donate to specific organizations. “My favorite experiences are because of the organizations I was involved with, so it’s nice to give back to those,” Andrews said. “This year’s Senior Gift goals are $12,000 and 70 percent participation amongst seniors,” Erika Moul, Rice Annual Fund Assistant Director, said.Moul said this goal exceeds the Class of 2014’s gift of $10,300 and participation rate of 63 percent. Duncan College Senior Gift Representative and Rice Annual Fund intern Anastasia Bolshakov believes the event went extremely well. “I had a ton of people come up to me at Senior Toast and tell me what a wonderful event it was. I’m glad that it went so well since many senior events were cut last year, it was a great way for us to celebrate our time at Rice,” Bolshakov said. The three residential colleges with the highest participation rates from seniors receive a monetary incentive. Last year, Jones College achieved 99 percent participation, making it the highest out of the residential colleges. The respective college this year will present the Senior Gift check during halftime at the Homecoming football game on Nov. 8.
Rice University has launched a Center of Quantum Materials to strengthen quantum materials research. Quantum materials are substances that show unique and novel physical properties, such as high temperature superconductivity, when subjected to extreme pressures and temperature.According to Qimiao Si, director of the Center for Quantum Materials, Rice has established itself as a leader of quantum materials — the new department of materials science and nanoengineering is just one example. Si, a Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess professor of physics and astronomy, said the center started as a multidisciplinary effort to collaborate across the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and George R. Brown School of Engineering, specifically in the four departments of chemistry, physics and astronomy, materials science and nanoengineering, and electrical and computer engineering.“We would like to set up a physical and intellectual infrastructure that makes it easier for graduate students and dedicated undergraduate students to have meetings across departments,” Si said. “The work that won the Nobel Prize by Rick Smalley, Bob Curl and Harry Kroto grew out of a culture of interdisciplinary research, and the center seeks to continue that tradition.”According to electrical engineering major JJ Allred, who is currently working in Dr. Junichiro Kono’s laboratory, he realized how reputable Rice is in the field of quantum materials when he was accepted to the NanoJapan program in the summer of his freshman year. “Rice is extremely reputable in this area of research — the buckyball was discovered here, two people who were involved in the discovery of the carbon nanotube are here and [in my laboratory] they have made a new carbon nanotube terahertz detector, the first of its kind,” Allred, a Martel College junior, said. “Dr. Kono has networks all over Japan and around the world — he is always traveling to present his work at conferences.”Si said the center aims to make Rice even better known for its research in quantum materials to other institutions across the world. “We will invite distinguished lecturers to visit Rice and give talks, try to attract more postdoctoral researchers and have workshops for the students,” Si said. “We will also focus on international collaborations with institutions in Europe and Asia — we already have new enhanced partnerships with institutions in Germany, France and China.”According to Si, although the center is currently oriented towards research faculty and graduate students, it aims to engage undergraduate students as well, particularly students who are interested in research in the natural sciences or engineering. “The center hopes to create more research opportunities for Rice undergraduates on campus,” Si said. “We also believe that the center will enhance the intellectual atmosphere that will trickle down to the undergraduate population.”According to Allred, the number of undergraduate research opportunities is currently sufficient in terms of student demand in the electrical engineering department. However, Allred said it may not be enough if the number of electrical engineering majors who wish to do research increases, for example, due to the department’s focus on graduate school.“The electrical engineering department is currently pushing for more people to go to graduate school for various reasons,” Allred said. “In this case, it is good to have more undergraduate research opportunities.”According to a recent Rice News release, Rice’s Office of the Provost and the vice provost for rhesearch have funded the center and are optimistic about the center’s future. Howard R. Hughes Provost George McLendon said the center will help Rice continue to grow in quantum materials research and hopefully spur new breakthroughs and major discoveries.
The SA Senate will continue evaluating the Lifetime Physical Activity Program requirement, especially for student athletes.According to LPAP Pod member Andy Yuwen, the Pod advised the SA Senate to create a committee to look into this issue further. “I would describe the current state of the LPAP as a requirement that attempts to fulfill an idealistic goal, and could do with some adjustments,” Yuwen, a Lovett College freshman, said. LPAP: Past In February 2012, the Thresher reported the SA was evaluating the LPAP requirement. After discussion, the Faculty Senate changed the LPAP requirement from a two-credit requirement to only one.“In the spring of 2012, the SA worked with the Recreation Center to conduct a brief survey of the undergraduate population to determine the usefulness of the LPAP requirement,” Associate Director of Recreation Center Programs Elizabeth Slator said. “It was overwhelmingly supported, but most students wished to have the requirements changed from two classes to one. ”Slator said Rice has had a physical education program in one form or another since it was founded in 1912. Originally, LPAPs and all of the Recreation Center was under the Kinesiology Department, until 2001, when Recreation became its own department and gained control of the LPAP program. John Boles (Will Rice ’65), the William P. Hobby Professor of History and author of three books on Rice’s history, said during his time at Rice, what is now called the LPAP was a required, year-long course that introduced students to a variety of recreational activities. “The idea [was] many of them would have had no experience with some of these sports, and that hopefully, people would find one or more [activities] that they would be able to participate in the rest of their lives,” Boles said. LPAP: FutureAccording to Slator, LPAP course offerings have evolved with the student interest, fitness trends and the availability of space.Slator said she thinks it is important to continually evaluate the effectiveness of LPAP instructors and the courses offered. However, she said she does not think it is necessary to continue a conversation about the LPAP requirement. “It has been decided repeatedly, and I do mean repeatedly, by both the Faculty Senate and the Student Association that the LPAP requirement should stand,” Slator said. Slator said most individuals, especially American college students, do not participate in physical activity that provides health benefits. “Given the tremendous amount of stress that Rice students suffer from and [its] physiological and psychological ramifications, offering courses that can potentially alleviate this problem are imperative,” Slator said. LPAP Pod DiscussionAccording to Yuwen, a small, rudimentary poll revealed the majority of the student community is strongly against a mandatory LPAP requirement for athletes, but almost all supported an option for student-athletes to take LPAP courses. Yuwen said within the Pod, he was the only supporter of removing student-athletes’ LPAP requirement.Yuwen said the main arguments in support of athletes’ LPAP requirement are to preserve their fifth year of eligibility by taking their LPAP requirement in their fifth year, to connect to the community and to demonstrate a full commitment to all aspects of lifetime fitness. “Student athletes at other universities pursue Master’s degrees or leave other major requirements for their fifth year of eligibility,” Yuwen said. “Not all student athletes feel disconnected from the community. Some choose to associate themselves with the team, and an optional LPAP requirement would solve this potentially perceived problem. The final argument [is one] I found blatantly disrespectful to Rice’s student-athletes. In my opinion, every Rice student-athlete has demonstrated enough commitment to lifetime fitness to at least be considered for exemption from the LPAP requirement.” Student Opinions According to Rice swimmer Taylor Armstrong, exercise is an important component in life, and the LPAP should be a Rice requirement. “Students forget that life consists [of things] outside of studying,” Armstrong, a Martel College junior, said. “Rice students forego their health for good grades, and taking an LPAP is a good reminder and introduction to healthier living.”However, Armstrong said she thinks the LPAP should be optional for athletes.“I know this may seem like a double standard, but we literally work out six days a week for a minimum of 2.5 hours at a time anyway,” Armstrong said. “Making [the LPAP] a requirement adds extra pressure and stress for us to fulfill graduation requirements that we don’t necessarily need.”Fifth-year senior Gabe Baker, a safety on the Rice football team, said he thinks LPAPs are an important component of the Rice experience but should not be required for athletes. “They do provide the opportunity for athletes to save the LPAP required class for their last, redshirt semester, like myself,” Baker, a resident of Brown College, said. “The only problem is the difficulty with registering and getting into an LPAP. If they gave a higher priority to students who need to fulfill their requirement, that would be better.”
The Student Association Blanket Tax Contingency Committee requested that the University Court clarify how its investigations into Honor Council’s finances should continue after the organization failed to respond to the committee’s questions by the Oct. 20 deadline. In the last Contingency Committee meeting, the committee sent Honor Council a list of questions regarding its budget and expenditures and a request for a written statement. However, since Honor Council missed the initial deadline to submit these documents, it is unclear how the Contingency Committee should proceed with the investigations. At the latest meeting, the committee asked SA Parliamentarian Zach Birenbaum to submit a formal request to UCourt requesting a clarification on the proceedings. “I would like [for] the University Court to look into whether the SA Constitution requires the Blanket Tax Contingency Committee (BTCC) to wait for the Honor Council to submit requested written statements and evidence before moving forward with the BTCC investigation,” Birenbaum, a Hanszen College sophomore, wrote in a letter to UCourt Chair Brian Baran. Birenbaum also asked UCourt to examine whether delays in Honor Council’s response will affect how the committee is required to adhere to constitutional deadlines, and if the organization’s lack of response could negatively affect the committee’s decision. “I would like [for] the University Court to look into whether negative inferences be drawn from Honor Council’s failure to abide by these explicit constitutional guidelines which could influence the ultimate decision of the Blanket Tax Contingency Committee,” Birenbaum wrote. In a letter to Honor Council Chair Hurst Williamson, SA President and Contingency Committee Chair Ravi Sheth asked for a reply to the committee’s questions and asked Honor Council to meet with the committee on Oct. 27 for its next meeting. “We certainly respect the importance and vital services that Honor Council provides to students, however, all organizations receiving student blanket tax money are subject to these same review processes,” Sheth, a Martel College senior, wrote. Honor Council Chair Hurst Williamson said the organization plans to submit documentation after requesting a two-day extension. “[Honor] Council is compiling the requested items for the Contingency Committee and has already request a short two-day extension from the SA so that all documents can be properly prepared and gathered to answer the Contingency Committee’s questions,” Williamson, a Hanszen College senior, said. Contingency Committee Member Anastasia Bolshakov expressed frustration with the process. “There’s a possibility that student funds have been misused, but the investigation is not being taken seriously,” Bolshakov, a Duncan College senior, said. “If you have time to write an opinion piece for the Thresher, I think you should also have the time to reply to an email that the committee investigating you sends.” UCourt Chair Brian Baran said he expects a quick response regarding the constitutional questions raised by the Contingency Committee. “UCourt will thoroughly examine the relevant sections of the SA Constitution and provide its binding interpretation as soon as reasonably possible,” Baran, a Duncan College senior, said.All information regarding the Contingency Committee, including future meeting times and locations as well as public documents, can be accessed at sa.rice.edu/btcc.
A multiyear revamp of the Rice University economics department has begun under newly-hired professor and department chair Antonio Merlo, who plans to take major steps to develop Rice’s economics teaching and research.Merlo, a native of Italy, moved from the University of Pennsylvania to Rice this summer to head the economics department and the Rice Initiative for the Study of Economics (RISE). In these roles, he will lead the effort launched by President David Leebron to rework the department, which Merlo said is currently not fulfilling its potential. “[The Rice economics department is lagging] in a very basic way,” Merlo said. “The economics department at Rice for several years has not been ranked in the place that Rice University deserves. Rice University has been consistently a top-twenty institution; the economics department is not that status. I think that this is something Rice University [should] strive to have: a first-rate economics department that is on par with the quality of the institution overall. That’s why I’m here.”Merlo said Leebron’s vision for the future of economics at Rice is what attracted him to the job at the university. “The stated goal is really to make this a vibrant department that is able to attract the top researchers from around the world, where faculty are actively engaged in teaching and can give the quality of teaching the students deserve and be a vibrant intellectual community where economics thrives,” Merlo said.According to Merlo, RISE is taking several steps towards this goal, starting by hiring 10 more faculty members. Merlo said four academics from the University of Pennsylvania, including himself, and one from Johns Hopkins University have already been hired. “The fact that distinguished scholars were willing to embrace the vision and come here to Rice should already be a testament to how things are changing and evolving,” Merlo said. Merlo said the department is also working to revise the curriculum to better fit the needs of Rice’s undergraduate and graduate economics students.“The curriculum is trying to offer a broader set of classes, but also a different set of classes,” Merlo said. “So it’s not just a matter of a sheer number; it’s also how do we envision a natural progression in the fields of study so that everything makes sense.”The addition of new faculty involved in research will also enhance economics at Rice, according to Merlo.“The way I view the research enterprise is that there are individual faculty who are all interested in different areas, and once you bring them together it expands the set of questions they can address,” Merlo said. “We want faculty who can bring their research experience into the classroom.”Merlo said research experience in addition to teaching ability are important qualities the department is searching for, especially for lower-level classes.“For teaching introductory courses, a combination of people who are really invested in the teaching mission and really invested in the research mission may be the way to go,” Merlo said. “Certainly, the goal is to have a department that is recognized worldwide for their research but also their excellence in teaching.”Mathematical economic analysis major Andrew Jacobson agreed that a focus on introductory economics classes would improve the department.“The gap I see is in the lower level, especially because you have a lot of different [professors], and they all have different teaching styles, so when you get up into the upper levels, people are going to have different levels of knowledge and that’s kind of where an imbalance happens,” Jacobson, a Brown College senior, said. “My experience has been really good once [I reached] the upper-level classes.”According to Merlo, RISE is a five-year-long plan, and the department has just begun to implement changes; more specific plans are under development.“I think we’re just at the early stages, but certainly things are going very well,” Merlo said. “It’s amazing how our alumni, the board, all the friends that Rice has, how energized the whole community is and how responsive people have been to the initiative.”Merlo said he is optimistic about the initiative’s prospects.“We can do something really amazing together, starting with the students and working all the way up to the administration,” Merlo said. “I think the chemistry is there, and there are certainly some positive vibes in motion that are making people understand it is a viable initiative, which is very exciting and the potential gains are very large.”According to Merlo, a strong economics department is important due to the field’s ability to address a wide range of topics.“I was always fascinated by economics as a discipline that really allows you to answer a very diverse set of questions, but at the same time uses a common language and diverse set of tools to answer those questions,” Merlo said.Merlo taught at the University of Minnesota and New York University before beginning his latest tenure at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the course of his career, he said he has researched topics ranging from conventional economics to crime and the choice of politicians by political parties.“My view of the field of economics is a little different than the traditional view; I actually view economics as the science of choice subject to constraints,” Merlo said. “Economics is not just macroeconomics; it’s not that if you’re an economist the only conversation you can have is what’s going to happen to the interest rate.”According to Merlo, the department will incorporate this expanded view of economics as it adapts to changes in the field.“Economics is so central to everything we do in human life,” Merlo said. “It can really help a lot in almost every aspect of whatever career an individual may choose to have.”
The Rice Women’s Resource Center is celebrating its sixth annual Consent is Sexy Week with a variety of events ranging from a panel of “sexperts” answering questions your parents never did, to a Project SAFE workshop. RWRC Co-Director Kendall Post said the event, which is from Oct. 21-24, starts a conversation about consent among Rice students and fosters a positive attitude towards consensual sexual encounters.“Consent isn’t talked about very much, and I think a lack of consent is normalized to a certain extent,” Post, a Lovett College senior, said. “We just want to start conversations, especially with [Night of Decadence] coming up, which is a party at which lack of consent is especially normalized. This is a way to reframe the way we think about consent.”Post said consent can often be forgotten at parties as people move ahead with dancing or sexual activities without verbally consenting between partners. Post said she hopes Consent is Sexy Week will strengthen the community at Rice and ensure mutual respect between partners during parties or otherwise.“NOD falls in a time in the year when everyone, especially new students, have become acclimated to Rice,” Post said. “They’re still exploring [if] they want to drink or hook up. Because sex is sort of on everyone’s mind, it’s a very opportune time to say, when you’re thinking about sex, here’s some other really important stuff to keep in mind.”For the first time, the RWRC will be providing a “Breathing Room” at NOD, which is a no re-entry party, for students to escape uncomfortable situations or take a break from the party without having to leave entirely.“The real drive behind it is that any public party can be overwhelming, and NOD can be even more overwhelming,” Post said. “We want to provide confidential, light peer support that is completely student-driven and student-run, with no adults.”
Rice University’s Crisis Management Team has been monitoring communications regarding Ebola from the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of State. They sent an email to students, faculty and staff over midterm recess assuring the campus population of the precautions the university has implemented with the Texas Medical Center to protect against Ebola infection.
