As the university bids adieu to Rice's 98th graduating class, most of us have one, two or three more years to look forward to at Rice. While the MCATs, internships, research, and bumming of the upcoming summer buffer us from the 2011-2012 school year, here are 10 things I'm hoping to see when we get back.
The performance by the Owls in Friday's series opener against Tulane University (22-15, 4-8 C-USA) epitomized precisely how the team has found success since dropping its conference opening series to the University of Central Florida (24-14, 4-8 C-USA) three weeks ago. With major contributions from the freshman class, led by the pitching of Austin Kubitza, and timely situational hitting late in games, Rice took the series opener from the Green Wave by a score of 3-1.
From the first pan over a brooding alpine forest, it is obvious that Catherine Hardwicke's directing style still remains in Twilight mode. And the cliches of poorly-made 'tween fantasy movies continue: brooding boys with tousled hair, a doe-eyed heroine who spends her time sighing mournfully, gazing pensively or letting beautiful tears pour out of vacuous blue eyes. The clichés, the appalling script, the surreal ginger-bread house vibes of the village, the infernal red cloak—All smack the viewer over the head to the point that one must leave the theater to escape it, which the two other (smarter) patrons did.
In a span of roughly 48 hours last weekend, the women's track and field team set an awe-inspiring 22 new season-best or career-best marks at competitions roughly 800 miles apart. Rice's distance runners traveled to Walnut, Calif., to compete at the Mt. SAC relays, an elite competition held in the ideal weather for distance running: cool and sunny Southern California. The rest of the squad headed to El Paso for ideal sprinting, throwing, jumping and vaulting weather: warm and dry West Texas.
After two weeks that saw Rice go on a four-match losing streak, the Owls are finally soaring high in the sky again thanks to a return to Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on the weekend that saw the men's tennis team win against both Southern Methodist University (16-8) and the University of Texas-Arlington (12-9).
Now that Beer Bike is over, Will Rice College can focus on other aspects of college life, like college theater. Its play selection, Fools by Neil Simon, makes the college look anything but foolish. With a small but strong cast, good set design and an amazing script, Fools is a huge success.
Vice Provost for Research James Coleman will leave Rice to become Dean of the Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University, effective July 15.
The sale of KTRU's tower, license and frequency to KUHF at the University of Houston has been approved, as announced by the Federal Communications Commission last Friday. The administration told KTRU students on Wednesday that their programming will be discontinued at 6 a.m. on April 28, and the sale will be closed on May 3.
The Drinking Culture Task Force released its campus-wide survey results, revealing some troubling trends among the Rice community (see story, pg. 1). The survey received a resounding 672 responses from a diverse cross-section of the 11 colleges, surveying both drinkers and non-drinkers (about 25 percent of respondents said they did not drink). This commendable response rate is a result of good distribution, social networking and the utilization of college-wide distributions in addition to university-wide initiatives. The vast number of responses also proves how important the alcohol discussion has become, not just for a small population at Rice, but for the entire community
The BioScience Research Collaborative has made progress in finding non-Rice tenants to fill the south side of the building since it opened in April 2010.
Despite being one of the top groups on the men's track team last year, this year has been somewhat trying for the pole vaulters, save for Saturday's efforts by freshman Ben Timmer and senior Garrett Stafford, who had their best vaults of the year at the University of Texas-El Paso Invitational. Timmer, who had not cleared the bar in one outdoor meet this season, came through with a fifth-place finish after vaulting 4.66 meters (15' 3.5"), and Stafford turned in a solid performance as well with a 4.51 meter (14' 9.5") vault that gave him sixth place. Head Coach Jon Warren (Jones '88) spoke about the meet from the vaulters' standpoint.
Starting next fall, a group of high school students will work in Rice labs alongside current Rice undergraduate students. The Rice Mentorship Initiative will reach out to students from under-served communities to provide opportunities to research with an undergraduate mentor on campus.
In a season that has seen a variety of up-and-down performances over the last month and a half, the women's tennis team saved their best victory for last, defeating the University of Louisville (11-10) by a margin of 7-0, winning all matches in the process. Seniors Rebekka Hanle and Jessica Jackson combined to have a hand in two double matches and two singles matches victories, as Hanle and junior Ana Guzman won their match 8-5, while Jackson and sophomore Daniella Trigo won 8-4. The other doubles contest saw junior Alex Rasch and freshman Dominique Harmath cruise to an 8-1 win. With the doubles point in hand, the No. 65 Owls (13-9) lost no time in clinching the match, as Rasch won her match in a quick two sets, losing just four games. Harmath and Jackson followed suit, claiming two-set victories to give Rice a 4-0 advantage over the Cardinals. Freshman Kim Anicete reeled in her team-leading 16th victory of the year, while Guzman and Hanle finished up their matches in three and two sets, respectively. Hanle was fittingly the last Owl to walk off the court, having been the squad's top-seeded player and de facto team leader for this season. Jackson and fellow senior Varsha Shiva-Shankar also left Jake Hess Tennis Stadium for the last time in their careers, having been honored with Hanle before the start of the match. But the story hasn't ended yet for them, as Rice will be seeded fourth for the Conference USA Tennis Championship that started yesterday at the University of Central Florida. Rice will face the winner of the match between fifth-seeded University of Central Florida (11-7) and the 12th-seeded University of Alabama-Birmingham (7-12) at 2 p.m. today.
