With the top seven teams in Conference USA separated by a single game, even the shortest of win streaks can turn a season around. For the men's basketball team, such a theory was applied last week when back-to-back wins over the University of Central Florida (14-6, 1-6 C-USA) and the University of Houston (11-11, 3-6 C-USA) put the Owls within a stone's throw of the conference leaders. But when Southern Methodist University (17-5, 6-3 C-USA) brought its own two-game winning streak to Tudor Fieldhouse last Saturday, only one team would be able to continue on its rapid ascent in the C-USA standings. Unfortunately for Rice, the weather was not the only thing in Houston that cooled down this past week.
Provost George McLendon chose three task forces last semester to carry out the Rice Initiatives by determining the university's academic focus for the coming years. The task forces ended last semester by writing three white papers - documents that summarized their work thus far and laid foundations for the next phase of their project. This next phase included a call for greater student input and collaboration with the faculty members of the task forces.When McLendon helped form the Biosciences and Human Health, Energy and the Environment and International Strategy task forces, he said he gave them the collective mission of identifying areas across the university where Rice could achieve preeminence and be one of the top places in the world for research and education. The task forces polled Rice's faculty to determine what interdisciplinary themes they thought were most important and then narrowed those ideas down to a few areas that each group then highlighted in their white papers.
There are few times when we as students have a chance to really voice our opinions, and voting in the Student Association elections is one of the easiest opportunities to contribute (see insert, page 9).While the Thresher commended the student body two years ago when it set an record turnout in the general election with 1,610 votes, the number of voting students has declined dramatically since the SA switched to an online voting system in 1996, with a mere 972 students voting in last year's election. Whether this is the fault of the elections committee, heightened student apathy or technological barriers is not for us to say; rather, we encourage students to match - nay, demolish - the record set in the 2009 elections.
Foreign policy discussions always seem to be framed in the same way: On one side, the faction of greater American involvement in some region and, on the other, the faction of pulling back or ?avoiding entanglement.In fact, though, this is completely illusory. The choice of non-involvement in humanitarian matters is no longer before the United States and hasn't been for years. As hegemon, the U.S. is the world's policeman - that is the nature of its position. And who would wish it otherwise? The point of amassing such power is to use it for good.
McMurtry College's crest committee unveiled its final crest design Tuesday during the college's town hall meeting. The crest design, which prominently features a Scottish and Celtic theme, includes symbols such as swords, a conch shell and a "lion rampant."The crest committee consisted of McMurtry seniors David Sorge and Julia Botev, sophomore Anna Handelman and freshman Colby Sieber. Sorge said the crest committee was commissioned by the McMurtry McMinistry at the beginning of the fall semester. He said that, while Botev, Handelman and Sieber formed the more artistic part of the committee, with Sieber being the main graphic artist, he considered his role as more involved with background research of heraldry and creating a timeline for completion of the crest.
Be patient. Don't speed up too fast. Get to my mark. Focus on pushing my hands. Up in the air - push off the top. In the couple of seconds of every vault for senior pole vaulter Ari Ince, that's all that goes through her head. Clearly Ince has the quick steps to clear a bar 13-odd feet in the air down to a science.
Student Association presidential candidates Georgia Lagoudas, Adrianne Waddell and Erik Tanner/Daniel Hays debated Monday night following the SA meeting. The debate was moderated by Thresher Creative Director Dave Rosales. Unless denoted by quotation marks, answers have been paraphrased for conciseness.
Following the self-inflicted death by fire of a young man in Tunisia that sparked a revolution and drove the dictator-president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali into exile, six men in Egypt, Mauritius and Algeria have immolated themselves, trying to incite similar riots in their countries. The movement in Tunisia has yet to take on a clear leader, but the original protesters were college educated and middle class, who were outraged and blaming a corrupt government for the lack of opportunities available in their country. While open revolt has yet to break out in other African nations, tensions are high and the United States cannot afford to ignore or be surprised by the situation. China has invested billions in Africa while placing no conditions for respect of human rights upon its investments and, consequently, has gained access to many resources and developed a growing sphere of influence.
Fourteen hundred years ago, the prophet Muhammad began receiving revelations from God that led to the creation and subsequent rise of Islam in the Middle East. But what if Islam had never come to be? Author Graham Fuller, the former vice chair of the National Intelligence Council and a former CIA Station Chief in Kabul, argued that the relationship between the West and the Middle East might be remarkably similar to how it is today.Fuller, who spoke Jan. 27 at the James A. Baker Institute III Institute for Public Policy, said that even before Christianity, there were conflicts between the East and West - such as the wars between the Greeks and Persians - and the relationship between the Western Church in Rome and the Eastern Church in Constantinople deteriorated over time. When the two finally split, Fuller said that, despite the official religious explanation, the real causes of the split were similar to those he said have led to the current conflicts between East and West - not religion, but factors like politics, economics, power, geography, imperialism, colonialism and intervention into the Muslim world.
Senior Rebekka Hanle prepares to return the ball in a match against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Jan. 18, which Rice won 7-0. The Owls face Houston tomorrow to try and earn their third win.
Women's tennis splits matches
All good things must come to end, but the men's tennis team did not expect its win streak to come to such a screeching halt. The 29th-ranked Owls could not pull off the upset over fifth-ranked University of Texas (5-0), falling 4-0. Texas' doubles' squads overwhelmed Rice, as the Owls lost all three doubles matches and thus the first point of the overall match. The fifth-ranked doubles team of Ed Corrie and Jean Andersen took out juniors Christian Saravia and Michael Nuesslein, 8-3, and continued to falter for Rice. With Texas' Andersen, Kellen Damico and Vasko Mladenov all scoring quick victories over sophomore Peter Frank, freshman Phillip Seifert and junior Sam Garforth-Bles, respectively, three of the six singles matches went unfinished due to the fact that the Longhorns had already clinched a match victory over Rice. The loss means that Rice will not be advancing to the round of 16 to play in the ITA National Indoor Championships, which will be held in Seattle, Wash. from Feb. 18-21. The loss was the first of the spring season for the Owls, whose record is now 4-1 after starting off well in non-conference play.
The Honor Council is proposing four separate referendums to amend its constitution in order to clarify both its language and procedures and enlarge the council's size. Students have the opportunity to vote on the referendums during the Student Association General Elections, which begin on Monday and conclude Feb. 14 at 11:59 p.m. Each of the four referendums requires the approval of 75 percent of the student body.The first referendum will update the language of the constitution, which has been amended but not altered since the constitution was written in 1948. Honor Council Chair Hilary Baker-Jennings said the idea for the rewrite came from reading through the constitution and realizing how many parts of it were obscure and outdated. She said this had led to a great deal of confusion among some students.
By the first day of classes next year, Coffeehouse will open its doors from a new location - the Kelley Lounge in the Rice Memorial Center.Coffeehouse has been looking to relocate since 2006, Coffeehouse Project Manager Erin Rouse said. Last semester, the RMC management offered the student-run business to move into the Kelley Lounge. After architects examined the space, Coffeehouse received the final go-ahead from the administration last week.
The Thresher was pleased to hear that Coffeehouse had finally been granted a new, larger space on campus (see story, page 1). We are excited that the beloved student-run institution, which has certainly outgrown its storage-closet-turned-coffee-shop in the student center, will have the opportunity to expand its services in a renovated section of the Kelley Lounge as early as the beginning of next semester.
This year, the Texas legislature will decide whether to regulate a lucrative business: the breeding and selling of cats and dogs. A group of legislators, activists and pet owners is actively pushing the state to get rid of "puppy mills."Puppy mills are large-scale breeding facilities that produce and sell puppies. As opposed to reputable breeders, puppy mills have low standards of living for their breeding stock. It is not uncommon for animals to remain in their cages for extended periods of time - weeks, months and sometimes years. Animals being bred are often sick, malnourished and over-bred. Put simply, the conditions these animals live in are deplorable and sickening.
With their third studio album, Mine Is Yours, Cold War Kids offer up a decidedly different sound from their previous efforts. Greatly contrasting with the material characteristic of their first two albums, Mine Is Yours is a more refined, mainstream version of their former records. Indeed, "Louder Than Ever," an unabashedly radio-friendly pop-rock track, serves as a shocking indicator of just how dramatically these Long Beach, Calif. natives have departed from the raw, unhinged songs of their debut album, Robbers and Cowards, such as "Hang Me Up To Dry."
Weeknight road games are difficult for any team; there is just something about having to travel on class days, then getting on the bus and heading back late at night. Last week's bus ride home was an easy one for the women's basketball team, which had just knocked off one of the top teams in the league and pushed itself above .500 in Conference USA play.
