Special Projects

Computer Science curriculum change

The Computer Science Department announced its new curriculum that will officially take effect for the class of 2015. Major changes in the new curriculum include a new introductory course sequence, removal of the previously required discrete math course and more consistency in programming languages taught.Computer Science Department Chair Joe Warren said the success of COMP 140 following its introduction three years ago motivated the change in curriculum. Rather than only focusing on learning a programming language, COMP 140 provides more hands-on problems, such as music processing and network analysis on Facebook, as initiatives to building programming techniques.

Women's cross country books ticket to nationals

In her four years of cross country competition, senior Nicole Mericle has had her fair share of successes, but this past weekend, she cemented her place among the best of the best in the history of the sport at Rice, winning her second South Central Regional championship meet by finishing in 20:16 minutes. Mericle is the only Owl to ever win the meet, much less win it twice in her career. Her first Regional championship title came in 2008.

Graphic: Rice University expenditures vs. revenues

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Weekend servery schedule to change

Beginning next semester, the weekend schedules for each of the serveries will be reconfigured following the opening of East Servery. South and West Serveries will be closed all day on Saturdays, while the Baker and Sid Richardson Serveries will be closed on Sundays.In order to alleviate the pressure on South to feed most of the population of the south residential colleges, the individual serveries of Baker College and Sid Richardson College have been open on Sundays this semester. According to Director of Residential Dining David McDonald, without these additional serveries available, South would have been over its capacity. This was a one-semester anomaly, however, and will no longer occur once East opens.

Sports notebook: Women's basketball compiles .500 record to start season

The Owls (2-2) started their season off with a big road win in overtime against Montana State University (3-2), an occurrence that was hard to come by last season. Junior forward Brianna Hypolite stepped up big in her first game as a staple in the starting lineup by scoring 28 points, a career high. Also chipping in double-digit points were junior point guard D'Frantz Smart and senior forward Morgan Mayse with 13 and 12, respectively. The Owls shot especially well in the game, with a 58-percent shooting percentage. Rice was missing key pieces of their lineup, including star junior forward Jackie Stanley, who had to sit the weekend out with knee injuries.

Football sees victory taken away in last minutes

Not only does the football team have one of the highest points-allowed averages in college football, injuries in seemingly every position and one of the best teams in Conference USA coming to town this weekend following last weekend's 54-49 loss to Tulane University (4-6, 2-4 C-USA), but now they have one more toxic, team-dividing issue to deal with - a full-blown quarterback controversy. The quarterback is arguably the most important position in all of sports; the man who handles the ball on every play and leads the team in both a figurative and literal sense. Offenses like stability, and up until recently, redshirt junior transfer Nick Fanuzzi had provided that.

Men capture 10th place for second straight year

Head Coach Jon Warren (Jones '88) has always proven to be somewhat clairvoyant about the men's cross country team's chances at their biggest meets of the year. Before the NCAA South Regional last Saturday in Waco, Texas, Warren said he could see the team finishing anywhere from fifth to 10th. As it were, the Owls finished at the bottom end of that spectrum, taking home a 10th-place finish from the regional for the second straight year. The usual cast of characters had strong performances, with redshirt junior Michael Trejo leading the pack with his time of 31:36 minutes and 41st-place finish overall. Following him were redshirt sophomores Gabe Cuadra and Matt Carey, who finished nine seconds and 23 seconds behind Trejo, respectively. Freshman John Cavallo continued his stellar inaugural campaign by finishing in fourth for the Owls with a 61st-place finish overall. Redshirt sophomore James Llamas finished the scoring effort with his 75th-place finish. Freshmen Wyatt Doop and Anthony Urbanelli completed the lineup for Rice, all finishing within the top 100 runners. Despite the Owls' season coming to a conclusion in Waco once again, Warren was pleased with the effort.

Please stop Unstoppable

The opening scene of director Tony Scott's (The Taking of Pelham 123) Unstoppable sets everything up to be good. The camera makes menacing, sudden cuts, foreboding music plays in the background and the text ominously scrolls on the screen. The terrifying subject of this opening: trains. Yes, trains. It was at this point of the movie I should have gotten up and left. But I stayed, and the only thing that helps me sleep at night is the idea that if my review prevents just one person from seeing this unbelievably terrible piece of trash, then I have done some good in the world.

Photo: Media Center turns 40

Famed actor, director and model Isabella Rosellini spoke at the Rice Media Center last Thursday to commemorate its 40th anniversary.

SpoCo victorious at regionals

Spontaneous Combustion, Rice's improvisational comedy troupe, returned victorious from the Nov. 6 College Improv Tournament's Southwest Regionals in Austin. Four of SpoCo's 12 members - Hanszen College junior Josh Herzstein, Martel College freshman Matt Vale, Jones College senior Becky Hofstein and Wiess College senior Danny Shanaberger - competed against 10 other teams in the region. With their recent win, the improv comedy troupe is guaranteed a spot for four to six members to compete in the College Improv Tournament Nationals on Feb. 26 in Chicago."It went excellent for us," Herzstein said.

Beyond The Hedges

National

Beer Bike parade undergoing vast changes, new plan to be selected

In recent years, the format of the Beer Bike parade has been the subject of intense scrutiny by student leaders and administration alike. With increased concerns about liability and rising costs to safely operate the event, we are forced to reevaluate the event yet again.Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson asked me to seek ways to ease concerns about the safety of the parade. I elected to approach the Campus-Wide Beer Bike Committee, which is composed of myself, the area coordinators, Rice Program Council executives and the college coordinators, to open a dialogue about this issue. The committee discussed several options and agreed that student input was absolutely necessary before any final decision could be made. Learning from mistakes made in previous years, we are seeking your input on how to best change the parade.

McMurtry LEED gold certified before dedication

Just in time for its dedication, McMurtry College became the second new building at Rice to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification, the U.S. Green Building Council's second-highest designation.Named for Burt (Baker '56 and '57) and Deedee (Brown '56) McMurtry, the 10th residential college incorporates several environmentally friendly features into its design. McMurtry gained LEED Gold-certified status on Oct. 5 and was dedicated on Oct. 29.

Photo: Stop teen bullying

Health educator and motivational speaker Scott Fried talked to Rice students about bullying and LGBT teens.

Bouncing Cats: not about funny kittens

Because of my undying love for feline-related videos, I was immediately excited to review a film entitled Bouncing Cats and interview the filmmakers. However, upon discovering that the title of the film referred to a Ugandan beatboxing technique instead of cute kittens, I was less enthusiastic. Due to my lack of interest in actually doing work and my self-diagnosed agoraphobia, I almost did not go to the screening - until I came across something that changed my mind on the spot. I was going to interview Bun B. I was down to ride, and thanks to my hypochondriasis-induced amnesia, I was able to forget about my aforementioned preoccupations.Much to my surprise, I walked away from the event not starstruck from meeting Bun B or the others associated with the film but with a fresh and inspired perspective of an unbelievable cause. While I had an interesting conversation with Bun B, I was awestruck by my time with Abraham Tekya.

Getting going green

Classic Flicks:Terry Swigoff's Crumb

Although he has been compared to classical painters, Robert Crumb does not work with oils, pastels or charcoal: Crumb led the underground comic movement of the 1960s with a scratchy drawing style and a controversial autobiographical edge that remain influential in graphic literature today. Few films probe into the depths of artistic genius better than Terry Zwigoff's Crumb. We are given a look into Crumb's depressing childhood, when he is bullied at home by his domineering father and at school: Crumb remembers, "I was good looking, but there was something wrong with my personality; I was the most unpopular kid in school." Even as an adult, Crumb is an outcast, enjoying obscure blues records and collecting dated pop-cultural ephemera. He speaks frankly of his outrageous fantasies and shows us the impetus behind his more twisted comics. Becoming an artist was Crumb's way of dealing with a culture that rejected him from the beginning.

Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:While I share the Thresher's interest in the importance of sustainability efforts on campus ("'Green' grade disappoints," Nov. 5), I don't share your disappointment in this year's grade. When the College Sustainability Report Card was first issued in 2007, Rice got a C-. Every year since then, our grade has improved. If that trajectory continues, the B+ we earned this year may progress to an A- or better next year.

NetID locks out Rice

If you had problems using the Rice Owls Internet network last Friday, you weren't alone: A programming error on Rice's BANNER system locked all students out of anything that required a netID login, including Internet and e-mail. Most of the problems were fixed by 11:30 a.m. Friday, and registration and records were not affected.According to Systems, Architecture and Infrastructure Director Barry Ribbeck, not all systems were affected by the crisis - for example, lab machines still allowed students to log on and print, and the Rice Visitors Internet network still worked. Although the issues were resolved, Information Technology stayed late on Friday night to be sure the systems were all running properly, Ribbeck said.