Special Projects

Permeable concrete gets a break

After a series of trials and error, Facilities, Engineering and Planning staff may have stumbled upon the secret for its eco-friendly water-permeable concrete: Use the concrete in more lightly-traveled areas. After installing a test strip of concrete in the North Annex lot last year, FE&P workers have learned to mix the concrete off site and that the water-permeable concrete, which can be significantly more expensive than regular concrete, is not interchangeable with regular concrete. The first test patch of permeable concrete was installed in April 2007 on the future site of Duncan College. It has been used in the North Annex Parking Lot, on the walkway between Hanszen College and the Inner Loop, the Oshman Engineering Kitchen, and in front of the Ralph O'Connor House.

Fondren extends hours

Students seeking a quiet place to work on Friday and Saturday nights can now avail themselves of Fondren Library's new hours. Fondren will now be open an additional two hours Friday and Saturday as part of a pilot program that will continue through the fall semester. The library will now be open from noon on Sunday to midnight on Friday and from 9 a.m. to midnight on Saturday. Fondren will keep its normal facilities open during its new evening hours, Vice Provost and University Librarian Sara Lowman said. Like on any normal weekday night, two staff members will be on duty and the hours of the reference staff will not change.

Obama's ballot history startling, hypocritical

In April 2007, David Jackson and Ray Long wrote in the Chicago Tribune the history of Senator Barack Obama's 1996 campaign for the Illinois Senate. In an article titled "Barack Obama knows his way around a ballot," the Tribune challenged Obama's self-styled image as a different kind of politician. A decade earlier, the presidential candidate who just fought to restore full voting rights to his party's delegations from Michigan and Florida to the 2008 Democratic National Convention fought to eliminate the voting rights of his opponents in a 1996 Democratic primary for the Illinois Senate.I want to offer a glimpse into Obama's 1996 Illinois Senate campaign because it exemplifies the audacity of his claim to have a monopoly on hope. Obama's politics are only new to the extent that Obama has the requisite amount of charisma and brilliance to sell a post-partisan reformist image he hasn't earned. I am not voting for Sen. John McCain - Google "Keating 5," and you'll see a counter-claim to his "Country First" slogans.

Rice receives $100 million in grants

Rice received a record $100 million in external funding for research and education last year, which will allow the university to fund cutting-edge research and facilitate the creation of many new programs. Most of this funding will go toward the sciences and engineering disciplines. "This increase shows that Rice is really moving in the positive direction, and I think the future trend will be great," Vice Provost for Research Jim Coleman said. "The increase means that the faculty and staff were incredibly productive in securing funding to do the research teaching and outreach which they think is important."

Rice ranks first on exit exam

As part of the new national accreditation process, 844 new freshmen and transfer students will participate in assessments aimed at monitoring the quality of undergraduate education. The new accreditation process began last year with exit-level exams for graduating seniors to demonstrate the quality of learning in colleges and universities. Student performance on these exams determine whether the school gets accreditation.

Comic: Cingle Cellularity

Freshman Jammer tames Tigers with key late game interception

Unfortunately for the University of Memphis, losing athletic contests at the last minute is becoming a familiar feeling. First, the Tigers' basketball team lost the national championship in the dwindling moments last spring. Then, the Tigers' football team could only watch as its pesky Owl opponents seemingly stole a 42-35 victory last Saturday night. Some might say that two instances is not enough to establish a pattern, but the dejection on the Tigers' faces as they watched freshman defensive back Chris Jammer seal the win for Rice certainly resembled the expressions shown by their basketball team six months ago. Immediately following the first interception of his career, Jammer's 69- yard return for a touchdown with 11 seconds left capped a game that saw Rice recover from a 28-13 deficit in the fourth quarter en route to its first 2-0 start in four seasons.

Thresher, university closed due to Hurricane Ike

All Rice University offices are closed Friday through Sunday. Business will resume Monday at normal hours.University officials strongly encourage all students, faculty, and staff to verify their contact information via ESTHER (http://esther.rice.edu), as well as register their cell phone to receive text and voice messages from the Rice Emergency Notification System.

HedgeHopper Week 3: Pasha preview

Pasha Turkish Restaurant is a cozy little house that has been converted into a restaurant to cater to the surrounding Rice community. Located on University Blvd. between Greenbriar Dr. and Morningside Dr., Pasha caters to a variety of tastes and wallet sizes. Recommended by publications like Zagat, Texas Monthly, the Houston Chronicle and My Table, Pasha is open only for lunch and dinner, with a menu for each.The lunch menu caters to those stopping by to get a quick bite to eat. Menu items are downgraded slightly in size and are less expensive than at dinner. Try the creamy mashed chickpeas, tahini and garlic hummus as an appetizer to go along with a free order of unlimited, freshly-baked brick oven bread and olive oil infused with rosemary and ground black pepper. Also delicious are the Dolmas, delicacies of fresh white rice, crushed pine nuts, chopped onions and Turkish spices stuffed inside a rolled grape leaf.

College a vital forum for election issues

Take it from me: As a recent alum, I can tell you that after you leave college, a completely different set of social and political issues becomes important to you.Financial security, which during college years may have been somewhere below Diet Coke on the scale of things important to you, suddenly becomes an issue in everything you do. Especially in this age of "nothing is cheap like it used to be," I find that I am constantly tuned in to the state of the economy. The entire nation appears to sympathize with me. That's why it's up to you, today's college students, to keep the nation focused on the war in Iraq during this election season.

Edge of Heaven leaves audience feeling on edge

The Edge of Heaven is a film in which very few things happen, and many things fail to happen, all in a quiet, heartbreaking way. It is a drama concerning three families thrown together by chance and tragedy, across three languages and two continents. This German-Turkish production reflects on basic ideas of mortality and resilience through the lives of very disparate characters.One is Ali Aksu (Tuncel Kurtiz), a dapper old Turkish gentleman who lives in Germany and whose main concerns are betting on horses and sleeping with whores. The first third of the film deals with Ali's relationship with a Turkish prostitute, whom he ends up inviting to live with him. His conversations with his son, Nejat Aksu (Baki Davrak), are largely concerned with sexual matters as well. "Who are you screwing these days?" Ali asks Nejat in a rare moment of family bonding.

Rice ranks 14th among nation's most wired universities

Rice's annual appearance on The Princeton Review's listing of America's top colleges may be old news, but Rice can now add a spot on PC Magazine's list of the Top Twenty Wired Colleges to its accomplishments. For the first time, Rice placed 14 on the list in terms of academics, student resources, infrastructure and technological support in this month's issue of the magazine.Rice beat out PC Magazine's Most Wired College of 2006, Villanova University, which placed 15 this year. The top ranked schools include University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kansas State University and the University of Utah.

Soccer's stint in Oklahoma results in both win, loss

The women's soccer team finished its weekend trip to Oklahoma with a split decision last weekend, falling to Oklahoma State 4-0 on Friday before defeating the University of Oklahoma 1-0 on Sunday. Heading into the weekend, the Owls had placed a larger target on the backs of 17th-ranked OSU.

Commentary: BW3's steals wings from football Owls

I wish I were surprised. I wish that on Saturday, Rice's improbable comeback, topped off with an incredible last-second interception from freshman cornerback Chris Jammer, was not the only unbelievable event of the night.In nearly any other city in the country the incident that I witnessed in a nearby sports bar would have been unthinkable, but in this city of millions, it pains me to say that I expect nothing more. From here on, I'll refer to it as the Rice Village Massacre.

Behind the screen at Colorado's Telluride Film Festival

You must have a large store of faith to attend the Telluride Film Festival. With a lineup that is not announced until you are cozily nestled in one of the ski lodges of the small town, there is no chance to shop for Oscar bait or star directors. Even the staff is kept in the dark about who and what will appear, but they faithfully return year after year, most as volunteers, simply because Telluride is so unique.Do not expect the festival to be a few days of star chasing; there is an unspoken code that actors and directors are there only to present and talk about their work, not to hand out autographs or pose for pictures. This creates an atmosphere centered on film where you'll find people talking about the movies instead of the celebrities.

UNIVERSITY CLOSED MONDAY

In an e-mail sent at 7:15 p.m. today, Dr. Robin Forman, Dean of Undergraduates, announced that Rice would extend its closure through Monday."In recognition of the work that remains to be done, both as an institution and as individuals, to get things back on track, we have decided that the university will be closed on Monday, and we plan on reopening on Tuesday," Forman said.

ANTH 201 creates controversy

Last week, plans for an anthropology assignment had college presidents and masters in discussions with the professor about students' privacy issues. In the week since, the professor has dropped the requirement for using photo or video records in the observational study.Assistant anthropology professor Elizabeth Vann, who teaches ANTH 201: Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, assigned her class a college ethnography project, which requires the students to conduct observational research at a residential college other than their own.

This Week in Photos

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News in Brief

Woman robbed at Greenbriar Lot

RUPD creates new bike policy

Bikers returning from summer break may be surprised to see the steps taken to preserve pedestrians' safety on campus. They might also be unpleasantly surprised to learn that many of these measures include more stringent bike riding regulations. While it is inevitable that drivers, pedestrians and bikers will have to share the streets, the new Bell or Yell bicycling committee and Rice University Police Department hope to reduce the high number of bicycling traffic violations and close encounters with pedestrians. Earlier this week, a Rice staff member was stepping off a campus bus when a bicyclist, failing to stop behind the bus, careened into her. The rider was traveling at a high speed and knocked her to the ground. Although she did not sustain serious injuries, the incident served as a forewarning for reckless bicycling, Risk Manager Renee Block said. Three major bicycle accidents occurred last year, though minor collisions often go unreported, RUPD Captain Phil Hassell said.